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Context Film / TheBubble2022

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1[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/f799ca81_49db_4824_96b4_4958fbb28f48.jpeg]]
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3[[caption-width-right:350:[[labelnote:Click here to see the REAL poster]]\
4https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/2f911d19_9ad7_4f11_aa39_57cfdbce2b3e.jpeg]][[/labelnote]]
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6''Cliff Beasts 6: Battle for Everest: Memories of a Requiem'' is a movie and the sixth installment of the ''Cliff Beasts'' film franchise… which doesn’t exist.
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8Now ''The Bubble'', on the other hand, is a 2022 comedy film from filmmaker Creator/JuddApatow about the making of the fictional ''Cliff Beasts 6: Battle for Everest: Memories of a Requiem'' in the midst of the UsefulNotes/COVID19Pandemic.
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10The film stars Creator/KarenGillan, Iris Apatow, Creator/FredArmisen, Creator/MariaBakalova, Creator/DavidDuchovny, Creator/KeeganMichaelKey, Creator/LeslieMann, Creator/KateMcKinnon, Creator/PedroPascal, and Creator/PeterSerafinowicz. It released on Creator/{{Netflix}} on April 1, 2022.
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12Not to be confused with ''Film/TheBubble2006'', an Israeli film, or the anime film ''Anime/{{Bubble}}'', which was also released on Netflix in April of 2022, and lastly not the live-action film, ''Film/{{Bubble}}''.
13
14'''Previews:''' [[https://youtu.be/ZBD8X5zLG4U Trailer 1]], [[https://youtu.be/dJu00a3Jhhk Cliff Beasts 6 trailer]], [[https://twitter.com/netflixfilm/status/1499444925817139205?s=21 Cliff Beasts retrospective]]
15
16!!This Film includes examples of:
17* ActorLeavesCharacterDies: In-universe. After Howie abruptly runs away from the shoot, the filmmakers cover for his absence by having his character brutally killed off off-screen, with the characters finding his mutilated corpse... which is then picked by dinosaurs and further ripped to shreds.
18* AlwaysKnowAPilot: Sean took flying lessons with a helicopter, needed for a scene. That is - he was taught how to lift off and land. He ends up [[TaughtByTelevision watching a YouTube tutorial, while already in the air, to figure out the rest]].
19* AnArmAndALeg: [[spoiler: Lauren gets her left hand blown off by the security, who took her for a crazied fan]]. This sends [[spoiler: her]] into a hospital for the rest of the production.
20* TheBabyOfTheBunch: Krystal is barely 18 and there is a generational gap between her and every other cast member. Previously, that was Carol's spot, but she was just few years younger than the other cast members.
21* BadBadActing: The scenes from ''Cliff Beasts 6'' are so bad, they come around as in-universe [[NarmCharm intentionally awful]]. This is further contrasted with how the regular acting in the film is done. And as the production keeps getting more complicated and delayed, the acting is hammed up to be even worse.
22* BingeMontage: The remaining cast - and their ''health officer'' - end up binging with Dieter on his drug stash, being half a year into the production and bored out of their minds.
23* BringMyBrownPants: Carol's Cliff Beasts character, Dr. Lacey, pees her pants when a cliff beast appears near her and roars at her.
24* TheCameo:
25** Creator/BenedictCumberbatch appears in a hallucination.
26** Creator/DaisyRidley appears in a different hallucination. [[spoiler:She also appears at the red carpet premiere of ''Beasts of the Bubble'' and has no idea why she was invited there]].
27** Wrestling/JohnCena appears in a scene as the movie's stunt coordinator, trying to do the whole thing via Zoom.
28** Creator/JohnLithgow appears in a scene playing Tom, the studio chairman.
29** Music/{{Beck|Musician}}, [[AsHimself playing himself]] is at one point brought in to sing a song meant to motivate the cast as the isolation goes on.
30** Real-life [=TikTok-er=] Ivy Wolk makes an appearance as a Website/{{YouTube}}r calling for [[spoiler:Krystal to get cancelled for going to a party in London in the middle of a pandemic]].
31** Creator/JamesMcAvoy, also apparently playing himself, comes across Carol [[spoiler:when she escapes from the movie set]]; she mentions that the two of them went on a date once, but he clearly doesn't remember this.
32* CabinFever: The in-universe production is set somewhere in autumn of 2020, in the midst of Covid-19 pandemic. The titular bubble is about creating a lock-down movie set and surroundings to prevent the endless quarantines and other safety regulations due to self-isolation of the entire crew. It goes sideways time and again, to the ever-increasing frustration of everyone.
33* ClicheStorm: The in-universe ''Cliff Beasts'' franchise seems to be running for so long, it reached the point it's just completely formulaic and everyone, actors included, is just tired with it. This even including reaching toward a younger audiences by hiring a [=TikToker=] as a supporting character simply to shake the format even a tiny bit.
34* ColonCancer: The film being made in universe is, again, ''Cliff Beasts 6: Battle for Everest: Memories of a Requiem''. There’s only one colon in the poster above, but still…
35* CosyCatastrophe: Despite a globe virus and the general cabin fever, frustration and boredom, the film crew at least have all their needs provided for by the hotel staff.
36* DeadSparks: Dustin Mulray and Lauren Van Chance are in the middle of their ''n-th'' break-up and try to use the production to get their relationship fixed. Also for the n-th time.
37* DemotedToExtra: In-universe. Carol becomes secondary to Krystal and is subjected to her lines being cut or just agreeing with Krystal. To add to the humiliation, her only notable scene has her cowering in fear while pissing her pants.
38* DigitalHeadSwap: Once Lauren is removed from the production, handful of scenes involving a stunt double wearing a green face mask is being filmed, to replace it with Lauren's face in post. The stunt double isn't even female.
39* DinosaursAreDragons: The "dinosaurs" in the ''Cliff Beasts'' series are not meant to resemble any real species of dinosaur, but instead look more like dragons.
40* EveryoneHasStandards: Gavin might be a bit manipulative and doesn't think much of the actors, but is clearly appalled when the studio hires Mr. Best and his private security force to keep everyone working.
41* ExecutiveMeddling: [[invoked]] Subverted. For the most part, Gavin and his inner ring are the [[OnlySaneMan Only Sane Men]]. However, their meddling eventually leads to the production going completely hay-wire, despite their best intentions to prevent exactly that.
42* FilmWithinAFilm:
43** ''Cliff Beasts 6'', which this film follows behind the scenes, according to all official marketing.
44** ''Jerusalem Rising'', a movie Carol starred in after ''Cliff Beasts 4'' in which she plays a half-Palestinian, half-Israeli woman uniting the two countries [[OutsideContextProblem to fight off an alien invasion]].
45** [[spoiler:The ending, taking place two years after the ''Cliff Beasts 6'' shoot, shows that the nightmarish experience was immortalized as a documentary, ''Beasts of the Bubble'', composed of new material and interviews, outtakes from the shoot and video material meant to be released as official 'behind the scenes' content]].
46* FromBadToWorse: [[spoiler:During a promotional interview with ''Entertainment Tonight'', Darren lets slip that the studio is planning to also start shooting ''Cliff Beasts 7'' back-to-back, surprising everyone who is already tired of making the sixth movie]].
47* HappilyAdopted: ZigZagged. Rafi might be happy about not being in orphanage anymore, but he absolutely ''hates'' his self-absorbed adoptive parents, who are too busy with their filming careers to really care about him in any real way beyond what amounts to being a publicity stunt. On the other side, both Dustin and Lauren are aware the boy has a terrible personality and is using the situation for his advantage.
48* HorribleHollywood: Paula, the head producer behind the movie and member of the board of the studio behind it, combines just about every possible stereotypical vice of a Hollywood exec, except ''maybe'' a sex scandal. She's vain, filthy rich, doesn't give a damn about anyone (not just the actors and crew, but people in general), has a horrid personality and seems to be motivated entirely by making even more money, ''no matter what''. And then there is the [[OverlyLongGag entire chain of execs above her]], who are just as awful as she is. This is further contrasted with Gavin, who's the on-site exec - while at times harsh and heavy-handed himself, he quickly becomes OnlySaneMan for the production.
49* HostilityOnTheSet: [[InvokedTrope Invoked]]
50** Howie eventually is so fed up by the constant lock-down, isolation and recurring quarantines (note the plural), he starts lashing out at the rest of the cast. Ultimately, [[ScrewThisImOuttaHere he walks from the production entirely]]. Ironically, he has his outbursts before things get ''really'' bad.
51** As the production is getting worse and worse with each week, the cast ''and'' the crew start to get at each other almost non-stop.
52* IAmNotSpock: In-universe, Carol Cobb is mostly recognisable as "Dr. Lacie".
53* IceCreamKoan: Sean is promoting himself as a spiritual guru outside his acting career, however his "wisdoms" get so convoluted (despite their simplicity), he always ends up mumbling, unable to finish the thought he was covering. Ultimately he admits he's a fraud and his guidebook was ghost-written.
54* {{Irony}}: While the production is a horrid experience for the cast, crew and even executives, the hotel staff and the outside personel they've got hired to keep their bubble running are having the time of their lives, especially since they are being paid extra for doing their regular jobs.
55-->[Having a toast together]
56-->To never stop filming!
57* JerkassHasAPoint:
58** As egoistic as he's about it, Dustin does make a good point that the script is awful and in desperate need of some doctoring. He's consistently dismissed.
59** Despite [[spoiler: being a mole planted into the production]], Carla makes a good point about Carol's plan to get a viral campaign started to save herself from the set: she sounds entitled and whinny, while people have much bigger problems on their heads than some movie production that's at the crossroads.
60* JurassicFarce: The fictional movie-within-a-movie is a parody of ''Film/JurassicWorldDominion'', being the sixth installment of a dinosaur-themed franchise. More specifically it's based on that movie's protracted development due to the pandemic.
61* LargeHam: [[invoked]] Dieter hams the hell out of his character, Gio.
62* MushroomSamba: Dieter gets high on acid and starts to hallucinate about having sex with his digital training assistant.
63* NoCelebritiesWereHarmed: Darren Eigan is an amalgamation of few different directors. There is Creator/RobertEggers: the name sounds similar enough, and they both went from working as a store clerk to being an acclaimed indie director, known for specific film-making style. Creator/SeanBaker and his ''Film/{{Tangerine}}'' are referenced, too. His disastrous film production mirrors that of Creator/RichardStanley and the production of ''Film/TheIslandOfDrMoreau1996'' (along with really weird set and prop design choices) - which ''also'' got its own [[Film/LostSoulTheDoomedJourneyOfRichardStanleysIslandOfDrMoreau documentary on troubled production]]. Oh, and he looks and sounds like Creator/TommyWiseau, just ''because''.
64* OnceDoneNeverForgotten: Carol decided to sit out of the fifth movie, which has led to 1) her cast mates being less than welcoming when she returns for the sixth, feeling like she abandoned them, and 2) her having trouble living down a movie she did instead, ''Jerusalem Rising'', in which she played a half-Palestinian, half-Israeli woman despite being neither and the film itself apparently being worse than terrible.
65* ParodyAssistance: Creator/IndustrialLightAndMagic animated the beasts for the in-universe film scenes. They also animate the dinosaurs in the ''Franchise/JurassicPark'' franchise, which the ''Cliff Beasts'' franchise is parodying.
66* PrimaDonnaDirector: As the production goes into bigger and bigger chaos, Darren Eigan starts to acting the part, being just sick and tired of making a sell-out blockbuster that was intended to be his first big break-through in the studio system.
67* ReallyGetsAround: [[spoiler:Zaki, the football player Carol starts sleeping with, turns out to not only be married, but to have had five children with three different women and to have two more on the way]].
68* RippedFromTheHeadlines: The film was inspired by the production of ''Film/JurassicWorldDominion'' during the [[https://collider.com/jurassic-world-dominion-inspired-judd-apatow-movie-the-bubble/ pandemic]], with the inspiration being made obvious by it being about the production of the sixth movie in a dinosaur-centric franchise. This trope is in force to the point where ''The Bubble'' even managed to release over two months '''before''' ''Dominion''.
69* RomanceOnTheSet: [[InvokedTrope Invoked]]
70** Carol hooks up with Zaki, a football player that's also "bubbling" in the same hotel. Or at least ''she'' thinks this is the case - for him this is just a random sexual adventure.
71** Dieter and Anika are the actual case. However, she first intentionally kept Dieter at a distance, just to be sure it's not just him being horny.
72* RunningGag: Sean's bad left knee failling him multiple times either while dancing, doing stunt work or [[spoiler:escaping from Mr Best]].
73* SeenItAll: Carla. She spend most of her life on various movie sets due to her parents being respectively a production assistant and a stunt coordinator, so she's completely phased out and used to various hijinks going around. However, she ''does'' note that the production of ''Cliff Beasts 6'' is a complete shitshow. [[spoiler: Even after she's revealed as a planted spy, she still seems to be through whole lot of productions anyway]].
74* ScrewThisImOuttaHere: When the cast is told that they'll have to go into quarantine for the second time, Howie can't face the isolation again and just leaves the hotel, planning to run all the way to London. [[spoiler:He comes back in the end, helping stop Mr. Best from intervening in the escape]].
75* {{Sequelitis}}: In-universe. Whether or not ''Cliff Beasts'' was any good to begin with is debatable, but it has obviously gotten progressively worse.
76* SpontaneousChoreography:
77** ''Cliff Beasts 6'' involves a sudden ''dance scene with a baby dinosaur'', put there in entirely on [[invoked]] [[ExecutiveMeddling executive demand]] to cash on Krystal's popularity as a [=TikToker=] that does a lot of dance numbers.
78** Since everyone involved was high as kite and hallucinating at the time, it's hard to tell if the [=TikTok=] video they did together actually happened, or it was just in their heads, given how well choreographed it was.
79* SituationalSexuality: Dieter, being a sexaholic, gets really desperate. Up to the point when he outright asks male cast and crew members, just to finally get laid.
80* StageMom: It's heavily implied that Krystal, at least her official personality, is run entirely by her mother. Whatever business there is to be done ''also'' has to go through her mother. One of the dialogues suggests that the girl herself spend most of her life in a bubble of being micro-managed by her mom as far as she can remember.
81* StarDerailingRole: In-Universe. The only reason Carol comes back for ''Cliff Beasts 6'' is that her previous film ''Jerusalem Rising'' bombed so hard that her agent all but tells her that her career is dead on the water.
82* StylisticSuck: Let’s be honest: from what the marketing presents, the ''Cliff Beasts'' franchise closely resembles something Creator/TheAsylum would put out. And the actors are perfectly aware they are in a schlock series, but it does sell and keeps them rich, too.
83* TimeSkip: [[spoiler:In the end, after the remaining actors have escaped the shoot, the story jumps ahead two years into the future to the red carpet premiere of the documentary about the production]].
84* TroubledProduction: The production of ''Cliff Beasts 6'' starts in the midst of global pandemic and only gets worse from there, with actors quitting, going insane from isolation or without their limbs. Meanwhile, the studio enforces one reshoot after another, each filled with dumber ideas than the previous one, while crew either crumbles or has to connect with the set via Zoom. Ultimately, [[spoiler: the film becomes one of the most infamous cases in-universe, with a documentary about it being an award-winning sensation]].
85* TwentyMinutesIntoThePast: The trailer put the events of the film around October 2020, in the midst of the UsefulNotes/COVID19Pandemic. [[spoiler: The ending brings it somewhere around early 2022, when the film premiered]].
86* ViewersAreMorons: Not only this is invoked, but outright ''justified'' in-universe.
87-->'''Dustin Mulray'''': Can we play to the top of our audience's intelligence?
88-->'''Darren Eigen (the director)''': No, our audience is down here. (Points around his waist level) They're kids. That's our audience.
89* VomitIndiscretionShot: The studio forces the actors to film the movie, even when they are ill, leading to the entire cast vomiting after one another. Lauren doesn't vomit but suffers the end of it when all of Dustin's vomit falls on her mouth.
90* WagTheDirector: Happens in-universe, as various cast members try to push their weight around and affect the production. Most prominent are Dustin's attempt to change the script at least a tiny bit, especially since the [[WritingByTheSeatOfYourPants studio is doing re-writes almost non-stop]] anyway.
91* WhatTheHellIsThatAccent: In-universe
92** Carol in ''Jerusalem Rising'' film puts out what is intended to be "Israeli[=/=]Palestini" accent. It sounds like she's somewhere between very bad Russian and stereotypical Italian, but mostly just struggling to catch her breath.
93** Lauren's character, Dolly, is ''supposed'' to be from [[DeepSouth rural Georgia]]. Good it is brought up in the dialogues, or else you might never figure it out from her accent.
94* WorstAid: Not only as BlackComedy, but in SerialEscalation style, no less. After Dieter [=ODs=], everyone starts to administrate him different treatments to different things that might be going with him due to all the drugs he took. He gets shot with adrenaline, shot with narcan, hit multiple times in an ill-conceived CPR attempt, defibrillated, put in an ice bed, taken out of ice to warm him up and ultimately given adrenaline ''again'', this time directly to his heart.

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