History Film / WildAtHeart

* ButNowIMustGo: {{Subverted}}. [[spoiler:Sailor tries to pull this on Lula and his son, Pace, at the end of the film, believing that they will be better off without him, but one very short fight and a vision from the Good Witch of the Nort later, he chooses to turn his life around and declares [[IChooseToStay that he is going to stay with his family instead]].]]

* ButNowIMustGo: {{Subverted}}. [[spoiler:Sailor tries to pull this on Lula and his son Pace at the end of the film, but one very short fight and a vision from the Good Witch of the Nort later, he chooses to turn his life around and declares [[IChooseToStay that he is going to stay with his family instead]].]]

** Played painfully straight with [[spoiler:Bobby Peru, whose every article of clothes are all pitch black]]. Lula even refers to him as "black angel".

** Played painfully straight with [[spoiler:t Peru, whose every article of clothes are all pitch black.]]

* SociopathicSoldier: The very unpleasant and borderline psychotic Bobby Peru is very heavily implied to be a former US Marine. He refers to a toilet as a "head" and he has a prominent tattoo spelling out "USMC" [[ASinisterClue on his left hand]].

** After Bobby shoots off a bank teller's hand, a dog steals said hand and carries it in his mouth, a scene that also occurs in ''Film/{{Yojimbo}}'' when Sanjuro enters the town.

* EvilCripple: Downplayed. Perdita, a henchwoman of Santos who has a personal story with Sailor, [[spoiler:but nonetheless lies to him, in spite of the deal they had to warn each other if they knew that someone ever called out a hit on them]] and [[spoiler:participates in assassinating Johnnie Farragut]], can still walk, but she is shown to have a strange way of carrying her body and occasionally is seen using leg braces and crutches, implying that she suffered some serious physical damage at some point.

** [[spoiler:Lula bled from her mouth after she was raped by "Uncle Pooch"; making it at least somewhat ambiguous what he actually did to her.]]

* BloodFromTheMouth: [[spoiler:The girl from the car crash vomits up a little blood right before she dies from her injuries]].

* EveryoneLovesBlondes: Sailor namechecks the TropeNamer when he is telling Lula, who is a blonde, a story about a former lover of his. Lula interrupts his story to ask what color her hair was. Sailor explains that it was "Jet-black. Though [[Literature/GentlemenPreferBlondes gentlemen prefer blondes...]]"

* EveryoneLovesBlondes: Sailor namechecks the TropeNamer when he is telling Lula, who is a blonde, a story about a former lover of his. Lula interrupts his story to ask what color her hair was. Sailor explains that it was "Jet-black. Though [[Literature/GentlemenPreferBlondes gentlemen prefer blondes...]]"

* ExactWords: When [[spoiler:Johnnie Farragut]] suddenly disappears from the hotel they are staying at, Marietta asks Santos if he has done anything to him; and more specifically if he has done anything to hurt him. Santos denies this, so Marietta asks to swear on his mother if he is telling the truth. Santos then swears, on his mother, that ''he'' hasn't done anything to [[spoiler:Johnnie]]. Dropshadow, Reggie, and Perdita, who just so happens to work for him, however...

* ExactyWords: When [[spoiler:Johnnie Farragut]] suddenly disappears from the hotel they are staying at, Marietta asks Santos if he has done anything to him; and more specifically if he has done anything to hurt him. Santos denies this, so Marietta asks to swear on his mother if he is telling the truth. Santos then swears, on his mother, that ''he'' hasn't done anything to [[spoiler:Johnnie]]. Dropshadow, Reggie, and Perdita, who just so happens to work for him, however...

* CurbStompBattle: An ''extremely'' brutal and bloody one opens up the film.

* EverybodyHasLotsOfSex: Sailor and Lula are just the tip of the iceberg here.

* ImpossiblyCoolClothes: Sailor's snakeskin jacket, He takes a lot of pride in it.

* RapeAsBackstory: [[spoiler:Lula was attacked at a very young age by a family friend]]; upon learning that, [[spoiler: Marietta arranged for him to be murdered.]]

* SuddenMusicalEnding: Although Sailor ''does'' have one musical number earlier in the movie.

-->'''Lula''': When'd you start smoking, Sail?
-->'''Sailor''': I guess I started smoking when I was about... four. My momma was already dead then from lung cancer.

-->'''Sailor''': Did I ever tell ya that this here jacket represents a symbol of my individuality, and my belief in personal freedom?
-->'''Lula''': About fifty thousand times.

The film follows Sailor Ripley (Creator/NicolasCage), a recently released convict, and his lover Lula Fortune (Creator/LauraDern) going on a road trip from North Carolina to California in order to escape the clutches of Lula's extremely overbearing mother Marietta (Creator/DianeLadd). As they travel and come across Lynchian situations, Marietta has both of her boyfriends, private detective Johnnie Farragut and gangster Marcello Santos (Creator/HarryDeanStanton and J.E. Freeman, respectively) try to track down Lula and dispose of Sailor. [[SurrealHumor Hilarity]], [[Music/ElvisPresley Elvis Numbers]] and [[Film/TheWizardOfOz Oz Allusions Ensue]].

* BlackDudeDiesFirst

--> '''Lula''': When'd you start smoking, Sail?
--> '''Sailor''': I guess I started smoking when I was about... four. My momma was already dead then from lung cancer.
* ElvisImpersonator: Nic Cage's performance as Sailor.

--> '''Sailor''': Did I ever tell ya that this here jacket represents a symbol of my individuality, and my belief in personal freedom?
--> '''Lula''': About fifty thousand times.

* ShoutOut: Most of the film references Film/TheWizardOfOz with Glinda the Good Witch keeping a close eye over Sailor and Lula and even [[spoiler:giving Sailor advice at the end.]]

* YourHeadASplode: [[spoiler:Willem Dafoe after the robbery.]]

* AdaptationalAttractiveness: mob lady Perdita Durango was supposed to be "a hairy, ugly woman", and the actress who played her was quoted as being "overjoyed" at the chance of [[BeautyInversion grunging it up]]; as a result, "ugliness" comes down to a cheap blond dye job with visible dark roots. Oh, and the actress? ''Isabella Rossellini''.

* RetargetedLust: Just hearing about one of her lover's past encounters makes a young woman, in her words, "hotter than Georgia asphalt."
* SayMyName: "LULAAAAAA!"

-->-- '''[[Film/TheWizardOfOz Glinda the Good Witch]]'''

''Wild at Heart'' is a 1990 dark comedy/crime/[[RoadTripPlot road movie]] written and directed by Creator/DavidLynch while he was taking a break from ''Series/TwinPeaks'', [[FilmOfTheBook based on]] the novel by Barry Gifford.

The film follows Sailor (Creator/NicolasCage), a recently released convict, and his lover Lula (Creator/LauraDern) going on a road trip from North Carolina to California in order to escape the clutches of Lula's extremely overbearing mother Marietta (Creator/DianeLadd). As they travel and come across Lynchian situations, Marietta has both of her boyfriends (Creator/HarryDeanStanton and J.E. Freeman) try to track down Lula and dispose of Sailor. [[SurrealHumor Hilarity]], [[Music/ElvisPresley Elvis Numbers]] and [[Film/TheWizardOfOz Oz Allusions Ensue]].