History Film / TheLastSeduction

* BlackIsBiggerInBed: Bridget brilliantly invokes this to her husband's (black) private investigator Harlan to distract him while she's driving the car they're in. She brings it up and laughingly asks him to [[PlayingDoctor "show her his"]]. When he sensibly refuses, she implies the reason he won't is because the opposite is true in his case. He eventually [[TooDumbToLive lets his male ego get the better of him]] and gives in, [[spoiler:taking off his seatbelt to do so. This results in his death when she intentionally crashes the car.]]

Bridget Gregory (Fiorentino) is the manager of a direct marketing call center; she is also married to Clay (Pullman), a medical student. Clay is so smitten with her that, at her suggestion, he illegally sells pharmaceutical painkillers for a bag of cash. Then Clay makes a big mistake; in the emotional aftermath of his first crime, he slaps Bridget. She coolly steals the cash and skips town. Stopping in a small town for a drink, she meets Mike Swale (Berg), a divorced man who immediately falls for her. When Clay sends goons to track down his wife and stolen cash, Bridget decides to use Mike in an elaborate scheme to get her past off her back.

* ADeadlyAffair: Subverted. [[spoiler: While Bridget is sleeping with Mike to ultimately twist him into unwittingly murdering her husband, Mike is never an equal partner in the scheme and has no idea the man Bridget is trying to get him to kill is Bridget's husband until Clay shows him their wedding photo.]]

* TheBadGuyWins: [[spoiler: She may be the lead, but Bridget is a sociopath to the core, and successfully kills her husband, frames Mike, and gets away with it, and the money.]]
* BatmanGambit: Subverted. [[spoiler: Mike and Clay figure out the scheme, and they defeat Bridget's carefully-constructed plan for Mike to kill Clay so she can frame Mike for Clay's murder. But they completely underestimate her improvisational skills. She works out a new plan in all of five seconds that THAT plan works perfectly.]]

* BecomingTheMask: Bridget hates Beston and its simple folk population pretty much from the start. However, when Frank convinces her that staying there is the best option for hiding out from Clay, she settles in, and scores herself a pretty respectable job at a local Beston company. She assimilates to the town enough that certain people, such as the company's front desk greeter, look out for her and warn her when Clay's PI comes looking for her. She seems to excel at her new job as well, whipping the underlings into shape.
* BerserkButton: For Mike, what pushes him over the edge in the final scene is Bridget mocking him for his marriage to Trish; it turns out that she is [[spoiler: a trans woman.]]

* BlackDudeDiesFirst: [[spoiler: Harlan is the first character to die.]]
* BlackIsBiggerInBed: Bridget brilliantly invokes this to her husband's (black) private investigator Harlan to distract him while she's driving the car they're in. She brings it up and laughingly asks him to [[PlayingDoctor "show her his"]]. When he sensibly refuses, he implies the reason he won't is because the opposite is true in his case. He eventually [[TooDumbToLive lets his male ego get the better of him]] and gives in, [[spoiler: taking off his seatbelt to do so. This results in his death when she intentionally crashes the car.]]
* BlackWidow: Bridget [[spoiler: murders her husband Clay without hesitation and sucessfully frames Mike for it.]]
* BrainyBrunette: Bridget. [[spoiler: Used for the purposes of evil. She runs rings around, and bests, every man that tangles with her in the film. The hapless Mike completely falls for her, but all she does is use him as means to an end, and hubby Clay completely underestimates her and pays for it with his life.]]

* CassandraTruth: For one moment in the film, Bridget actually tells Mike some truth. [[spoiler: When Bridget is reconciling with Mike at the bar, after she slapped him for touching her in the lobby of the Interstate office, Mike references wanting to know more about her. Bridget asks if he can keep a secret, then says, "Someone steals a million bucks, but there's a catch, they spend it..." Mike cuts her off, once again thinking she's just messing with him. In fact, that's almost exactly what Bridget did. She only stole $750,000, and she had, at the time, only spent a small portion of it, but it's the one and only time in the film that Bridget is even slightly honest with Mike. It's also likely that she said it because she knew he wouldn't believe her.]]
* TheCityVsTheCountry: This trope is invoked here numerous times and in the end played completely straight. In the small town people are indeed more wholesome than in New York. Once it is even said that a detective from New York can be violent for the benefit of his client while a local detective can only follow someone but would never hurt anyone.

* ChronicBackstabbingDisorder: Bridget, pretty much for the entire film. There are hints that [[spoiler: Bridget was always planning to steal the money Clay got from the drug deal, and that his slap had little to do with why she runs. And she continues to backstab him throughout the film.]]
** Also [[spoiler: Mike. Everything she does with Mike is ultimately to twist Mike into murdering Clay so she can frame him and get away with it.]]

* DeadlyHug: Played with. [[spoiler: In this case, a kiss. Bridget gives Clay a passionate kiss right before forcing his mouth open and spraying a can of mace down his throat.]]
* DeconstructedTrope: As the title implies, the film was intended to be this for the typical FilmNoir FemmeFatale plot, [[spoiler: illustrating just how heartless a woman would have to be to seduce a man into murdering a complete stranger, and how dumb the man would have to be to actually fall for it.]]
* DefectiveDetective: Harlan is [[spoiler: or rather, ''was'']] one of these; apparently, with serious issues regarding certain racial and sexual stereotypes (see above).

* DomesticAbuse: [[DownplayedTrope Downplayed.]] Clay slaps Bridget when she taunts him, but feels sorry soon after. Bridget, however, harbors a ''huge'' grudge. She also claims to be the victim of this to secure a new job.
* DontAsk: Mike's reaction whenever his failed marriage (see above) come up; since Mike is constantly pressing Bridget to talk about serious things and get closer emotionally, this tips her off that this is something ''big'' she can use against him.

* EvilGenius: Bridget's plan to dupe Mike into killing Clay is pretty elaborate. [[spoiler: When it fails, the plan she comes up with in five seconds to replace it is just as, if not ''more,'' effective than her initial plan.]]

* FishOutOfWater: Bridget as she first comes to Beston and slowly begins settling in. After living in New York, random people saying hello to her on the street as they pass by is practically alien to her. Also, when she's bossy to the bartender of Mike's usual bar, he ignores her and attempts to not serve her until Mike intervenes on her behalf.

** Also, in his introductory scene, Mike wants to leave Beston for the big city. He latches on to Bridget because he can tell she's from there, and thinks she can help him get there. [[spoiler: In the end, she does get him to New York, but he's facing life in prison at best, and potentially the electric chair.]]

* FriendsWithBenefits: Bridget implies to Mike that they should be this. That's before Mike reveals he's in sappy love with her, and she thinks about some sinister plans involving Mike.

* RealLifeWritesThePlot: In the intimate scene outside the bar against the fence, Creator/PeterBerg said in an interview that there was nothing specific about the encounter in the script, and they had only a brief amount of time to film the sequence. Berg said Creator/LindaFiorentino's was the one who quickly pushed him against the fence and "choreographed" the sequence in the brief amount of time they had to film it.

* FanService: Linda Fiorentino does several nude scenes.

* FriendsWithBenefits: Bridget implies to Mike that they should be this. That's before she thinks about some sinister plans involving Mike.
* {{Gaslighting}}: Bridget does this to Mike ''constantly''. [[spoiler:Especially when she's trying to get him to bend to her will and give up on his morality over things such as murder. One big moment comes as she's trying to convince Mike she killed a man "for their relationship," and presents the drug money she stole from Clay as the supposed payoff for doing the deed. When Mike is understandably upset and shocked that Bridget "killed a man," and "doesn't seem bothered by it," and is trying to decide whether to turn her in so he's not an accessory to the supposed murder]], Bridget slams the suitcase of money shut and slaps her hands all over it.

* HeelRealization: Completely subverted. [[spoiler:Bridget seems to relish being evil and using men solely for her own gain (if she hadn't already), then disposing of them, and she never once has a flicker of remorse over it.]]

* HomeSweetHome: Subverted. While she gets a house and lays low in Beston, Bridget keeps the bare minimum of possessions, and much of the home is completely unfurnished even at the end of the film.

* MiscarriageOfJustice: The ending implies that [[spoiler:Mike will spend the rest of his life in prison for Bridget's crimes.]]

* NiceToTheWaiter: Subverted. Bridget is rude to Ray the barman when she first meets him and gets incensed when he clearly refuses to serve her. When Mike suggests politeness after helping her get a drink, the concept is almost foreign to her. Her later interaction with him shows that she still bears a grudge, as it's completely insincere.

* NoSeatBelts: Harlan doesn't click it; ''if only'' he'd just gotten a ticket.

** A minor one in the first act, when she discovers that her one night stand Mike, who she was planning to simply use and lose, works for the company she just got herself hired to.

* VillainsOutShopping: As she settles into Beston and starts working out her scheme to get away clean from Clay, we see her following Frank's advice and getting a house, getting a job, and becoming a regular at Mike's usual bar.

* EstablishingCharacterMoment: For Bridget at her first job, She likes to command and she is foul-mouthed.

* EvilWearsBlack: Bridget, for much of the film, wears a black blazer, skirt, heels, and stockings. She knowing subverts this once [[spoiler: when she invites Mike over for dinner, and she tries to convince Mike that she's in love with him, and that the $750,000 she stole from Clay was a pay off for her murdering an abusive husband in Florida and being paid off by the wife out of the life insurance money.]]

* FilmNoir: One of the most famous 90s neo noirs.

* FrameUp: First, a minor example, when Bridget reports Clay's PI to the police as a stalker. Then, the big one: in the final sequence, she sets up [[spoiler: Mike.]]

* {{Gaslighting}}: Bridget does this to Mike ''constantly.'' [[spoiler: Especially when she's trying to get him to bend to her wills and give up on his morality over things such as murder. One big moment comes as she's trying to convince Mike she killed a man "for their relationship," and presents the drug money she stole from Clay as the supposed payoff for doing the deed. When Mike is understandably upset and shocked that Bridget "killed a man," and "doesn't seem bothered by it," and is trying to decide whether to turn her in so he's not an accessory to the supposed murder,]] Bridget slams the suitcase of money shut and slaps her hands all over it.
-->'''Bridget Gregory:''' "There's your fucking evidence. And there are my fucking fingerprints. Hey, maybe you'll get a reward and you can open up a fucking feed store. Get the fuck outta here."

* GoodSmokingEvilSmoking: Bridget smokes in most of her scenes, even in her office, and is definitely an embodiment of evil. Her constant lighting up is also a send-up/throwback of the character's 1950s Femme Fatale demeanor. She also uses a pie Mike's grandma made for him as an ashtray, to show how bad to the bone she is. Harlan also smokes, but he's a nominal good guy, if you're rooting against Bridget. Also seen smoking is Bridget's lawyer Frank. He's not as evil as Bridget, but he does willingly offer her legal advice for a situation in which she's up to no good, making him a quasi candidate for evil smoking.
* GutFeeling: Clay guesses that, since Bridget loves New York, and can write backwards, [[spoiler: that she's using Wen(dy) Kroy as her current alias. He's right.]]
* HeelRealization: Completely subverted. [[spoiler: Bridget seems to relish being evil and using men solely for her own gain, then disposing of them, and she never once has a flicker of remorse over it.]]

* HowMuchDidYouHear: Bridget pulls one of these on Mike [[spoiler: when she pretends to be setting up another scheme to murder another abusive husband and split the life insurance money with the abuser's wife.]]
* IChooseToStay: After fleeing Clay, Bridget basically stops in Beston for gas and a drink, and then decides to use Mike and make it an overnight stay. The next day, after Frank warns her that her current plan to visit a friend in Chicago is exactly what Clay would expect her to do, and exactly where he'll look for her, she decides to camp out in Beston for awhile, and even gets a house and a job as further cover. The plan works for awhile.

* InnocentBigot: [[spoiler: The front desk receptionist at Intertech wants to make it perfectly clear to Bridget that a back man (Harlan) was looking for her. The office mailroom guy also asks the receptionist if she told Bridget about the black man. This is lampshaded by Harlan himself in a conversation with Bridget, where he tells her that he went into a convenience store for cigarettes and the counterman ducked behind the counter upon seeing Harlan was black. Bridget subverts this later, when she uses Harlan's race to play into the racial stereotypes of the local Beston cop tasked with investigating Harlan's death.]]
* InsuranceFraud: [[spoiler: Using Mike's position in the company to look at life insurance policies with high payouts, Bridget attempts to draw Mike into a supposed scheme to murder abusive husbands and split the life insurance pay-offs, reasoning that if the husband is murdered by someone completely unrelated to them, the wife can't be a suspect and neither can they. It's all smoke and mirrors, however, so she can set up Mike to murder Clay.]]
* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: Clay. [[spoiler: Despite all he does to get to her, and despite all she does to him, Clay still loves Bridget and is willing to let it all slide and stay married to her if she wants. Also, much of Clay's desperation to find her is because he was going to use a portion of the money to pay off gambling debts, and the bill collectors are starting to break his fingers to urge Clay into coming up with the money.]]
* JustOneLittleMistake: Subverted when the imprisoned Mike realizes that Bridget made one mistake in her master plan involving a name tag on a mailbox. [[spoiler: The film ends with Bridget slipping the tag out of the mailbox, burning it, and driving off in her chauffeured limo.]]
* KarmaHoudini: By the last scene, life without parole is the absolute best [[spoiler: Mike, busted for murder and rape,]] can hope for, while [[spoiler: Bridget gets off scot-free]] -- and, apparently, independently wealthy to boot.

* [[ManipulativeBastard Manipulative Bitch]]: Bridget will stop at ''nothing'' to escape Clay, and then have her revenge on him, and then get away with it. Even to the point of premeditated murder, in the process ruining the life of someone whose biggest fault is being incredibly naive -- [[spoiler: Mike]].

* MiscarriageOfJustice: The ending implies that [[spoiler: Mike will spend the rest of his life in prison for Bridget's crimes.]]

* MurderIsTheBestSolution: Bridget tries to convince Mike (As part of her master plan to get Mike to kill her husband for her) that in order to be able to live together comfortably in the big city, they need to kill some nasty jerks and split their life insurance policies with their wives.
* NiceToTheWaiter: Subverted. Bridget is rude to Ray the barman when she first meets him, and gets incensed when he clearly refuses to serve her. When Mike suggest politeness after helping her get a drink, the concept is almost foreign to her. Her later interaction with him shows that she still bears a grudge, as it's completely insincere.

* A minor one in the first act, when she discovers that her one night stand Mike, who she was planning to simply use and lose, works for the company she just got herself hired to.
* Clay, when he discovers that Bridget has stolen the $750,000 from the shopping bag.
* Mike himself [[spoiler: Gets one almost at the end. After he and Clay reveal that they figured out what she's up to, and she's seemingly defeated, his moment of calm is quickly replaced by shock and horror as Bridget forces Clay's mouth open and sprays a can of mace down his throat.]]

* ThePerfectCrime: [[spoiler: Bridget successfully kills a PI and gets away with it, and successfully kills her husband, Mike is completely framed for it, and she escapes the law completely with $750,000.]]

* ProneToTears: Bridget convincingly fakes this in the hospital after her [[MakeItLookLikeAnAccident car crash,]] when police inquire as to why her [[spoiler: late]] passenger was [[CaughtWithYourPantsDown in a very embarrassing state of attire]].

* RevisedEnding: Initially, [[spoiler: Mike's lawyer at the end was going to be Bridget's lawyer, Frank. During the client interview, he was going to find out about the phony name tag on Clay's door, then call Bridget, let her know about that missed detail, and the film ended with her collecting it and burning it as filmed. The sequence was shot, but it was felt that having Frank in the end was a twist too far, so it was revised with a nameless public defender, and Bridget being savvy enough to eliminate the evidence on her own.]]

* SchmuckBait: Bridget, [[spoiler: pretending to be out of town, secretly overhears a drunken phone call in real time on her answering machine from Mike, where he questions their relationship and if she has any true feelings for him. He stops midway and she knows he's coming over to delete it. To keep her hooks into Mike, she scrawls a bunch of hearts and lovey sayings with Mike's name on a notepad and leaves it next to the answering machine for him to find to convince him that she has feelings for him too. He does, and it works perfectly.]]

* ShoutOut: When she calls the local police [[spoiler: and claims that Clay's local PI exposed himself to her child, she gives her name as Mrs. Neff, the same last name as the protagonist of Film/DoubleIndemnity]]

## Her attorney is the only person she ''ever'' tells the unvarnished truth, and is also the only person she ''doesn't'' try to manipulate -- only because she can gets what she wants from him more easily without it.

** After supposedly going out of town for a few days [[spoiler: Bridget smilingly cooks Mike dinner upon her return, wears his shirt, and plays lovey. Further, she attempts to convince Mike that her trip out of town was actually so she could go to Florida, kill the husband of an abused wife, and split the life insurance payoff. She solidifies this lie with the cash she stole from Clay, claiming it's the payoff money. When Mike naturally has a big problem with this, she screams at him that she needs a man that will support her, throws him out, and then LAUGHS after she shuts the door at how effortlessly she played upon his emotions and love for her.]]
** [[spoiler: She dupes Clay's New York PI (who's not wearing a seat belt) into pulling out his junk, then floors her Jeep, drives into a tree, and kills him when he goes through the windshield, solely so she can get him off her back, and later claim to the local police investigating that he was going to assault her. Clay's actually stunned about it when he calls her later.]]
** [[spoiler: With her carefully-constructed plan to have Mike kill Clay and frame him for it goes up in smoke, she thinks up an entirely new plan in about five seconds, unhesitatingly kills Clay herself by spraying mace down his throat, then works Mike up into a rage to have violent intercourse with her, and goads him into saying he's assaulting her after she's taken the phone off the hook and dialed 911.]]
** [[spoiler: She has no problem letting Mike rot in prison for a crime he didn't commit so she can start a new life and keep the stolen $750,000 for herself.]]

* TheyReallyDoLoveEachOther: Subverted entirely. [[spoiler: Despite all of Mike's efforts, Bridget never has any cathartic moment where she reveals she loves Mike, and instead, uses him completely as a means to an end, letting him take the rap for a murder he didn't commit to escape scot-free.]]
** Also [[spoiler: Despite everything Bridget does to Clay throughout the course of the film, including trying to get Mike to murder him for her, he's willing to let all of it slide and stay married to her. She responds by spraying a can of mace down his throat.]]
* TrialBalloonQuestion: As part of her plan to use Mike [[spoiler: to kill Clay, she first ropes him in by convincing him to cold call high payout life insurance beneficiaries, and suggests that they could make more than enough money to skip town and live on by killing abusive husbands and splitting the life insurance payouts with the abused spouse. She even does a convincing test run with one of the wives she calls while Mike listens in, and as a further surprise, the wife actually seems to be interested in her doing it before Bridget claims she's not serious and hangs up. It's a big red flag that Mike completely ignores due to his infatuation with Bridget.]]
* UnsettlingGenderReveal: Mike used to live in Buffalo for a while, and even got married, but he ran away on their wedding night because [[spoiler: his blushing bride turned out to be a pre-operative trans woman.]]

-->''"You married a man you farm f***"''
* Also Bridget, when Mike says he can't tell if Bridget is a total b*tch or not.
-->''"I am a TOTAL F*CKING B*TCH!"''
* WhereDaWhiteWomenAt: Initially [[DefiedTrope defied]] by Harlan when Bridget tries to seduce him by asking him if [[BlackIsBiggerInBed "the rumors"]] are true. He blows her off at first, commenting that white women are too skinny in the hips department. She does manage to eventually get a rise out of him with "I'll show you mine if you show me yours," [[spoiler:which she then uses to permanently dispose of him]].

** She also pulls this [[spoiler: in her interview with the supervisor at Mike's company, claiming she's on the run from an abusive spouse, so she can get a job under her assumed name and avoid leaving a paper trail for Clay to follow to find out where she is. The supervisor readily agrees and handle her personnel file personally, and reduce the paper trial for Clay to be able to find her.]]
* XanatosSpeedChess: Bridget is a grandmaster, best shown in the final scene. With Clay and Mike beginning to realize her true depth of evil and, thus, to unite against her, she reasons out a way not only to survive but triumph in the space of about five (literal) New York seconds.

* DefectiveDetective: Harlan is [[spoiler: or rather, ''was'']] one of these; apparently, with serious issues regarding certain racial & sexual stereotypes (see above).
* DefrostingIceQueen: Mostly subverted. [[spoiler: Every time Bridget seems to be opening up to Mike, or letting him get closer to her, it's all a ruse to get him more attached to her so she can keep using him.]]
** Mike does seem to genuinely make progress with her, shortly after she's been hired at Intertech. It leads to Mike becoming her "designated fuck." However, it seems to be the only genuine time in the film.

* EvilGenius: Bridget's plan to dupe Mike into killing Clay is pretty elaborate. [[spoiler: When it fails, the plan she comes up with in five seconds to replace it is just as effective, if not MORE than, her initial plan.]]

## She's not doing Mike everywhere except Main Street in broad daylight because she "loves" him.

* UnintentionallySympathetic: Clay, to a degree.

-->'''Bridget Gregory:''' "Could you leave? Please?"\\

* Clay also. When Mike comes to rob him, using dialogue (suggested by Bridget) that he memorized in advance, Clay snarks:
-->'''Clay Gregory:''' "Did you read a book on this?"
* Frank Griffith repeatedly during Bridget's phone calls to him seeking legal advice so she can not only divorce Clay, but keep the $750,000 to herself.
-->'''Bridget Gregory:''' "You still a lawyer, Frank?"\\

* BecomingTheMask: Bridget hates Beston and it's simple folk population pretty much from the start. However, when Frank convinces her that staying there is the best option for hiding out from Clay, she settles in, and scores herself a pretty respectable job at a local Beston company. She assimilates to the town enough that certain people, such as the company's front desk greeter, look out for her and warn her when Clay's PI comes looking for her. She seems to excel at her new job as well, whipping the underlings into shape.

->''' Frank Griffith:''' "Look, maybe he won't stall. Can he afford a good lawyer?"\\
''' Bridget Gregory''' "Not anymore."\\
''' Frank Griffith''' "How silly of me to ask."

->''' Frank Griffith''' "Well I'm sorry the law doesn't make it easier for you to steal and deal drugs, Bridget."

->''' Bridget Gregory:''' "Could you leave? Please?"\\
''' Mike Swale: '''"I haven't finished charming you yet."\\
''' Bridget Gregory:''' "You haven't started."

-> '''Clay Gregory: ''' "Did you read a book on this?"

->''' Bridget Gregory: ''' "You still a lawyer, Frank?"\\
''' Frank Griffith: ''' "Yeah. You still a self-serving bitch?"

->''' Mike Swale:''' "...None of the other secretaries seem to know who you are."\\
''' Bridget Gregory: '''"I'm not just a secretary, you rural neanderthal, I'm the..."\\
''' Mike Swale:''' "Director of lead generation. I'm just trying to get your attention."\\
''' Bridget Gregory:''' "...That's good."

* EvilIsSexy: Linda Fiorentino. Hoooo boy.

* {{Gaslighting}}: Bridget does this to Mike CONSTANTLY. [[spoiler: Especially when she's trying to get him to bend to her wills and give up on his morality over things such as murder. One big moment comes as she's trying to convince Mike she killed a man "for their relationship," and presents the drug money she stole from Clay as the supposed payoff for doing the deed. When Mike is understandably upset and shocked that Bridget "killed a man," and "doesn't seem bothered by it," and is trying to decide whether to turn her in so he's not an accessory to the supposed murder,]] Bridget slams the suitcase of money shut and slaps her hands all over it.
-> ''' Bridget Gregory: ''' "There's your fucking evidence. And there are my fucking fingerprints. Hey, maybe you'll get a reward and you can open up a fucking feed store. Get the fuck outta here."

->''' Bridget Gregory:''' "Please. Is it the morality of murder that bothers you, or the personal risk?"

* HarsherInHindsight: When Mike grabs Bridget's rear as they enter the Intertech office, Bridget slaps him and makes a big show of claiming it was unwelcome advance in order to keep her and Mike's relationship a secret. In the film, Mike sheepishly goes to his office red-faced as the other employees in the lobby give him the look. In today's times, it's hard not to imagine Mike being fired on the spot for it. Especially since she's claimed to her supervisor at Intertech that she's an abused housewife trying to hide from her abusive husband.

* HotterAndSexier: The film is basically what Film/DoubleIndemnity and Film/BodyHeat would have been if they'd had the femme fatales be the leads, rather than the male patsy, and it definitely is racier in the scenes between Bridget and Mike than what we see in the other two films.

->''' Bridget Gregory:''' "A friend needs advice. I'll set it up for you: A husband and wife do a one-time drug deal. The goal is a wholesome one."\\
''' Frank Griffith''' "College fund for the kids."\\
''' Bridget Gregory''' "No. The wife wants new digs. Comes off without a hitch, only the wife decides that the new house would be happier without the husband."\\
''' Frank Griffith''' "Sharing was never her specialty."

* MagnificentBastard: Or in this case, B*tch. Not only is the evil Bridget our lead, but she becomes someone the audience roots for not only because of how clever she is, but because the males in the film, other than her lawyer, are either fools or underestimate her. Also, Clay's not much of a saint, and Mike is too dumb to read the signs in the beginning that she wants nothing from him beyond the superficial. When she sees how deeply he's invested in her, she realizes he'll be a perfect patsy and plays him accordingly for her own gain.

''' Bridget Gregory: ''' "A Manhattan. Please, thank you."

->''' Frank Griffith: ''"My lips movin' too fast for you?"\\
''' Bridget Gregory: ''' "Not fast enough, as I recall..."

* RootingForTheEmpire: Lets face it. [[spoiler: A lot of people in the audience eventually wants Bridget to win, largely because of how effortlessly she runs rings around everyone else in the film, save for Frank, the only person she's ever openly honest with.]]

** 1. The only time she ever discusses morality she seems to regard it as some alien concept.
** 2. Her attorney is the only person she ''ever'' tells the unvarnished truth, and is also the only person she ''doesn't'' try to manipulate -- only because she can gets what she wants from him more easily without it.
** 3 & 4. She's not doing Mike everywhere except Main Street in broad daylight because she "loves" him.
** 5. The film ends with her chauffeur holding an umbrella for her so she can walk across a sidewalk.

* StepfordSuburbia: Bridget stays in one of these when she's on the run. She feels like a fish out of water, but she brilliantly [[MasterActor ''plays'']] a normal resident.

->''"Anyone check you for a heartbeat recently?"''

->''"You married a man you farm f***"''

->''"I am a TOTAL F*CKING B*TCH!"''

** Mike does seem to genuinely make progress with her, shortly after she's been hired at Intertech. It leads to Mike becoming her "designated fuck."

** Later, [[spoiler: to escape the local PI tailing her when she goes with Mike to confront Clay, she calls the police and claims he flashed her child so he's taken into custody while she leaves with Mike.]]

''' Bridget Gregory:''' "You haven't started."''

* DefrostingIceQueen: Subverted. [[spoiler: Every time Bridget seems to be opening up to Mike, or letting him get closer to her, it's all a ruse to get him more attached to her so she can keep using him.]]

* NoSeatBelts: Harlan doesn't click it; ''if only'' he'd just gotten a ticket.
* NotEvenBotheringWithAnExcuse:

* HarsherInHindsight: When Mike tries to grab Bridget's rear as they enter the Intertech office, Bridget slaps him and makes a big show of it being an unwelcome advance. In the film, Mike sheepishly goes to his office red-faced as the other employees in the lobby give him the look. In today's times, it's hard not to imagine Mike being fired on the spot for it. Especially since she's given her supervisor at Intertech the ruse that she's an abused housewife trying to hide from her abusive husband.

* HarsherInHindsight: When Mike tries to grab Bridget's rear as they enter the Intertech office, Bridget slaps him and makes a big show of it being an unwelcome advance. In the film, Mike sheepishly goes to his office red-faced as the other employees in the lobby give him the look. In today's times, it's hard not to imagine Mike being fired on the spot for it.

* HarsherInHindsight: When Mike tries to grab Bridget's rear as they enter the Intertech office, Bridget slaps him and makes a big show of it being an unwelcome advance. In the film, Mike sheepishly goes to his office red-faced as the other employees in the audience give him the look. In today's times, it's hard not to imagine Mike being fired on the spot for it.

->''' Bridget Gregory:''' "Please. Is it the morality of murder what bothers you, or the personal risk?"

* GoodIsBoring: Bridget repeatedly invokes this when laying the groundwork of supposedly killing abusive husbands and splitting life insurance payouts with their wives, and when trying to goad Mike into killing her husband, under the guise that Clay is a nasty foreclosure lawyer, in response to his repeated refusal to do what she asks.

''' Bridget Gregory:''' "Please. Is it the morality of murder what bothers you, or the personal risk?"

* {{InnocentBigotry}} [[spoiler: The front desk receptionist at Intertech wants to make it perfectly clear to Bridget that a back man (Harlan) was looking for her. The office mailroom guy also asks the receptionist if she told Bridget about the black man. This is lampshaded by Harlan himself in a conversation with Bridget, where he tells her that he went into a convenience store for cigarettes and the counterman ducked behind the counter upon seeing Harlan was black. Bridget subverts this later, when she uses Harlan's race to play into the racial stereotypes of the local Beston cop tasked with investigating Harlan's death.]]

* InnocentBigotry: [[spoiler: The front desk receptionist at Intertech wants to make it perfectly clear to Bridget that a back man (Harlan) was looking for her. The office mailroom guy also asks the receptionist if she told Bridget about the black man. This is lampshaded by Harlan himself in a conversation with Bridget, where he tells her that he went into a convenience store for cigarettes and the counterman ducked behind the counter upon seeing Harlan was black. Bridget subverts this later, when she uses Harlan's race to play into the racial stereotypes of the local Beston cop tasked with investigating Harlan's death.]]

->''"My lips movin' too fast for you?"''
->''"Not fast enough, as I recall..."''

* SdrawkcabAlias: Wendy Kroy.

** She also pulls this [[spoiler: in her interview with the supervisor at Mike's company, claiming she's on the run from an abusive spouse, so she can get a job under her assumed name and avoid leaving a paper trail for Clay to follow to find out where she is. The supervisor thoughtfully agrees to pay her under the table as well, to further remove any trail for Clay to follow, and handle her personnel file personally.]]

* YouDontWantToKnow: Partially invoked by Frank. After Bridget settles into Beston, she starts to tell him where he can find her and he adamantly tells her he doesn't want to know where she is, as Clay has already started calling him multiple times trying to get information on her whereabouts from Frank.

-> '''Clay Gregory: ''"Did you read a book on this?"

* Clay also. When Mike comes to rob him, using dialogue (suggested by Bridget) that he memorized in advance, Clay snarks, "Did you read a book on this?"

->''' Frank Griffith: ''' "Yeah. You still a self-serving bitch?"