Automoderated users, Autopatrolled users, Bureaucrats, Comment administrators, Confirmed users, Moderators, Rollbackers, Administrators
213,797
edits
m (trope=>work) |
No edit summary |
||
(6 intermediate revisions by 2 users not shown) | |||
Line 1:
{{work}}
'''''Penn & Teller Get Killed''''' is a 1989 [[Black Comedy]] directed by Arthur Penn, featuring double act [[Penn & Teller]] (who also wrote the movie) playing themselves as their stage personas offstage. Confused yet?
At the beginning, they perform on a talk show where, as part of the act, Penn claims he [[Be Careful What You Wish For|wishes someone were trying to kill him, to make life more exciting]]. This is intended as setup for Teller pretending to slit his throat, but it turns out all sorts of people saw the talk show and [[Never Live It Down|now recognize him as the idiot who asked people to kill him on national TV]]. This leads to several attempts being made on their life until, well, [[Exactly What It Says
Meanwhile, the two magicians [[The Cast Showoff|do some magic tricks]], [[Edutainment Show|demonstrate that psychic surgeons are]] [[Penn
{{tropelist}}
* [[Author Tract]]: The duo really do love to expose fakery like psychic surgery. [[Hilarious in Hindsight|Which makes sense considering their television series]] ''[[Penn
* [[Be Careful What You Wish For]]: Everything starts with Penn wishing [[Death Seeker|someone were trying to kill him]].
▲* [[Author Tract]]: The duo really do love to expose fakery like psychic surgery. [[Hilarious in Hindsight|Which makes sense considering their television series]] ''[[Penn and Teller Bullshit]]''.
▲* [[Be Careful What You Wish For]]: Everything starts with Penn wishing [[Death Seeker|someone were trying to kill him]]. {{spoiler|It turns out no ''real'' attempt was made on their lives, however, as they were all part of either Penn or Teller's trick.}}
* [[Black Comedy]]: Oh yes.
* [[Bloodless Carnage]]: At the end, surprisingly given it's rated R and does feature plenty of fake blood during Penn and Teller's magic routines. Especially noticeable when {{spoiler|Teller has shot himself in the chest}} and we go on to see many clear shots of the body with no blood on his shirt whatsoever.
Line 17 ⟶ 16:
* [[Deliberately Monochrome]]: The parodic sequence near the middle where Penn is narrating and writing the "memoirs of the hunted" is black-and-white. When the policewoman comes in and ends their noir fantasy, the color abruptly returns to the picture.
* [[Despair Event Horizon]]: At the end when Teller realizes {{spoiler|he just [[My God, What Have I Done?|killed Penn]]}}.
*
* [[Driven to Suicide]]: More than you can count, though most of them are [[Suicide
* [[Escalating War]]: A lot of the movie revolves around Penn and Teller playing increasingly mean and elaborate tricks on one another. {{spoiler|In fact, it turns out the ''whole'' movie revolves around that.}}
* [[Exactly What It Says
{{quote|
'''Teller:''' Why didn't we just use different names?
'''Penn:''' ...Damn! }}
* [[Foregone Conclusion]]: Yup.
* [[Gilligan Cut]]: Right after Penn says that even "the bad boys of magic" don't reveal how their tricks are done... [[Hypocritical Humor|the scene shows exactly how it's done.]]
* [[Gone Horribly Right]]: Penn's final prank is about scaring the hell out of Teller. And it [[Hoist
* [[Happily-Failed Suicide]]: Set up with {{spoiler|the Fan's friend}}, complete with dramatic slow motion as he pulls the trigger only for the gun to be out of bullets. Then it is thoroughly subverted as his actual reaction is to be annoyed, look around the room for more bullets (which takes a while) and then do it successfully.
* [[Heroic BSOD]]: Teller, after {{spoiler|he shoots Penn}}.
* [[Hoist
* [[Ironic Echo]]:
** In the opening segment on the talk show, Penn shouts "Are we live?!" regularly and has the audience respond, to assure TV viewers that the performance is in fact happening live and no editing trickery is involved. After capturing Teller, the Fan starts reenacting the segment, and the insane, growling voice in which he says "ARE WE LIVE?!" is possibly the most unsettling part of it.
** Additionally, after each trick the pair play on one another, the phrase "No hard feelings" is used. The last time it is used is [[Out-of-Genre Experience|a bit more serious]].
*
* [[Loony Fan]]: The Fan who is trying to kill them. {{spoiler|Except it turns out he was an actor hired by Penn.}}
* [[Metal Detector Checkpoint]]: The [[Escalating War]] starts with Teller ensuring repeatedly that the metal detector gate gets set off every time Penn walks through it.
* [[Mood Whiplash]]: At the end, there is one [[Out-of-Genre Experience|dead serious scene]], in stark contrast with most of the movie. It then evolves into [[Suicide
* [[Motor Mouth]]: Penn as he's trying to distract the psychic surgeon who is trying to kill them.
* [[My God, What Have I Done?]]: See [[Heroic BSOD]].
* [[Never Live It Down]]: [[In
* [[Noir Episode]]: The black-and-white sequence, where Penn suddenly [[Smoking Is Cool|smokes]] and attempts a (hilariously over-the-top) variation of a [[Private Eye Monologue]].
* [[Once For Yes, Twice For No]]: While blindfolded on an operating table, Penn asks Teller to do this to confirm he's there several times, to no avail.
Line 45 ⟶ 44:
* [[Out-of-Genre Experience]]: Most of the movie is very silly, despite its [[Black Comedy|dark subject matter]] - but then at the end, there is a single scene which takes itself completely seriously, with not a shred of comedy to it, black or otherwise. {{spoiler|After Teller shoots Penn, he stares for a moment and then ''[[OOC Is Serious Business|speaks]]'', in a squeaky, frightened, disbelieving voice: "That's Penn! ''What is going on?''" When it dawns on him that Penn was playing a trick on him, he starts [[Laughing Mad|laughing hysterically]] as he latches on to the conviction that they switched his gun with a fake gun at some point... and then Carlotta denies it, [[Oh Crap|he shoots the gun and finds it is indeed real]], and it becomes clear that [[Please Wake Up|Penn is not waking up]]. Teller chuckles a little bit more, says "[[Ironic Echo|No hard feelings]]," and [[Driven to Suicide|shoots himself]]. Carlotta, in shock, starts sobbing, roaming aimlessly around the room while burying her head in her hands, and finally [[Driven to Suicide|jumps out the window]].}} ...And then [[Mood Whiplash|it turns into one of the funniest sequences in the entire film]].
* [[Phony Psychic]]: Psychic surgeons. {{spoiler|Except it turns out there weren't any psychic surgeons - well, there probably are, but none of them actually appeared and the guy we thought was going to see a psychic surgeon actually wasn't sick.}}
* [[Reality Ensues]]: After the whole movie has been a pretty silly comedy about Penn and Teller's stage personas thinking assassins are after them, the characters react completely realistically to {{spoiler|Penn's death, including Teller [[OOC Is Serious Business|dropping his stage persona altogether]]}}. Of course, then comes [[Suicide
* [["The Reason You Suck" Speech]]: {{spoiler|The policewoman}} delivers one against Teller at the end, ranting about how he's always there making funny faces in the background while Penn talks but really he thinks the morbid routines up with him and is "too sick to even express [himself] in words".
* [[Retirony]]: The older police officer who comes in at the end mentions being about to retire, minutes before [[Driven to Suicide|committing suicide]].
Line 52 ⟶ 51:
* [[Smoking Is Cool]]: Penn randomly smokes in the [[Film Noir]]-parody [[Deliberately Monochrome]] sequence.
* [[Stupid Statement Dance Mix]]: The Fan made a montage video out of Penn and Teller's appearance on the talk show at the beginning.
* [[Suicide
* [[Take Me Instead!]]: Parodied; when they're being kidnapped, Penn shouts "Do what you want to the girl, but leave me alone!" Penn also gets the psychic surgeon to go for him rather than Teller while they're strapped down on medical trolleys, since Teller is well on his way towards sawing through his restraints with a pocket knife, but that's just because at that point Penn's only hope is for Teller to break free and fight back against their captors; he isn't trying to be self-sacrificing.
* [[Twist Ending]]:
{{reflist}}
[[Category:
[[Category:Film]]
[[Category:Films of the 1980s]]
|