Scrooged

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.

Frank Cross: I get it. You're here to show me my past, and I'm supposed to get all dully-eyed and mushy. Well, forget it, pal, you got the wrong guy!
Ghost of Christmas Past: That's exactly what Attila the Hun said. But when he saw his mother... Niagara Falls.

Scrooged is a 1988 loose modern retelling of Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol, with the twist of taking place In a World where everyone's already familiar with Dickens' tale. Bill Murray stars as Frank Cross, a cynical, selfish TV executive who is planning a live adaptation of A Christmas Carol for a holiday special. Cross' own childhood memories of Christmas were less than fond, leaving him initially unable to appreciate the spirit of the season.

However things start to go downhill when his dead former boss smashes his way into his office to inform him that he is doomed unless he changes his ways. True to the source material he is visited by the three very strange Ghosts of Christmas Past, Present, and Future.

Intended to ride on Murray's earlier success in Ghostbusters, Scrooged contains many references to the earlier (if largely unrelated) film; one of the taglines was, "Bill Murray is back amongst the ghosts, only this time it's three on one."

It's also pretty damn funny, but we shouldn't need to tell you that, right?

Tropes used in Scrooged include:
  • An Asskicking Christmas / Badass Santa: Featured in The Night The Reindeer Died, one of the Films Within A Film during the movie. Apparently Santa is a very Jolly Burt Gummer.
  • As Himself: Lee Majors manages to pull off a double decker. He's Lee Majors, playing Lee Majors in Scrooged, where he's starring as Lee Majors in The Night the Reindeer Died.
    • Robert Goulet, John Houseman, and Mary Lou Retton don't manage to get quite as meta with their appearances as themselves.
  • Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Bryce Cummings (played by John Glover) seems really nice but is really gunning for Frank's job.
    • If anything, Bryce is just like Frank, but without the decency to be forthright and obvious about what a giant Jerkass he is.
  • Bland-Name Product: IBC, the network Frank runs, is directly poking fun at ABC. The promo for IBC's Scrooge says "Yule Love It"; ABC's promotional tagline for their shows in the 1985-1986 season (while the movie was being produced) was "You'll Love It".
  • Breaking the Fourth Wall: Frank at the end of the movie. On the one hand, he is in a TV studio, he is speaking into an In-Universe camera, and the closest thing to a physical fourth wall is far behind said camera, but on the other hand, he's talking to the Real Life movie audience as opposed to the In-Universe TV audience.
  • Brick Joke: The Network Censor getting hurt, see Butt Monkey below. However in the final scene it all comes to a head. When When Frank changes his ways and gets a shotgun toting Elliot Loudermilk on his side. Elliot storms the control room holding them at gun point. The second the censor sees the gun she's the only one that screams and ducks, having enough of getting hurt throughout the entire movie.
  • Butt Monkey: Elliot Loudermilk. Fired on Christmas Eve, sells blood for booze money (and the booze gets stolen by the Ghost of Christmas Past), and ends up assaulting Frank with a shotgun in the finale. Also The Woobie.
  • Cheek Copy
  • Chewing the Scenery: Frank Cross.

Frank: (thinks he sees a ghost) AH-HAAAAAAAAAAAAAaaaaaaa!
Waiter: Oh no sir, that's the Baked Alaska, sir, that's a dessert.

Ghost of Christmas Present: Oh! What's this...it's a TOASTER! *SMACK*

Claire Phillips: Taxi! Can you get me to the IBC building in three minutes?
Ghost of Christmas Past: Which floor?

  • Drowning My Sorrows: Elliot tries to do this after losing his job, but a Roadside Wave wets the paper bag holding his booze and causes it to fall out. He tries again later, only for the Ghost of Christmas Past to drive by and steal his booze.
  • Dumbstruck: Calvin hadn't spoken since he saw his father murdered five years earlier.
  • Even Bad Men Love Their Mamas: Cross is driven to tears when he sees his mother in a vision of one of his first Christmases. The Ghost of Christmas Past had earlier mentioned even "Attila the Hun cried" when he saw his own mother.

Ghost of Christmas Past: Niagara Falls, "Frankie Angel."

  • Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Frank genuinely does love his brother James. He's the only person aside from Claire that he isn't a flat-out jerk to.
  • Even Evil Has Standards: Though Frank is a self-centered creep, there were some redeeming factors to him prior to the climax. Before he sees the ghost of Christmas past, he dumps water on a waiter, thinking he was on fire. It was merely an illusion by the ghost to get him outside. The thought counts, though. Afterwards he makes some friends with the homeless people, even singing with them before the big "Bah Humbug parody." Lastly after seeing the Ghost of Christmas Present, he was devastated that one of the homeless men he met was found dead in the sewer he landed in. He even berates the guy for not staying at Operation Reachout where his ex-girlfriend Claire works.

Frank Cross: You jerk! You moron! Why didn't you stay at Claire's? Why didn't you stay with Claire!? She would have taken care of you! You would have eaten and been warm! You might be alive! You'd be a prettier color, I'll tell you that!

    • At one point he is surprised by the show's Ghost of Christmas Future coming out of the elevator, believing it to be the real one and immediately pushes Grace away in a very rough manner in a misguided attempt to save her from the ghost.
  • Expy
    • Ebenezer Scrooge - Frank Cross
    • Bob Cratchit - Grace Cooley
    • Tiny Tim - Calvin
    • Fred, (Scrooge's only nephew) - James (Frank's only brother)
    • Alice (Fred's skeptical wife) - Wendie (James's skeptical wife)
    • Jacob Marley - Lew Hayward
  • Family-Unfriendly Death: A lot, though the crowning example has to be Frank's vision of his own funeral by cremation - from inside the coffin.
  • Flipping the Bird: Frank does this to the old woman after stealing a ride from her.
  • Freudian Excuse: Frank apparently had it even worse than Ebenezer Scrooge. While Scrooge's father just sent him off to boarding school but eventually had a change of heart, Frank's father is shown as a callous, emotionally abusive man who never changes his ways, while his mother (while loving) is distant due to not wanting to stay in the house with her loveless husband, leaving him parked in front of the TV while she goes out.
  • Gatling Good: Lee Majors wields a minigun in The Night the Reindeer Died.
  • Genre Savvy: Frank knows the whole Scrooge thing, he has A Christmas Carol produced for TV right then. Not that his Genre Savviness helps him.
  • The Grinch: Frank, at first.
  • Groin Attack: "The Ballbreaker Suite", indeed.
  • Heel Face Turn
  • Hellevator: Frank meets the Ghost of Christmas Future here. At the bottom is the funeral noted up in Family-Unfriendly Death.
  • Hollywood Driving: The Ghost of Christmas Past takes it Up to Eleven, panicking Frank. In fact, while in the present, his taxi can hit other objects.
    • He responds to Claire's request to take her to the TV studio quickly with "Which floor?"
  • Improv: Half of Frank's lines; the entire closing sequence.
  • Invisible Holes: Frank's old boss, Lew Hayward.
  • Meaningful Name: Lampshaded.

Poster in Frank's Office: "Cross: (n) a thing they nail people to."

Stagehand: We've tried everything to glue these antlers on this little guy, but it just won't stick.
Claire: Oh, what a cute little mouse!
Frank: Have you thought about... staples!?

Frank Cross: "Listen, I know I haven't talked to you in... *checks watch* ...about 10 or 15 years, but..."

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