Line #104 Film/SecondhandLions


1	[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/secondhand_lions01.jpg]]
2
3	->''"Sometimes, the things that may or may not be true are the things a man needs to believe in the most. That people are basically good; that honor, courage and virtue mean everything... that good always triumphs over evil; and I want you to remember this, that love... true love never dies."''
4	-->-- '''Hub [=McCann=]'''
5
6	In this 2003 film set in the 1960s, Walter Caldwell (Creator/HaleyJoelOsment) is dumped off on his great uncles by his ditzy mom Mae (Creator/KyraSedgwick), who says she needs some time to herself so she can go to court reporting school. The uncles, Hub (Creator/RobertDuvall) and Garth [=McCann=] (Creator/MichaelCaine), don't like having a "kid" around cramping their style, but eventually they warm up to him, and he does to them. The uncles are a little... eccentric (they fish by shooting bass with their shotguns, and spend their days chasing off traveling salesmen... with their shotguns) to say the least, but time proves them to be surprisingly capable foster dads. Walter is awed by Hub's crazy ways, while Garth spins tales of their adventuring days of yore. Are any of the stories true -- including the one about the uncles sitting on a hidden stash of plundered wealth? And how did they afford to buy that lion?
7
8	Co-produced by Creator/NewLineCinema and Creator/DigitalDomain.
9
10	----
11	!!This movie provides examples of:
12
13	* TheAllegedCar: Garth and Hub drive a rusty old truck.
14	* AllGirlsWantBadBoys: Mae apparently has a thing for crooks. [[ArmorPiercingQuestion When Walter asks if her new beau Stan has already hit her]], she flat-out ''yells at her son'' that ''it does not matter at all''.
15	-->"MIND YOUR OWN BUSINESS!!"
16	* AmbiguousCriminalHistory: The origin of Hub and Garth's fortune is left purposefully ambiguous, but rumors from various people around town and in various deleted scenes imply that they amassed it through BankRobbery. [[spoiler: It actually comes from tricking the Sheikh into giving them ''a lot'' of gold.]]
17	* ArabianNightsDays: The mundane version.
18	* ArmorPiercingQuestion: While telling off Mae about her choice of beaus, Walter asks her: "Has he [Stan] hit you yet?"
19	* ArtisticLicenseGunSafety: Played for laughs. When going after Jasmine the Lion because they think she's mauling Walter, the group includes a young girl who clearly won't be able to handle the recoil of the shotgun she's holding and two boys who aren't big enough to handle a shotgun each so the bigger one holds grip while the smaller one supports the barrel.
20	* AssassinOutclassin: The evil Sheik sends a number of assassins after Hub and Jasmine after their first encounters, and all of them came up short (save one [[spoiler: who was Garth in disguise, playing along so the two could defeat the Sheikh once and for all]]).
21	* AsskickingLeadsToLeadership: The brothers [=McCann=] are able to assume control of any situation by being calmly assertive. And armed.
22	* BadassBoast: Hub lists what he's done in his GloryDays, as he's [[NeckLift choking]] a teenager.
23	--> "I'm Hub [=McCann=]. I've fought in two World Wars and countless smaller ones on three continents. I led thousands of men into battle with everything from horses and swords to artillery and tanks. I've seen the headwaters of the Nile, and tribes of natives no white man had ever seen before. I've won and lost a dozen fortunes, '''KILLED MANY MEN''' and loved only one woman with a passion a FLEA like you could never begin to understand. That's who I am. '''NOW, GO HOME, BOY'''!"
24	* TheBadGuyWins: Strangely, the quote from the KarmaHoudini entry below is the page quote for this trope, even though the example is closer to Zigzagged. But in the end, it's technically [[spoiler:{{Averted}}. Hub gets his girl, the Sheikh becomes very wealthy due to profits from oil, and is apparently still living large at the end of the film... but as Hub's FriendlyEnemy, if the alternate ending is to be taken as canon. So the bad guy [[SubvertedTrope didn't so much as win]] as he did get a separate HappilyEverAfter, leaving the whole situation as a draw]].
25	* BankRobbery: Implied by Stan to be how the uncles got their money. A series of deleted scenes gave further hints that the uncles may have been a set of notorious bandits who robbed banks [[BadSanta while wearing Santa suits with fake beards]] to mask their identities. [[spoiler: He's lying through his teeth, of course.]]
26	* BecauseYouWereNiceToMe: Jasmine was an old lazy lioness who didn't even bother to attack Hub even though he planned on shooting her for sport. But was really grouchy and didn't like Hub's relatives. However because Walter fed and took care of her, she treated him with near kitten like affection. [[spoiler: She eventually died trying to protect Walter from Stan.]]
27	** Hub and Garth warm up to Walter once it becomes clear he's the ''only'' relative they have who isn't interested in their money. [[spoiler: They return the favor at the end by adopting him from his awful mother and her new, even-worse boyfriend.]]
28	* BeefBandage: After Hub beats up some thugs, he gives them some meat to press against their bruises.
29	* BetrayalByInaction: When Mae brings Stan to the [=McCann=] farm in an effort to try and turn Walter against Garth and Hub and find their money, Stan takes him off for a "man-to-man talk". Mae just turns away while Stan takes her son behind the barn and tries to beat information out of him (though it's possible she went back into the house to get Hub and Garth for help). A later conversation indicates she was aware of his abusive tendencies already but tells Walter she has no choice but to marry him. This is finally the last straw for Walter and he decides to leave his mother for good.
30	* BigBrotherInstinct: Hub to Garth in their youth. In their final years, Garth inverts this from time to time.
31	* BittersweetEnding: [[spoiler: The two uncles die after the kid grows up and moves out on his own. But dammit if they don't go out in the [[RuleOfCool coolest way possible.]]]]
32	* BlackHumor: [[spoiler: The uncles' death]]. We see [[spoiler:the airplane embedded in the barn...upside-down]].
33	* {{Bookends}}: The beginning and the end of the movie are set in the present, the rest some decades previous.
34	* BorrowedCatchphrase: Cornered by Stan, Walter remembers the part of the story where Hub told the Sheik "Defend yourself!" so Walter says the same thing to Stan before unleashing a GroinAttack.
35	* BrainlessBeauty: Mae is quite beautiful, but sadly, is rather dim-witted.
36	* BullyingADragon: The lead-in to the bar fight scene. Hub might be old, but he's a good twice your size, and doesn't look like he's particularly interested in sharing his barbecue, ''or'' amused by your hoodlum antics. Do you ''really'' want to pick a fight with him?
37	%%* ABoyAndHisX: A boy and his '''LIONESS'''. %% Add more context to describe their relationship and what effect it has on them. %%
38	* CallToAgriculture: Invoked. Garth wants himself and Hub to tend a small garden because, according to him, it's just something that retired people do.
39	* CaptainErsatz: The comics Walter draws in the end are obviously inspired by ''ComicStrip/CalvinAndHobbes'', though it might be a little cloudy since they were drawn in RealLife by [[ComicStrip/BloomCounty Berke Breathed]].
40	* CharacterFilibuster: Without the stigma. Uncle Hub's "What every boy needs to know about being a man" speech. Since such matters have a tendency to be seen as subjective, it's mostly just alluded to.
41	* ComedicSociopathy: Hub and Garth shooting at the salesmen. Taken even further in a deleted scene: Walter catches Garth mailing requests for companies to send salesmen to the house. Garth explains that Hub needs something to keep himself occupied. Let that sink in. He was requesting that salesmen come to the house ''just so he and Hub could shoot at them.''
42	* CoolOldGuy: Both uncles, but especially Hub whose adventures in Garth's stories are as bombastic and inspiring as those found in pulp novels.
43	* CoolUncle: Hub and Garth.
44	* ConspicuousConsumption: Thanks to one particularly persistent traveling salesman, Hub and Garth begin buying frivolous items simply because they can afford them. Including an enormous yacht that they plant in the middle of their tiny fish pond.
45	* ConsummateLiar: Mae so much. Over the course of the film, Walter figures this out the hard way. It reaches a point where [[spoiler:he leaves her after discovering that her boyfriend will be staying with them after said boyfriend attacked Walter.]]
46	* CrazyEnoughToWork: The uncles allow Walter to stick around mainly to annoy their gold-digging relatives. Uncle Garth gives similar approval to Walter's suggestion that they find out what traveling solicitors are selling ''before'' shooting at them.
47	* CurbStompBattle: [[spoiler: Stan vs. Jasmine the Lion. Had she not got that fatal heart attack, he likely wouldn't have gotten out of it alive. Still, he gets a really nasty mauling.]]
48	* DeathByChildbirth: Jasmine (the princess). The baby died with her.
49	* DeathSeeker: Subtle, but it becomes apparent that [[spoiler: Uncle Hub]] is seeking death.
50	* DefrostingIceKing: Hub and Garth eventually warm up to Walter and [[spoiler: legally adopt him]].
51	* DelayedReaction: Stan doesn’t think too much at first when he sees [[spoiler:Jasmine running towards him when he’s beating up Walter. Once the realization sets in, he slowly develops an OhCrap reaction.]]
52	* {{Delinquents}}: A handful of teenage hoodlums get their backsides handed to them by the RetiredBadass.
53	* DinerBrawl: The incident with the aforementioned delinquents.
54	* DisappearedDad: The only thing we know about Walter's father is that he's been dead for a long time (although it's implied that Mae was actually a hooker).
55	* DistantFinale: The movie ends with Walter getting notice of Hub and Garth's deaths, long after he's moved out and become a successful SequentialArtist.
56	* TheDitz: Mae in a nutshell.
57	* DoWrongRight: The delinquent diner brawl includes Hub correcting their knife-fighting technique.
58	* DualWielding: [[spoiler:The Sheikh grabs a pair of swords for his final fight with Hub.]]
59	* DramaticGunCock: A couple times. With [[ShotgunsAreJustBetter shotguns, as it should be]].
60	* EstablishingCharacterMoment: The uncles are introduced via various "Keep Out" signs along their extensive driveway, and when we see them they're both shooting fish in their pond with shotguns.
61	* EverybodyHasStandards:
62	** The [=McCann=]'s money grubbing relatives and the hoodlums who tried to assault Hub all pitch in without hesitation when they hear that Walter might be in danger from a wild animal.
63	** It can be assumed that Mae went back inside the house to get Hub and Garth for help after Stan took Walter into the barn to interrogate him.
64	* EvilUncle: Briefly implied, subverted, but ultimately averted.
65	* EyepatchOfPower: The Sheikh.
66	* FirstPersonPeripheralNarrator: ''Squared.'' The film is told from Walter's point of view as an adult looking back, and Garth narrates the flashbacks to their adventures in the same way.
67	* FriendlyEnemy: We find out at the end of the movie that [[spoiler:the Sheikh]] and Hub become this.
68	* {{Foil}}: Jasmine the Lion serves as this to Mae. [[spoiler:Jasmine dies protecting Walter from Stan, whereas Mae failed to protect the boy. Jasmine is loyal to her loved ones, whereas Mae shows little loyalty to or concern for her son.]]
69	* FramingDevice: Walter's story about his uncles. Garth tells stories about his adventures with Hub as a story-within-a-story.
70	* TheFriendlyTexan: The Brothers [=McCann=] reveal themselves to be Friendly Texans as they take care of their great-nephew, Walter. Garth, in particular, is quick to show a friendly, sociable demeanor. His brother, Hub, takes a bit longer to reveal his true colors, but he's nursing some deep emotional sorrows that needed to be worked out, first. When fighting a group of hooligans, he's actually jovial and even gives them sincere advice on how to fight while fighting them. Then he gives them his "What Every Boy Needs to Know About Being a Man" speech.
71	* GloryDays: Garth tells Walter stories about the adventures he had with Hub when they were much younger.
72	* GoodIsNotNice: Hub and Garth, especially Hub. Both are crusty and unfriendly old men on the surface, but are at their core decent, honest, and moral people.
73	* GreatWayToGo: "Going out with your boots on."
74	* GroinAttack: Walter buys himself time to run away from Stan by striking Stan's groin first.
75	-->'''Walter''': ''Defend yourself!''
76	* AHandfulForAnEye: In the assassins flashback, Jasmine blinds an assassin by throwing flour in his face.
77	* HelpingAnotherSaveFace: WordOfGod is that this is done mutually between the Brothers [=McCann=] and Walter when they try to get him to return to their farm. They tell him that they have better maps than the one he's using at the farm, and since, as Hub notes, Walter irritates the relatives seeking their money to no end, Walter offers to stay long enough to annoy the hangers-on into leaving. This allows Walter to return without it looking like he was upset about his mother, and without the [=McCann=] brothers looking like they missed his company.
78	* HeroOfAnotherStory: The Sheikh may have been one: his grandson tells an older Walter that he was raised on stories of his (the Sheikh's) youth, much like Walter was with Hub and Garth.
79	* HeroicSacrifice: [[spoiler: Jasmine the Lion dies while mauling Stan to save Walter. Poor thing had too much excitement]].
80	* HiddenDepths: The climax heavily implies that Mae shows a small measurement of concern for Walter and this is evidenced at least twice. First when she goes back into the house (presumably to get Hub and Garth for help) and finally when she decides to let Walter go, essentially disowning him in a heartbreaking way.
81	* HollywoodDensity: [[LampshadeHanging Lampshaded]] by Walter in the assassins flashback, when he points out that all that gold would have weighed Garth down far too much for him to do any swordfighting.
82	* HorribleJudgeOfCharacter: Walter thinks this way about Mae loving crooks, and he flat-out tells her so about Stan:
83	-->"You're always picking losers, and he's the worst of them all!"
84	* IronicEcho: Written, not verbal: When Walter is being driven up to his uncles' house he reads a sign warning "Turn Back Now" which is the uncles' warning to trespassers. When he's being driven away towards the end of the film he looks back and sees the sign again, just before begging Mae to let him stay.
85	** Also, when they see Stan all bandaged up [[spoiler:from being mauled by Jasmine]], the uncles taunt him with the same threat he said to Walter: "We can be friends... or we can be ''enemies''."
86	* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: Though Hub and Garth are rather standoffish to Walter at first, they're never cruel to him. They're mostly sick of relatives always trying to grab their money, which is exactly what Mae intended. They eventually warm up to him once and even [[spoiler: take on full custody of him from his greedy and neglectful mother after she showed her intention to still marry Stan, a man who attacked Walter.]]
87	* KarmaHoudini: The Sheikh. A lampshade is hung on this by Walter:
88	--> '''Walter:''' What?! The bad guy [[spoiler: gets filthy rich]]? What the heck kind of story ends that way?
89	* ListOfExperiencesSpeech: Hub lists what he's done in his GloryDays to show the teenage hoodlums [[TheReasonYouSuckSpeech just how much they suck]] in comparison.
90	--> "I'm Hub [=McCann=]. I've fought in two World Wars and countless smaller ones on three continents. I led thousands of men into battle with everything from horses and swords to artillery and tanks. I've seen the headwaters of the Nile, and tribes of natives no white man had ever seen before. I've won and lost a dozen fortunes, '''KILLED MANY MEN''' and loved only one woman with a passion a FLEA like you could never begin to understand. That's who I am. '''NOW, GO HOME, BOY'''!"
91	* [[{{MamaBear}} Mama Lion]]: [[spoiler:Not Walter's actual mother, but Jasmine the lion, in the above mentioned HeroicSacrifice.]]
92	* ManOfWealthAndTaste: [[spoiler:The Sheikh]] of course.
93	* MookChivalry: Non-video game example: when flashback!Hub assaults the Sheikh's harem, the guards try to fight him off one at a time.
94	** Also during the bar fight with the hoodlums - enforced at gunpoint. After all, Hub just got out of the hospital, but Garth isn't going to ruin ALL of Hub's fun. He has the leader go first and ''insists'' he take his knife back, and lets him get trashed for a bit before letting the others join in.
95	* MuggingTheMonster: Those teenagers ''really'' should learn to respect their elders.
96	* NeverWakeUpASleepwalker: Garth says this to Walter when Hub is sleepwalking, warning that, "last time I tried to wake him he nearly tore my head off."
97	* NonHumanSidekick: Jasmine the lion.
98	* NotEvenBotheringWithTheAccent: The whole thing takes place in Texas, and Mae has a pronounced Southern accent. Walter, though, doesn't even show a hint of one.
99	** Creator/MichaelCaine as Garth barely bothers with a Texas accent. His partial English accent is explained by having him live abroad (including British South Africa) during most of his life.
100	* OnceMoreWithClarity: When telling Walter how they finally defeated the Sheik, Garth says that he took point in the opening of the battle, and the flashback shows Garth throwing off his disguise and beating all the mooks senseless while Hub looks on. When Walter asks how he could have done so while weighed down with pounds of gold, Garth sheepishly admits that Hub helped out a little... and the same sequence plays only Hub breaks out of his chains and beats all the mooks while Garth struggles to even reach his pistol.
101	* OhCrap: [[spoiler:Stan]], when he realizes that [[spoiler:one of the world's fiercest predators is charging at him.]] Nasty mauling ensues.
102	* OohMeAccentsSlipping: Creator/MichaelCaine actually manages to hold a passable rendering of a Southern American drawl for most of the film. But there are moments his natural Cockney shows through.
103	* PapaWolf: Hub and Garth become this to Walter. Hub even tells Stan he's lucky the lion attacked him instead of them.
104	* ParentalAbandonment: Mae abandons Walter in pretty much every way possible. First with his uncles, then to a man she knows is likely to interrogate and beat him. [[spoiler:He ultimately ''begs her to leave forever'', and this time she does so for his own good.]]
105	* ThePatientHasLeftTheBuilding: After Hub collapses, Garth and Walter take him to the hospital. A while later he wakes up and comes storming out of his room, demanding to know who put him there. After he leaves, his visiting family [[NoLongerWithUs mistakes him for being dead]].
106
107	* PayEvilUntoEvil: After [[spoiler: Jasmine dies]] attacking Stan, Hub and Garth while checking his wounds and waiting for the ambulance, start poking and prodding him with the butt of their shotguns. Judging by his groaning, they were hitting his wounded areas. Even after he's wrapped up, they still threaten him and Hub cracks his nose.
108	* PetTheDog: While Hub and Garth are initially less than thrilled about being stuck with Walter for the summer, they take his side against Helen and other vulture relatives (who are clearly just there with the hope of being left in Garth and Hubs' will) when they insist that the two old men get rid of Walter by putting him in an orphanage.
109	-->'''Helen''' : You take him to the orphanage right this minute!
110	-->'''Hub''' : Whether we take him to the orphanage or tie him up and throw him in the lake, that's OUR business!
111	* PressGanged: PlayedForLaughs: The two uncles were drinking with some sailors, passed out, and woke up on a ship out to sea.
112	* QuirkyHousehold: Garth and Hub buy a lion to shoot, then change their mind and let her live in the cornfield.
113	* ARealManIsAKiller: Played with. The uncles are "real men" because they've fought through lots of difficult situations for something that they love and believe in. The fact that they [[UnreliableNarrator might have]] killed some people along the way is not the main point. The movie also shows the kind of [[GloryDays issues with retirement]] that men typically portrayed in this fashion would have to deal with once they got older.
114	* TheReasonYouSuckSpeech: Hub lists what he's done in his GloryDays with the strong insinuation that the teenage hoodlums can't come close to matching him.
115	--> "I'm Hub [=McCann=]. I've fought in two World Wars and countless smaller ones on three continents. I led thousands of men into battle with everything from horses and swords to artillery and tanks. I've seen the headwaters of the Nile, and tribes of natives no white man had ever seen before. I've won and lost a dozen fortunes, '''KILLED MANY MEN''' and loved only one woman with a passion a FLEA like you could never begin to understand. That's who I am. '''NOW, GO HOME, BOY'''!"
116	%%* RetiredBadass: The entire point of Hub and Garth.
117	* ScrewThisImOutOfHere: Walter pulls this [[spoiler:when Mae reveals that her boyfriend, who beat him for the money's location, will be staying with them while he recovers from his injuries.]] ''Out of a moving car.''
118	* SensitiveGuyAndManlyMan: Garth and Hub. While both are tough Texans, Hub is indisputably the tougher, braver, and far less outwardly friendly of the two. This is most obvious in the flashbacks to World War I and their days in North Africa where Hub does most of the fighting, and when Garth befriends Walter long before Hub starts to warm up to him.
119	* SequentialArtist: Walter became one of these later in life, drawing fantastical retellings of his relationship with Jasmine.
120	* ShotgunsAreJustBetter: Especially for chasing off traveling salesmen.
121	** The idea that shotguns are exclusively short-range weapons is pretty much blown out of the water too.
122	* SiblingTeam: Hub and Garth, two brothers that have been together through lots of adventures since before World War I.
123	* SinisterSwitchblade: In the bar fight, the four teens are instantly tagged as punks with no real fighting skills by the fact that all four draw switchblades after Hub tells them to get lost.
124	* {{Sleepwalking}}: Uncle Hub has a bad case of Hollywood Sleepwalking involving him reliving his adventures.
125	* SpottingTheThread: Walter ''almost'' buys Stan's story about Hub and Garth being bank robbers, up until Mae tries to get him to tell them where the money is- an odd thing to ask if all they're concerned about is getting Walter away from supposedly-dangerous criminals...
126	-->'''Walter:''' ...why do you need to know where the money is?
127	* StormingTheCastle: Hub and Garth do this to rescue Jasmine (the woman, not the lion).
128	* TakeOurWordForIt: Hub's "What every boy needs to know about being a man" speech is supposed to be all of the wisdom Hub had acquired over his very full life distilled into one filibuster. It's portrayed as so profound that a bunch of teenage thugs who had just tried to jump Hub turn their lives around on the spot. And it's implied this isn't the first time it has happened. However, we never actually hear the speech itself, aside from a little bit of it he tells Walter.
129	* TemptingFate: In the flashbacks, Hub and Garth arrive in France in ''[[UsefulNotes/WorldWarI 1914]]'', but Hub convinces Garth that they'll tour the country "One step ahead of the Germans." [[spoiler: It almost works too, but then they get PressGanged.]]
130	* TimeShiftedActor: The 14-year-old Walter is played by Creator/HaleyJoelOsment, while Creator/JoshLucas portrays the 31-year-old Walter in the opening and ending scenes.
131	* ThereAreNoTherapists: Well, there are, but in UsefulNotes/TheFifties, going to the head shrinker simply wasn't done. People suffering from depression dealt with it privately -- by drinking, or shooting things.
132	* UnreliableNarrator: Just about everything said by Stan and Mae is untrustworthy. And while it's played for laughs the first time, [[spoiler: Hub and Garth's stories may not be completely true. Except at the end, Walter finds out that they probably are]].
133	* VagabondBuddies: Garth and Hub in their younger days, roaming about Europe and Africa in search of adventure.
134	* VillainRespect: The Sheikh makes a HeelFaceTurn after Hub spares his life (twice), and not only stops sending assassins to kill him, but speaks admiringly of Hub to his grandson decades later (so that the grandson decides to pay his respects when he finds out Hub and Garth have died)
135	* WealthyYachtOwner: Parodied at the end when Walter and the Shiekh's grandson are laughing at the large yacht that one salesman sold Hub and Garth, and is floating on their tiny pond.
136	-->'''Sheikh's Grandson''': I see they spent my grandfather's money wisely.
137	* [[WickedStepmother Wicked Stepfather]]: Not married yet, so technically not a stepfather yet, but the man Mae brings with her near the end of the film is definitely wicked, [[WouldHurtAChild trying to beat up Walter]] for information on where the uncles' fortune is. It's also heavily implied that he's also [[DomesticAbuse beaten Mae]].
138	* WithUsOrAgainstUs: Demanding Walter that he tell him where the uncles' fortune is, on the grounds they are bank robbers, Stan gives him this kind of an ultimatum:
139	-->'''Stan:''' It's up to you, kid. We can be friends, or we can be enemies. What's it gonna be?\
140	'''Walter:''' ''[[GroinAttack (getting a look at Stan's groin)]]'' Defend yourself!
141	* WorthyOpponent: The Shiekh evidently viewed Hub as one.
142	* WouldHurtAChild: Stan would, especially after he warned Walter, "We can be friends... or we can be enemies", and Walter, sticking by his uncles, tells him to "defend [him]self" before [[GroinAttack hitting him in the groin]]. [[spoiler:Walter was just lucky that Jasmine was there to save him.]]
143	* YouWillBeSpared: Hub and [[spoiler:the Sheikh]] have a battle to the death. Disarmed, [[spoiler:the Sheikh]] hides his head in fear, knowing that he has no right to beg for mercy. But Hub lets him live, because then he owes him.

Context Film / SecondhandLions