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The Faculty: Difference between revisions
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'''''The Faculty''''' is a [[The Nineties|1998]] teen [[Horror]] film directed by [[Robert Rodriguez]]. The story involves [[Puppeteer Parasite|a parasitic alien]] landing in [[Aliens in Cardiff|small-town Ohio]] and turning the faculty of a [[High School]] into [[Body Snatcher|its puppets]], followed by the students and the rest of the town.
[[Six
Among the rare successful [[Sliding Scale of Comedy and Horror|horror-comedies]] (especially out of the bunch that followed in ''[[Scream (Film)|Scream]]'''s [[Follow the Leader|wake]]), both very funny and very scary. The film's writer, Kevin Williamson, also wrote the first two ''[[Scream (Film)|Scream]]'' movies, which helped it to avoid making the mistakes of many of the [[Follow the Leader|copycat]] teen horror movies of the late '90s. Expect loads of [[Body Horror|creative gore]] and ''really'' [[WTH Casting Agency|creative casting]].
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=== This film has examples of the following tropes: ===
* [[A Date With Rosie Palms]]: Not only do Casey's parents take away his phone and internet as punishment but they also confiscate his porn. Casey's Father tells him "No more [[Is That What
* [[Alien Invasion]]
* [[Aliens in Cardiff]]: [[Lampshade Hanging|Lampshaded]] and [[Justified Trope|justified]]. When one character claims that it would be absurd for aliens to secretly invade via a [[High School]] in a small town and brainwash the population, another [[Genre Savvy]] charcter points out that this would attract a lot less attention than attacking a big city, which the whole world will notice. See the page quote.
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* [[Drugs Are Bad]]: Inverted. The alien parasites are dried out and ultimately killed by the meth-like drug that Zeke makes and then sells in the parking lot. This drug is used in order to test who has been infected with the parasite.
** Also subverted, as it turns out they weren't really drugs at all. Zeke was just using caffeine pills.
* [[Dumb Muscle]]: Stan, much to his dismay. He feels that his heavy involvement as the captain of the football team is damaging his academic performance, and that his teachers are [[Screw the Rules, I Have Connections|giving him preferential treatment]] just because he's a star athlete. This causes him to quit the team in order to focus on schoolwork.
* [[Everybody Lives]]: Surprisingly there is a total of two casualties in the whole film, none of whom are the main characters.
* [[Everybody Must Get Stoned]]: At one point in the movie, Zeke forces everybody to take his drugs so that they could find out who is being controlled by the aliens. [[Intoxication Ensues]].
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'''Casey:''' I think so. }}
* [[Fingore]]: Mr. Furlong is bitten by the alien specimen that Casey finds. It takes a nice chuck out of his pointer finger. Later, {{spoiler|after having been infected by the aliens, he has all four fingers of one hand cut off by a paper slicer.}}
* [[Five
** If you're going by the "standard" [[Five
*** Stan: [[The Hero]].
*** Stokely: [[The Lancer]].
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*** Delilah: [[The Chick]].
*** Marybeth: The [[Sixth Ranger]]. {{spoiler|Actually the [[Sixth Ranger Traitor]].}}
* [[Four
** Stan is sanguine
** Delilah is choleric
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** Marybeth is supine until {{spoiler|she reveals herself to be the [[Big Bad|Queen alien]]}}
* [[Full Frontal Assault]]: {{spoiler|Marybeth while chasing Casey in the locker room.}}
* [[Full
* [[Genre Savvy]]: This ''is'' a [[The Nineties|late '90s]] teen horror film -- it goes with the territory.
* [[Glamour Failure]]: In addition to the obvious lack of emotion characteristic of [[Puppeteer Parasite|Puppeteer Parasites]], people infected with the alien parasite can be discerned by their need to drink lots of water, as the things quickly dehydrate their hosts. This is also why Zeke's drugs are so effective against them (the drugs absorb water and dehydrate people).
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* [[Groin Attack]]: Near the beginning of the film, Casey gets picked up by a group of bullies, has his legs spread apart, and gets his crotch slammed into a light pole.
* [[Drill Sergeant Nasty|Gym Teacher Nasty]]: And played by Robert Patrick, no less.
* [[Hannibal Lecture]]: Used multiple times by the pod people against the heroes, but the big one is delivered by {{spoiler|Marybeth}}. When {{spoiler|she}} confronts Casey in the locker room, {{spoiler|she}} tries to convince him that, by joining the aliens, he will be happy, and will no longer have to suffer through humiliation at the hands of his peers. When Casey [[Shut UP, Hannibal|refuses to be swayed]], {{spoiler|Marybeth}} simply gives up, tells him that it's too late and that the aliens have already won, and comes after him.
* [[High School]]
* [[Hey
* [[Hollywood Nerd]]: Elijah Wood as the nerdy kid Casey.
* [[Homage]]: The entire film is an homage to ''[[Invasion of the Body Snatchers]]'' and ''[[The Puppet Masters (Literature)|The Puppet Masters]]'', with [[Shout Out|Shout Outs]] aplenty.
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** When Zeke is selling pens full of drugs to some students, he tells them that the stuff is "guaranteed to jack you up." {{spoiler|Casey later repeats this line before he stabs and kills Alien!Marybeth with one of these pens.}}
** While snooping in the teachers' lounge, Casey tells Delilah that she can be "pretty cool sometimes" (i.e. when she's not being the [[Alpha Bitch]]). Delilah asks if he's hitting on her. At the end of the film, Delilah repeats this line to Casey, whom she is now dating.
* [[It Was Here, I Swear]]: Casey ends up in this situation when he brings the police to the school to recover {{spoiler|Mrs. Brummel's}} body. When they open the closet, the body has disappeared and been replaced with a Recussitation Annie Doll.
* [[Lens Flare Censor]]: In reverse. The darkness is used to cover up {{spoiler|Marybeth's}} naughty bits. It doesn't work so well on the DVD, though.
* [[Lovable Alpha Bitch]]: Delilah.
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* [[New Transfer Student]]: Marybeth has just moved to town from Atlanta. {{spoiler|Or so she says.}}
* [[No Ontological Inertia]]: Justified. After Zeke examines one of the parasites, he notices that it doesn't have all the necessary organs to sustain itself independently, and concludes (correctly) that there must be an alien queen with a telepathic link to all of her "offspring." Killing her would kill all the parasites, returning everyone to their normal selves.
* [[Not Now, Kiddo]]: Even though the alien-controlled teachers make up a cover story for what he saw that would ''still'' realistically scare a teenager, his parents decide he needs counseling, search his room for drugs, and decide to remove his phone, internet and even his [[Porn Stash]] (which they seem bizarrely completely okay with). Because that's parenting.
* [[Off With His Head|Off With Her Head]]: {{spoiler|Miss Burke. She gets better, though.}}
* [[Orifice Invasion]]
* [[Pre
{{quote| '''Casey:''' {{spoiler|Guaranteed to jack you up.}}}}
** See also [[Ironic Echo]].
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* [[Religious and Mythological Theme Naming]]: Zeke (Ezekiel) and Delilah both get their names from Biblical figures.
* [[School Newspaper Newshound]]: Delilah and Casey, although the latter is only a photographer.
* [[Screw the Rules, I Have Connections]]: Stan's teachers curve his grades because he's the captain of the football team. Unlike most examples, he's fairly dismayed by this, enough so that he quits the team.
* [[Shout Out]]:
** The name of the science teacher, [[The Terminator|Mr. Furlong]].
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** Several movies and books about aliens get name-dropped by the characters, including ''[[ET the Extraterrestrial (Film)|E.T.]]'', ''[[Invasion of the Body Snatchers]]'', ''[[Robert A. Heinlein|The Puppet Masters]]'' and ''[[Independence Day]]'', with one reference to the latter movie providing the page quote.
* [[Single Biome Planet]]: The head alien is from a planet covered entirely with water. This is the reason why people infected with the alien parasite need to drink lots of water -- the thing needs a lot of it, and it dehydrates people rather quickly.
* [[Six
** The head: Zeke.
** The muscle: Stan.
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** The smart one: Marybeth. {{spoiler|She is, after all, [[Big Bad|the mastermind]] of the [[Alien Invasion]].}}
** The wild one: Stokely.
* [[Sorry, I'm Gay]]: Stokely pretends to be a lesbian in order to prevent guys from hitting on her.
* [[Stunt Casting]]: R&B star Usher in a small role as one of Stan's fellow football players.
* [[Sucky School]]: There is a scene early on that takes place at a faculty meeting, where they are deciding how to divide the school's budget. Much to the teachers' chagrin, money that could be used for buying new textbooks or putting on a [[School Play]] other than ''[[Our Town]]'' is instead directed towards the football team, because, as Principal Drake explains, [[Serious Business|they live in a football town]].
** Somewhat unusually for a trope like that, she doesn't think the football team deserves all the attention and funding, but it's what the ''parents'' want. She says something like, "My frustrated hands are tied."
* [[Teacher
** Wait. It's implied that a character has sex with a woman who was infected with an alien parasite, {{spoiler|was decapitated, had her head sprout tentacles and slither around, and then ''put her head back on''}}... and your issue is whether or not he is legally of age?
* [["The Reason You Suck" Speech]]: {{spoiler|Marybeth gives one to Casey at the end.}} See [[Hannibal Lecture]].
* [[Tomato Surprise]]: {{spoiler|Marybeth faked her negative result on the drug test by sealing her nostril and turning her pinky finger back into a tentacle temporarily to remove the butt cap of the pen so the drug will fall through it, but making everyone think she sniffed it.}}
* [[Uncanny Valley Girl]]: {{spoiler|Marybeth.}}
* [[Utopia Justifies the Means]]: {{spoiler|The motivation of Marybeth, the queen of the parasitic alien species}}.
* [[Voluntary Shapeshifting]]: During the climax, {{spoiler|Marybeth}} switches between human and alien forms at will.
* [[Write What You Know]]: Casey references this trope when trying to explain to Stokely why he believes that ''Invasion of the Body Snatchers'' was [[Based
* [[X Meets Y]]: [[The Breakfast Club]] must contend with the [[Invasion of the Body Snatchers]]
* [[You Don't Want to Die A Virgin Do You]]: A mild example. Stan and Stokely kiss before Stan goes out to see if the people outside are still infected, with Stokely remarking that she didn't want to have never done that.
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