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* BadBoss: Shelly isn't above beating the shit out of his employees. Nicky isn't above [[spoiler:murdering Shelly for letting Bernie leave Vegas]].
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* BadBoss: Shelly isn't above beating the shit out of his employees. Nicky isn't above [[spoiler:murdering Shelly breaking Larry's arm]]. Just to be clear, for letting Bernie leave Vegas]].all his "with all due respect", Larry is the new boss at Shangri-La, and Nicky is just a made man.
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* DeathByIrony: After spending the movie extolling the virtues of the old way of doing things, Shelly gets dealt with old school. Bullet to the back of the head by a mobster in a nice suit who surprised him in the back seat of his car.
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* DeathByIrony: After spending the movie extolling the virtues of the old way of doing things, [[spoiler: Shelly gets dealt with old school. Bullet to the back of the head by a mobster in a nice suit who surprised him in the back seat of his car.]]
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* EarnYourHappyEnding: Bernie and Natalie have to grow a lot to show how good they are, how much they love each other, how much they're willing to do for one another, how much abuse they'll take, and how much they'll stand up to the assholes in charge of Vegas, and hot damn if it ain't worth it.
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* ThePowerOfLove: Love is so powerful it can convince a broken woman to believe in goodness and hope for a future she thought she'd lost. It's so powerful it can turn a man BornUnlucky into a man BornLucky. It can convince a {{Jerkass}} to reveal he's a {{JerkWithAHeartOfGold}}. It can change the world, if only for a few people who deserve it.
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* ThePowerOfLove: Love is so powerful it can convince a broken woman to believe in goodness and hope for a future she thought she'd lost. It's so powerful it can turn a man BornUnlucky into a man BornLucky. It can convince a {{Jerkass}} to reveal he's a {{JerkWithAHeartOfGold}}.JerkWithAHeartOfGold. It can change the world, if only for a few people who deserve it.
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* BittersweetEnding: Bernie and Natalie get out of Vegas, happy together and with a lot of cash because Bernie finally, ''finally'' won. However, the whole point of the movie is that a guy like Bernie can only exist in the golden age of FilmNoir and mafia Vegas. Shelly was the albatross around Bernie's neck, but he genuinely loved Bernie, and, just like Shelly, the old Vegas is dead, murdered by the new Vegas.
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* BittersweetEnding: Bernie and Natalie get out of Vegas, happy together and with a lot of cash because Bernie finally, ''finally'' won. However, the whole point of the movie is that a guy like Bernie can only exist in the golden age of FilmNoir and mafia Vegas. Shelly was the albatross around Bernie's neck, but he genuinely loved Bernie, and, just like Shelly, the [[spoiler:the old Vegas is dead, murdered by the new Vegas.]]
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* ThePowerOfLove: Love is so powerful it can convince a broken woman to believe in goodness and hope for a future she thought she'd lost. It's so powerful it can turn a man BornUnlucky into a man BornLucky. It can convince a {{Jerkass}} to reveal he's a {{JerkWithAHeartOfGold}}. It can change the world, if only for a few people who deserve it.
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* BittersweetEnding: Bernie and Natalie get out of Vegas, happy together and with a lot of cash because Bernie finally, ''finally'' won. However, the whole point of the movie is that a guy like Bernie can only exist in the golden age of FilmNoir and mafia Vegas. Shelly was the albatross around Bernie's neck, but he genuinely loved Bernie, and, just like Shelly, the old Vegas is dead, murdered by the new Vegas.
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* LampshadeHanging: Of course Bernie and Natalie get their happy ending thanks to a random ass drunk driver, and Bernie points out that "It's just luck! It's freaky, freaky luck!".
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* DeathByIrony: After spending the movie extolling the virtues of the old way of doing things, Shelly gets dealt with old school. Bullet to the back of the head by a mobster in a nice suit who surprised him in the back seat of his car.
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* DirtyCop: A cop on Nicky's payroll pulls up behind Bernie and Natalie at the end, gets them out of the car, and tells them to get on their knees after pulling his gun...
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* ShownTheirWork: When Bernie finally steps up to the table, he steps up to the craps table. Of all the games in the casino, that's the one where you're most likely to win if you play perfectly. You can almost break even with a perfect game. A degenerate gambler like Bernie would know this.
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* TheReasonYouSuckSpeech: Bernie spells out to Shelly the message the movie has been sending him. That his dream of a Vegas that means something? It's all bullshit. Shelly's lost in the middle of the desert, chasing a mirage.
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* RageBreakingPoint: Bernie loves Shelly. Shelly's been his only friend for decades. When he learns Shelly paid Natalie to seduce him to get him to stay in Vegas? Whatever, that's business. But the fact that Shelly hit her? Bernie walks into the casino, punches Shelly in the gut...
-->'''Bernie:''' If you ever hurt her again, I'll kill you!
-->'''Bernie:''' If you ever hurt her again, I'll kill you!
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* UndyingLoyalty: Until the last act, Bernie is utterly loyal to Shelly. He's ''grateful'' to his only friend, his childhood friend, for breaking his kneecap, as it got him out of gambling and into a steady, if shitty, job. He can even forgive that Shelly paid Natalie to seduce him.
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* InternalReveal: The third act's climax is Natalie telling Bernie that his best friend paid her to seduce him to try and keep him in Vegas.
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* ArmorPiercingResponse: Natalie finally cracks [[MeaningfulName Shelly's shell]] when he tells her that "I could make you disappear like ''that''! And nobody would miss you!"
-->'''Natalie:''' Bernie would!!
-->'''Natalie:''' Bernie would!!
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* CrapsackWorld: This is the dark side of Vegas. We don't get any glitz, no glamour. Nothing but sleaze. Even the mob is getting worse, giving up honor and the high life in exchange for more cash.
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* DeliberateValuesDissonance: In your classic FilmNoir, heroes and villains alike could slap women around no problem. But when Shelly does it, it's clear he's crossed a line, and even he feels guilty. His goal was to force Natalie to leave... but he just walks out of the room and leaves her with Bernie.
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* EveryoneHasStandards: The two goons who drag Natalie into Bernie's motel room are disturbed when Shelly backhands her into the mirror. Even Shelly seems to have a MyGodWhatHaveIDone moment.
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* FilmNoir: Heavy sax music, a duplicitous dame, the mob, a guy who can't stop drinking whiskey, {{chiaroscuro}}...
