Line #14 Film/Enemy


1	[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/42b178c5ea62a50ef3ceeb218cced096.jpg]]
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3	->''"Chaos is order yet undeciphered."''
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5	''Enemy'' is a 2013 [[{{Surrealism}} surrealist]] {{psychological\|Thriller}} [[FilmNoir neo noir]] thriller film directed by Creator/DenisVilleneuve, starring Creator/JakeGyllenhaal, and adapted from the novel ''The Double'' by Creator/JoseSaramago.
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7	The film chiefly concerns a history professor named Adam Bell, who lives a normal, quiet life in Toronto, Canada. One night, however, as Bell sits down and watches a film he has rented on a recommendation from a colleague, ''Where There's a Will There's a Way'', he spots an actor who looks exactly like himself briefly playing a bellhop in a scene. Seriously shaken by the uncanny experience, Bell attempts to track down the actor, a man whose name is Anthony Claire and who has only appeared in two bit roles...
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9	[[{{Understatement}} Then things get strange]]. ''Really, really'' [[MindScrew strange]].
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11	A film with a very similar premise, ''Film/TheDouble'', was released the same year, a {{black comedy}} based on another novel named ''The Double'', though written by Creator/FyodorDostoevsky.
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13	Has [[SimilarlyNamedWorks no connection]] to the 2015 {{Roguelike}} [[VideoGame/{{Enemy}} of the same name.]]
14	----
15	!!This series provides examples of:
16	* AnachronicOrder: Due to the ambiguous nature of the story, it's not clear whether the events are happening in the order we see them. This holds particularly true if Adam and Anthony are indeed the same person. Sequences that cut back and forth between them might not be happening concurrently as the editing implies.
17	* AnimalMotifs: Spiders. ''All over the place.''
18	* BedTrick: Adam and Anthony both impersonate each other, thus winding up having sex with the other's girlfriend/wife respectively.
19	%%This needs more details.* BreakTheCutie: Adam seemingly becomes more and more scared/confused as the film goes on.
20	* CatapultNightmare: Happens repeatedly, which isn't surprising when one sees what scary crap the protagonist is dreaming.
21	* ColorWash: There's a brownish-yellow cast across the entire film.
22	* DownerEnding: [[spoiler:Considering the theory that the spiders in the film represent Adam's view of women and committed relationships, Helen becoming a giant spider in response to him planning to go to the crush club is him finally giving up on attempting to see his wife as anything but a hinderence to his own hedonism.]]
23	* FanDisservice: In one of Adam's dreams, he walks along a corridor and passes a naked, well-built woman that's approaching from the opposite direction. What sounds titillating in theory is actually anything but because [[spoiler:that woman is walking on the ceiling ''and'' has [[NightmareFuel a spider's head]] instead of a human's]]. Unsurprisingly, Adam suffers a less than pleasant awakening.
24	* GainaxEnding: [[spoiler: Adam staring resignedly at a room-sized tarantula that has seemingly taken the place of Helen. What's especially strange is that the spider doesn't look like it's going to attack Adam or anything, nor does Adam appear to feel in danger. There's just a human-sized spider in his bedroom and he almost looks like he was expecting it to be there]].
25	* GiantSpider: At one point, we see one looming high over the city, [[CoverDrop as shown in the poster]]. [[spoiler:Its significance is never explained.]]
26	* InexplicablyIdenticalIndividuals: Although implications are plentiful, it's never made clear why Adam and Anthony look identical.
27	* JumpScare: [[spoiler:The sudden revelation of Helen being replaced with a spider in the end]] has been known to startle audiences.
28	* MindScrew: What the entire movie amounts to.
29	* NoEnding: [[spoiler: Adam walks into Helen's room and finds that she has been replaced by a massive spider. He stares at her for a few seconds, then sighs.]] [[GainaxEnding Cut to black.]]
30	* {{Retraux}}: ''Where There's A Will, There's A Way'' has the visual style of a film from the 1960s, and appears to be set around that time as well. This is despite Anthony appearing in it.
31	* RuleThirtyFour: The sex show that Adam (or Anthony) attends at the beginning of the film includes a woman in high heels about to step on a tarantula. This is a real fetish, called "crush."
32	* SeparatedAtBirth: {{Discussed}} as one possibility for Adam and Anthony's being doubles. Both Adam and Anthony's mother deny it, however (they also possess the same scar, something identical twins would not have, unless {{synchronization}} is in play).
33	* ShowWithinAShow: ''Where There's A Will, There's A Way''.
34	* SpidersAreScary:
35	** Spiders are a recurring theme, including the tarantulas in the beginning, the gigantic spider striding through a cityscape in a dream, a woman with the head of a spider in another dream, and [[spoiler:the enormous tarantula that replaces Helen in the end]].
36	** In the penultimate scene, [[spoiler: we're treated to a slow zoom on the window of Anthony and Mary's crashed car, cracked in a distinct spider-web pattern.]]
37	* SpotTheImposter: Anthony's wife suspects briefly that Adam isn't her husband, but dismisses it, [[spoiler: though it's implied [[AmbiguousSituation she might actually recognize him after all]], and simply prefers him to her increasingly unstable and serial cheater husband.]] Adam's girlfriend, meanwhile, realizes who Anthony is. [[spoiler: This leads to both of their deaths]].
38	* ThroughTheEyesOfMadness: One popular interpretation of the film is that it takes place mostly in Adam's head, with Anthony being a symptom of his delusions.
39	* TheUnreveal: The exact reason for Adam and Anthony's being doubles is never explained.
40	* WhamShot: The last scene where Adam goes into the room to find Helen, only to see [[spoiler: a ''really'' huge spider]].

Context Film / Enemy