D.E.B.S.

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Evil is so totally busted.

D.E.B.S. is a 2004 film based on a 2003 short that made the rounds at the film festival circuit. The 2003 short was a silly story about a team of college girl spies and the romantic relationship of one of the spies with the archvillain. The 2004 production expands it into a feature film with a fair dose of camp.

The D.E.B.S. are a large group of young women superspies. They are first screened by a secret portion of the SATs that test whether someone has the aptitude to lie, cheat, fight, and kill. Those who pass screening are recruited into the D.E.B.S. spy academy.

The plot begins with one of the squads being tasked with staking out villainess Lucy Diamond. One member of the squad, Amy has always been fascinated by Lucy Diamond and is even writing a thesis on her. The stake out goes wrong and it ends up turning into a gun fight. Just afterwards, while chasing Lucy, Amy and Lucy end up meeting face to face. Despite holding each other at gunpoint, Lucy and Amy start talking to each other. After a distraction helps Lucy escape, it's revealed that Lucy is starting to really fall for Amy...

Despite taking place in a Charlie's Angels-style spy universe, D.E.B.S is actually more of a Yuri Genre Romantic Comedy than anything else.

Tropes used in D.E.B.S. include:

• Affably Evil: Lucy
• Affectionate Parody: Of Charlie's Angels and the Teen Superspy genre.
• Air Vent Passageway
• All There in the Script: Lucy has an Australian ex.
• Amazon Brigade: The D.E.B.S. as a whole.
• Automatic Crossbow
• Beta Couple: Scud and Janet.
• Billing Displacement: Dominique is barely in the film yet she gets equal credit with all the other D.E.B.S.
• Bi the Way: Seems to be the case for Dominique; Amy having a same-sex experience doesn't faze her at all, and she goes out of her way to point out "it's not a big deal in Europe!"
  • (And then, left alone: "Ce n'est pas grande chose en Europe...")
• Call Back. A joke near the end is very similar to one near the beginning: "And what did I say to you the very first day at the Academy?" and "What did I say to you the first time we met?"
• Camp Straight: Scud: catty, gives Lucy relationship advice, wears a lot of pink, and... gets into a relationship with one of the D.E.B.S. girls.
• Catholic School Girls Rule: The D.E.B.S.' uniform plays to this.
• Classy Cat Burglar: Lucy at her best, when she infiltrates the D.E.B.S. house (twice) and Endgame.
• Crash Into Hello: Amy and Lucy.
• Dating Catwoman
• Dawson Casting: Subverted. The actresses are playing the roles of almost college graduates but the uniforms make them look younger.
• Descending Ceiling: In the bank vault.
  • Spikes of Doom
• Designated Victim: In the short film the D.E.B.S. are annoyed that Amy keeps getting kidnapped by villainess Lucy In The Sky, unaware that it's all just to cover for their Dating Catwoman relationship.
• Dispense with the Pleasantries: When Ms. Petrie (the team's boss) arrives for a visit.

Max: I just want to say what a pleasure it is to meet you. Ms. Petrie: No time for pleasantries.

• The Ditz: Janet ("Have you seen my gun?")
• Dogged Nice Girl: Lucy, even though she's a villain.
• Does This Remind You of Anything?: The D.E.B.S. uniform includes a plaid skirt. The forcefield surrounding their house uses the same plaid pattern and colors. After Lucy breaks in twice, she points out it doesn't offer much defence. Hmmm.
• Disproportionate Retribution: Lucy tries to utilize this trope after Amy leaves:

Lucy: Australia is toast! Scud: What did the Australians do to you? Lucy: I don't like their attitude.

• Enter Stage Window
• Everything Sounds Sexier in French: Dominique embodies this trope, with a healthy dose of Poirot Speak.

Janet: "You need to speak English or French. Frenglish is not a language."

• Fake Nationality: Devon Aoki's terrible French accent is something that must be heard to be believed.
• Five-Token Band: Roger Ebert in his review basically said there is little to tell the main characters apart except for their race.
• Foe Yay: It's practically the entire plot!
• Four-Girl Ensemble: The starring D.E.B.S. squad is pretty much a textbook case with promiscuous Dominique, naive Janet, obsessive Max and self searching Amy.
• Fun with Acronyms: D.E.B.S. stands for Discipline, Energy, Beauty, and Strength, but is obviously short for 'debutantes'.
  • Strangely enough, everyone refers to individual agents as "a D.E.B.", despite the S standing for something. (Evidently, their strength is in numbers.)
• Genre Savvy

Max: "Creepy shadows, no bad guys, enclosed space. Trap."

• Girls Love Stuffed Animals: Janet's bedroom includes a teddybear which holds her pistol for her.
• Girls with Guns
• Hammerspace: The suction cups Lucy used to climb up the wall of the D.E.B.S. house.
• He Went That Way!
• Hidden Purpose Test: The hidden test in the SATs, and the foundation of the plot.
• Hooked Up Afterwards: Beta Couple Scud and Janet.

So, I was wondering if maybe you wanted - Yes. I didn't ask you anything yet. Whatever it is, yes. Awesome.

• Hot Amazon: Max, who draws her gun at the slightest provocation.
• Hyperspace Arsenal: Where Lucy Diamond carries her gun and extra ammo clips when she's wearing skin-tight clothing.
• Hypocritical Humor: Max states that Amy (who's in a position she doesn't want or like, and is panicky as hell) doesn't know Formation Alpha Gamma. She might not, but the formation she gave was Alpha Kappa Gamma.
• If You Ever Do Anything to Hurt Her...: Max to Lucy, about Amy.
• Innocent Innuendo: Inverted in the short film -- the other D.E.B.S. think Amy is being tortured and desperately try to break down a door to free her, but her screams are actually caused by Lucy bringing her to climax.
• Interrupted Intimacy: The other members of D.E.B.S. burst in on Amy and Lucy in bed together, exposing their relationship.
• Jerk Jock: Amy's boyfriend Bobby, with a side dish of Disposable Fiance.
• Larynx Dissonance: Justified but a little disturbing when Lucy starts lipsyncing to Erasure's A Little Respect
  • It gets funnier once Scud joins in.
• Lipstick Lesbian: Amy, Lucy, and Ninotchka.
• Lovable Alpha Bitch: Max, through and through.
• Love Redeems
• Mexican Standoff: Between Amy and Lucy when they first meet.
• Modesty Bedsheet
• Moment Killer

Janet: Oh my god! She almost kissed you! You almost let her!

• Montages
  • "Falling in Love" Montage
  • Lost Love Montage which doubles as a Hard Work Montage with Spinning Papers and has to be seen to be believed.
• Murder the Hypotenuse
• Must Have Caffeine: Dominique survives on a black coffee and cigarettes diet.
• One-Scene Wonder: Michael Clarke Duncan as one of the D.E.B.S. higher-ups who (in so many words) tells Amy what she needs to hear.
  • He also serves as Mr. Exposition.
• Punch Clock Villain: Scud
• Psycho Lesbian: Lucy, and Ninotchka. The latter more so, given that they only had one particularly ordinary date.
• Really Gets Around: Dominique.
• Rock Bottom: Janet's words in the bank vault.
• Rule of Funny
• Sassy Black Woman: the team's leader Max.

Max: "Who's your best friend?" Amy: "You are my best friend." Max: "And what did I say to you the very first day at the Academy?" Amy: "That's my bunk, bitch."

• Schoolgirl Lesbians
• She Fu: Amy's fight with Lucy in Amy's room in the D.E.B.S. house.
• She's Got Legs: Every member of D.E.B.S.
• Shoot Out the Lock: While the protagonists are secretly meeting with Lucy Diamond at Endgame, Bobby shoots a padlock that's securing a door leading to their location.
• Shout-Out: Lucy's name is obviously one to The Beatles / Elton John song "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds"
• Side Bet: After Lucy and Amy Almost Kiss, Janet owes Scud fifty bucks.
• Spy School
• Stalking Is Love: Lucy's seduction plan borders on this.
• Stealth Hi Bye: Lucy Diamond does it twice.
• Sweetheart Sipping: During the "Falling in Love" Montage.
• Technical Pacifist: Despite her reputation Lucy claims she's never actually killed anyone; all the agents chasing her died of environmental causes. Her willingness to place Amy's friends under a Descending Ceiling with Spikes of Doom shows she might not be entirely truthful about this.
  • Well, the ceiling is part of that environment...
    • And there are plenty of ways to give someone food poisoning or get them to die of frostbite by, say, leaving them stranded on an ice field...
• Teen Superspy
• Tempting Fate: While in the bank vault, Amy says "See? That wasn't so hard." Then a Trap Door opens under her, sending her down a secret underground slide.
• Throwing Out the Script: Amy is given a speech to read at End Game which tells a false story of how Lucy Diamond kidnapped her and held her hostage. She starts reading it to the crowd, but halfway through she stops reading it and tells the truth: that the time she spent with Lucy were the happiest days of her life and that she's leaving to be with Lucy.
• Trap Door: In the bank vault.
• Villains Out Shopping
• Woman Scorned: Ninotchka tells the D.E.B.S. how to find Lucy, jealous after seeing her happy with someone else.
• You Need to Get Laid: Lucy keeps backing out on dates claiming food poisoning and taking her frustrations out in Dr Evil type schemes. Scud even says so to her face.
• Yuri Genre
• Zettai Ryouiki