History Literature / MovingPicturesDiscworld

* KingKongClimb: The climax features [[KingKongCopy a giant woman carrying an ape up a tall building]].

* AbominableAuditorium: In the caverns under Holy Wood Hill, the protagonists discover the remains of an ancient moving-picture pit — which the narration dubs "the Cthinema" — from the first Holy Wood civilisation, which was destroyed when the Things from the Dungeon Dimensions used it to break through onto the Discworld. Unseen creatures scuttle over the rotten remnants of ancient carpets and curtains, and an audience of skeletons, who apparently died watching the last showing, stare at a strange, rippling screen that hangs in the air, apparently attached to nothing. [[spoiler: When they return later, knowing the Things are trying to emerge once again and can only be stopped there, they find the entire population of Holy Wood sitting in the audience, transfixed by the screen...]]

* AttackOfThe50FootWhatever: When the movies break the barrier between reality and the Dungeon Dimensions, a giant copy of Ginger steps out from the screen. [[spoiler: A giant Victor tries to emerge as well, but is balked when the real Victor ties it up with filmstrip.]] It even kidnaps a terrified Ape.

** The belated arrival of [[spoiler: the much celebrated 1000 elephants]].

--> Real magic is the hand around the bandsaw, the thrown spark in the powder keg, the dimension-warp linking you straight into the heart of a star, the flaming sword ''that burns all the way down to the pommel''. Sooner juggle torches in a tar pit than mess with real magic. Sooner lie down in front of [[RunningGag a thousand elephants]].

--> "Why are all Mr. Dibbler's stories set against the background of a world gone mad?
--> "Because Mr. Dibbler is a very observant person."

* NiceJobBreakingItHero: The monster is defeated and all is well... when Victor learns that [[spoiler: he'd been reading the book wrong and his and Gaspode's attempts to stop Ginger from opening the buried door were only hindering her from waking the Guardian.]]

* NoodleIncident: Just hinted at, but there must have been quite a few ''really'' strange ones, if the sight of Victor [[spoiler: riding a film-conjured horse]] being followed by the other wizards [[spoiler: all piled onto Poons's magic-propelled wheelchair around the cameraman, while three others are dragged along behind]] was only the ''57th'' strangest thing the Librarian had ever seen.
* NotWhatItLooksLike: Inverted. Victor is reluctant to spend the night watching over Ginger, lest it affect her reputation. Ginger dismisses his fears, as she doubts her landlady will guess that he's guarding against her possible possession by supernatural forces: "She'll just think we're having sex." [[spoiler: Indeed, she does think just that, and heartily approves.]]

* OnOneCondition: The reason Victor's still a student. The condition is that he must get above a certain mark on every test to keep getting his inheritance - so Victor carefully answers just enough questions correctly that he gains his inheritance but never actually ''passes'' to become a full-fledged wizard. [[spoiler: The Bursar, having noticed the trend and furious with this, comes up with a test that would have beaten Victor one way or the other: "Question 1) What is your name?" And that is the test. He doesn't show up to take it, on the other hand Ponder Stibbons does...]]

-->'''Chair of Indefinite Studies:''' It's a Victor all right, but not our Victor. Says here he's "Victor Maraschino".
-->'''Lecturer in Recent Runes:''' Oh, that's just a click name. They all have funny names like that. Delores De Syn and Blanche Languish and Rock Cliffe and so on... Or so I'm told. By the porter. He goes to see a click nearly every night.

-->'''Cut-Me-Own-Throat Dibbler:''' Trust me. Have I ever lied to you?
-->'''Bezam Planter:''' Well, one night last month you sold me a sausage in a bun and you said-
-->'''Throat:''' I was speaking rhetorically.
-->'''Bezam:''' Oh. Well. I dunno about rhetorically.

--> '''The Dean:''' Twas beauty killed the beast ''(He liked to say things like that)''
--> '''Chair of Indefinite studies:''' No it wasn't, it was it splatting into the ground like that.
** As is the climax, which involves [[spoiler: a 50-foot tall blonde woman climbing a tall building, clutching a screaming ape]]

*** When he later [[spoiler: stops her waking up the Golden Man]] she's in the exact pose of the logo.

--> "In a word -- im-possible!" \\

--> "And thus the direction of the disturbance [in the fabric of reality]--" ''... whumm... whumm...'' "--can be estimated by the number and force--" ''... whum... whummWHUMMWHUMM.'' "--of the expelled pellets, which I estimate in serious disturbances--" ''Plib.'' "--may well exceed two pellets--" ''Plib.'' "--expelled several inches--" ''Plib.'' "--during the--" ''Plib.'' "--course--" ''Plib.'' "--of--" ''Plib.'' "--one--" ''Plib.'' "--'''month'''." ''Plib.''

* WrongGenreSavvy: Ginger [[spoiler: is not possessed by the Things: she is actually instrumental in defending the world against them. But Victor assumes he is the hero, and she is just the Distressed Damsel, thus preventing her from doing what must be done, even though there were hints that what is possessing her is not evil.]]

** This is the earliest throwaway mention of elves in the canon, where they're affected just like any other creature by Holy Wood magic instead of their future, magic-proof malicious selves. (Handwaved in ''Literature/LordsAndLadies'' where Granny Weathermax dismisses running into certain strange if harmless people who simply have elvish *ancestry*, not the full-blooded kind.)
** Trolls in Ankh-Morpork are half way between their depictions in the early books as monsters (or at least monstrous looking beings) encountered far away from civilisation or, at best, hired muscle in Ankh-Morpork and their depiction in later books as essentially normal citizens (albeit still facing occasional specism.) Victor is startled by simply ''meeting'' Rock and Detritius is still a humble bruiser but at the same time we see trolls start to get normal jobs and integrate more with normal life.

* ExtremelyEasyExam: Victor Tugelbend, to remain a student in [[WizardingSchool Unseen University]] indefinitely ([[LoopholeAbuse which he wants to do to continue getting money from his dead uncle's estate]]), has been repeatedly almost but not quite passing his final exam. The faculty get tired of this and [[MurphysLaw try]] to give him a special final exam with one question: "What is your name?".

* FamousForBeingFamous: By Discworld standards (or at least those of the Patrician) this applies to the movie actors. Their fame, instead of being for real-life great deeds (or even their ''talent'', which they haven't actually got much of) is mostly a function of the Holy Wood magic, and deemed as "dangerous."

** Since the wizards have mostly avoided the "clicks", when Victor Marachino and Delores [=DeSyne=] are given the red-carpet treatment, they're totally perplexed by the whole thing and wonder why the two celebrities are getting all the attention.

** Ginger's original name, Theda Withel is a reference to silent film star Theda Bara. Dibbler falsely claims that she's the daughter of "the daughter of a Klatchian pirate and his wild, headstrong captive". In real life, Bara's press agents said that she's the daughter of an Arab sheik and a French woman, while she was in fact the daughter of a tailor from Cincinnati, Ohio.

* TwoWordsAddedEmphasis: Silverfish warns Dibbler that paying for ''Blown Away'' will be "In a word - im-possible!".

Not to be confused with the Music/{{Rush|Band}} album of the same name. Or with, y'know, [[{{Film}} moving pictures]]. The Adventure Game Discworld 2 takes some elements from the plot, meshing it liberally with Reaper Man and Lords and Ladies.

** This is the earliest throwaway mention of elves in the canon, where they're affected just like any other creature by Holy Wood magic instead of their future, magic-proof malicious selves.
**This is handwaved in ''Literature/LordsAndLadies'' where Granny Weathermax dismisses running into certain strange if harmless people who simply have elvish *ancestry*, not the full-blooded kind.

** Ginger has a dream involving standing on a vent and having air blow her dress around. Just to make the comparison to Marilyn Monroe really clear.

*** She also quotes Mae West at one point.

* ForgottenTrope: Pratchett uses [[CatchPhrase catchphrases]] and [[RunningGag running gags]] from the 19th century to demonstrate how out-of-touch the ancient wizard Windle Poons is, such as "Tuppence more and up goes the donkey!" and "How's your granny off for soap?" Since nobody but him knows what the jokes are even about, they all count as a OrphanedPunchLine.

** This is the first appearance of the UU wizards who would later be a recurring cast of comic characters. Although they are already quite well-formed here, there's one inconsistency where the Chair of Indefinite Studies is described as the enormously fat one, while in later books the Dean would have this description.

** It's briefly mentioned that there are a few elves in Holy Wood. Elves as seen in later books are inhuman monsters, who are unlikely to be affected by Holy Wood mind control in the same way as you can't poison a cobra. This is handwaved in ''Literature/LordsAndLadies'' with "there's a few folk who ''say'' they're elves".

* An end to the practice of KlingonPromotion by the wizards of Unseen University due to Mustrum Ridcully taking over as Archchancellor, and therefore a single recurring faculty cast appearing in later books.

* NiceMice: Defied by Definitely Not Squeak the mouse, one of the TalkingAnimal Holy Wood aspirants. Appalled when Victor tells him that mice are considered cute little things, as he was the toughest mouse in the house.

* UnraveledEntnaglement: In an {{invoked|Trope}} example, Victor uses octo-cellulose film to entangle and restrain the giant Dungeon-Dimensional duplicate of himself that emerged from the theater's screen.

Not to be confused with the Music/{{Rush}} album of the same name. Or with, y'know, [[{{Film}} moving pictures]]. The Adventure Game Discworld 2 takes some elements from the plot, meshing it liberally with Reaper Man and Lords and Ladies.