Follow TV Tropes

Following

Film / Kiss Kiss Bang Bang

Go To

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/kkbb.jpg

"Anyway, by now you may wonder how I wound up here. Or, maybe not. Maybe you wonder how silly putty picks shit up from comic books. The point is, I don't see another goddamn narrator, so pipe down."
Harry

Kiss Kiss Bang Bang is a 2005 World of Snark Black Comedy film, acting as a self-aware parody of pulp detective novels and Film Noir. Narrated by the deadpan and lemony Harry Lockhart (Robert Downey Jr.), the film opens as Harry flees a crime scene into a movie audition. Having just witnessed his buddy being shot and killed, Harry suffers an emotional breakdown in front of the producer, who mistakes him for a professional method actor and casts him in a Detective Drama.

Sent to Hollywood for a screen test, Harry is partnered with a sassy, gay Private Detective called Gay Perry (Val Kilmer) to get a feel for his acting role. After stumbling upon childhood crush Harmony Lane (Michelle Monaghan), Harry heads on a routine stakeout with Perry; when the duo then inadvertently witnesses a body being dumped, they find themselves tangling with a surprisingly deep-rooted murder plot... just like the pulp novels Harmony used to read as a kid.

The movie was directed and written by Shane Black in his directorial debut. Despite being a box-office bomb (thanks to Executive Meddling), the movie was a critical success and went on to become a Cult Classic.

To avoid confusion it's worth mentioning that two other films also exist with the same title, one from 1966 and one from 2001. They have absolutely nothing to do with each other. Likewise, no relation to Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. (This film was actually loosely adapted from a 1940s pulp fiction detective novel called Bodies Are Where You Find Them.)


This film provides examples of:

    open/close all folders 

    A-M 
  • Abusive Parents: Ubiquitous.
    • One example:
      Perry: Did your dad love you?
      Harry: Only when I dressed up like a beer bottle, how about you?
      Perry: Well, he used to beat me in Morse code, so it's possible, but he never said the words.
    • Another example involve both dead girls' fathersnote .
  • Accidental Innuendo: Invoked by Harry after accidentally grabbing Harmony's boob trying to get a spider, only for Harmony to shrug it off to Harry's distaste:
    Harry: Listen to me. I grab your tit, it's a fucking biggie! That Came Out Wrong.
  • Adaptation Title Change: Kiss Kiss Bang Bang was loosely inspired by an all-but-forgotten 1959 pulp mystery novel called Bodies Are Where You Find Them by Brett Halliday.
  • And the Adventure Continues: Harry retroactively reveals he's working for Perry in the present day.
  • Animated Credits Opening: An homage to Saul Bass and old detective novel covers.
  • Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking
    Harry: Fuck this. Corpses, guys in masks, people kissing — people. This is wrong.
  • Ask a Stupid Question...: A frequent occurence, usually from Perry.
    Perry: Look up "idiot" in the dictionary. You know what you'll find?
    Harry: A picture of me?
    Perry: No! The definition of the word idiot, which you fucking are!
  • An Ass-Kicking Christmas: Lampshaded at Harmony's party, which is filled from wall-to-wall in semi-nude, writhing models in Christmas-themed costumes (including a reindeer).
  • Artistic License – Medicine: Before the dog eats Harry's finger, he sticks it in a bowl of ice to try and preserve it so that he can have a doc reattach it later. Unfortunately, with amputated digits or limbs, it's important that if you do this, you have to wrap it in plastic first. Direct contact with the ice destroys the nerve endings, making reattachment impossible. Justified in that Harry knows absolutely nothing about medicine...
  • Ate His Gun: Harmony's sister, who uses a shotgun for suicide.
  • Badass Bystander: When Perry is attacked by a Mook in a park, he is saved the trouble of a gunfight when a hot dog vendor pulls out a handgun and blows the Mook away. Apparently the vendor didn't appreciate it when the Mook drove his car into his hot dog stand.
  • Bad "Bad Acting": The way Harry stumbles through his lines during the audition. It takes a dramatic turn when the similarity to his current situation gets to be too much and he loses it.invoked
  • Barely Missed Cushion: A corpse is thrown from the roof and hits the edge of the presumably soft dumpster. It bounces.
  • Bedmate Reveal: Harry is catching up with his childhood crush Harmony at a party. We then immediately cut to the next morning with Harry finding himself in bed with one of Harmony's seemingly clingy friends.
  • Better than a Bare Bulb: The Disney Death scene is a perfect example.
    Harry: Yeah, it's a dumb movie thing, but what do you want me to do, lie about it?
  • Big Fancy House: It opens with a party in Harlan Dexter's one (which is actually Shane Black's mansion, where he did throw such wild Hollywood parties).
  • Bittersweet Ending: The case gets solved and the protagonists survive, but it doesn't change the fact that Harmony's sister did kill herself, and Harmony's rapist father suffers little retribution considering his crimes. One of the characters even notes that things turn bitter somewhat suddenly:
    Harry: So much for un-reality. I said goodbye, watched Jonny's world go back on the fiction shelf. But while it lasted, brother, it was one for the books.
  • Black Comedy
  • Bleed 'Em and Weep: Harry breaks down after shooting a goon for the first time.
  • Breaking the Fourth Wall: Harry's narration is conscious of the fact that he's narrating a film. In the end, Harry and Perry suddenly address the audience.
  • Brick Joke:
    • The 35 year old actress Harmony makes fun of at the bar reappears at the very end of the film starring in the same Generos beer commercial Harmony was in.
    • After Harry rips on the use of the Coincidental Broadcast trope, a few scenes later he watches a news broadcast in which, for no good reason, the location of the climax is mentioned, exactly as Harry complained about earlier.
    • Harmony mentions to Harry that she is afraid of spiders. When she passes out, one enters her bra.
  • Buffy Speak:
    • Almost every time Harry has to explain something.
    • Also, people generally have a habit of speaking in tangent or mishearing:
      Harry: Maybe you should get in touch, I got five bucks says you can still get him.
      Perry: Really? That's funny, I got a 10 says "Pass the pepper". I got two quarters singing harmony on "Moonlight in Vermont".
      Harry: What?
      Perry: Talking money.
      Harry: (confused) A talking monkey?
      Perry: (deadpan) Talking monkey, yeah. Came here from the future. Ugly sucker. Only says "Ficus".
  • Bury Your Gays: Subverted Trope via Disney Death. It looks like he was fatally wounded, but it turns out to be Just a Flesh Wound.]
  • Butt-Monkey: If someone is going to get smacked, tortured, beaten up or otherwise mangled, it's going to be Harry. No one else is even allowed to get shot near him without the bullet hitting him, too. Every single time.
    Mook: You look chilly. Come back inside.
    Perry: Actually, I'm from back East. I'm kinda diggin' the cold. (Mook pistol whips Harry)
    Harry: Ow! Fuck! He's the one who said it!
  • Calling the Old Man Out: Perry does it for Harmony.
  • Captain Ersatz: Joe Chester's Jonny Gossamer books.
  • Cerebus Rollercoaster: The movie frequently jumps between serious and funny. One notable scene has drugged Harry waking in a car, witnessing a murder, killing the mook in a cold, blind rage, having a dog steal and eat his finger, to breaking down on the phone to Perry.
  • Chekhov's Gag: Harry and Harmony's game of spot-the-celebrity-doppelganger ("Native American Joe Pesci", etc); a plot point later on is that Harlan Dexter hired a similar-looking actress to impersonate his daughter.
  • Chekhov's Gun: Perry's "faggot gun", a miniature derringer Harry finds in Perry's glove box. As Perry says, homophobes avoid patting down his groin when checking for guns, which he later uses to his advantage.
    • Also, the revolver planted in Harry's room: Harmony, unable to get a distant Perry's attention, accidentally drops and misfires it, warning and saving Perry; and Harry inadvertently fires it playing Russian Roulette with a mook, leading to Dexter capturing them.
  • Chekhov's Gunman:
    • Harlan Dexter and his daughter, lampshaded viciously by Harry during his narration.
    Harry: Ooo-kay... I apologize, that was a terrible scene. It's like, why was that in the movie? Gee, do you think it'll come back later, maybe? I hate it when movies do that. TV's on, talking about the new power plant... hmm, I wonder where the big climax will happen?
    • Harmony's three friends apply to this: Flicka tells Harmony that Harry is a detective (causing Harmony to push him into taking her case), and later sees Harry at the airport where she inadvertently gives him a clue (by revealing Harmony is "Allison Ames"); and the "Homely Friend" and the waitress friend promptly return to cause more conflict between Harry and Harmony.
  • Chekhov's Skill: Harry used to be a magician, which helps him catch Perry's thrown mobile and catch the gun at the overpass.
  • Chivalrous Pervert: Harry has a serious case of this - no problem hitting on, looking at, or sleeping with women, but he has deep issues with any unsolicited contact and is uncomfortable with "easy" Hollywood girls. Early on in the movie he gets beat up preventing a guy from groping a sleeping Harmony at a party, only to hit on her hours after, and then sleep with her friend. Later, he touches her breast to get a spider, and when says she didn't mind if he had copped a feel, he freaks out and says there's something wrong with her and the guys she hangs out with if she's become that blasé about being groped. He ;ater adamantly refuses "pity sex".
  • Contemplate Our Navels: A nice pause in the action where Harry looks back at his unrequited love's apartment and sighs.
  • Country Matters
    Perry: He called her a — well, a bad name. (Beat) 'Cunt'.
  • CPR: Clean, Pretty, Reliable: Averted. After he and Perry are shot, Harry briefly attempts to give him CPR; cue blood spilling from the mouth. Blech.
  • Cynicism Catalyst: Jenna Lane. Interestingly, it wasn't her death that screwed Harmony up - it was that Harmony was helpless to stop their father regularly raping Jenna from a very young age.
  • Deadpan Snarker: Pretty much the entire cast spends the movie snarking at each other, but none more so than Perry.
    Harry: Still gay?
    "Gay" Perry: Oh no, I'm knee-deep in pussy. I just love the name so much, I can't get rid of it.
  • Decon-Recon Switch: At times it's a Deconstructor Fleet of detective clichés (Perry says that his client wasn't a smoking seductress, but a girl he's never seen because she hired by phone and paid in credit); then the tropes appear anyway (when Harmony tells Harry about what happened with her sister, she seductively inhales from a cigarette while asking "Are you a detective?").
  • Did Not Get the Girl: Harry and Harmony do not end up together, as far as we know. In the final scene, Perry claims that he and Harry are now a couple, although this could be a joke.
  • Disney Death: Gay Perry. Then it becomes an Imagine Spot where all the other dead characters show up, as do Abraham Lincoln and Elvis.
  • Dogged Nice Guy: Harry. Really.
  • Dragon Their Feet: A couple of Harlan's minions outlive him, barely.
  • Dude, She's Like in a Coma: Happens twice: When Harmony falls asleep at a party, her date feels up her thigh, prompting Harry to stand up for her and get beaten up in the process. When she faints later on, he tries to swat a spider from her cleavage, waking her up and making her think that he was groping her.
  • Electric Torture: Harry gets his genitals shocked by one of the villain's goons.
  • Ending Fatigue: Defied by Harry.invoked
    Harry: Don't worry, I saw Lord of the Rings. I'm not going to end this seventeen times.
  • Enforced Method Acting: In-Universe example with Harry's 'audition' in the beginning, where he's mistaken for an actor. Actually, he was running from the police and barged into the room by chance. It's perfect for the part he's reading from, however.invoked
  • "Everyone Comes Back" Fantasy Party Ending: Lampshaded and parodied at the end when Gay Perry reappears at the hospital accompanied by the assorted dead of the film, as well as Lincoln and Elvis Presley.
  • Exact Words:
    Pink-Haired Girl: It's nothing against your boss. I'm grateful. I just —
    Mustard: I spoke to him. You'll never have to go through anything like that again. I swear.
    Pink-Haired Girl: Promise?
    Mustard: Yep. (He murders her.)
  • Fair-Play Whodunnit: Played straight, and also invoked in the narration:
    Harry: How about you, movie-goer? Have you figured out the case of the dead people in LA yet?
  • False Roulette: Subverted. Harry really does leave a bullet in the gun, counting on probability. The results are brilliant.
    Harry: I just put in one bullet, didn't I?
    Perry: You put a live round in that gun?
    Harry: [stammers] Well yeah, there was, like, an 8% chance—!
  • Fake-Out Make-Out: Perry plants a big one on Harry to fool some passing cops.
  • Fakeout Opening: Begins at a church fair with a kid doing magic. Yes, Harry lampshades this too.
  • Faux Affably Evil: Mustard, who amiably chats with his victims while either threatening them or preparing to kill them.
  • Femme Fatale: Subverted by Harmony: she's coded this way, being alluring, sexual and a heap of trouble for Harry, but she's just a well-meaning screw-up like him.
  • Film Noir: Noir clichés are lampshaded repeatedly in the plot.
  • Fingore: Harmony slamming her door in Harry's face — and on his finger, breaking it clean off. He has it reattached only to be torn off again and eaten by a dog.
  • First-Person Smartass: Harry's narration.
  • Foreshadowing:
    • At the end of the second act, Harry and Harmony note that everything turned out like a Jonny Gossamer novel, except in the books he always ends up getting tortured before escaping and shooting a bunch of mooks. Come the real close of the case, Harry then ends up getting tortured before he and Perry escape and have a shoot-out with Dexter and his mooks.
    • When Harry is retrieving Perry's phone from his pocket after he gets shot, his ringtone is "I Will Survive". Of course he's Not Quite Dead.
    • Perry strongly states Harmony's sister actually committed suicide. Until the end of the movie, viewers tend to think he's wrong.
  • Freudian Slip: When Harry is narrating as he stares at Harmony's chest in-story:
    Harry: And yeah, looking back, I maybe should've said something, told her I wasn't really a nippleDETECTIVE. Detective. Uhm, sorry...
  • Genius Ditz: Harry. Most often he's just The Ditz, but if any situation requires the hands of a magician-turned-thief, he's definitely your guy.
  • Genre Roulette: As a result of Shane Black attempting to do a Creator's Oddball and giving up. In his own words:
    It's half romantic comedy and half murder mystery. All that romantic stuff is leftover from my attempt to be James L. Brooks, basically.
  • Genre Savvy: References to Noir abound, and Harmony's extensive knowledge of pulp crime novels comes in handy. There turns out to be a reason for that - Harlan Dexter, who played Johnny Gossamer in an old movie and has all those novels at his home, is behind the crime.
    • Perry knows his film noir, too. Particularly the part about how mooks always stick guns directly against the hero's back, when professionals in real life know to never, ever do this.
    • Perry also uses his savviness to get out of another such situation, when he uses a homophobe's prejudices against him by keeping a tiny revolver stashed next to his crotch, knowing that the guy would never bother to check there.
  • Gilligan Cut: Harry delivers a Badass Boast when challenging Harmony's molester date to a fight. We then cut Harry getting beaten up like a helpless high school kid.
  • Girl Next Door Turned Superstar: Subverted. Harmony filled the "unattainable woman" role for Harry when he was young, but when they meet again in Hollywood, she never made it as a starlet and is still Waiting for a Break.
  • Good Cop/Bad Cop: Played for laughs.
    Gay Perry: You don't get it, do you? This isn't good cop/bad cop, this is fag and New Yorker. You're in a lot of trouble.
  • Grammar Correction Gag: One scene has Harmony telling Harry that "I feel badly" should be "I feel bad." He later tries to show off by 'correcting' Perry's "Sleep badly," only to be corrected yet again.
  • Have I Mentioned I Am Gay?: Every two minutes for "Gay" Perry, but no actual action (the fake kiss doesn't count).
  • Heroic Second Wind: Harmony calls Harry and motivates him to utterly destroy the Big Bad and remaining Mooks, despite the fact he had just been shot.
  • Hidden Weapons: Perry keeps a small gun hidden under his ball sack.
    Perry: Homophobes never check there.
  • Hilarious Outtakes: Ones that are almost funnier than the actual film.
  • Hollywood California: Harry is a Fish out of Water in the Hollywood scene.
  • Hollywood Homely: Lampshaded by Harry in-universe of course; after referring to Marleah as "the ugly friend" he swiftly backtracks into homely friend. She's not ugly, she's homely!
  • Hollywood Spelling: Averted when Perry briefs Harry on their assignment, giving the name of his client as "Allison Ames, A-M-E-S". (Although he probably could have clarified how "Allison" was spelled as well.) This ensures that, when we hear the name again, we remember it.
  • Horrible Hollywood: How things are difficult for actors is occasionally brought up. And at least one part of the narration resembles Shane Black remembering his experiences as a writer...
  • How Many Fingers?:
    Harmony: (puts four fingers up) How many fingers?
    Harry: Will you put that cat down? I'm allergic.
  • How We Got Here: Once the narration starts, it has Harry saying the events were "last Christmas" (it returns to the present day in the very last scene), and there are also flashbacks showing how he and Harmony got to the party.
  • I Call Her "Vera": Perry's "faggot gun".
    Perry: It's only good for a couple of shots, then you have to drop it for something better.
  • Idiot Hero: Oh, Harry.
    Perry: You! Stop multiplying!
  • I Just Shot Marvin in the Face/Juggling Loaded Guns: The scene in which Harry accidentally shoots a mook he and Perry are interrogating seems to straddle the line between these tropes.
  • Improbable Aiming Skills: Harry in the climactic scene, apparently out of sheer Heroic Resolve. Meanwhile, the villains can't hit the broad side of a barn.
  • Intoxication Ensues: When Harry's painkillers kick in:
    Harry: Honey, put me on the list, I'll drop by. I'll see if I can stir up the kettle, stick out my hat, see if anyone shoots at it. (bursts into giggles)
  • Knight in Sour Armour: Perry's the second type. He's mildly corrupt in the way of all Film Noir protagonists, but still does the right thing, despite bitching the whole way.
  • Lampshaded the Obscure Reference: When two goons appear to accost Harry, one of them introduces himself and his colleague as "Ike, Mike, and Mustard"note . Harry doesn't get it, and even the other goon outright agrees that it's pretty damn obscure, and the two start arguing over it.
  • Lampshade Hanging: So much so that Harry's narrative questions the tropes and clichés being used. For example, at the end of the party sequence:
    Harry: Oookay, I apologize. That is a terrible scene, it's like "Why was that in the movie? Gee, you think maybe it'll come back later maybe?" I hate that: a TV's on, talking about the new power plant — hmm, wonder where the climax might happen.
  • Leaning on the Fourth Wall: A lot could be written about the many different ways in which the fourth wall is nudged in this movie.
    • Characters frequently comment on the quality of the writing, catching each other on misused phrases, overly obscure references. At one point a man complains that the death threat he's receiving is syntactically ambiguous.
    • Same can be said about acting and Hollywood. Some characters refer to each other performing skills and comment on actors' careers :
      Perry: [to Harry] Shit. Better be improving your acting.
    • At the climax as Gay Perry is about to explain the plot to Harry and Harmony he says "Do you see where I'm going with this?" Equally him talking the characters and the writer talking to the audience.
  • Leg Focus: Harmony has nice legs, as noted by Harry when discussing her in his narration.
    Jeez, look at those stems, will you? Not that that's what constitutes why she should be here.
  • Lemony Narrator: Harry narrates the film, and peppers it with a ton of snark, Genre Savvy asides, and Take Thats.
  • Little Useless Gun: Subverted with Perry's tiny Derringer, which turns out to be Chekhov's Gun.
  • Male Gaze: Harry misses plot point 2 because he's staring at Harmony's chest. Lampshaded because he's also narrating and commits a Freudian Slip while he's trying to relate the plot point.
  • Meaningful Name: The "Chapter Titles" taken from Raymond Chandler works. "Trouble Is My Business" (Harry's life in four words), "The Lady In The Lake", "The Little Sister" (both are characters with plot-triggering deaths), "The Simple Art Of Murder" (the climax, with plenty of murder), and "Farewell My Lovely" (the epilogue).
  • Medium Awareness/No Fourth Wall: Harry is completely aware that he is narrating a story, but it takes a unique twist when he's even aware of stuff happening in the movie; during one flashback sequence, he even points out a bad camera shot:
    Harry: I don't want to put this on you, but if you've been paying attention, I shouldn't have to— great, no wonder, Ma and Pa Kettle. [sarcastic] "I got an idea, why not put these two lame-o extras in front of the mammoth fucking lens?" Boo! Scat! Fat lady, leave!
  • Metaphorgotten: When the mooks at the Christmas party appear: note 
    Mook 1: Well now, here we all are. Ike, Mike and Mustard.
    Harry: What the hell does that mean?
    Mook 2: You know, I'm with him on this one, man. That's pretty fucking obscure.
    Mook 1: Horse shit, I hear that all the time!
    [...]
    Mook 1: You wanna know who we are? I'm the frying pan, see? And my boy over here, he's—
    Mook 2: Mustard. I'm Mr. Mustard, baby.
  • Mistaken for Gay: Given Harmony witnesses the Fake-Out Make-Out listed above:
    Harry: I sent her home believing, A, we'd meet tomorrow to go over her case, and, B, I wasn't actually gay. Do not ask me how I did B.
  • Mood Motif: A diegetic example occurs when Harry and Perry are dying: a barely conscious Harmony calls Harry on a Perry's phone, prompting Perry's ringtone ("I Will Survive" by Gloria Gaynor) to play as Harry is spurred into fighting.
  • Mood Whiplash: For some reason, the topic of Harmony's sister Jenna just sucks all the comedy out of the room. This is lampshaded in the end by Harry's narration.
  • Ms. Fanservice: Harmony Lane. She wears a Sexy Santa Dress through a portion of the film and goes nude at one point.

    N-Z 
  • Nasal Trauma: Occurs courtesy of Pistol-Whipping at the hands of Gay Perry resulting in a lot of blood and pained expletives
  • Never Suicide: It actually is a suicide, even though the characters (except for Perry) assume it isn't and the suicide fits cleanly into one theory on what happened.
  • Nominal Hero: Before losing some of it near the end, Perry was this fused with a Type II Anti-Hero.
  • No Name Given:
    • Those Two Guys who dice metaphors. Even in the credits, their actors are referred to as their final nicknames: "Mr. Frying Pan" and "Mustard".
    • Zig zagged with Shannyn Sossamon's character — even though she is eventually named (Mia Fry), she is still dubbed "Pink Haired Girl".
  • Nonchalant Dodge: Perry wins this award for insulting a roomful of party-goers, then deftly ducking a champagne flute thrown at him without so much as a blink.
  • Not What It Looks Like: A funny example. Perry forcibly kisses Harry to make some cops move along. Harmony witnesses the kiss and asks why they were making out. Cut to Harry VOing that he managed to convince her he wasn't gay and that he's not going to tell us how.
    • Another case is Harry taking out a spider that entered Harmony's bra. She of course thinks he was copping a feel - not before showing she was somehow OK with it.
    Harmony: Look, Harry, you grabbed my tit. It's life, all right? It's no biggie.
    Harry: Listen to me. I grab your tit, it's a fucking biggie! That Came Out Wrong.
  • N-Word Privileges: Gay Perry casually throws around the word "faggot". Considering he's called Gay Perry, no-one's gonna protest his right to do so.
  • Old Friend: Harmony was Harry's childhood crush; when she shows up, hijinks ensue.
  • One-Hit Polykill: A bullet goes through Perry and hits Harry, but they both survive.
  • Only a Flesh Wound: Happens twice to Harry.
    • A gunshot wound to the shoulder doesn't seem to slow him down at all in the final showdown.
    • This also occurs near the start of the movie after Harry is shot in the arm through his partner. Harry is still able to run from the cops and accidentally pass an audition with no trouble.
  • Only in It for the Money: The Jonny Gossamer author Joe Chester, who stated that "the whole series was bullshit" and that "he was in it for the money."
  • Overly Long Gag: Harry meets Harmony several times while standing at her door entrance. When she gets mad, she slams the door in his face, and every time, right before it slams loudly, we get an undistinct shot of him leaning with his hand in the doorway, as if she is going to shut his fingers in the door. While not so much of a gag by itself, it kinda Crosses the Line Twice in a Brick Joke way, when she actually cut one of his fingers this way.
  • Parallel Porn Titles: Parodied; Harmony's colleague hides a pirated movie for her in a "Lord of the Cock-rings" box.
  • Parental Incest:
    • The reason Harmony leaves for L.A. is that her father is raping her little sister, Jenna.
    • Harlan Dexter is a borderline example of this, given he apparently had no qualms sleeping with a doppelgänger of his own daughter. Finding out about this was what drove Jenna to suicide, since she thought Harlan was her own real father, and didn't realize that what she saw wasn't actual incest.
  • Place Worse Than Death
    Harry: Swell, they're enjoying Baltimore. I'm lying here with my brains out.
    Perry: I've been to Baltimore, you win.
  • Playing with a Trope: And having the time of its life.
  • Pocket Protector: Subverted: Harry, after being shot, pulls out a Johnny Gossamer book with a hole in it.
    Harmony: (laughing) Oh, cool! It stopped the bullet, Harry! (She pokes her finger through the hole in the book and frowns)
    Harry: No, not really. (passes out)
  • Posthumous Character: Harmony's sister, Jenna, who only appears thrice as a background character: as an out-of-focus girl being taken from her bed; as a pair of feet after her suicide; and as a blur through the window when she spots Dexter.
  • Private Detective: Perry is a professional private detective, while Harry is supposed to be learning the trade for a role.
  • Private Eye Monologue: Harry's tangy narration.
    I was tired. I was pissed. I was wetter than Drew Barrymore at a grunge club.
  • Punny Name: "Gay" Perry.
  • Reality Is Unrealistic: The fact Perry survives his gunshot wound despite it being coded as fatal in movie language ("Bad" place to get shot, Blood from the Mouth). Harry even lampshades how cheap it seems that he survived, but it's what "really happened".
  • Really Gets Around: Harmony back in Indiana. Harry was the only one she never slept with, other than his best friend Chook Chutney. And when she offers to do it with him she confesses on having slept with Chook. Harry understandably is pissed and kicks her out his room.
  • "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Perry delivers one to Harmony's and Jenna's father at the end of the film.
  • Red Herring: The murder case involving Harmony's sister Jenna. Granted, it is one of the events that sets the main plot in motion, but the case itself turns out to be a standard, pretty irrelevant case of suicide.
  • Revolver Cylinder Spin: While interrogating a thug as to the whereabouts of Harmony, Harry does this after loading a single bullet into his revolver, using it to threaten him. Believing that the chances of the bullet being first in the cylinder are "only eight percent", he immediately pulls the trigger. It doesn't end well for the thug.
    Perry: Eight percent? Eight? Who taught you math?!
  • Saw a Woman in Half: Double Subverted in the opening, where a young Harry is sawing Harmony in half for a magic trick. Then she starts to scream, and it looks like something has gone wrong and she's in actual danger. Then we see that she's fine, and she announces she wants to be an actress when she grows up. Then her dad slaps her.
  • Sexy Santa Dress: Harmony's Christmas cocktail outfit is a skimpy Christmas dress trimmed with white feathers.
  • Shoot Out the Lock: Perry shoots open the trunk lock of the sinking car in order to free the girl, who was dead at that point to begin with.
  • Shout-Out:
  • Shut Up, Hannibal!: Harry interrupts Mr. Fire's "tough guy" speech with a few bullets to the chest.
  • Sleeps with Everyone but You: Harmony slept with every guy in high school but Harry, who was her Unlucky Childhood Friend, and his friend Chutney out of loyalty to Harry. Except that she slept with Chutney, too. Needless to say, Harry is not pleased to learn this.
  • The Snark Knight: Perry to Harry mainly.
  • Snark-to-Snark Combat: Perry and Harry. Constantly.
  • Spiritual Successor: Shane Black's later film The Nice Guys has a very similiar buddy-comedy neo-noir vibe, and a few of the jokes echo the ones in this movie. Notably, both films involve a scene where a male character covers up the nudity of a dead woman.
  • Spit Take: Harmony gets a couple in response to Harry's celebrity-doppelganger-spotting, with him apparently timing them to the exact moment she's taking a drink.
  • Straight Gay: "Gay" Perry, who is a badass and generally avoids gay stereotypes. On the other hand, he has several Camp Gay moments, such as having "I Will Survive" as a ringtone. And he has perfect hair.
  • Suddenly Shouting:
    Harmony: She predicted that murder, Harry! She sent you and Perry to that exact spot!
    Harry: That whole thing is wild. You know what else is nuts? THAT YOU CUT OFF MY FINGER!
  • Take That!: Harry gets several, which covers other people, movies, and even viewers on occasion.
    Harry: I was tired. I was pissed. I was wetter than Drew Barrymore at a grunge club.
  • Taking the Bullet: Subverted. Perry puts himself between Harry and a mook, simultaneously shooting the mook and taking a bullet... but the bullet goes straight through Perry and hits Harry anyway.
  • Testes Test: Harry wakes up in the hospital after a shocking ordeal involving electrical torture (to the groin) lots of shooting, a car chase, and a fall from an overpass. The first thing Harmony asks him if hes alright down there.
  • There Is Only One Bed: Harry initially claims to be fine with sharing chastely, but gets uncomfortable when she cuddles up to him and he gets a boner.
  • This Is Reality: This is the main point of the film: tearing down all the palatable trappings of a cool detective story, leaving a very sour reality-based story, but with a veneer of winks-to-the-audience and snappy banter reminding us why the fake stories are fun in the first place.
    Perry: Do not play detective. This is not a book. This is not a movie.
  • This Loser Is You: Harry occasionally chides the audience in his narration.
  • Totally Radical: A lot of the dialogue is written in a deliberately dated, noirish 1940s slang. See Leg Focus above for an example; who calls women's legs "stems" anymore?
  • Trapped in a Sinking Car: Perry tries to free a girl from the trunk of a sinking car. His desperate attempt to Shoot Out the Lock of the trunk results in giving the girl a headshot. However, she was already dead from a broken neck.
  • Trouser Space: Gay Perry keeps a tiny derringer in the crotch of his pants, knowing that homophobic straight men never check a man's crotch too thoroughly. He's right.
  • Unreliable Narrator: Harry occasionally criticizes himself for his poor narration.
  • Unwanted Assistance: Harry kindly asks Perry to quit antagonizing Aurelio, the man who has just strapped electrodes to Harry's privates. However, the trope is usually invoked by Perry, who often has the situation in hand until Harry comes bumbling through it.
  • Urine Trouble: Harry spotting a corpse next to him while he's taking a leak, then turning around mid-stream. Oops.
  • Use Your Head: When Harmony is attacked by a man in the park, she knocks him out cold with a headbutt to the face.
  • Vitriolic Best Buds: Harry and Perry gradually become this.
  • Walk-In Chime-In:
    Perry: See that? Obedient little bitches, too.
    Girl: Fuck you! (throws glass, misses)

 
Feedback

Video Example(s):

Top

Kiss Kiss Bang Bang

While attempting to dump a body, Perry kisses Harry to distract two beat cops out on patrol.

How well does it match the trope?

5 (2 votes)

Example of:

Main / FakeOutMakeOut

Media sources:

Report