History Film / Splash

* RapunzelHair: Madison

* TheDitz: The brothers who help Kornbluth
* DoesNotLikeShoes: Madison, despite acquiring shoes not long after finding Allen.

* FantasticArousal: Zig-zagged. But in the bathtub scene, it does seem that Madison is sexually aroused by the way her tail reacts to the water in the bathtub and her facial reactions.
* FishOutOfWater: A semi-literal example with Madison.

!!"Allen Bauer thought he'd never find the right trope. He was only half wrong.":

* PhonyVeteran: Invoked by Freddie who makes up a story about Allen serving in Vietnam and getting injured there, in order to convince one of the investors (a former Green Beret) to turn "Bauer Produce" into a food chain.

A remake has been announced, with a twist - the main characters have been {{Gender Flip}}ped.

* GodivaHair: When Madison arrives to Liberty Island, she's only covered by her hair. When the film debuted on Creator/DisneyPlus in 2020, viewers quickly spotted that the brief scene of Madison running into the ocean nude (which shows her her bare butt) had been censored by digitally extending her already long hair down to the tops of her thighs.

* StarfishLanguage: The language of mermaids involves high-pitched screeching that sounds similar to dolphins' screech. It is screechy enough to break television screens.

* NotSoAboveItAll: Despite appearing to approach his scientific career in a more professional manner, Dr. Ross proves himself to be much worse MadScientist then his outwardly acting rival Kornbluth due to his amoral treatment of the sentient Madison while doing experiments on her and his plan to dissect her without battling an eye in contrast to Kornbluth's own morals.

* HiddenDepths: Freddy spends most of the movie as the LovableSexManiac PluckyComicRelief. Then Alan gripes that people fall in love "every day. Look at what ''I'' got." Freddy gets dead serious, gives Alan a blistering TheReasonYouSuckSpeech, then says that Alan doesn't appreciate how lucky he is to have someone like Madison: "Every day?! Come on! Some people will never be that happy! ''I'll'' never be that happy!"

* CallingTheOldManOut:
** Allen was mortified and angry when he finds out Madison, the one person he has come to love, is a mermaid. He starts rambling about how "people fall in love every day," and he ends up with (in his word) a "fish." However, his PluckyComicRelief brother Freddie berates him for giving up on Madison, tells him that "people fall in love every day" is nonsense, and people can never be as happy as Allen felt when he was with Madison.
-->'''Allen:''' People fall in love every day, and look what I got.
-->'''Freddie:''' People fall in love every day, is that what you said? Yeah? Well, that's a crock. It doesn't ''work'' that way. Some people will never ''be'' that happy! ''I'll'' never be that happy!
** Kornbluth also calls out the other scientists, especially Ross, for performing experiments on a non-consenting person, and planning to dissect her.

* HeelFaceTurn: Dr. Kornbluth, upon learning that [[spoiler:his colleagues plan to dissect Madison and how he would never earn the respect amongst the scientific community he deserves despite proving the existence of merfolk.]] Kornbluth [[spoiler:never wanted to hurt anybody, he just wanted to prove he was right and not a butt of their jokes.]]

* GettingCrapPastTheRadar: Besides the moments with Madison's bare ass and nude breasts, Madison's genitalia are briefly visible from behind when she first dives into the water after kissing Allen on the beach, and when she is walking around at the Statue of Liberty.

* LoveableSexManiac: Freddy, who has been married countless times (even bringing a ''date'' to one of his own weddings), writes letters to ''Penthouse'' and will pick up multiple women in one night. However, he's still our PluckyComicRelief who believes in true love.

-->'''Allen:''' Are you okay?
-->'''Madison:''' Yeah.
-->'''Allen:''' Well, why wouldn't you let me in?
-->'''Madison:''' I was... shy.
-->'''Allen:''' You were shy? After the car, and the elevator, and the bedroom, and on top of the refrigerator, you were shy?

* HeelFaceTurn: Dr. Kornbluth, upon learning that [[spoiler:his colleagues plan to dissect Madison and how he would never earn the respect amongst the scientific community he deserves despite proving the existence of merfolk.]]

* HumansAreBastards: How do humans react to a mermaid? All but one (and his friends) try to capture her for science.

[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/20f72bfc_cf8d_4c7c_9557_d838bade9663.jpeg]]

[[quoteright:309:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/splash_20110113064528_640_480_9875.JPG]]

* LineOfSightAlias: Madison picks her human name from a street sign, and Allen thinks that it's a strange name. At the time of the film, Madison wasn't a woman's name. Its rise in popularity in real life stems from this very film, making this joke a relic.

* LineOfSightAlias: Madison picks her human name from a street sign.
-->'''Allen''': "Madison? [[ItWillNEverCatchOn That's not a name]]!"[[note]]It is now. It went from a street sign (and a rare boys' name) to one of the top ten girls' names where it spent more than a decade and a half.[[/note]]

* AmbiguouslyJewish: The saleslady at “Bloomingdales”, who speaks in a Brooklyn accent and says “Dah-ling” instead of “Darling”.[[note]] The saleslady’s name in the end credits is “Ms. Stein”, which is a common Jewish last name.[[/note]]
** An earlier draft of ''Splash'' '''explicitly''' described the saleslady (named “Ms. Stein”) as “very New York Jewish”.

** An earlier draft of ''Splash'' '''explicitly''' described the saleslady (named “Ms. Stein”) as “Very New York Jewish”.

** An earlier draft of ''Splash'' '''explicitly''' described the saleslady (named “Ms. Stein”) as “very New York Jewish”.

** An earlier draft of ''Splash'' '''explicitly''' described the saleslady (named “Ms. Stein”) as being “New York Jewish”.

* ArmiesAreEvil: As the two race back to the ocean, Allen and Madison get pursued by U.S. Coast Guard soldiers ordered to capture the mermaid. The Coast Guard are the final antagonists at the end of the movie.

** An earlier draft of ''Splash'' '''explicitly''' describes the saleslady (named “Ms. Stein”) as being “New York Jewish”.

** An earlier draft of ''Splash'' ''''explicitly''' describes the saleslady (named “Ms. Stein”) as being “New York Jewish”.

* AmbiguouslyJewish: The saleslady at “Bloomingdales”, who speaks in a Brooklyn accent and says “Dah-ling” instead of “Darling”.[[note]] The saleslady’s name in the end credits is “Ms. Stein”, which is a common Jewish last name[[/note]].
** An earlier draft of ''Splash'' ''''explicitly''' describes the saleslady (named “Ms. Stein”) as being “New York Jewish”.

''Splash'' is a 1984 romantic comedy directed by Creator/RonHoward, surrounding the fairy-tale romance between Allen Bauer (Creator/TomHanks) and the mermaid (Creator/DarylHannah) who rescued him from drowning as a boy. Allen grew to adulthood, believing the young mermaid he saw in the water was only a hallucination, until she again saves him from drowning - but in doing so appears on the radar of Dr. Walter Kornbluth (Creator/EugeneLevy), an eccentric, disgraced scientist who wants to prove the existence of mythical creatures like mermaids.