Line #10 Film/LaTourMontparnasseInfernale


1	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/latourmontparnasseinfernale.jpg]]
2	[[caption-width-right:350:''[[Film/DieHard Don't Die Too Hard]]'']]
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4	->'''Éric:''' Hasta la vista, bye bye!
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6	''La Tour Montparnasse infernale'' (sometimes translated as ''Don't Die Too Hard'', literally ''The Infernal Montparnasse Tower'') is a 2001 French comedy film directed by Charles Nemes and starring Éric Judor, Creator/RamzyBedia and Marina Foïs.
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8	Éric and Ramzy are window washers who work at the Tour Montparnasse in UsefulNotes/{{Paris}}. Eric is in love with Stéphanie, an executive who he has never talked to, but who he sees every day because she works in the skyscrapper. Shortly after the close of business, a group of gangsters enters the building and takes hostage several executives, including Stéphanie. Éric and Ramzy, who have stayed late in the skyscrapper, will try to free her.
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10	A {{prequel}}, ''La Tour de contrôle infernale'', was released [[SequelGap in 2016]].
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13	!!''La Tour Montparnasse infernale'' (2001) provides examples of:
14	* AirVentPassageway: Éric and Ramzy use an air-vent passageway when they are chased by Ming.
15	* AreYouSureYouCanDriveThisThing: Éric and Ramzy try to fly a helicopter. It ends in a crash landing.
16	* AssholeVictim: The CEO is a horrible person (he slapped his niece in the face because he thought that the colour of the paper she used for a document was ugly; he does not care if his niece is shot down by gangsters...), so the audience does not care if he is taken hostage.
17	* BadBoss: "Machin" abuses his minions: he hits one of them in the face with a gun because he shot in a window. [[YouHaveFailedMe He also shoots Chang down]].
18	* BorrowedBiometricBypass: A gangster cut the hand of the CEO's wife, because her hand is necessary to open the second door of the safe. Then the CEO is forced to look into a retinal scanner to open a third door.
19	* BrandishmentBluff: When Ming fights Ramzy, Éric shows up and pretends that he has a gun under his coat of mail. Obviously, it is just a FingerGun.
20	* BruceLeeClone: Ming, a martial art fighter with a bowl-cut, a yellow jumpsuits and a nunchaku. (His fight scene with Ramzy is a {{parody}} of a scene from ''Film/GameOfDeath''.)
21	* BulletTime: {{Parodied\|Trope}} when Éric manage to dodge the bullets shot at him.
22	* TheCameo: The famous rapper Creator/JoeyStarr (of Music/SupremeNTM fame) appears briefly as a policeman.
23	* CastingGag: [=JoeyStarr=] playing the role of a policeman is quite funny given the fact that he has had many problems with the police (including being sentenced for insulting the police during his concerts).
24	* ClosetGay: At one point, when he thinks they're going to be blown up by a bomb, Ramzy admits to Éric that he's attracted to the (fictional) bodybuilder Peter [=MacCalloway=]. Éric spends the rest of the movie mocking him for this, while Ramzy tries in vain to downplay the statement.
25	* ComingInHot: In the end, the helicopter has to crash land into the front of Montparnasse train station.
26	* DamselInDistress: Stéphanie is taken hostage by a group of gangsters. Éric and Ramzy decide to help her. {{Subverted\|Trope}} because she is actually the brains of the operation.
27	* DidNotGetTheGirl: Éric does not get together with Stéphanie in the end.
28	* DieHardOnAnX: A skyscrapper is taken over by gangsters and Éric and Ramzy accidentally use guerrilla tactics to stop them.
29	* DisneyDeath: Machin shoots Stéphanie at point-blank range. She collapses and there is a big bloodstain on her belly. It turns out that this scene was staged by Stéphanie herself.
30	* DisneyVillainDeath: Machin dies when he falls from the helicopter.
31	* TheDitz: Éric and Ramzy. Ramzy is slightly more clever than Eric, but he is still a complete doofus.
32	* DressingAsTheEnemy: Éric and Ramzy wear the uniform of the helicopter pilots and their face-concealing helmets to pose as them.
33	* ElevatorFailure: Chang is in the elevator. Suddenly it stops because a bomb explodes. Chang has to get out through the ceiling of the cabin.
34	* EqualOpportunityEvil: The group of gangsters is lead by a white Frenchman (Michel Vignault or "Machin"). It includes, besides several white Frenchmen, two Asians (Ming and Chang), a German (Hans), and an African American (Chris).
35	* ExtremelyShortTimespan: The story takes place between the end of the afternoon and the next morning.
36	* TheFool: Éric and Ramzi are two stupid window washers. They do not understand what really happens. They do not realize that Stéphanie is the BigBad. Highly-trained gangsters are after them to kill them, but they manage to survive and to ruin the gangsters' plan by sheer luck.
37	* HellishCopter: The helicopter used by the gangsters to escape ends up in the front of Montparnasse train station.
38	* HoistByHisOwnPetard: Chris, a gangster, is killed by a bullet that he shoots at Éric, because the bullet ricochets off Éric's armor.
39	* HostageSituation: The gangsters take hostage the members of the board of a company, who are the CEO's sons. This is to force the CEO to disclose the code that opens the first door of the safe. This is also to prevent to police from storming the building.
40	* KnightsArmorHideout: Éric and Ramzy try to hide from the gangsters. They decide to hide in full knight armor suits, which becomes a way to make multiple jokes: they make an [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5mTrP6UJtoY attempt]] at being [[WithCatlikeTread stealthy]]; they use their disguises to hide in plain sight, but one of them gets beaten-up by the leader of the bad guys who is [[PercussiveTherapy taking out his frustration]] on what he thinks is an [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hmaKqEDVXTo empty armor]].
41	* LoveInterestTraitor: It is revealed early that Stéphanie, Éric's love interest, is the mastermind of the taking of hostages, but the protagonists take a very long time to realize it.
42	* {{Malaproper}}: Éric and Ramzy get many words wrong. For example, Éric says "pour ta gouvernante" ("for your housekeeper") instead of "pour ta gouverne" ("for your information") and "Hasta la vista, bye bye" instead of "Hasta la vista, baby".
43	* ManChild: Éric and Ramzy act like young children. The police officer who intercepts their call on the radio comes to the conclusion that they are children playing with a radio.
44	* MeanBoss: The CEO slapped Stéphanie in the face because he thought that the colour of the paper she used for a document was ugly. He is also rude with the security guard at the entrance of the building.
45	* MistakenForBadass: "Machin" thinks that Éric and Ramzy are "professionals", whereas they are just very lucky idiots.
46	* MuscleAngst: Ramzy's arms are skinny and everybody notices it. Yet, he follows a special programme of body-building and should become very muscular.
47	* NoNameGiven: Éric and Ramzy's characters are never named. When he talks to the police, Ramzy pretends that Éric is Michel, a philosopher. When Éric and Ramzy meet Stéphanie, Ramzy introduces himself as Peter Mac Calloway and Éric as François, then as Francis (Éric adds "Francis Huster", which is the name of a French actor). In both cases, it seems to be made up identities.
48	* {{Parody}}:
49	** The film as a whole (including the poster) is a parody of ''Film/DieHard''.
50	** The [[BulletTime bullet dodge scene]] is a parody of ''Film/TheMatrix''.
51	** The fight between Ming and Ramzy is a parody of the fight between Billy Lo (Creator/BruceLee) and Hakim (Creator/KareemAbdulJabbar) in ''Film/GameOfDeath'' (the costumes, including the yellow tracksuit, are the same).
52	** In the end, Stéphanie tells Éric and Ramzy that she has booby-trapped their shoes. She pretends that their shoes will explode if they run slower than 30 km/h. This is a reference to ''Film/{{Speed}}''.
53	* PinballProjectile: A bullet shot by a gangster, Chris, at Éric ricochets off Éric's armor and kills the gangster.
54	* ReadingLips: Éric thinks that he can read lips. Actually, he gets some words right, but he always misunderstands the full meaning of the sentence.
55	* ShoutOut:
56	** The title is a reference to ''Film/TheToweringInferno'' (in French ''La Tour infernale'').
57	** Éric tells Ramzy "Hasta la vista, bye bye", a malapropism for "Hasta la vista, baby", a catchphrase from ''Film/Terminator2JudgmentDay''.
58	** Stéphanie ironically tells Machin that he is as perceptive as Shaggy from Franchise/ScoobyDoo.
59	** Ramzy calls Ming "San Ku Kaï", which is the French title of ''Message from Space: Galactic Wars'', a spin-off series of the Japanese film ''Film/MessageFromSpace''.
60	* SpannerInTheWorks: Eric and Ramzy, two very stupid window washers, ruin the elaborate plan of Stéphanie to steal the money of her uncle.
61	* UnwantedRescue: Éric and Ramzy want to free Stéphanie, whereas she does not need rescue, since she is the mastermind of the taking of hostages.
62	* UptownGirl: Éric, a poor window washer, falls in love with Stéphanie, a rich executive.
63	* YouHaveFailedMe: "Machin" shoots Chang down when he finds him unconscious, because he has lost the hand of the CEO's wife.
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65	!!''La Tour de contrôle infernale'' (2016) provides examples of:
66	* BadBoss: Janouniou shoots down his mooks on any pretext, for example because they correct his language mistakes.
67	* BananaPeel: {{Exaggerated\|Trope}}. According to Éric and Ramzy, bananas caused a truck to crash.
68	* BloodyHilarious: Bachir Bouzouk's very bloody wounds are played for laughs.
69	* EmptyQuiver: The "Moustachious" steal communications satellites and a nuclear weapon from a plane. They plan to explode the nuclear device above Paris.
70	* GenerationXerox: Like their sons, Ernest Krakenkrick and Bachir Bouzouk are the SpannerInTheWorks in a DieHardOnAnX scenario.
71	* HighPressureBlood: Happens to Bachir Bouzouk when his hands and his feet are wounded. He loses liters of blood.
72	* IdenticalGrandson: Éric and Ramzy play the roles of the fathers of their characters in the first film. Marina Foïs plays the mother of Stéphanie, her character in the first film.
73	* MalevolentMaskedMen: The "Moustachious" wear masks.
74	* OffscreenMomentOfAwesome: During a job interview, Éric and Ramzy tell the climax of the story, which is not showed on screen: Zavier dropped his bananas; the truck drove on it and skidded. This prevented the explosion.
75	* {{Parody}}: The film as a whole is a parody of ''Film/DieHard2''.
76	* PocketProtector: {{Parodied\|Trope}}. Krakenkrick, Bouzouk, Jean-Peter [=McCallaway=], "Le Méchant", and Zavier are successively revealed to have survived a close-range shot, because they were protected by objects hidden under their clothes, like dog tags, a weight plate, and bananas.
77	* {{Prequel}}: The story is set in 1981, 20 years before the events of the first film.

Context Film / LaTourMontparnasseInfernale