History Main / Wanted

* The British/Irish BoyBand Music/TheWanted.

Not to be confused with the UK GameShow of the same name or the British/Irish BoyBand Music/TheWanted.

* ''Manga/Wanted1988'', a by Creator/EiichiroOda and not at all related to the comic book or film.
* ''Manga/Wanted2005'', a special volume of short stories written {{shoujo|Demographic}} manga involving piracy and not at all related to the comic book or film.

* ''ComicBook/{{Wanted}}'', the comic book by Creator/MarkMillar
* ''Film/{{Wanted}}'', the film (loosely) inspired by the comic book
* ''Manga/{{Wanted}}'', a {{shoujo|Demographic}} manga involving piracy and not at all related to the comic book or film.

* ''ComicBook/{{Wanted}}'', the comic book by MarkMillar

* ''Film/{{Wanted}}'', the film inspired by the comic book

Not to be confused with the UK GameShow of the same name.

[[quoteright:350:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/wantedposter.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:350:Count the tropes.]]

->''"This is the role AngelinaJolie was born to play. She emerged from the womb already covered in tattoos and eyeliner for the express purpose of playing this character, who immediately entered my pantheon of Chicks I Want to Be Like When I Grow Up. Fox is the reason Angelina Jolie was put on this earth."''
-->--'''Cleolinda Jones''', '''''[[http://community.livejournal.com/m15m/18784.html Wanted in 15 Minutes]]'''''

Meet Wesley Gibson. Wesley's father abandoned him when he was a week old, and things have gone steadily downhill since. He works for a disgusting boss at a job he hates before going home to a girlfriend who's sleeping with his best friend. But suddenly, Wesley is tapped to join The Fraternity, a league of elite international assassins. He is trained specifically to kill Cross (the rogue Fraternity member who killed his father), mostly by [[TrainingFromHell getting the shit kicked out of him]] by the rest of the team.

Wes [[TrainingMontage learns]] many plot-relevant skills, including the pretty sweet ability to ''[[RuleOfCool bend bullets]]''. No, they don't really explain how, and no, [[MST3KMantra they don't really need to]]. He uses these abilities to take down several nefarious do-badders, until it's finally time to confront Cross. Cue the giant showdown on a moving train... and on a crashing train... and on a falling train. But hey, at least Wesley finally gets his man -- [[YourPrincessIsInAnotherCastle or does he]]?

Of course he doesn't. He just runs headlong into TheReveal, which sets up the ''real'' finale. A sequel for the movie is currently in DevelopmentHell according to an official Q&A.

Originally a MarkMillar comic-book miniseries with little to nothing in common with the recent movie, the movie of ''{{Wanted}}'' is the poster child for TropesAreNotBad. It uses some very classic -- some might say old or overused -- tropes, and it plays them unflinchingly straight, but they work (mostly) very well.

There is a game, ''Weapons of Fate,'' that draws plot elements from both the comic book and the film (most notably, Wesley in his original costume and the Russian assassin that serves as a PlotPoint in the movie). The game starts shortly after the movie ends, and is notable both for being a sequel instead of a recreation, and for taking a year after the movie's release for development with the explicit goal of ''not'' falling into the "rushed product to match the movie's release date and hype" trap. Naturally, opinions vary on the success.

'''For the article and trope list about the original comic book click [[Comicbook/{{Wanted}} here]].'''
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!!The ''Wanted'' movie and game provides examples of the following tropes:

* AbnormalAmmo: Wesley kills [[spoiler:The Butcher]] by shooting a butcher's steel that jammed into his gun [[ImpaledWithExtremePrejudice into him.]]
* ActionSurvivor: Wesley at first, before he TookALevelInBadass.
* AdrenalineMakeover: A rare male, delayed action case in Wesley. He meets Fox, then goes back to his own mundane life. But one snarky remark too many from his BadBoss sets the makeover in motion.
* AncientTradition: The Fraternity
* AntiHero: Wesley is mostly a VillainProtagonist, and doesn't really benefit from SympatheticPOV. He does, however, qualify for the "fights people who are even worse" part of [[SlidingScaleOfAntiHeroes Anti-Hero Type V]].
* ApologizesALot: Wesley. {{Lampshaded}}, and later {{Subverted}}.
-->'''Fox:''' ''You apologize too much.''
-->'''Wesley:''' ''I'm sorry about that too.''
* BecauseDestinySaysSo: Played straight, subverted, then [[DoubleSubversion played straight]]. In ''Weapons of Fate,'' played heartbreakingly straight with [[spoiler: Wesley's mother,]] and Wesley [[LampshadeHanging discusses]] how absurd he thinks this trope is after defeating the Immortal.
* BetterLivingThroughEvil: Wesley does this even though he is unaware that the guy he is working for is evil.
* BeyondTheImpossible: [[TrickBullet Multi-stage bullets]]! Curving the bullets. And practically everything.
* BizarreAndImprobableBallistics: If the phrase "bullet curving" doesn't say it all, what would?
* BloodFromTheMouth
* BookEnds: [[spoiler: Using a decoy to get the target onto an "X" marked on the floor.]]
* BulletTime
* TheButcher: One of the Fraternity agents has this as his codename (Pussy, pussy!).
* CarFu: In the movie, Fox [[spoiler: boards a moving train]] from the side via car. In ''Weapons of Fate,'' Cross evacuates a [[spoiler: crashing airliner]] by ''driving a car out the back'' as it [[spoiler: skims a hill.]]
** Also when Wesley is assisted by Fox [[spoiler: in flipping of his car to somersault over that of an open-topped limousine that was bulletproof on the sides in order to shoot through the top]].
* ChekhovsGun:
** [[spoiler:The exploding rats. Which are probably a ShoutOut to ''NinjaScroll'', considering the same trick is used to down a villain in that movie.]]
** [[spoiler:The sniper rifle from the beginning of the movie.]]
** The El train.
* ClickHello
* ClusterFBomb
* ConservationOfNinjutsu
** Even more obvious in ''Weapons of Fate,'' where the enemies, ostensibly members of the French Fraternity, don't seem to know how to curve bullets unless its one or two EliteMooks in a quicktime event. It's more glaring than in the movie, as the player will be doing it themselves for the entire game.
* ContractOnTheHitman
* CorruptPolitician: At least one target.
* DarkActionGirl: Fox.
* DareToBeBadass: Pretty much the message of the movie.
* DeadpanSnarker: Wesley does this a lot in ''Weapons of Fate,'' and it's often CasualDangerDialog as well.
* DisSimile
* [=~Don't Think. Feel~=]: When Sloan teaches Wesley how to curve bullets.
-->'''Sloan''': If no one told you that bullets flew straight, and I gave you a gun and told you to hit the target, what would you do? Let your instincts guide you.

* ExpectingSomeoneTaller: Sloan to Wesley when they first meet.
* {{Fanservice}}: Hell, the Exterminator explodes a rat to wake Fox's sexy ass up and get her out of the bath nude for your viewing pleasure. How courteous.
** That and the sex scenes where the protagonists "girlfriend" is cheating on him with his "best friend".
** JamesMcAvoy. JamesMcAvoy, shirtless. JamesMcAvoy, shirtless and dripping wet. JamesMcAvoy, shirtless, dripping wet, and wearing a leather jacket.
* FailedASpotCheck: [[spoiler: [[JustifiedTrope To be fair]], how often do ''you'' check the floor for big X's?]]
* GunKata: And Knife Kata, and how.
* HealingFactor: Induced by the pools of wax.
* HowWeGotHere
* ImprobableAimingSkills: Played straight with the crazy sniping. Played to an ''extreme'' straight with bullet-curving. ''Weapons of Fate'' even takes it one step further; bullet curving with submachine guns sets multiple bullets on course to ''collide with each other'' when they reach the target, thus producing a frag-grenade effect. The game also has fun with this trope in one cutscene; Cross' ImprobableAimingSkills aren't quite good enough to hit the Immortal, so he [[spoiler: shoots his gun down the barrel, blowing it up in his face]] instead.
* IronicEcho: "I'm sorry!"
** "I'm the man!"/"He's the man"
* ItsASmallNetAfterAll: apparently no pages on the in-film Internet contain either the words "Wesley" or "Gibson".
** It's possible this is one of Wesley's self-deprecating daydreams, like when he imagines the ATM is telling him he's a loser.
** Also, if you do a search for the name "Wesley Gibson" the only pages that show are those related to the movie or appeared after it's release.
* LostInImitation: The movie more closely resembles ''TheMatrix'' than the source material.
** Which is unsurprising when you consider how hard it would be to adapt the source material into a movie without it being declared unwatchable.
* LukeIAmYourFather: [[spoiler:Cross]]
* MaddenIntoMisanthropy
* TheMovie
* OhCrap: "Oh, fuck." ''* splat* ''
** And done in ''Weapons of Fate,'' when Wesley realizes his own NightmareFuel noted above has been ''turned against him.''
** One of the thugs shooting at Mr. X has a moment after Mr. X completes his jump between the buildings. He knows he's about to get his brains blown out of his face before it even happens.
* PlayingGertrude: [[spoiler: Thomas Kretschmann, as Cross, is only 16 years older than James [=McAvoy=], making this a borderline example.]]
* PointyHairedBoss: Janice abuses, intimidates, and belittles her staff so she feels better about herself.
* {{Precision F Strike}}: Sloan memorably combines it with an {{Oh Crap}} moment for the linked trope's page quote.
** "Shoot this motherfucker..." (you'd never expect Morgan Freeman to say this)
* PrettyLittleHeadshots - Particularly in the finale. But averts the "minor bleeding" considering the bullet holes bleed copiously.
* RaceLift: In the comic, Fox was modeled upon Halle Berry. In the film, she's portrayed by Angelina Jolie.
* RedemptionEqualsDeath: [[spoiler:Fox follows the code]]. (A variation since [[spoiler: she was just serving an evil man, not evil herself]] -- the same moment contains shades of HeroicSacrifice and DrivenToSuicide.)
* RoaringRampageOfRevenge: Basically the last twenty minutes. And all of Wesley's levels in ''Weapons of Fate,'' too.
* RuleOfCool: Pretty much the whole freaking thing.
** It basically [[RefugeInAudacity takes refuge in audacity]].
* SayMyName: Wesley shouts Sloan's name not once, not twice, but ''three full times'' near the climax of the movie.
* SexyBack: Fox's back coming out of the bath, covered in [[FetishFuel elaborate tattoos]]? Oh yes...
* ShirtlessScene
* ShoutOut: ''TopGun'', ''Charlotte's Web''. Of course, the whole thing could practically be a ''Matrix'' ShoutOut.
** All names that come up for assassinations are encoded on quilts, just like how Madame Defarge from ATaleOfTwoCities knitted codes on her quilt for [[LaResistance her fellow revolutionaries]] so they would know which of the French nobility was to be executed.
* ShootTheDog: Actually invoked with Fox almost going to get a puppy when Wesley wouldn't shoot the corpse of an old woman.
* SinkOrSwimMentor: Multiple. More like "Swim or get the dogshit beaten out of you".
** Wesley is this to the ''player'' in ''Weapons of Fate.''
* StormingTheCastle
* TakeMyHand - [[spoiler:Wesley's father to Wesley... and then Wesley shoots him, triggering another train collapse.]]
* TeethFlying: When the main character snaps, quits his job and smacks his backstabbing "best friend" on the way out with his keyboard, we're treated to a BulletTime shot of a tooth flying out, forming the letter U to accompany the F, C and K keys that flew off the keyboard.
* [[ThisLoserIsYou This Loser Was You]]: "What the fuck have you done lately?"
* TheProblemWithLicensedGames: Largely averted.
* TheReasonYouSuckSpeech: Wesley gives an absolutely ''epic'' one to his MeanBoss just before he quits, and to top it off slugs his former best friend in the face with a keyboard on his way out.
** His best friend goes from almost pity to straight admiration when this happens.
* ThrowAwayGuns: Wesley, [[spoiler:during his major assault on the bad guy headquarters.]] Why reload your gun when you can take the guns from your dead enemies?
* TookALevelInBadass: The entire movie is basically this for Wesley.
* TrainingFromHell
* TrainingMontage
* VerbedTitle
* VillainsNeverLie: When [[spoiler:Sloan]] tells the Fraternity that [[spoiler:the Loom of Fate chose each of them to die]], they believe him even though [[spoiler:Wesley just told them that Sloan has been manipulating the Loom for his own purposes]]. Justified; the villain is legitimately in the more trustworthy position. Who would you be more likely to believe, [[spoiler: the boss who you've got no actual reason to distrust, or the guy who just shot up half your fortress and killed dozens of your friends, after blowing up the other half?]]
** A little more thinking by them, and they may have realized that it meant that [[spoiler:Sloan had been lying to them all along before so they would be justified in not believing him then either. He only showed his decoded papers not the quilts after all.]]
*** [[spoiler:Fox]] probably did ''all'' that thinking, and realized that because [[spoiler:Sloan]] lied so many times, there was no way to be sure [[spoiler:who the Loom chose to die. But since one of her friends bought it and said "Fuck the Code", she decided that killing everyone in the room would at least '''end all the bullshit''' - and that Wesley would finish the job afterward.]]
* VillainProtagonist
* WhamLine: ''This is not me following in my father's footsteps. This is not me saving the world. This is not me... [[spoiler: This is just the mother-fucking decoy!'']]
* WhatDoYouMeanItsNotAwesome: Fox and Wesley kissing, to keep on mundane things.
* WhenYouSnatchThePebble
* XMeetsY: ''FightClub'' meets ''TheMatrix''.
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Wes [[TrainingMontage learns]] many plot-relevant skills, including the pretty sweet ability to ''[[RuleOfCool bend bullets]]''. No, they don't really explain how, and no, [[MST3KMantra they don't really need to]]. He uses these abilities to take down several nefarious do-badders, until it's finally time to confront Cross. Cue the giant showdown on a moving train...and on a crashing train...and on a falling train. But hey, at least Wesley finally gets his man -- [[YourPrincessIsInAnotherCastle or does he]]?

* RaceLift: In the comic, Fox was modelled upon Halle Berry. In the film, she's portrayed by Angelina Jolie.

** A little more thinking by them, and they may have realized that it meant that [[spoiler:Sloan had been lying to them all along before so they would be justified in not believing him then either. He only showed his decoded papers not the quilts afterall.]]

* ApologizesAlot: Wesley. {{Lampshaded}}, and later {{Subverted}}.

** A little more thinking by them, and they may have realised that it meant that [[spoiler:Sloan had been lying to them all along before so they would be justified in not believing him then either. He only showed his decoded papers not the quilts afterall.]]

* CorruptPolitician: At least one target. [[OrIsIt Or Is He?]]

Wes [[TrainingMontage learns]] many plot-relevant skills, including the pretty sweet ability to ''[[RuleOfCool bend bullets]]''. No, they don't really explain how, and no, [[MST3KMantra they don't really need to]]. He uses these abilities to take down several nefarious do-badders, until it's finally time to confront Cross. Cue the giant showdown on a moving train...and on a crashing train...and on a falling train. But hey, at least Wesley finally gets his man -- [[NotSoFastBucko or does he]]?

* TakeThat: Fox to Wesley's ex.
** The last line of the movie: [[spoiler:What the fuck have]] ''[[spoiler:YOU]]'' [[spoiler:done lately?]]
** Also, the same as the mini-series, but on a lesser scale.
** In the game, if the player finds their hiding spots, Wesley can ''kill'' his ex ''and'' his PointyHairedBoss.

** James McAvoy. James McAvoy, shirtless. James McAvoy, shirtless and dripping wet. James McAvoy, shirtless, dripping wet, and wearing a leather jacket.