History Film / TimeBandits

* BadIsGoodAndGoodIsBad

* GoodIsNotNice - The Supreme Being presents himself as either a menacing face in the heavens or a somewhat stern old man. Kevin is rather horrified to learn that He arranged a lot of death and suffering just to test his creation. His first act once the bandits surrender is to order them to clean up the mess, and rehire them with a 19% cut in their salary, showing little concern for all their suffering and loss in the meantime. (Of course, some of this is because, as noted above, DeathIsCheap and God can set everything straight with a few casual miracles.)

* TooDumbToLive - The Bandits' greed overrides common sense in almost every case. [[spoiler:Kevin's parents also ignore their son and touch a leftover piece of Evil, which promptly makes them explode.]]

* ArtificialHuman - Evil appears human, but seems to be more machine than organism. His fingertips are on hinges that he can bend back to expose nozzles that fire magic. In the final battle he turns himself into an evil merry-go-round.

* DeusExMachina - Agamemnon believes that Kevin was sent by the gods to save him from the minotaur. Also: [[spoiler:the Supreme Being appears at the end and cleans up the mess the Bandits have made of things.]]

* HoistByHisOwnPetard: Evil's way of dispacthing all of the reinforcements the dwarves summon.

* TemptingFate: The dwarves say WhatCouldPossiblyGoWrong... without realizing they're on the ''Titanic''.

* TemptingFate: The dwarves say WhatCouldGoWrong... without realizing they're on the ''Titanic''.

* GodIsInept: Played with. The bandits don't have all that much difficulty stealing the map and evading the Supreme Being whenever he shows up. Later, He reveals that it was all part of His plan, saying, "I'm not intirely dim." When the Supreme being is behaving ineptly, He looks like a terrifying magical face. When He reveals His plans, however, He looks like a doddering old British man.

* GoodIsNotNice - The Supreme Being is either a menacing face in the heavens or a somewhat stern old man. Kevin is rather horrified to learn that He caused a lot of death and suffering just to test his creation of Evil. He also shows no empathy toward the Bandits or Kevin during his brief appearance.

The movie was produced and directed by MontyPython animator TerryGilliam. Unsurprisingly, the story is thus very comical while also being quite dark. With quirky characters, {{Indy Ploy}}s and nice historical backdrops, and ultimately a [[BalanceBetweenGoodAndEvil Good versus Evil battle]], the film makes for a wacky, humorous yet still dramatic time travel adventure. This was the first part of the "Dreamer Trilogy": ''Time Bandits'' represents childhood, ''{{Brazil}}'' represents adulthood, ''TheAdventuresOfBaronMunchausen'' represents old age.

Kevin is just an [[TheEveryman average kid]] whose interest in history is definitely not shared by his shallow and materialistic parents. One night after he goes to bed, though, the strangest thing happens: his closet bursts open, and out pop a scraggly gang of dwarfs. They interrogate Kevin, demanding to know "the way out", before discovering said way to be behind Kevin's bedroom wall. After a good push, the wall reveals a long hallway. Just then, [[PowersThatBe The Supreme Being]] (AKA "God") thunderously appears on the scene and the dwarfs make a run for it. Kevin is given precious little time to act before [[JumpedAtTheCall joining the dwarfs]] in fleeing from God. Thus begins a quirky adventure where the dwarfs reveal themselves as would-be bandits, armed with a stolen [[MacGuffin map of the fabric of the universe]], detailing where all the [[CoolGate holes are, which they use to jump around in time and space]], robbing everyone they meet. Meanwhile, their journey is being covertly monitored by Evil, who has his own big plans for the map, not to mention the rest of the universe...

* MadeOfEvil - Literally.

* ArthurDent - Kevin.

* YouLookFamiliar: Agamemnon apparently used The Map to return to modern England and joined the fire department.

* NoEnding - ''And HOW''.
** Come on, it's essentially by MontyPython, the undisputed KINGS of this trope.

* HistoricalInJoke: [[TheNapoleon Napoleon's]] hand, which he supposedly - as seen in many portraits of the time - kept near-permanently inside his jacket, presumably due to stomach pain, is revealed to be an artificial hand made of solid gold, which the titular bandits steal, along with most of the other swag in his HQ.
** In addition to Napoleon's dialog consisting of the heights of other historical conquerers (troper believed this was a oblique reference to Napoleon's Napoleon Complex).

** On the other hand, [[spoiler:Agammemnon may have decided to ScrewDestiny and travel to present-day England.]]

* LetsGetDangerous - [[spoiler:Kevin stays behind to distract Evil's pursuing {{mooks}} while the other bandits get help from other parts of time.]]

** Evil is obsessed with efficiency, technology and work. The morally grey bandits want riches and luxury. Only Kevin, the hero, is interested in the wonders that the world offers.

* ChekhovsGun - Early in the movie, Kevin takes a random Polaroid picture of the dwarfs holding up the map. Later, [[spoiler: after Evil has taken the map and caged them all up, Kevin uses the picture to figure out that there is a time hole nearby the cage]].

* DownerEnding - What happens after Kevin is done surfing through time? [[spoiler:His parents explode and he is left alone beside his smoldering home. Hopefully without his drearily mundane parents keeping him down, his imagination will at least be allowed to flourish. Connery's appearance as the fireman might also hint that God is looking out for him, though He didn't seem all that concerned about him.]]
** Note, however, that [[spoiler:close observation of the stack of photos in Kevin's hand at the end reveals that Kevin ends the film with a copy of the map -- including the location of the biggest time hole in the universe, which, in the words of Randall and friends, "could lead anywhere, everywhere." Based on Kevin's statements during the cage scene, he has the ability to read it. Add to this the Supreme Being's statement that Kevin had to remain behind "to carry on the fight." Kevin is, potentially at least, equipped to be some kind of time/space explorer.]]

* GodIsInept - Played with a little by making God a rather doddering old British man, though he's still all-powerful.

* AnAesop - "I think it's something to do with free will." (Also something of an in-universe ShrugOfGod.)
** Technology is "evil".

** [[FridgeLogic But somehow misses the significance of the RMS Titanic]].
*** Considering its lifesaver reads [[DidNotDoTheResearch SS Titanic]]...

* AdultsAreUseless - Kevin has more CommonSense and [[TeenGenius smarts]] than the other bandits. The bandits were written as dwarfs so that audiences would accept Kevin as their equal. Kevin's parents stand out as well: Do they ''know'' they have a son aside from a little person that walks around the house and occasionally eats their food? [[spoiler: Maybe Kevin is better off as an orphan.]]