Tropes
- Accidental Misnaming: Stifler's boss continually calls him "Staphler".
- Actor Allusion:
- During Jessica's cameo, she announces that "I'm a lesbian now." Natasha Lyonne played a lesbian character in But I'm a Cheerleader the same year the original American Pie was released. With an added Call-Back as Stifler says "I knew it!", given that in the second movie:
Stifler: How many girls did you sleep with this year?
Jessica: Wouldn't you like to know?
Stifler: Fuck yeah I would.- Stifler says that New Moon is his favourite book in The Twilight Saga. Chris Weitz directed the film version.
- The film's wish list also mentions something about a vampire slayer, as a clear nod to Alyson Hannigan's role in Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
- When Stifler meets Finch's mother, she says "are you ready for me?" - as a nod to Rebecca De Mornay's scene in Risky Business where she says the same thing to Tom Cruise.
- Jay Harrington had also played a Dr Ron in Desperate Housewives.
- Advertised Extra: Natasha Lyonne is on the poster for the fourth film, when she only has a cameo.
- Ambiguously Gay: John. He and Justin haven't been hanging out because their friendship doesn't go both ways; also, he seems to likes shirtless men.
- Camp Straight: However, the directors' commentary for the DVD states he is straight.
- Ascended Extra: John, who sets up the main storyline by planning the reunion.
- Ass Shove: Stifler's mom tells Jim's dad about a time, when she walked in on Stifler shoving her hairbrush up his ass. And not the handle side first. In her room.
- Bait-and-Switch: Stifler's reintroduction makes it look like he's a high powered executive; in reality, he's just a temp.
- Black Comedy Rape: Oz gets practically this done to him by his Ecstasy tipping girlfriend, just as Heather walks in...
- Both Sides Have a Point: Jim, Kevin, Finch, and Oz were right to call out Stifler on his behavior, as not only did he needed to learn to be a better friend but also to stop dwelling in his "High School" years. However, Stifler points out that they never really treated him as a friend to begin with nor really bothered to convey to him the problem they had with his behavior beforehand.
- The Bus Came Back: Everybody but Jim's Mom, who is dead.
- Call-Back: Being about the characters' high school reunion, we get many:
- The poster looks almost exactly like the one for the first movie, with the characters (now thirteen years older) in the same positions.
- The film opens with the camera panning across Jim's room as we hear what appears to be sexual activity, but is something entirely different.
- Jim's tube sock makes a reappearance (again with unfortunate results).
- The camera following Stifler as he does an evaluation of his workplace is reminiscent of those he did for his house parties in the first two movies.
- Jim finds the dirty magazines his dad gave to him (with the pages stuck together).
- Finch is reintroduced while riding a moped, in contrast to his scooter from the first movie.
- Jim is reminded only too well about the incidents of Speed Sex, from both Selena and Kara (and is acknowledged that the video is now on YouTube).
- Selena tells Jim, Kevin, Finch, and Oz that they were all probably "desperate virgins back then." The guys briefly decline before sharing a look with each other (because they all were virgins at the time).
- Jim wakes up bottomless after a night of partying and finds a completely destroyed pie. He and his dad share a look, knowing only too well what happened...
- When Oz reunites with Heather and her new boyfriend at the beach, Stifler runs up to him and interrupts like he did in the first movie when Heather was about to ask Oz to prom, even calling Heather "choir chick" again.
- Stifler throwing a party like the one at the end of the first movie, and Jim and Michelle attempting to recreate the events of it.
- While making out with Selena, Finch spots a picture of Stifler's mom on the wall. He briefly recalls the three previous flings he had with Stifler's mom and looks between the two, as if trying to choose, before ultimately deciding to move on and be with Selena.
- After Jim and Michelle have sex in the music room, Jim holds up a flute and asks if he was better than the flute (referring to the Wham Line before their first night together in the first movie).
- The movie ends with the gang (now including Stifler) having hot dogs at Dog Years and toasting to "the next step."
- The Cameo: Neil Patrick Harris pops up as the host of Celebrity Dance-Off, a Dancing with the Stars parody which Oz was a contestant on.
- Canon Discontinuity: The American Pie Presents spin-offs are effectively ignored in the first ten minutes - Stifler never went into directing porn movies, and while Michelle and Jim do have a son, he's far too young to be the one mentioned in the spinoff series.
- Character Aged with the Actor: It's explicitly stated that it's been thirteen years since graduation, in line with the film releasing thirteen years after the original.
- Coitus Interruptus:
- During the reunion, Nadia accidentally walks in on Jim and Michelle having sex in the music room.
- Stifler's mom also claims she had walked-in on Stifler having sex more times than she can count.
- Dead Sparks: Subverted for Jim and Michelle - they do still clearly love each other and really want to reignite the passion of the early days, but the stresses of adult life and the birth of their son understandably put a damper on that. Jim's father gives him advice on how to avert this.
- Deconstruction: Stifler himself is deconstructed. His pranks now come across as violent felonies rather than funny, the gay jokes he makes now just seem homophobic, and he himself just comes off as rather pathetic.
- Destructo-Nookie: Jim and Michelle have one in the music room after making up with each other.
- Disproportionate Retribution:
- Some younger guys on the beach steal bikini tops. The gang chases them but get soaked as they escape on jet skis. Stifler then shits in their beer cooler and destroys their jet skis. That adds up to about $25,000 damage.
- Finch arrives on a motorcycle that he claims to have won while betting on the World Cup. However, Finch actually stole it from his boss at Staples, for which he is arrested. His motive was not being given a raise that he'd been promised.
- Everyone Has Standards: Even Stifler is irritated by the teenagers stealing bikini tops from women on the beach.
- Fan Disservice: Jim's dick pressed against a clear pot lid after waking up pantless in the kitchen.
- Hand-or-Object Underwear: Jim covers himself with the lid of a pan. Then he's reminded that it's made of glass...
- Happily Married: Kevin got married at some point in the nine years since Jim’s wedding.
- Hired for Their Looks: Stifler tells a group of pretty women, "Ladies, you'd better be working hard - you weren't hired for your looks. Actually you were." He then points to another woman and says, "Not you."
- I Never: Oz and Heather play this with their respective dates.
- I Want You to Meet an Old Friend of Mine: Neil Patrick Harris cameos. He co-stars with Alyson Hannigan on How I Met Your Mother and with John Cho in the Harold & Kumar films.
- Innocent Fanservice Girl: Kara.
- Insult Backfire: Finch and Stifler's reunion goes like this:Stifler: So, finally come out of the closet?
Finch: How is your mom, by the way? - Jerkass: AJ, Dr. Ron, Mia, and Stifler's boss.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Stifler.
- Laser-Guided Karma: Stifler finally gets revenge on Finch for sleeping with his mom when he just so happens to meet Finch's attractive mother.
- Market-Based Title: Known as American Pie: The Reunion in Britain.
- Maybe Ever After: At the end, Jim's Dad meets Stifler's Mom. The Stinger shows her discretely pleasuring him in a movie theater.
- Ms. Fanservice: Kara and Mia. Also Michelle in her fetish gear.
- Really Gets Around: Oz's girlfriend Mia. No wonder he goes back to Heather.
- "The Reason You Suck" Speech:
- Stifler gives one to his boss in, saying that even though he has money, he's still a loser... who's poorly-endowed.
- The other guys in turn give one to Stifler earlier on for being trapped in the past and always finding a way to ruin things.
- Remember the New Guy?: Several never before mentioned characters turn up out of the blue, such as Selena (Michelle's Band Camp BFF), Loni 'Blowjob' Lipstein (a former... intimate of Stifler), Mitch and Adam (members of the lacrosse team and good buddies with Stifler and presumably Oz) and Kara, the girl Jim used to babysit. While Kara's a harder case to argue, several of the younger actors that appear as non-speaking extras in the original film could stand in for the roles in later films. For example, in the first appearance of Michelle and the band geeks (when they come to Stifler's door and he tells them to leave), there is a young Ambiguously Brown woman and there are several teammates who don't speak in the lacrosse scenes.
- Sequel Reset: After seemingly making peace with the guys in Wedding, Stifler is back to his old self in this film, and goes through the whole Jerk with a Heart of Gold transformation again. He is finally accepted by the guys as one of their own near the end of the movie when they realize that, even though Stifler is a dick, he's a "fun dick", and "their dick."
- Shaking the Rump: Kara's mom does this a few times in front of Oz (she saw him on Celebrity Dance-Off and is a huge fan of his), even going so far as to provocatively performing this move directly on him!
- She's All Grown Up: How Jim sees Kara, the girl next door he used to babysit.
- Sideboob: Discussed.
- Soundtrack Dissonance : When Jim and Michelle have their eyes-meet-across-the-room moment and their makeup speech, the song playing in the background is "The Freshmen" by the Verve Pipe—a song about a young man's girlfriend having an abortion (and possibly date rape).
- Take This Job and Shove It: Happens when Stifler finally decides he's had enough of his Bad Boss and gives him a brutal "The Reason You Suck" Speech.
- Team Power Walk: The guys entering the reunion dance, with Stifler as the newest addition to their group.
- Technology Marches On: Lampshaded and invoked when the gang needs to talk their way into a suburban family's home. Stifler knocks on the door and tells the man of the house that their car has broken down and he needs to call AAA. The man says "None of the three of you have cell phones?". After the gang gets inside the house, a defensive Stifler says that when he used to do this, cell phones didn't exist.
- Teeny Weenie: Stifler compares his boss' penis to "a leprechaun's pinky".
- Tempting Fate: Dr Ron threatens to sue Oz for everything he’s worth if he lays a hand on him. Cue Stifler punching him out and happily informing him that he’s worth "jack shit".
- Transparent Closet: After 13 years, Jessica announces that she's a lesbian... to no one's surprise.
- What Did I Do Last Night?: After reuniting with his old friends, Jim wakes up in the kitchen of his family home, pants-less and surrounded by random types of food scattered all over the place. In a deleted/extended version of the scene, Michelle finds a desecrated apple pie just as Jim's Dad walks in and asks what happened to it. Jim and his father exchange a panicked look, remembering the incident from 1999.
- What the Hell, Hero?: Stifler gives the other guys one of these, calling them out for how much they hurt his feelings by not making an effort to stay in touch with him.
