History Film / MenInBlack

* EurekaMoment: J figures out the Arquillian prince's last words meant when he sees [[spoiler: Frank barking at a cat]]. Edgard the Bug, who had been unsuccessful at finding the galaxy while searching in Rosenberg's jewerly, has a similar moment of realization when he notices a painting of Rosenberg with his cat.

** Going into the climax, Zed and K correctly conclude [[spoiler: that with his ship in MIB custody, Edgar the Bug's got to be looking for an alternate way off Earth before the Arquillian's glass the planet. With the deadline of one hour, his backup vehicle has to be, by K's estimate, somewhere within a 100 mile radius of NYC. But with every interstellar transport in the New York area having already jumped and been accounted for, they can't figure out where he's going. It's J who realizes there's one more ship in the NYC area they forgot about and it's literally staring them in the face feet away on the HQ wall mural: The saucers that were converted into the World's Fair Observation towers.]]

* EurekaMoment: J figures out the Arquillian prince's last words meant when he sees [[spoiler: Frank barking at a cat]].

* NoodleIncident: Agent K tells Agent J, "you should've been here for the Zeronion migration in 1968."

* FailedASpotCheck: Lampshaded by a soldier and a marine at the firing range test whose reactions pretty much say "How the hell we miss that?"

* {{Muggles}}: Any person not part of the MIB is called a "Neutral".

** One Border Patrol agent ends up wearing puree of Mikey after K shoots him.

* TheWorldIsAlwaysDoomed: K shuts down J's ScrewTheRulesImDoingWhatsRight moment by sternly informing him that there is ''always'' some crisis or another threatening to end life on Earth -- TheMasquerade isn't just to keep the MIB secret, but because most people ''can't handle'' that kind of constant danger, so the MIB [[IgnoranceIsBliss makes sure they don't have to think about it]].

** Do ''not'' squish any bugs in front of Edgar. Just ''don't''. [[spoiler: Turns out this is how J manages to keep Edgar around long enough for K to kill him]].

* AbsurdlyExclusiveRecruitingStandards: The eponymous organization brings in a huge group of potential recruits from the Green Berets and Navy SEALS, plus NYPD detective James Edwards. Z makes it abundantly clear that they're looking for the best of the best of the best, but out of the entire class, only Edwards is able pass the IncomprehensibleEntranceExam, having the practicality to use the coffee table for the written exam and the observational skills to realize that the hostile aliens on the shooting range are minding their own business; everyone else is neuralized.

* FunnyBackgroundEvent: Zed neuralyzing the rejected recruits as J and K walk by shortly after the recruitment process. Also, the memorable alien-childbirth scene, which supplies the page image for the trope. Also, while K and J are looking at the screen showing the disguised aliens, a group of MIB office workers are conversing in the background, with one of them standing on the ceiling.

* CustomUniform: The film ends with J wearing custom shades and looking more like a rap mogul than an agent.

%%(ZCE)* ShesGotLegs: Linda Fiorentino as Dr. Laurel Weaver, natch.

* LaserGuidedAmnesia: How the Neuralyzer works. They can be set to wipe someone of certain memories of someone, or the last twenty minutes of aliens trying to kill them. Repeated neuralyzations, however, cause ''deja vu'' in some subjects. Notably, this is usually matched with them telling BlatantLies about what happened (of the typical "weather balloon and swamp gas" explanations), and the assumption is that in the absence of their regular memories the subject is more likely to accept the suggestion, no matter how far fetched.
** Combined with NoFourthWall in one of the commercials, in which J and K ask viewers how they liked the movie, then fire the Neuralyzer directly at the camera, and then ''invite the audience to go see the film: it's full of surprises''.
* LaserGuidedKarma: The verbally abusive farmer spends just enough time on screen [[FlatCharacter doing his thing]] so that the audience will have absolutely zero sympathy when the bug's meteor crashes on his vehicle of choice.
-->'''Farmer:''' The only thing that pulls its weight around here is my goddamn truck!
* LawOfInverseRecoil: You will not break that "damn thing" Noisy Cricket, J. It will break you.

* LenoDevice: The end of the first movie shows tabloid articles talking about the effects of the climax on the public, including a conspiracy theory forming about Detroit perfecting a rocket car and one story about the baseball player who missed the catch during the baseball game shown in the movie claiming "UFO MADE ME MISS HOME RUN!" (which is actually true). Of course, the joke is that the tabloids contain the best source of information for MIB ("You can try the ''New York Times'' if you want. They get lucky sometimes.")

:: [[TheStinger Now,]] [[SchmuckBait if you could just look right here...]]

[[quoteright:332:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Neuralizer_5336.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:332:"Damn, what a gullible breed."]]

[[SelfDemonstratingArticle You weren't at your computer for the past few minutes]]. You got up, got something to eat and then visited a few other sites. Checked some blogs, answered a couple e-mails, nothing too eventful or life changing. After a few minutes, you returned to Wiki/TVTropes and found a completely different page to view.

!! Protecting the Tropes From the Scum of the Indexes:

* DrivesLikeCrazy: K. Just push the BigRedButton, and his car grows a rocket. He then drives on the roof of the Queens-Midtown Tunnel while singing along to Elvis Presley's "Promised Land", and pays the toll without missing a beat even after smashing through the gate.

''Men in Black'' is a 1997 American science fiction action comedy film directed by Creator/BarrySonnenfeld, written by Creator/EdSolomon and executive produced by Creator/StevenSpielberg, only moderately based on [[ComicBook/MenInBlack the original comic series of the same name]], mostly borrowing the concept and wardrobe of the agents.

''Men in Black'' is a 1997 American science fiction action comedy film directed by Creator/BarrySonnenfeld and executive produced by Creator/StevenSpielberg, only moderately based on [[ComicBook/MenInBlack the original comic series of the same name]], mostly borrowing the concept and wardrobe of the agents.

* OrphanedPunchline: "But honey, this one's eating my popcorn!" [[http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20071126195830AAW1HPu Here's the rest of the joke.]] The same joke also appeared in ''Film/TheSting''.