Line #10 Film/Hopscotch


1	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/hopscotch1.jpg]]
2	[[caption-width-right:350:The most dangerous man in the world.]]
3
4	->''"He actually has the balls to hide out in '''my house'''!"''
5
6	A 1980 [[TheFilmoftheBook adaptation]] of the Brian Garfield novel of the same name, co-written by the original author and directed by Ronald Neame.
7
8	This UsefulNotes/ColdWar-era espionage comedy stars Creator/WalterMatthau as Miles Kendig, a UsefulNotes/{{CIA}} field agent who is {{Kicked Upstairs}} after refusing to [[DeadlyEuphemism terminate]] his [[UsefulNotes/MoscowCentre KGB]] counterpart, an affable [[IncrediblyLamePun operator]] named Yaskov (Creator/HerbertLom). His boss, Myerson (Creator/NedBeatty), is the immature bureaucrat who does the kicking — and [[ClusterFBomb screaming]].
9
10	Rather than ride a desk for the next few years, Kendig decides to write and publish his memoirs, including thirty years' worth of embarrassing state secrets. Aided by his lover Isobel (Creator/GlendaJackson) and hunted by his protégé Joe Cutter (Creator/SamWaterston), Kendig skips around the globe as both the CIA and KGB race to apprehend him... or kill him.
11	----
12	!!Tropes used include:
13	* AdaptationDistillation: The novel was a drama written as a counterpoint to the flashy Film/JamesBond stereotypes of espionage. This film is a comedy, although still a counterpoint to flashy Film/JamesBond stereotypes.
14	* AffectionateGestureToTheHead: Kendig ruffles Joe Cutter's hair [[spoiler:while tying him to a chair]].
15	* AngryGuardDog: Isobel's dog, which she says is provoked by the smell of stupidity. [[spoiler:She later uses the dog to box in Follett while she makes her escape.]]
16	* AntiHero: Kendig is extremely selfish and reckless, but Myerson is such a {{Jerkass}} that the audience ends up on his side.
17	* AuthorAppeal: Walter Matthau was a big fan of opera and helped select some of the pieces used in the film.
18	* BadBoss: Myerson. At the start, he summons Kendig to his office and then ''calls Mrs. Myerson'' to discuss a trivial matter when Kendig tries to explain why he didn't arrest Yaskov, before brushing off the (actually rather sensible from a long-term counterintelligence perspective) explanation and then [[ReassignedToAntarctica transferring him to records]]. When Kendig starts sending chapters out, Myerson immediately decides to have him killed rather than simply arrest him.
19	* {{Bang Bang BANG}}: The FBI agents think that a string of firecrackers sounds like a machine gun. They return fire.
20	* BrandishmentBluff:
21	** Kendig sneaks up on Ross and pokes his finger into his back to take him hostage, taking Ross's ''actual'' gun to keep it up.
22	** Later, he holds up Joe Cutter [[spoiler:with Cutter's ''own'' gun, which is unloaded. Joe knows he would never have used it anyway, and lets Kendig tie him up.]]
23	* ChekhovsGun: Myerson interrupts his rousting of Kendig to talk to his wife on the phone about renting out his summer house. Kending makes a point of hiding out there to write his book.
24	* CompromisingMemoirs: Containing thirty years of stuff that will embarrass a lot of people on both sides of the Iron Curtain.
25	* CowboyCop: Kendig's reputation at the CIA, but Myerson isn't impressed.
26	* CrazyPrepared: When Kendig leaves Myerson's office after being ReassignedToAntarctica, he takes less than 5 seconds to form his exit strategy, which involves swapping the contents of his file with the contents of an alphabetically-adjacent person's file ''whose name he clearly had already memorized in case such need ever arose.''
27	* {{Cluster F Bomb}}: Myerson drops them, at least by 1980 standards.
28	* CreepyChangingPainting: PlayedForLaughs with a photograph of Myerson changing from a smile to a frown as Kendig types out his expose in Myerson's house.
29	* DaChief: Myerson so desperately wants to come across as this, but he's just a blustery bully who nobody really respects or likes.
30	* DeadpanSnarker: Isobel is delightfully sarcastic. "No. This is a recording of a person asleep."
31	* {{Deadly Euphemism}}: "What did you want me to do, terminate him?"
32	* DeceptiveDisciple: Joe Cutter, quite against his will.
33	* DoesNotLikeGuns: Kendig hasn't carried a gun for years. Joe Cutter, his protege, carries an unloaded one.
34	--> "No bullets. I'm proud of you, Joe."
35	* FailedASpotCheck: Follet tries to get Kendig's whereabouts out of Isobel by claiming he needs to tell Kendig that his mother's just died. Isobel informs him that Mrs. Kendig died ''years'' ago, and that Follet's stupidity is upsetting her dog.
36	* [[spoiler:FakingTheDead: Kendig crashes a small plane by remote control when he's had enough of being chased around by Myerson.]]
37	* FriendlyEnemy: Kendig and Yaskov. Kendig very amiably convinces Yaskov to give up a roll of film at the start of the movie and they later share some vodka.
38	* InterserviceRivalry: The FBI man at Myerson's house makes a point to remind Myerson and his CIA people that the FBI is running the show. Later, Myerson says that FBI must stand for "fucking ball-busting imbeciles."
39	* LargeHam: Kendig singing opera while crossing European borders.
40	* LighterAndSofter: After objecting to how violent the [[Film/DeathWish film version]] of his novel ''Literature/DeathWish'' turned out, Brian Garfield wrote ''Hopscotch'' as an attempt to do a story with a lot of action where no one was killed or harmed.
41	* MacGyvering: A minor instance when Kendig is held up by some good-natured British coppers. He puts together a small device that blows a fuse in the station when he plugs it in.
42	* TheMenInBlack: Kendig references it, referring to the CIA agents who will question the pilot as "guys with little plastic ID cards."
43	* MrSmith: Myerson introduces himself and Joe as Smith and Jones while trying to bully Kendig's publisher. The publisher dryly says, "From my reading of the manuscript, you ''have'' to be Myerson," in response.
44	* TheNapoleon: Kendig references this by continually calling attention to Myerson's being shorter than him.
45	* NeverMyFault: Kendig, talking to the photo, opines that Myerson is not likely to have had any flashes of remorse and probably sees himself as an innocent victim betrayed.
46	* TheNondescript: More of a characteristic of ''double'' agents, according to Yaskov, but Kendig (as played by Matthau) is an ordinary-looking man you'd pass in the street. He gives himself distinguishing characteristics when he wants to be spotted, like when he loudly sings opera while crossing the Swiss border.
47	* NotQuiteDead: [[spoiler:Kendig fakes his death in a (remote controlled) airplane crash.]]
48	* NotWhatItLooksLike: Kendig and Yaskov share some vodka after Kendig is fired, and Follett is there to take pictures. (They notice him, but Kendig brushes it off.) Myerson thinks it means that Kendig is defecting--which ''is'' what Yaskov is offering, but Cutter says Kendig would never do so, and he's right.
49	* {{Oil Slick}}: Of ''course'' the barrel of oil in his truck is for the ''driveway'' he's building at the house he is ''renting''...
50	* {{Phone Trace Race}}: Subverted. Kendig teases the tracing technicians until they discover that he is living in their boss's summer house. Which he then tricks the FBI into destroying as a practical joke.
51	* {{Public Domain Soundtrack}}: Most of the background music was composed by Mozart, though operas by Rossini and Puccini are represented briefly.
52	* PuppyDogEyes: Kendig gives Isobel a truly impressive hangdog look to guilt her into helping him.
53	* QuickNip: After his wife serves tea, Myerson pours it in the sink and refills the cup with scotch.
54	* RefugeInAudacity: The whole bit where Kendig rents Myerson's summer house to do some writing in it, and then tricks the FBI agents into shooting it to pieces.
55	* ReassignedToAntarctica: Kending is assigned to a desk job. Becomes a ReassignmentBackfire because it gives him the opportunity to collect information for his book.
56	-->'''Isobel:''' Myerson is furious. He keeps talking about Cuba. He's talking about sending you to Cuba."
57	* RetiredBadass:
58	** Kendig. The entire movie is his demonstration of how forcing a badass into retirement can backfire.
59	** Isobel, who left the CIA some years ago when the work got dirty. She's eminently capable of predicting their tricks and fending them off.
60	* RunningGag: Kendig and Isobel joke about Follett's sexuality, as he monitors and attempts to trace their calls.
61	* ShameIfSomethingHappened: Myerson tries to threaten the British publisher this way. The publisher is unfazed, having already made plans to ensure the safety of the manuscript and the publishing process.
62	* ShoutOut: Cutter, about to meet with Yaskov:
63	--> "He must have seen ''{{Film/Casablanca}}'' ten times."
64	** When Yaskov suggests he might run off instead of handing over what TheMole gave him, Kendig says they'd look ridiculous chasing each other like Creator/LaurelAndHardy.
65	** The character Follett is a good-natured jab at fellow author Creator/KenFollett.
66	---> '''Kendig:''' That's Follett, he's an idiot. Probably no film in the camera.
67	* SirSwearsALot: Myerson is very foul-mouthed. (This results in a lot of [[{{Bowdlerize}} Bowdlerizing]] of his dialogue when the movie is shown on television and, unusually, available as an alternate audio track on the DVD)
68	* SmallNameBigEgo: Myerson, who places far more value on "dirty tricks" like assassination than careful footwork and long-term planning.
69	* SpySpeak: When calling Isobel from a diner, Kendig refers to "the folks from home" being surprised to see him.
70	* SuicideByCop: Myerson's [[WrongGenreSavvy theory]] of Kendig's plan.
71	-->'''Myerson:''' It's his [[SirSwearsALot fucking]] suicide note. The [[SirSwearsALot bastard]] wants to go down in flames, and he wants us to put him out of his misery.
72	* ThatRemindsMeOfASong: For no reason whatsoever, a latter-days-of-disco lounge band with a singer who, let's face it, is ''not'' Music/DonnaSummer.
73	* ThreatBackfire: Kendig's publisher (accurately) believes that any threats made on him, and Kendig's disappearance, will be an enormous boon to the book's publicity.
74	* TheUnReveal: It's never revealed what crime or blunder Kendig exposes about Myerson in the final chapter of his memoirs, but everyone who reads it is stunned. Kendig's best friend tells him it was going too far, and Myerson tries to personally shoot Kendig afterward.
75	* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: No mention is made of what happened to Yaskov and Myerson after the book is published and all their embarrassing secrets get out.
76	* WhatTheHellIsThatAccent: Kendig's affected Southern accent while he's working out of Myerson's summer house. One man he deals with tells him he can stop because it's so terrible.
77	--> ''Drahvways?''
78	* WigDressAccent: [[spoiler:At the end, Kendig starts affecting disguises--we see him as an Indian--to go into stores and talk about his book, until Isobel verbally dopeslaps him for taking such risks.]]
79	* WorthyOpponent: Yaskov likes Kendig and calls him the [=CIA's=] best operative. He has much more respect for Kendig than Kendig's actual boss.
80	-->'''Yaskov:''' I quite like him, you know. One can't help it.\
81	'''Myerson:''' ''[looks uncomfortable and presses the elevator button]''

Context Film / Hopscotch