History Film / JohnCarter

* YouWouldntShootMe: Sab Than pulls this on Dejah by [[spoiler:offering her to either marry him or kill him. They both know that Zodanga would probably raze Helium to the ground in retaliation if she actually killed him, leaving Dejah no choice but to accept]].

* InMemoriam: Dedicated to Steve Jobs, director Andrew Stanton's former boss at {{Pixar}}, who died several months before the film was released.

->"''Find a cause. Fall in love. Write a book! '''[[DareToBeBadass Do something with your life.]]'''''"
-->-- '''John Carter''', to his [[LiteraryAgentHypothesis nephew]], '''Creator/EdgarRiceBurroughs'''

'''''John Carter''''' is a live-action film released on March 9, 2012. It was released by Walt Disney Pictures and is based upon ''A Princess of Mars'', the first novel in the ''JohnCarterOfMars'' series by Creator/EdgarRiceBurroughs. It is directed by Andrew Stanton, best known for directing ''WesternAnimation/FindingNemo'' and ''WesternAnimation/{{WALL-E}}''.

* CharacterTitle

* ArcWords / BookEnds: Played with. The first word spoken in the movie is "Mars." The last is "Barsoom" (the name for the planet in the Martian language).

* ArcWords: Played with. The first word spoken in the movie is "Mars." The last is "Barsoom" (the name for the planet in the Martian language).

* DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything: [[Film/{{Superman}} John first meets Dejah when he catches her in mid-air, saving her from falling to her death]]. Fitting, as this movie's source material helped inspire the latter. Probably a lot of other unintentional/unavoidable examples due to the source material.
** John Carter may well have been the first (but certainly wasn't the last) character to try to [[SuperMarioBros save a princess by using his special ability to jump really high.]]

* GenreThrowback: One review claims that "''John Carter'' tries to evoke, to reanimate, a fondly recalled universe of [[BMovie B-movies]], [[TwoFistedTales pulp novels]] and boys’ adventure magazines". [[ComicallyMissingThePoint Given that the original material was a massive Trope Maker for pulp novels and B-movies...]]

* GenreThrowback: One review claims that "''John Carter'' tries to evoke, to reanimate, a fondly recalled universe of [[BMovie B-movies]], [[TwoFistedTales pulp novels]] and boys’ adventure magazines". [[Comicallymissingthepoint Given that the original material was a massive Trope Maker for pulp novels and B-movies...]]

* GenreThrowback: One review claims that "''John Carter'' tries to evoke, to reanimate, a fondly recalled universe of [[BMovie B-movies]], [[TwoFistedTales pulp novels]] and boys’ adventure magazines".

* RiverOfInsanity: John's, Dejah's, and Sola's river journey leads them to an important revelation, but also gets them ambushed by Warhoons.

* GreenAesop: Attributes Barsoom's "dying" state to industrialization, even making Zodanga into a mobile "predator city" strip mining the planet as it goes. And it discards entirely the atmosphere generator that in the novels was the only thing keeping Barsoom barely inhabitable.

* SideBet: Between two Tharks.

Reviews were mostly mixed though the usual sentiment is that it's a good-looking if average film. However the box office returns were very poor, ultimately bombing in the American market. [[http://www.optimum.net/News/AP/Article?fmId=55791414-lhL So much so that Disney Studio Chief, Rick Ross, resigned because of the failure]], and Disney estimated they'd lose about $200 million on it, [[http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-18000362 making it one of the biggest flops of all time (when it comes to money lost).]] Fortunately, Disney was able to make up the loss by packaging the film as a [[DoubleFeature double feature]] in some theaters with ''Film/TheAvengers'' three months later, and because of this the film actually barely broke even.

Reviews were mostly mixed though the usual sentiment is that it's a good-looking if average film. However the box office returns were very poor, ultimately bombing in the American market. [[http://www.optimum.net/News/AP/Article?fmId=55791414-lhL So much so that Disney Studio Chief, Rick Ross, resigned because of the failure]], and Disney estimated they'd lose about 200 million on it, [[http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-18000362 making it one of the biggest flops of all time (when it comes to money lost).]] Fortunately, Disney was able to make up the loss by packaging the film as a [[DoubleFeature double feature]] in some theaters with ''Film/TheAvengers'' three months later, and because of this the film actually barely broke even.

* AccidentalMisnaming: The Tharks never stop calling John "Virginia", after he introduces himself as Captain John Carter of the [[AmericanCivilWar Army of Virginia]].

* AdaptationalBadass: In the novel, Tal Hajus is a lazy VillainousGlutton who pretty much [[OrcusOnHisThrone never moves from the throne he's parked himself on]]. He's just as cruel, but much more active and in much better shape, here [[spoiler:(not that it saves him from an ignominious end, though)]]. See also {{Xenafication}} below.

* AllAnimalsAreDogs: Woola, the Tharks' guard-dog-lizard-thing. John refers to him as a dog when he finds it following him about. Woola has very doglike body language (aside from running impossibly fast speeds in a blur), and at one point makes a noise that is unmistakably a bark. [[spoiler:It's even an EvilDetectingDog - but John FailedASpotCheck.]]

* BigBadWannabe: Sab Than is under the illusion that he's actually the BigBad. The therns allow him to think that when and only when it suits them.

* BystanderSyndrome: John Carter, for the first half of the movie, cares very little for the fact that Mars is going to hell. Or, at least, he claims to - he's more than willing to intervene if a lady gets hurt (both Sola and Dejah).

** Gigantic predators with six gorilla-like limbs, hippopotamus-tusks and white fur - called simply White Apes.

* CompositeCharacter: Several minor characters from the book were merged into more major ones - Than Kosis (Jeddak of Zodanga) was merged with his son Sab Than; Lorquas Ptomel (the original Jed of the Tharks) was merged with his lieutenant Tars Tarkas; Mors Kajak was merged with his father Tardos Mors, making Tardos Dejah's father, rather than grandfather.

* ForgottenFallenFriend: John and Colonel Powell can't exactly be called friends but they ''did'' save each others' lives and it was via rescuing Powell that John ended up on Mars in the first place. If John ever remembers he left a badly wounded man behind he never shows it - until [[spoiler:he returns to Earth and finds Powell's decomposing remains still stuck in the cave.]]
* ForTheEvulz[=/=]ItAmusedMe: It's implied that this is more or less the only reason behind the Thern's machinations.

* JustBeforeTheEnd: {{Lampshaded}} - Mars is called a "dying world" several times, and several characters speculate that civilization on Barsoom will soon fall apart.

* OneHitKO: [[spoiler:Tal Hajus]] against John; justified, given his abilities. Earlier, done by John to an unlucky Thark - accidentally, as he's not in full control of his abilities yet.

* PatrioticFervor[=/=]DesperatelyLookingForAPurposeInLife: He willingly fought for the Confederacy in the Civil War. But with the South's defeat [[spoiler:and his first wife's death]], he basically ceased to give a damn about everything. [[spoiler:Until he found a worthy cause in Mars.]]

* PragmaticAdaptation: The movie retains the spirit of the books, but considerably reduces the what is now "incorrect" to mention from a hundred-year old story (example from ''A Princess Of Mars'' about John: "We all loved him, and our slaves fairly worshipped the ground he trod"). It's an adaption of the first book, ''A Princess of Mars'', but also fleshes things out a bit by borrowing characters and situations from ''The Gods of Mars'' and ''The Warlord of Mars''.

* YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness: [[spoiler:Sab Than tries to trade information on the therns for his life. A thern is watching.]]

* AliensSpeakingEnglish: Averted with the Tharks. When John Carter first meets them, they speak their own language with English subtitles. When he is initiated with the other hatchlings, there is an interesting scene where Sola gives him some kind of elixir that allows him to understand their language. When he asks what it is, she first says, "The Voice of Barsoom", subtitled. Then she says in English, "You can hear it if you choose." The subtitles read the same thing. During this quick scene, her dialogue morphs from the Barsoom language to English, and after that, there are no more subtitles; English is used to represent the Barsoom language. (The Red Martians and the Therns are depicted throughout as speaking English, but this is presumably a TranslationConvention; Carter doesn't meet either until after the Voice of Barsoom scene.)

* ArcWords: Played with. The first word spoken in the movie is "Mars". The last is "Barsoom" (the name for the planet in the Martian language).

* DeathByAThousandCuts: The Tharks shooting at the Zodanga airship early in the film. While it seems each individual shot doesn't do much, they fire a lot of shots at the ship until it finally goes down.

* FortheEvulz / ItAmusedMe: Its implied that this is more or less the only reason behind the Thern's machinations.

* UsefulNotes/{{Mars}}: Of course!

* PatrioticFervor / DesperatelyLookingForAPurposeInLife: He willingly fought for the Confederacy in the Civil War. But with the South's defeat [[spoiler:and his first wife's death]], he basically ceased to give a damn about everything. [[spoiler:Until he found a worthy cause in Mars.]]

* ProudWarriorRace: The Tharks, and to a lesser extent the Red Martians.

* ShoutOut: The very first time we see Dejah Thoris, she's looking directly at the camera in closeup and talking about the nature of Barsoom. This may be a deliberate reference to Princess Irulan's narration at the beginning of DavidLynch's ''{{Dune}}'' -- and also a parody, since Dejah Thoris turns out to be rehearsing a speech. Possibly mixed with a SelfDeprecation InJoke on the part of the movie makers, as the original opening for the movie was Dejah Thoris giving a long, drawn out lecture about what was essentially the entire history of Barsoom. It was ''painfully'' boring, and apparently when that was realized they decided to poke fun at their own pretentiousness a bit.

* {{Troperrific}}: Inevitable for an adaptation of a book series that [[TropeMaker inspired countless fantasy and sci-fi tropes]]. As one reviewer wrote, "just about every sci-fi/fantasy/superhero adventure you ever loved is in here somewhere".

* WhipItGood / ChainPain: How John deals with one of the white apes.

* TheRedPlanet: Of course!

* AlternateSelf: John Carter learns he is actually a duplicate, and his Earth body was left in some sort of SuspendedAnimation while his consciousness is on Mars in a carbon copy. He compares the process to the telegraph (copies of messages, etc). [[spoiler:Becomes important in the end, as he will die on Mars if his Earth body is killed. See BatmanGambit below.]]

* BystanderSyndrome: John Carter, for the first half of the movie, cares very little for the fact that Mars is going to hell.

* MyNameIsNotDurwood: The Tharks never stop calling John "Virginia", after he introduces himself as Captain John Carter of the [[AmericanCivilWar Army of Virginia]].

** WeirdWest: Martians and space travel in an 1870's Arizona desert.