History Film / TheBookOfEli

* ThrowawayGuns: Averted when Eli runs out of .45ACP ammunition for his [=HK45=] pistol and sets his gun down on a car before drawing his shotgun -- but retrieves it before he leaves. It's very common for people to carry guns despite ammunition being rare because you can find bullets at some point later. Even if there is slim to no chance they will match your gun it's much better than having bullets and no gun to fire them. But played straight at the beginning with the discarded Colt New Service revolver seen in the burned forest which, if anything, could have at lease given him something else to barter with once he reached Carnegie's town.

* ThrowawayGuns: Averted when Eli runs out of .45ACP ammunition for his HK45 pistol and sets his gun down on a car before drawing his shotgun -- but retrieves it before he leaves. It's very common for people to carry guns despite ammunition being rare because you can find bullets at some point later. Even if there is slim to none chance they will match your gun it's much better than having bullets and no gun to fire them.

* ShaggyDogStory: [[spoiler: For Carnegie; he spends the entire movie hunting Eli to steal the bible. Carnegie feels that with the bible, he can use it to maintain his iron-grip on the town. At the climax of the film, he finally does get the book, but at the sacrifice of [[TheDragon his dragon]], only to learn the book is in braille. Then he learns that after putting so much effort into his manhunt, the townspeople have finally turned against him and started looting his "kingdom."]]

* SmallNameBigEgo: Carnegie has lofty ambitions but nowhere near enough manpower or resources to expand beyond the town he lords over.

-->-- '''Eli''', [[AsTheGoodBookSays quoting]] Literature/TheBible [[PreAsskickingOneLiner just before]] [[CurbStompBattle kicking the shit out of everybody in the room.]]

* AboveTheInfluence: Eli, for obvious reasons, refuses Solara's... solicitations. When she tells him that he ''needs'' to use her, lest her mother be beaten, Eli allows her to stay and report that she was... used. He might have had a slight interest in Solara's mother, Claudia. [[spoiler:She too is blind, which obviously moves him,]] and he pays her a compliment about her shampoo - Eli never pays compliments to ''anyone''.

* AuthorTract
** You'd ''think'' the movie would be one of these, but oddly enough it isn't. Although Denzel Washington helped spearhead production because of his devout Christianity, the film never descends to "Bible good, other people/religions evil", or stops the plot so Eli can preach to everybody. Aside from the rather implausible "[[RuleOfDrama Eli's Bible is the only one left]]" plotpoint, Christianity itself is not presented as the perfect savior of humanity, in fact the bad guy specifically wants the book because he's aware how the Bible has been used to prop up evil regimes throughout history, and wants to take advantage of it for that reason. And the whole "hero is on a mission from God" thing is used less as a justification for pushing Christian ideology and more to set up scenes where Eli [[OneManArmy kicks copious amounts of ass without apparent injury.]]

* Literature/TheBible: This is Eli's cargo and what he's protecting. He believes that God is directing him to a place where it will be safe and not abused.
* BlankBook: The book in question is written [[spoiler: in Braille]] but makes for an equally surprising [[TheReveal revelation]].

* CantYouReadTheSign

* DecoyDamsel: The trap early on. Eli doesn't fall for it. The woman tries it again on Solara, [[EvenEvilHasStandards but when she sees Solara is a woman, she tries to warn her away]] [[RapeAsDrama because she knows the gang will force themselves on her, and they would have]] if not for [[spoiler: [[BigDamnHeroes Eli's intervention]].]].

* TheDogBitesBack: The woman Carnegie has been abusing for years can [[spoiler: read braille]] but she doesn't want to. Instead she takes the time to rub in his face how much his obsession has cost him.

* {{Foreshadowing}}: There's a few hints that [[spoiler: Eli was blind before you actually know for sure.]] For example, when he stops Solara from taking the book, telling her that ''"You'd probably have no idea how to read it anyway."'' This could mean that either she's illiterate, or that Eli guessed that she wouldn't have known how to [[spoiler:read Braille]].
** Another few : [[spoiler: Eli smells the bandits from thirty feet away. This makes sense, since his sense of smell would likely have been heightened due to his lack of vision. He then goes on to kill the bandits in a very dark tunnel that presents little visibility but it makes everything sound much louder. Also, Eli asks the woman who was with the bandits he just killed where their water is. Turns out it's plainly visible in the cart next to her, but he can't see it. There's also the "No Trespassing" sign that Eli didn't see, the fact that Solara had to point out to Eli that the old couples' hands were trembling, and the fact that Eli mentions his senses of hearing and smell but never sight. Also, the fact he wears black sun glasses all the time is sort of a dead give away ([[DisguiseTropes but not as obvious thanks to the much harsher ultraviolet rays]]).]]
** His line ''"I walk by faith, not by sight."''
** A clever scene was the shootout in front of the bar. [[spoiler:If you pay attention, you'll notice he's listening to the gunshots first then using that information to [[ImprobableAimingSkills one-shot the bad guys one by one..]]]]
** [[spoiler:Another subtle event that most only realize in hindsight, the bar fight which makes the villain take notice of our hero is caused when the previously mentioned rapist takes offense at Eli shooing the bar's cat away when getting his drink; he couldn't hear the cat prowl across the bar table and his hand knocked into it when he reached for his drink]]
** [[spoiler: He also bumps into things gently a few times, such as the dresser in the shack near the start, and later his feet on the stairs leading up to the strange house and when he reaches the top step, he holds his gun in front of him. He knows there will be a door there, but doesn't know exactly where until he bumps into it with the barrel of the gun.]]
** [[spoiler: He seemingly ignores the gold chain on the dead body in exchange for a pair of boots. Obviously, he doesn't see it but he finds the boots once he feels around for them.]]
** [[spoiler: When he flips open the Zippo lighter to trade to the shopkeeper, he holds his hand over the flame to check that it's working.]]
*** [[spoiler: He doesn't react in any way to the skeleton in the abandoned car either, even though the skull is just inches from his face. Even in a post-apocalyptic world full of desiccated corpses, you'd expect a sighted man to at least ''glance'' at such a thing.]]
** [[spoiler: Earlier in the film the morning after the cat meal. He left his iPod on all night so its battery's next to empty. You see him pressing the play and stop button thinking it might work. You could look at it as an act of frustration, but the truth is he couldn't see the low battery signal flash.]]
** The shopkeeper identifies Eli's iPod and the latter replies with a simple 'is it?' This can easily be missed as Eli not knowing the differences between iPods but his [[spoiler: lack of sight]] would make it harder to identify.
** An example of foreshadowing '''not''' having to do with Eli: Carnegie is reading up on Mussolini near the beginning. Obviously, they're both dictators in one way or another but it also [[spoiler: points to Carnegie's fate which mirrors Mussolini's fall at the hands of his own people.]]
** In the opening scene, was Eli clicking his tongue to get the cat's attention, or was he [[spoiler: using echolocation to see where it was]]?

* GatlingGood : An antique hand-cranked model, even. Mounted to a modern van.
* GhostCity: San Francisco is this. And practically reduced to a pile of rubble, to boot.
* GodIsGood: Eli manages to survive 30 years in his present condition and is unstoppable and untouchable [[spoiler:until his destiny is complete and his disciple carries on in his stead. Plus, every person who opposes Eli ends up dead within a matter of days]].
* TheHeroDies: [[spoiler:In the epilogue but Eli himself phrases it as God "letting me sleep".]]

*** Eli is the name of one of the Judges in the Bible. [[spoiler: He was blind by the time he died.]]

* MilkyWhiteEyes: Averted with Claudia, who was born blind. [[spoiler: Played straight with Eli, as part of TheReveal.]]

* OnlyAFleshWound: Averted; Carnegie gets winged in the leg by a stray bullet during a firefight and immediately collapses, screaming in pain. He spends the rest of the movie using a crutch to get around, which is still obviously quite painful. [[spoiler:By the end, his wound has become gangrenous and he only has days to live -- assuming the rioters don't get him first.]]

* TheReveal: [[spoiler: The Bible Eli had on him was written in braille all along, because Eli himself is blind.]]

** The titular book of Eli, [[spoiler: a Braille Bible, purportedly containing the entire KJV text, would take up much more physical space than one volume. More like 18, and those are for ENORMOUS-sized books (roughly three full sets of ''Encyclopaedia Britannicas''). Regular-sized volumes would number around 36 but perhaps it's another miracle.]]
** Believing that [[spoiler:all the Bibles would have been burned]]. The thin veneer of an explanation about 'maybe that's what started the war in the first place'? There's ''a lot'' of them in the world, considering it's been the number 1 bestselling book since the invention of the printing press. It'd easier to believe that they just ''think'' it's the last one, or that it's simply the last one in that immediate area. [[spoiler: The end of the movie reveals that Eli's was definitely not the last Bible, since, when Malcolm [=McDowell=] places a newly printed copy of the King James Bible on the shelf, there is a very visible Artscroll Tanakh, i.e., the complete text of the Hebrew Bible in the original Hebrew with an English translation, sitting only two books to the left of it. Granted, the Tanakh would not contain the New Testament, so it is possible that Eli's copy is the last-existing copy of the Christian Gospels, but it was clearly not the last Bible.]]

* YouAreAlreadyDead: Eli is accosted by Martz at the Orpheum, who claims that Eli raised a hand at his cat. [[spoiler: Eli slams Martz's head against the bar, speaks quietly in his ear, then helps Martz straighten up. Martz stands there for a moment, dazed, then hits the floor like a sack of potatoes.]] It is unclear whether Eli meant for this to happen, as [[spoiler: he had to have known the rest of the BanditMook gang was in the bar with Martz]].

* YouHaveFailedMe: One of the guards is executed for letting Eli [[LockedRoomMystery escape from custody]].

* BornAftertheEnd: Solara and even some of Carnegie's men who are years older than her fit this perfectly. A humorous example of this being when Carnegie tells one of his thugs to check behind a TV only to receive a blank 'huh?' from the man.

* LostCommonKnowledge: It's frequently brought up that kids born since the nuclear war are almost guaranteed to be illiterate, and people under the age of 30 are seen to marvel at things we would consider trivial. But the best example has to be when Carnegie orders one of his thugs to "check behind the TV," only to get a confused "Huh?" from the mook who is several years too young to have ever watched one. Carnegie roars an incredulous ''"YOU'RE FUCKIN' SHITTIN' ME!"'' as he realizes this trope is in effect.

'''Character tropes go on to the [[Characters/TheBookOfEli Characters Sheet]].'''

* PyrrhicVillainy: [[spoiler:By the time he gets his hands on the Bible, Carnegie has an infected leg and has lost so many of his men that he couldn't keep control of the town, even if the Bible wasn't written in Braille.]]

** Interestingly, the [[https://www.imsdb.com/scripts/Book-of-Eli,-The.html original script]] for the movie was incredibly blunt with Biblical references; Eli was already revealing half of the plot of the movie while praying over his first on-screen meal, and quoting "the man he works for" while killing the hijackers. It was a bit absurd; the toning down made it far, far better.

* InheritedWeapon: When Solara leaves Alcatraz to return home, she carries Eli's machete, and his iPod.

* OffWithHisHead: said bar fight in the following post results in Eli lopping off the heads of 3 enemies in rapid succesion.

A 2010 [[AfterTheEnd post-apocalyptic]] film directed by the Creator/HughesBrothers, starring Creator/DenzelWashington, Creator/GaryOldman, and Creator/MilaKunis. Think a live action adaptation of ''Manga/FistOfTheNorthStar'' with a {{Race Lift}}ed Kenshiro, or ''VideoGame/{{Fallout}}'' with Christianity instead of UsefulNotes/TheAmericanDream.