8mm



Private Detective Tom Welles (Nicolas Cage) is hired by wealthy widow Mrs. Christian, who has discovered a reel of 8mm film in her late husband's safe that depicts what appears to be the brutal murder of a teenage girl by a hulking man in a mask. Mrs. Christian wants Welles to find out whether the incident in the film is real.

A direct-to-video "sequel" called 8mm 2. It has no connection whatsoever to the original.

""Not this way...I wanted something more cinematic...""
 * Ax Crazy Knife Nut: Machine, the man who commited the murder on the 8mm tape. Wears a BDSM mask and likes to murder people with a long knife.
 * Card-Carrying Villain: Machine and Dino Velvet definitely qualify.
 * Chekhov's Gun: played straight with the Velvet's crossbow and Welles' pistol cleaning rod.
 * Subverted with Welles' gun (twice): he reassures his wife that he won't need it, but when he comes to actually need it.
 * He beats Eddie to death with it (rather than fire it and risk incriminating himself).
 * Deadpan Snarker: Max California.
 * Defensive Failure: Welles has one of the men involved in the making of the snuff film tied to a support bar in the building where the film was made. He has his gun trained on the man's head...but can't bring himself to fire, even as the man taunts him (to the point of licking the gun). Welles then steps outside,.
 * Deus Ex Machina: lampshaded as Longdale is called.
 * Divide and Conquer:
 * Dragon Their Feet:
 * Driven to Suicide:
 * Even Bad Men Love Their Mamas:.
 * Famous Last Words: The filmmaker Velvet,.
 * Famous Last Words: The filmmaker Velvet,.

"Machine: There's no mystery. Things I do, I do them because I like them! Because I want to."
 * Faux Affably Evil: Dino Velvet.
 * Film Noir: Of the neo-noir type.
 * Five-Bad Band:
 * Dino Velvet: The Big Bad.
 * Machine: The Dragon.
 * : The Evil Genius.
 * Eddie Poole: The Brute.
 * Mr Christian: The Man Behind the Man.
 * Foreshadowing:
 * The bar in Florida where Welles glimpses the senator's son-in-law is called "Clevelander" - Cleveland is where Welles begins his search for the missing person.
 * Welles glimpses the newspaper on the senators desk. The headline reads "Industrial Czar Dead At 81". This is Mr. Christian.
 * For the Evulz: Machine's only reasons to kill and butcher women in Dino Velvet's movies.

": "Because he could. He did it because he could.""
 * Also 's reason for :

"Machine: "Mommy didn't beat me. Daddy didn't rape me. I'm this way because I am.""
 * Freudian Excuse: Machine goes out of his way to attempt to subvert the trope. The idea that some people are just plain twisted is one of the core ideas explored in the film. Freudian analysis may not be needed to provide an excuse, when the reason he provides for killing people is because he wants / likes to. No matter which way you cut it, he is a psychopath.

"Max: "When you dance with the Devil, the devil doesn't change - he changes you.""
 * Fridge Logic: Welles gets away with.
 * Gory Discretion Shot: We never see the murder being committed on the 8mm reel, just Welles' reaction to it.
 * Gotta Kill Them All: Welles decides there is nothing else to do.
 * He-Man Woman Hater: Eddie Poole.
 * He Who Fights Monsters: Lampshaded by Max, who notices that Welles isn't as grossed out by what he's seeing as he used to be.

""What were you expecting? A monster""
 * Hoist by His Own Petard:.
 * Impersonating an Officer: Welles poses as a government investigator to interview the girl's mother. As he's working for a highly paying client, I guess he thinks it's worth the risk. Toward the end of the movie, he claims to be a police officer when ringing around the hospitals, but by that stage Welles is so personally involved in the case that he doesn't care about the legality.
 * Improvised Weapon: His pistol having been confiscated, Welles stabs a villain with the pistol's cleaning rod. (see, Chekhov's Gun above).
 * It's Personal: Welles is eager to solve the case, but only because he believes it will give him an entrance into the lucrative world of high-society clients. By the time the movie has finished, he's graduated to full-on Vigilante Man.
 * Fridge Logic: he gets away with.
 * Karmic Death:.
 * Large Ham: Peter Stormare as Dino Velvet. Seems like he had a lot fun playing him.
 * Malevolent Masked Men: Machine is a tremendous one.
 * Moral Event Horizon: crossed so many times, arguably the whole film really revolves around this concept:
 * Mr. Christian for wanting the film made.
 * Longdale for.
 * Dino, Eddie and Machine for making the film.
 * Machine for killing Mary Anne.
 * Welles.
 * Although this is seemingly justified in the spirit of cinematically justifiable homicide.
 * Mysterious Watcher:
 * Not So Harmless: Inverted.

"Velvet: "Machine, set him free." (Machine cuts throat)"
 * Oh Crap: Eddie Poole barely has time to scream "No!" when he realizes that Welles is about to beat him to death with his gun.
 * Only Sane Man: In the hard-core underworld, Max California is the only one who is "normal" - he reads Truman Capote and he has dream of becoming a Rock star.
 * One Bullet Left: Welles, whose gun has been unloaded and left on a table, only has time to load a single round in the chamber. And he's facing two criminals. While handcuffed to a desk.
 * Pistol-Whipping: One man taunts Welles with the fact that Welles can't murder him with his own gun because it's registered in his name. So Welles beats him to death with it.
 * Psycho for Hire: Machine.
 * Psychopathic Manchild: Machine, arguably. (Lives at home with his mom - a member of "Faithful Christian Fellowship" - and likes to murder girls for fun? You could say he is an exemplar for this).
 * Sidekick: Porn store employee Max California takes on this role. Welles even invites Max to join him as a partner.
 * Screw the Rules, I Have Money:
 * Smoking Is Cool: Welles does a lot of smoking, and hides it from his wife.
 * Smug Snake:
 * Snuff Film: In an effort to reassure Mrs. Christian, both Welles and Longdale state that snuff films are nothing other than an Urban Legend. Welles sets off looking for proof to the contrary, whereas it turned out that.
 * The movie strongly indicated that Mr. Christuan was merely an interested purchaser, and none the sicker for it.
 * They Look Just Like Everyone Else
 * Unhand Them, Villain!


 * The Voiceless: Machine initially starts as this (probably because he wants to hide his identity) before having real lines.