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[[File:BetterOffDeadPoster_1758.jpg|frame]]
 
{{quote|''Gee, Ricky, I'm real sorry your mom blew up.''}}
'''Better Off Dead''' is a 1985 comedy film directed by Savage Steve Holland and starring John Cusack. ▼
 
▲'''[[Better Off Dead']]'' is a 1985 comedy film directed by [[Savage Steve Holland]] and starring [[John Cusack]].
After being dumped by his utterly-unfaithful girlfriend, luckless teen Lane Meyer makes several futile attempts to kill himself, while wandering in and out of a series of encounters with the residents... inmates of his bizarre hometown. These include his super-genius younger brother Badger, his severely-underachieving best friend Charles, a pair of Korean car-racing enthusiasts who learned English by listening to Howard Cosell, and one ''very'' determined paper-boy. Lane's life finally begins to turn around when he meets Monique, a comely French exchange student who has been sentenced to live with Lane's grotesque neighbors.▼
 
▲After being dumped by his utterly-unfaithful girlfriend Beth, luckless teen Lane Meyer makes several futile attempts to kill himself, while wandering in and out of a series of encounters with the <s>inmates</s> residents... inmates of his bizarre hometown. These include his super-genius younger brother Badger, his severely-underachieving best friend Charles, a pair of Korean car-racing enthusiasts who learned English by listening towatching Howard Cosell, and one ''very'' determined paper-boy. Lane's life finally begins to turn around when he meets Monique, a comely French exchange student who has been sentenced to live with Lane's grotesque neighbors.
Probably doesn't ''quite'' make it to classic status, especially the ending which {{spoiler|veers off into painfully straight teen-movie win-the-athletic-competition territory}}, but mentioning this film or quoting from it is very likely to bring a smile to the face of Tropers of a certain age. It does have a pretty strong cult following due to the fact that aside from that ending, it has a different sense of humor than most 80's teen comedies and seems far less dated than other films of its type.▼
 
▲Probably doesn't ''quite'' make it to classic status, especially the ending which {{spoiler|veers off into painfully straight teen-movie win-the-athletic-competition territory}}, but mentioning this film or quoting from it is very likely to bring a smile to the face of Tropers of a certain age. It does have a pretty strong cult following due to the fact that aside from that ending, it has a very different sense of humor thanfrom most 80's80s teen comedies and seems far less dated than other films of its type.
{{tropelist}}▼
 
▲{{tropelist}}
* [[Abhorrent Admirer]]: Ricky and his pursuit of Monique.
* [[The Ace]]: Everyone other than Lane seems to have incredible skill at doing things. Highlighted by Lane's younger brother, who uses his book knowledge to pick up trashy women and build a ''launchable space shuttle'' in the attic.
* [[Alien Lunch]]: She's not an actual alien, but Lane's mother Jenny is enough of a [[Cloudcuckoolander]] that she might as well be: she's shown on-screen cooking a meal where tentacles and claws wave from the pot; in another scene she serves the family a gelatinous green goo that flees Lane's plate when he pokes it with a fork.
* [[Actor Allusion]]: When Beth (Amanda Wyss) shows up at the dance, there is someone behind her wearing Freddy Krueger's sweater. Wyss played Krueger's first victim in ''[[A Nightmare On Elm Street]]''.
* [[Ascended Meme]]: "I want my two dollars!"
* [[Animated Credits Opening]]
* [[Bad Job, Worse Uniform]]: Lane's job. See ''Burger Fool'', below.
* [[Blond Guys Are Evil]]: Roy Stalin
* [[Braces of Orthodontic Overkill]]: Lane's unfortunate but practical blind-date.
* [[Breaking the Fourth Wall]]: In-universe example: Barney Rubble of ''[[The Flintstones]]'' interrupts a broadcast to ask Lane if he can date Beth.
* [[Bungled Suicide]]: Several -- it's one of the film's [[Running Gag|Running Gags]]s.
{{quote| '''Lane:''' ''Gee, I'm real sorry your mom blew up, Ricky.''}}
* [[Burger Fool]]: Lane has to wear a hideous pig-themed hat, even though he works back in the kitchen.
* [[Cameo]]: Twiki from ''[[Buck Rogers in The 25th Century]]'' appears in the background of the Christmas scene.
* [[Claymation]]: A brief sequence set in the burger joint where Lane works.
* [[Cloudcuckoolander]]: Lane's mother Jenny.
* [[Cool Car]]: Initially averted with Lane's canvas-draped, cobwebbed (and nonfunctional) Camaro. But once [[Wrench Wench|Monique]] gets her hands on it, it goes from aversion to expression.
* [[Dawson Casting]]: Charles. Explicitly justified:
{{quote| '''Charles:''' I've been going to this high school for ''seven and a half years!'' I'm no dummy!}}
* [[The Determinator]]: "I want my two dollars!!"
* [[Driven to Suicide]]: By Beth breaking up with him.
* [[The Eighties]]: Identifiable by the [[Crowning Music of Awesome|catchy pop song soundtrack]].
* [[Enfant Terrible]]: "I want my two dollars!!"
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* [[Evil Genius]]: Badger possibly qualifies.
* [[Funny Foreigner]]: [[Foreign Exchange Student|Monique]] mostly avoids this, except {{spoiler|for one or two ''slight'' problems with English.}}
* [[Happily-Failed Suicide]]: Lane tries and fails to kill himself several times during the first part of the film.
* [[Hey It's That Guy]]: [[MASH|Charles Emerson Winchester]] is Lane's father. [[True Grit|Mattie Ross]] is his mother. His best bud Charles is [[Revenge of the Nerds|Dudley Dawson]]!
* [[High School Dance]]: The New Year's dance at which Lane briefly rescues Monique from Ricky.
** Vincent Schiavelli as his math teacher, and didn't that truck driver own a [[Porkys|strip joint]] near Angel Beach?
* [[Hey It's That Voice]]: [[Powerpuff Girls|Buttercup]] is singing at the dance.
** Subversion: [[Rich Little]] as the voice of the Korean guy who learned to speak English from [[Howard Cosell]].
* [[Homemade Sweater From Hell]]: Jenny wears a reindeer outfit which comes complete with an antler-headpiece, and gives one to her husband which is aardvark-themed.
* [[I Need to Go Iron My Dog]]: Lane ditching the paperboy.
{{quote| '''Lane:''' My little brother got his arm stuck in the microwave. So my mom had to take him to the hospital. My grandma dropped acid this morning, and she freaked out. She hijacked a busload of... penguins. So it's sort of a family crisis. Bye! }}
* [[Instant Expert]]: "Go that way, really fast. If something gets in your way, turn."
* [[Insult Backfire]]: Played with when Stalin insults Lane and Charles at one point during the New Years dance; Lane is insulted, but Charles finds it hilarious, even interrupting Stalin's dance with Beth because he's still laughing.
* [[Interrupted Suicide]]
* [[It Is Pronounced "Tro -PAY"]]: Lane's mother serves Monique "Frahnch Fries", etc.
* [[I Want My Beloved to Be Happy]]: Of course, {{spoiler|Lane comes to his senses in time.}}
* [[Jerk Jock]]: The villain, such as he is.
** His name? ''Roy Stalin''.
* [[Language of Love]]: Subverted, when {{spoiler|it turns out that Monique speaks English fairly fluently.}}
** Invoked by name by Ricky's mother, to Monique's utter disgust.
* [[Lethal Chef]]: Hoo boy. Jenny. Lane pokes one of her creations with his fork, and it ''starts moving away''.
{{quote| "It's got raisins in it. You ''like'' raisins."}}
* [[Malaproper]]: French exchange student Monique is mostly fluent in English, but has one or two ''slight'' vocabulary issues, resulting in lines like "He keeps putting his testicles all over me."
* [[Manic Pixie Dream Girl]]: Monique.
* [[Meaningful Name]]: Roy ''Stalin''.
* [[Medium Shift Gag]]: There are a couple of gag sequences in both clay and hand-drawn animation, representing Lane's bizarre daydreams about dancing hamburgers and so forth.
* [[MyMess BelovedOn Smothera Plate]]: Ricky Jenny's harridanmobile ofgreen a mothergoop.
* [[Mocking Music]]: After Beth has broken up with him, Lane is driving despondently and looking for something cheery to listen to on the radio. ''Every'' station is playing a breakup song; he ends up ripping the radio out of the car and hurling it out the window.
* [[My Girl Is Not a Slut]]: After the break-up, every guy from the [[One-Scene Wonder|math teacher]] to the rude mailman to [[The Flintstones|Barney Rubble]] is asking Lane if it would be alright to date his ex.▼
* [[My Beloved Smother]]: Ricky's harridan of a mother.
* [[Naked Freak Out]]: The roller-skating cheerleader in the cafeteria in her underwear, due to Lane's accidental slip-up. [[It Gets Worse]] as {{spoiler|ALL of her boyfriends give him a [[No Holds Barred Beatdown]]}}.▼
▲* [[My Girl Is Not a Slut]]: After the break-up, every guy from the [[One-Scene Wonder|math teacher]] to the rude mailman to [[The Flintstones|Barney Rubble]] is askingask Lane if it would be alrightall right to date his ex.
▲* [[Naked Freak -Out]]: The roller-skating cheerleader in the cafeteria in her underwear, due to Lane's accidental slip-up. [[It Gets Worse]] as {{spoiler|ALL''all'' of her boyfriends give him a [[No -Holds -Barred Beatdown]]}}.
* [[Obstacle Ski Course]]: The ski-off with Roy at the climax of the film turns into one.
* [[One-Scene Wonder]]: Vincent Schiavelli as Lane's [[The Ace|math teacher]].
* [[Over-the-Shoulder Carry]]: At the end of the film, Lane tosses Monique over his shoulder and runs off the ski slope as she waves good-bye to Ricky and merrily calls out "au revoir!"
* [[Reverse Harem]]: Chris Cummins is a cheerleader who dates the basketball team. The ''entire'' team.
* [[Running Gag]]: "I want my two dollars!!"
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** Badger's mail-order purchases
** The garage door window's getting broken.
* [[Spiritual Successor]]: John Cusack recently traveled back in time to a 1980s ski resort in ''[[Hot Tub Time Machine (Film)|Hot Tub Time Machine]]''. Somebody is even heard shouting "I want my two dollars!" at one point.
** This is despite the fact that Cusack evidently considers this film to be an [[Old Shame]].
** Cusack's protagonist in ''[[Grosse Pointe Blank]]'' also grew up in the 1980s and also had a [[Hilariously Abusive Childhood]]. He ended up becoming a [[Hitman With a Heart|professional assassin]]. We first meet him {{spoiler|shooting a bicycle deliveryman.}}
* [[Stalker Shrine]]: Lane has turned his room into one of these, dedicated to his girlfriend.
* [[Standard Snippet]]: Muddy Waters' "Mannish Boy" as Lane's Camaro rolls out for the first time. Gene Autry's "Here Comes Santa Claus" during the Christmas sequence.
* [[Stock Shout Out]]: In-universe, Lane doing Frankenstein-imbuing-the-creature-with-life at the start of the "Everybody Wants Some" sequence.
* [[The Stoner]]: Charles. Or he would be, if he could find anything to get stoned on.
{{quote| How are we going to get real drugs in this town? We can't even get cable!}}
** Snorting ''real snow'' [[Brain Freeze|seems to work for him]].
{{quote| This is pure snow! Do you have any idea what the street value of this mountain is?}}
* [[Suicide Asas Comedy]]: Detecting a theme yet?
{{quote| And dying when you're not really sick is really sick, you know. Really!}}
* [[Title Drop]]: The singer at the school dance.
* [[Tomboy and Girly Girl]]: Monique vs. Beth. Interestingly set up since as a French exchange student, Monique normally would be expected to be a fashionista Girly Girl. Instead, she's a (well-dressed) [[Wrench Wench]] and baseball fanatic.
* [[Tomboy and Girly Girl]]
* [[Totally Radical]]: Lane's father awkwardly attempts to "connect" with him.
* [[Trash Landing]]:
{{quote| [[Acceptable Targets|"Now that's a real shame when folks be throwin' away a perfectly good white boy like that!"]]}}
* [[Unkempt Beauty]]: Monique looks surprisingly hot with car grease on her face.
* [[Vanity License Plate]]: The villain's Trans-Am.
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{{reflist}}
[[Category:Films of the 1980s]]
[[Category:Better Off Dead{{PAGENAME}}]]
[[Category:Cult Classic]]
[[Category:Film]]
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