History Literature / MurderOnTheOrientExpress

* {{Foreshadowing}}: The 1974 film has a couple of implications that Poirot recognized [[spoiler:Mrs. Hubbard as Linda Arden from the very beginning. He quotes Greta Garbo when they first meet, admits he saw the actress perform twice as Lady Macbeth to the Princess, and in one scene pointedly thanks her for "playing your part". He even paraphrases her lines as Lady Macbeth when she shows up with the dagger.]]

* AllStarCast: The 1974 film version, which starred Albert Finney, LaurenBacall, SeanConnery, IngridBergman, Michael York, Vanessa Redgrave, Jacqueline Bisset, Anthony Perkins, Richard Widmark, Jean-Pierre Cassel and Sir John Gielgud, among others. Bonus point since they are not only international stars, but also all famous in their respective countries.

[[spoiler:-->'''Poirot:''' Why did you take this dagger from the place?]]

* {{Foreshadowing}}: The 1974 film has a couple of implications that Poirot recognized [[spoiler:Mrs. Hubbard as Linda Arden from the very beginning. He quotes Greta Garbo when they first meet, admits he saw the actress perform twice as Lady Macbeth to the Princess, and in one scene pointedly thanks her for "playing your part"]]. He even paraphrases her lines as Lady Macbeth when she shows up with the dagger.
-->'''Poirot:''' Why did you take this dagger from the place?

* {{Foreshadowing}}: The 1974 film has a couple of implications that Poirot recognized [[spoiler:Mrs. Hubbard as Linda Arden from the very beginning. He quotes Greta Garbo when they first meet, admits he saw the actress perform twice as Lady Macbeth to the Princess, and in one scene pointedly thanks her for "playing your part"]].

* RedHerring: Literally referred to by Poirot during TheReveal : he points out that the mafia member and the red kimono were just "red herrings to confuse and deceive him", and even describes the night of the murder as the "night of the red herrings".

* AllStarCast: The 1974 film version, which starred Albert Finney, LaurenBacall, SeanConnery, IngridBergman, Michael York, Vanessa Redgrave, Jacqueline Bisset, Anthony Perkins, Richard Widmark, and Sir John Gielgud, among others.

* {{Foreshadowing}}: The 1974 film has a couple of implications that Poirot recognized [[spoiler:Mrs. Hubbard as Linda Arden from the very beginning. He quotes Gretta Garbo when they first meet, admits he saw the actress perform twice as Lady Macbeth to the Princess, and in one scene pointedly thanks her for "playing your part"]].

* LetOffByTheDetective: With the victim being an AssholeVictim of the highest order, Poirot rationalises that his murder meant justice was done. Instead of revealing the real solution to the police, he manages to come up with a plausible enough explanation involving an unknown assassin that doesn't incriminate the guilty party. Those in authority accept this explanation rather than go through the political, legal, and publicity nightmare of prosecuting twelve people (some of whom are wealthy and powerful) for the murder of an AssholeVictim of the highest order. In the 2010 version he only does so after an immense amount of soul-searching, and even then it's clear from his expression that he's not sure if he's done the right thing.

** Caroline Hubbard embodies this whenever the opportunity presents itself Then again, it's all an act.

* LetOffByTheDetective: With the victim being an AssholeVictim of the highest order, Poirot rationalises that his murder meant justice was done. Instead of revealing the real solution to the police, he manages to come up with a plausible enough explanation involving an unknown assassin that doesn't incriminate the guilty party. In the 2010 version he only does so after an immense amount of soul-searching, and even then it's clear from his expression that he's not sure if he's done the right thing.

* TheButlerDidIt: He [[spoiler:was ''one'' of the people who did]] it, that is. Also spoken word-for-word, but as part of a RunningGag by the line owner always implicating the most recent interviewee.

* TheButlerDidIt: He was ''one'' of the people who did it, that is. Also spoken word-for-word, but as part of a RunningGag by the line owner always implicating the most recent interviewee.

* ClockDiscrepancy: The broken watch also appears - and Poirot points out that the killer wants to think him that it happened at that time.

* AdultFear: The first few minutes of the movie - and the motive for Ratchett's murder - are NightmareFuel on their own, but they might be especially hard on parents.

* AdaptationalAngstUpgrade: In the original novel and most adaptations, Hercule [[spoiler: rather cavalierly lets the murderers go free,]] but in the 1974 film and ''especially'' the 2010 ''Series/{{Poirot}}'' versions, [[spoiler: he is deeply conflicted before finally making the choice.]]

* AssholeVictim: Ratchett's portrayed as a terrible man, so there isn't much sympathy when he is killed. [[spoiler:We find out that he's so deserving of his fate that Poirot eventually lets his murderers go. This trope is exaggerated here.]]

* BittersweetEnding: [[spoiler:While the murderers do get off scot-free, that's because even Poirot agrees that Ratchett's crime against the Armstrong family (who they all had connections to) had been paid back justly, with interest.]]

* TheButlerDidIt: [[spoiler: He was ''one'' of the people who did it, that is.]] Also spoken word-for-word, but as part of a RunningGag by the line owner always implicating the most recent interviewee.

** Caroline Hubbard embodies this whenever the opportunity presents itself [[spoiler:Then again, it's all an act.]]

** When Ratchett first speaks to Poirot, he claims that he has enemies. Poirot notes that a man in a position to have enemies is unlikely to have only one. TheReveal is that [[spoiler:there was indeed not "only one" killer]].

* MyGodWhatHaveIDone: Hinted at by Poirot [[spoiler: who is not exactly happy with his SadisticChoice.]]

* PayEvilUntoEvil: The victim had been guilty of the kidnapping and murder of a small child years before. [[spoiler:Poirot finds the man is so deserving of his murder that he decides ''not'' to turn the murderer over to the police, and even offers them a theory of how the murderer escaped the train which is as plausible as it is false.]]

* SeamlessSpontaneousLie: [[spoiler:Everyone on the train was a part of the murder. They had to make up several lies to throw Poirot off their trail. This was something like a dozen people. That kept up a lie under the scrutiny of Poirot. On a train in the middle of the Alps.]]
** [[spoiler:Though not so much spontaneous, as they intentionally planned their stories so that pretty much everyone had an alibi with someone who would have no reason to lie about it (who would suspect Arbuthnot and Macqueen to be in it together, or Mrs. Hubbard and Greta, or Foscarelli and Masterman). And the stories ''do'' have flaws, just not immediately obvious ones]].

* [[spoiler:SympatheticMurderer]]

* ZigZaggingTrope: [[spoiler: TheBadGuyWins. Trust us, the "bad guy" and "wins" parts are tossed every which way.]]

* AssholeVictim: Ratchett's portrayed as a terrible man, so there isn't much sympathy when he is killed. [[spoiler:We find out that he's so deserving of his fate that Poirot eventually lets his murderers go.]]

* DeadLittleSister: [[spoiler: Most of the people directly involved in the Daisy Armstrong case.]]

* SherlockScan: Poirot [[spoiler: "has, perhaps, a nose for fine dining"]]. Okie dokie. Maybe it makes more sense in the book.
** It's an insult about his huskyness.

''MurderOnTheOrientExpress'', or ''Murder in the Calais Coach'', is an Creator/AgathaChristie detective fiction murder mystery first published in 1934. HerculePoirot, the famous Belgian detective, is ready to return from his case in Syria when he is snowbound on the Orient Express. He is disturbed in his sleep by dead quiet and a passing figure in a red kimono, and when he awakes, the contemptible Ratchett is found having been stabbed 12 times to death. Poirot discovers he was actually a notorious American gangster, who had kidnapped and murdered a three-year-old heiress. The mystery begins to unravel as he discovers that the passengers have connections to the murdered man and the family of the child that man murdered.

The book was made into a successful movie in 1974, a MadeForTVMovie in 2001, and again in 2010 for David Suchet's ''{{Poirot}}''.

* AdaptationalAngstUpgrade: In the original novel and most adaptations, Hercule [[spoiler: rather cavalierly lets the murderers go free,]] but in the 1974 film and ''especially'' the 2010 ''{{Poirot}}'' versions, [[spoiler: he is deeply conflicted before finally making the choice.]]

* DeadLittleSister: [[spoiler: Most of the people directly involved in the Daisy Armstrong case.]]