Line #30 Film/RepoMan


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5	[[quoteright:310:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/repomanposter.png]]
6
7	->''"It happens sometimes, people just explode. Natural causes."''
8	-->-- '''Agent Rogersz'''
9
10	A 1984 CultClassic {{black comedy}} [[ScienceFiction sci-fi]] movie written and directed by Alex Cox and starring Creator/EmilioEstevez, known for its comic vignettes, outlandish scenarios, GenreBusting aesthetic, memorable dialogue, and well-liked CultSoundtrack consisting entirely of songs from famous PunkRock artists like Music/IggyPop, Music/BlackFlag, Music/SuicidalTendencies, Music/{{Fear\|band}}, and others.
11
12	Young LA punk Otto Maddox (Estevez) has a really bad day: he gets fired from his job at the supermarket, sees his girlfriend cheat on him with his best friend at a party, and learns that his ex-hippie parents donated all his money to a televangelist. Then he meets Bud (Creator/HarryDeanStanton) and becomes a repossession agent, quickly discovering that the life of a repo man stimulates him a great deal more than the increasingly phony world of LA punks. Through various encounters and a mad rush between competing repo men (''and'' the UsefulNotes/{{CIA}}) to locate a [[CoolCar 1964 Chevrolet Malibu]], Otto learns that "the life of a repo man is always intense".
13
14	Based on [[strike:a]] some true stories that Cox picked up while working as a repo man in real life. There aren't many aliens, but there's plenty of shrimp!
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16	A script for a potential sequel was adapted as a ComicBook called ''ComicBook/WaldosHawaiianHoliday''.
17
18	Alex Cox released a sequel named ''Film/RepoChick'' in 2009.
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20	Not to be confused with ''Film/RepoTheGeneticOpera'', ''Film/RepoMen'' or to [[Wrestling/BarryDarsow the professional wrestler who used the name Repo Man]]. Definitely not to be confused with ''Literature/ReaperMan''.
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22	----
23	!!"I don't want no tropes in my car":
24
25	%%* AscendToAHigherPlaneOfExistence: Miller and Otto at the end.
26	%%* ArcWords: A whole big plate of them.
27	%%* ArtificialLimbs : An obvious, bizarre, and hilarious ShoutOut to ''Film/{{Metropolis}}''.%%Explain.
28	* BlatantLies: Agent Rogersz' assertion that sometimes people just blow up to explain the state trooper's spontaneously combusted body.
29	* BrandX: Otto works at Ralph's before he becomes a repo man, so everything has the generic labels Ralph's used to have. The surviving cans of "Beer" in particular are now prized collectors items by fans of the film.
30	** It's so pervasive that even the butyl nitrate spilled on the table in the club is marked with a generic label.
31	** At one point, Otto eats from a can labeled "Food".
32	** The movie's [[Creator/TheCriterionCollection Criterion]] release even gets in on the fun, with the DVD itself featuring a plain white label that just says "Disc."
33	* TheCameo: The Circle Jerks as... the Circle Jerks if they were a lounge band.
34	* {{Cloudcuckoolander}}: Depending on your perspective a) Miller, b) everybody but Miller, c) everybody and Miller is so far he comes around the other side.
35	* ChurchOfHappyology: [[IncrediblyLamePun Dioretix]]. They are constantly, and that is ''constantly'', ripping off followers or trying to brainwash people into becoming followers.
36	%%* ClusterFBomb
37	* CoolCar: Subverted, the car that holds everyone's desires is:
38	** MacGuffin: A 1964 Chevrolet Malibu with New Mexico plates that's somehow worth $20,000. [[note]] For modern viewers of the film who now live in a world where a four-door 1964 Chevrolet Malibu is a valuable classic car, imagine a 1997 Toyota Corolla that's worth $50,000 in its place and you'll get why the repo company is so baffled by the value of the car when the notice for its repossession comes through. [[/note]] And opening its trunk makes people vaporize.
39	** In the end, it does become rather cool, with [[spoiler: a lightning bolt-generating forcefield and the ability to fly (and to possibly traverse time and space)]]. Who wouldn't want those features?
40	%%* CoolOldGuy: Bud, at first.
41	* CreatorCameo: Alex Cox is on a bench watching the Rodriguez brothers steal a car.
42	* DownLADrain: The car chase goes into the drains as well.
43	* FaceHeelTurn: After being kidnapped by them, [[spoiler: Leila]] joins TheMenInBlack and starts helping Agent Rogersz out
44	* FreudianExcuse: Otto's punk friend tries to blame society for his criminal ways, only for Otto to point out that that's bullshit, he's just a white suburban punk like him.
45	* GainaxEnding: Whatever is inside the car goes completely haywire and nobody can approach it but Miller, who invites Otto to come with him. The car flies off and zooms around Los Angeles, apparently enters hyperspace...roll credits?
46	* GenreBusting: How many [[OverlyNarrowSuperlative punk rock sci-fi satires]] are there in the world?
47	%%* HeroicComedicSociopath: They steal cars ... legally!
48	* HippieParents: Otto's parents are shown to be stoner hippies who constantly watch TV, never leaving the couch [[spoiler: to the point of having actual cobwebs]]. They give Otto's college fund to a Christian TV cult.
49	* ItsPopularNowItSucks: InUniverse examples.
50	-->'''Lite''': "I was into these dudes before anyone. Wanted me to be their manager. I called bullshit on that. Managing a pop group is no job for a man."\
51	'''Otto''': (Regarding the "lounge" performance by the Music/CircleJerks) "I can't believe I used to like these guys."
52	* {{Jerkass}}: The Rodriguez Brothers. The other repo men aren't that nice either, however.
53	* JustAsPlanned: When Otto escapes from being tortured, Agent Rogersz casually remarks, "It's all part of the plan."
54	%%* LoanShark
55	* {{Lobotomy}}: One lunatic character laments on how great he felt after getting a lobotomy himself. Of course, he also talks about how high levels of radiation is harmless.
56	* MeaningfulName: All of the Repo Men ("Bud", "Oly", Miller and Lite) are named after beers: Budweiser, Olympia, Miller High Life, and Miller Lite.
57	* TheMenInBlack: The CIA agents searching for the missing aliens. All of them wear black suits, white shirts, and black ties, and have blonde hair.
58	* MexicanStandoff: In the convenience store late in the film.
59	* OffTheShelfFX:
60	** Need a SicklyGreenGlow and can't afford CG? Buy some green glow-paint!
61	** Rogersz' hand is simply covered in aluminum foil. Her using a screwdriver to adjust it helps sell it as a robot hand.
62	* OrphanedSetup: Oly's joke about the pig with a wooden leg.[[note]]The pig is, depending on the version of the joke, either remarkably talented or a hero that saved the farmer's life, and thus "too good to eat all at once".[[/note]]
63	* ParentalSavingsSplurge: Otto's bad day culminates in his parents donating all his college money to a televangelist. Which prompts him to become a repossession agent.
64	%%* PokeThePoodle: The punks, whose sole motivation for their antics is apparently to "do some crimes". Even after they shoot a guy.
65	* ProductPlacement: The only aversion to BrandX were the Christmas tree air fresheners. The makers sponsored the film.
66	-->"Find one in every car. You'll see."
67	* ProductionForeshadowing: One girl at a party wears a Music/SidVicious t-shirt. Alex Cox's next film would be ''Film/SidAndNancy''.
68	* RagtagBunchOfMisfits: The employees of the Helping Hand Acceptance Corporation certainly apply
69	* RandomEventsPlot: Before the Chevy Malibu comes into play, the plot is mostly pieces of Otto and the other Repo Men doing their job.
70	* RunningGag: Several:
71	** The three punks committing random crimes.
72	** The BrandX generic labels on everything.
73	** The Plate O'Shrimp.
74	** The old lady whose trash Otto runs over.
75	** The Christmas tree air fresheners.
76	** The televangelist, whose demands for money over various TV and radio programs can be heard in the background of many scenes.
77	** Dioretix.
78	* ScaryBlackMan: Lite, who carries around a gun and isn't afraid to use it if people try to shoot him while he's taking their car. [[spoiler: It's loaded with blanks, which gets the job done just as well as if he'd used regular bullets.]]
79	* ShoutOut: A couple to Creator/WilliamSBurroughs.
80	** When Marlene takes Otto into the hospital, a voice on the PA says "[[Literature/NakedLunch Dr. Benway]] to surgery." Nice touch.
81	** The backwards credits at the end reference Film/KissMeDeadly, and the glowing trunk of the 1964 Malibu references the glowing box.
82	* SicklyGreenGlow: The 1964 Chevy Malibu at the end.
83	* SmolderingShoes: The highway patrolman who opens the trunk of the Malibu in the beginning of the film is reduced to a pair of smoking boots.
84	%%* StableTimeLoop: Miller's interpretation of reality.
85	* StayWithTheAliens:
86	-->'''Leila''': "Otto! What about our relationship?"\
87	'''Otto''': (Pauses and looks back) "Fuck that."
88	%%* StrawmanNewsMedia: Played for laughs in many a FunnyBackgroundEvent.
89	%%* ThemeNaming: Different beers.
90	%%* ThoseTwoGuys: The Rodriguez Brothers.
91	* TooDumbToLive: Archie opens the trunk of the Malibu, even after he's seen that doing so emits a bright light and whatever's in the trunk is extremely hot to the touch. [[spoiler: He is fried for his trouble.]]
92	* UnspokenPlanGuarantee: Of course "blanks get the job done too" if you don't tell us.
93	* UnusualEuphemism: [[{{Bowdlerise}} Flip you, melon farmer!]] (Only in the TV edit, which also features Otto exclaiming "Holy sheep dip!" where the actual movie has "Holy sheep shit!")

Context Film / RepoMan