History Film / TheGame1997

* ArtisticLicenseLaw: Something like CRS could '''never''' exist under any jurisdiction whatsoever. The huge amount of illegal stuff they do would straight-up guarantee they'd get sued up their bottoms until nothing's left.

* TheEiffelTowerEffect: The Golden Gate Bridge can be seen in several location shots.

Don't do anything at all, go ask Alice when she's ten feet tall… ♫]]''

* {{Gaslighting}}: The ''modus operandi'' of CRS is to put Nicholas in ever more insane situations and drive him into a paranoid frenzy, until finally he tries to commit suicide — and instead is caught by a safety mattress, literally dropping in on his own surprise party.

* GoingCommando / SkirtsAndLadders: When [[UncomfortableElevatorMoment trapped in an elevator]] with waitress Christine, Nicholas asks her to crawl out the roof hatch. An embarrassed Christine reveals she's reluctant to do this because she's not wearing anything under her short skirt. Given what happens later, this is likely deliberate so as to [[DistractedByTheSexy mess with the protagonist's head]].

It centers around Nicholas van Orton (Douglas), an investment banker as wealthy as he is cold and self-centered, spending his days isolated in his office giving orders to employees. On his 48th birthday, Nicholas receives a unique present from his estranged brother Conrad (Penn): a voucher for a game courtesy of a group called [[SuperFunHappyThingOfDoom Consumer Recreation Services]].

* BreakTheHaughty: The entire point, with the end goal being [[CatharsisFactor for Nicholas to achieve catharsis]] and emerge from the game a happier man.

-->"[[NightmareFuel Thank God you jumped, 'cause otherwise I was supposed to throw you off!]]"

* ImpairmentShot: Nicholas has been poisoned and is about to pass out. Then there's a shot just before he hits the ground that goes completely nutty: the camera shakes and the screen blurs with a yellow overexposed effect.

--> '''Christine''': Your shoes cost a thousand dollars?
--> '''Nicholas''': That one did.

* AnkleDrag: An AngryGuardDog grabs on to Nicholas' pants leg when the latter is trying to escape via DumpsterDive. Nicholas eventually manages to shake the dog off.

''The Game'' is a Creator/DavidFincher directed movie, released on September 12th, 1997.

It centers around Nicholas van Orton (Creator/MichaelDouglas), a bored, disillusioned investment banker who spends his days in his office. So well-ordered he has driven out all romantic prospects, Nicholas soon receives a gift certificate from his brother Conrad (Creator/SeanPenn), which involves participating in a potentially-dangerous game, courtesy of a group called [[SuperFunHappyThingOfDoom Consumer Recreation Services]]. Things soon get bizarre, and the line between the game and reality [[ParanoiaFuel begins to blur.]]

* AccidentalMurder: On the rooftop, [[spoiler:Nicholas mistakes Conrad for one of CRS's security guards and shoots him. Subverted by the later reveal that this was a StagedShooting with blanks.]]

* AllIsWellThatEndsWell: He loses house, family, friends, gets shot at, and almost dies several times. But it's all good because it was all just a big birthday prank from his younger brother. He's told from the outset that it is a game, although we never quite find out how clued-in he is.
* AndAllIGotWasThisLousyTShirt: "I was drugged and left for dead in Mexico - and all I got was this stupid T-shirt".
* AnkleDrag: The AngryGuardDog grabs on to Nicholas' pants leg when the latter is trying to escape via DumpsterDive. Nicholas eventually manages to shake the dog off.

* BatmanGambit: The entire film runs on this trope, as CRS performs an entire day of deeply intensive, rigorous physical and psychological evaluation on Nicholas in order to predict exactly what he would do and how he would react in any given situation. This allows them to [[VideoGame/MetalGearSolidVGroundZeroes play him like a damn fiddle]] from the game's start to its finish.
* BecomingTheMask: Christine's role seems to be to provide a touch of {{Fanservice}} to Nicholas's game as a distraction, and she flirts with him after their alleyway chase. By the end of the game, she seems to be developing genuine feelings for him, and he reciprocates.

* DeceptivelySillyTitle: The title doesn't suggest this to be a mystery thriller.

** Case in point is Nicholas's pistol in his BookSafe which they found and replaced the bullets with blanks.

* DrivenToSuicide: Possibly Nicholas's father. Later in the movie the trope is subverted with Nicholas himself. He tries to commit suicide, but instead harmlessly falls into a dome of breakaway glass and a safety mattress.

* FromBadToWorse: The movie's full of examples: Identity theft, losing all your money, being left for dead, being chased by police, not knowing who to trust (not even your closest allies), being stalked, having to escape a submerged car… the list goes on.

** On the speedchess side, there is no way in hell that CRS could account for every single contingency, so it's quite possible that they improvised for the ones they couldn't handle. The scheme could be pulled off with one or two really good improvisers, e.g. Christine and the CRS rep to steer him, and the rest of the cast as regular actors (not to demean real-life actors, who must have good improvisational skills). This could explain why Claire alone has to leave for the next gig at the end.

* PlotHole: The entire movie is dependent on premises which, at best, stretch suspension of belief to the breaking point, but the ending is nothing other than a long series of lucky guesses. [[spoiler:Nicholas had to have not checked the gun he is carrying so as not to find the blanks in it, after having picked it up in the house that had, earlier, been burglarized, not use said gun to suicide when he is overcome with despair, instead choosing to jump off the roof he is on, pick a specific point on said roof with no reason or indication that that spot is the one to use, miss a large collection of steel I-beams when he falls, and land safe and sound from an uncontrolled fall onto an air mattress.]]

* ShockinglyExpensiveBill: Just to give you the rough size of the bill...look at the movie's budget. It's $50 million.

** The book ''Literature/ToKillAMockingbird'' contains the device which makes it possible to kill an actual mockingbird; a gun.

It centers around Nicholas van Orton (Creator/MichaelDouglas), a bored, disillusioned investment banker who spends his days in his office. So well-ordered he has driven out all romantic prospects, Nicholas soon receives a gift certificate from his brother Conrad (Creator/SeanPenn), which involves participating in a potentially-dangerous game, courtesy of a group called [[SuperFunHappyThingOfDoom Consumer Recreation Services]]. Not long after signing up things soon get bizarre and the line between the game and reality [[ParanoiaFuel begins to blur.]]

Now has a character page in desperate need of expansion.