Real Steel: Difference between revisions

{{quote|''"Times have changed. Fighting has changed -- but the crowd, they never change. They just get bigger."''|'''[[Hugh Jackman|Charlie Kenton]]'''}}

Based on a [[Richard Matheson]] story first adapted for ''[[The Twilight Zone]]'', ''Real Steel'' takes place [[Twenty Minutes Into the Future]], where human boxers have been supplanted by robotic warriors who can dish out and take far more damage. Former boxer Charlie Kenton ([[Hugh Jackman]]) now works on the outside of the ring as a robot handler, exhibiting in town fairs and underground robot fights to make ends meet, when he suddenly gets his estranged son Max dropped in his lap after the boy's mother dies.

* [[Advertised Extra]]: Noisy Boy, Midas, and Ambush appear on many posters. They disappear after the first act.

* [[All There in the Manual]]. [http://www.wrb.com This] website gives some detail on the movie's universe, particularly the history of robot boxing.

** The Blu-Ray has Charlie's background in a fake ESPN documentary.

* [[All Your Powers Combined]]: Atom fights with arm components from Ambush <ref>Atom as a sparring 'bot basically had "kid gloves" to avoid damaging the actual boxing 'bot</ref>, the voice command processor from Noisy Boy, courtesy of Max, and Charlie's boxing moves programed in via his shadow function.

* [[Asian and Nerdy]]: Tak Moshido, Zeus's creator. [[Backstory]] on the film's website reveals that he was the original creator of Noisy Boy, Charlie's second robot, and was also one of the revolutionary inventors of robot boxing.

* [[Berserk Button]]: Do not call Finn "homeboy".

* [[Creator Cameo]]: Screenwriter John Gatins plays Kingpin, the promoter who heads "The Zoo".

* [[Curb Stomp Battle]]: Zeus knocks down Atom with his first blow. {{spoiler|[[Subverted Trope|Atom then gets back up.]]}}

* [[Cute Shotaro Boy]]: Max.

* [[David Versus Goliath]]: Atom is significantly smaller than most of the opponents he faces. The fight promos between Atom and Zeus specifically refer to the match as such.

* [[Fight Clubbing]]: Charlie's first few fights, and Atom's first real win takes place at an illegal ring in a former zoo.

* [[Follow the Leader]]: The influences of ''Transformers'' and ''Rocky'' are clearly felt. Not quite enough to qualify for [[X Meets Y]] but enough to mention.

* [[Foreshadowing]]: Bailey tells a story about Charlie's fight against a major championship contender and tells about how Charlie fought him relentlessly, pushed him to the limit, and tired him out {{spoiler|-- and ultimately lost in the final round.}}

* [[Gadgeteer Genius]]:

* [[Kick the Dog]]: Ricky and his men had already done quite a number on Charlie, but then when he learns from Max that he's beating on his father, he decides to belittle and beat him some even more, even though he had already taken all their money.

* [[Kid With the Remote Control]]: Max is the one who initially controls Atom in all his bouts, [[Subverted Trope|but he relinquishes control to Charlie once he installs the voice recognition]] (and even more after {{spoiler|said voice control gets broken and Atom is forced to copy Charlie's moves}}).

* [[Kill It with Fire]]: {{spoiler|Atom's fight with Metro ends with the latter having a system crash, causing him to go up in flames after he collapses.}}

* [[Laser-Guided Karma]]: Ricky rather forcefully takes back the money Charlie owes, on top of beating him and his kid, and soon bets that money that Atom will not last the first round against Zeus. {{spoiler|When Atom does make it past the first round, people come looking for him to pay up. [[Irony|Exactly what he had been doing to Charlie for the entire film]]}}.

* [[Lightning Bruiser]]: Atom. As shown many times in the film, the real reason the robot is so dangerous in the ring is because it was designed to react and move instantly while in shadow boxing mode, and is able to keep up with human movements, as well as being designed to take epic levels of punishment as a training robot. Adding in the arm components to throw punches, and given his size means he doesn't need weight behind his punches since he's almost always punching upwards, gives him the Bruiser side of the trope.

* [[Like Father, Like Son]]

** According to the [[DVD Commentary]], {{spoiler|Atom's fight with Metro was originally written to confirm that Atom was indeed sentient, with him fighting without Max operating him.}} The filmmakers eventually realized that it would be better if this trope was in effect, so the scene was scripted to its final form.

* [[May-December Romance]]: Debra and Marvin.

** Atom's and Charlie's history. Charlie first came to prominence by being meat in a warm-up match, giving a supposed world-class boxer quite a scare by being relentless and implacable. Atom is a sparring bot who came to prominence by winning an exhibition match against a supposed world-class boxing 'bot in all but name.

** At first, Charlie is the reckless one, and Max is the cautious methodical one. As the movie progresses, Max becomes more reckless and aggressive, and Charlie starts thinking things out more.

** It should be mentioned that Finn took one look at his cowboy hat and called him "partner" before that in a similarly mocking tone.

* [[Possession Implies Mastery]]: Averted. Charlie gets Noisy Boy, a former world champion robot controlled by voice recognition, but he never bothered to learn all the specific command sequences. In his first match, Noisy Boy is defeated because Charlie can not give him anything besides basic instructions and unhelpful combos.

* [[Product Placement]]: Sponsorships within the movie appear all over the equipment and arenas used by the WRB, including Sprint, Bing, and the Xbox [[Twenty Minutes Into the Future|720]]. Dr. Pepper appears as a standard product placement when Max drinks it throughout the movie. Royal Purple (synthetic oils and lubricants) appears on the control consoles of Team Twin Cities and Team Zeus. Hewlett-Packard's "HP" logo can clearly be seen through the back of Noisy Boy's control console and the round cards in Zeus' fight. Oddly, this means it's reversed for the operator but normal for the audience, which may make sense in-universe since many robot fights are televised along with their consoles.

** Technically averted with Dr. Pepper. [[Word of God]] admits that Dr. Pepper gave them permission to use their soda on-camera, but the film received no revenue from the appearance. They simply used Dr. Pepper because that was the soda they had on-hand, and needed something with caffeine content to justify Max's hyperactive-ness in one scene.

* [[Used Future]]: Invoked in some of the robots, who look like they've seen better days. Mostly applies to underground fighters; WRB League robots like Twin Cities and Zeus are well taken care of.

* [[Villainous Breakdown]]: Not exactly a villain, but {{spoiler|Tak loses it when he sees his precious robot taking a fierce beating from Atom}}.

* [[The Watson]]: Max is this in his early scenes; it's to him that Charlie explains the history of the WRB, and Noisy Boy's voice control.

* [[Weak but Skilled]]: This appears to be Atom's edge over the bigger, shinier robots it is put up against in the trailers. A featurette describes how Atom can mimic what it sees perfectly -- and Charlie Kenton, one of Atom's handlers, is a retired pro boxer.