History Film / OneHundredAndTwentySevenHours

* GallowsHumor: Inevitable. At one point, Aron rips into himself for getting into this situation by conducting a mock radio interview with himself. Not only that, but an audience track is heard (obviously in Aron's head). Aron makes a joke to the "host" about how he won't be reported as missing until Wednesday, when he will surely be dead, and the imaginary crowd bursts out laughing, making the scene more unsettling.
* GoryDiscretionShot: Played straight many times. Unsurprising, given the subject matter. Of course, there's a few subversions thrown in, just to keep you on your toes.

* DuelingMovies: With ''Film/SoulSurfer'', a film about Bethany Hamilton (another athlete who loses a limb).

-->'''-Aron Ralston''', to himself (and the audience)

''127 Hours'', is a 2010 film directed by Creator/DannyBoyle, and stars JamesFranco as real-life mountain climber [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aron_Ralston Aron Ralston,]] and the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aron_Ralston#Accident horrific 5-day incident]] Aron endured in April 2003.

While hiking in Blue John Canyon in Utah, Aron made a misstep when he grabbed on to a loose boulder while climbing down a narrow canyon. The boulder dislodged, and Aron and the boulder fell to the bottom, where the boulder crushed his right forearm against the canyon wall. The film dramatizes Ralston's experience of being trapped by the boulder for [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin 127 hours]], and the [[LifeorLimbDecision unthinkable choice he must make in order to survive.]]

* AnAesop - No man is an island. Nobody exists in isolation, and everyone needs help sometimes. Also, always tell people where you're going.
** And don't buy cheap knives.
** And prioritize: emergency equipment (like a PHONE) first, camera last.
* AllJustADream - [[spoiler:A sudden storm comes, Aron moves the boulder under the flooding water, and runs off to meet his girlfriend.]] As below, it is unclear whether this is a dream, hallucination, fantasy, or something else entirely.
* {{Badass}}: Say what you will about how Aron got himself into his predicament, but cutting off your own arm ''with a pen knife'' takes ''balls.''

* CoversAlwaysLie: The DVD cover doesn't have a single picture showing Aron in the position he spends most of the movie in. There's a few pictures of him climbing, several of him cavorting with the girls, and even one of him on a snow-covered mountain. While all of those are seen in the movie, it's hardly representative of the action in the film.
* {{Determinator}} - Engineers in the audience will get a kick out of Aron's thought processes.
* DuelingMovies - With ''Film/SoulSurfer'', a film about Bethany Hamilton (another athlete who loses a limb).

* GallowsHumor: Inevitable. At one point, Aron rips into himself for getting into this situation by conducting a mock radio interview with himself.
** Not only that, but an audience track is heard (obviously in Aron's head). Aron makes a joke to the "host" about how he won't be reported as missing until Wednesday, when he will surely be dead, and the imaginary crowd bursts out laughing, making the scene more unsettling.

--> "No Number Twos yet... which will disappoint my insect friends."
* FromBadToWorse - In so many ways.

* LifeOrLimbDecision - The most famous, literal, and ultimate real-life example.

* OhCrap - During the first day, when the camera slowly pulls back to reveal how remote the canyon is and how futile his screams for help are.
** Plus, when his thirst starts getting to him, there's a zoom all the way back to his car, and the Gatorade bottle he left there.

* PermaShave - Aron spends the better part of a week in the canyon, but his moustache/goatee does not grow at all.
** Justified. Some people have the same type of stubbly, uneven beard growth and no matter how long they wait, just doesn't grow more than that.
** And if you look at the pictures Aron took of himself (they're in his book,) you'd see he really didn't have much visible beard growth.
* ProlongedPrologue - Though the opening credits start right away, the actual title doesn't appear onscreen until Aron traps himself, about 15 minutes in.
* RealPersonCameo - RealLife Aron Ralston appears at the very end.

* SickeningCrunch - You know the part. [[spoiler: When he breaks his own bone to amputate his arm.]]
* SoundtrackDissonance: Bill Withers' "Lovely Day" appearing in the scene where Aron builds a pulley system in an attempt to get out from under the boulder.
** Inverted with the sound design when Aron has to sever the nerve and just ''touching it'' causes a loud buzz/screech (ala the Operation board game) falling somewhere between microphone feedback and a chainsaw. The result is a downright [[HellIsThatNoise visceral reaction]] that one can imagine is only a iota of what Aron actually felt.
* UnreliableNarrator - Which events really take place, which are memories, which are premonitions, which are fantasies, and which are hallucinations?

''127 Hours'', is a 2010 film directed by DannyBoyle, and stars JamesFranco as real-life mountain climber [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aron_Ralston Aron Ralston,]] and the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aron_Ralston#Accident horrific 5-day incident]] Aron endured in April 2003.

* DuelingMovies - With ''SoulSurfer'', a film about Bethany Hamilton (another athlete who loses a limb).

* GoshdangItToHeck: Aron is frustrated and doesn't fail to let off a ClusterFBomb... but when he's filming himself and relating his situation to the camera, he refers to defecation as "number two".

* GoshdangItToHeck: Aron is frustrated and doesn't fail to let off a ClusterFBomb... but when he's filming himself and relating his situation to the camera, he prefers to defecation as "number two".

** FridgeBrilliance: The fact that you can't see the gore all the time shows how inconveniently small the location is.

* ItGotWorse - In so many ways.

** Inverted with the sound design when Aron has to sever the nerve and just ''touching it'' causes a loud buzz/screech (ala the Operation board game) falling somewhere between microphone feedback and a chainsaw. You feel the tiniest fraction of Aron's pain hearing it.

* FriendToAllLivingThings
--> "No Number Twos yet... which will disappoint my insect friends."

* CoversAlwaysLie: The DVD cover doesn't have a single picture showing Aron in the position he spends most of the movie in. There's a few pictures of him climbing, several of him cavorting with the girls, and even one of him on a snow-covered mountain. While all of those are seen in the movie, it's hardly representative.

* SickeningCrunch - You know the part.

-->'''Aron Ralston''', to himself (and the audience)

->Aron Ralston, to himself (and the audience)

->Aron Ralston, to himself and the audience

* CatScare: Used only once surprisingly. Aron feels something creeping up behind him. With his headlight dead, he decides to snap a picture of it. The flash shows an inflatable ScoobyDoo, but the picture shows nothing to be there.

* ChekhovsGag: Kristi and Megan invite Aron to a party, saying he can't miss it because there would be a 60-foot inflatable Scooby Doo (from ''WesternAnimation/ScoobyDoo''). [[spoiler: Scooby figures strongly in his hallucinations.]]

*** Actually it ''was'' a cheap knife, a knockoff of the much costlier Leatherman tool.