Line #21 Film/AmericanAnimals


1	[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/american_animals.jpg]]
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3	''American Animals'' is a 2018 heist film written and directed by Bart Layton (''Film/TheImposter2012''). The story dramatizes an actual theft of several valuable books from the library of Transylvania University in Kentucky by four college students. Throughout the film, interviews with the real perpetrators and their families provide commentary on the action as it unfolds.
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5	The cast includes Creator/EvanPeters as Warren Lipka, Creator/BarryKeoghan as Spencer Reinhard, Creator/BlakeJenner as Chas Allen, and Jared Abrahamson as Eric Borsuk.
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7	!!Tropes:
8	* AlliterativeTitle
9	* AmericanTitle: ''American Animals''.
10	* AsHimself: The real perpetrators of the heist are featured, as well as Betty Jean Gooch, Reinhard's parents, Allen's mother, Lipka's father, and one of the culprits' teachers.
11	* BasedOnATrueStory: The opening credits say "This is not based on a true story," but then does a 180 as words drop out until it reads "This is a true story."
12	* BeneathSuspicion: The crew initially dress as tweedy old men as a disguise on the belief that old people are easily ignored.
13	* CallBack: As the crew is driving toward the heist, the real Spencer is seen standing on the lawn of a house, regretfully watching them pass by. In the end, the real Spencer stands on his lawn and imagines the car passing by. Each version includes the same shot of him from the car's POV.
14	* TheCaper: Stealing ''The Birds of America'' and ''On the Origin of the Species'' as well as other valuable books from Transy's library.
15	* CaperCrew: Four college students.
16	* CerebusCallBack: After the debacle of a heist, Spencer flashes back to earlier scenes of Warren and him laughing and having fun while planning the heist.
17	* CompleteTheQuoteTitle: The title comes from a quote from ''On the Origin of the Species,'' an abbreviated version of which appears as a title card: "American animals slowly migrated by successive generations from the outer world into the deeper and deeper recesses of the Kentucky caves." All words fade but "Kentucky" to present the setting of the film.
18	* ConspicuousTrenchcoat: Believing that old people are beneath notice, the crew dusguise themselves in old man makeup as well as trenchcoats, tweed sportcoats, hats, sunglasses and leather gloves. They couldn't look more conspicuous if they'd tried. In reality, the crew got stared at so much by library patrons that it was one of the factors that made them abort their first attempt.
19	* DamnItFeelsGoodToBeAGangster: Early scenes emphasize how much fun Spencer and Warren are having being criminals and planning their heist. One scene has them rob a meat locker and drive away while exultantly singing along to Johnny Thunder's "I'm Alive."
20	* DeadpanSnarker: Spencer has a couple moments, especially when he's interacting with Warren. Helps that he's played by Creator/BarryKeoghan.
21	-->'''Spencer''': Sure. Let's just walk in there in broad daylight and rob the place. Oh, yeah, while you're at it, you're gonna dynamite the canteen, right?
22	* DeconstructedTrope: TheCaper. This movie shows why Hollywood style heists do not work when performed by amateurs.
23	* ElectricityKnocksYouOut: In their imagined rehearsal for the heist, the crew render the librarian unconscious with a quick, easy, and harmless zap from a handheld electric taser. [[spoiler:Of course, tasers actually work to incapacitate and not knock out. The crew are therefore extremely unprepared for not just the taser failing to knock out the librarian, but her terrified and panicked reaction immediately afterwards]].
24	* ForegoneConclusion: It's based on a real heist, and while the film isn't outright about it in the opening, it's very easy to figure out that the heist failed and the boys served time in prison for it. However, the movie itself is less about the heist and the related tension of planning and performing it and more about deconstructing ''having such fantasies'', using the real-life case as a basis for a very thorough DeconstructorFleet of anything related to crime fiction.
25	* GenreSavvy: Warren and Spencer take points from several heist films in order to plan their own heist. It gets viciously deconstructed the second they recruit Eric, who calls them out on their various naive assumptions, long before they even go through their actual theft, which further highlights how much real life differs from a movie.
26	* GoToAlias: At several points in the film, Warren uses the alias "Walter Beckman".
27	* HistoricalHeroUpgrade: The film glosses over some of the less savory aspects of the perpetrators' lives and crime.
28	** BJ Gooch recalled Warren or Eric threatening to hurt her if she didn't keep quiet, while in the film, Warren apologizes and assures her that they're only after the books.
29	** The film excises most of the crew's previous criminality. In the film, Warren has connections to a fake ID ring and brings a reluctant Spencer along on a petty burglary of meat that supposedly would get thrown away anyway. In reality, Warren and Eric were principles of the fake ID ring and graduated to additional cons and identity theft. After the falling out between them that is referenced in the film (in reality due to a dispute over $2,000 of their ill-gotten gains), Warren replaced Eric with Spencer. This is why the group had criminal connections and was so quick to consider another criminal scheme.
30	* IJustWantToBeSpecial: The motive for Warren and Spencer is simply that they want to do something exciting with their lives.
31	* IndulgentFantasySegue: At one point, the movie appears to move into TheHeist, which goes off flawlessly with Warren displaying James Bond levels of badass-ness. However, this turns out to be Warren envisioning how the heist will go. The actual robbery runs a lot less smoothly.
32	* LifeImitatesArt: InUniverse. Warren and Spencer bone up on heist films to plan their theft. They use the color-themed naming convention from ''Film/ReservoirDogs'' and even have the same argument about the usage of the codename "Mr. Pink" found in the film. Chas points out that the purpose of the aliases in ''Reservoir Dogs'' is to prevent the perpetrators from knowing each other's real names so that they couldn't inform on each other, which isn't applicable to ''this'' crime. Warren counters that they're just codenames for the robbery itself to avoid saying each other's names.
33	* MommasBoy: Warren is implied to be one. He's the only one to ask if everything is alright when he hears his mother drop some pans in the kitchen. The real Warren also says that he selected his alias "Mr. Yellow" because he's his mother's sunshine.
34	* {{Motif}}: Birds, referencing ''The Birds of America''
35	* PaintingTheMedium:
36	** When Spencer and Warren's recollections of events diverge, both versions are presented, but the lines between them blur, so that their characters will say things that are only applicable to the ''other'' version just before the film switches back.
37	** When Warren watched the black and white film ''Film/TheKilling'', a shot of him reacting to the film is in black and white, showing how absorbed he's become in the story.
38	* PaperThinDisguise: During the second attempt at the heist, the crew decides to forgo their disguises and simply dress in suits.
39	* PeriodPiece: Released in 2018, the film takes place in 2004. Characters sport old-fashioned cellphones, use the library to access the internet, and rent [=DVDs=] from Blockbuster.
40	* PottyFailure: [[spoiler:Poor Gooch wets herself during Warren's bungled attack.]]
41	* RashomonStyle: The real perpetrators of the crime, who appear throughout the film in talking-head interviews, differ in their recollections of how they came up with the idea to rob the library. Both versions are dramatized by the actors portraying them. As the film cuts between the two versions, the actors occasionally make a comment that actually pertains to the ''other'' version of the events just before the scene cuts to it.
42	* RiddleForTheAges: Whether Warren was lying about going to the Netherlands and meeting the fence. The real Warren simply says, "I guess you'll just have to take my word for it."
43	* ShoppingCartAntics: Spencer and Warren are sitting in Warren's car in a parking lot, smoking weed and talking about how their lives are going nowhere. They are watching a bunch of people just hanging out in the empty parking lot, two of whom are pushing each other around in a shopping cart. Just before they leave, they see the now empty shopping cart rolling down the hill on fire.
44	* ShoutOut: Spencer and Warren watch a number of heist films to plan their caper. The camera lingers on a shelf full of Blockbuster rentals. They're shown watching ''Film/TheKilling'' and use the codenames from ''Film/ReservoirDogs''. The real Eric says it's his least favorite Creator/QuentinTarantino film.
45	* ASimplePlan: Millions of dollars worth of rare books with only an elderly librarian guarding them. What could go wrong?
46	* SpannerInTheWorks: The first attempt at the robbery gets abandoned because there are multiple librarians in the rare book room, and the gang has no contingency for dealing with this.
47	* StupidCrooks: The actual heist could hardly go more poorly. Ultimately they're caught by some stupid flubs that Chas immediately recognizes.
48	* SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome: The guys have a daydream fantasy of pulling off the heist with the casual expertise of typical Hollywood thieves. And the film for a while plays along with the concept of how easy such a job is, as long as they form a plan and follow through it. The actual theft goes about as wrong as possible: [[spoiler:they fail to knock out the librarian and immediately start panicking; they fail to account for where the key to the storage cases is kept; they fail to account for how ''heavy'' the books are; they fail to adequately scout their escape route, leading them to a dead end; they don't adequately cover their tracks (e.g. using their ''personal'' email addresses and telephone numbers); and ''vastly'' underestimate how quickly and easily they can fence the stolen goods]]. There is also the fact that half-way through, when Borsuk joins the group, the initial plan is reevaluated as a naive fantasy and vastly improved, making it look like they are genuinely on the right track.
49	* UnreliableNarrator:
50	** Spencer and Warren disagree on several points of the story, and the film presents both options. The real Spencer admits that he no longer knows whether he remembers his version of certain events or Warren's.
51	** Warren claims he went to the Netherlands to meet with a fence, but in the end, members of the crew say that, for all they know, he made the whole thing up. The film presents an alternate version of that scene where Warren walks right back out of the airport and visits an American bar that looks identical to the Dutch bar we saw him meet the fence in. The real Warren states that you'll just have to take his word for it.
52	* VomitIndiscretionShot: Warren throws up over the dashboard of the getaway car after the robbery.
53	* WhereAreTheyNowEpilogue: Title cards at the end reveal that all four perpetrators are now free and living quiet, modest lives.

Context Film / AmericanAnimals