Million Dollar Baby: Difference between revisions

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** {{spoiler|And Maggie becomes a quadraplegic.}}

* [[Chekhov's Gun]]:

** Maggie's story about her dog Axel and her father {{spoiler|putting it down when it was sick.}} Actually used more skillfully in the film than in the short story, in which she tells the story right before {{spoiler|asking Frankie to kill her}}. In the movie it comes a good hour beforehand.

** Maggie asks if she should send some kind of gift to a girl whom she concussed in the ring, Frank dismisses it. It foreshadows that injuries happen in the ring, and that the fighters that did the injuring aren't expected to turn up again in the rest of the movie.

** There are a ''lot'' of quick close-ups on the stool that Eastwood puts in the ring after each round. I bet that doesn't have anything to do with {{spoiler|Maggie's death - oh wait.}}

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* [[Dead Little Sister]]

* [[Deadpan Snarker]]: All three lead characters love to exchange sarcastic remarks.

* [[Determinator]]: No matter how discouraging her circumstances or the people around her get, Maggie refuses to give up on her dream of becoming a boxing champion. {{spoiler|After she's paralyzed, she's no less determined to end her own life.}}

* [[Disappeared Dad]]: Maggie's father, who died long before she started her boxing career.

* [[Downer Ending]]: And a controversial one at that.

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* [[Genre Shift]]: Starts as sports movie about a woman trying to improve her life by becoming a boxer and [[It Got Worse|ends]] {{spoiler|as a massive [[Tear Jerker]] about assisted suicide}}.

* [[Gretzky Has the Ball]]: During the title bout, the Blue Bear commits several fouls that would result in immediate automatic disqualification in a real boxing match, but only receives warnings and/or point deductions for them. This was parodied by, of all things, ''[[Scary Movie]] 4''.

* [[Gut Punch]]: or in this specific case {{spoiler|a sucker punch from behind}} which triggered the [[Genre Shift]]

* [[Gut Punch]]: Or in this specific case {{spoiler|a sucker punch from behind}} which triggered the [[Genre Shift]].

* [[Heterosexual Life Partners]]: Frankie and Eddie.

* [[Inspirationally Disabled]]: Danger has shades of this.

* [[Jerkass]]: Maggie's family, especially her mother, shows ''astounding'' levels of [[Perfectly Cromulent Word|dickitude]], with a generous helping of hypocrisy.

** Her mother berates her for taking up boxing even though she's good at it and it's making her rich, insisting it's not something a lady should do. She herself is on welfare and doing nothing to improve her situation.

** When she starts winning big purses, Maggie buys her mother a house. ''A house.'' She berates Maggie for not giving her cash instead. If she's a homeowner, you see, she won't qualify for welfare anymore and she doesn't want to work. {{spoiler|Toward the end, we find out she never signed the ownership transfer paperwork even though she's living in the house, and it's a major plot point that Maggie still owns the house.}}

** When she starts winning big purses, Maggie buys her mother a house. ''A house''. She berates Maggie for not giving her cash instead. If she's a homeowner, you see, she won't qualify for welfare anymore and she doesn't want to work. {{spoiler|Toward the end, we find out she never signed the ownership transfer paperwork even though she's living in the house, and it's a major plot point that Maggie still owns the house.}}

** One last case: {{spoiler|When Maggie is paralyzed, her family visits her in the nursing home, ''after'' spending a week at Disneyworld and Universal Studios, and tries to get Maggie to sign over all her money to them. This apparently crosses a line, as Maggie tells them that not only are they not getting one dime, if they or their lawyer ever speak to her again she'll sell the house out from under them.}}

* [[Jerk with a Heart of Gold]]: Frankie.

* [[Karma Houdini]]: {{spoiler|Billie the Blue Bear}}.

** Not ~~neccessarily~~. It isn't shown (probably because Clint Eastwood felt that it would distract the audience from {{spoiler|the fact that Maggie has been paralyzed}}), but the referee was getting annoyed with {{spoiler|her constant breaking of the rules, and even threatened to disqualify her once. ~~Bille~~ was probably disqualified immediately once the doctors realized the injuries she had inflicted on Maggie after ''intentionally punching her while the stool was in the way''.}}

** Not necessarily. It isn't shown (probably because Clint Eastwood felt that it would distract the audience from {{spoiler|the fact that Maggie has been paralyzed}}), but the referee was getting annoyed with {{spoiler|her constant breaking of the rules, and even threatened to disqualify her once. Billie was probably disqualified immediately once the doctors realized the injuries she had inflicted on Maggie after ''intentionally punching her while the stool was in the way''.}}

* [[Kill the Ones You Love]]: {{spoiler|Makes use of [[Chekhov's Skill]] as Frankie uses his expert knowledge of adrenaline to do the deed.}}

* [[Oireland]]: Invoked. Clint's character tries to rediscover his Irish roots by attending Catholic mass without understanding the substance of the religion, learning Gaelic reading [[William Butler Yeats]] (who mostly wrote in English), and giving Maggie an Irish boxing gimmick.

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* [[Precision F-Strike]]:

{{quote|'''Frankie Dunn:''' So is Jesus a Demigod?

'''Father Horvak:''' There are no Demigods, you fucking Pagan! }}

'''Father Horvak:''' There are no Demigods, you fucking Pagan!}}

* [[Retired Badass]]: Eddie's one, as Shawrelle finds out.

* [[Rule of Drama]]: As powerful as they are, the hospital scenes are a tad unrealistic. In [[Real Life]], {{spoiler|hospitalized patients have every right to decline treatment. If they're attached to a breathing machine against their will, they don't have to attempt suicide or beg friends to euthanize them. They can just ask doctors to turn off their respirator. And no hospital would ever keep a patient sedated 24/7 just to stop them from committing suicide--they would more likely get them psychiatric counseling or put them on anti-depressants}}.

* [[Shoot the Dog]]: Maggie relates a story about her father euthanizing her family's crippled dog.

** {{spoiler|And Frankie later does the same thing for Maggie.}}

* [[There Are No Therapists]]: {{spoiler|Towards the end, Maggie becomes so despondent that she attempts suicide by biting her tongue and begs Frankie to pull the plug on her. The hospital's first reaction is to keep her sedated 24/7 so she can't attempt suicide--instead of getting her the psychiatric help that she obviously needs}}.

* [[Tongue Trauma]]: {{spoiler|After she's paralyzed, Maggie tries to commit suicide by biting through her tongue.}}

* [[Training Montage]]: Maggie gets one, though minus the cheesy music.

* [[What Might Have Been]]: [[Morgan Freeman]] originally auditioned for the role of Frankie before being cast as Eddie. Also, screenwriter/producer Paul Haggis wanted to direct this himself, but scheduling conflicts with ''[[Crash (film)|Crash]]'' forced him to hand the project to Clint.