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The 2014 film

    Andrew Neiman 

Andrew Neiman

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/whiplash_4.jpg
"I'd rather die drunk and broke at thirty-four and have people at a dinner table talk about me than live to be rich and sober at ninety and have nobody remember who I was."

Played By: Miles Teller

The Protagonist and a student at Shaffer Conservatory.


  • Anti-Hero: Andrew is shown to be smug about his own talents and dismissive of others even before Fletcher begins to become a major presence in his life, and only continues to get worse as the film goes on. While his determination to improve himself as a drummer is admirable to a point, the movie shows that this quality does more harm than good to him and the people around him in the long run.
  • Break the Cutie: Andrew is very sweet, loves music, and is very close to his father. Being constantly mocked and abused by Fletcher breaks him...except that it turns him into the "haughty" variant, which Fletcher also breaks. Probably.
  • Break the Haughty: Andrew becomes gradually more snobbish and unlikable to those around him as he absorbs Fletcher's teachings, especially noticeable when he agrees with Nicole that she, not being as talented as him, doesn't understand his career. However, he suffers for this greatly by the ending, being tormented by Fletcher several more times, getting into a brutal car accident, and losing Nicole. Although it's a matter of great debate how "broken" he is by the end. Word of God is of the opinion that this is actually what the ending suggests.
  • Brought Down to Badass: After being dismissed from school and giving up on his dream, he still has his drumming skills and plays his best performance.
  • Brutal Honesty: Andrew dumping Nicole. From the second he sits her down, he tells her point-blank that their relationship won't go anywhere and it's better to break ties now without as much as an ounce of hesitation. When she asks if he's made that decision because he's too self-absorbed and invested in his ambition to care about, let alone invest in a relationship with, a girl with an inferior level of drive, he instantly agrees, which is what convinces Nicole that he's truly gone off the deep end.
  • Color Motif: Exhibited by Andrew. His character arc is subtly symbolized through the color of his shirt. He starts the film hopeful with a pure white tee that contrasts Fletcher's black outfit, but ends the film as a hardened machine in the same black as Fletcher, symbolizing his submission to Fletcher's will and his own ambition.
  • The Corruptible: Goes from a young, friendly drummer with great potential to an exceptional jazz musician... and nothing else.
  • Detrimental Determination: Andrew becomes so obsessed with becoming a great jazz drummer, he ends up hurting and alienating people close to him. Moreover, the "mentor" he looks up to for much of the film is a manipulative monster who destroys musicians who play in the studio band. By the climax of the film, jazz music literally becomes the only thing Andrew has left in his life and opinions vary on whether Andrew's long, extravagant drum solo was really worth it. Nicole calls Andrew out on this during their breakup.
  • Did Not Get the Girl: Andrew tries to make amends with Nicole after breaking up with her, only for her to tell him that she's found herself another boyfriend.
  • The Dog Bites Back: Andrew reaches his breaking point with Fletcher and attacks him near the end of the second act, though other students and some security guards save the latter before Andrew can do significant harm.
  • First-Name Basis: After calling Andrew by his last name for the whole film, it's quite momentous when Fletcher finally addresses him by his first name in the ending — although it's quick, it implies Andrew finally becomes Fletcher's equal in that moment.
  • Hair-Trigger Temper: Andrew throughout the film has been increasingly losing his cool more easily and adapting to the methods of Fletcher's abuse, his family doubting him, and his struggle for greatness which causes him to lash out more towards others for simple things.
  • Honor Thy Abuser: Andrew does this to Fletcher, but the effects of this trope are discussed multiple times. Fletcher mistreats every single one of his students, verbally berates and bullies them, picks on their insecurities, and hits them (including throwing things at them). He also drove one of his past students to suicide. However, Andrew actually agrees with Fletcher's perspective and ends up giving in to Fletcher's abuse, supporting Fletcher's belief that he needs to push his most dedicated students, and ends up producing an amazing performance. Depending on your perspective, this is a straight example of this trope (as Fletcher and Andrew are both finally happy), or an Esoteric Happy Ending (given the potentially horrific consequences of his treatment).
  • Informed Judaism: Fletcher calls Andrew a "hymie fuck". This is the only indication that Neiman is Jewish, besides his surname. (His actor is 1/4 Jewish, while Paul Reiser, who plays his father, is of Romanian Jewish origin).
  • Insufferable Genius: Andrew becomes more and more of this as the film goes on and his practicing becomes an obsession.
  • Kick the Morality Pet: Signs that Andrew is being absorbed into Fletcher's cruel attitude, too:
    • He agrees with Nicole when she "tells" him (obviously hoping for a contradiction) that he always thinks of himself as more important while he thinks she'll be forgotten.
    • Andrew's single father clearly adores him, but Andrew gradually pulls away from him over the course of the film and is extremely condescending about his choice to raise his family alone and 'settle' as a high school teacher.
  • Klingon Scientists Get No Respect: During dinner, Andrew's musical accomplishments are overlooked in favor of his cousins Travis and Dustin's Division III football careers, much to Andrew's annoyance.
  • Kubrick Stare: Andrew pulls a few off from time to time.
  • Minor with Fake I.D.: While he isn't explicitly shown using one, Andrew, a first-year college student, discusses Fletcher's firing over drinks at a nightclub.
  • Missing Mom: Andrew's mom left early in his life and he grew up alone with his dad. Fletcher uses this piece of information to mock Andrew.
  • Morality Pet: Nicole and Andrew's father are both this to him, at first. See Kick the Morality Pet for more details.
  • Rage Against the Mentor: Andrew physically attacks Fletcher after finally being pushed too far.
  • Took a Level in Jerkass: Grows more and more into a self-righteous and egotistical prick as his pursuit for perfectionism goes on.
  • Ungrateful Bastard: Fletcher sees Andrew as this for turning on him and getting him fired, catalyzing his motive for trying to humiliate the latter in the third act.note 
  • Unstoppable Rage: After being pushed way too far by Fletcher and accompanied by his serious injuries from a car accident, Andrew finally attacks Fletcher in a rage to where a security guard and Connolly have to hold him back. Even then this is extremely difficult as Andrew is using whatever strength he has left to go after Fletcher.
  • "Well Done, Son" Guy: One interpretation of Andrew's relationship with Fletcher and why he persists in learning from him. Ironically, Andrew's father is a total aversion, as he shows Andrew nothing but unconditional love and actually wishes his son wasn't so fiercely determined and ambitious.
  • Worthy Opponent: Andrew's final performance in the film finally gets a nod of approval from Fletcher. Word of God argues that Fletcher thinks he beat Andrew in the end, however...

    Terence Fletcher 

Terence Fletcher

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/fletcher_whiplash.jpg
"Not quite my tempo."

Played By: J. K. Simmons

"There are no two words in the English language more harmful than 'good job'."

A music teacher and conductor at Shaffer Conservatory.


  • Ax-Crazy: When Fletcher gets mad, he gets mad. He's prone to kicking and throwing instruments around as if they had zero value when things don't go his way.
  • The Bad Guy Wins: Downplayed, but there. While he got booted off the University and failed to utterly humiliate Andrew as revenge, Andrew upstaging him ended up benefiting him as he found the "new great" that he had been looking for.
  • Bait the Dog:
    • The "Not quite my tempo" scene starts out with Fletcher acting like any other calm, friendly instructor, even reassuring Andrew there's "no worries". Then he throws the chair and it all goes downhill from there...
    • Fletcher seems genuinely upset when he refers to Sean Casey's death. This could be Pet the Dog, but the revelation that Fletcher lied about the cause of death and eventually gets sued by Sean's parents for abusing him might suggest that he's also trying to cover his ass.
    • He gives Neiman the opportunity to play at JVC with a pro-band, seeming to be on good terms with him, only for it to turn out that he only does so to get revenge on Neiman by having the band perform a song Neiman didn't know of, humiliating him in front of the audience.
  • Bald of Evil: He's got a shiny dome and is a terrifying beast of a man.
  • Believing Their Own Lies: Fletcher honestly seems to believe his methods are an unpleasant but necessary part of finding the next great and keeping Jazz alive rather than just being a way for him to indulge his worst impulses and gaining glory for himself.
  • Berserk Button: Pretty much anything can set Fletcher off, to the point that being in the same room with him is hazardous, but he really seems to hate it when people are off in their timing and even more when they don't know if they're off.
  • Big Bad: He's Andrew's abusive teacher, and is a gigantic jackass to him in particular.
  • Black-and-White Insanity: Fletcher's approach to jazz music. In his mind, anyone who isn't capable of being great as he determines it is absolutely worthless to him, and he shows no issue in breaking them completely and tossing them aside. One can only imagine how many potentially talented, if not exactly remarkable, musicians gave up because of him. It also extends to his approach to teaching as he can't fathom any styles beyond the extremes of "encouraging complacency" and "vicious personal abuse with almost no praise of any kind".
  • The Bully: Towards all his students, but Andrew in particular.
  • Character Catch Phrase: "Not quite my tempo".
  • Control Freak: Fletcher will push his band to the point of exhaustion or tears. He won't tolerate minor things such as misplaced sheet music or not bringing your own drumsticks. A former student of his hanged himself (though whether or not this is Fletcher's fault is left to the audience discretion).
  • Cool Old Guy: For a guy his age he is very well-built and possesses old man's strength.
  • The Corrupter: He's sort of a Devil figure. If you get through his class, you will get good as a jazz musician, but at the cost of your humanity and mental state.
  • Crocodile Tears: Heavily implied, just barely short of being outright stated. While he cries over former student Sean Casey committing suicide, the later reveal that Casey's parents had wanted to sue him due to the events leading up to his suicide, all of which involved Fletcher's abuse, makes it look considerably more like he was just trying to cover his ass.
  • Deadpan Snarker: On the few occasions he isn't bellowing at the top of his voice, he speaks in a snarky and derisive manner that make clear how much contempt he has for anyone in his vicinity.
  • Dirty Coward: Despite his aggressive behavior and abusive treatment of his students, Andrew attacking Fletcher and almost beating him up is the only moment where Fletcher himself is visibly frightened. Just like a real-life bully would be when their victim eventually stands up to themselves—and to really highlight that kind of fear, a student of his and a security guard pull him off (just like a bully's cronies might do for the sake of avoiding the possibility of school-wide revenge), suggesting that that wasn't an isolated incident.
  • Disproportionate Retribution: Lose your sheet music or a part of your instrument or commit any one of a hundred perfectly normal mistakes? Fletcher will chew you out with a flurry of insults and cruelty so devastating you may be physically unable to move afterwards.
  • Dramatically Missing the Point: As noted elsewhere, Fletcher loves the story of Jo Jones sending Charlie Parker off the stage by throwing a cymbal at his head and framed it as a crucial moment when he determined to become the great musician he is known as now. He misses or omits that Jones didn't throw it at his head but his feet and it wasn't a personal attack with witnesses saying it was more playful than done out of anger and with Jones not intending to harm or humiliate Parker and Parker didn't play again for months and then only as an art form. The story was really about Parker realizing he wasn't suited to the rigid approach of Jones' band and determined to forge his own path and create his own style through rigid self-discipline but Fletcher interpreted it as a story about how Jones being abusive to Parker set him on the path to greatness and used it as a justification for his own cruelty. As an added bonus, Parker was also notorious for losing saxes (or pawning them to feed his drug habit) while misplacing equipment or sheet music is one of the many things that pisses Fletcher off.
  • The Dreaded: His entire class are all petrified of ever setting him off and with good reason, because a single mistake will have him go on an abusive tirade towards you.
  • Drill Sergeant Nasty: The school coach variant — Fletcher runs his jazz band with the exact same tyrannical attitude as any movie drill sergeant. Unlike many examples, he is shown to be a vicious bully and the main villain of the film. When he gets really vicious and persona, which is most of the time, he makes Sergeant Hartman seem like a choir boy by comparison.
  • Enraged by Idiocy: Fletcher cannot stand anything that's less than perfect. Any mistake, no matter how minor, will set him off in the most frightening manner possible.
  • Even Evil Has Standards:
    • Fletcher seems hesitant to start the band in the second act after he noticed Neiman injured and covered in blood from the car accident he just got, almost as if he realized he might have pushed him too far.
    • While his former student Sean Casey committed suicide because of Fletcher's teaching, the fact that Fletcher tears up about it, assuming the tears are genuine, might suggest that there is at least some humanity in Fletcher.
    • Fletcher throws a lot of xenophobic, homophobic and even sexist slurs at his students, but strangely enough, he never uses any racial slurs against his black students. Maybe justified since jazz music is heavily related to African-American culture, and it would be wrong for a jazz teacher to make himself look racist. Or perhaps he's just meticulously determining what insults he can get away with.
  • Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: He holds a dim view of more encouraging teachers and mentor figures, dismissing them as preventing students from growing. The idea that one could be a stern mentor who offers criticism and encourages growth while still giving praise and generally treating students like people seems legitimately incomprehensible to him.
  • Evil Genius: He's highly formidable in most respects (right down to being powerfully built for his age, though he still gets tackled by an injured Andrew) and to that end there is no denying that he's a skilled musician in his own right, is extremely observant, is able to put together the pieces on who testified against him and pulls off a Xanatos Gambit in the final scene.
  • Evil Is Hammy: He's incredibly unpleasant to be around, and yet, he's also very over the top with his insults and demeanor.
  • Evil Is Petty:
    • He kicks Metz out from the studio band claiming he was playing out of tune. Then he reveals that Metz wasn't out of tune at all, he just kicked him out just because.
    • Fletcher is willing to sabotage an entire concert just to get back at the person who got him fired.
  • Evil Wears Black: Throughout the entire movie he wears almost nothing but completely black clothes. The only exception is the bar scene where he wears a light blue shirt.
  • Evil Old Folks: He's well into middle-age (JK Simmons was fifty-nine during filming) and is a terrifying sadist and bully.
  • The Extremist Was Right: Deconstructed. Fletcher ultimately succeeds in fostering the "Great Musician" he aspired to see in his lifetime, albeit at the cost of his teaching career and his own student's mental health.
  • False Dichotomy: He doesn't seem to think there's any middle ground between praising students for the bare minimum and stifling their growth and offering up no praise, only relentless verbal abuse and psychological trauma. It's a sign that he that he just like being horrible to students out of sadism more than any lofty goals.
  • Faux Affably Evil: Zig-Zagged. Fletcher can turn on the charm when he wants to. In one of his early scenes, he's seen chatting politely with a little girl. He will affably tell his musicians to "just have fun out there" before berating them mercilessly for the slightest imperfections. On the other hand, Fletcher is seen being incredibly polite and professional at times, such as when he speaks to the pro musicians late in the film and to Neiman in the bar. From the looks of it, he truly can be sincere and nice to people as long as they don't "sabotage" his creativity. In the third act, after being fired, he has a nice chat with Andrew at a bar and talks about his philosophy about being harsh in order to motivate his students. Then he dips back into the faux side as it's all just a ploy to build Neiman's trust up to then humiliate him in front of the jazz community. And even THEN, he genuinely respects Andrew when he turns out to make his best performance ever that even makes Fletcher impressed.
  • Fired Teacher: Fletcher ultimately loses his job at the the end of the second act, after Sean Casey's parents and Andrew testify against him for the damage his abuse inflicted.
  • Glory Hound: It's made abundantly clear that Fletcher's quest for greatness is as much about making himself a part of jazz history as it is keeping the genre alive.
  • Hair-Trigger Temper: He will pretty much blow up anytime he hears anyone playing even slightly off-tempo, to the point that the people playing slightly off don't even notice it themselves, and punishes them with profanity-laced tirades and sometimes, even physical abuse. That's not even the worst part; it's heavily implied that he actually knows someone's timing is right, but still unleashes on them anyway just to fuck with them.
  • Hate Sink: Invoked by Damien Chazelle as he not only instructed J.K. Simmons to portray Fletcher as uncompromisingly mean-spirited, but wrote the character as devoid of redeeming qualities so as to challenge the audience to accept his perspective. Simply, he intends that you dislike him.
  • Hates Everyone Equally: He doesn't care about the gender, racial, or sexual identity of his students, as long as they provide him with the means to be one of the best jazz musicians under his wing. His abuse towards his students isn't motivated by discrimination, more by his lust for fame and to live vicariously through his students.
  • Hope Crusher: Fletcher tortures his musicians by offering a bit of praise or encouragement, only to immediately shift into his usual abusive method of teaching. Andrew discovers this on his first day with the Studio Band.
  • Hypocrite:
    • Throughout the movie, Fletcher repeatedly warns the jazz band not to "sabotage" the band with bad performances. At the end of the movie, Fletcher deliberately sabotages a professional band in front of talent agents by intentionally giving Andrew the wrong music to play in petty revenge for getting him fired from the academy. For all his talk about the greater good of Jazz, Fletcher is more than willing to sabotage a talented student out of sheer petulance.
    • He calls Andrew a "weepy-willow shit sack" for thinking that there's any way he can plow through any Comically Small Demands just so Fletcher can feel "honored" that Neiman's cut out of the band on his own terms. Fletcher's own derisiveness aside, he's hardly one to call people out on thinking he controls who he lends his parts to, considering he cut Metz out of the band for thinking the opposite (or more specifically, thinking he was out of tune), and has no problem giving the same types of demands at the beginning of the film for the exact same reasons that Andrew's trying to do it: manipulation to instill a false sense of (as mentioned) honor.
    • He tells Andrew that he'll never apologize for the methods he used to try and shape the next Charlie Parker (or something-or-other). Fair enough, but the key word there is "try", something he repeatedly stresses is a big no when becoming a musician, aka someone who must be perfect, showing that when it's convenient to him personally he has no problem going against his own logic.
  • Ignored Epiphany: He has a few moments throughout, such as seeing Andrew show up after a serious car accident, Sean Casey's death and getting fired, where he briefly sees how harmful his behavior is but he invariably falls back into his old pattern soon after, justifying it as a necessary cost for finding greatness.
  • It's All About Me: Fletcher talks big about wanting to find the next Louis Armstrong or Charlie Parker but it's clear he really just wants to give himself a place in Jazz history as the one who discovered them. He is also happy to destroy their careers for his own revenge.
  • Jerkass: Big time. He constantly throws out insults at his students and never once has given any genuine compliment.
  • Jerkass Has a Point: While he still sounds like an absolute ass saying it out loud, Fletcher has a point when he points out that Andrew shouldn't take the part he earned for granted if he shows up late on the competition. After all, why start out several minutes late, when there's another drummer on hold in case someone couldn't show up on time.
  • Jerk with a Heart of Jerk: Fletcher will occasionally seem like he's revealing a human side, only for it to turn out to be just more jerk.
    • Right before Andrew plays with the studio band for the first time, Fletcher strikes up a friendly conversation with him, asking about his life, family, and childhood. While this scene seems to be there to show that Fletcher might be a nice guy after all, in reality, Fletcher only wants this information to abuse and humiliate Andrew with it later.
    • During the first session with the band, Fletcher at first shows the utmost patience with Andrew's attempts to play on tempo. He keeps gently correcting the tempo, assuring him there's no pressure... and then suddenly throws a chair at him and screams insults in his face.
    • Fletcher offers an emotional tribute to a dedicated former student who had just died in a car crash, showing that maybe Fletcher really does care for his students. Then it's revealed that not only did Fletcher lie about the student's fate, but he was probably a primary cause of the student's suicide.
    • After Andrew is expelled from the university and causes Fletcher to be fired for what he did, Andrew happens upon a show Fletcher was doing at a bar. Fletcher sees him and they have a drink together, while Fletcher defends his style of teaching as just trying to create a truly great performer. He then offers Andrew the drumming role in a professional band that is going to give a performance for scouts. Turns out he knew Andrew was the one who got him fired and was simply doing it for petty revenge by telling Andrew the wrong music to be played so Andrew would make a fool of himself in front of all the talent agents.
  • Karma Houdini Warranty: Subverted. Fletcher seems to have hit this after the Sean Casey tribunal, which gets him fired from the school. However, he nevertheless continues to be a very respected conductor, and ends the movie in full Karma Houdini mode as he finds his perfect student in Andrew.
    • Word of God interestingly Double Subverts this, revealing Andrew would die young and Fletcher’s victory would only remain in his mind.
  • Kick the Dog: Fletcher keeps finding new dogs to sink lower and lower.
    • Fletcher uses racist, sexist, and homophobic slurs to insult musicians, apparently drawing on the most vile things he can think of to degrade each person even if they might not reflect his actual convictions.
    • Fletcher gets deeply personal when he makes fun of Andrew for how his mother walked out on his father Jim.
    • Likewise, the reveal that Fletcher's supposed former ace student did not die in a car crash but hung himself, likely due to Fletcher's effects on his psyche.
  • Knight Templar: Fletcher is absolutely devoted to keeping jazz alive and he will do anything to achieve that goal, even if the culture that created jazz (the African American community) has moved on to newer expressions of art. Psychologically broken students are seen as more than an acceptable price to pay for finding the next Charlie Parker, Louis Armstrong, Dizzy Gillespie, or Buddy Rich.
  • Know-Nothing Know-It-All: Downplayed, but it still bears mentioning. All of his musical knowledge is certainly admirable and is proven throughout the film, but he has no idea what to make of his own methods of keeping his students in line, covering up his ambivalence about how to psychoanalyze his students and keep his reputation in tact with trying to enforce his own petty grievances (the most notable example being how he handles the knowledge that Andrew fired him.
    Fletcher: You think I'm fucking stupid? I know it was you.
  • Lack of Empathy: Fletcher takes this to destructive levels; showing no remorse to what damage his abusive tutelage inflicted, even admitting at the end of his “Good Job” speech how he will never apologize for his actions,note  seeing as it was for the greater good.
    • Rather than show any kind of concern or worry when Andrew shows up to a competition dazed and bleeding with a broken hand (after getting into a bad car crash in his rush to get there on time) Fletcher makes him play until he can't even hold his drumsticks, then coldly throws him out of the band for messing up the performance.
  • Large Ham: When Fletcher insults you (and he will), it'll be the most over the top psychological abuse you'll witness.
  • Laser-Guided Karma: Gets assaulted by Neiman when he cuts him from the band despite literally bleeding for it. Then he gets fired from Shaffer.
    • While Andrew is guiding the orchestra in the final act to play "Caravan", Fletcher is taken aback by the interruption of his speech and threatens to gouge out Andrew's eyes, only for Andrew to strategically strike a cymbal and make it hit him in the chin, which forces him to step back and resume conducting. It's fitting how the sharp edge of the cymbal comes alarmingly close to Fletcher's neck, as he's immensely fond of the urban myth that Charlie Parker nearly got decapitated by an airborne cymbal. Of course, this also serves as payback for Fletcher sending a chair flying directly at Andrew's head.
  • Last-Name Basis: Terence Fletcher is almost always only referred to by his last name. Conversely, Fletcher usually refers to his students by their last names, with the exception of a student named Eugene.
  • Laughably Evil: Some of Fletcher's insults are so over-the-top, they become funny. This doesn't make him any less intimidating.
    Fletcher: And here comes Mr. Gay Pride of the Upper West Side himself. Unfortunately, this is not a Bette Midler concert. We will not be serving Cosmopolitans and Baked Alaska, so just play faster than you give fucking handjobs, will you, please?
  • Legacy Seeker: It's implied that he ultimately wants to make a name for himself in Jazz history and is using his students to either accomplish this dream or try to achieve this dream vicariously through his students.
  • Malicious Misnaming: Downplayed. As he pronounces it at the start of the film, Andrew's last name Neiman is meant to sound like "NAY-man". However, Fletcher introduces him to his band as the significantly weaker-sounding "NEE-man" and refers to him as such throughout most of the film. With the sheer amount of psychological warfare he inflicts on Andrew, it's quite likely this was intentional.
  • Manipulative Bastard: Fletcher uses his students' fear of public embarrassment and desire for praise to bring them to the end of themselves and validate his belief in his own purpose.
  • Meaningful Name: A fletcher is someone who attaches feathers to arrows to make them fly straight, befitting a perfectionist.
  • Misery Builds Character: His entire teaching style is built around this idea and his fervent belief that his unwielding and frankly monstrous treatment of students is essential to them becoming better musicians. The results are mixed as many do improve as musicians but often end up becoming worse people at best or psychologically broken, some to the point of suicide, a fact which Fletcher is almost entirely indifferent to.
  • Moral Myopia: Fletcher sees his harsh training as justifiable in his pursuit of fostering greatness, unfettered by the damage he leaves in his wake, yet he considers the slightest errors from his students an attempt at sabotaging his life's work to find the next jazz prodigy.
    • Subverted, surprisingly, in respect to his being a massive Sir Swears-a-Lot to his students. When Neiman shows up to the Dunellen competition irate that Ryan's about to play his part ("Like fucking hell he's playing my part"), Fletcher takes umbrage mainly with his supposed insolence rather than the fact that a normally mild-mannered student casually swore directly to him.
      Fletcher: What the fuck did you just say to me?
      Neiman: ...it's my part!
      Fletcher: It's my part, and I decide who to lend it to.
  • Motivational Lie:
    • Fletcher is extremely fond of the popular myth that Jo Jones hurled a cymbal at Charlie Parker's head during a terrible performance, and uses it to intimidate/inspire his students into performing harder. The actual story, which is possibly apocryphal, is that he actually just dropped the cymbal at Parker's feet with a gong-like crash. And, while it is definitely true that Parker left the stage in humiliation, he didn't become a recluse who obsessively worked on making his hands move faster starting the next day like Andrew. In fact, he didn't touch another saxophone for about three months, and when he started playing again, he began studying jazz as an art, not as a form of aggressive competition to see who can be the best player, which is how Fletcher wants his students to treat it.
    • At one point, Fletcher has Ryan replace Andrew as the core drummer as if to suggest that Ryan is a superior drummer to Andrew. Later, Fletcher admits that he used Ryan to stimulate Andrew into developing his skills and implies that Ryan was nowhere near Andrew's level.
    • A more morbid example, culminating with Fletcher fabricating the circumstances behind the death of a pupil to motivate his students and divert any suspicion from his detractors.
  • Muse Abuse: Fletcher sees enough of something in Andrew to allow him to play, but repeatedly berates, brutally mocks, has him perform to the point of physical and mental exhaustion, puts his physical being in danger (the cymbal crash), lies often, and belittles him throughout the story.
  • Never My Fault: The closest we see Fletcher come to taking responsibility for the adverse effects he has on his students is saying that he "made enemies." He's willing to cover up Sean Casey's suicide, reportedly from depression and anxiety that started when Casey was a student of his, by saying that he died in a car accident. Casey's parents end up getting him fired, and when he later tells this to Andrew, he remarks that "why anybody would have anything other than peaches and cream to say about me is a mystery." It's ambiguous whether the comment is a rare (albeit sarcastic) moment of self-awareness from Fletcher or him legitimately unable to fathom that anyone might take issue with his teaching methods.
  • Not-So-Well-Intentioned Extremist: While Fletcher's abuse is ostensibly to push his students and bring out their potential, it's only so he can take credit for their success as well as an outlet for his own anger and cruelty. He also has no issue sabotaging the careers of someone he sees as genuinely talented solely out of sheer petulance.
  • Obfuscating Stupidity: Fletcher pretends not to know which of his performers is playing his trombone out of tune so he has a chance to single out the people who don't know if they're in tune or not, which he sees as even worse. Fletcher feigns ignorance again in the third act, when he knows perfectly well that Andrew got him fired, and later even says, "You think I'm fucking stupid? I know it was you."
  • Paper Tiger: Downplayed. Fletcher appears to be a tall and muscular middle aged man. However, Andrew is easily able to tackle him to the ground and is only taken off him by Ryan and a security guard.
  • Parental Substitute: Fletcher is a particularly twisted example. Despite (or perhaps because of) his abusive behavior towards Andrew and its effects on the young man, he is perhaps Andrew's biggest motivator to succeed throughout the film.
  • The Perfectionist: Any mistake made by his students, no matter how minor, is punished with an absolutely brutal dressing down, and he is focused only on students whom he thinks could be legends, regardless of how many others he has to destroy in the process.
  • Perpetual Frowner: Fletcher's default facial expression is a scowl of either bored disinterest or explosive fury.
  • Pet the Dog:
    • Fletcher is seen being supportive of a little girl who wants to become a musician. Somewhat undercut by asking her if she'll be in his band when she grows up.
    • For what it's worth, he lets his other students take a break instead of forcing them to keep playing while trying to find his perfect drummer between Neiman, Tanner and Connolly.
    • During the Andrew's final performance, when he accidentally hits a cymbal too hard, causing it fall over, Fletcher wordlessly fixes it so that Andrew's performance will continue unhindered.
    • Subverted by Fletcher's emotional tribute to a late student, when it's revealed that the student actually killed himself in part due to the psychological damage Fletcher's teaching put on him.
  • Politically Incorrect Villain: His insults often contains homophobic, xenophobic, anti-semitic, sexist or fat-shaming remarks. For example, he calls Metz a "fatass", Neiman a "hymie fuck" or Connolly a "mick paddy cracker". However, it is also possible that this is done from a psychoanalytical approach to figure out how he can break his students rather than a reflection of actual prejudice.
  • Punch-Clock Villain: When not teaching, Fletcher seems perfectly capable of being polite, charming and overall normal in sharp contrast to the borderline monster he usually is. It's unknown how much of this is sincere or just pragmatism to keep his connections to the music world.
  • Revenge Before Reason: Fletcher's plan to humiliate Andrew into playing the wrong music at the concert. He doesn't seem to realize (or perhaps is simply beyond caring) that he would be destroying his own reputation in front of the jazz community by having a sub-par performance from a drummer.
  • Revenge Myopia: Despite all of the damage his tutelage left on Andrew, Fletcher still makes an attempt to humiliate and discredit the former during a concert as revenge for defying him.
  • Right for the Wrong Reasons: His general belief, that those capable of greatness should be pushed beyond what's usually expected of them rather than settling for the standard, is not necessarily a bad one. However, he uses it to justify absolutely horrific treatment and he has absolutely no regard for who is caught in the crossfire in his effort to find the next Jazz legend.
  • Sadist: It's made repeatedly clear that Fletcher enjoys the horrifying abuse he inflicts on his students and the resulting trepidation they regard him with, to the point that it's implied to be his real motivation with potential improvements for Jazz being merely a side effect.
  • Sadist Teacher: He is horrendously abusive towards his students, both physically and mentally, and is completely indifferent to any lasting damage his teaching has on them. As if to emphasize the teacher aspect of Sadist Teacher, Fletcher is noticeably nicer to musicians who are not his students. This includes the daughter of a friend whose begun to pursue music and the adult band that he leads into JCV. He seems to save his abusive behavior and sociopathic tendencies for students who are under his direct instruction.
  • Scary Musician, Harmless Music: Fletcher, the Sadist Teacher Drill Sergeant Nasty, plays a piano in the softest, quietest, most chill manner possible.
  • Serious Business: He treats Jazz and running his class with a "life or death" intensity of a drill sergeant with any slip-ups, no matter how minor, treated as unforgivable offenses.
  • Sink or Swim Mentor: A realistic example. Although there is a Training from Hell involved with Fletcher, he is so relentlessly cruel, brutal, and dismissive that he is almost unappeasable and anything less than what he deems "perfection" will result in a person being thrown out of his class or being so viciously tormented that they quit, have a breakdown, and/or commit suicide, as Sean Casey did.
  • Sir Swears-a-Lot: He starts throwing around "fucks" the deeper and deeper he gets into criticizing his students.
  • Skewed Priorities: Fletcher considers the declination of Music talent and quality a "tragedy", yet he trivializes the death of a former pupil to fabricate a sob story, lying about the circumstances to motivate his students and detract skepticism of his methods.
  • Smile of Approval: Fletcher finally genuinely smiles at Andrew in the final moments of the film, after his stunning performance. It is, however, distinctly bittersweet as opposed to usual iterations of this trope, as Fletcher is such a brutal bully that it seems Andrew would genuinely be better off without his approval.
  • Smug Snake: While Fletcher tells Andrew point-blank that he'll never take a break from acting like someone who put the hardest amount of work into shaping students to be the next great musician, it's clear that, whether he has a handle on that kind of perfectionism or not, he's way past any prime that he could have had whenever he started that pursuit, and is highly regarded by Shaffer purely because of his merits as a musician, not because he knows what is and isn't a controlled method in musicianship. As the film goes on, he comes out looking less intimidating and more pathetic, especially since his idea of reasserting himself is getting petty revenge on his former student purely out of spite for getting him fired.
  • The Social Darwinist: Fletcher takes the mindset to the extreme. To him, hard work isn't enough—only abject suffering and humiliation can produce greatness in musicians, and he refuses to praise his students for anything less than the best.
  • The Sociopath: Fletcher is very manipulative and abusive. He tries to justify it as being just a method to motivate his students to push their own limits. But regardless to whether you think he is right, anyone with a sane mind wouldn't go so far as he does.
  • Stealth Mentor: Fletcher explains that his jerk attitude was only to bring out the best in his students. The success of his method is questionable at best.
  • Thin-Skinned Bully: Fletcher seems genuinely scared when Andrew tackles him to the ground and it's unknown what he would have done had the students he terrified and mistreated hadn't been there to pull him off. In general, Fletcher is more than happy to unleash his fury upon frightened students who can't or won't respond but it's unlikely he'd adopt the same attitude with other adults.
  • Tranquil Fury: Normally, no: Fletcher's anger is full-volume screaming and creative insults. But when he tells Neiman that he's lost the part and Neiman actively backtalks him...
    Fletcher (the quietest and most clearly furious he's been in the movie): The fuck did you just say to me?
    • He is also shown to be eerily enraged when sabotaging Neiman during the final performance of the film for getting him fired without yelling or insulting him, but angrily telling Neiman that he "knows it was him".
  • Trash Talk: If some of the previous entries didn't make it obvious enough, yes, this is what Fletcher will do at some point or another towards anyone who doesn't meet his ridiculously high standards.
  • The Unfettered: There is no low Fletcher will avert from to succeed, as he is even willing enough to use the suicide of a former pupil to fabricate a sob story to motivate his students, knowing that his destructive behavior may have been a factor to his students demise.
  • The Unapologetic: He never expresses any remorse for his various crimes and outright says he refuses to ever apologize for his behavior.
  • Villain with Good Publicity: Fletcher is greatly respected and appreciated as a music teacher and maintains a humble public image. His students on the other hand? They see the tyrannical control freak underneath, and are either too scared or too ambitious (or both) to lift a finger about it.
  • Villainous BSoD: Fletcher appears to experience one upon learning that one of his former ace students, Sean Casey, just killed himself. Of course, the very next day he happily uses Sean's death as a sob story to motivate his students, lying through his teeth about the manner of death as he does so.
  • Virtue Is Weakness: He seems to regard actually praising students and not viciously breaking him down for mistakes as fostering complacency and stifling growth.
  • Well-Intentioned Extremist: Fletcher wants to bring out the best and more from his students, and puts them through hellish training to wring out their potential, though the fact that he covered up his former pupils cause of death to detract suspicion that his method may have been a factor and taking revenge on Andrew for getting him fired indicates that his motives are far from altruistic.
  • Wicked Cultured: Fletcher's extremely vulgar and bigoted, but he is still a talented jazz conductor and sports a clean, finely dressed appearance and can appear sophisticated when needed.

    Ryan Connolly 

Ryan Connolly

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/ryan_connolly_whiplash_6.png

Played By: Austin Stowell

The closest person in the music group to being a Nice Guy.


  • Chekhov's Gunman: Ryan Connolly is introduced as the lower-level band's core drummer, who loses to Andrew in the auditions for Fletcher's band. Fletcher later recruits him as the core drummer over Andrew and Tanner as an incentive for Andrew to improve.
  • Face of a Thug: Despite looking like a typical Jerk Jock, he is actually quite the Nice Guy and seems to genuinely respect Andrew.
  • Lovable Jock: All signs point to Ryan Connolly being this, despite Andrew thinking of him as something of a Jerk Jock. He's a big strapping guy who in any other film would be a total bro, but his rivalry with Neiman seems to be chiefly fabricated by Fletcher. (In the screenplay this is even more in play; his friendly overtures and reassurances toward Andrew are rebuffed due to the mistrust fostered among the alternates).
  • Nice Guy: Surprisingly so.
  • The Rival: He is a drummer Andrew served as the alternate for in a lower level class and is in a constant competition with Andrew to maintain the position as core drummer. Invoked by Fletcher, who actively cultivates paranoia between them as a motivational tactic, since Connolly is brought into the band seemingly for the sole purpose of intimidating Andrew.
  • Token Good Teammate: Ryan is shown to be the only person in the music group who is genuinely noble and sympathetic.
    • He is usually nice, even to Fletcher who treats him like crap, and tries telling Andrew to back off when he is fiercely arguing with the music teacher. Though this was partly unjustified since Fletcher threatened to take away Andrew's part for something seemingly insignificant.
    • When Andrew shows up to perform bloodied and injured after his car accident, Ryan is the only band member to be shocked and concerned towards him. He even looks at Fletcher in alarm, silently questioning him if he should let Andrew perform in this condition.
    • Additionally, when Andrew knocks Fletcher to the ground preparing to attack him, Ryan is the only student to come to the music teacher's aid. He, along with a security guard, get Andrew off and drag the enraged student to the exit so he wouldn't harm Fletcher. But at the same time it is Fletcher of all people he's defending.
    • This is also a slightly downplayed example, due to Ryan being the newest recruit in the band, meaning he hadn't been there long enough to potentially adapt into the same unpleasant persona as all the other Fletcher's students.
  • Unknown Rival: When Fletcher finally recruits Ryan into his band, Andrew believes Ryan to be an inferior drummer and outright insults him, but Ryan is seemingly unaware of this rivalry and remains friendly to Andrew despite Andrew's rudeness.
  • Unwitting Pawn: Fletcher admits that he only used Connolly as a way to motivate Andrew.

    Karl Tanner 

Karl Tanner

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/carl_tanner_whiplash.png

Played By: Nate Lang

An intense rival to Andrew, who misplaced a music sheet folder.


  • Ambiguously Gay: Possibly, given how Fletcher likes to use his students' weakest points and insecurities against them, like how he repeatedly picks on Andrew for his mom leaving him. In case of Tanner, Fletcher throws several homophobic slurs at him, calling him "Mr. Gay Pride" and urging him to "play faster than he gives handjobs".
  • The Dragon: To Fletcher.
  • Foreshadowing: Tanner is an asshole who loses his mind to inconveniences like a folder of sheet music going missing, and this serves to illustrate what happens to students in Fletcher's band: They become high strung, fearful shells of themselves who live in constant terror at the idea of displeasing their conductor.
  • Not So Stoic: For the first half of the movie he barely expresses any emotions and is only focused on the music, but when Neiman loses his folder he flips out. He also expresses jealousy when Neiman takes his place as the core drummer.
  • The Rival: He is the original core drummer in Fletcher's jazz band and is in a constant competition with Andrew to maintain the position as core drummer. Enforced by Fletcher, who actively cultivates paranoia between them as a motivational tactic, as it's all but stated that Andrew himself was recruited for the sole purpose of intimidating Tanner. Interestingly, this is the exact same reason Fletcher hires Connolly later on in order to intimidate Andrew, and it works because Andrew ends up becoming just as arrogant and unpleasant towards Connolly, as Tanner was to Andrew.
  • Screw This, I'm Out of Here!: He dropped out of Shaffer and went to medical school because even he got enough of Fletcher's abuse.
  • Tempting Fate: Carl hissing at Andrew "Do not touch this kit" after the latter lost his folder in the previous scene. Then Fletcher orders Andrew to play Carl's drums.

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