History Film / TheReplacements

[[quoteright:200:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/thereplacementskeanu_2407.png]]

--> "Pain heals. Chicks dig scars. Glory...lasts forever."
--> -Shane Falco

A not-so-typical football movie made in 2000 starring Creator/KeanuReeves.

A [[RagTagBunchOfMisfits rag-tag group of semi-pro and amateur football players]] are collected by an esoteric former coach for one last shot at the big time. Thanks to a football strike by dozens of pro players, and in some cases (Washington, notably, the team of focus in the movie) entire teams, replacements are hired to keep the team's standings intact 'till the end of the season... they turn out to be even more awesome than the actual team they're replacing.

'''It's nasty out there...'''

----
!!This film provides examples of:

* AllGuysWantCheerleaders: Shane falls for the gorgeous head cheerleader for the Sentinels but in his defense, she's sweet, funny, and probably knows more about football than he does...even if she does drive like a maniac.
** She's a cheerleader who owns a sports bar. That ''has'' to be a GeekyTurnOn for sports fans.
* ArsonMurderAndLifesaving: After the BarBrawl, the coach tells the team that if anything like it happens again, there will be no place on the team for any of them...but for the record, he wishes he was there to see Martel get his ass kicked.
* BadAss: Danny Bateman is an utter monster on the field, who plows through blockers like they're not even there. It's not much of a surprise when his introduction lists him as Gulf War veteran with a Purple Heart. His day job is shown in his intro too; He's a SWAT officer.
* BadassBoast: On the final play of the game, Andre Jackson lets the other team know how it's all going to end.
--> Andre Jackson: "We ain't losin' this game."
* BadassPreacher: One of the replacement players is a minister, and gets to kick some ass in the BarBrawl.
** Not only that, he quotes Bible passages while beating the hell out of striking players attacking him.
* BangBangBANG: When Jamal shoots out Martel's windshield with his Glock, it sounds like a cannon firing.
* BarBrawl: The pro players show up to taunt and mock Film/TheReplacements. Said replacements end up in jail after the brawl. The pro players, on the other hand, likely ended up in the ER.
* BasedOnATrueStory: of the 1987 NFL strike.
* BashBrothers: Jamal and Andre Jackson, Shane's guards. Their dayjob is working as bodyguards for rapper ODB. They, uh, kind of let a mob of fans get ahold of him, when they get the phonecall to play football.
** In fact, it's mentioned that they used to be in pro ball together, but once one of them was traded to another team, neither performed up to par. Apparently, they only really kick ass when they're on the field together.
* BattleCry: Jumbo, the Japanese Sumo wrestler turned offensive tackle has a good one.
--> Jumbo: "Nan desu ka?!!!!"
** It approximates into something similar to 'who wants some?'
* {{The Berserker}}: Danny Bateman.
%%* BigGame
* BullSeeingRed: In football practice, the quarterback wears a red jersey as an indicator that the practicing defensive players aren't to tackle him. Bateman forgets this and savagely tackles Falco several times in practice, saying he's like a bull seeing red. Falco tells him "Red means stop!".
** Later on, when [[JerkJock Martel]] (who is wearing a red shirt) is making fun of the deaf teammate, Falco tells Bateman, "Remember what I told you about red shirts? Forget it!" The bar brawl ensues.
* CaptainOblivious: Danny gets so caught up in his BerserkerRage that he often forgets the actual goal of the game, as when he recovers an onside kick and then keeps running around the field with it as opposed to downing the ball, forcing Falco to tackle him.
* CharacterAsHimself: John Madden and Pat Summerall play themselves, doing the play-by-play for the football games in the movie. Shocking.
* CurseCutShort: A news clip is shown of Martel in the locker room trying to "explain" the Sentinel's strike when an angry team member walks up and says: "Do you know how much insurance costs on a Ferrari, motherf--"
* DistractedByTheSexy: Because the Sentinels' cheerleaders are almost all strippers, during their second game, the cheerleading squad breaks into an incredibly sexy and over the top dance sequence, which distracts the opposing team, ''and the referee'', and results in the entire team being called for a penalty.
* DrivesLikeCrazy: Annabelle, as Shane once has the misfortune of learning when she drives him back to his boat.
* DudeNotFunny: In-universe example. In the bar, Martel starts making fun of the replacement players' deaf team member. [[CrowningMomentOfAwesome They do not take it well.]]
* EasterEgg / BigLippedAlligatorMoment: In jail, during the song and dance number, Shane yells 'Adrian!'.
* [[{{Expy}} Expy]]: With his fedora and the way he holds his rolled up play sheet on the field, [=McGinty=] bears more than a striking resemblance to Tom Landry.
* EvenBadMenLoveTheirMamas: One of Martel's teammates makes the mistake of calling Jamal (One of Shane's guards) a 'Son of a Bitch'. Jamal takes a moment to absorb the comment, then calmly shoots out the driver's-side window of Martel's sportscar.
* FakeShemp: Probably alot during the football sequences, since they're all wearing pads and helmets, but most egregiously when they're in prison and Keanu has his hat on and pulled really low so you can't see his face.
* FanDisservice: ''Do not'' bring a TV camera into the locker room with these players. You will regret it. "Ole, ole, ole, ole!"
* ForeShadowing: Coach [=McGinty=] tells Falco, after the latter changes a play to a hand-off when he expects a blitz coming, thus losing the game, that 'winners always want the ball when the game is on the line'. In the final minute of the last game of the movie, we get this exchange;
--> '''[=McGinty=]''': "What's it gonna be Shane?"
--> '''Falco''': "I want the ball."
--> '''[=McGinty=]''': "Winners always do."
* GettingCrapPastTheRadar: Dawn's sign language reply to Brian's signing that she looks pretty.
* GroinAttack: Nigel during the bar fight.
-->'''Nigel''': ''(beckons a really big guy)'' C'mon! C'mon! C'mon, STOP! ''(kicks the guy in the crotch)'' [[PreAssKickingOneLiner Let's play football, bitch.]] ''(kicks the guy in the forehead)''
* TheHeart: Invoked by [=McGinty=] as why he wants Falco over Martel; Shane is the heart of the team. His team toasts him the night before the final game in recognition of this as well (when they think he is gone for good).
* IndyPloy: More than a few plays boil down to this and luck.
** Like Shane's reaction to the same player tackling him over and over; Let the guy through the defending line, then drill him in the face with the football. It works.
* InformedAbility: Martel is mentioned several times to be a very good quarterback, but hasn't brought the Sentinels to the playoffs in 7 years and shows nothing during the film that would agree with the comments.
* InsultBackfire: Overlapping with CrowningMomentOfHeartwarming;
--> '''Martel''': "Nobody can beat Dallas with these losers."
--> '''Falco''': "I can."
** Martel seems to live to set himself up for these;
-->'''Martel''': "This doesn't change anything, Falco! I'm an all-pro quarterback, I've got ''two'' Super Bowl rings! And you'll never be anything more than a replacement player."
-->'''Shane''': "Yeah. Yeah, I can live with that."
* ItHasBeenAnHonor: Quoted by Falco at the end of the movie.
-->'''Falco''': "Gentlemen, it has been an honor to share the field of battle with you."
* JerkJock: Most of the pro ballers are portrayed like this, especially Martel.
** ''ESPECIALLY'' Martel, who rags on the deaf guy... Because he's deaf.
* LampshadedDoubleEntendre: The tail end of Shane's one meeting with the head cheerleader is overlapped with some surprisingly fitting play-by-play from John Madden.
* LaserGuidedKarma: Martel proves this exists, as Danny shows up ''right after'' Martel was ragging on the deaf player for being deaf. And it is ''awesome''.
* LightningBruiser: Just watch Danny run, and then flatten people without breaking stride.
* MadeOfIron: Danny again, as witness the big BarBrawl where he goes relatively unscathed for all the damage he does to the pro players.
* MaleGaze: Both in the movie, and in real life. In the movie, all the replacement cheerleaders are strippers. You do the math.
%%* MightyGlacier: Jamal and Andre, but not nearly as much as Jumbo, who weighs about as much as both of them put together, and has the muscles to match.
* MrFanservice: A majority of the replacement players but Keanu Reeves is in top form in this movie and may cause a bit of swooning for the female (and some male) viewers.
* MsFanservice: The cheerleaders, even more than usual, since most of them are strippers.
* MusicalEpisode: After the BarBrawl, the replacements are thrown in jail. They bond, and use the time until being bailed out to sing and dance together to 'I Will Survive'.
* NewRulesAsThePlotDemands: "Kick Ass on one" really should've resulted in most of the team getting thrown out of the game. [[RuleOfFunny But who cares?]]
* NotThisOneThatOne: "You see the yacht with the satellite dish?...Mine's the houseboat covered in pigeon shit next to it".
* OhCrap: The dawning realization on Martel's face as the Replacements surround him during halftime of the final game of the movie just ''drips'' this trope.
** Then there's the scene where Jumbo winds up with the ball...
-->'''Jumbo''': ''HOLY SHIT!''
-->'''Jamal''': ''Let's haul ass round boy!!''
* RabidCop: Danny Bateman. Being a football movie, the "rabid" part figures ''much'' more prominently than the "cop" part, but in the one scene where we do see him at his day job - during a SWAT raid - he's just as [[TheBerserker no-holds-barred]] as he is on the football field.
-->'''Coach [=McGinty=]''': I hope he doesn't kill someone.
* RagtagBunchOfMisfits: The Replacements. They get better.
* RealityIsUnrealistic: The movie is loosely (very loosely) based on the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1987_NFL_season real-life 1987 NFL strike]]. The [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1987_Washington_Redskins_season Washington Redskins]] actually won three games without any of their regular players, and went on to Super Bowl XXII. They won, but the movie doesn't actually go that far.
** The Sentinels beating a Dallas team whose entire team has crossed the picket line is true. The 1987 Redskins Replacements actually beat a Dallas team that had more than 20 "real professional" players, including starting quarterback Danny White, defensive tackle Randy White and running back Tony Dorsett.
** The multi-fumble play was also based on [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holy_Roller_%28American_football%29 real life]]. In another shocker, Madden was COACHING one of the teams involved with said play at the time it happened.
* RedemptionQuest: This happens to Shane Falco. Falco had notoriously choked in the final game of his college career, and performed miserably in his little time as a pro, so this last chance at the game represents a chance for him to erase that image.
** All of the replacement players have this mindset, and Coach [=McGinty=] is in the same boat himself. He points this out in the briefing before the second game.
-->'''[=McGinty=]''': You've been given something every athlete dreams of: a second chance. And you're afraid of blowing it. ''We all are.''
* RetiredBadass: Shane and [=McGinty=], respectively.
* RousingSpeech: [=McGinty=] busts out one of these before the beginning of the second half of the final game of the movie;
--> '''[=McGinty=]''': "Listen up! This time tomorrow... The strike will be officially over. Now Dallas has made a big mistake out there tonight; They haven't been afraid of you. And they ''should be'', because you have a powerful weapon working for you; There is no ''tomorrow'' for you. And that makes you all '''very'''. '''Dangerous'''. '''People'''!"
* ScaryBlackMan: Earl Wilkinson, the player on loan from a prison. He's a good guy and a great football player, but his record and the fact that he's a PerpetualFrowner spook even one of the coaches.
-->'''Coach''': Well, there's no use standing here alone...outside of screaming distance...''(walks very quickly towards the stadium with Wilkinson trailing behind him)''
* ShownTheirWork: Most of the football scenes are very accurate and includes a recreation of "The Immaculate Deception" or "Holy Roller" play.
* ShutUpKiss: When he comes out to the field for the second half of the final game, Shane heads right over to Annabelle, listens to her give football advice for a few seconds, then makes good use of this trope.
--> '''John Madden''': "He seems to be neckin' with that cheerleader! That's what he's doin'!"
--> '''Pat Summerall''': "You know, players are not supposed to be fraternizing with the cheerleaders."
--> '''John Madden''': "Yeah, but what are they gonna do, Pat? Fire him?"
* SpellMyNameWithAnS: In an interesting variation of this trope, Nigel, the team's kicker, is '[[FunetikAksent wirwy]]'.
* TakingAThirdOption: In the final game, Nigel, the team's kicker, reveals on the last play that he's going to lose his bar to some Mafia guys because he owes them money from betting at the track. They're forcing him to blow the kick to make up for it. Shane can either let Nigel blow the kick, and lose the game, or try and get a replacement (a replacement ''replacement''?) kicker before the timeout runs out. He decides on a third option in a dramatic snap-cut. He takes the ball and runs, flattening several opposing players blocking his path. It works, and then it doesn't.
* ThemeMusicPowerUp: Ostensibly, Falco's return for the final game of the movie cues this, as the theme for pretty much [[strike: any]] every sports movie kicks up as he runs onto the field.
* ThirdPersonPerson: Clifford Franklin is giving a television interview. Clifford Franklin is this trope.
* VomitIndiscretionShot: Might wanna lay off the eggs, Jumbo.
* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: Martel isn't seen after the replacement players surround him and drag him elsewhere.
* YourPrincessIsInAnotherCastle: The [[spoiler: first "game-winning" play, called back by a penalty.]]

----
'''That's why girls don't play the game.'''
----

* TheObiWan: Coach [=McGinty=] to Shane Falco.

-->'''Coach McGinty''': I hope he doesn't kill someone.

--> Jumbo: "Nandeska!"

* TheBeautifulGame: Nigel's experience is with ''Association'' Football, known to Americans as Soccer. He brings great kicking and [[FootballHooligans dirty fighting]] to the table.

* BigGame

* MightyGlacier: Jamal and Andre, but not nearly as much as Jumbo, who weighs about as much as both of them put together, and has the muscles to match.

* [[{{Expy}} Expy]]: With his fedora and the way he holds his rolled up play sheet on the field, [=McGinty=] bears more than a striking resemblance to Bear Bryant.

* FreezeFrameBonus / FunnyBackgroundEvent: Almost too many to list without starting a page for them.

A [[RagTagBunchOfMisfits rag-tag group of semi-pro and amateur football players]] are collected by an esoteric former coach for one last shot at the big time. Thanks to a football strike by dozens of pro players, and in some cases (Washington, notably, the team of focus in the movie) entire teams, scabs are hired to keep the team's standings intact 'till the end of the season... they turn out to be even more awesome than the actual team they're replacing.

* BadassPreacher: One of the scab players is a minister, and gets to kick some ass in the BarBrawl.

* MaleGaze: Both in the movie, and in real life. In the movie, all the Scab cheerleaders are strippers. You do the math.

* MusicalEpisode: After the BarBrawl, the scabs are thrown in jail. They bond, and use the time until being bailed out to sing and dance together to 'I Will Survive'.

A rag-tag group of semi-pro and amateur football players are collected by an esoteric former coach for one last shot at the big time. Thanks to a football strike by dozens of pro players, and in some cases (Washington, notably, the team of focus in the movie) entire teams, scabs are hired to keep the team's standings intact 'till the end of the season... they turn out to be even more awesome than the actual team they're replacing.

* TheHeart: Invoked by McGinty as why he wants Falco over Martel; Shane is the heart of the team. His team toasts him the night before the final game in recognition of this as well (when they think he is gone for good).