History Film / ThePelicanBrief

* MinorCrimeRevealsMajorPlot: Investigation into the assassination of an environmentalist attorney -> pointing out a (purely conjectural) connection between this assassination and the death of two judges who agreed with him in a civil case to prevent drilling in a protected land -> murderous conspiracy by an oil magnate to get oil by hook or by crook, with allies all the way up the Director of the FBI and ''the President of the United States''.

* RevealingCoverup: The brief in question was pure conjecture, 100% free of substantiating proof, before the villains heard of it and tried to have her killed to hush it up. Even ''Darby'' didn't really believe it, it was just a fun paper and had the conspiracy just ignored it, it would have faded away. The attempts on her life make Darby realize she's actually onto something.

* WavingSignsAround: Both the novel and the film open with people waving signs around saying stuff like "Death to Rosenberg," "Retire Rosenberg," and "Cut off the oxygen," the last of those being Rosenberg's [[ActuallyPrettyFunny favorite]].

** except the fact that his showing Darby's brief to a friend, who passes it on to someone who notifies the Bad Guys, kicks off the plot.

* ItsAlwaysMardiGrasInNewOrleans: Darcy flees from a would-be killer into a carnival-type celebration. It pays off--she not only loses him in the large crowd, the amount of people around deters him from trying to harm her. (Actually it's {{Averted}}, because the scene makes no Mardi Gras references whatsoever. It's just a crowded area with a live band.)

* ItsAlwaysMardiGrasInNewOrleans: Darcy flees from a would-be killer into a carnival-type celebration. It pays off--she not only loses him in the large crowd, the amount of people around deters him from trying to harm her. (Actually it's averted, because the scene makes no Mardi Gras references whatsoever. It's just a crowded area with a live band.)

''The Pelican Brief'' is a 1993 thriller film directed by Alan J. Pakula, starring Creator/JuliaRoberts and Creator/DenzelWashington. It is based on the Creator/JohnGrisham novel published the year before.

* ItsAlwaysMardiGrasInNewOrleans: Darcy flees from a would-be killer into a carnival-type celebration. It pays off--she not only loses him in the large crowd, the amount of people around deters him from trying to harm her.

* TheAlcoholic: Thomas is shown day-drinking a fairly tall glass of straight liquor in his living room while Darby questions him about his returning to work, as well as how his drinking may affect his depression. Just moments before his death he is getting obnoxiously wasted in public and attempting to drive drunk.

* TheAlcoholic: Thomas is shown day-drinking a fairly tall glass of straight liquor in his living room while Darby questions him about his returning to work, as well as how his drinking may affect his depression.

* RaceLift: Gray is white in the book, black in the movie, leading to some UnfortunateImplications when he and Darby do ''not'' get together, as they do in the novel and no doubt would have in the film had they been the same race.
** Some, including Denzel himself, pointed out that this might also just be a case of RealityEnsues--it would have seemed quite tacky of Darby to take on a new boyfriend so soon after the death of her last one.
** The 'tacky' part was actually pointed out by some readers/reviewers when the book was released years earlier; especially since Darby was never able on-page to mourn her murdered lover, or come to terms with the fact that she was the instigator of his death, no matter how unwitting or unwilling.

* except the fact that his taking Darby's brief to a friend of his, who passes it on to someone who notifies the Bad Guys, kicks of the plot.

* CoverIdentityAnomaly: Averted. When posing as the widow of TheWhistleblower in order to get into the safety deposit box where he stashed his video testimonial, Darby is asked the widow and her husband's name, date of birth, and social security numbers. She rattles off all of them instantly except the husband's social security number, which she has written down and passes over to the bank clerk. The last is justified by very few people, even spouses, knowing anyone's social security number but their own.

The film is about a law student named Darby Shaw (Roberts) who writes a brief regarding the assassinations of two Supreme Court justices. After showing it to her mentor/lover and his friend, they end up getting killed and she goes on the run. Darby seeks help from a newspaper reporter named Gray Grantham (Washington), and together the two set out to prove the brief correct.

* AdaptationDyeJob[=/=]DyeOrDie: Averted. Darby wears wigs in the movie, whereas in the book, she repeatedly cuts and colors her hair to disguise her appearance.

* DisposableWoman: Darby's law professor boyfriend gets killed off, kicking off her involvement in the storyline. Aside from her remembering the sound of the faulty ignition, he has no other impact on the movie.

* {{Greed}}: Faced with the question of why somebody would want to assassinate two Supreme Court justices with very dissimilar judicial philosophies, Darby decides to look for a more mundane motivation behind the killings. [[spoiler: She supposes (correctly) in her brief that the killings were simply about money/power. The justices were killed because both had a history of ruling against business to protect the environment, and likely would have ruled against Victor Mattiece’s efforts to drill Louisiana crude oil at the expense of a federal nature preserve home to an endangered species of pelican.]]

* MinorCrimeRevealsMajorPlot: Investigation into the assassination of an environmentalist attorney -> pointing out a (purely conjectural) connection between this assassination between this death and the death of two judges who agreed with him in a civil case to prevent drilling in a protected land -> murderous conspiracy by an oil magnate to get oil by hook or by crook, with allies all the way up the Director of the FBI and ''the President of the United States''.

* MinorCrimesRevealMajorPlot: Investigation into the assassination of an environmentalist attorney -> pointing out a (purely conjectural) connection between this assassination between this death and the death of two judges who agreed with him in a civil case to prevent drilling in a protected land -> murderous conspiracy by an oil magnate to get oil by hook or by crook, with allies all the way up the Director of the FBI and ''the President of the United States''.

'''Gray Grantham''': She almost is.

* MinorCrimesRevealMajorPlot: Investigation into the assassination of an environmentalist attorney -> pointing out a (purely conjectural) connection between this assassination between this death and the death of two judges who agreed with him in a civil case to prevent drilling in a protected land -> murderous conspiracy by an oil magnate to get oil by hook or by crook, with allies all the way up ''to the President of the United States''.

* CorruptCorporateExecutive: The BigBad is revealed by the eponymous brief to be [[spoiler: an oil baron hoping to influence the court in a pending appeal of an environmental lawsuit]].

* TheGhost: In the movie, Victor Mattiece is mentioned a lot, but only shows up in a black and white newspaper photograph

[[quoteright:220:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/220px_the_pelican_brief.jpg]]
''The Pelican Brief'' is a 1993 film thriller starring Creator/JuliaRoberts as Darby Shaw and Creator/DenzelWashington as Gray Grantham. It is based on a novel by Creator/JohnGrisham published in 1992.

The film is about a law student named Darby Shaw who writes a brief regarding the assassinations of two Supreme Court justices. After showing it to her mentor/lover and his friend, she goes on the run after both of them ended up killed. Darby seeks help from a newspaper reporter named Gray Grantham and together, the two set out to prove the brief correct.

* HotScoop: Gray

* MagnificentBastard: FBI Director Denton Voyles would probably qualify in the book. Fletcher Coal, the President's Chief of Staff, is a wannabe who fails to rise above CorruptBureaucrat level.