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Buffy the Vampire Slayer (film): Difference between revisions
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Before the [[Buffy the Vampire Slayer|series,]] there was this.
In 1992, [[Joss Whedon]] wrote a script for a movie called ''Buffy The Vampire Slayer''. The plot should be very familiar to a lot of us: a [[Valley Girl]] named Buffy finds out that she is [[The Chosen One]]. An old British guy named Merrick trains her to become "the Slayer." Her job is to fight a bunch of vampires. Like the series it would later spawn, the ''Buffy'' movie was intended as a subversion of the usual "[[Damsel in Distress]]" roles that young women usually fill in horror movies. 20th Century Fox picked it up and turned it into a movie.
The end results... weren't really what Joss planned. The original script intended the film to be a serious metaphor of female empowerment with a comedic bent, but the director turned the film into an outright comedy. The movie had some success in the big screen, but Joss was dissatisfied by the changes.
Five years later, we got the well-known series ''[[Buffy the Vampire Slayer]]'', and the rest is history. The film itself occured in [[Broad Strokes]] in the regular Buffyverse, but more specifically the original screenplay, not the released movie. Early on, the series made mention of Buffy being expelled from her old high school because she set the gym on fire (to kill the vampires inside), which was the original intended ending of the movie, but was vetoed by [[Executive Meddling]].
However, it is an interesting look at what the show could have been like.
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{{tropelist}}
* [[Accidental Athlete]]: Buffy discovers her untapped fighting prowess when she punches Merrick in the nose during a tantrum.
* [[Acting for Two]]: In the flashback, the medieval Slayer and her Watcher are played by the same actors as Buffy and Merrick. (There's actually an in-story justification for this: {{spoiler|these two really are Buffy and Merrick, [[Visions of Another Self|in a dream Buffy is having]] about one of her past lives.}})
* [[Action Dress Rip]]: Actually starts out with [[I See London]] overtones. Pike tries to keep Buffy from pursuing the vampires at the dance but tears her ball gown in the process, [[Show Some Leg|exposing her legs]] and [[Panty Shot|petticoats]]. But Pike promptly makes up for his mistake by lending Buffy his [[Hell-Bent for Leather|large black leather jacket]] to cover herself. Voila, back to [[Badass]] mode!
* [[Action Girl]]: The original intent of the film was to take a typical horror film's '[[Dumb Blonde]]' who either dies first or only survives because she's the hero's love interest, and make her the [[Chosen One]] of Destiny, while the [[Loveable Loser]] that she 'surprisingly' falls in love with, who would ordinarily become the [[Badass]] [[Chosen One]], takes her place as the film's [[Damsel in Distress]].
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* [[But Not Too Black]]: Nicki, a minor member of Buffy's [[Girl Posse]].
* [[Camp Gay]]: Amilyn has touches of this. (Is it any wonder he's got a [[Embarrassing First Name|feminine-sounding name]]?)
* [[Captain Crash]]:
** Pike, who accidentally crashes his van into a tree. [[Lampshade Hanging|He even makes the "any-crash-you-can-walk-away-from-doesn't-count" excuse.]]
** Buffy also, in one scene where she drives a motorcycle into a wall (she jumps clear just in time).
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* [[Confused Bystander Interview]]: The closing credits include a montage of confused bystander interviews. Taken [[Up to Eleven]] at the very end, where it's revealed that ''the news reporter herself'' [[The Greatest Story Never Told|can't even guess what happened]].
* [[Conspicuous Trenchcoat]]: Merrick wears one when he goes looking for Buffy at the beginning. Between that and his [[Nice Hat|fancy hat]], [[Beard of Evil|"devil" beard]], and spookily whispering voice, you really can't blame Buffy for [[Paedo Hunt|being suspicious at first]].
** A similar scene later on is even more eyebrow-raising. A basketball game is being played in the gym, and Merrick surreptitiously makes his way into the bleachers and sits down to keep watch over Buffy as she performs her cheerleading routine. Yeah, [[Dirty Old Man|an older man in a trenchcoat whom no one has ever seen before sitting down by himself to watch a few dozen scantily-clad teenagers run and jump around]] - [[Sarcasm Mode|nothing suspicious about that]].
* [[Cool Old Guy]]: Merrick, who is played by Donald Sutherland. You know, [[24|Kiefer's]] [[Weird Al Effect|dad]].
* [[The Cover Changes the Gender]]: The [[Divinyls]] covered the Young Rascals' "Aint Gonna Eat Out My Heart Anymore" for this movie, and it plays during Buffy's [[Training Montage]] (and again over the closing credits). In the context of the film, then, "Ain't Gonna Eat Out My Heart Anymore" becomes an [["I Am Becoming" Song]].
* [[Creative Closing Credits]]: We get a montage of various minor characters appearing on the TV news, giving their own....idiosyncratic interpretations of the chaos at the school dance.
* [[Dare to Be Badass]]: Merrick gives this ultimatum to Buffy, albeit with the admission that it's pretty much his fault she's been put on the spot. (He had a hard time finding her.)
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* [[Dull Surprise]]: Kristy Swanson (at least in 1992) is one of those performers who can make ''Keanu Reeves'' seem like a [[Large Ham]].
** [[Lampshade Hanging|Lampshaded]] subtly in the scene of Buffy making her first kill, where she (unenthusiastically) feigns fear in order to lure in the vampire she's been tracking: [[Bad Bad Acting|"Boy, I'm feeling really helpless."]] She fools no one but the vampire.
* [[Dumb Blonde]]: Perhaps not dumb as such but this version of Buffy ''is'' rather more ditzy than the one you're used to ... in fact the character she resembles the most (from the show) is probably Cordelia.
** Buffy in the series does once remark that she used to be very much like Cordelia, and a flashback from Angel's perspective also seems to show her as popular and shallow prior to the whole Slayer business.
* [[The Dung Ages]]: The medieval European setting that figures in Buffy's [[Flashback Nightmare]] looks appropriately filthy and barbaric, even to the point that the usually refined Lothos shows up as a grimy, bearded derelict. A notable exception is Buffy's counterpart, who looks exactly the same as Buffy does in the twentieth century; she isn't even [[Hollywood Homely]]!
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{{quote|'''Amilyn''': We're immortal, Buffy. We can do anything!
'''Buffy''': Oh yeah? Clap. }}
* [[Good Is Not Nice]]: Merrick. He mocks Buffy, gives her condescending little lectures, and [[What the Hell, Hero?|comes close to killing her]] in trying to prove a point.
** Come to think of it, the title character herself. Because, let's face it, you wouldn't be too thrilled about hiring someone [[Names to Run Away From Really Fast|nicknamed "The Slayer"]] to babysit your kids.
* [[Groin Attack]]: Implied with the weiner scene (see [[Something Else Also Rises]]) and Buffy showing her annoyance at Merrick chucking a knife at her head by jamming it into the bench he's sitting on right in front of his groin. The usually stoic Merrick visibly flinches.
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'''Buffy:''' Yeah, I do. ''[beats the guy up and steals his motorbike]'' }}
* [[Hey, It's That Guy!]]:
** Pee Wee is a vampire?
** Be on the lookout for [[Batman Begins|a certain opportunistic Wayne Enterprises employee]] as the [[Big Bad]], as well.
** Isn't that Gordie from ''Ready to Rumble''?
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* [[Ping-Pong Naivete]]: If Buffy knows how to start up a motorcycle, how come she doesn't know how to brake?
* [[Politically-Incorrect Villain]]: A biker can be heard shouting "Dyke!" at Buffy after she knocks him down and [[Hero Stole My Bike|steals his ride]]. Granted, Buffy isn't gay, but it fits the trope just the same.
* [[Positive Discrimination]]:
** Of Buffy's three friends, Nicki (see [[But Not Too Black]] above) is the one never shown engaging in flamboyantly [[Jerkass]] behavior; when she seems to, it's made to look as if she's just going along with the crowd. One very brief scene even implies that [[Black Best Friend|Buffy is closer to Nicki than to the other two]] (and no, not in [[Les Yay|the way you might be thinking]]).
** The same goes for sex. Most of the male characters in this movie are complete idiots, and Buffy always knows just how to put them in their place.
* [[Punctuated!
* [[Rashomon Style]]: During the credits, everyone at the dance give off their own accounts on what happened.
* [["The Reason You Suck" Speech|The Reason We Suck Speech]]: Late in the film, Buffy tries to explain to her three friends what is going on. When they don't listen, she reveals [[Defector From Decadence|how disgusted she has become with the pointless, shallow lifestyle they've all been leading]]. Although Buffy implicates herself in the accusation, the other girls just think that she's attacking ''them'' and become angry.
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* [[Take a Third Option]]: Merrick wants Buffy to act the part of a serious-minded warrior. Everyone else expects her to be just a fun-loving teenage girl. Buffy doesn't see any reason why she can't be both.
* [[Take That]]: "They had this look in their eyes - totally cold, animal. I think they were young Republicans."
* [[That Makes Me Feel Angry]]:
** "Now I'm really pissed off."
* [[Throw It In]]: Amilyn's ludicrously protracted and over-the-top death, ad-libbed by Paul Reubens.
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* [[Upper Class Twit]]: Buffy's parents aren't ''quite'' this, but they act like it. (One throwaway line of dialogue suggests that Buffy's family will be coming into some serious money in the near future.)
* [[Wall Slump]]: Amilyn, after he is skewered by Buffy.
* [[Well, Excuse Me, Princess!]]: Pike's dynamic with Buffy upon first meeting her.
* [[What Could Have Been]]: Buffy as a movie series, with a Hollywood budget and talent? Sure, we wouldn't have gotten [[Buffy the Vampire Slayer|what we have now]], but just the thought...
* [[While Rome Burns]]: Thinking that no one - not even herself - can stop the vampires now that {{spoiler|Merrick is dead and unable to give her confidence}}, Buffy temporarily [[Refused the Call|abandons her mission]] and goes on a defiant shopping spree.
* [[Who Wants to Live Forever?]]: Merrick cannot die a natural death until all the vampires in the world have been destroyed. In an [[Action Film Quiet Drama Scene]], he poignantly tells Buffy that he looks forward to the day when he will finally be allowed to enter Heaven.
* [[Wicked Cultured]]: Lothos.
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