Line #63 Film/Anna


1	[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/anna_6.jpg]]
2
3	''Anna'' is a 2019 action spy thriller film directed, written and produced by Creator/LucBesson.
4
5	Anna, a young Russian beauty who has been the victim of domestic abuse, will do anything to escape the life she is trapped in. In a twist of fate, she reluctantly accepts an offer by KGB officer Alex. After a year of training, she is to work as a KGB assassin for five years under a handler named Olga, after which she will be free to continue her life as she pleases. KGB head Vassiliev is not willing to honor this agreement, implying that the only way out of the KGB is death.
6
7	It stars Russian model-turned actress Sasha Luss as the title character, alongside Creator/HelenMirren, Creator/LukeEvans, and Creator/CillianMurphy.
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9	[[SimilarlyNamedWorks No relation]] to the [[VideoGame/{{Anna}} 2012 horror game]]. And not to be confused with ''Film/{{Hanna}}''.
10	----
11	!!This film has the following tropes:
12	* ActionGirl: The eponymous character herself. She's a highly trained assassin for the KGB, and puts down numerous far larger men with just martial arts, never mind guns.
13	* AmbiguouslyBi: Was Anna ever actually attracted to Maude, or just using her as a tool?
14	* AnachronicOrder: The main plot is generally linear, but the narrative repeatedly makes 5-10 minute detours to further explain the backstory or [[OnceMoreWithClarity clarify what actually happened]].
15	* AnachronismStew: The film is set in the early 90's, but the technology depicted seems to skew more towards the late 90's or above.
16	** A lengthy scene involves a robbery at an ATM in the latter half of the 1980s, but the first ATM (bankomat) was not installed in Russia until 1994.
17	** The USB interface was first introduced in 1996, well after the Cold War ended.
18	** While laptops did exist then, Vassiliev's is far too modern-looking.
19	** Anna is sent in to assassinate a target and retrieve his phone. Such a trope would not really be necessary in a time when all phones did was make phone calls, as call logs by themselves are easy to retrieve.
20	* BeautyIsNeverTarnished: Played with. Anna ends up bruised, cut, shot, and generally battered quite often, but her injuries rarely persist into the next scene. Most of the time, she looks flawless regardless of what she just went through a bit earlier.
21	* BestServedCold: Leonard and the CIA have spent five years looking for a way to get to Vassiliev and get their revenge for what he did to their agents.
22	* BetterToDieThanBeKilled: When first confronted by Alex, Anna slits her own wrist rather than join the [=KGB=]. He manages to convince her to live and work for the KGB.
23	%%* BettyAndVeronica: Anna has two male love interests: Alex of the KGB and Leonard of the CIA.
24	%%* BigBad: [[spoiler:Vassiliev.]]
25	* BisexualLoveTriangle: Anna has a girlfriend, Maude, but at the same time she gets involved with both Alex and Leonard. This is complicated by the fact it's [[AmbiguouslyBi not entirely clear]] if she cares for Maude, or is just using her as part of her cover. In any case, [[spoiler:she doesn't end up with any of them]].
26	* BlackComedy: The movie skews in this direction, especially when reflecting its exploitation roots. One particular moment has [[spoiler:Anna being captured and turned into a double agent for the CIA by Leonard, who are protecting her original target. Unfortunately, she was supposed to get a finger from the target as proof of death. When she returns to the room saying she has to maintain her cover by getting the finger, the other officers in the room force the target down while [[{{Fingore}} she removes a finger]]]]. Dark, but hilarious at the same time.
27	* {{Blackmail}}: How [[spoiler:Anna]] makes sure her personnel file is deleted. [[spoiler:She recorded Olga ordering her to kill Vassiliev.]]
28	* BoyishShortHair: Maude sports a buzz cut, though her looks and interests are otherwise feminine. However, she is a lesbian.
29	* BulletproofHumanShield: Anna uses the corpse of a large man she just killed as a human shield while in a gunfight.
30	* ChessMotifs: Anna [[spoiler:kills Vassiliev]] immediately after checkmating him at chess.
31	* DeathByOriginStory: Anna's parents were killed in a [[SurpriseCarCrash head-on collision]] with a truck.
32	* DecapitationStrike: [[spoiler:A rare literal, though inverted example. The film begins with Vassiliev arresting Leonard's entire spy network in Moscow — and then sending their severed heads to Leonard at CIA headquarters, in individual packages.]] It is strongly implied that this specifically is what pisses the CIA off enough to want to kill [[spoiler:Vassiliev]].
33	* DoubleAgent: [[spoiler:Anna]] is this in the [=CIA=].
34	* DoubleReverseQuadrupleAgent: [[spoiler:Anna]] ends up this, working for the [=KGB=] while reporting to the CIA, while the KGB knows she's been turned while finagling a way out.
35	* EndOfAnEra: The movie seems to take place primarily in 1990 or 1991, after the breakup of the Warsaw Pact but before the dissolution of the Soviet Union. In a year or two, the KGB will be dissolved and its responsibilities taken over by the new FSB.
36	* ExploitationFilm: The movie is a bit too mainstream to be in this genre, but definitely comes close at times. Anna's restaurant fight where she ends up [[CoveredInGunge covered in blood]] comes to mind.
37	* FakingTheDead: [[spoiler:How Anna finally gets the peace she deserves.]]
38	* FanserviceExtra: As part of her modeling work, a lot of other attractive models are seen with Anna.
39	* FemmeFataleSpy: Anna uses her sexiness to get to her targets before killing them.
40	* {{Fingore}}: Olga forces Anna to get the index of her [[spoiler:not-so]] dead target.
41	* {{Foil}}: Alex and Leonard are this to each other, as Anna's handlers and love interests.
42	* FriendlyEnemy: Leonard claims that over the years, the CIA and the KGB have reached an unspoken understanding on how they conducted the spy game against each other. This all went away when Vassiliev had the captured CIA agents executed and mailed their heads to the CIA headquarters. The CIA is out for blood and has no intention of being nice to captured KGB agents.
43	* GambitPileup: [[spoiler:Anna spends her time getting coerced by both of the KGB and CIA into outsmarting the other. Eventually, Olga is the one that comes out on top (although Anna does earn her happy ending and Leonard doesn't exactly lose).]]
44	* GenreSavvy: Anna is immediately aware that, having seen Alex's face, she won't be allowed to leave alive and must either join the KGB or die. [[TakeAThirdOption She slits her own wrist]] instead, though he talks her down.
45	* HitmanWithAHeart: Though a highly skilled assassin, Anna hates it and most of the film involves her effort to quit.
46	* HollywoodBlanks: [[spoiler:Leonard has sabotaged Anna's gun with blanks prior to her shooting of two targets, allowing the CIA to take her in and coerce her into working for them.]]
47	* HoneyTrap: Initially, this is the only use Olga sees for Anna, and although she does come around eventually, Anna really does use her looks frequently to get close to her targets.
48	* HowWeGotHere: Much of the film consists of this trope: the story proceeds to a certain PlotTwist, then rewinds to reveal the steps leading up to said twist.
49	* IdiotBall:
50	** Anna falls for the "[[ItWorksBetterWithBullets gun you've been provided isn't loaded]]" trick not once, but ''twice''. You'd think that after the first time she'd have learned to check her equipment before going in.
51	** The second time, the gun is loaded… with blanks.
52	* ImperialStormtrooperMarksmanshipAcademy: Even at close range, the KGB officers can never manage to shoot Anna.
53	* ImprobableWeaponUser: During her first mission for the KGB, Anna kills scores of mooks with things like the [[SlashedThroat shards of a broken dinner plate]] and a [[ImpaledWithExtremePrejudice torn-off bar railing]], and her target suffers death by fork.
54	* IncrediblyObviousTail: Walking to the park meet, Leonard notices that some of the CIA agents filling the park are a bit ''too'' obvious and orders them out.
55	* InstantDeathBullet: Anna rarely shoots someone more than once before they drop dead. She's also never seen making sure that her target is actually dead, so she seems to treat this trope as a given InUniverse.
56	* ItWorksBetterWithBullets: [[spoiler:In a shockingly stupid lapse of judgement for a trained assassin, Anna fails to notice that the gun Olga gave her for her very first mission isn't actually loaded.]] Cue six minutes of brutal CQC against a couple dozen mooks in a fancy restaurant.
57	* LockedOutOfTheLoop: Maude is completely unaware of Anna's secret life as an assassin.
58	* MasculineFeminineGayCouple: Anna has long hair with a more feminine look, while her girlfriend Maude always has short hair and looks pretty tomboyish. In terms of other things though, it's ironically reversed, as Anna shows no interest toward traditionally female things (she models, but only as cover for her being a KGB assassin), while Maude enjoys it along with partying and decorating.
59	* MexicanStandoff: A rather hilarious version involving 30 people between the [=CIA=] and [=KGB=] after [[spoiler:Anna fakes her death]]. A BlastOut is averted, however, and both sides walk away without violence as they just wanted to extract their agent.
60	* ModestyBedsheet: After they have sex in the hotel, Anna holds up the sheet around her chest while talking with Leonard, then keeps it there when getting up.
61	* MsFanservice: Anna is a gorgeous model along with a KGB assassin, and often seen not only modeling but having sex, scantily clad plus topless once briefly.
62	* NonActionBigBad: Although [[spoiler:Vassiliev]] does threaten Anna with a gun at one point, he's not a skilled fighter and [[spoiler:Anna takes him down with a [[BoomHeadshot shot to the head]] while playing chess with him in the climax]].
63	* NotEvenBotheringWithTheAccent: Creator/LukeEvans only barely puts on a Russian accent as KGB officer Alex.
64	* OnceMoreWithClarity: The film continually flashes back to flesh out a scene to explain a plot twist.
65	* OneWomanArmy: Over the course of her missions Anna regularly slaughters ''dozens'' of mooks singlehandedly. Special mention goes to the restaurant hit, where she kills at least two dozen men.
66	* OutOfCharacterAlert: The [=KGB=] apparently has a ''specific finger-severing method'' that serves as proof the agent actually took the finger.
67	* OvertRendezvous: After [[spoiler:killing Vassiliv]], Anna reappears and arranges a meet in a park with the [=CIA=] and KGB.
68	* PintSizedPowerhouse: Anna is a slender, petite young woman yet skilled enough at martial arts to kill multiple much larger men in hand-to-hand combat. She's in trouble when they get her pinned against something or under them, but always manages to break free somehow.
69	%%* PlotTwist: Can't be a spy plot without this.
70	* PrettyLittleHeadshots: Although there is a spray of blood every time Anna headshots someone, the corpses never show any of the gruesome wounds they should have after this treatment. [[spoiler:Vassiliev]] only has a neat round spot on his forehead, with a tiny trickle of blood oozing out.
71	* ResignationsNotAccepted: According to Vassiliev, you're in the KGB for life, no retirement, no resignation.
72	* ShoutOut: The entire film is one to Besson's ''Film/{{Nikita}}'', particularly Anna's first assignment: an assassination inside a crowded restaurant. [[spoiler:Subverted in that the hit immediately goes wrong (Olga had intentionally given Anna an unloaded pistol, as a lesson in preparedness), and she must rely on [[ImprovisedWeapon improvised weapons]] (plates, cutlery, etc.) and martial arts to complete the hit and not get killed in the process.]]
73	* SmartPeoplePlayChess: Mocked when Olga notes that Anna's talent for chess is meaningless in the espionage business.
74	* TheStarscream: [[spoiler:Olga handily exploits the ongoing GambitPileup to have Anna eliminate Vassiliev and take over as director of the KGB.]]
75	* SteelEardrums: During her first mission, Anna fires a handgun barely an inch from her ear to get rid of a guy who grabbed her from behind. In RealLife this would've deafened her at least in this ear, but it doesn't seem to faze her at all.
76	* TheTell:
77	** [[spoiler:Leonard finally identifies Anna as the assassin he's been hunting due to the characteristic way she drapes her purse over one arm.]]
78	** [[spoiler:Olga notices the handcuff marks on Anna's wrists and realizes she was captured and turned.]]
79	* ThrowAwayGuns: Anna runs through at least a half-dozen weapons during the restaurant hit, as she keeps getting disarmed and grabbing a new weapon.
80	* TomboyAndGirlyGirl: Ironically, the much more feminine-looking Anna is the tomboy to Maude's girly girl by virtue of being a highly skilled assassin with little apparent interest in traditionally female fields whereas Maude is clearly into modeling, interior decoration and fancy parties. Maude also has the more {{tomboy}}ish look, with her buzz cut.
81	* UseYourHead: During the restaurant fight, Anna headbutts one of the men as he tries to hit her with a bottle.
82	* VaporWear: Anna is shown modeling a sheer top which shows her nipples through it once.
83	* WallBangHer: Alex and Anna have sex in a tight, enclosed space with her propped up on a wall when they reunite.
84	* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: Poor Maude simply disappears from the story after the CIA's home invasion leaves her a nervous wreck.

Context Film / Anna