Chronicle: Difference between revisions

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[[File:Chronicle_Film_Poster_700.jpg|frame|Angst-ridden teenager with unlimited power....perfectly safe.]]

 

''Chronicle'' is a 2012 [[Genre Busting|sci-fi/action/coming of age film]] directed by Josh Trank focusing on three teenage boys who discover a mysterious object in a cave on the outskirts of town. They soon discover that exposure to the object has granted each of them [[Mind Over Matter|telekinetic abilities]]. As they practice with their abilities, they get stronger with them, and learn to [[Flying Brick|fly and protect themselves from harm]]. While they don't exactly become heroic pillars of justice with their powers, they mostly use them for random pranks and goofing around, as teen boys do.

However, they soon discover that the gifts they have been granted may be drawing out their darker and more dangerous sides...

 

* [[A God Am I]]/[[Nietzsche Wannabe]]: {{spoiler|Andrew and his "Apex Predator" speech.}}

* [[Abusive Parents]]: Richard Detmer, especially in his final scene.

* [[Arc Words]]: "You're stronger than this." First said by Andrew's mother to reassure him. Given an [[Ironic Echo]] at the end, after Andrew {{spoiler|[[Jumping Off the Slippery Slope|goes off the deep end]].}}

* [[Berserk Button]]: Don't tell Andrew what to do. And GET AWAY FROM HIM.

* [[Bittersweet Ending]]: {{spoiler|Matt defeats Andrew before he can cause any more damage, but several people have been killed, including Steve, and we are left with the lingering sense that Andrew's downfall could have been prevented.}}

* {{spoiler|[[Black Dude Dies First]]}}: {{spoiler|Steve is killed 3/4 through the movie, becoming the first character to die. It's implied that Andrew did it, possibly unintentionally.}}

** Matt not so much. {{spoiler|He gets shot at once, and can't completely stop it, though he at least softens the blow.}}

* [[Cain and Abel]]: Played with. Andrew and Matt are cousins, not actual brothers, and Andrew is the younger sibling, but {{spoiler|develop this dynamic in the finale. However, it is the Abel-like Matt who kills his cousin, but does it reluctantly and only as a very last resort.}}

* [[Camera Abuse]]:

** Some bullies take Andrew's camera and slide it along the floor.

* [[Calling the Old Man Out]]: Andrew's constantly quarreling with his [[Jerkass]] father.

* [[Car Fu]]: {{spoiler|During the final fight, Andrew hits Matt with a telekinetically thrown bus.}}

* [[Character Development]]: Matt goes from {{spoiler|standing around and telling Steve to be careful when Steve dives into the raging river to save the guy in the car Andrew crashed, to unhesitatingly rescuing Richard when Andrew drops him.}}

* [[Chekhov's Gun]]: Andrew explains how his father used to be a firefighter. {{spoiler|Andrew wears his father's old firefighting gear during a string of robberies, the last of which ends in a fiery explosion at a gas station}}.

* [[Comic Book Movies Don't Use Codenames]]: Andrew refers to himself as an "Apex Predator" {{spoiler|during his rampage}}, which is the closest any of the super powered characters get to using an alias.

* [[Coming of Age Story]]: [[X Meets Y|With superpowers!]]

* [[Dawson Casting]]: All of the leads are in their 20's.

** {{spoiler|Andrew saves Steve's life in the airplane incident... only to accidentally (?) kill him in the thunderstorm scene.}}

* [[Deconstruction]]:

** Of teens gaining superpowers.

** And just in case that wasn't enough, {{spoiler|after Murphy's Law seems to have been fulfilled and Andrew is lying in a hospital bed, having likely caused his best friend's and possibly even his mother's deaths... his dad decides to [[Kick the Dog]]. Which turns out to be [[Bullying a Dragon]]. Cue the climax.}}

* [[Don't Make Me Destroy You]]: {{spoiler|Andrew}} threatens {{spoiler|his father}} nearly enough with exact words.

''' {{spoiler|Matt to Andrew before killing him}}''': Don't make me do this! }}

* [[Drowning My Sorrows]]: Richard seems to have a shitty enough life for it.

* [[Eldritch Abomination]]: [[Buffy-Speak|The stone...plant...thing]] that gives the boys their powers has difinite shades of this. Interferes with technology? Check. Mysterious? Check. [[Reality Warper|Inexplicable powers over reality?]] Check.

* [[Even Bad Men Love Their Mamas]]: {{spoiler|Andrew's mother}} is seemingly the only person he shows affection towards, and, conversely, the only person who seems to truly care for him.

* [[I Did What I Had to Do]]: Matt says this word for word after {{spoiler|killing Andrew.}} Foreshadowed when {{spoiler|Andrew himself dismisses Matt with a "You do what you have to do" when the latter is threatening to stop him from abusing his powers.}}

* [[Ill Girl]]: Mrs. Detmer.

* [[Insane Troll Logic]]: Richard wordlessly barges into Andrew's room and slaps him out of his seat [[Establishing Character Moment|in his first onscreen scene]]. He rationalizes it by screaming that Andrew should "open the door when I say so". This goes to demonstrate how Richard's [[The Alcoholic|drinking problem]] has rendered him increasingly detached from reality, and it foreshadows what he says to Andrew during the {{spoiler|hospital scene.}}

* [[Interface Screw]]: The strange object causes the camera to behave erratically.

* [[In-Universe Camera]]: Used consistently throughout the movie. Editing is achieved by jumping from camera to camera, including security cameras and cellphones. Also, even though the cameras are in universe, they are still able to film sections of it like a typical third person movie by having Andrew use his powers to levitate various cameras around. It's implied that {{spoiler|Andrew starts doing this unconsciously. Towards the end, he steals all the cameras and smartphones from every bystander in the Space Needle, for no real purpose other than to perhaps clinically document his rampage. He then seems to do the same thing with the cops, taking their dashboard and helmet cameras. Matt foreshadows/lampshades this early on when he says that the camera is like a barrier between Andrew and the world. Andrew's reply? "Maybe I want a barrier."}}

* [[Jerkass]]: It doesn't take much to realize that Andrew's father, Richard, is simply using his son as an outlet for venting his stress and passing blame for his family's financial issues from himself. He even calls Andrew selfish for keeping an expensive camera (that was a gift from his cousin) from him (after said camera caught him searching through his son's room, clearly looking for money.) True, he does care deeply for his wife and wants to help get her the treatment she needs, but that raises the question as to why he can't stop spending money on alcohol rather than blaming everything on his son. The fact that when we first hear his voice he's established to be a belligerent alcoholic that is essentially responsible for Andrew's instability doesn't help either.

'''Andrew:''' You don't pay for ''public school,'' you idiot! }}

* [[Jerkass Victim]]:

** It's easy not to feel too bad when {{spoiler|Andrew rips the bully's teeth out, kills the street thugs, or nearly murders his abusive father.}}

* [[Jittercam]]: Played straight for the first parts of the movie, but later averted due to Andrew keeping the camera steady and constantly running using his powers.

* [[Jumping Off the Slippery Slope]]: {{spoiler|Andrew is a troubled, misunderstood kid who doesn't do well on his first date and then proceeds to [[Social Darwinist|kill everyone he considers weaker than him.]]}}

* [[Karma Houdini]]: Richard. {{spoiler|Even the death of his wife and his son doesn't cover the sheer volume of bad karma he had accumulated.}}

* [[Kick the Dog]]: Andrew has a lot of moments where it counts - {{spoiler|when he didn't think it was wrong to veer a car off the road; after he accidentally kills Steve; when he videotapes Steve's funeral; when he tears a spider limb-from-limb for no reason; and when he gives that Apex Predator speech ("A lion doesn't feel guilty when it eats a gazelle").}}

* [[Kid Hero]]: Subverted and deconstructed. Matt is the only one of the boys who can be considered a true hero, and, not coincidentally, {{spoiler|the only one to survive by the end}}.

* [[Leave Me Alone]]: {{spoiler|Delivered by Andrew, right before he blows the police surrounding him away.}}

* [[Messianic Archetype]]: Steve comes the closest out of the three. He's also notably the first one to learn to fly.

* [[Mind Over Manners]]: Matt tries to establish rules for the safe and ethical use of their powers after their telekinesis gets so strong that Andrew almost kills a redneck trucker.

3. Don't use your powers in public. }}

* [[Mind Over Matter]]: The boys' powers.

* [[Not So Stoic]]: Pothead pseudo-philosopher with hints of a superiority complex, Matt steadily starts showing real emotion in response to {{spoiler|Andrew's [[Face Heel Turn]]}} until he's sobbing uncontrollably {{spoiler|moments before killing Andrew}}.

* [[Not the Fall That Kills You]]: Averted. {{spoiler|Matt noticeably uses his telekinesis to halt the falling Richard before catching him.}}

* [[Not Wearing Tights]]: See directly above.

* [[Pay Evil Unto Evil]]: {{spoiler|Andrew's ''modus operandi''}} before [[Jumping Off the Slippery Slope]].

* [[Power Perversion Potential]]: It's teen goofs with superpowers. The preview pretty much hangs a lampshade on it.

** At one point, they turn on a leaf blower to blow some girls' [[Panty Shot|skirts up]].

* {{spoiler|[[Protagonist Journey to Villain]]: Andrew}}

* [[Psychic Powers]]: Telekinesis, which is a very broad-range superpower for the creative.

* [[Self-Made Orphan]]: [[Subverted]]. {{spoiler|Andrew almost succeeds in killing his father, but, as he falls from a great height, he is rescued by Matt}}.

* [[Sequel Hook]]: There are subtle hints that the government is not unaware of the source of the boys' powers, and {{spoiler|Matt}} promises to "find out what happened." Also ''somebody'' had to collect all that footage and splice it together. And who else do you think would have gone to all the trouble to {{spoiler|dig up Andrew's first camera, that got buried with the meteorite/artifact?}}. By the way, a sequel is confirmed as being in the works.

* [[Shallow Love Interest]]: Casey is only in the film to be Matt's [[Love Interest]] (and to give the movie another cameraman to follow).

* [[Shoo Out the Clowns]]: {{spoiler|Steve is the most consistently easy-going and friendly character in the movie, who is also arguably the most laid-back about his powers. Interestingly, it is with his death that things go seriously down-hill and Andrew's [[Start of Darkness]] begins in earnest.}}

* [[Start of Darkness]]: The movie, contrary to the marketing, is told from Andrew's perspective. You can blame it on his father, too.

* [[Super Dickery]]: Pretty much how the teens start out.

* [[Super-Hero Origin]]: By the end of the film, Matt has experienced a [[My Greatest Failure]] {{spoiler|(having to kill his cousin in order to save a lot of other people's lives)}}, is motivated by that experience to learn more about the origin and nature of his powers, and is in ''Tibet'', which is basically Memetic Dagobah for budding superheroes.

* [[Superpower Lottery]]: Played with. All of the boys get identical powers (very broadly implemented telekinesis), but their degrees of mastery varies.

* [[Villain Protagonist]]: Sure, {{spoiler|Andrew becomes an [[Omnicidal Maniac]] with a God complex}}, but that doesn't stop the focus on him.

* [[Vomit Discretion Shot]]: When Andrew pukes for the first time, we don't see the process, although we do see the icky aftermath. When he does it again near the end of the movie, it is pretty much a [[Vomit Indiscretion Shot]].

* [[What Do You Mean Its Not Symbolic]]: Andrew's {{spoiler|dark descent and ultimate rampage are heavily reminiscent of the way most kids who bring guns to school are pushed}}, except on a much grander scale.

* [[What the Hell, Hero?]]: Matt keeps calling Andrew out on every major [[Kick the Dog]] moment he does, from the time he veered a car off the road (and didn't think it was wrong), to {{spoiler|killing Steve and ''bringing his camera to the funeral.''}}

* [[With Great Power Comes Great Perks]]: Could possibly be [[The Movie]] of the trope. After three high-school guys are given telekinetic powers by a mysterious artifact hidden at the bottom of a crater, they mainly use their newfound abilities to waste time in increasingly spectacular ways, from playing pranks on customers at a department store, to playing football several thousand feet off the ground. {{spoiler|Unfortunately, a very nasty combination of [[Abusive Parents]] and bullying at school eventually turns one of them into a supervillain}}.

* [[Worf Had the Flu]]: {{spoiler|Andrew is the strongest out of the three boys, but failed to take out Matt in the climax -- even though it should have been pretty easy considering the level of control he has over his powers -- and was easily killed by him instead. The fact that he only recently emerged from a coma, was suffering from severe burn wounds and probably also heavily doped up on painkillers likely affected his performance.}}

* [[X Meets Y]]: Hoo boy.

* [[Yank the Dog's Chain]]: After the talent show, Andrew's popularity with his schoolmates skyrockets. Yet, he manages to [[Epic Fail|royally screw this up]] and become even more of a laughingstock in the same night.

* [[You Are Not Alone]]: Both Steve and Matt try to invoke this with Andrew (with the latter even using it word for word){{spoiler|, [[Subverted Trope|unfortunately]], Andrew is too far past the [[Despair Event Horizon]] for it to work.}}