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Line 10: This title is, of course, unrelated to [[Tropey the Wonder Dog]]. ---- {{tropelist}} ~~=== Tropes: ===~~ * [[Acceptable Targets]]: In-universe, the Albanians are this. {{quote\| '''Ames:''' Why Albania?~~<br />~~ '''Brean:''' Why not?~~<br />~~ '''Ames:''' What have they done to us?~~<br />~~ '''Brean:''' What have they done ''for'' us? What do you know about them?~~<br />~~ '''Ames:''' Nothing.~~<br />~~ '''Brean:''' See? They keep to themselves. Shifty. Untrustable. }} * [[The Barnum]]: Conrad has based his entire career on this trope (well... that, and killing people). Stanley and Winifred evolve into this type. * [[Black Comedy]] Line 31 ⟶ 30: * [[Invisible President]]: The film almost always has the main characters talking to "the president" on the phone. The one time the President is on camera, he is in shadows and seen from the back only. On the other hand, his opponent is frequently shown in TV ads and on talk shows. ** His name isn't said either- his campaign ads just have 'Re-elect the President' as a tag line. * [[Karma Houdini]]: {{spoiler\|Brean and Ames. They both successfully pull off [[The Masquerade]], which included a few deaths, some death threats and of course the manipulation of an entire nation, with no hint that they'll be caught.}} ** {{spoiler\|Also the president, who was able to divert attention away from his actions with the Firefly Girl.}} * [[Killed to Uphold the Masquerade]]: Chillingly portrayed: {{spoiler\|Motss refuses to keep quiet about the fake war, and in the next scene, he's reported as having died of a heart attack in his estate.}} * [[Line-of-Sight Name]]: How Stanley comes up with "Old Shoe's" unit number: It's 3:03 PM, so Old Shoe was a proud member of the 303! * [[No Celebrities Were Harmed]]: Dustin Hoffman based Motss look and mannerisms on real-world producer [[Robert Evans]]. Evans is said to have joked on occasion that he was ''really'' good in that film. Line 48 ⟶ 47: * [[The Un-Reveal]]: We never get to know if the president did, in fact, have sex with the Firefly Girl. [[Squick\|You sure you wanna know?]] There's another example: at the end of the film, there's a news flash telling us that an Albanian terrorist ~~organisation~~organization has claimed responsibility for a recent bombing. We don't find out if it's real or fake, who's running things now that {{spoiler\|Motss is dead}}, or why, if it's real, they'd want the war to continue. * [[Villain Protagonist]]: The main characters, and also, the President. Motss, Brean and Ames, no matter how loveable their characters come off, are still despicable people manipulating the American public to protect a President who was caught trying to make a pass at a young girl. The fact that several people end up dead as a result of their actions, {{spoiler\|and that they get away with it}}, only underlines the point. * [[War for Fun and Profit]]: Toyed with. The President gets a sex scandal swept under the rug and even improves his approval rating, all because of a war. With the twist that there never actually is a war as far as the viewers know. There may be fighting going on off screen, or there may not at all. We don't know, because it doesn't matter and nobody cares. What's important are the photo ops, the slogans and the huge PR spin. * [[What Could Have Been]]: The original novel, ''American Hero'', involved [[George HW Bush]] starting the actual [[Gulf War]], scripted by Hollywood screenwriters with Saddam Hussein agreeing to it in exchange for secret payments and the boost to his reputation for fighting America. * [[Xanatos Speed Chess]]: ''Constantly''. Almost every plan Stanley and Conrad come up with once the film gets going backfires hugely, leading to a frantic chain of improvisation. Line 57 ⟶ 55: [[Category:Films of the 1990s]] [[Category:Wag the Dog]] [[Category:Film]]