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** In a way Willard killing Kurtz is a form of mercy killing as well. Despite it being his mission to assassinate Colonel Kurtz by the time Willlard actually meets the man he realizes that the entire mission is bogus because Kurtz really isn't any more insane than the commanders running the war. The Colonel may not be evil per say but his actions are contrary to the direction American war machine wants the Vietnam War to go in and inevitably they are gonna send someone else after him if Willard fails. Willard points out that he knows the Colonel would want to die like a warrior instead of a renegade and so he does the deed.
--> '''Willard:''' Everyone wanted him dead, probably him most of all. I felt as if he was waiting for me, waiting for me to take all the pain away. He wanted to go out like a soldier, not like some poor, wasted, rag-ass renegade. Even the jungle wanted him dead, and that's where he took his orders from anyway.
--> '''Willard:''' Everyone wanted him dead, probably him most of all. I felt as if he was waiting for me, waiting for me to take all the pain away. He wanted to go out like a soldier, not like some poor, wasted, rag-ass renegade. Even the jungle wanted him dead, and that's where he took his orders from anyway.
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* RageAgainstTheReflection: Yes, Martin Sheen really just punched a mirror. It wasn't staged.
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* RageAgainstTheReflection: Yes, Martin Sheen really just punched a mirror. It wasn't staged.staged as he was drunk at the time. Martin Sheen actually noted in later interviews about his involvement with the movie that he was struggling with personal demons at the time, so you could say that Willard's insanity/despair is actually Martin Sheen's being imposed on the character.
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** Kurtz actually points this out during his haunting monologue to Willard, he states: "I have seen horrors, horrors that you have seen. You have a right to kill me, you have a right to do that, but you have no right to judge me." Ultimately how can Willard judge Kurtz when he is basically the same as him?
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** In a way this might have been intentional given how Apocalypse Now is viewed as an accurate reflection of the insanity and the pointlessness of the way the Vietnam War was handled. Why not send a special forces team to kill one of our own highly successful officers? It's not like those are resources that could totally be directed towards fighting the enemy, instead of killing a Colonel that happens to still be doing his best to fight said enemy so we can win the war. Only insane/dumb commanders would handle a war so inefficiently, the entire war was rigged from the start to be a shaggy dog story, Kurtz is just a bystander of said mishandling of the war.
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* ShootTheShaggyDogStory: If one stops to think about it the entire story is one. The entire purpose of the mission was for Willard to kill Colonel Kurtz so that the presence of American activity in countries other than Vietnam wouldn't be known. Ultimately killing the Colonel did absolutely nothing to affect the outcome of the Vietnam War, so Willard's trip and all the suffering of his crew was completely meaningless in the long run.
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* ShootTheShaggyDogStory: ShootTheShaggyDog: If one stops to think about it the entire story is one. The entire purpose of the mission was for Willard to kill Colonel Kurtz so that the presence of American activity in countries other than Vietnam wouldn't be known. Ultimately killing the Colonel did absolutely nothing to affect the outcome of the Vietnam War, so Willard's trip and all the suffering of his crew was completely meaningless in the long run.
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* NoHoldsBarredBeatdown: Willard gives one to Kurtz in the climax. All while using a [[MacheteMayhem machete]]!
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* NoHoldsBarredBeatdown: Willard gives one to Kurtz in the climax. All climax while using a [[MacheteMayhem machete]]!machete]]. This entire scene is set to the tune of ''TheDoors'' song ''[[AwesomeMusic The End]]''.
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* NoHoldsBarredBeatdown: Willard gives one to Kurtz in the climax. All while using a [[MacheteMayhem machete]]!
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* NoHoldsBarredBeatdown: Willard gives one to Kurtz in the climax. All while using a [[MacheteMayhem machete]]!
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* NoHoldsBarredBeatdown: Willard gives one to Kurtz in the climax. All while using a [[MacheteMayhem machete]]!
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* ShootTheShaggyDogStory: If one stops to think about it the entire story is one. The entire purpose of the mission was for Willard to kill Colonel Kurtz so that the presence of American activity in countries other than Vietnam wouldn't be known. Ultimately killing the Colonel did absolutely nothing to affect the outcome of the Vietnam War, so Willard's trip and all the suffering of his crew was completely meaningless in the long run.
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* FanDisservice: The ''Redux'' version has a sequence where the Playmates, whose helicopter has gone down, are whored out to Willard's men in exchange for aviation fuel. Cynthia Wood and Colleen Camp, two spectacularly gorgeous women, appear topless. It is weird and disturbing and wrong.
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** And way before that, a black soldier dies in [[spoiler: the helicopter explosion in the village.]]
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** The boat crew are not entirely thrilled with the assignment of escorting Willard up river, The Chief in particular. And when the Chief is dying with a spear through his neck, he tries [[TakingYouWithMe to impale Willard on it]] before finally succumbing.
** The troops at the [=USO=] show riot amongst themselves to try and get at the Playboy Bunnies.
** The military is sending their own assassin to kill one of their own generals gone rogue. The movie has Americans killing ''each other'' while trying to fight this damned war.
** The troops at the [=USO=] show riot amongst themselves to try and get at the Playboy Bunnies.
** The military is sending their own assassin to kill one of their own generals gone rogue. The movie has Americans killing ''each other'' while trying to fight this damned war.
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* FromBadToWorse: Both in-universe, as well as the film production itself, where things just got worse and worse and worse.
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* InterserviceRivalry: Between the Army and the Navy.
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* InterserviceRivalry: InterserviceRivalry:
** Between the Army and the Navy.
** Between the Army and the Navy.
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* ItGotWorse: It might as well be called "It Got Worse: The Movie".
** Both in-universe, as well as the film production itself, where things just got worse and worse and worse.
** Both in-universe, as well as the film production itself, where things just got worse and worse and worse.
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* MaleGaze: In the director's cut, a Playboy bunny complains that no one sees her as a real person or respects her for her mind...all while the camera is focused on her breasts.
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* MaleGaze: In the director's cut, a Playboy bunny complains that no one sees her as a real person or respects her for her mind...all while Lance, and the camera camera, is focused on her breasts.
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* BlackDudeDiesFirst: To be fair, everyone dies. This is still a particularily cruel example though, considering [[spoiler: ''both'' black crew members die first.]]
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* BlackDudeDiesFirst: To be fair, everyone dies. This is still a particularily particularly cruel example though, considering [[spoiler: ''both'' black crew members die first.]]
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* BlackDudeDiesFirst: To be fair, everyone dies. This is still a particularily cruel example though, considering [[spoiler: ''both'' black crew members dudes die first.]]
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* BlackDudeDiesFirst: To be fair, everyone dies. This is still a particularily cruel example though, considering [[spoiler: ''both'' black crew members dudes die first.]]
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* BlackDudeDiesFirst: To be fair, everyone dies. This is still a particularily cruel example though, considering [[spoiler: ''both'' black dudes die first.]]
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* BlackDudeDiesFirst: To be fair, everyone dies. This is still a particularily cruel example though, considering [[spoiler: ''both'' black crew members dudes die first.]]
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* Emerging from the Shadows: Colonel Kurtz.
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* Emerging from the Shadows: EmergingFromTheShadows: Colonel Kurtz.
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* Emerging from the Shadows: Colonel Kurtz.
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ymmv and trivia
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* OneSceneWonder: Marlon Brando has only about ten minutes of screen time as Kurtz. But it is one iconic ten minutes.
** This could also be said of Roach, who appears only for a moment, but is one of the most {{badass}} characters in the movie.
** Ditto the Photojournalist - he only has three scenes, but a disproportionate share of the film's actual dialogue. Of course, this is largely due to Dennis Hopper's speeding off his nut during filming.
** ColonelKilgore (Robert Duvall) only appears in two scenes, the cleaning up of the beach assault, and the outpost assault, but is perhaps the character everyone remembers best.
** This could also be said of Roach, who appears only for a moment, but is one of the most {{badass}} characters in the movie.
** Ditto the Photojournalist - he only has three scenes, but a disproportionate share of the film's actual dialogue. Of course, this is largely due to Dennis Hopper's speeding off his nut during filming.
** ColonelKilgore (Robert Duvall) only appears in two scenes, the cleaning up of the beach assault, and the outpost assault, but is perhaps the character everyone remembers best.
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* TroubledProduction: "We had access to too much money, too much equipment, and little by little we went insane."
** Coppola also once said something to the effect of "this wasn't a movie about the Vietnam war. This ''was'' the Vietnam war."
** Coppola also once said something to the effect of "this wasn't a movie about the Vietnam war. This ''was'' the Vietnam war."
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** Both in-universe, as well as the film production itself, where things just got worse and worse and worse.
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* WorthyOpponent: Kilgore praises a mortally wounded VC soldier who had killed a lot of American allies and gives him water despite the opposition.
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* WorthyOpponent: Kilgore praises a mortally wounded VC soldier who had killed a lot of American allies and gives declares that he will give him water despite the opposition.opposition to his doing so.
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** Only somewhat averted in that Kilgore gets [[DistractedbyTheShiny Distracted by The Surfing]] and forgets to actually give the man any water.
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** Only somewhat averted Played with in that Kilgore gets [[DistractedbyTheShiny Distracted by The Surfing]] and forgets to actually give the man any water.
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** Partially averted in that he gets distracted by surfing and forgets to actually give the man any water.
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** Partially Only somewhat averted in that he Kilgore gets distracted [[DistractedbyTheShiny Distracted by surfing The Surfing]] and forgets to actually give the man any water.
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** Partially averted in that he gets distracted by surfing and forgets to actually give the man any water.
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Added reference to Community\'s parody/homage to Hearts of Darkness
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This film's nightmarish production was documented by Coppola's wife Eleanor, who would later use footage she shot on set to make the documentary ''Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker's Apocalypse''. It would later be parodied in BenStiller's action-comedy ''TropicThunder'' and the ''Community'' episode ''Recap/CommunityS3E08DocumentaryFilmmakingRedux''.
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This film's nightmarish production was documented by Coppola's wife Eleanor, who would later use footage she shot on set to make the documentary ''Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker's Apocalypse''. It would later be parodied in BenStiller's action-comedy ''TropicThunder'' and the ''Community'' ''Series/{{Community}}'' episode ''Recap/CommunityS3E08DocumentaryFilmmakingRedux''."[[Recap/CommunityS3E08DocumentaryFilmmakingRedux Documentary Filmmaking: Redux]]"'.
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This film's nightmarish production was documented by Coppola's wife Eleanor, who would later use footage she shot on set to make the documentary ''Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker's Apocalypse''. It would later be parodied in BenStiller's action-comedy ''TropicThunder''.
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This film's nightmarish production was documented by Coppola's wife Eleanor, who would later use footage she shot on set to make the documentary ''Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker's Apocalypse''. It would later be parodied in BenStiller's action-comedy ''TropicThunder''.
''TropicThunder'' and the ''Community'' episode ''Recap/CommunityS3E08DocumentaryFilmmakingRedux''.
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* ScrewTheWarWerePartying: Willard concludes that the Viet Cong will be victorious because "Charlie's idea of great R&R was cold rice and a little rat meat" during a USO show. Also the scene in the ''Redux'' cut where the main characters trade their fuel for [[ADateWithRosiePalms some private time with Playboy models]].
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* ScrewTheWarWerePartying: Willard concludes that the Viet Cong will be victorious because "Charlie's idea of great R&R was cold rice and a little rat meat" during a USO show. Also the scene in the ''Redux'' cut where the main characters trade their fuel for [[ADateWithRosiePalms some private time with Playboy models]].models.
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* PopculturalOsmosis: Many lines of this movie are downright legendary, in particular the "I love the smell of napalm" speech, and "The horror, the horror...", the latter taken directly from ''HeartOfDarkness''.
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* PopculturalOsmosis: Many lines of this movie are downright legendary, in particular the "I love the smell of napalm" speech, and "The horror, the horror...", the latter taken directly from ''HeartOfDarkness''.''Literature/HeartOfDarkness''.
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* RiverOfInsanity: Which was [[TropeCodifier codified]] by HeartOfDarkness.
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* RiverOfInsanity: Which was [[TropeCodifier codified]] by HeartOfDarkness.Literature/HeartOfDarkness.
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** Coppola first offered the role of Kurtz to OrsonWelles (who had previously tried to adapt ''HeartOfDarkness'' to the screen himself), but for some reason or another he declined.
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** Coppola first offered the role of Kurtz to OrsonWelles (who had previously tried to adapt ''HeartOfDarkness'' ''Literature/HeartOfDarkness'' to the screen himself), but for some reason or another he declined.
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[[quoteright:206:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/apocalypse_now.jpg]]
->'''Kilgore:''' Smell that? You smell that?\\
'''Lance:''' What?\\
'''Kilgore:''' Napalm, son. Nothing else in the world smells like that.\\
[kneels]\\
'''Kilgore:''' [[MemeticMutation I love the smell of napalm in the morning.]]
Very loose adaptation of the classic Joseph Conrad novella ''Literature/HeartOfDarkness'', transporting the events of that book to 1969 Vietnam and Cambodia. The film took three years to complete before its 1979 release. It was directed by FrancisFordCoppola.
Captain Willard (MartinSheen) is sent to kill Colonel Kurtz (MarlonBrando), who has gone mad and set up his own {{cult}} in Cambodia. The captain goes up a river and into the depths of humanity.
Containing many famous scenes and quotes, most notably "I love the smell of napalm in the morning", "Charlie don't surf" and the climax ("The horror... the horror...") involving the slaughter of a real water buffalo, this movie at times feels like what one might imagine a bad acid trip to be like. Considered the definitive anti-war movie by many, ''Apocalypse Now'' is also one of the all-time greats. It is also legendary for having what is considered to be one of the most {{troubled production}}s in Hollywood history. To describe all of the mishaps that occurred on set would require an entire page, but for the sake of brevity, here are the highlights:
* [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1976_Pacific_typhoon_season#Typhoon_Olga_.28Didang.29 Typhoon Olga]] destroying most of the sets.
* By the end of production, the film was over nine months behind schedule.
* Coppola lost 100 pounds, threatened suicide several times, and attempted it once.
* Coppola shot literally millions of feet of footage, and had to cut it all together to make a coherent motion picture.
* Many crewmembers were drunk or stoned while filming. Dennis Hopper got 14-year-old LaurenceFishburne hooked on heroin.
* MarlonBrando showed up to the set morbidly obese, rather than with the muscular build that his character called for (which is why Kurtz is almost never shown below the shoulders during the movie), and having not read either the script or ''Literature/HeartOfDarkness'' like he had been asked.
* Martin Sheen had a heart attack due to the stress of filming, and had to struggle for a quarter-mile to get help.
* The budget was expected to be about $12-14 million, but wound up being well over double that amount ($31.5 million).
* The helicopters that the government of the Philippines lent to Coppola for the famous "air cavalry" scene were frequently taken back during shooting, as the government needed the helicopters to fight communist rebels.
This film's nightmarish production was documented by Coppola's wife Eleanor, who would later use footage she shot on set to make the documentary ''Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker's Apocalypse''. It would later be parodied in BenStiller's action-comedy ''TropicThunder''.
In 2001, Coppola drastically ReCut the film, extending the running time by nearly an hour, adding some additional scenes and re-shuffling some existing ones around. The new version was released (to decidedly mixed reviews) as ''Apocalypse Now Redux''.
Features an early role for LaurenceFishburne (credited as "Larry"), who lied about his age to get the role (he was only 14).
Not to be confused with ApocalypseHow or ApocalypseWow.
----
!!This movie contains examples of:
* ActorAllusion: Dennis Hopper playing a unstable hippie photographer is quite fitting.
* AnnoyingArrows: Subverted. Villagers (unseen at this point, as in Conrad's book) attack Willard's boat with arrows. Due to the 20th century setting, Willard does not take them seriously. He refers to them as "toy arrows," and in a shout out to Conrad, he says "they're just little sticks, they're trying to scare us!" After the sailors start shooting back, they switch to spears, and one of the sailors dies as a result.
** Lance at one point breaks an arrow in half and sticks the two halves in his hair.
* AnArmAndALeg: Kurtz tells a story about the time he was with the Special Forces and they inoculated children:
-->''We left the camp after we had inoculated the children for polio, and this old man came running after us and he was crying. He couldn't see. We went back there, and they had come and hacked off every inoculated arm. There they were in a pile. A pile of little arms.''
* BackedByThePentagon: Or rather the Filipino military, who provided the F-5s for the napalm sequence and the helicopters for the famous helicopter attack preceding it. The helicopters occasionally had to be taken back for use in combat against Communist rebels.
* BaldOfEvil: Kurtz
* BeamMeUpScotty: The iconic "smell of napalm" line is much longer than people usually remember.
** Also, some people think it's Kurtz who says it. It's not.
* BilingualBonus: Apparently Cambodian street kids ask foreign soldiers for money in Filipino.
* BillingDisplacement: It's flat-out amazing how little Marlon Brando there actually is in this movie. Not to mention that Robert Duvall gets second billing despite not getting much more screentime than Brando.
** On most dvd covers (for the Redux version at least) it lists off the cast members who became famous after the fact such as Lawrence Fishburne, Dennis Hopper and Creator/HarrisonFord, despite Ford's role being a very brief bit-part at the start.
* {{Bishonen}}: Lance, the blonde California surfer whom Willard describes as "Looking like he never held a gun in his life".
* BlackDudeDiesFirst: To be fair, everyone dies. This is still a particularily cruel example though, considering [[spoiler: ''both'' black dudes die first.]]
* BrokenAce: Kurtz was groomed to become a top military officer but something in him snapped after his first tour of 'Nam.
* TheCameo: Coppola appears as the Bearded Director making a Documentary
* CatScare: Quite literally, but with a considerably larger-than-usual cat.
* CelebrityParadox: Towards the end of the film Kurtz reads aloud from ''[[Creator/TSEliot The Hollow Men]]'' (1925), which contains an epigraph quoting from ''Heart of Darkness'' (i.e. the basis of the movie), written twenty years earlier. This implies either Eliot's poem doesn't include the epigraph because the book doesn't exist, or the [[MindScrew much trippier option]], the epigraph does exist, thus the ''book'' exists, and Colonel Kurtz exists in a world where a fictional character almost identical to him down to the name coincidentally exists in a book written seventy years before.
** Worth noting that this paradox would have been averted had the original script been used, where Kurtz was originally called "Col. Leighley" because Brando didn't read the book and couldn't understand why an American colonel would be named Kurtz. Once Brando actually ''read'' the book he ''demanded'' the name be changed back. If you're watching closely the scene where Willard is sent on his mission, you can see that Harrison Ford saying "Leighley" has been dubbed to say "Kurtz".
* TheChewToy: Coppola must have felt like this given how everything went wrong during Filming
** Also Martin Sheen, given the heart attack and Coppola not especially caring.
* {{Cloudcuckoolander}}: Colonel Kilgore and definitely the Photojournalist. Lance becomes one by the end of the movie.
** Justified with Lance, since he ''was'' on acid at the time.
* ColdSniper: Roach is this with a ''grenade launcher''.
* ColonelBadass: Both Lt. Colonel Kilgore, and Colonel Kurtz. Probably can be considered a TropeCodifier.
** Averted with Col. Lucas (Creator/HarrisonFord).
* ColonelKilgore: The TropeNamer, and possibly the TropeMaker.
* CombatPragmatist: Colonel Kurtz praises the tenacity and dedication of the Vietnamese enemy who are willing to do whatever it takes to win, even going so far as to cross the MoralEventHorizon if that is what it takes.
* [[CrazyCatLady Crazy Bird Lady]]: One of the playmates love birds a little too much.
* CreatorBreakdown: Very much so.
* DawsonCasting: Inverted. LaurenceFishburne lied about his age to get the role, as he was only 14 years old at the time. In an odd way, it makes the film better, showcasing such a young man in such a horrible place. It makes [[spoiler: his death]] that much more of a {{tearjerker}}.
** By the end of production, he was 17, the same age as his character.
*** So, ReallySeventeenYearsOld?
* DeathFromAbove: And '''how!''' The phrase is also seen written onto the side of one of the helicopters.
* DecapitationPresentation: [[spoiler: This happens to Chef]]
* DoingItForTheArt: You see all those military helicopters and boats flying around over there? They are not CG, and this is not stock footage. The creators bought and used real ones.
* DoNotDoThisCoolThing: The "Music/RideOfTheValkyries" scene.
* DwindlingParty: As soon as the squad gets upriver near Kurtz, they start dropping like flies.
* DyeingforYourArt: Brando shaved his head to play Kurtz. Unfortunately, that's all he did to prepare for the part.
* ElitesAreMoreGlamorous: Willard is with the 505th of 173rd Airborne Brigade assigned to MACV-SOG, ordered to assassinate Colonel Kurtz, who was Operations officer of the 5th Special Forces Group, and is helped by a Patrol Boat, Riverine, crew, and is escorted up the Nung River by ColonelKilgore of the 1st Squadron of the 9th Air Cavalry.
* EnforcedMethodActing: Martin Sheen also punched a mirror for real in his introductory scene where he has a psychotic break in his hotel room. So all that blood on the sheets? His. His idea, too. To shoot this scene, Coppola basically just gave Sheen as much whiskey as he could drink, put him in a room, and filmed the results. Apparently, Sheen's behavior was so disturbing to the camera crew that they wanted to stop the shoot, but Sheen insisted they press on. You can see the results for yourself.
** In ''Hearts of Darkness'', the scene is shown making-of style. Coppola directs Sheen to shadowbox at the mirror, and Sheen (as noted, very drunk) misjudges his aim.
* FamousLastWords: "The horror... the horror..."
* FatalFamilyPhoto: Well, it was a recording concerning [[spoiler:Mr. Clean's]] family, but it has the same effect.]]
* ''FilmNoir:'' You wouldn't think it, but this film actually follows the standard format of a ''film noir'', with Willard as the HardboiledDetective investigating a case (being sent on a mission). John Hellmann explains it all in [[http://www.jstor.org/stable/2712690 "Vietnam and the Hollywood Genre Film: Inversions of American Mythology in the Deer Hunter and Apocalypse Now"]]
** He has the Chandleresque voiceover, the aloof superiors, the strange tangled plot...
* TheGunslinger: [[OneSceneWonder Roach]] hits his mark on the other side of a wall with a small grenade launcher, at the first try, aiming only by sound and ''smell!''
* HannibalLecture: "You're an errand boy, sent by grocery clerks".
* HolidayInCambodia: Possibly the TropeCodifier.
* ImpaledWithExtremePrejudice: How [[spoiler: Chief]] dies.
* InterserviceRivalry: Between the Army and the Navy.
** Kilgore and his Air Cav soldiers tease Capt. Willard for being airborne.
* ItGotWorse: It might as well be called "It Got Worse: The Movie".
* JurisdictionFriction
* KillItWithFire: Plenty, with the "I love the smell of napalm in the morning" scene being the most memorable.
* MadnessMantra: ''Never get off the boat! Never get off the boat!"
* MaleGaze: In the director's cut, a Playboy bunny complains that no one sees her as a real person or respects her for her mind...all while the camera is focused on her breasts.
* MathematiciansAnswer:
-->'''Willard:''' Do you know who's in command here?
-->'''Roach:''' Yeah. ''[Walks off]''
* MercyKill: A particularly brutal one when Willard shoots the wounded Vietnamese woman... not because she's dying, but because he doesn't want to take her along with them.
-->'''Willard:''' I told you not to stop.
* MightyWhitey: Well and truly {{deconstructed}}.
* MindScrew
* MisterDanger
* MoodWhiplash: Somewhat deliberately, especially in the expanded version.
* MoreDakka: The boat's machine guns seem to exist solely to spray bullets everywhere.
** All machineguns exist solely for this purpose, they suck as shovels. Unlike many More Dakka weapons, these are used authentically.
* MyGodWhatHaveIDone: Willard almost has a breakdown after [[spoiler:sneaking in and murdering Kurtz]]
* NoKillLikeOverkill: The scene where the crew boards the Vietnamese cargo boat. Also, calling in an airstrike with ''napalm'' to kill some VC hiding in the jungle.
** TruthInTelevision, jungle warfare and Vietnamese tunnels made napalm a necessity.
* ObligatoryWarCrimeScene: The massacre of the family on the river sampan, done because the cast wanted a "My Lai" scene.
* OneSceneWonder: Marlon Brando has only about ten minutes of screen time as Kurtz. But it is one iconic ten minutes.
** This could also be said of Roach, who appears only for a moment, but is one of the most {{badass}} characters in the movie.
** Ditto the Photojournalist - he only has three scenes, but a disproportionate share of the film's actual dialogue. Of course, this is largely due to Dennis Hopper's speeding off his nut during filming.
** ColonelKilgore (Robert Duvall) only appears in two scenes, the cleaning up of the beach assault, and the outpost assault, but is perhaps the character everyone remembers best.
* OnlySaneMan: Colonel Kurtz believes himself to be this, and is a brutal subversion. Chief and Willard could also count as this.
** The Photojournalist to some extent - he understands Kurtz better than anyone else, even (at first) Willard.
** The term "sane" [[DysfunctionJunction being used]] [[SanitySlippage loosely]].
* PassingTheTorch: [[spoiler: Kurtz to Willard]], at the end.
* PlayboyBunny: Cynthia Wood (Miss February 1973, Playmate of the Year 1974) and Linda Carpenter (Miss August 1976). Possibly examples of [[AsHimself As Herself]], since Wood and Carpenter are both playing Playmates.
* PopculturalOsmosis: Many lines of this movie are downright legendary, in particular the "I love the smell of napalm" speech, and "The horror, the horror...", the latter taken directly from ''HeartOfDarkness''.
* PunchClockVillain: Discussed by Kurtz. The Vietcong were willing to commit horrific atrocities, yet were still normal men who loved their families.
* TheQuietOne: Jerry, the CIA officer who silently eats his meal as Willard is being briefed on his mission. He doesn't say anything the entire scene until the end when Willard is told what he must do once he finds Col. Kurtz:
--> ''Terminate. With extreme prejudice.''
* RageAgainstTheReflection: Yes, Martin Sheen really just punched a mirror. It wasn't staged.
* RealitySubtext: The helicopters used for the air cavalry scene against the communist Vietcong rebels were recalled during the shoot by the Philippine government... to fight communist rebels.
* ReCut: ''Apocalypse Now Redux'' and the whole closing credits issue, which is not meant to be part of the movie's plot.
* RiverOfInsanity: Which was [[TropeCodifier codified]] by HeartOfDarkness.
** The river is also one of time travel, as the soldiers experience the history of Vietnam ''backwards''.
* SceneryGorn
** Some SceneryPorn as well - the jungle in the tiger scene looked like something out of ''Film/JurassicPark''.
* ScrewTheWarWerePartying: Willard concludes that the Viet Cong will be victorious because "Charlie's idea of great R&R was cold rice and a little rat meat" during a USO show. Also the scene in the ''Redux'' cut where the main characters trade their fuel for [[ADateWithRosiePalms some private time with Playboy models]].
** With his insistence on going surfing in the middle a battle, the character of Kilgore definitely exemplifies this trope.
* SendInTheSearchTeam
* ShadowArchetype: Is Willard, in the last analysis, any better than Kurtz? [[NotSoDifferent Not really.]]
* ShirtlessScene: Sheen spends a lot of the time shirtless, and is naked in the beginning. Robert Duvall, too, right in the middle of a battle. Vietnam is hot.
* ShoutOut: There are several to the Creator/WernerHerzog movie ''Film/AguirreTheWrathOfGod'', which, oddly enough, had a similarly troubled production. One scene (of the natives attacking with arrows) is a shot for shot remake of ''Aguirre''.
** JohnMilius, a close friend of Coppola's (and one of the two directors Coppola tapped to finish the movie if he died - the other was GeorgeLucas), makes a fairly convincing case for the film's plot being based on ''Literature/TheOdyssey'' - the analogy works better for Redux than for the original cut.
* SociopathicSoldier: Willard and Kurtz.
* SoftGlass: Averted. After punching the mirror, Willard is in pain and has a pretty bloody hand wound.
** You could say Sheen is in pain and has a bloody hand wound, as he did the scene for real...while drunk.
* TheStoic: Chief, although [[NotSoStoic even he cries]] when Clean is killed.
* TakingYouWithMe: Chief's last-gasp attempt to impale Willard on the spear sticking out of his chest.
* TalkativeLoon: Dennis Hopper's character, an insane hippie journalist.
* ThereAreNoTherapists: The Army decides it's a good idea to send an emotionally unhinged MACV-SOG agent fresh from a divorce ''back'' to Vietnam, instead of recommending him for reintegration therapy. Then after he stays holed up drinking in a hotel room for weeks, they give him a very dangerous and high-priority mission to conduct completely on his own with only Navy sailors providing transportation, accepting his claim that he's fit for service at his word. All this time knowing full well they sent another agent on the exact same mission and he hadn't returned, meaning he was either killed or converted by Kurtz, both implying this was full-stop ''not'' the kind of mission to assign to someone without full control of their mental faculties. The movie is pretty much one big TANT when you consider almost every main character after the first ten minutes.
** TruthInTelevision here; historically, the Army has a very poor record of providing mental health services to its soldiers.
** Command had already sent a sane, level-headed man and he wound up becoming Kurtz's second-in-command. By sending Willard, the downright sociopathic cold-blooded assassin, after Kurtz, it was a better chance of success because they were fighting fire with fire...
** In the workprint of the film, the general informs Willard that the mission is purely voluntary and he can decline it.
* ThousandYardStare: [[spoiler: Willard]] sports one right at the end, after [[spoiler: he completes his mission]].
* TitleDrop: Textually. The words "OUR MOTTO: APOCALYPSE NOW" can be seen painted on a wall behind the Montagnards in the scene outside Kurtz' temple when Chef tries to convince Willard to leave. Supposedly this was to satisfy copyright requirements, since the movie lacked opening credits.
* TroubledProduction: "We had access to too much money, too much equipment, and little by little we went insane."
** Coppola also once said something to the effect of "this wasn't a movie about the Vietnam war. This ''was'' the Vietnam war."
* TheUnfettered: The movie's central concept: exactly how effective a person with no restrictions can be, and how much of a monster. [[HumansAreTheRealMonsters The answer to the latter: a lot.]]
* TheVietnamWar
* WarIsHell: One of the most iconic examples ever.
* WarriorPoet: Or so Kurtz' followers think he is. In reality, he's just insane.
* WeAreStrugglingTogether: Through stories told by Willard's escort, it's clear the South Vietnamese and the Americans are not getting along.
* WhatCouldHaveBeen: The original director assigned this script? ''GeorgeLucas''. God knows what kind of film this almost became. Cracked.com also makes one interesting assumption. Considering how long this movie dragged on, it's possible that if Lucas made this, he never would have gotten around to making ''Star Wars.''
** According to Coppola's audio commentary, a documentary-style 16mm film shot in northern California with a couple of helicopters.
** John Milius' early drafts had a less nihilistic ending, with Kurtz going out fighting against an overwhelming NVA attack, and Willard returning to America to take the news to Kurtz's wife and son. Willard's predecessors also played a larger role.
** Harvey Keitel was cast as Willard first but was fired after two weeks. Al Pacino was considered but had the foresight to know how horrible the shoot would be.
** Coppola first offered the role of Kurtz to OrsonWelles (who had previously tried to adapt ''HeartOfDarkness'' to the screen himself), but for some reason or another he declined.
*** The documentary on the film actually includes the audio of a radio version that Welles did during his prime.
** In the special features on the "Complete Dossier" edition, its said that Coppola wanted the film to be a special event by having it play in ''ONE'' theater somewhere in Kansas in the geographical center of the country built especially for the film with a specially made sound system where the film would run continuously for ten years and then hopefully anybody who wanted to show the film in their theaters would have to approach Coppola and exhibit it on his terms.
* [[WhatHappenedToTheMouse What Happened to the Dog]]: That is still the most asked question to all the actors from the film. Gets [[LampshadeHanging lampshaded]] at one point in the film.
** Given that it disappeared [[spoiler: during the attack that killed Clean]], it was most likely shot or jumped off the boat to escape the gunfire.
* WhyIsntItAttacking: "Why the fuck aren't they attacking?!"
* WorthyOpponent: Kilgore praises a mortally wounded VC soldier who had killed a lot of American allies and gives him water despite the opposition.
-->'''Col. Kilgore''': Any man brave enough to fight with his guts strapped on him can drink from my canteen any day.
----
->''The horror... the horror...''
->'''Kilgore:''' Smell that? You smell that?\\
'''Lance:''' What?\\
'''Kilgore:''' Napalm, son. Nothing else in the world smells like that.\\
[kneels]\\
'''Kilgore:''' [[MemeticMutation I love the smell of napalm in the morning.]]
Very loose adaptation of the classic Joseph Conrad novella ''Literature/HeartOfDarkness'', transporting the events of that book to 1969 Vietnam and Cambodia. The film took three years to complete before its 1979 release. It was directed by FrancisFordCoppola.
Captain Willard (MartinSheen) is sent to kill Colonel Kurtz (MarlonBrando), who has gone mad and set up his own {{cult}} in Cambodia. The captain goes up a river and into the depths of humanity.
Containing many famous scenes and quotes, most notably "I love the smell of napalm in the morning", "Charlie don't surf" and the climax ("The horror... the horror...") involving the slaughter of a real water buffalo, this movie at times feels like what one might imagine a bad acid trip to be like. Considered the definitive anti-war movie by many, ''Apocalypse Now'' is also one of the all-time greats. It is also legendary for having what is considered to be one of the most {{troubled production}}s in Hollywood history. To describe all of the mishaps that occurred on set would require an entire page, but for the sake of brevity, here are the highlights:
* [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1976_Pacific_typhoon_season#Typhoon_Olga_.28Didang.29 Typhoon Olga]] destroying most of the sets.
* By the end of production, the film was over nine months behind schedule.
* Coppola lost 100 pounds, threatened suicide several times, and attempted it once.
* Coppola shot literally millions of feet of footage, and had to cut it all together to make a coherent motion picture.
* Many crewmembers were drunk or stoned while filming. Dennis Hopper got 14-year-old LaurenceFishburne hooked on heroin.
* MarlonBrando showed up to the set morbidly obese, rather than with the muscular build that his character called for (which is why Kurtz is almost never shown below the shoulders during the movie), and having not read either the script or ''Literature/HeartOfDarkness'' like he had been asked.
* Martin Sheen had a heart attack due to the stress of filming, and had to struggle for a quarter-mile to get help.
* The budget was expected to be about $12-14 million, but wound up being well over double that amount ($31.5 million).
* The helicopters that the government of the Philippines lent to Coppola for the famous "air cavalry" scene were frequently taken back during shooting, as the government needed the helicopters to fight communist rebels.
This film's nightmarish production was documented by Coppola's wife Eleanor, who would later use footage she shot on set to make the documentary ''Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker's Apocalypse''. It would later be parodied in BenStiller's action-comedy ''TropicThunder''.
In 2001, Coppola drastically ReCut the film, extending the running time by nearly an hour, adding some additional scenes and re-shuffling some existing ones around. The new version was released (to decidedly mixed reviews) as ''Apocalypse Now Redux''.
Features an early role for LaurenceFishburne (credited as "Larry"), who lied about his age to get the role (he was only 14).
Not to be confused with ApocalypseHow or ApocalypseWow.
----
!!This movie contains examples of:
* ActorAllusion: Dennis Hopper playing a unstable hippie photographer is quite fitting.
* AnnoyingArrows: Subverted. Villagers (unseen at this point, as in Conrad's book) attack Willard's boat with arrows. Due to the 20th century setting, Willard does not take them seriously. He refers to them as "toy arrows," and in a shout out to Conrad, he says "they're just little sticks, they're trying to scare us!" After the sailors start shooting back, they switch to spears, and one of the sailors dies as a result.
** Lance at one point breaks an arrow in half and sticks the two halves in his hair.
* AnArmAndALeg: Kurtz tells a story about the time he was with the Special Forces and they inoculated children:
-->''We left the camp after we had inoculated the children for polio, and this old man came running after us and he was crying. He couldn't see. We went back there, and they had come and hacked off every inoculated arm. There they were in a pile. A pile of little arms.''
* BackedByThePentagon: Or rather the Filipino military, who provided the F-5s for the napalm sequence and the helicopters for the famous helicopter attack preceding it. The helicopters occasionally had to be taken back for use in combat against Communist rebels.
* BaldOfEvil: Kurtz
* BeamMeUpScotty: The iconic "smell of napalm" line is much longer than people usually remember.
** Also, some people think it's Kurtz who says it. It's not.
* BilingualBonus: Apparently Cambodian street kids ask foreign soldiers for money in Filipino.
* BillingDisplacement: It's flat-out amazing how little Marlon Brando there actually is in this movie. Not to mention that Robert Duvall gets second billing despite not getting much more screentime than Brando.
** On most dvd covers (for the Redux version at least) it lists off the cast members who became famous after the fact such as Lawrence Fishburne, Dennis Hopper and Creator/HarrisonFord, despite Ford's role being a very brief bit-part at the start.
* {{Bishonen}}: Lance, the blonde California surfer whom Willard describes as "Looking like he never held a gun in his life".
* BlackDudeDiesFirst: To be fair, everyone dies. This is still a particularily cruel example though, considering [[spoiler: ''both'' black dudes die first.]]
* BrokenAce: Kurtz was groomed to become a top military officer but something in him snapped after his first tour of 'Nam.
* TheCameo: Coppola appears as the Bearded Director making a Documentary
* CatScare: Quite literally, but with a considerably larger-than-usual cat.
* CelebrityParadox: Towards the end of the film Kurtz reads aloud from ''[[Creator/TSEliot The Hollow Men]]'' (1925), which contains an epigraph quoting from ''Heart of Darkness'' (i.e. the basis of the movie), written twenty years earlier. This implies either Eliot's poem doesn't include the epigraph because the book doesn't exist, or the [[MindScrew much trippier option]], the epigraph does exist, thus the ''book'' exists, and Colonel Kurtz exists in a world where a fictional character almost identical to him down to the name coincidentally exists in a book written seventy years before.
** Worth noting that this paradox would have been averted had the original script been used, where Kurtz was originally called "Col. Leighley" because Brando didn't read the book and couldn't understand why an American colonel would be named Kurtz. Once Brando actually ''read'' the book he ''demanded'' the name be changed back. If you're watching closely the scene where Willard is sent on his mission, you can see that Harrison Ford saying "Leighley" has been dubbed to say "Kurtz".
* TheChewToy: Coppola must have felt like this given how everything went wrong during Filming
** Also Martin Sheen, given the heart attack and Coppola not especially caring.
* {{Cloudcuckoolander}}: Colonel Kilgore and definitely the Photojournalist. Lance becomes one by the end of the movie.
** Justified with Lance, since he ''was'' on acid at the time.
* ColdSniper: Roach is this with a ''grenade launcher''.
* ColonelBadass: Both Lt. Colonel Kilgore, and Colonel Kurtz. Probably can be considered a TropeCodifier.
** Averted with Col. Lucas (Creator/HarrisonFord).
* ColonelKilgore: The TropeNamer, and possibly the TropeMaker.
* CombatPragmatist: Colonel Kurtz praises the tenacity and dedication of the Vietnamese enemy who are willing to do whatever it takes to win, even going so far as to cross the MoralEventHorizon if that is what it takes.
* [[CrazyCatLady Crazy Bird Lady]]: One of the playmates love birds a little too much.
* CreatorBreakdown: Very much so.
* DawsonCasting: Inverted. LaurenceFishburne lied about his age to get the role, as he was only 14 years old at the time. In an odd way, it makes the film better, showcasing such a young man in such a horrible place. It makes [[spoiler: his death]] that much more of a {{tearjerker}}.
** By the end of production, he was 17, the same age as his character.
*** So, ReallySeventeenYearsOld?
* DeathFromAbove: And '''how!''' The phrase is also seen written onto the side of one of the helicopters.
* DecapitationPresentation: [[spoiler: This happens to Chef]]
* DoingItForTheArt: You see all those military helicopters and boats flying around over there? They are not CG, and this is not stock footage. The creators bought and used real ones.
* DoNotDoThisCoolThing: The "Music/RideOfTheValkyries" scene.
* DwindlingParty: As soon as the squad gets upriver near Kurtz, they start dropping like flies.
* DyeingforYourArt: Brando shaved his head to play Kurtz. Unfortunately, that's all he did to prepare for the part.
* ElitesAreMoreGlamorous: Willard is with the 505th of 173rd Airborne Brigade assigned to MACV-SOG, ordered to assassinate Colonel Kurtz, who was Operations officer of the 5th Special Forces Group, and is helped by a Patrol Boat, Riverine, crew, and is escorted up the Nung River by ColonelKilgore of the 1st Squadron of the 9th Air Cavalry.
* EnforcedMethodActing: Martin Sheen also punched a mirror for real in his introductory scene where he has a psychotic break in his hotel room. So all that blood on the sheets? His. His idea, too. To shoot this scene, Coppola basically just gave Sheen as much whiskey as he could drink, put him in a room, and filmed the results. Apparently, Sheen's behavior was so disturbing to the camera crew that they wanted to stop the shoot, but Sheen insisted they press on. You can see the results for yourself.
** In ''Hearts of Darkness'', the scene is shown making-of style. Coppola directs Sheen to shadowbox at the mirror, and Sheen (as noted, very drunk) misjudges his aim.
* FamousLastWords: "The horror... the horror..."
* FatalFamilyPhoto: Well, it was a recording concerning [[spoiler:Mr. Clean's]] family, but it has the same effect.]]
* ''FilmNoir:'' You wouldn't think it, but this film actually follows the standard format of a ''film noir'', with Willard as the HardboiledDetective investigating a case (being sent on a mission). John Hellmann explains it all in [[http://www.jstor.org/stable/2712690 "Vietnam and the Hollywood Genre Film: Inversions of American Mythology in the Deer Hunter and Apocalypse Now"]]
** He has the Chandleresque voiceover, the aloof superiors, the strange tangled plot...
* TheGunslinger: [[OneSceneWonder Roach]] hits his mark on the other side of a wall with a small grenade launcher, at the first try, aiming only by sound and ''smell!''
* HannibalLecture: "You're an errand boy, sent by grocery clerks".
* HolidayInCambodia: Possibly the TropeCodifier.
* ImpaledWithExtremePrejudice: How [[spoiler: Chief]] dies.
* InterserviceRivalry: Between the Army and the Navy.
** Kilgore and his Air Cav soldiers tease Capt. Willard for being airborne.
* ItGotWorse: It might as well be called "It Got Worse: The Movie".
* JurisdictionFriction
* KillItWithFire: Plenty, with the "I love the smell of napalm in the morning" scene being the most memorable.
* MadnessMantra: ''Never get off the boat! Never get off the boat!"
* MaleGaze: In the director's cut, a Playboy bunny complains that no one sees her as a real person or respects her for her mind...all while the camera is focused on her breasts.
* MathematiciansAnswer:
-->'''Willard:''' Do you know who's in command here?
-->'''Roach:''' Yeah. ''[Walks off]''
* MercyKill: A particularly brutal one when Willard shoots the wounded Vietnamese woman... not because she's dying, but because he doesn't want to take her along with them.
-->'''Willard:''' I told you not to stop.
* MightyWhitey: Well and truly {{deconstructed}}.
* MindScrew
* MisterDanger
* MoodWhiplash: Somewhat deliberately, especially in the expanded version.
* MoreDakka: The boat's machine guns seem to exist solely to spray bullets everywhere.
** All machineguns exist solely for this purpose, they suck as shovels. Unlike many More Dakka weapons, these are used authentically.
* MyGodWhatHaveIDone: Willard almost has a breakdown after [[spoiler:sneaking in and murdering Kurtz]]
* NoKillLikeOverkill: The scene where the crew boards the Vietnamese cargo boat. Also, calling in an airstrike with ''napalm'' to kill some VC hiding in the jungle.
** TruthInTelevision, jungle warfare and Vietnamese tunnels made napalm a necessity.
* ObligatoryWarCrimeScene: The massacre of the family on the river sampan, done because the cast wanted a "My Lai" scene.
* OneSceneWonder: Marlon Brando has only about ten minutes of screen time as Kurtz. But it is one iconic ten minutes.
** This could also be said of Roach, who appears only for a moment, but is one of the most {{badass}} characters in the movie.
** Ditto the Photojournalist - he only has three scenes, but a disproportionate share of the film's actual dialogue. Of course, this is largely due to Dennis Hopper's speeding off his nut during filming.
** ColonelKilgore (Robert Duvall) only appears in two scenes, the cleaning up of the beach assault, and the outpost assault, but is perhaps the character everyone remembers best.
* OnlySaneMan: Colonel Kurtz believes himself to be this, and is a brutal subversion. Chief and Willard could also count as this.
** The Photojournalist to some extent - he understands Kurtz better than anyone else, even (at first) Willard.
** The term "sane" [[DysfunctionJunction being used]] [[SanitySlippage loosely]].
* PassingTheTorch: [[spoiler: Kurtz to Willard]], at the end.
* PlayboyBunny: Cynthia Wood (Miss February 1973, Playmate of the Year 1974) and Linda Carpenter (Miss August 1976). Possibly examples of [[AsHimself As Herself]], since Wood and Carpenter are both playing Playmates.
* PopculturalOsmosis: Many lines of this movie are downright legendary, in particular the "I love the smell of napalm" speech, and "The horror, the horror...", the latter taken directly from ''HeartOfDarkness''.
* PunchClockVillain: Discussed by Kurtz. The Vietcong were willing to commit horrific atrocities, yet were still normal men who loved their families.
* TheQuietOne: Jerry, the CIA officer who silently eats his meal as Willard is being briefed on his mission. He doesn't say anything the entire scene until the end when Willard is told what he must do once he finds Col. Kurtz:
--> ''Terminate. With extreme prejudice.''
* RageAgainstTheReflection: Yes, Martin Sheen really just punched a mirror. It wasn't staged.
* RealitySubtext: The helicopters used for the air cavalry scene against the communist Vietcong rebels were recalled during the shoot by the Philippine government... to fight communist rebels.
* ReCut: ''Apocalypse Now Redux'' and the whole closing credits issue, which is not meant to be part of the movie's plot.
* RiverOfInsanity: Which was [[TropeCodifier codified]] by HeartOfDarkness.
** The river is also one of time travel, as the soldiers experience the history of Vietnam ''backwards''.
* SceneryGorn
** Some SceneryPorn as well - the jungle in the tiger scene looked like something out of ''Film/JurassicPark''.
* ScrewTheWarWerePartying: Willard concludes that the Viet Cong will be victorious because "Charlie's idea of great R&R was cold rice and a little rat meat" during a USO show. Also the scene in the ''Redux'' cut where the main characters trade their fuel for [[ADateWithRosiePalms some private time with Playboy models]].
** With his insistence on going surfing in the middle a battle, the character of Kilgore definitely exemplifies this trope.
* SendInTheSearchTeam
* ShadowArchetype: Is Willard, in the last analysis, any better than Kurtz? [[NotSoDifferent Not really.]]
* ShirtlessScene: Sheen spends a lot of the time shirtless, and is naked in the beginning. Robert Duvall, too, right in the middle of a battle. Vietnam is hot.
* ShoutOut: There are several to the Creator/WernerHerzog movie ''Film/AguirreTheWrathOfGod'', which, oddly enough, had a similarly troubled production. One scene (of the natives attacking with arrows) is a shot for shot remake of ''Aguirre''.
** JohnMilius, a close friend of Coppola's (and one of the two directors Coppola tapped to finish the movie if he died - the other was GeorgeLucas), makes a fairly convincing case for the film's plot being based on ''Literature/TheOdyssey'' - the analogy works better for Redux than for the original cut.
* SociopathicSoldier: Willard and Kurtz.
* SoftGlass: Averted. After punching the mirror, Willard is in pain and has a pretty bloody hand wound.
** You could say Sheen is in pain and has a bloody hand wound, as he did the scene for real...while drunk.
* TheStoic: Chief, although [[NotSoStoic even he cries]] when Clean is killed.
* TakingYouWithMe: Chief's last-gasp attempt to impale Willard on the spear sticking out of his chest.
* TalkativeLoon: Dennis Hopper's character, an insane hippie journalist.
* ThereAreNoTherapists: The Army decides it's a good idea to send an emotionally unhinged MACV-SOG agent fresh from a divorce ''back'' to Vietnam, instead of recommending him for reintegration therapy. Then after he stays holed up drinking in a hotel room for weeks, they give him a very dangerous and high-priority mission to conduct completely on his own with only Navy sailors providing transportation, accepting his claim that he's fit for service at his word. All this time knowing full well they sent another agent on the exact same mission and he hadn't returned, meaning he was either killed or converted by Kurtz, both implying this was full-stop ''not'' the kind of mission to assign to someone without full control of their mental faculties. The movie is pretty much one big TANT when you consider almost every main character after the first ten minutes.
** TruthInTelevision here; historically, the Army has a very poor record of providing mental health services to its soldiers.
** Command had already sent a sane, level-headed man and he wound up becoming Kurtz's second-in-command. By sending Willard, the downright sociopathic cold-blooded assassin, after Kurtz, it was a better chance of success because they were fighting fire with fire...
** In the workprint of the film, the general informs Willard that the mission is purely voluntary and he can decline it.
* ThousandYardStare: [[spoiler: Willard]] sports one right at the end, after [[spoiler: he completes his mission]].
* TitleDrop: Textually. The words "OUR MOTTO: APOCALYPSE NOW" can be seen painted on a wall behind the Montagnards in the scene outside Kurtz' temple when Chef tries to convince Willard to leave. Supposedly this was to satisfy copyright requirements, since the movie lacked opening credits.
* TroubledProduction: "We had access to too much money, too much equipment, and little by little we went insane."
** Coppola also once said something to the effect of "this wasn't a movie about the Vietnam war. This ''was'' the Vietnam war."
* TheUnfettered: The movie's central concept: exactly how effective a person with no restrictions can be, and how much of a monster. [[HumansAreTheRealMonsters The answer to the latter: a lot.]]
* TheVietnamWar
* WarIsHell: One of the most iconic examples ever.
* WarriorPoet: Or so Kurtz' followers think he is. In reality, he's just insane.
* WeAreStrugglingTogether: Through stories told by Willard's escort, it's clear the South Vietnamese and the Americans are not getting along.
* WhatCouldHaveBeen: The original director assigned this script? ''GeorgeLucas''. God knows what kind of film this almost became. Cracked.com also makes one interesting assumption. Considering how long this movie dragged on, it's possible that if Lucas made this, he never would have gotten around to making ''Star Wars.''
** According to Coppola's audio commentary, a documentary-style 16mm film shot in northern California with a couple of helicopters.
** John Milius' early drafts had a less nihilistic ending, with Kurtz going out fighting against an overwhelming NVA attack, and Willard returning to America to take the news to Kurtz's wife and son. Willard's predecessors also played a larger role.
** Harvey Keitel was cast as Willard first but was fired after two weeks. Al Pacino was considered but had the foresight to know how horrible the shoot would be.
** Coppola first offered the role of Kurtz to OrsonWelles (who had previously tried to adapt ''HeartOfDarkness'' to the screen himself), but for some reason or another he declined.
*** The documentary on the film actually includes the audio of a radio version that Welles did during his prime.
** In the special features on the "Complete Dossier" edition, its said that Coppola wanted the film to be a special event by having it play in ''ONE'' theater somewhere in Kansas in the geographical center of the country built especially for the film with a specially made sound system where the film would run continuously for ten years and then hopefully anybody who wanted to show the film in their theaters would have to approach Coppola and exhibit it on his terms.
* [[WhatHappenedToTheMouse What Happened to the Dog]]: That is still the most asked question to all the actors from the film. Gets [[LampshadeHanging lampshaded]] at one point in the film.
** Given that it disappeared [[spoiler: during the attack that killed Clean]], it was most likely shot or jumped off the boat to escape the gunfire.
* WhyIsntItAttacking: "Why the fuck aren't they attacking?!"
* WorthyOpponent: Kilgore praises a mortally wounded VC soldier who had killed a lot of American allies and gives him water despite the opposition.
-->'''Col. Kilgore''': Any man brave enough to fight with his guts strapped on him can drink from my canteen any day.
----
->''The horror... the horror...''
