History Film / ThePhantomMenace

** Anakin claims that nobody can kill a Jedi, with Qui-Gon reply he wish that were so. At the film's climax, Qui-Gon himself is killed by Darth Maul and his death left a huge emotional hole for Anakin since Qui-Gon was the closest thing he had to a father. And said emotional hole would be filled by [[BitchInSheepClothing a seemingly friendly Chancellor]] who is secretly plotting to kill all the Jedi in the galaxy.

* TemptingFate: Qui-Gon confidently declaring that "the negotiations [with the Neimoidians] will be short". In this case, "short" means that the Neimoidians blow up their transport and send battle droids to assassinate them.

* ArtEvolution: The visual design of this film and the rest of the prequels is a very sharp contrast to the look of the original trilogy. By necessity the earlier films relied a lot on physical environments, elaborate costumes and matte paintings, while this film ran headfirst into using modern techniques including digital compositing, [[ChromaKey Green Screen]] and [[SerkisFolk CGI creatures]] to craft their environments. This made the city vistas infinitely more complex than anything the original trilogy could have imagined and various things like chrome spaceships and Jar Jar's duck-like head would have been near impossible. This in turn made the environments feel a lot cleaner than the UsedFuture the original films pioneered, though the rest of the prequel films demonstrated this as intentional to show that the Clone Wars marked the end of a golden age before the rise of the Empire lead to more rustic aesthetics.

Thirty years before [[Film/ANewHope the destruction of the Death Star]], a [[CorruptCorporateExecutive corrupt]] [[MegaCorp corporate conglomerate]] known as the Trade Federation blockades the small, peaceful planet of Naboo in protest of rising taxations. Hoping to resolve things peacefully, the Supreme Chancellor of the Galactic Republic sends the [[OldMaster Jedi Master]] Qui-Gon Jinn (Creator/LiamNeeson) and his [[TheApprentice apprentice]] Obi-Wan Kenobi (Creator/EwanMcGregor) to serve as negotiators.

** Obi-Wan defeating Maul in the climax. Yes, it avenges Qui-Gon's death and is a massive blow to the Sith's plans as their Naboo gambit collapses. But it ultimately does more harm than good over the course of the next two Prequels. It leaves the Jedi with no details or clues to help hunt down the other Sith Lord (let alone determined whether it was the Master or the Apprentice who was destroyed). Even with Maul's downfall, Sidious has still achieved his primary objective from the Naboo Blockade (obtain the Chancellorship). Filling the now vacant position in the interim before the next movie will lead Sidious to Dooku, which will help lead to the Clone Wars. Losing Maul now is also another reason Sidious begins taken an active interest in a certain desert urchin...

* KickTheDog: During the podrace some Tusken Raiders shoot down one of the racers (and try to shoot down Anakin as well), apparently just ForTheEvulz. They even have the audacity to start wildly cheering afterwards.

** Obi-Wan slaying Maul in the climax. Yes, Obi-Wan was in a "Kill or Be Killed" situation and full of righteous fury at Qui-Gon's murder. But with Maul's death, the Jedi are left with no leads about the other Sith Lord. Worse, Maul's death leaves the position of Sith Apprentice vacant (which of course leads to Sidious converting Dooku into Darth Tyrannus in the interim between this film and ''Attack of the Clones''). In Obi-Wan's defense, though, trying to take Maul alive would've been a tall order (if not impossible).

* AndroclesLion: Qui-Gon Jinn saves Jar-Jar Binks (albeit inadvertently) from a Trade Federation battalion, prompting Jar-Jar to offer himself as a servant in a life debt. Later, it is thanks to Jar-Jar that they persuade Jar-Jar's people, the Gungans, to help the people of Naboo fight and defeat the Trade Federation.

* HiddenElfVillage: The Gungan city meets all the requirements easily. Hidden apart from the rest of the world (underwater), main character (Jar-Jar) comes from there, and later they return to get the Gungans to fight alongside them in the final battle.

* InsertGrenadeHere: Jar-Jar Binks does a variation with one of the {{energy ball}}s the Gungans use. As a result of LethalKlutz antics of his, no so much out of battle awareness.

* SuperFlyReflexes: Qui-Gon Jinn shows off his Jedi reflexes by catching Jar-Jar Binks' ''tongue'' with his fingers, as Jar-Jar tries to steal the Skywalkers' last apple [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Projectile_use_by_living_systems#Tethered_projectiles frog-style.]]

* TonightSomeoneDies: The movie teases a major death in the trailer, showing a shot from Qui-Gon's funeral depicting some of the characters near a blazing fire and Jar-Jar looking uncharacteristically somber.

* {{Understatement}}: Jar-Jar warns Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan to not expect a warm welcome from the Gungans. [[LittleDidIKnow Little did he know]] that ''before'' they had to deal with Trade Federation droids in the swamps of Naboo, they also had to deal with, among other things, attempted murder by ship explosion, poison gas, and armies of battle droids and droidekas.

* TheBadGuyWins: This marks the first of [[BigBad Palpatine]]'s victories throughout [[Film/AttackOfTheClones the prequel]] [[Film/RevengeOfTheSith trilogy]], and while the ending of this film may look cheery on the surface, Palpatine ended up succeeding at getting himself elected as the new Supreme Chancellor.

* {{Backstory}}: This theatrical film really only exists to set up all the back story for the following six theatrical films.

* BittersweetEnding: The Trade Federation has been defeated, Naboo regains freedom, but Qui-Gon is dead and Palpatine/Darth Sidious becomes Chancellor.

* {{Tableau}: Much like ''A New Hope'', the movie ends with the main characters standing on a raised platform in front of an audience, during a victory celebration.

* ImportantHaircut: A somewhat downplayed example. At the victory parade on Naboo at the end of the film, Anakin has cut his bowl cut hair short with a braid behind his right ear, signifying him as Obi-Wan's padawan, but it isn't brought up specifically brought up.

* {{Irony}}: Anakin says that "no one can kill a Jedi". He will eventually do this himself.

** Anakin Skywalker assumes that because Qui-Gon Jinn has a lightsaber, he must be a Jedi. When Qui-Gon jokingly retorts that he could have alternatively killed a Jedi and snatched the lightsaber, Anakin claims that no one would ever be able to kill a Jedi.