History Film / SpeedRacer

The film also stars Creator/ChristinaRicci as Trixie, Creator/JohnGoodman as Pops Racer, Creator/SusanSarandon as Mom Racer, Creator/MatthewFox as Racer X, Creator/RogerAllam as Arnold Royalton, Benno Fürmann as Inspector Detector, Creator/HiroyukiSanada as Musha, Ji Hoon Jung as Taejo Togokahn and Creator/RichardRoundtree as Ben Burns.

* TheBigDamnKiss: Speed and Trixie's kiss at the end after Speed wins the Grand Prix.

* BittersweetEnding: Speed wins the Grand Prix, Royalton's cheating and corruption are exposed and he is put in prison, it is implied that the WRL will be reformed. However, Racer X has decided against [[spoiler:revealing to his family that he is actually Rex Racer, and that he is still alive.]]

* CantGetAwayWithNuthin: Speed and Trixie tell a fib to help Racer X and Inspector Detector by racing in the race that killed Rex.

* CreatorCameo: Peter Fernandez, Speed original voice actor, appears as a race commentator at Thunderhead.

* DawnOfAnEra: Ben Burns even says so when [[spoiler:Speed manages to not only expose Royalton but manages to break speed records to win the race from last place. In front of the entire world an Independent Team, Car, and Racer blew out all of the Big 5 to win the largest race in the world. By winning, Speed's not only singlehandedly crippled, if not outright demolished, the systemic race rigging, but destroyed one of the biggest companies ever, in one fell swoop]].

* DestinationDefenestration: Pops throws the ninja who infiltrated the Racers' hotel room out of their window.

** During the rally, Cruncher Block raids the Togokahns' private helicopter to take Haruko hostage and doesn't notice Taejo swapped places with his sister until he sees his face, despite the siblings' large difference in build.

* LeaningOnTheFourthWall: The elderly announcer at the start says "I knew Rex Racer" because the announcer is Peter Fernandez who voiced Rex/Racer X in the dub of the original anime.

* LoopholeAbuse: [[spoiler:Taejo's sister Horuko uses this to get Speed into the Grand Prix. Ordinarily you'd need to win an entry certificate, which Speed technically did not, but since he helped Taejo win the team rally and Taejo declined, he can claim the spot.]]

* MagicPlasticSurgery: [[spoiler:Racer X aka Rex Racer]].

* MetaTwist: The identity of Racer X -- it's obvious if you are familiar with the anime. [[spoiler: He's Speed's older brother Rex Racer, who is believed dead by everyone. The film actually takes the fans' knowledge into account, pulling off a DoubleSubversion. When he takes off the mask, he seemingly turns out ''not'' to be Rex, only for it to be revealed at the end that he ''is'' Rex and had undergone plastic surgery to hide his identity]].

** Matthew Fox as Racer X.

** Racer X sports a very sexy piece of eye candy that is most likely his girlfriend. Her main purpose is as the MsExposition technician detailing all of the defensive modifications added to the Mach 5 for Casa Cristo, and in all other scenes she serves as Racer X's date at events.
* MundaneMadeAwesome: When facing a ninja, Racer X whips out a length of cloth, whips it around dramatically, then ties it around his face to act as a mask.

* MyRuleFuIsStrongerThanYours: In retaliation to Speed snubbing his offer, Royalton does everything he can to sabotage Racer Motors and Speed so that he doesn't win an entry certificate and thus can't qualify for the Grand Prix. However, [[spoiler:[[LoopholeAbuse Horuko finds a rule that says that as part of the winning team in Casa Cristo, he is eligible to participate since Taejo declined his invitation.]] And when Royalton tries to protest Speed's entry, Inspector Detector points out that the entry rule is ironclad and if Royalton insists on breaking it, he'll have to shut the race down and conduct a full investigation, right before the event is about to start. Since Royalton can't afford such a debacle, he is forced to back down and let Speed race]].

* NoCelebritiesWereHarmed: Roger Allam, the actor who plays bad guy Arnold Royalton, bears an astonishing resemblance to British writer and critic Christopher Hitchens, right down to the accent. Many reviewers have commented on it.

* OilSlick: Used by Snake Oiler during the Casa Cristo rally.

* SaveTheDayTurnAway: Racer X [[spoiler:is really Rex, who faked his death]] to assume the Racer X identity. He decides to not to reveal his identity to keep his family safe. X tells [[ReasonableAuthorityFigure Inspector Detector]] that while hiding the truth may have been a mistake, it is a mistake he will have to live with.
* ScantronPicture: At the beginning of the movie, the young Speed fills the bubbles on a test to read '''GO REX GO''', prompting his teacher to call his mom in for a meeting.

** The Crucible race has plenty of shout-outs to the original series, even giving Speed an excuse to wear a [[ScarfOfAsskicking neckerchief]] (so he can use it to cover his mouth during the desert run). At the end of the race, he jumps out and poses like in the original anime intro.

* ThatManIsDead: [[spoiler:Racer X chose not to reveal himself as Rex to his family, even telling Speed that his brother is truly dead.]]

** Cruncher Block's big rig has holes for the people in the trailer to shoot out of and a missile launcher in the grill.

* WoundedGazelleGambit: Taejo Togokahn offers to turn over incriminating evidence if Racer X and Speed help his team win the Casa Cristo 5000, on the grounds that Royalton will ruin his family financially if they don't. [[spoiler:They do, which causes Togokahn's stock to skyrocket, and he leaves them empty-handed.]]

[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Speed_Racer_film_8690.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:300:"Ho-Hoa!"]]

'''Pops''': More like a ''non''ja.

* StoutStrength: Pops is a very corpulent man, but as a former wrestler, he is strong enough to toss around bad guys like they're ragdolls.

* CreatorCameo: Peter Fernandez and Corinne Orr, Speed and Trixie's original voice actors, respectively appear as a race commentator at Thunderhead and an announcer at the Grand Prix.

* CreatorCameo: Peter Fernandez and Corinne Orr, Speed and Trixie's original voice actors, appear as racing announcers at Thunderhead.

* CreatorCameo:
** Peter Fernandez, Speed's original voice actor, appears as a racing announcer at Thunderhead.
** Corinne Orr - Trixie's voice actress - appears as the race announcer at the Grand Prix.

* DawnOfAnEra: Ben Burns even says so when [[spoiler:Speed manages to not only expose Royalton but manages to break speed records to win the race from last place. In front of the entire world an Independent Team, Car, and Racer blew out all of the Big 5 to win the largest race in the world. By winning, Speed demolishes the race rigging and destroyed one of the biggest companies ever, in one fell swoop]].

* BloodSport: While there are plenty of car crashes, this is downplayed by the fact that all cars have the foam bubble "Kwik-Save" system installed, and any devices that are designed for or can be used to intentionally harm other racers, such as the Spearhook, are illegal. This makes it probably the most plausible bloodsport in fiction.

* {{Foreshadowing}}: Inspector Detector asks Racer X if he really to be at the Racer house for the attempt at recruiting Speed. Racer seems unusually emotional about it. We learn later that [[spoiler:Racer X is Rex, Speed's older brother who everyone believes died years before in a racing crash.]]
* During the Racer family's tour of Royaltan Industries, a Royaltan escort is extremely rough while removing Trixie's jacket, which Trixie notes with a "what the hell" look on her face. This is a very early indication that Royaltan and his business are [[FauxAffablyEvil not as nice as they try to appear]].
* GoshDangitToHeck: ''Averted''; there's a moderate amount of cursing ("ass" is said a lot; there's both an in-movie bleeped and entirely uncensored "shit") and Spritle even flips Royalton off after the factory tour. Yet it's still rated PG.

* HeroicSecondWind: During the Grand Prix, [[spoiler:while Speed Racer is able to expose Royalton's spearhook and break the Mach 6 free of it, it still leaves the Mach 6 unable to start up, putting him at dead last.]] Speed Racer is frantic and despondent over what to do, thinking he's going to lose for real... [[spoiler:until he remembers Rex's childhood advice on DontThinkFeel when race-driving. He intuitively jumpstarts the Mach 6, getting back into the race and shooting up from dead last in a short amount of time.]] The previously concerned crowd goes absolutely wild at this, with Cass Jones triumphantly shouting, "He's back!"

* IronicEcho: Royalton TheReasonYouSuckSpeech to Speed gets one [[spoiler: in the finale as he uses sheer HeroicWillpower to come up from behind]]
--> "You ready to throw away your toys?! Are you ready to become a real race car driver!?"

** Racer X sports a very sexy piece of eye candy that is most likely his girlfriend. As she appears in a total of two scenes (with an aggregate amount of screen time of about 30 seconds), her main purpose seems to be to stand around and be hot, which she accomplishes most deftly.

* NonFatalExplosions: The cars all have a system called "Kwik-Save" that puts them in a protective foam bubble when they crash. [[SmugSnake Snake Oiler]] has a parachute. A failure in this system was blamed for the death of Rex Racer.

** After the ''non-ja'' is pantsed by Spritle & Chim-Chim, he bumps into and tries to attack Pops, who easily catches his fist and pulls him into a hold. This is when he notices that Pops won the Greco-Roman Wrestling State Championship.

-->"Get that weak shit off my track."

** Racer X has numerous machine guns on his vehicle (the Shooting Star) when rescuing Taejo.
** Cruncher Block's big rig has holes for the people in the cab to shoot out of and a missile launcher in the grill.

* WhyDontYouJustShootHim: Put into play during the Crucible when Snake Oiler, foiled in his attempts to beat Speed, pulls out a pistol and opens fire on him. This is obviously cheating (and attempted murder), so he would have been disqualified even if Speed hadn't sent him flying off the cliff.

* ContextSensitiveButton: Speed has one button for each of the Mach 5's various tricks, however they're each shown capable of performing a variety of very precision maneuvers. For example, the "jump" button may deploy all four jump feet to hop over someone, or it might deploy just the left two to flip to the right, like how 'tap','double tap', 'press' and 'press and hold' can do different functions in a video game but with more options than the ones mentioned above.

** [[spoiler:Racer X]] thoroughly erases his identity as [[spoiler:Rex Racer]], not only faking his death but getting plastic surgery so no one will be able to recognize him. When Inspector Detector asks him, at the end, if he wants to rejoin his family following Royalton's defeat, he quietly refuses, believing the loss of his former identity is a mistake he needs to live with.]
** Pops Racer out and out tells Rex this when he announces that he's leaving Pops' racing team; his underlining intention is to protect his family, as he really means to take down the crime cartel. Pops (even without ever learning Rex's true motives) later admits that he deeply regrets sayin that to his eldest son.

* MetaTwist: The identity of Racer X -- it's obvious if you are familiar with the anime. [[spoiler: He's Speed's older brother Rex Racer, who is believed dead by everyone. The film actually takes the fans' knowledge into account, pulling of a DoubleSubversion. When he takes off the mask, he seemingly turns out ''not'' to be Rex, only for it to be revealed at the end that he ''is'' Rex and had undergone plastic surgery to hide his identity]].