History Film / TheLobster

* WhereTheHellIsSpringfield: The country where the story takes place is never stated, but it's an English-speaking country where people drive on the left and think about visiting Italy and Greece, so that narrows it down a bit.

* AmbiguousEnding: Did David go through with blinding himself?

* AssimilationAcademy: The hotel, while not actually a school, still functions as one quite nicely.

* LaserGuidedKarma: The Heartless Woman gets turned into a horrific animal against her will.

* NothingIsScarier: David does not reveal what sort of animal he turned the heartless woman into. It's possibly "the animal no one wants to be", which the woman earlier states is what people who lie about compatibility turn into but is also not revealed.

* UnspokenPlanGuarantee: The plan to break up the couples goes off more or less without a hitch, though the outcome remains unseen.

* TheSociopath: The Heartless Woman lives up to her name. She does not feel anything, ever, and [[spoiler:she kills Bob, with absolutely no remorse, just to test David's reaction to see if they were compatible]].

* UnexplainedAccent: The characters speak in a variety of accents, most of them British, American, and French. Since civilization seems to consist entirely of a single city, a hotel, and a forest, it's not explained why there would be more than one accent.

* BiTheWay: When asked to give his sexual preference, David immediately responds, "women," but then admits to "experimenting" in college once and asks if he can change his answer to "bisexual." He's told that "that option [[NoBisexuals no loner exists]]", so after a very long pause, he goes back to "women."

* AxCrazy: The heartless woman can very easily turn into this, as evidenced by her [[spoiler:killing Bob to death]].

* BiTheWay: When asked to give his sexual preference, David immediately responds, "women," but then admits to "experimenting" in college once and asks if he can change his answer to "bisexual." He's told he cannot, so after a very long pause, he goes back to "women."

* BlackComedyRape: One of the hotel skits pantomimes a rape scene.

* DrivenToSuicide: The woman who lived butter cookies, when it's apparent that her days are running out and David isn't interested in starting a relationship with her.

* TheSociopath: The Heartless Woman lives up to her name. She does not feel anything, and she kills Bob, with absolutely no remorse, just to see if David would have a negative reaction, to see if they were compatible.

* Dystopia: People in the City must stay in shallow relationships based on sharing a single trivial trait with their partners. Loners must live in the Woods like fugitives in enforced romantic solitude. There's no middle ground.

When David's wife left him for another man, he had to go to the Hotel, a place where single people are gathered together in the hope of finding a partner who shares one attribute with each other within their 45 days of stay. Should they fail, they'll be [[BalefulPolymorph turned into an animal]] and be released into the forest. During his stay, he attends dances, watches propaganda of how great a life of partnership would be, and socializes with a cast of troubled and somewhat eccentric characters who are looking for partners themselves. Oh, and at night they go into the Woods and hunt for stray Loners with tranquilizer guns, as each captured Loner would add one extra day to their day count at hotel.

When things went wrong in his plan of faking heartlessness to be partnered with a psychopathic woman, he escaped and joined the [[BreakfastClub pack of loners]] living in the Woods. There he found a partner sharing his shortsightedness and now they need to balance their romantic life, survival, as well as hiding their affection from each other or risk getting kicked out of the pack...or worse.

* AHouseDivided: Especially when you find out that your partner has been lying about the shared attribute...

* AxCrazy: The heartless woman can very easily turn into this, as evidenced by her [[spoiler:killing Bob by kicking him until he's bloody and dead]].

* BalefulPolymorph: Done with science instead of magic; at least you get to choose. Most people choose dogs, and species near extinction are those unpopular as choices.
** David's brother, Bob, had already been subjected to this by the start of the movie and is now living with David as a dog.

* BreakfastClub: A particularly strict one, as being caught having a romantic or sexual relationship will get you punished.
* CantHaveSexEver: Enforced by the Loners.

* ADateWithRosiePalms: Masturbation is forbidden in the hotel (and might be illegal, but this is never confirmed), and encouraged by the Loners. Punishment at the hotel involved placing your hand inside a toaster, and turning it on.

* Dystopia: And how.
* EmotionlessGirl: A very literal example. She can kill and have sex without her expression changing.
** To a lesser extent, the hotel staff and manager always looked in control most of the time.
* Flanderization: In universe, people categorize themselves by a "Distinguishing characteristic".

* JerkassFacade: Done by David to get into a relationship. It didn't last.
* KickTheDog: In a quite literal example, the death of Bob for David.
* KidsAreCruel: When David break into the nosebleed couple's yacht, their daughter handed a knife to her mother and pushed her to kill him.

* SignLanguage: Used by David and the shortsighted girl to communicate better and more discreetly.

* TheUnReveal: See Ambiguous Ending.
** The animal nobody wants to be is never named.

* UnspokenPlanGuarantee: The plan to break up the couples went off more or less without a hitch, though the outcome remains unseen.
* WorldLimitedToThePlot: Averted, as we eventually get to see bits of the City and Woods beyond the Hotel.

* KickTheDog: The death of Bob for David.

* Can'tHaveSexEver: Enforced by the Loners.

* KidsAreCruel: When David break into the nosebleed couple's yacht, their daughter handed a knife to her mother and pushed her to stab him.

->'''David:''' "Yes. A lobster."
->'''Hotel Manager:''' "Why a lobster?"
->'''David:''' "Because lobsters live for over one hundred years, are blue-blooded like aristocrats, and stay fertile all their lives. I also like the sea very much."

''The Lobster is a '' is a romantic science fiction black comedy movie directed by the Greek director Yorgos Lanthimos as his English-language debut. It tells the story of a [[Dystopia dystopian world]] where single people (known as 'Loners') are given 45 days to find a romantic partner before they are forcibly turned into an animal of their choice.

In each case, a group of strangers wakes up in this mysterious structure, [[OntologicalMystery with no knowledge of how they got there or why they are there]]. In order to escape from the prison, however, they must band together and use their combined skills and talents to avoid the traps and navigate out of the maze, while also trying to solve the mystery of what the cube is and why they are in it. However, the pressure of being in the cube usually drives one or more of the characters insane, and they start killing the others.

''Film/CubeZero'' was slightly different from the original two movies in that it also dealt with some people on the outside of the cube whose job it was to control the cube and oversee those within. It also attempted to answer some of the questions of the series.