Line #72 Film/TheInternship


1	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/the_internship_movie_poster.jpg]]
2	[[caption-width-right:350:There is some ProductPlacement here, but damned if I know what it is.]]
3
4	''The Internship'' is a 2013 comedy film starring Creator/VinceVaughn, Creator/OwenWilson, Creator/DylanOBrien, and Creator/RoseByrne and directed by Creator/ShawnLevy.
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6	Billy [=McMahon=] (Vaughn) and Nick Campbell (Wilson) are two employees of a firm that can't seem to embrace the technological changes the firm is going through and are aptly told by their boss that they're literally obsolete, and subsequently fired. However, Billy discovers that an internship at the headquarters of Website/{{Google}} is available, and manages to land the duo a spot. Unfortunately they end up competing with hundreds of the world's best and brightest for the positions, and with their obvious lack of digital savvy... hilarity ensues.
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8	----
9	!!''The Internship'' provides examples of:
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11	* TenMinuteRetirement: Billy decides to quit after screwing up the Help Desk challenge, only to be swayed over by Nick and rejoin the team for the final Sales quest.
12	* AbusiveParents: Yo-Yo's mom is, along with being incredibly controlling, implied to beat her son. Her treatment has left the poor guy an emotional wreck.
13	* AnAesop: Underdogs can prevail with ThePowerOfFriendship.
14	* ArtisticLicense
15	** Neha describes hentai as anime where the woman are ravaged by tentacles which is technically true, but Hentai is an American label for any Japanese anime and manga porn and is not limited to just tentacles.
16	** Dating in the workplace is considered unprofessional; there is no way Nick and Dana would get away with making out in the office.
17	* AuthorityInNameOnly: While Lyle is the ostensible leader of Team Lyle, he's an awkward nerd barely any older than Yo-Yo, Neha and Stuart who is more or less treated as their peer once Billy and Nick step up into the role of TeamDad. To his credit, it was only through his judgment that the two of them were able to enter the internship program at all and he's shown to take charge when it actually comes time to coordinate coding work for a project.
18	* AutomatedAutomobiles: Billy and Nick attempt to flag down a car on Google's campus to ask for directions when they first arrive. It turns out to be one of Google's driverless cars.
19	* BadBoss: Billy and Nick's old boss Sammy Boscoe shuts down his business without telling them despite their years of excellent service to him and then calls them obsolete relics who have no future in the modern age.
20	* BarBrawl: At a strip club.
21	* BelligerentSexualTension: Stuart and Neha are initially pretty hostile toward each other but end the movie becoming a couple.
22	* BigBrotherInstinct: Billy and Nick begin to take on this mindset for their entire team, even their manager Lyle.
23	* BigDamnHeroes: [[JustInTime Just as]] the administrator is about to announce the winner of the assessment, a [[DoNotAdjustYourSet video animation starts playing]] and Team Lyle bursts through the doors with free pizza for everyone.
24	* {{Bookends}}: Near the beginning of the movie after Nick and Billy lose their jobs Nick gets a job working for his sisters's Jerkass boyfriend selling mattresses only for Billy to show up and convince him to try and get jobs at Google. Near the end, during Billy's TenMinuteRetirement he gets a job working for a Jerkass selling motorized scooters when Nick shows up to convince him to go back to Google.
25	* ButtMonkey:
26	** Zach, the fat intern who Graham reluctantly recruits into his team due to his academic skills and spends the rest of the movie insulting and abusing.
27	** Sid, the member of the internship board who is never able to finish any of his speeches before getting cut off by Chetty.
28	* [[CallingTheOldManOut Calling The Old Woman Out]]: Yo-Yo is finally able to take a stand against his mother, which earns him a thumb-up from his father.
29	* TheCameo:
30	** Creator/WillFerrell has an uncredited appearance as the obnoxious mattress salesman dating Nick's sister.
31	** Creator/JohnGoodman also has an uncredited role as Nick and Billy's old boss Sammy Boscoe.
32	** Sergey Brin appears twice.
33	* ChekhovsGunman: [[spoiler:It is Headphones, aka Andrew, who ultimately influences the decision for Lyle's team to be hired.]]
34	* ChivalrousPervert:
35	** Nick is a serial dater who has never been in a relationship that's lasted longer than three months and is very proactive in his pursuit of Dana, but is a kind and courteous guy all-around who genuinely puts the work in needed to show that he takes both his future at Google and with her seriously. Dana even acknowledges this when she finally caves and agrees to go on a date with him:
36	-->'''Dana:''' You were supposed to pack a decade worth of bad dates into one night, remember? But so far, you've been... totally fine.
37	** Neha is a YaoiFangirl who is outspoken about her cosplay fetish and love for erotic fanfiction and hentai, but is otherwise probably the nicest and most emotionally balanced member of Team Lyle's three youngest members.
38	* CreativeClosingCredits: The names and titles appear as if they're part of various Google products, like Google Translate, Google+, and such.
39	* DeadpanSnarker:
40	** Stuart is fairly stoic and responds to almost everything with a dry quip initially. He becomes a bit more open as he spends more time with Team Lyle, but he remains very snarky.
41	** While Graham isn't quite as deadpan as Stuart is, he's still very, very snarky and rude. His [[BritishStuffiness haughty British accent]] certainly helps sell him as this trope.
42	* DefrostingIceQueen:
43	** Dana is at first cold and dismissive towards Nick, but gradually opens up to him as he proves that he's serious about both her and the job.
44	** Stuart is a male example, beginning as the most openly hostile member of Team Lyle but eventually becoming just as loyal as the rest of the group.
45	* DiggingYourselfDeeper / GenreBlind: When you're already in trouble, and you demand to speak to someone in authority, and then [[KingIncognito an insignificant-seeming guy who's always just been hanging around in the background]] walks up and presents himself, the appropriate response is not to ask who he's supposed to be, all hostile-like!
46	** Also applies to Billy and Nick when they repeatedly give outrageously inappropriate answers to Mr. Chetty's questions about workplace etiquette.
47	* TheDogBitesBack: [[spoiler: Zach finally stands up to Graham with a sharp punch to the crotch at the end of the movie.]]
48	* DoNotAdjustYourSet: Team Lyle hijacking the video screen for their animation during the movie's climax.
49	* DontTryThisAtHome: Do not break fraternization regulations at your workplace, and definitely do not take pictures of yourself or your friends getting drunk at a strip club. Both are very likely to wreck your career.
50	* DumbassHasAPoint:
51	** Averted during the first challenge, where they are looking for a bug in the code. Billy and Nick's out-of-the-box thinking doesn't get them anywhere other than a SnipeHunt.
52	** Played straight later when Billy comes up with his idea for an app that asks a quiz question [[IrrevocableMessage before sending off a drunk text message]].
53	* EasilyDistractedReferee: Graham wins the Quidditch match through blatant cheating after he distracts the referee.
54	* EatingLunchAlone: Billy and Nick are initially forced to do this when even their teammates refuse to sit with them.
55	* EndearinglyDorky: Lyle is an awkward nerd and a bit of a tryhard, but he's also rather cute and very likable when he stops trying to act cool.
56	* EveryoneCallsHimBarkeep: The silent, headphone-wearing coder is only known as "Headphones" by the rest of the cast. [[spoiler: His true identity is Andrew Anderson, the head of Google Search.]]
57	* EvilBrit: Max Minghella plays Graham as a smarmy, no holds barred competitor who takes every opportunity to degrade everyone else around him. This trope is played with at the end when [[spoiler: Headphones, tells him that his accent is ''"Bullshit"'', implying that Graham is faking the Brit part of the trope to make himself sound cooler.]]
58	* EvilCounterpart: Randy, Billy's temporary new partner when he goes back to being a salesman, serves as this to the main duo. While he is similarly recognized as an excellent salesman and engages in several pre-sale rituals comparable to the ones they do, he is also a callous bastard who only bonds with clients as a means to an end and deliberately pushes faulty products to keep them coming back for business.
59	* {{Fanservice}}: The entire stripclub sequence, especially in the unrated version.
60	* FlippingTheBird: Neha to Graham during the movie's climax.
61	* GeekPhysiques: Zach is overweight and a Harvard computer science student with top-level SAT scores. His smarts cause Graham to reluctantly recruit him onto his team but his weight also makes him a prime target for Graham's bullying.
62	* GroinAttack: The man in the wheelchair turns into an ExtremityExtremist and gives Nick a good punch in the balls.
63	** Also Neha effectively uses this technique against her opponent in the BarBrawl.
64	* HeadphonesEqualIsolation: Invoked by the appropriately-named "Headphones", [[spoiler: also known as Andrew, head of Search.]]
65	* HenpeckedHusband: From what little we see of him, Yo-Yo's father is just as put-upon by his wife as his son is.
66	* HiddenDepths:
67	** Billy is fluent in Mandarin.
68	** Nick proves himself to actually have the skills needed to become a competent coder once he starts applying himself.
69	** [[spoiler: Headphones comes across as an antisocial savant obsessed with coding and nothing but reveals himself to value compassion and people skills just as much, if not more due to lacking them himself.]]
70	* HopelessWithTech: Played with. Both Billy and Nick are middle-aged men who begin the movie with no knowledge or experience with computers, but Nick ends up becoming surprisingly proficient as he begins attending seminars. While Billy remains the weakest link on their team in terms of technical knowledge, he is able to become reasonably competent after a nightlong crash course with Headphones.
71	* ImpossibleHourglassFigure: The woman Nick's brother-in-law decides to assist in the mattress store. It's the first thing he even notices about her.
72	* InsistentTerminology: It's ''online'', not ''on the line''.
73	* IronicEcho: "Time to fake an injury." First said when Graham [[KickTheDog deliberately hurts Zach during the Quidditch match]] to get the referee to call a foul and then said again when [[spoiler: [[TheDogBitesBack Zach punches Graham in the crotch]] at the end of the movie]].
74	* {{Jerkass}}:
75	** Graham is an abrasive bully who is only kind toward people he believes have the authority needed to give him what he wants.
76	** Billy and Nick's old boss Sammy Boscoe shuts down his business without telling them despite their years of excellent service to him and then calls them obsolete relics who have no future in the modern age.
77	** Nick's sister's boyfriend Kevin is generally loud and obnoxious, and ogles an attractive female client in a completely inappropriate way.
78	** Billy's temporary new partner Randy exploits the elderly for profit and brags about it openly.
79	* JerkWithAHeartOfGold:
80	** Stuart is aloof and mouthy, but ultimately a good guy who ends up on great terms with the rest of Team Lyle.
81	** Chetty is incredibly strict and doubtful of Nick and Billy's prospects as employees, but is otherwise a ReasonableAuthorityFigure who doesn't discount their efforts [[spoiler: and is revealed to have been the deciding vote that secured their place in the internship program in the first place]].
82	* JustInTime: At the very last moment Team Lyle rushes in to hand over their results for the Sales challenge which goes on to win them the competition.
83	* KingIncognito: [[spoiler: The slovenly savant Headphones is eventually revealed to be the head of Google Search.]]
84	* LeftTheBackgroundMusicOn: The opening song "Ironic" by Music/AlanisMorissette turns out to be playing in-universe on the car radio.
85	* LikesOlderWomen: Randy brags about the numerous affairs he's had with his geriatric clients as though it's something to be proud of, and even propositions Billy to what appears to be a foursome with two elderly women.
86	* MarriedToTheJob: Dana is a workaholic who spurns all of Nick's initial advances due to them distracting her from her work.
87	* NervousWreck: A lifetime of living under a ruthless EducationMama has left Yo-Yo a high-strung wreck who pinches himself as punishment whenever he believes he has made a mistake. He loosens up as he bonds with the rest of his team.
88	* NeverMyFault: When [[spoiler:Andrew announces that Team Lyle are the winners as they showed their ‘Googliness’ by working as a team, Graham immediately starts criticising his own group for not showing team spirit, ignoring the fact that the reason they didn’t have that was because he insisted on trying to control everything rather than letting the rest of the group contribute and balance things out]].
89	* NiceGuy: Both Billy and Nick are outgoing, friendly, and considerate with everyone that they interact with, and even take [[{{Jerkass}} Graham's]] taunting in measured stride. It's exactly ''because'' they're such nice, considerate guys that they make excellent salesmen.
90	* NiceMeanAndInbetween:
91	** The three younger members of Team Lyle consist of the outgoing and friendly Neha, the sharp-tongued DeadpanSnarker Stuart, and the high-strung NervousWreck Yo-Yo.
92	** The three senior members of the internship program also count: with the kind yet put-upon Sid being the Nice, the hard-nosed Chetty being the Mean, and the DefrostingIceQueen Dana being the In-Between.
93	* NotSoDifferentRemark: [[spoiler:Chetty explains to Nick and Billy that he himself came to Google with an unorthodox background, which is why he decided to give them the internship spots so they could have the opportunity to prove themselves.]]
94	* PhoneaholicTeenager: Stuart is a bit older than most examples (he's about to enter his senior year of college), but otherwise fits this trope perfectly as a young person overly dependent on his phone and indifferent to the world around him.
95	* PlotMandatedFriendshipFailure: See 10-Minute Retirement
96	* PrecisionFStrike: When Nick sees the guy dressed as the golden snitch.
97	--> '''Nick:''' Who the fuck is this now?
98	* PrettyFlyForAWhiteGuy: Lyle's attempts at seeming cool always enter this territory, complete with awkward slang.
99	* PreviewsPulse: The sound effect can be heard before the Quidditch game begins.
100	* ProductPlacement: Averted. While the movie is filled to the brim with Google products, Google received no money from this. The only explanation is that the director has a fetish for Google.
101	* ProfessionalButtKisser: Graham is a brown-noser who only has any kind words to say to people he believes can give him what he wants. [[spoiler: He even dismisses Chetty as "a glorified babysitter" after he favors Team Lyle over him. Not long after, Andrew a.k.a. "Headphones" reveals he saw him as this right from the beginning and his attitude combined with his poor understanding of Google's core values has ensured he will never be given a full-time role at the company.]]
102	* RagtagBunchOfMisfits: Team Lyle is led by an awkward nerd barely any older than most of his charges who tries too hard to seem cool and is made up of two tech-illiterate middle-aged men, a high-strung MamasBoy with NoSocialSkills, a perverted CosplayOtakuGirl, and an abrasive phone addict.
103	* RapidFireTyping: Headphones is typing rapidly throughout the lunch scene to establish him as an uber coder seemingly disconnected from the world around him.
104	* RealityIsUnrealistic: One review complained about the made up words "Noogler" and "Googley" when those are terms actually used at Google.
105	* TheReasonYouSuckSpeech: Graham gives one to Billy at the sauna, noting that he himself doesn't need to win but simply wait for Billy to screw up as he always does. Cue: Billy failing at the Help Desk challenge.
106	* RecycledInSpace: It's a pretty standard underdog college movie plot [[AC: at Google!]]
107	* RedOniBlueOni: While both Nick and Billy are generally laid-back guys, Billy is the more driven and dominant half of the pair while Nick tends to just go with the flow. This is most apparent during their sales pitches, where Billy leads the conversation while Nick acts as a buffer to keep things flowing.
108	* RogueJuror: Lyle is taking a stand defending Billy and Nick's application against the other members of the council who wanted them out immediately.
109	* RousingSpeech: Billy gives a Believe-In-Yourself speech to the team when they are way behind at the Quidditch game.
110	** Nick gives one to Billy to make him return from his TenMinuteRetirement.
111	* RuleOfCool: One wonders how throwing pizza slices through the air is supposed to work without making a huge mess.
112	* RuleOfDrama: According to the writers, this is the reason Mr. Chetty is so unrealistically strict.
113	* RunningGag:
114	** Yo-Yo punishing himself for a failure. To the point where [[spoiler: his plucking his eyebrow leaves him with only one near the end and Nick has to draw one on for him.]]
115	** Mr. Chetty taking the mic from Sid.
116	* ShoutOut: Quite a few of them.
117	** "People have a deep mistrust of machines. Haven't you seen ''[[Film/TheTerminator Terminator]]''? Or [[Film/Terminator2JudgmentDay 2]]? Or [[Film/Terminator3RiseOfTheMachines 3]]? Or [[Film/TerminatorSalvation 4]]?"
118	** Billy motivates the team by referencing ''Film/{{Flashdance}}''
119	** The interns try to sidetrack Billy and Nick by having them look for [[ComicBook/XMen Professor Charles Xavier]].
120	** The entire [[Franchise/HarryPotter Quidditch]] sequence. Lampshaded by Nick. "What does this even have to do with computers?"
121	** At the end, Lyle refers to Marielena as [[Series/GameOfThrones my Khaleesi]].
122	* SelfPunishmentOverFailure: Yo-Yo Santos plucks his eyebrows when he fails at something, as his TigerMom taught him to do.
123	* TheSmurfettePrinciple: Neha is the only female member of Team Lyle, and is outnumbered by the boys 5/1.
124	* SnipeHunt: The rest of Team Lyle send Billy and Nick on a search for [[ComicBook/XMen Professor Charles Xavier]]
125	* SoreLoser: Graham at the end against his teammates, which earns him a TheDogBitesBack.
126	* StealthPun: The character Yo-Yo is defined by having an overly-controlling mother. The mother goes unnamed, so it would be reasonable to refer to her as Yo-Yo's Ma, which sounds too close to the famous cellist Yo-Yo Ma for it to be a coincidence.
127	* TheStinger: In the middle of the end credits, there is a 'Lost Cosplay Scene' with Creator/WillFerrell as Boba Fett.
128	* TokenTrio: The three youngest members of Team Lyle consist of the Filipino Yo-Yo, the Indian-American and female Neha, and the white Stuart.
129	* {{Tsundere}}: Nick lampshades Stuart being one, commenting on how he's going to enjoy it when Stuart starts opening up to him.
130	** [[spoiler: Mr Chetty.]] As Lyle points out [[spoiler: he was the deciding vote that helped them get in.]]
131	* UnratedEdition: The unrated version has some additional scenes, considerably more swearing and quite a bit of nudity in the strip-club sequence.
132	* UnspokenPlanGuarantee: The moment Billy declares that him studying all night long is going to win them the Help Desk challenge, one knew this would not turn out well.
133	* UrbanLegendLoveLife: Neha introduces herself by bragging about all the kinky cosplay parties she attends, but later admits to Billy that she's a virgin who has never even had a boyfriend.
134	* WackyStartupWorkplace: The film, which is set at Website/{{Google}}, portrays the working environment as fun and full of amenities like nap pods, massage rooms, beach volleyball, free food, and even [[Franchise/HarryPotter Quidditch]]. With the exception of the Quidditch, this is TruthInTelevision.
135	* WalkAndTalk: A variation with Billy and Nick having a discussion while riding Google bicycles.
136	* {{Workaholic}}: Dana is always seen coming and going from meetings and only starts to lighten up as Nick chips away at her.
137	* YankTheDogsChain: Billy turns a corner after extensive training and seems to ace the tech support competition, only for it to turn out that he forgot to log in and log any of his calls, which automatically forfeits his entire team.
138	* YaoiFangirl: Neha is a fan of slash fiction and makes an offhand comment early on about shipping Nick and Billy.

Context Film / TheInternship