History Film / PeggySueGotMarried

* BestYearsOfYourLife: Despite being dropped back into the drama of being a senior in high school with all the attendant relationship issues, social issues, and parental pressure, Peggy Sue spends most of the movie feeling like it's true. Her grandparents are alive, she can still be close to her sister, her terrible marriage hasn't happened yet, and she doesn't have any adult worries like house payments. Her unborn children are the only thing she seems to miss.

* BestYearsOfYourLife: Uncomfortably averted. Despite being dropped back into the drama of being a senior in high school with all the attendant relationship issues, social issues, and parental pressure, Peggy Sue spends most of the movie feeling like it's true. Her grandparents are alive, she can still be close to her sister, her terrible marriage hasn't happened yet, and she doesn't have any adult worries like house payments. Her unborn children are the only thing she seems to miss.

* CatchPhrase / RunningGag: "Why I oughta!" Peggy is still baffled by it. "That's because you're not a jerk", she's informed.

* CoolOldGuy[=/=]CoolOldLady: Peggy Sue's beloved grandparents, to whom she confides the truth of the situation -- and they believe her.

* FutureLoser: Charlie, though that's debatable. All we know is he was estranged from Peggy Sue and has a really wacky television commercial akin to Crazy Eddie.
* HiddenDepths: Charlie, and it's a plot point. Walter Getz, surprisingly, as well.
* INeedAFreakingDrink: Peggy's reaction to time travel, even taking an extra drink and justifying it with "What the hell, I'm probably dead anyway". It allows her to drunkenly mock her father for buying an Edsel.
* ItWillNeverCatchOn: Subverted by the number of things Peggy Sue knows about the 1980s that sound ridiculous from an early-1960s viewpoint.
** Charlie does think that Music/TheBeatles song "She Loves You" would be better with "Ooo's" than "Yeah's".
* JerkWithAHeartOfJerk: Dolores has ''no'' redeeming qualities.
* MakeWrongWhatOnceWentRight: Peggy Sue tries to change her own life to escape a loveless marriage -- and instead [[spoiler:rediscovers why she loved Charlie to begin with, while changing several other people's lives for the better]].
** [[spoiler: Also, the fact that her children Scott and Beth would never be born is a major reason as well.]]

* PeggySue: The TropeNamer

* TitleDrop: By the titular character, no less.
* UnreliableNarrator: [[spoiler: Peggy Sue claims she never slept with Michael, but even before her "trip", she might have and was simply lying about it, since it would have meant she cheated on Charlie.]]
* WeWereYourTeam: Peggy tells her grandparents after they died, everyone just drifted apart.

* YouAlreadyChangedThePast: Strongly implied.

* TitledAfterTheSong: The Music/BuddyHolly song of the same name was a [[SequelSong sequel]] of sorts to his far more famous "Peggy Sue". The reunion band play the original "Peggy Sue", in fact.

* BecauseYouWereNiceToMe: Peggy Sue is the only person Richard isn't snarky to at the reunion. It's implied he likes Charlie because a) he likes Peggy Sue and by extension Charlie, and b) one scene has 1960 Charlie praising Richard as a nice guy who is writing a book, hinting that Charlie never bullied him. (In fact, it's probable that Peggy Sue and Charlie as a couple would have been friendly to him post-high school.) Peggy is sincerely astonished and pleased to see him at the reunion, too.

* CatchPhrase / RunningGag: "Why I oughta!" Peggy is still baffled by it. "That's because you're not a jerk," she's informed.

* INeedAFreakingDrink: Peggy's reaction to time travel, even taking an extra drink and justifying it with "What the hell, I'm probably dead anyway." It allows her to drunkenly mock her father for buying an Edsel.

* RiddleForTheAges: Was it a NearDeathExperience as she hears a doctor telling her, or did she really engage in MentalTimeTravel? The one chance to test the theory (letting her get hit and killed by a truck) doesn't happen because Peggy Sue doesn't go through with it.

* WhosLaughingNow: Adult Richard plays it down, but does snark at Delores than "every dog has his day".

* PlayingGertrude:
** Nicolas Cage as Helen Hunt's father. He is six months younger than her. In addition, he wouldn't be born until four years ''after'' the 1960 scenes where he plays a teenager.
** Kathleen Turner, then 32 years old, plays a divorcee in her 40's in the 1986 present.

* GoodPeopleHaveGoodSex: When Charlie and Peggy Sue finally have sex, he murmurs, "This is right. This is ''right''."

* BecauseYouWereNiceToMe: Peggy Sue is the only person Richard isn't snarky to at the reunion. It's implied he likes Charlie because a) he likes Peggy Sue and by extension Charlie, and b) one scene has 1960 Charlie praising Richard as a nice guy who is writing a book, hinting that Charlie never bullied him. (In fact, it's probable that Peggy Sue and Charlie as a couple would have been friendly to him post-high school.)

* RealityEnsues: Peggy is turned on by Michael, until he asks him to have a ExoticExtendedMarriage with another woman in a Bohemian chicken farm. Peggy is naturally turned off, and is able to let him down gently by telling him she's allergic to chickens.

* INeedAFreakingDrink: Peggy's reaction to time travel, even taking an extra drink and justifying it with "What the hell, I'm probably dead anyway."

* AdvertisedExtra: Some posters and DVD covers made years after the movie came out [[RetroactiveRecognition feature a picture of]] Creator/JimCarrey alongside photos of Creator/KathleenTurner, Creator/NicolasCage, and Creator/HelenHunt. This is despite the fact this was one of his first roles and he has less than five minutes of screentime.

* RetroactiveRecognition: Charlie's annoying sidekick is played by a then-unknown Creator/JimCarrey

* OddFriendship: Struck up between Peggy Sue and teenaged Richard Norvik, because she desperately needs to talk to ''someone'' who can understand what she's going through.

* TitledAfterTheSong: The Music/BuddyHolly song of the same name was a [[SequelSong sequel]] of sorts to his far more famous "Peggy Sue".

* AdvertisedExtra: Some posters and DVD covers made years after the movie came out [[RetroactiveRecognition feature a picture of]] Creator/JimCarrey alongside photos of Creator/KathleenTurner, Creator/NicolasCage, and Creator/HelenHunt. This is despite the fact this was one of his first roles and has less than five minutes of total screentime.

** Nicolas Cage as Helen Hunt's father. He is six months younger than her. In addition, he wouldn't be born until four years ''after'' the 1960 scenes.

** Nicolas Cage as Helen Hunt's father. He is six months younger than her.

* ForeseeingMyDeath: When Peggy tells her grandmother she dreamt that she had died, the grandmother is entirely unconcerned, because she already knowns when and how she'll die. Her grandfather chuckles that she refuses to tell him the circumstances, but fully believes her. So does Peggy.

* MentalTimeTravel

* TemporalMutability: Peggy Sue and the high school-aged Richard discuss the implications of her travel on the timeline several times, covering many of the major alternatives.

* WhosLaughingNow: Richard plays it down, but does snark at Delores than "every dog has his day".