Line #81 Film/ChildsPlay3


1	[[quoteright:299:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/ce8da6e9caf26b1b447cba04dbc2f761.jpg]]
2	[[caption-width-right:299:Chucky's going [[StealthPun ballistic.]]]]
3
4	The third film of the ''Franchise/ChildsPlay'' series.
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6	Andy Barclay (Justin Whalin) is now 16 years old. He has apparently lost contact with his foster sister Kyle and has been through several foster homes. He failed to adapt and is currently attending a MilitarySchool. He becomes enemies with [[TheNeidermeyer Lieutenant Colonel]] [[JerkJock Brett]] [[SociopathicSoldier C.]] [[TheBully Shelton]] (Creator/TravisFine), a high-ranking cadet who is notorious for bullying weaker recruits, while developing an attraction to female student Kristen De Silva (Creator/PerreyReeves). Meanwhile, the old "Good Guy" doll line is being revived for a new generation. Charles Lee Ray immediately possesses one and goes in search of Andy again, which spells doom for the military school.
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8	----
9	!!This film provides examples of:
10	* AbandonedWarChild: Tyler, in a sense. His father is away in Japan on some specified military duty and he has been left in the care of Kent, where he is by far the youngest cadet present (there are other cadets Tyler's age in the novelization, though).
11	* AbsurdlyPowerfulStudentCouncil: Aside from the school's head and one other adult, Kent seems to be run almost entirely by its officer cadets. This is a case of ShownTheirWork, as many real-life military academies are run the same way (though with more adults around, obviously).
12	* ActionizedSequel: Due to being set at a military school, it has MoreDakka (most of which is provided by the military school's armory that Chucky uses to his advantage in his murder spree) and gunfights than the last film.
13	* AdaptationDeviation: As with the second film, Matthew Costello wrote [[http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1214538.Child_s_Play_3 a novelization for the third film]]. It's mostly accurate, though the ending resembles the original only in the broad strokes.
14	* AdaptationalVillainy: Shelton falls somewhere between this and being an AdaptationalDumbass, as the novelization portrays him as a good deal less competent than the film version (though still just as antagonistic).
15	* AggressiveNegotiations: Chucky arranges for Andy and his team to meet him to exchange De Silva (who he's ambushed and taken prisoner) for Tyler. The team surrounds Chucky and opens fire, though their paintballs don't exactly do a whole lot of damage. Then the enemy team shows up and things get ''really'' aggressive.
16	* AmusementParkOfDoom: The climax takes place in an amusement park haunted house ride.
17	* ArtisticLicenseEngineering: Real life garbage trucks don't have a grinder inside them. It was just added to heighten the threat.
18	* ArtisticLicenseGunSafety: [[spoiler: It's actually impossible to switch paintball rounds with live ammunition. The guns are modified to use marker rounds and if a live bullet was put inside then the gun would jam. On another note, when using these guns, protective gear is worn to prevent any real harm.]]
19	* ArtisticLicenseMilitary: The military cuts the boys receive, especially Andy, are nowhere near short enough for simple recruits who aren't given the option to style it how they see fit in order to properly pass ranks.
20	* ArtisticLicensePhysics: What kind of amusement park uses a ''real'' blade on the scythe of its ''giant'' animatronic grim reaper?
21	* AssholeVictim: [[spoiler: [[CorruptCorporateExecutive Sullivan]], [[JerkJock Shelton]] and [[PsychoForHire Sergeant Botnick.]] Downplayed for [[DeanBitterman Cochran]], aside from being apathetic to Andy's dilemma (as he views him as a "troublemaker") and being somewhat neglectful of Shelton's bullying, he is not as unlikeable as former three listed victims.]]
22	* BadassBandolier: Chucky wears one at one point, [[LaughablyEvil apparently]] [[EvilIsCool purely]] for the RuleOfCool to fit with the military theme of this movie.
23	* BigBadWannabe: Quite a few, [[CorruptCorporateExecutive Sullivan]], [[TheBully Shelton]] and [[PsychoForHire the barber Botnick]], due to a case of WrongGenreSavvy as they think they're a BigBad in a movie that its genre reflects on any of their beings (Sullivan thinks he's a BigBad of a corporate espionage film, while Shelton thinks he's the BigBad of a teen drama or even ''Film/FullMetalJacket'' [[RecycledInSpace with teens]]) than a KillerDoll SlasherMovie that this film really is.
24	* BigNo / EatTheCamera: A combination of these after the Chucky head has finished regenerating at the beginning.
25	* BittersweetEnding: At the end, [[spoiler:Chucky is killed... again, but Andy is taken in for questioning with the police and would likely be sent to prison afterwards. Fortunately, in ''Film/CurseOfChucky'', it is revealed that his name was cleared and he returned to military school and graduated.]]
26	* BloodlessCarnage: For a series known for its over-the-top violence, [[spoiler:Whitehurst's death by JumpingOnAGrenade]] is surprisingly not that gory.
27	* BodyHorror: Half of Chucky's face gets sliced off by a swinging blade, giving him a distinctly Two-Face look. It's not a pretty sight...
28	* BootCampEpisode: For the series as a whole, as it features a heavy military theme found in no other installment. As one review put it, "Take out the killer doll and you have a pilot for ''Film/FullMetalJacket'': The TV Series."
29	* BorrowedCatchphrase: Chucky puts a twist on Botnick's "Presto! You're bald," with "Presto! You're dead."
30	* ButtMonkey: Harold Whitehurst, the token geeky kid at the academy before Andy shows up (and even to some degree after). He's first introduced tumbling BoundAndGagged out of a closet (he was put there by Shelton as a hazing ritual), just to drive it home.
31	* ChekhovsGun: Tyler's pocket knife.
32	* ChekhovsSkill: Andy learning how to aim and fire a gun.
33	* CelebrityParadox:
34	** The show ''Series/MurderSheWrote'' exists in the films' universe, which Tiffany was watching on her television set at the time of her human death before switching to ''Film/BrideOfFrankenstein'' in ''Film/BrideOfChucky''. Colonel Cochrane's actor Dakin Matthews has made a guest appearance in three episodes of the show, notably from 1992 to 1995 after playing the role of Cochrane in this film and before ''Bride'' was made.
35	** As far as ''Series/{{Chucky}}'' is concerned, the ''Franchise/{{Halloween}}'' franchise exist in this universe as Matthew Walker, who played Major Ellis, had before appeared in ''Film/Halloween5TheRevengeOfMichaelMyers'', while Creator/BradDourif, the voice of Chucky, would later appear in Music/RobZombie's [[Film/Halloween2007 remake]] and its [[Film/HalloweenII2009 sequel]].
36	* CloudCuckoolander: Sgt. Botnick, the MilitarySchool's barber, is a vaguely unsettling variant of this, as he loves his job a little too much.
37	* ColonelKilgore: Cadet Lieutenant Colonel Shelton is a mild version of this. He puts Andy through a lot of hell, but from his perspective it's justified as he's trying to train a late arrival to his squad. He's still just a little ''too'' into his duty though, with Kent head Colonel Cochran aptly describing him in the novelization as having "an excess of zeal".
38	* ConspicuousConsumption: Despite presiding over a toy company that has spent the past eight years digging itself out from under the crushing weight of scandal, CEO Sullivan resides in an absurdly spacious penthouse suite full of toys.
39	* CorruptCorporateExecutive: Tom Sullivan, the CEO of the Play Pals company that makes Good Guy dolls (or made them, before the scandals). He TookALevelInJerkass since the second film, [[SmugSnake cynically referring to children as "consumer trainees" and dismissing Andy Barclay as "ancient history" that no one cares about]] (while privately conducting SinisterSurveillance on him).
40	* ContinuityNod: Andy's framed photo of himself at 6 years old and his mother from the first film that he's had since the previous film.
41	* CowardlyLion: Whitehurst knows Chucky is alive but refuses to say anything or back up Andy out of sheer terror. That is, until he grows a pair and makes a HeroicSacrifice.
42	* CreativeClosingCredits: Of the opening credits variety. The film's TitleSequence is close-up, reversed footage of Chucky melting, making it appear as if he's PullingHimselfTogether before the plastic dries and he screams.
43	* DangerouslyCloseShave: Chucky kills Botnick by slashing his throat with a razor blade while Botnick stupidly attempts to give him a haircut.
44	* DeadlyRotaryFan: Andy throws Chucky into an industrial-sized fan at the end [[NoOSHACompliance which is completely uncovered despite being at a carnival]]. Doubles as Chucky's DisneyVillainDeath.
45	* EldritchAbomination: We finally get a description of Chucky's god, the voodoo entity Damballa, in the film novelization. It is described as an amorphous shape Charles Lee Ray can only barely comprehend, "gray, like the clouds, wet, covered with some slick, oily liquid" and surrounded by armlike things with three fingers that completely ''fill'' the basement room Ray has summoned it to. To cap off this description, the narration gives us ''this'' WhamLine:
46	--> It lives in some pool, a pool of the damned at the end of the universe. Damballa. The soul catcher. The eater of spirits.
47	* EvilIsVisceral: Chucky describes the smell and even ''taste'' of Damballa very specifically in the novelization, saying that he "gulped at the air" when it appeared because it apparently smelled so good (to an AxCrazy SerialKiller anyway...) and that even after it disappeared that "the smell and taste of the creature still filled his senses" and "he would never lose it completely".
48	* EvilLaugh: Chucky is so busy indulging in maniacal laughter that the boy he keeps as a hostage takes advantage of the situation to run away.
49	* FirstNameBasis: Krista asks Andy to call her by her first name before the War Games start, signaling their blossoming romance.
50	* FiveSecondForeshadowing: At the carnival when Andy almost falls into the giant, uncovered fan.
51	* {{Foreshadowing}}: In his introductory scene, Sergeant Botnick tells Andy that the military haircut was invented by the ancient Romans so that the enemy wouldn't be able to grab hold of your hair and slit your throat, and he eerily mimics the gesture of slitting Andy's throat with his razor. [[SlashedThroat Guess what Chucky is going to do to him later]].
52	* ForegoneConclusion: For some reason, Sullivan allows a lower-tier employee to make a presentation trying to persuade him not to put the Good Guy doll back on the market, even though he's already gotten the factories back up and running days before the meeting even takes place. The novelization even calls it a foregone conclusion directly in the narration.
53	* FriendlyWar: The paintball "war games" that take up the third act. Chucky throws a few wrenches into the mix to make the NonLethalWarfare a little more lethal.
54	* FrightDeathtrap: An unintentional Scared Stiff example. Colonel Cochran suffered a fatal heart attack before Chucky even got a chance to stab him.
55	-->'''Chucky:''' Oh, you've gotta be fucking kidding me...
56	* FromASingleCell: If we take the film's opening sequence at face value, then Chucky's rebirth was the result of a few drops of blood from his previous body falling into a vat of plastic used to make the first Good Guy doll of the '90s.
57	* GeekPhysiques: Whitehurst in the novelization is described as being geeky and fat, out of shape, and even "pear-shaped". This becomes an InformedAttribute for readers who then watch the film, as while Dean Jacobson pulls off "geeky" he doesn't hit any of the other descriptions.
58	* GenderIsNoObject: One of the few positive things that can be said about Cadet Colonel Shelton. He even makes a speech about how gender makes no difference among cadets at Kent (while making secondary protagonist De Silva do pushups for back-talking him at formation).
59	* GodOfEvil: The voodoo entity Damballa, who Chucky has been calling on since the very first film, is finally revealed in the novelization as this.
60	* GrammarNazi: Chucky, of all people, notes in the novelization that Tyler has "lousy penmanship". And when a high school dropout turned voodoo SerialKiller says that...
61	* GoryDiscretionShot: When the garbage man gets his arm snapped off by a hydraulic press.
62	* HamToHamCombat: The duel between two different psychos, Brad Dourif's Chucky versus [[Film/DirtyHarry Andrew]] [[Film/{{Hellraiser}} Robinson]]'s Sgt. Botnick. However, Chucky is definitely homicidal unlike just the verbal and non-fatally physical threats of Botnick.
63	* HeelFaceTurn: Shelton gets one for all of five minutes or so after Chucky captures De Silva. He still doesn't realize how high the stakes are until it's too late, though.
64	* HeroWithBadPublicity: Andy's reputation still follows him as insane at best and the actual one responsible for Chucky's murders at worst. When De Silva is looking at his file, she's distracted just before getting to the "killer doll" parts.
65	* HollywoodHeartAttack: Chucky is able to ''literally'' scare Colonel Cochrane to death this way by simply giving a big scare.
66	* HorribleJudgeOfCharacter: Tyler is charmed by Chucky initially, just like Andy before him. Chucky decides to steal Tyler's body instead this time since he is younger and more naive than Andy and thus an easier target.
67	* HumanMail: Chucky mails himself to Andy.
68	* HumanSacrifice: The sacrificial offering to Damballa that is first described in the novelization of the second film is expounded upon in the novelization of this movie, which reveals what happened ''after'' the ritual.
69	* HypocriticalHumor: Chucky warns Tyler that tampering with the mail is a federal offense after he opens Andy's package. Coming from a sadistic serial killer, this is just priceless.
70	* IHaveYourWife: [[spoiler: Chucky uses Kristen as a hostage against Andy near the end of the film demanding Tyler's surrender in exchange for her release]].
71	* IronicEcho: Botnick's CatchPhrase is "Presto, you're bald!" [[spoiler:When Chucky kills him, he says "Presto, you're dead!]]
72	* JumpingOnAGrenade: [[spoiler:Whitehurst]] [[HeroicSacrifice goes out this way]].
73	* KarmaHoudiniWarranty: After surviving the beginning of the last film, [[spoiler:Sullivan]] [[SuddenSequelDeathSyndrome finally]] [[AssholeVictim gets his]] at the beginning of this film.
74	* KilledOffscreen: [[spoiler:The carnival security guard]] ends up dying this way after he reveals Chucky to Tyler in an attempt to cheer him up.
75	* MadeOfExplodium: [[spoiler:When Chucky falls into the industrial fan at the end, his sliced pieces spontaneously combust as if made of fireworks.]]
76	* MajorlyAwesome: Cadet Lt. Colonel Shelton's TheDragon and fellow TheNeidermeyer, Major Ellis, is a very downplayed example. He's mostly a secondary antagonist, but he does show UndyingLoyalty to his commanding officer when he is killed, violently attacking Andy (who he believes is behind the paintballs-to-bullet switch).
77	* MenAreTheExpendableGender: In contrast to the other films where Chucky [[MonsterMisogyny would kill any woman he could]], the only deaths in this film are of men. Somewhat justified as the setting ''is'' a military academy staffed with mostly male cadets.
78	* MilitarySchool: Kent Military School, the setting for most of the film, is so much this that it even provides the current image for the trope.
79	* MisfitMobilizationMoment: Attempted by Andy with Whitehurst after the latter sees Chucky. Whitehurst [[RefusalOfTheCall refuses the call]] out of fear, [[spoiler:but redeems himself by jumping on the grenade Chucky throws in the middle of the squad]].
80	* MouthOfSauron: The novelization reveals that after summoning Damballa the voodoo entity decided Chucky was worthy of becoming his emissary, telling him "without words" that he "had a master now, someone to serve" and that his life now had a goal and purpose. The text does not explicitly spell out what that purpose is, but given Chucky's later activities and resurrections, it's not too hard to figure out.
81	* NearVillainVictory: Chucky would've succeeded in possessing Tyler at the end if Damballa's lightning hadn't missed them for some reason during the soul transfer ritual, buying Andy time to save Tyler.
82	* TheNeidermeyer: The Cadet Lt. Colonel Shelton, to a point he's an almost uncanny {{Expy}} of its TropeNamer from another Creator/{{Universal}} film (other than this film) ''Film/AnimalHouse''.
83	** [[spoiler:They even shared the same fate of being shot to death by their own troops (well, troops for the TropeNamer, classmates for Shelton - and in Shelton's case, this occurs onscreen and by accident)]].
84	** TheDragon for Shelton, Major Ellis, also qualifies.
85	** Cochran is a downplayed DeanBitterman example.
86	* NewMeat: Andy is this when he first arrives at Kent, having no prior military experience of any kind.
87	* NextSundayAD: Since the story picks up eight years after 1990s ''Film/ChildsPlay2'', it does technically make it take place in the year 1998 (thus making the release date of ''Film/BrideOfChucky'' match up seamlessly as it takes place roughly a month after the events of ''Child's Play 3'').
88	* NiceJobBreakingItHero: In the novelization only. When Andy goes looking for Tyler, he doesn't realize he's literally carrying Chucky straight to him inside his backpack.
89	* NoOSHACompliance: The amusement park at the end has a giant, uncovered fan and a giant Grim Reaper that swings a real blade capable of chopping off half of Chucky's face. Although, the fan being uncovered is a ChekhovsGun.
90	* OnlyAFleshWound: Averted when [[spoiler:De Silva is shot in the leg during the climax. She's taken out of commission and can only sit and nurse her injury while Andy confronts Chucky.]]
91	* PlayingBothSides: Chucky plays the two teams of cadets against each other during the war games.
92	* PunishmentDetail: Shelton makes Whitehurst shine his shoes as punishment for...[[NoodleIncident something]]. It's never quite made clear what.
93	* ResetButton: Because Chucky has been reincarnated in a new doll body, the rules binding his transfer to a new body have been reset as he is no longer bound to transfer his soul into Andy. [[AxCrazy Being]] [[StupidEvil Chucky]], he of course binds himself to the first young boy he meets. It's not made easier that Chucky committed himself to possessing a boy inside a heavily monitored military school where the boy is frequently thrown back and forth by his superiors.
94	* SanitySlippage: Though he was AxCrazy pretty much right from the start, Chucky's sanity (and competence) take a dip when compared to previous installments, diving straight into StupidEvil. He murders the CEO of the toy company that just made him a new body (preventing any future such resurrections), literally jumps right out of his box at the first young kid he meets, and then alienates said young boy ''after'' binding himself to him as his new SoulJar.
95	* ShoutOut:
96	** To ''Film/FullMetalJacket'', specifically "This is my rifle, this is my gun..."
97	** Colonel Cochran‘s names sounds similar to [[Film/HalloweenIIISeasonOfTheWitch Conal Cochran]].
98	* ShownTheirWork: Shelton's InsistentTerminology that Andy refers to his rifle as specifically a rifle and not a gun is accurate to military training.
99	* SinisterMinister: Continuing the theme introduced in the novelization of the second film, Chucky is very devout in a twisted sort of way to his dark god Damballa, even swearing by him in this book and thinking of himself as the voodoo entity's apostle.
100	* SlipperySkid: Chucky spills the contents of a jar filled with marbles to make Sullivan fall on the ground after stepping on them.
101	* SoundOff: Cadence calls occur in two separate scenes, as is to be expected of a film with a military theme.
102	* StalkerWithoutACrush: Play Pals CEO Sullivan keeps a disturbing level of SinisterSurveillance on Andy, having an entire dossier file for the boy on his computer that his own personal assistant keeps regularly updated for him and knowing right off the top of his head how old he is.
103	* TheSquadette: Kristen De Silva, the secondary protagonist.
104	* SuddenSequelDeathSyndrome: After surviving the previous film entirely removed from Chucky’s killing spree, Sullivan winds up being the opening victim.
105	* SuspiciouslySimilarSubstitute: After his previous assistant was Chucky's first victim in the last movie, Sullivian's new one looks like he could be his twin.
106	* TakeYourTime: Chucky wastes an entire ''seven minutes'' playing cat and mouse with Sullivan before killing him.
107	* TemptingFate: Botnick gets the bright idea of giving Chucky a haircut. No points for guessing how ''that'' turns out.
108	* ThisMeansWar: Chucky says this after [[SillyReasonForWar having lipstick smeared around his mouth]] by teenage girls.
109	* TookALevelInBadass: Andy was already learning how to take care of himself in the second film, but this one sees him grow into full-blown hero territory when Chucky is after ''Tyler's'' soul.
110	* TroublingUnchildlikeBehavior: Continuing the theme from the second film's novelization, Andy in the novelization of this film is shown as having some rather... ''troubling'' thoughts, even if they are justified.
111	--> I'll cut him to pieces, Andy thought. I'll slice that doll into so many small sections that it would take him an eternity to put himself back together again.
112	** And later:
113	--> '''Andy''' (of Chucky): Sick thing. He's sick. [[MadnessMantra A million pieces. I'll make it so hard]] . . .
114	* TooDumbToLive: Tyler, big time but doesn't die thanks to Andy. Along with the garbageman and carnival security guard who tries to comfort Tyler.
115	* TwoFaced: Chucky becomes this rather gruesomely after getting his face partially sliced off by an animatronic grim reaper.
116	* TheUnfettered: Flashbacks in the novelization reveal Charles Lee Ray was this, as he notes at one point he got his start in crime working for an old pro who took him under his wing only because he would do anything, from breaking into homes in broad daylight to casually strangling witnesses to death with his bare hands.
117	* UniversalAmmunition: Chucky is able to replace the paintballs that are being used for the training exercise for live bullets, something that shouldn't be possible because guns designed to fire paintballs have been heavily modified, mostly to prevent this very thing from happening.
118	* WeAreEverywhere: In the novelization only, there's a bit towards the end where Andy and De Silva are hunting for Tyler and think they find him and Chucky... only to find it's another kid with another Good Guy doll... and then another, and ''another'', and then they see a vendor with a whole stall full of them. Andy quite aptly calls it a nightmare.
119	* WelcomeToHell: Whitehurst tells Andy this upon his arrival at Kent.
120	* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: At one point in the novelization Chucky muses on how much trouble Andy has given him, and wonders if Andy might have "some powerful ''mojo'' magic working for him" the way Chucky himself has via Damballa. This is never brought up or addressed again.
121	* YourHeadASplode: This is how Chucky dies in the novelization. Instead of being tossed into a fan, Andy shoots him in the head at point-blank range. Repeatedly.

Context Film / ChildsPlay3