Kontroll

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.

Kontroll is a 2003 Hungarian film directed by Nimrod Antal, starring Sandor Csanyi and Eszter Balla. The title refers to the Hungarian word for the act of metro employees checking for tickets. The film focuses on the daily struggles of a group of metro ticket inspectors in a subway system based on (and shot in) the Budapest Metro. They spend their day exploring abandoned tracks, fighting with irate customers, chasing down an elusive graffiti artist, and competing with a rival team of Kontroll agents. He and his fellow inspectors struggle with their jobs because every one of their customers resents them for harassing them in their daily commute. Meanwhile, a serial killer has been stalking the metro pushing customers into the tracks. There's also a woman in a bear suit. You heard us.

Tropes used in Kontroll include:
  • Autopsy Snack Time: Ambulance workers talk about a recipe while picking up the remains of a man who has been hit by the subway.
  • Bring My Brown Pants: Bulscu's challenger wets himself after nearly dying from the 'rail running' game
  • Crowning Music of Awesome: Most of the soundtrack.
  • Deadly Game: Bulscu is challenge to a game of 'rail running' that involves outrunning an express train.
  • Distinguishing Mark: Bulscu's boss has a large, purple/red colored mark around his right eye.
  • Genre Busting: Kontroll is quite an original film that has elements of thriller, drama and comedy.
  • Heavy Sleeper: Muki has narcolepsy.
  • Hero with Bad Publicity: Bulscu and his team are just inspecting people's tickets because it's their job. But riders will often assault them verbally, and sometimes even physically, and the treat inspectors as some sort of enemy.
  • In the Hood: The Mysterious person who has been pushing random people in front of trains disguises himself this way.
  • Mind Screw: The second half of the film delves intro this.
  • Mobstacle Course: People are one of the many obstacles in the way of Bulscu's gang catching the graffiti artist.
  • Negated Moment of Awesome: More of a Delayed Moment of Awesome. Bulscu's gang are getting warmed up and prepared for a ticket inspection session for the oncoming train. But the train driver accidentally drives too far and the music stops. The train goes in reverse back to the platform and the music starts again.
  • Our Lawyers Advised This Trope: The movie starts with a stiff address by a member of the Metro management complimenting the director's skill but warning people not to take it as an accurate depiction of the system.
  • Ragtag Bunch of Misfits: Bulscu's gang.
  • Slashed Throat: A frustrated train inspector slashes a customers throat after he's been attacked
  • Sinister Subway