History Film / TheAdventuresOfBaronMunchausen

* BackgroundHalo: A variation. After Sally rescues the Baron from the Grim Reaper, he opens his eyes and sees her with a light casting behind her, along with the wings belonging to a stage prop that makes her look like an angel. An audible EtherealChoir hammers the symbolism further.
-->'''Baron Munchausen:''' Am I dead?\\
'''Sally:''' No.\\
'''Baron Munchausen:''' ... [[DeathSeeker Blast]]!

* BackgroundHalo: A variation. After Sally rescues the Baron from the Grim Reaper, he opens his eyes and sees her with a light casting behind her, along with the wings belonging to a stage prop that maker her look like an angel. An audible EtherealChoir hammers the symbolism further.

* DespairEventHorizon: When trapped inside the sea monsters, the Baron becomes quite elderly, and completely gives up on the idea of escaping and decides just to play cards with his old friends. He's not snapped out of it til his trusty CoolHorse Bucephalus makes his entrance and reunites with him.

* GilliganCut: On three different occasions, the Baron tries to reassure Sally that the town is "perfectly safe" or in "no immediate danger". Cue to showing the town's DarkestHour with the Turks aggressively firing and trying to ram the gates open.

* TurtleIsland: The stonefish-looking SeaMonster that swallows the Baron and his posse is initially mistaken to be a volcanic island, before it rises up revealing that the "volcano" was its blowhole.

* NiceHat : The baron's Tricorn.

* GilliganCut: On three different occasions, the Baron tries to reassure Sally that the town is "perfectly safe" or in "no immediate danger". Cue to showing the town's DarkestHour with the Turks aggressively firing and trying to ram the city doors open.

-->'''Berthold:''' Hang on. Hang on! It's all coming back. I've-I've been stuck here for over twenty years, ever since you were last here on the moon. You abandoned me here! You swine! You toddled off with that old queen of tarts and left me to rot in that parrot cage, didn't you? [[LetMeGetThisStraight And now you come back here, just because it suits you, after wasting half my life and expect me to follow you to the ends of the earth!]]\\

* ClockworkCreature: Sybil, the three headed bird creature on the Moon. When her victims go in different directions, she splits up into three parts, revealing clockwork mechanism underneath.

* DespairEventHorizon: When trapped inside the sea monsters, the Baron becomes quite elderly, and completely gives up on the idea of escaping and decides just to play cards with his old friends. He's not snapped out of it til he finds his trusty CoolHorse Bucephalus makes his entrance and reunites with him.

* PetsHomageName: Baron Munchausen's Cool Horse is named [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bucephalus Bucephalus]].

* ImprobableAimingSkills: Adolphus is capable of pulling off some truly ludicrous shots from great distances thanks to his [[SuperSenses inhuman sight]]. He demonstrates both when he sees that Berthold has fallen asleep under an apple tree near Belgrade, and shoots an apple down to wake him up ''all the way'' from Turkey.

* NestedStoryReveal: turns out [[spoiler:most of the movie]] was a story cooked up by Munchausen. [[spoiler:[[RealAfterAll Or maybe not.]]]]

* TurtleIsland: The anglerfish-looking SeaMonster that swallows the Baron and his posse is initially mistaken to be a volcanic island, before it rises up revealing that the "volcano" was its blowhole.

* EasyAmnesia: When the Bardon and Sally find Berthold on the Moon, he doesn't recognize him or even remember his own identity. After they avoid the King of the Moon and Sybil's attack, Berthold finally gets his memory back.

* OffWithHisHead: The Sultan wants the Baron executed this way, and neatly cuts off his assistant's head with his scimitar and he gets AxeCrazy upon hearing that the Baron took everything -- but it's PlayedForLaughs as not only is it bloodless, but the head lands in the lap of a concubine and ''winks at her''. Later when the final battle begins the Baron avoids the execution once again and performs a multi-decapitation on a line of Turkish leaders while running past them on horseback.

* PunnyName: ''Gust''avus

* {{Foreshadowing}}: Early on in the film Sally's father and his theater company are putting on a Baron Munchausen show and in it they display a stage production of the adventure in which the Baron got swallowed by a Monster Whale but managed to escape by making the monster sneeze with some snuff. Which is exactly what the real Baron will do later to get his friends out of the sea monster.

* CrapsackWorld: The movie is set in the "Age of Reason" and focused on helping a nameless European city that is under constant bombardment from the Turks. The town's Right Ordinary Horatio Jackson tries to negotiate with the Turks to bring an end to the chaos, but he himself is a cynical monster who orders one of his heroic soldiers dead for being "too brave" [[InsaneTrollLogic because it'd demoralize the others that aren't as good as him]]. The high-fantasy places the Baron takes Sally too are also populated by monsters and dangerous crazies.

* {{Foreshadowing}}: Early on in the film Sally's father and his theater company are putting on a Baron Munchausen show and in it they display a stage production of the adventure in which the Bardon got swallowed by a MonstrousWhale but managed to escape by making the monster sneeze with some snuff. Which is exactly what the real Baron will do later to get his friends out of the sea monster.

** [[spoiler: Happens again after Horatio Jackson shoots the Baron dead, [[MindScrew but that's revealed to be a story the Bardon himself is telling]], explaining it was one of the [[DeathIsCheap many times he had died]].]]

* DisneyDeath: The Baron is briefly believed to have died when Sally and the others are sneezed out of the sea monster, before the Baron pulls himself and Bucephalus out of the water.

* TheBet: The Baron earned the ire of the Sultan for beating him at one. He had found his tokaji bottle average and offered him to get him a better tasting one within an hour, if he failed, the Baron offered him his head. The Sultan accepted and decided to raise the stakes on his part by promising the Baron to take all the riches his strongest man can carry had he won. [[SuperSpeed Berthold]] was sent to Vienna to take a bottle from [[HistoricalDomainCharacter Empress Catherine]]'s court and almost came late for falling asleep near Belgrade. The Sultan respected the promise and opened the treasury for the Baron, but was horribly offended by Albrecht being able to carry ''everything'' he had.

* BlowYouAway: Gustavus possesses wind-related powers, such the ability to judge wind speed by merely listening, and being able to literally blow powerful gales.

* ImprobableAimingSkills: Adolphus is capable of pulling off some truly ludicrous shots from great distances thanks to his [[SuperSenses inhuman sight]].

* OffWithHisHead: The Sultan neatly cuts off his assistant's head with his scimitar -- but it's PlayedForLaughs as not only is it bloodless, but the head lands in the lap of a concubine and ''winks at her''.

* WarElephants: The Grand Turk uses elephants, some carrying cannons on their backs, to propel his war machines. However they're easily dealt with by the heroes through [[ElephantsAreAfraidOfMice strategic use of mice]].

* SceneryPorn: The movie was made with a very high budget, ''and it shows'', displaying everything the visual effects at the time were capable of accomplishing. The results are complex and visually rich sets and some amazing vistas such the hot air balloon above the clouds, the Moon and the cosmos, and the Baron waltzing with Venus look like Baroque paintings come to life.

* GainaxEnding: Out of nowhere, after the climatic battle, the Baron dies. Except… suddenly we cut back to the theater of the beginning, where the Baron has apparently been telling the whole story (from which point exactly it was the Baron's narration is unclear, since the theater crew was featured ''in'' the story, somehow). That would be pretty confusing on its own, but afterwards, when the crowd opens the gates of the city, they find the remains of the battle that was allegedly only a fiction of the Baron at this point. Except since the theater crew was involved in the story and yet doesn't seem to remember it since they don't believe the Baron until he shows them what lies outside the gate, it can't just be that the story was entirely true all along. To boot, the baron then rides off into the distance, bows, and disappears. Don't ask.

* KnightTemplar: Horatio Jackson isn't just a callous ObstructiveBureaucrat of the worst kind, he believes that those who perform better than others should be sentenced with death, such as the heroic soldier played by Music/{{Sting}}, [[spoiler: and the Baron, who Jackson personally snipes down during the parade [[UngratefulBastard despite]] him having saved the town from the Turks. [[MindScrew maybe]].]]

%%* ObstructiveBureaucrat: The Right Ordinary Horatio Jackson.

* WarElephants: The Grand Turk uses elephants, some carrying cannons on their backs, to propel his war machines. The Baron gets them to back off with the strategic use of mice.

%%** Vulcan also gets like this. Given that the Baron was openly flirting with, and then kissing, his wife (and that Venus wasn't known for being the most faithful wife in Greek mythology), yeah.

%%* CoolHorse: Bucephalus.

%%* CrapsackWorld: The nameless European city under constant bombardment from the Turks is this.

* DespairEventHorizon: When trapped inside the whale, the Baron becomes quite elderly, and completely gives up on the idea of escaping and decides just to play cards with his old friends. He's not snapped out of it til he finds his horse waiting for him in the middle of the ocean.

* ElephantsAreScaredOfMice: The Baron deals with the Grand Turk's WarElephants by shooting mice at them, which sends the whole herd into a panicked stampede through the Turkish camp.

%%* ImprobableAimingSkills: Adolphus pulls off some truly ludicrous shots.

%%* KnightTemplar: Mr. Jackson

* WellDoneSonGuy: Sally is annoyed at her father for wanting a son, demanding to know where her brother is since he insists on calling the theater "Harry Salt & Son". [[spoiler: Later, he amends it to Harry Salt & Daughter.]]

The film is something of a MindScrew, as the viewer is never really sure if what's happening is really happening -- and whether or not that really matters. Due to a TroubledProduction and a regime change at Columbia Pictures that discouraged giving it proper treatment, it was [[BoxOfficeBomb a notorious flop]] at the time. (The combined losses for this and ''Film/{{Ishtar}}'' are what caused Columbia to merge with [=TriStar=].) However, the film was a critical success and is still remembered as the final film in Gilliam's classic "Dreamer Trilogy," along with ''Film/TimeBandits'' and ''Film/{{Brazil}}''.