History WesternAnimation / TheIronGiant

-->"So she says, 'No, you need a challenge.' Well, I'm challenged, all right; ''I'm challenged to hold on to my lunch money'' because of all the big mooses who wanna pound me because I am a shrimpy dork who thinks he's smarter than them. But I DON'T think I'm smarter--I just do the stinkin' homework! If everyone ''just did the stinkin' homework'', theycouldmoveupagradeandgetpoundedtooyougotanymorecoffee?"

* DidNotDoTheResearch: Electric power stations don't have master on/off switches. Probably justified by RuleOfDrama--Hogarth and the Giant have to meet and bond, after all.

Despite the immense critical praise given to it, the movie was a dud at the box office, thanks mostly to the disastrous marketing of the film by Warner Bros. The studio later did a 180 and gave it a marketing blitz on home video instead, and the movie's gathered a large cult following since then. Much of its following also comes from CartoonNetwork, which used to run the film in annual [[MarathonRunning all-day marathons]] on Thanksgiving.

* CassandraTruth: Earlier in the film, Hogarth's mother doesn't believe him when he tries to tell her about the robot. He later chooses to keep it a secret.

* CurbStompBattle: The giant's RoaringRampageOfRevenge. Once his weapons are fully deployed, it becomes [[WaroftheWorlds War of the Worlds]] all over again for the military.

* GiantHandsOfDoom: Sort of: After the Giant's first on-screen repair function is displayed, it is later revealed that he didn't quite take into account all of his body parts. It turns out that the left hand sneaked into Hogarth's house, forcing the boy to create a lot of distractions to keep his mother and Mansley from seeing it before it can rejoin the Giant.

* HesAFriend: "His name is Dean; we like Dean"

-->'''Rogard:''' That missile is targeted to the giant's current position! ''Where's the giant, Mansley?!''

* WhatMeasureIsANonHuman: Hogarth and the Giant question whether he has a soul.

* HollywoodNewEngland: The film is set in coastal Maine, but don't look for any of the characters to sport anything approaching an actual Downeast accent.

* InvisiblePresident: Sort of. In a very brief scene after the giant [[spoiler:is found out]], two high-ranking officers enter the Oval Office, and address a man, who sits behind the president's desk to request authorization to make use of Navy and Air Force (you can take a look at it [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gBAllA6k_IQ here]]). The man is sitting with the back towards the the camera, but has a visible bald patch on his oval-shaped head. Therefore it is very obviously President [[DwightEisenghower ''Ike'' Eisenhower]], who actually was president during the time the film is set (1957), albeit the fact this movie is a clear case of AlternateHistory. He is the only real person in the whole movie.

* InvisiblePresident: Sort of. In a very brief scene after the giant [[spoiler:is found out]], two high-ranking officers enter the Oval Office, and address a man, who sits behind the president's desk to request authorization to make use of Navy and Air Force (you can take a look at it [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gBAllA6k_IQ here]]). The man is sitting with the back towards the the camera, but has a visible bald patch on his oval-shaped head. Therefore it is very obviously President ''Ike'' Eisenhower, who actually was president during the time the film is set (1957), albeit the fact this movie is a clear case of AlternateHistory. He is the only real person in the whole movie.

* IronicEcho: Throughout the movie, Kent Mansley uses the phrase "and all that that implies." Later, after Hogarth outwits him by disguising Giant as one of Dean's pieces of art, Hogarth watches Mansley leave with the army and says, "Bye, Kent, and all that that implies."

* DoNotDoThisCoolThing: Okay, everybody will admit that [[spoiler:the Giant transforming into a killing machine with crazy alien weapons is ''totally badass'']], but you know... [[spoiler:[[AndThatTerribles killing machine]].

* DoNotDoThisCoolThing: Okay, everybody will admit that [[spoiler:the Giant transforming into a killing machine with crazy alien weapons is ''totally badass'']], but you know... [[spoiler:killing machine]].

* CurbStompBattle: The giant's RoaringRampageOfRevenge. Once his weapons are fully deployed, it becomes WaroftheWorlds all over again for the military.

* CurbStompBattle: The giant's RoaringRampageOfRevenge.

* HeyItsThatVoice: VinDiesel as the Giant, [[{{Friends}} Rachel]] as Hogarth's mom, [[WillAndGrace Leo]] as Dean, [[{{Frasier}} Martin Crane]] as the General, and [[AmericanPie Stifler's brother]] as Hogarth.
** [[HappyGilmore Shooter McGavin]] as Kent Mansley.
*** In Swedish, Hogarth would later become [[WesternAnimation/TotalDramaIsland Duncan]].

* MoreDakka: [[spoiler:The Giant.]]

* NoCelebritiesWereHarmed: Sort of. In a very brief scene after the giant [[spoiler:is found out]], two high-ranking officers enter the Oval Office, and address a man, who sits behind the president's desk to request authorization to make use of Navy and Air Force (you can take a look at it [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gBAllA6k_IQ here]]). The man is sitting with the back towards the the camera, but has a visible bald patch on his oval-shaped head. Therefore it is very obviously President ''Ike'' Eisenhower, who actually was president during the time the film is set (1957), albeit the fact this movie is a clear case of AlternateHistory. He is the only real person in the whole movie.

* AbsentAliens: A planned scene (that was ultimately scrapped) seems to confirm that the Giant ''was'', in fact, built by aliens. But said aliens are never actually seen or mentioned, with the action focusing on the Giant's adventures on Earth.

* TheLastHorseCrossesTheFinishLine: See the EurekaMoment example listed above.

* WhoNamesTheirKidDude: Kent Mansley with this line: "Hogarth? What an embarrasing name. Might as well call him Zeppo or something. What kind of sick person would name a kid Hoga- "

** [[spoiler: IGotBetter: Implied by the ending.]]

* EurekaMoment: After stopping by Hogarth's house, Mansey drives away while commenting on his name. This leads him to realize who owned the mangled "Hog Hug" BB gun found at the wrecked power plant: '''[[CaptainObvious Hog]]'''[[CaptainObvious arth]] '''[[CaptainObvious Hug]]'''[[CaptainObvious hes]].

** And the part where Hogarth watches the movie with killer brains in it (see BMovie above), towards the end [[spoiler the army are forced to defend against TheIronGiant which has become a monster with 3 brain like objects (along with other weapons) on it.]]

** And the part where Hogard watches the movie with killer brains in it (see BMovie above), towards the end the army are forced to defend against TheIronGiant which has become a monster with 3 brain like objects (along with other weapons) on it.

* PrecisionSwearStrike: When [[spoiler:the giant is firing away at army tanks.]]
-->'''Rogard:''' All battleships fire at the robot, now! ''Now'', damn it, ''now''!

* AntiAntiChrist: A deleted scene in the film, as well as the nature of the Iron Giant's weapons, heavily implies that [[spoiler:the Iron Giant was originally created to destroy planets, and that either he was just one out of a huge line of robots who were created for this purpose or had managed to destroy quite a large amount of planets prior to arriving on Earth. However, the Iron Giant eventually manages to reject going down/continuing down this path]].