History Film / Python

* PrematurelyGrayHaired: Theresa has brown hair but after her terrifying ordeal escaping the python trying to eat her, she is sporting some gray streaks in her bangs afterwards.

* DecoyProtagonist: [[spoiler: Creator/CasperVanDien is top billed on the promotional materials and one of the biggest names in the cast at the time. His character is also a ReasonableAuthorityFigure who wants to stop the snake at all costs. He dies halfway through the film.]]

''Python'' is a 2000 Film/SyFyChannelOriginalMovie, starring Creator/RobertEnglund, Creator/CasperVanDien, Creator/WilWheaton and William Zabka.

* ConversationCut: Early on there's one as Tommy and John, and Kristin and Theresa separately discuss Tommy and Theresa's relationship. Apparently Theresa has liked Tommy [[LoveAtFirstSight since they met on the playground in second grade]] and he's only liked her since junior high [[SweaterGirl after seeing her in a varsity sweater]]. Tommy thinks he is UnableToSupportAWife, wanting to go into real estate and make money there, while Theresa says she wouldn't mind living in a trailer park and questions the realism of his goals. Both of them do have mixed feelings about the current status of their sex life though.

* AnyoneCanDie: [[spoiler: Creator/CasperVanDien and Creator/RobertEnglund are the most prominently billed actors in the promotional materials. Van Dien is killed off at the halfway point, and England pulls an AllForNothing sacrifice prior to the final battle.]]

* ScaryAnimalTitle: ''Python''

* BewareMyStingerTail: The snake uses its tail to decapitate one unfortunate victim, and impales another through the chest. May overlap with WhipItGood, as its tail is clearly not armed with any kind of spike or blade, relying on sheer force.

* InstantlyProvenWrong: Louis tells John, when he's arrested as a murder suspect, that he's staying in jail and won't get OffOnATechnicality, and that Louis is the law around here. The sheriff comes in just in time to hear that, delivers the news that John is free to go and reminds Louis that ''he's'' the law around here.

* NiceMeanAndInBetween: The three cops. Greg is a fairly polite, helpful and honorable man even before he gets over his jealousy. Sheriff Griffin is willing to close down the plant on sketchy evidence and arrest John but is a professional man whose just following the evidence and does apologize afterwards. Louis is constantly smug, eager to believe the worst of John, and enjoys bullying around suspects, while also calling Kristin a bitch (although to his credit, he does admit that he's a bit too impatient for a cop and express some desire to improve).

* YouJustToldMe: When Greg and Louis are investigating Python's first victims and when John comes in and after being questioned asks if they think he murdered Lisa, Louis pounces on this.
--> '''Louis:''' Murdered? Nobody said anything about a murder. What makes you think there was a murder?

--> '''Louis:''' Oh yeah? And just how did they know?

--> ''Greg tries not to laugh in the background and Louis's confident expression falters.''
--> '''Louis:''' Oh yeah. I guess I did.

* BlatantLies: Agent Parker and his men tell the local police that the murders are being committed by an escaped, ''Film/{{Rambo}}''-like military prisoner. It gets lampshaded
--> '''Sheriff Griff:''' Do you expect me to believe this load of horseshit?
--> '''Agent Parker:''' Let me put it this way, sheriff. It would be highly expedient if you ''would'' believe this horseshit.

* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: Sheriff Wade is last scene going to check on the hunting party that tried to kill Python and doesn't answer when Greg later calls. It's never shown if Python killed him or not.

* BadassMustache: Parker's mustache might also qualify as a PornStache but he he earns the badass part by leading his men into the field after the creature and not putting up with Rudolph's obstructiveness.

* ThoseTwoGuys: Lenny and Boone, a pair of juvenile plant workers.

* WimpFight: John and Greg's CockFight starts out with proper fisticuffs, but quickly descends into hair-pulling territory, even continuing onto a playground. They eventually just stop when they realize how ridiculous they look and become friends.

* NighInvulnerable: Dr. Rudolph flat out says the snake's skin is thick enough to survive an anti-tank round, and very little thrown at it is able to meaningfully harm it. [[spoiler:It an AcidBath to kill it, and even then it takes several minutes to burn through its skin enough for it to be mortally wounded.]]

* AcidBath: What the police initially ''think'' was used to kill the snake's victims, or at least to dispose of the bodies, thus why John and his brother's plant is suspected. [[spoiler:This is a ChekhovsGun, as the snake is killed in one of the tanks.]]

* AmbiguousDoom: Sheriff Wade is last scene going to check on the hunting party that tried to kill Python and doesn't answer when Greg later calls. It's never shown if Python killed him or not.

** Sheriff Wade and Greg follow the evidence in the case, remaining objective and only arresting or inconveinancing the leads when it makes sense for them to do so.
** Agents Parker and Dootsen are furious with Rudolph for causing the fiasco in the first place by not telling them about the snake and seek to kill it before it can harm anyone else, ignoring Rudolph's JustThinkOfThePotential speeches (although they do say he can harvest whatever useful chemicals are left from the body, an idea which might have borne fruit)

A dangerous cargo containing a genetically engineered super-python is lost amid a plane crash, as it proceeds to rampage through a California town.

* CarFu: While being chased in a truck by the python, Theresa eventually just backs up and slams it, although this fails to seriously injure the snake, which then disables the car, with Theresa barely escaping.

* DamselOutOfDistress: Theresa escapes from the shower by grabbing the shower bar, using it to vault over the python, then darting out the door and fleeing out of the house after an attempt to warn Tommy, before leading the python on a long (albeit largely off-screen) chase in a truck.

* EyeScream: While being attacked in the shower, Theresa tries to blind the python with shampoo, but it turns out to be a No Tears brand harmless to the eyes.
* FailedASpotCheck: The DumbBlonde real estate customer calls 911 for help when the python shows up but doesn't know the house's address despite having been considering buying it.
* AFatherToHisMen: Agent Parker says that he never met the flight crew who the python killed, but they were under his command, and he will avenge them.

* GayGuyDiesFirst: One of the python's first few victims are a lesbian and bisexual couple who suffer some TerrorAtMakeOutPoint.

* ImprobableWeaponUser: While being attacked in the shower, Theresa tries to hold the python back by whipping at it with a towel, squirting shampoo into its eyes and then futilely throwing a rubber duck at it.

* LittleNo: Theresa offers a couple of these while stuck in the shower as the python tries to get at her.

* ModestyTowel: Theresa spends about fifteen minutes in one after the Python attacks her while she's getting out of the shower and chases her for quite a while before she can find any clothes.

* ThePlan: Two at the climax, first to [[spoiler: Trap the python in the bunker, escape themselves and then blow it up]], and then to lure it into [[spoiler: the plant and kill it in an acid vault]].

* SnakesAreSinister: The giant python in this film is particularly sadistic, repeatedly toying with its prey before killing them. Once again, we have [[ScienceIsBad science]] to thank.
* TerrorAtMakeOutPoint: The python's first set of victims is a lesbian-bisexual couple who were out "camping". In fact, the latter, Lisa, was apparently the town bicycle.

** The reason the giant python escapes in the first place is because the people who designed it apparently decided to transport it in a puny wooden cargo crate inside a cargo plane, staffed only by two crew members who were kept completely in the dark about its deadly contents. Agent Parker is ''not'' happy with Rudolph about this, giving him a WhatTheHellHero speech.
** After making it to the bunker and talking to Dr. Rudolph, John and Kristin realize that they were in too much of a hurry to lock, or even ''close'' the door behind them, despite the python being nearby. Fortunately, this works in their favor, as it lets Theresa get in, instead of the snake, when she might have been a sitting duck trapped outside.

* YouJustToldMe: When Greg and Louis are investigating the pythons first victims and when John comes in and after being questioned asks if they think he murdered Lisa, Louis pounces on this.

* ArtisticLicenseBiology: With demonstrably keen hearing, a speedy metabolism, a slashing tail and the ability to spit acid, as well as traits of various different snake species, Python is emphatically a snake-''monster'' rather than just a large animal.

** The reason the giant python escapes in the first place is because the people who designed it apparently decided to transport it in a puny wooden cargo crate inside a cargo plane, staffed only by two crew members who were kept completely in the dark. Agent Parker is ''not'' happy with Rudolph about this, giving him a WhatTheHellHero speech.

* ArtisticLicenseBiology: With demonstrably keen hearing, a speedy metabolism, a slashing tail and the ability to spit acid, Python is emphatically a snake-''monster'' rather than just a large animal.