History Film / Help

* BigDamnMovie: Granted, anything with the Beatles in at the peak of their power is fairly awesome anyway, but then you throw in the British Army's tanks surrounding the band playing near Stonehenge accompanied by StuffBlowingUp, the stadium of people singing 'Ode to Joy' to calm a tiger...
** That last one though is just a shot of StockFootage.
*** It's still [[CrowningMomentOfAwesome AWESOME]].

* {{Fanservice}}: Probably most blatant in the "hand dryer ripping off the boys' clothes" scene.

* FunnyBackgroundEvent: George putting things into his pockets at the jewellery shop.
** George spends most of the movie doing funny or awkward things in the background.

* IncredibleShrinkingMan: "The Exciting Adventure of Paul on the Floor".
** Also something of a (deliberate, played for laughs) BigLippedAlligatorMoment.
* {{Intermission}}
* LatexPerfection: How does one manage that for ''Ringo''?!
* MacGuffin: The ring.

* MusicSoothesTheSavageBeast

* PathOfInspiration: This cult, probably.

* PunkInTheTrunk: Ringo, courtesy of Foot and Algernon.

* ReliablyUnreliableGuns: The [[IneffectualSympatheticVillain idiot]] "[[MorallyAmbiguousDoctorate scientist]]" and his assistant have a [[RunningGag recurring problem:]] none of their equipment works when it needs to, leading the assistant to invariably blame whatever country the object in question came from. As a result, this trope pops up twice: once with a "cheap" English pistol, leading them to bemoan their lack of a Luger, and once with their time-slowing ray, leading them to curse "American rig."
* RunningGag: John: "[[MadLibsCatchPhrase Getting nowhere, are you, jeweller/mad scientist/superintendent]]?"

* SceneryPorn: The film does ''look'' good.
* ShoutOut: The version of "Help!" used in the movie's opening credits and on the American soundtrack starts with a snippet of the ''Film/JamesBond'' theme; in the film itself, a parody of said theme plays as Clang and his cult prepare to pursue the Beatles in their car. In another scene, Bhuta distracts a chef by imitating [[Film/{{Goldfinger}} Oddjob's hat toss attack.]]

* StuffBlowingUp
* TakeOverTheWorld: The main reason the mad scientists want the ring.

* ThemeTuneCameo
* ThoseTwoBadGuys: Secondary villains Foot and Algernon, a somewhat bumbling mad scientist and his assistant who are out to get the sacrificial ring in order to TakeOverTheWorld... somehow.

* TookALevelInBadass: George in the Bahamas. He jumps on the back of the scientists' moving car to rescue Ringo in the boot.
** This is probably the most glorious moment in the whole movie. After spending the entire time [[FunnyBackgroundEvent messing around in the background]], cheating at cards, and just sort of going with things, he fights off four cultists and [[BadAss very nonchalantly]] leaps on top of a car and rescues Ringo.

* UnusuallyUninterestingSight: The people in the Indian restaurant seem pretty undisturbed by the sight of a number of cultists strangling, kidnapping and replacing the staff.

* PoliticallyIncorrectVillain: One wonders how the Beatles viewed this film's Indian stereotyping after their experiences in India with the Maharishi three years later.

Unlike its predecessor (though more like Richard Lester's non-Beatles films), ''Help!'' was a surreal and literally colorful action adventure parody and a {{homage}} to Creator/UnitedArtists' most successful film series at the time, Film/JamesBond. Its plot was ahead of its time -- real Film/JamesBond films wouldn't be so nonsensical for another decade.

* ShoutOut: The version of "Help!" used in the movie's opening credits and on the American soundtrack starts with a snippet of the JamesBond theme; in the film itself, a parody of said theme plays as Clang and his cult prepare to pursue the Beatles in their car. In another scene, Bhuta distracts a chef by imitating [[Film/{{Goldfinger}} Oddjob's hat toss attack.]]

* OldShame: John Lennon hated this film when he looked back on it. In fact, the band as a whole wasn't too fond of the end product.

* WhatCouldHaveBeen: Footage for a few deleted scenes has been floating around. One of the most prominent ones is for a scene in which the Beatles attend The Sam Ahab School of Transcendental Elocution. While there, they, Sam Ahab, and another student known as "Lady Macbeth" are hypnotized by the cult's "Go to the Window" music, except for George, who was wearing earplugs. They try to chop off Ringo's hand while most of the room is in a trance, but George knocks the axe (!!!) they were using out of their hands and into a mirror. The cult flees and everyone wakes up to see the axe left behind. The scene ends with John removing the axe and asking Lady Macbeth "[[ShoutOut Is this a chopper]] [[Theatre/{{Macbeth}} that you see before you?]]". This scene would have explained why Ringo withdrew his hand so quickly the next time they tried to cut it off, as well as how the boys knew to plug their ears in the Scotland Yard scene.

* ShoutOut: The version of "Help!" used in the movie's opening credits and on the American soundtrack starts with a snippet of the JamesBond theme.

* HeyItsThatGuy: The easily amused patron at the Indian restaurant also appeared in AHardDaysNight as the guy jumping up and down with Ringo during the nightclub dance sequence.
** Algernon is portrayed by Roy Kinnear, alias [[WillyWonkaAndTheChocolateFactory Mr. Salt]].
** Depending on who you ask, Clang is either Series/RumpoleOfTheBailey or [[Series/ThePrisoner Number Two]].

** As John and Ringo walk down the sidewalk to mail a letter, John is heard reciting the first few lines to his ''In His Own Write'' poem, "I Sat Belonely".

** CaptainObvious: A tiger's appearance has the caption "A tiger".

** Depending on who you ask, Clang is either RumpoleOfTheBailey or [[ThePrisoner Number Two]].

** Also, it is ColourCodedForYourConvenience. John = red, Paul = white, George = green, Ringo = blue.

* ExtremeOmnivore: Both John, who's not averse to a little seasoning in his soup (even if it's [[{{Pun}} a season ticket]]), and George, who at one point takes a giant bite out of the cymbal that he's holding.

* DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything: John's line, "No doubt about it, we're risking our lives to preserve a useless member!" (In context, it's about Ringo's ''ring finger'', which isn't necessary to his drumming but which he refuses to part with; taken with [[StuckInTheirShadow Ringo's reputation]], it sounds as if the line is meant to refer to Ringo himself as the useless member of the band.)

* DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything: John's line, "No doubt about it, we're risking our lives to preserve a useless member!" (In context, it's about Ringo's ''finger'', which isn't necessary to his drumming but which he refuses to part with; taken with [[StuckInTheirShadow Ringo's reputation]], it sounds as if the line is meant to refer to Ringo himself as the useless member of the band.)

* AssKickingPose: Ringo spends an entire fight scene doing this and ''only'' this. Everyone else pretty much ignores him.

* RunningGag: "John: "Getting nowhere, are you, jeweller/mad scientist/superintendent?"

* ExtremeOmnivore: Both John, who's not averse to a little seasoning in his soup (even if it's [[{{Pun}} a season ticket]]), and George, who at one point [[FunnyBackgroundEvent takes a giant bite out of ''the cymbal that he's holding]]''.

* ExtremeOmnivore: George eats a ''cymbal''.