Beatrice: What are you thinking about?
The Monster: Nobody's afraid of me any more.
Beatrice: I'm afraid of you.
A 2001 supernatural drama film directed by Hal Hartley that tells the story of Beatrice (played by Sarah Polley), a journalist whose fiancé is killed by a Monster (played by Robert John Burke) in Iceland. Beatrice goes on a painful journey to confront the Monster only to learn that the ancient, unkillable creature is devastatingly lonely and has no wish but to die. So begins the story of their unlikely companionship.
Tropes in No Such Thing:
- Book Ends: At the end of the film, Dr. Artaud reveals the machine that is designed to kill the Monster. It deliberately mirrors the surgical cradle Beatrice was strapped into when operated on at the beginning of the film.
- Complete Immortality: The Monster seems to be un-killable. He can be injured and feel pain, but heals quickly and doesn't die.
- Magic Realism: The Monster is an immortal being that lives on an island off the coast of Iceland and eats human sacrifices, but his existence is treated as nothing more than a minor curiosity until Beatrice brings him back to America and her boss convinces the U.S. Army that the Monster might be a valuable research asset.
- Morality Chain: Beatrice convinces the Monster to come with her to New York by offering to help him find Dr. Artaud, but she makes him swear not to attack or kill anyone in return.
- Scream Discretion Shot: In order to regain her ability to walk after the plane crash, Beatrice must undergo a painful surgery. The doctors warn her that the operation will start with her under local anesthesia, and by design the numbness will wear off before the end of the procedure in order to confirm that they've restored feeling throughout her body. But as the doctors make the first incision a bleary-eyed Beatrice jolts awake and opens her mouth to scream. The camera cuts away to the doctors observing the surgery in the gallery covering their ears and wincing while the sound of a surgical drill fades into the soundtrack.
- Time Abyss: The Monster was alive when humanity's ancestors crawled out of the sea.
