Micmacs

Micmacs à tire-larigot (or simply Micmacs in English) is a 2009 French film by famed director Jean-Pierre Jeunet, director of The City of Lost Children, Amelie, and A Very Long Engagement.

The film is about Bazil, a poor man whose father is killed by a landmine when he's a kid, and who gets a bullet in his brain during a shootout that happens outside the video store he's working in. The bullet isn't far enough in to kill him, but can't be removed without turning him into a vegetable, so he's released from the hospital with it still in his head, with the threat that it might kill him at any minute. Now homeless, he falls in with a band of scavengers who repair and re-sell junk to make a living. However, one day Bazil spots the logos of the two arms companies that made the mine that killed his father and the bullet that got stuck in his head. And then Bazil, helped out by his new friends, begins to plot revenge....


 * Brick Joke: The fire that ignites when someone claps appears once early in the film, and then twice more during the climax.
 * Chekhov's Skill: Most of the characters have a skill shown off at the beginning that becomes important to the plot later. Of special note is the contortionist, whose ability to fit into a refrigerator (first seen when she scares Bazil) later saves her from being detected.
 * Collector of the Strange: One of the arms makers has a collection of the body parts of famous people, such as Marilyn Monroe's molar and the heart of Louis XIV (I think), and he's trying to get Mousellini's eye.
 * Creepy Child: Assuming she's actually a teenager, Calculette is a bit too interested in.
 * Cruel and Unusual Death / Hoist by His Own Petard: The two arms dealers' fate
 * Foil: The two arms makers' apartments are very different: One is extremely modern and sterile while the other is ornate and museum-like.
 * Incredibly Lame Pun: "Focus our gays" / "focus our gaze."
 * Ladette: The contortionist is irritated when Bazil seems to think she's one.
 * The Old Convict: Slammer, who introduces himself by saying that he's been in prison for 3/4ths of his life. He uses his status as an old-time prisoner to distract some drug dealers long enough for Bazil to steal their heroin.
 * Only Known by Their Nickname: We actually do hear Buster's name, but he's referred to as Buster throughout the rest of the film. We never learn the names of Mama Chow, Calculator, or Slammer, and Remington could easily be a nickname.
 * Pet the Dog: The younger-looking of the two arms makers cares about his young son.
 * Revenge: For Bazil, his dad, and everyone else the two arms companies harmed.
 * Rube Goldberg Device: Most of the schemes they devise involve one of these.
 * Running Joke: "It's scavenged gear!"
 * Sesquipedalian Loquaciousness: Remington provides a variant of this trope, as he speaks entirely in idioms, making what he's trying to say take longer than if he just said it simply
 * Scary Black Man: de Fenouillet employs one. The African rebels also qualify. Remington is not, although he can impersonate one.
 * Stuff Blowing Up: The two arms makers' factories are right next to each other so this is bound to happen.
 * True Companions: The scavengers. Slammer even refers to them as a "family" when talking about them to Bazil.
 * Tsundere: the Elastic Woman is a Western example.
 * Woobie: Bazil.
 * Xanatos Speed Chess: "Plan B"  was probably just a variant of the original plan, but it's amazing how fast the scavengers were able to improvise it.