History Film / Sneakers

* AllWishesGranted: Partway through, the team talk about what they're planning to do with their money from the big score. Crease wants to take his wife on a foreign vacation, Mother wants a motorhome, Carl wants a relationship with a beautiful woman, and Whistler jokes that he'll settle for peace on earth and goodwill toward men. [[spoiler: In the event, they get in over their heads and lose the MacGuffin and the money, ''but'' gain leverage over their knowledge of the NSA's shady activities]]. As a result, Crease gets his vacation, Mother gets his motorhome, and Carl manages to score a date with [[spoiler: Abbott's beautiful assistant, who is clearly flattered he asked for her phone number, rather than anything grand]]. Whistler takes great pleasure in asking Abbott, an NSA bigwig, for peace on earth and goodwill toward men, something he insists on as his wish - and gets a very grudging "I'll see what I can do."

-->'''Bishop:''' You gave your word.
-->'''Cosmo:''' [[ExactWords I cannot kill my friend.]] [to henchman] Kill my friend.

* FalseReassurance: "I cannot kill my friend... (to goons) [[ImmediateSelfContradiction Kill my friend.]]"

''[...and after things don't go well...]''\\

'''Everyone:''' [awkward stare] [except Whistler, who sniffs the cheese. because he's blind]

-->'''Cosmo:''' There I was in prison. One day I help a couple of nice older gentlemen make some free telephone calls. They turn out to be... let us say, "good family men".\\
'''Bishop"''' Organized crime?\\

* TechnicalPacifist: Cosmo. "Technical" in the sense he doesn't see any issues in toppling governments as long as it's done through computers and has no problem having life-long friends executed as long as ''he'' doesn't pull the trigger.
* TelevisionGeography: Averted. Most of the geography shown is quite accurate and reasonable. In particular the scene where they trace where Martin was taken can be logically followed to a location in the East Bay.

* BrokenAesop: Part of the movie's core message is that the box is too powerful for anyone to have, due to all of the evil people could do with it. [[spoiler:Well, except for the heroes, who use it to bankrupt the Republican Party, see InvoluntaryCharityDonation below.]]

* ConspiracyTheorist: Mother
--> '''Mother''': Cattle mutilations are up.

--> '''Bishop''': [[CaptainObvious It worked.]]

-->'''Gordon''': We try to break the ''other'' fella's codes. We're the good guys, Marty.\\
'''Martin''': I can't tell you what a relief that is, ''Dick''.

--> '''Whistler''' (over headset): And give him head whenever he wants.\\
'''Bishop''' (to distraught girlfriend): And give he...''[[LastSecondWordSwap help]]'', whenever he wants. Be a...''beacon'' to him.

* FamiliarSoundtrackForeignLyrics: The resturant that Liz meets Werner Brandis in has a band performing a Chinese-language version of [[Music/JimCroce Bad, Bad Leroy Brown]]

-->'''Vargas''': I looked in that box, just now. [disbelievingly] There wasn't anything there.

* TheFriendNobodyLikes: Neither Bish nor Liz is particularly happy to see Gregor. The movie does an excellent job setting him up as an old associate of Bish's, and not well liked. Kind of sleazy, entirely Russian, totally a spy.

* GotVolunteered: Liz on the blind date. See WhyAreYouLookingAtMeLikeThat

-->'''Carl''': I'd like to have a deep relationship with a beautiful woman who melts from the very first time our eyes meet.\\
'''Bishop''': You're not getting paid that much, Carl.\\
'''Carl''': Well, you know, someone like Liz.\\
'''Bishop''': Definitely not getting paid that much.

** Averted for the most part. The Sneakers' normal job is a genuine [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tiger_team tiger team]], and their methods of hacking -- both the computers and the social engineering -- are accurate. Certain other things portrayed in the film, like the PhoneTraceRace, are less so.[[note]]Considering the amount of things done right in the movie and the resolution of the plot, the PhoneTraceRace case is most likely intentional and realistic take on the trope - the team ''thinks'' they are safe after cutting off in last seconds, but they end up easily found and rounded up by real NSA in the final, lampshading their call ended up traced anyway[[/note]]

-->'''Cosmo''': Pain? Try aspirin.\\

'''Cosmo''': Pain? Try ''prison''.

* JustLikeRobinHood: Martin bookends the film by stealing all of the money from the Republicans and Cosmo's organization and giving it to charitable organizations.
* LieDetector: Mother's voice stress analyzer, though he takes pains to point out it's not even remotely perfect, but good enough for their purposes. [[spoiler:It helps significantly that Abbot is a terrible liar.]]

* MinorCrimeRevealsMajorPlot: The theft of a black box and the murder of its creator → a plot to cause the collapse of the world economy.

-->'''Mother''': Okay, boss, this LTX-71 concealable mike is part of the same system that NASA used when they faked the Apollo Moon landings. They had the astronauts broadcast around the world from a sound stage at Norton Air Force Base in San Bernadino, California. So it worked for them, shouldn't give us too many problems.\\
'''Martin''': Thanks.

-->'''Cosmo''': Why is that? Because money's most powerful ability is to allow bad people to continue doing bad things at the expense of those who don't have it.\\
'''Martin''': I agree. [[TheMafia Now who did you say you were working for?]]\\
'''Cosmo''': [[HandWave Oh, that's just my day job.]]

-->'''Bishop''': The probable level of security is very low. But if you guys don't want to take that chance just to keep me out of jail, fine, I understand, I'll do it.\\
'''Whistler''': Well, Bish, I can't speak for the other guys, but I'm in it for the money, I don't care if you go to jail.\\
'''Carl''': Me neither. I'm in.\\
'''Mother''': Uh...could we maybe just go back to the "they might kill us" part?\\
'''Bishop''': Mother, if I thought that was likely to happen, I wouldn't bring this to you. But there is a risk.\\
'''Whistler''': And it pays $175,000!\\
'''Mother''': [[OnSecondThought I'm in]].
* OOCIsSeriousBusiness: Used in-universe by Crease to signal to Bish that something is ''wrong''. "MARTIN! TELEPHONE! ... IT'S YOUR MOTHER." Given Bish is a wanted criminal who's talked to no one in decades...

'''Bishop:''' Not bad. Not bad, Carl! -- Where'd you get the fifty bucks?\\

-->'''Crease''': Motherfuckers mess with me, I'll split your head!

* ScrabbleBabble: Martin attempts to play "scrunchy".

-->'''Cosmo''': There I was in prison. One day I help a couple of nice older gentlemen make some free telephone calls. They turn out to be... let us say, "good family men".\\
'''Bishop''': Organized crime?\\
'''Cosmo''': Ha! Don't kid yourself. [[SuspiciouslySpecificDenial It's not that organized]].

** Werner Brandiss, shortly after being described as the world's most boring man, is revealed to be a Music/BarryManilow fan.

* WhyAreYouLookingAtMeLikeThat:
--> '''Liz''': This man is not looking for "buff". The man who folded this tube of Crest is looking for someone meticulous. Refined. Anal. (''the guys, including blind Whistler, turn to look at Liz'')...[[GotVolunteered What?]]

--> '''Cosmo''': Five years ago, yes, we could trust the Russians not to go running to the FBI, or if they did, we could trust the FBI not to believe them. But today... we can't trust anybody.

* WireDilemma: Not a bomb, but similar nonetheless --
-->'''Bishop''': You're sure you know which one to cut?\\
'''Carl''': Yes! The alarm's always the green one.\\
''*snip* Darkness falls around them as the fire alarm keeps ringing.''\\
'''Bishop''': [[SarcasmMode Good, Carl]]...

-->'''Bishop''': "[Y]ou gave your word."\\
'''Cosmo''': "[[ExactWords I cannot kill my friend.]] [to henchman] Kill my friend."

''Sneakers'' is a 1992 [[DoubleCaper double caper]] film directed by Phil Alden Robinson. Featuring an AllStarCast, the film is a complex thriller about a team of slightly shady security experts who find themselves in a conspiracy about cryptography, espionage, secrets, and betrayal.

''Sneakers'' is a 1992 film directed by Phil Alden Robinson. Featuring an AllStarCast, the film is a complex thriller about a team of slightly shady security experts who find themselves in a conspiracy about cryptography, espionage, secrets, and betrayal.

* TakeThat: Werner Brandiss, shortly after being described as the world's most boring man, is revealed to be a Music/BarryManilow fan.

* DramaticGunCock

* AirVentPassageway: In the finale, Martin tries to get out this way. It works excellently when getting in, but when the guards are actively looking for him he gets caught quickly.

'''Cosmo''': Don't kid yourself. It's not that organized.

* MurderByProxy: Demonstrated helpfully by Cosmo. "[[ExactWords I cannot kill my friend.]] [[LoopholeAbuse Kill my friend."]]

* CovertGroupWithMundaneFront: To the rest of the world, the heart of the Mafia's financial operations (and Cosmo's secret base for crashing the world economy) is just the headquarters of the [=PlayTronics=] toy company. It would be much more convincing if [[LegitimateBusinessmensSocialClub the security wasn't so obvious]].

* LegitimateBusinessmensSocialClub: Cosmo's CovertGroupWithMundaneFront -- Playtronics: "The Future Of Toys" -- would be a ''lot'' more convincing if it wasn't built like a fortress.
-->'''Bishop''': Toy company my ass. That's laser fencing. There's high voltage on the perimeter. The whole building says, "Go Away."

[[quoteright:250:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/setecastronomy.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:250:[[SignificantAnagram Setec Astronomy?]] ''Too Many Secrets'']]

'''Bishop''' (to distraught mistress): And give he...''[[LastSecondWordSwap help]]'', whenever he wants. Be a...''beacon'' to him.

Twenty-three years later, Martin Bishop is the team lead for the Sneakers, a team of security analysts who expose the weaknesses in the security systems of banks, corporations, and anybody else who'll cut them a cheque. This ''very'' disfunctional crew consists of: