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One of the all time great adventure novels and certainly the most famous non-science fiction one by [[Jules Verne]], about the eventful attempt by Phineas Fogg to travel the world in eighty days, along with his valet Jean Passepartout.
 
In 1872 [[Victorian London|London, UK]], the [[Quintessential British Gentleman|very proper English gentleman]] Phileas Fogg finds himself in a wager at his social club that he can travel around the world in eighty days, a seemingly impossible feat to Fogg's doubters. Thus committed, Fogg begins his trip at once, bringing along his new manservant, Jean Passepartout, who ironically wanted a nice sedate job after years traveling about in various jobs such as an acrobat.
 
Along the way, Fogg and Passepartout have numerous adventures as they struggle to keep to a strict schedule. The most notable one in the first half is rescuing the beautiful Indian woman, Aouda, from being forced into a ceremonial self-immolation in India. Although Fogg tries to help her reach relatives in another safe British colony, this proves impossible and she becomes their fast companion for keeps who herself becomes more and more attracted to the dashing and intriguing Fogg.
 
Unfortunately, there is a bank robbery in London and although Fogg is completely innocent, his trip abroad seems too coincidental by Detective Fix's reckoning. So, as Fogg begins his race, Fix follows him, unsuccessfully trying to keep his quarry stationary and initially unaware of how far he is going until it becomes more worthwhile to help Fogg complete his journey back to England where Fix can arrest him.
 
As the gang continues their race through more adventures, it comes to a screeching halt when they reach Britain where Fix arrests Fogg. Although Fix later lets Fogg out of jail upon realizing he made a mistake, they are apparently too late as they arrive in London.
 
However, Aouda inadvertently saves the day, both in love with Fogg and feeling guilty that she may have cost him his bet, when she proposes to the now ruined Phileas and he joyously accepts. Passpartout is sent to get a vicar to arrange the wedding only to learn that the gang forgot they gained a day due to traveling east and actually arrived ''early''. With only moments left to the deadline, Fogg and company race to the Club and make it just in time.
 
The book has numerous adaptations, first on stage and then on film and TV. The more noted works are:
* [[Around the World in Eighty Days (1956 film)|A major 1956 film]] starring David Niven and [[Shirley MacLaine]] which includes the travelerstravellers taking a balloon ride part of the way, a travel option which the original Fogg dismissed as impractical.
* A famous [[Furry Fandom|furry]] 1981 animated version, ''[[Around the World with Willy Fog]]''.
* A 1989 TV mini-series starring [[Pierce Brosnan]], which critics complained went at far too leisurely a pace for a story about a race against time.
* A famous 1989 TV travel documentary starring [[Michael Palin]] of [[Monty Python]] fame where he takes the challenge to travel around the world without using aircraft, following Fogg's route as closely as possible. It changed Palin's career into a star of a whole slew of travel series.
* A recent [[Comic Relief]] series featured a celebrity relay version of this trip.
* [[Around the World in Eighty Days (2004 film)|A 2004 film]] starring [[Jackie Chan]] and Steve Coogan, mostly working on [[Rule of Funny]] and (being a Chan film) slapstick martial arts. It is full of cameos by [[Historical Fiction|historical figures]].
 
{{tropelist}}
=== '''The book ''Around the World in Eighty Days'' displays these tropes:''' ===
* [[Adventure]]
* [[The Bet]]: Circumnavigate the globe in just eighty days. Keep in mind that the book is set during the nineteenth century, before the invention and use of commercial aircraft for traveling.
Line 68 ⟶ 57:
* [[Wacky Americans Have Wacky Names]]: Phileas Fogg challenges Col. Stamp W. Proctor to a duel.
* [[You Fail Religious Studies Forever]]: Aouda is repeatedly described as "Parsi"<ref>the descendants of Iranians who fled to India from the religious persecution by Muslims</ref>, which would automatically make her Zoroastrian. But suttee is a purely Hindu custom!
 
=== '''The 1956 film ''Around the World in Eighty Days'' displays these additional tropes:''' ===
* [[Academy Award]]: Best Picture.
* [[The Cameo]]: [[Peter Lorre]]! [[Buster Keaton]]! ''[[Frank Sinatra]]?''
** That's not it yet. It featured about fifty cameos, all listed on Wikipedia. It includes [[Charles Boyer]], Fernandel, [[Marlene Dietrich]], [[Red Skelton]], and the list just keeps going from there.
** The 1989 mini-series does the same thing: [[Robert Wagner]], [[John Mills]], [[Christopher Lee]] and many others get tiny parts, and Fogg runs into several [[Historical Domain Character|Historical Domain Characters]] not in the novel, including Louis Pasteur and Sarah Bernhardt.
* [[Canon Immigrant]]: Phileas Fogg's balloon ride happens not in the Verne novel, but in this film. The balloon ride has since become such an iconic part of the story that [[Michael Palin]] took a balloon ride in his 1989 travelogue, and modern printings of Verne's novel are sometimes published along with another Verne novel, ''Five Weeks in a Balloon'', with [http://www.librarything.com/work/997143/recommendations/ a balloon] [http://www.paperbackswap.com/Around-World-Eighty-Jules-Verne/book/1853260908/ on the cover].
* [[Creative Closing Credits]]: Ends with a [[Saul Bass]] reconstruction of the events of the film.
* [[Epic Movie]]: Oh yes.
* [[Fake Nationality]]: Passepartout is played by Mexican actor [[Mario Moreno]] (better known as Cantinflas).
** [[Shirley MacLaine]] plays Aouda.
* [[Pragmatic Adaptation]]: Not so much necessary, but desired in that the book had Aouda soon changing her clothes to a typical European dress. However for most adapters, having this beautiful Indian woman deemphasizing her exoticness by losing her Sari is unthinkable. Also, nowadays not having her accompany Fogg and Passepartout in the final sprint to the Reform Club makes the sequence feel incomplete.
** Also, balancing a Indian attack on the train by first having the train stop so the Engineer can share a peace pipe with a different Native American nation, who have no interest in attacking since they are satisfied by this gesture.
* [[Scenery Porn]]: And lots of it.
* [[Widescreen Shot]]: A "spread to widescreen" shot.
 
=== '''The 2004 film ''Around the World in Eighty Days'' displays these tropes:''' ===
* [[Actor Allusion]]: Having been brought to work as a child by his parents at the French embassy in Hong Kong, [[Jackie Chan]] does know some French.
* [[Adaptation Decay]]: The 2004 movie wildly diverges from the original. Among other things:
** Fogg's peers are turned into actual villains.
** A subplot regarding a stolen Chinese idol is added.
** Aouda is replaced with a female French artist who joins the trip looking for inspiration.
** But to balance this, the Frenchmen Passepartout is replaced by [[Jackie Chan]].
** Fogg builds his own flying machine to win the race.
* [[Acrofatic]]: Sammo Hung as Wong Fei Hong, doubling as [[Actor Allusion]] as Hung has had a string of roles as famous martial artists that allegedly had a [[Historical Beauty Update]].
** [[The Cameo]]: [[Arnold Schwarzenegger]], [[Frat Pack|Luke and Owen Wilson]], Rob Schneider, Kathy Bates, and ([[Production Posse|thanks to Jackie]]) Hong Kong actors like Sammo Hung, Daniel Wu, and Karen Mok.
* [[Dragon Lady]]: The Chinese villainess in the '04 movie, who displays [[Surprisingly Good English]] (the actress Karen Mok went to university overseas).
* [[Fake Nationality]]: Chinese actor Jackie Chan as Passepartout ([[Adaptation Decay|his nationality becomes part of the story]]).
* [[Faux Action Girl]]: the sadly underused Maggie Q.
* [[Historical Fiction]]: The movie adds cameos by Vincent Van Gogh, Toulouse-Lautrec, Queen Victoria, Wong Fei Hong and even The Statue of Liberty!
** The Wright Brothers. Maybe an Indian prince.
* [[MacGuffin]]: The jade Buddha.
* [[The Ingenue]]: Fogg is portrayed a pretty clueless nice guy. He can't even tell that his valet doesn't really speak French!
 
{{reflist}}
[[Category:Nineteenth Century Literature]]
[[Category:Epic Movie]]
[[Category:Around the World in Eighty Days]]
[[Category:Literature]]
[[Category:Multiple Works Need Separate Pages{{BASEPAGENAME}}]]
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