History Film / JohnCarter

* DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything: John first meets Dejah when [[Film/Superman 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 examples due to the source material.

* DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything: John first meets Dejah when [[SupermanTheMovie he catches her in mid-air, saving her from falling to her death.]] Fitting, as this movie's source material helped inspire the latter.

* ActorAllusion: Ciaran Hinds and James Purefoy are cast as [[{{Rome}} the monarch of a glorious city-state and said monarch's right hand man]], respectively.

* BewareTheSuperman: The escape from the River Issus is a handy demonstration of why to ''never'' pick a fight with a strange visitor from another planet who's the last surviving member of his family.

* TheQueensLatin/TranslationConvention: Red and White Martians speak with an English accent, which must stand for a more sophisticated dialect of the Barsoomian tongue.

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

* CoolAirship

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

* WhatDoYouMeanItsNotSymbolic? '''J'''ohn '''C'''arter, who hails from ''Virginia'', is pursued, jailed, and "killed" by members of an empire, and sealed in a cave, which he emerges from after three days [[spoiler: according to the reckoning of time on one planet]] and returns to the heavens to lead a world into paradise after a unspecified amount of time. And at the end of the movie he has [[Spoiler: a disciple spread his gospel across the earth.]]

* NotQuiteTheRightThing: John Carter bravely saves the wounded Colonel Powell from a probable quick death at the hands of the Apache and thereby (unintentionally) condemns him to die a lingering and lonely death from exposure and blood loss in a cave. Even worse if you consider the battle with the Apache took place out in the open probably close to the cavalry camp meaning rescue - though unlikely - might have been possible if Carter had left Powell for dead.

* NiceJobBreakingItHero: John Carter saves the wounded Colonel Powell from a probable quick death by Apache and therby (unintentionally) condemns him to die a lingering death from exposure and blood loss alone in a cave. Even worse if you consider the battle with the Apache's took place out in the open probably close to the cavalry camp meaning rescue - though unlikely - might have been possible if Carter had left Powell for dead.

* YankTheDogsChain: [[spoiler: John Carter gets fooled by Matai Shang and sent back to Earth the very night he defeats the enemy army, marries Dejah, and becomes Prince of Barsoom]].

* HistoricalDomainCharacter: [[spoiler: Edgar Rice Burroughs is the young nephew of John Carter in this story, who obviously uses the tale of Mars in his uncle's journal for inspiration to write the Barsoom series.]]

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

* AncientAstronauts - The Therns
* AntiClimax - The fight between John and Tal Hajus; the fight is just as short in the source material, though there it's Tars Tarkas who kills him.
* ArcWelding- The Therns don't show up until the second book, though the religion of Issus is introduced from the beginning. Here, they're tied to both the Helium vs. Zodanga conflict and how Carter gets to Mars in the first place.
* BadassAbnormal- JohnCarter is a BadassNormal on Earth. On Mars, thanks to the lower gravity, he's superhuman (er, super-Martian).
* BadassAdorable- Woola
* BadassBookworm- Dejah Thoris, Regent of Science ''and'' LadyOfWar.
* BadassPrincess- Dejah again.
* BaldOfEvil- all Therns are naturally bald.
* BewareTheSuperman - The escape from the River Issus is a handy demonstration of why to ''never'' pick a fight with a strange visitor from another planet who's the last surviving member of his family.
* BigBadEnsemble- Sab Than wants to take over as much of Barsoom as he can, Tal Hajus just wants to be Jeddak of the Tharks, and Matai Shang and the Therns are manipulating ''everyone'' simply because that's how they operate.

* BreakoutVillain- Matai Shang isn't mentioned until the second book, and hangs around the edges of the story before being introduced in person in the third. Here, he's being set up as BigBad from the beginning.
* 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.

* {{Deuteragonist}}- [[CaptainObvious John Carter is the protagonist]], Dejah Thoris is the deuteragonist, and Tars Tarkas is the tritagonist.
* DopeSlap - Tars Tarkas towards John when its discovered the wedding is being held in Helium.

* EnsembleDarkhorse - Woola.

* HeavyWorlder - John.

* HumanAliens- As per the books, the Red Martians and Therns are visually virtually indistinguishable from Earth humans.
* HumanoidAbomination- The Therns give off this vibe.

* InTheBlood- The reason Sola is one of the kindest Tharks? [[spoiler: Her father, Tars Tarkas, is too, though he hides it better]].
* LadyOfWar- Dejah Thoris.

* LiteraryAgentHypothesis - John's nephew is EdgarRiceBurroughs.
* MagicFromTechnology- The source of the Therns' more spectacular powers.
* TheManBehindTheMan- Matai Shang to Sab Than.
* ManipulativeBastard- Matai Shang. May qualify for Magnificence.
* MightyWhitey - Technically a adaption of the first such story to use the "human among aliens" version. Subverted with the actual White ''Martians'', the Therns, who are evil.
* MindOverMatter - The white martians have telekinesis.

* MyNameIsNotDurwood - The green martians never stop calling John "Virginia".
* MySpeciesDothProtestTooMuch- Sola's kindness and compassion make her, at best, an oddball among her merciless ProudWarriorRaceGuy brethren. [[spoiler: Seems she gets it from her father]].
* NonMammalMammaries: Averted with the Green Martians, where on a mild dimorphisism differentiates the two sexes. Played kinda straight with the Reds in that they, at least in the source novels, lay eggs too, but have normal human breasts.
* OlderThanTheyThink - The source material of this film inspired hits such as StarWars and {{Avatar}}

* ProudWarriorRace- The Tharks, and to a lesser extent the Red Martians.
* PsychicPowers- The Red and Green Martians are mildly telepathic (which is how Carter learns their language so quickly); the Therns have much more expansive abilities.
* RiverOfInsanity: John', Dejah's, and Sola's river travel leads them to an important revelation, but also gets them ambushed by Thraks.
* SeinfeldIsUnfunny - Source of many claims the film is a ripoff of more recent fiction such as Avatar and TheLastSamurai

* ShapeShifterGuiltTrip - One of the white martians tries something like this near the end.

* TrappedInAnotherWorld: Played mostly straight (well, duh, the original novel is one of the {{Trope Codifier}}s), [[spoiler:then {{inverted}} when John is banished back to Earth and desperately wants to return to Barsoom]]).

* UglyCute - Woola

* VoluntaryShapeshifting- All the Therns can do this, though it appears to be a function of their medallions and bracelets rather than a natural ability.

* WhatHappenedToTheMouse - The Yankee army colonel [[spoiler:He died and was only a skeleton when John returns from Mars.]]
* TheWildWest: The action takes place there before John Carter gets transported to Mars.
* TheWoobie- Sola.

* {{Xenafication}}- Book Dejah always had the ''attitude'' of a ProudWarriorRaceGirl; the film gives her the fighting skills to back it up.

* BaddassAdorable- Woola

* TrappedInAnotherWorld: Played mostly straight (well, duh, the original novel is one of the {{Trope Codifier}}s), [[spoiler:then {{inverted}} when John is banished back to Earth and desperately wants to return to Barsoom}}).