Film / Paddington 2

Magic. Mystery. Marmalade.

Paddington 2 is the 2017 sequel to Paddington (2014) - based on the popular Paddington Bear books by Michael Bond. It is directed by Paul King, with the screenplay by King and Simon Farnaby.

As his Aunt Lucy's 100th birthday is coming up, Paddington searches for a gift that will show his appreciation of all the work she has done in raising him. In Mr Gruber's shop, he finds an antique pop-up book depicting various landmarks around London. As Aunt Lucy always wanted to visit the city, he decides he'll get it for her. As it costs around £500, he decides to get a job to buy it.

As he's ready to make the payment, Mr Gruber's shop is broken into and the book stolen. But Paddington is found at the scene of the crime, and is sentenced to ten years in prison! The Brown family, however, are determined to clear his name - and Paddington himself won't give up that easily.

Ben Whishaw and most of the cast from the first film return. Hugh Grant, Ben Miller, Brendan Gleeson and Joanna Lumley also star. A third Paddington film titled Paddington In Peru is due to be released on November 8, 2024.

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Paddington 2 provides examples of:

• Accidental Misnaming: It's said that Phoenix never remembers Mrs. Bird's name (which he then demonstrates). Until the climax, which gets lampshaded by her.
• Actionized Sequel: Downplayed. The bulk of the film is not action-packed, keeping to the same tone as the first. Though Paddington's initial encounter with the thief leads to a chase, while the film's climax has the characters hopping back-and-forth between two moving trains.
• Alternative Foreign Theme Song: The Japanese version has a different theme song, titled "Little Hero", once again sung by AI, who provided the commercial theme song for the first film. This time, the song is an original piece rather than a cover of an earlier song, and is about how heroes can come in any size.
• Answer Cut: When the Browns miss the train with Paddington on it at the station, they wonder how they could catch up. Cue a steam train whistling and the camera panning over to reveal the solution on the adjacent track.
• Artistic License – Geography: The train at the end of the movie is going from London to Bristol, a straightforward two-hour trip that would pass through the lush countryside and gently rolling hills of southern England. In the film, though, it's a much longer journey, featuring the kind of rugged scenery that could only be found in more mountainous parts of Britain (i.e. the north of England, Wales and Scotland).
• Artistic License – Law: It's unlikely a court would send a first-time offender to ten years in prison for grand theft. Partly justified by a biased judge.
• Asleep for Days: After nearly drowning Paddington sleeps for three days, causing him to worry that he missed sending a present for Aunt Lucy, since he's awoken on her birthday.
• Attractive Bent-Gender: The security guard describes Phoenix in his nun disguise as attractive. No surprise there: it's the same guy who fell for Mr Brown in the first movie!
• Bad Job, Worse Uniform: Phoenix's dog food commercials have him wearing a giant dog costume when we see them on the TV.
• Baguette Beatdown: Downplayed for laughs. Paddington unintentionally beats Knuckles with a baguette over the head.
• Bait-and-Switch: When the manager at Henry's work announces the new Head of Risk Management, it looks like Henry is going to get the position but then a co-worker is being announced.
• Be Careful What You Wish For: A rare positive example. Phoenix gets precisely the career revival he wanted.....in prison. Luckily for him, he gets to put on as many lavish and dazzling productions as he wants, thanks to Paddington's help in making the prison a nicer place to be.
• Big Damn Reunion: The final scene of Paddington meeting his aunt.
• Blatant Lies: Henry claims he and Mary are performing a spot security inspection. Phoenix doesn't buy it and immediately runs to his secret attic to check the popping book is still there.
• Bookcase Passage: The modern equivalent in the form of a "secret attic" at Phoenix's house.
• Busby Berkeley Number: Phoenix Buchanan gets to perform one of these with his fellow prison inmates in the film's Stinger. And to say he's delighted with the results is an understatement.
• …But He Sounds Handsome: Phoenix describes the cockney thief as having stunning, beautiful eyes, both at testimony and at home in his flat with Mrs Brown. When he calls them "blue" by mistake, despite supposedly never having seen the man in person, Mrs Brown is clued in to look at his own blue eyes and instantly realizes the truth.
• Butt-Monkey: Judge Biggleswade. He cannot catch a break. Even his only 'victory' - sentencing Paddington - gets undone by the movie's end.
• Call-Back: Phoenix's train leaves from Paddington Station - where the Browns found the bear in the first film.
• Canine Companion: Paddington has now made friends with a stray dog, whom he rides while chasing the thief from Mr Gruber's shop.
• Cardboard Prison: Knuckles is able to get Paddington out of prison quite easily, mostly thanks to the guard not bothering to do his rounds as the prisoners have been on such good behaviour.
• The Cavalry: The escaped prisoners planned on abandoning Paddington after he refused to leave the country with them, but they have a change of heart and arrive just in time to save Paddington from drowning.
• Changed My Mind, Kid: Knuckles and the other escapees come back to rescue Paddington in a Big Damn Heroes moment in the finale.
• Character Check: Mr Curry was merely grumpy as opposed to mean in the first film. Here he's far more antagonistic to Paddington — partly because the Colonel covers the "grumpy but kindhearted" role at first, and partly because Curry's getting entirely too into his role as the "Commander of [the] Community Defense Force" (i.e. a glorified Neighbourhood Watch).
• Chekhov's Gag: The marmalade sandwich Paddington keeps in his hat during prison. He accidentally force-feeds Knuckles some of it - and that causes the chef to warm up to him.
• Chekhov's Gun:
  • The coin from Mrs Bird's coin trick early on that Paddington stores in his ear comes in handy later when he needs to call the family from a payphone.
  • Early on, the camera lingers on Judy as she takes a photo of the fairground organ. Later, she remembers the line "where all your dreams come true" because of the banner she captured in that photo.
  • His sticky encounter with a candy apple at the fair gives Paddington the idea to use candy apples to crawl across the traintop later.
  • Paddington's telescopic ladder which he used for his window washings comes in handy during the train chase when he tries to get to the other train. Although this plan was foiled by Phoenix.
• Chekhov's Gunman: The elderly gentleman with whom Paddington has an unfortunate encounter at the barbershop ends up being the judge at his trial.
• Chekhov's Skill: Every member of the Brown family has one of these.
  • Henry's yoga classes allow him to do the splits without pain in the climax when he has a foot on two separate trains. A flashback to his great throwing skills at the fair also comes in useful when he has to knock Phoenix out.
  • Mary's training to swim the English Channel at the start of the film. She dives into the river to rescue Paddington.
  • Jonathan spends most of the film downplaying his love and knowledge of steam trains, which allows him to take control of the train in the finale.
  • Judy's journalist skills are useful throughout, such as tape-recording a conversation to trick Phoenix into thinking that he is talking to his agent, or photographing Phoenix with the pop-up book to clear Paddington's name.
  • Of course Henry Bullseye Brown was going to come back, even if only in a small way. (He gets to biff Phoenix on the noggin with a carnie ball.)
• Clear My Name: The bulk of the plot is the Brown family trying to prove that Paddington didn't steal the book.
• Clockworks Area: When escaping from prison, Paddington is forced to squeeze through the gears in the central clocktower.
• The Cloud Cuckoo Lander Was Right: Naturally Mr Brown is utterly incredulous that his wife's theory depends on completely flimsy evidence from a hardened criminal and a parrot.
• Comically Missing the Point: Knuckles telling Paddington to handle the oranges "one at a time". He meant to not try and carry all the sacks at once, but Paddington takes it to mean he has to individually put the oranges on the worktop.
• Creative Closing Credits: Paddington's scrapbook is shown on the right as the credits roll on the left, revealing things such as scenes from Aunt Lucy's party and that three inmates who escaped the prison with Paddington and later helped rescue him, Knuckles, Phibs, and Spoon, got pardoned, Knuckles opening a restaurant which was quickly a big hit. This ends with a scene of Phoenix being sentenced and showing six months later that he's now made friends with the prison inmates like Paddington did has staged them in a musical show.
• Curtain Camouflage: After the Home-Early Surprise, Mary tries to hide from Phoenix behind some curtains but he finds her out.
• Death Glare:
  • Paddington's "hard stare" makes a return when Knuckles insults his Aunt Lucy. The brutish inmate finds it very intimidating.
  • All the men in prison give one to Paddington after he accidentally mixes their white clothing with the red sock
• Defrosting Ice Queen: While the warden is not an evil one by any means, he starts out as a pretty firm and cold individual. When Paddington starts to improve the prison's environment, he softens up, calling the prisoners by their first names and even reading them bedtime stories.
• Disaster Dominoes: Paddington is prone to create these situations, e.g. the one that leads to a Gag Haircut at the barbershop.
• Disguised in Drag: One of Phoenix's disguises is as a nun, named 'Sister Isabella'. The security guard who fell for Mr Brown's disguise returns and falls for it again. And once again he's convinced she's "the most beautiful woman I've ever seen".
• Disproportionate Retribution: 10 years seems a bit harsh for stealing a book, especially for a first offence.
• Does This Remind You of Anything?: Mr Curry's zeal in policing Windsor Gardens and trying to turn the neighbours against Paddington, including making a "threat level" chart and encouraging them to panic when he escapes prison, is very reminiscent of Britain's struggles with anti-immigrant xenophobia and Brexit (and America's own struggles post-Trump), a fact which was not lost on reviewers.
• Dog Food Diet: Discussed. When Phoenix defends his dog food commercials with "A man has to eat.", Paddington misunderstands and asks if Phoenix was eating dog food. The commercials actually showed him eating dog food.
• Double Take: During Paddington's Hard-Work Montage as a window cleaner he also shows up in front of Mr Brown's office window. Mr Brown greets him and returns to his work only to realise whom he saw three seconds later.
• Dramatic Thunder: Rolls when Knuckles wakes Paddington to make marmalade.
• Earn Your Happy Ending: Paddington clears his name, makes the prison a happier place to be, reforms some of the inmates, improves the lives of his neighbours and ultimately is rewarded with Aunt Lucy coming to London.
• Embarrassing Hobby: Being a peer-pressured teenager means that Jonathan has to keep his love of steam trains quiet.
• Ethereal Choir: Plays as Knuckles tastes Paddington's heavenly marmalade sandwich for the first time.
• Faceplanting into Food: The judge faints and faceplants into his cake after seeing Paddington on the bypassing train.
• Failed Attempt at Drama: After Henry delivers a dramatic speech to Mr Curry about how Paddington improved the lives of the people at Windsor Gardens, he climbs into his car to drive off and find Paddington but the car wouldn't start.
• Fallen-on-Hard-Times Job: Phoenix used to be a respected West End actor, but is now reduced to doing dog food commercials.
• Fingertip Drug Analysis: Spoofed in Paddington's court case where the forensic scientist tastes the marmalade and pronounces it identical to that from the scene of the crime.
• Flashback Cut: When Paddington sees the judge, there is a short flashback to the barbershop scene followed by Paddington groaning "Oh, dear."
• Flynning: Phoenix does a bit of it on the train climax. Justified since he is a stage actor.
  "Stage Combat Level 4!"
• Food Porn: A montage shows various desserts and cakes being served in the prison.
• Futile Hand Reach: Mary does this gesture when Paddington is pulled back into the other train by Phoenix after almost having made his escape via the telescopic ladder.
• Gag Haircut: When Paddington tries to work in a barbershop, this is the result. The haircutting victim ends up being the judge in Paddington's trial, and along with stealing the book, Paddington is charged with grievous barberly harm".
• Generation Xerox: In the gipsy's telling of the story of the popping book, the same actress plays the gipsy and her grandmother (the Dancing Swan), and Hugh Grant plays both Buchanan and his grandfather (the Magician).
• Gilded Cage: Under Paddington's influence, the prison becomes this. The inmates get to eat nice food, flowers are hung in the hallways, and the warden reads a bedtime story over the intercom every night. In The Stinger the inmates even perform a musical number with Phoenix.
• Girly Run: Phoenix while running in his suit of armour across a rooftop.
• Glass Smack and Slide: At the barbershop, Paddington is hurled against the front window and slides down a few seconds later.
• Grail in the Garbage: Sort of; a map to an insanely valuable treasure is hidden inside an innocent-seeming pop-up book among the various old discards that can be found in an old antique shop. This later proves a clue to the Brown family, as Mr Gruber notes that in order to steal the pop-up book, the likely path the culprit would have taken would have taken him past numerous far more valuable items if he was just a thief — meaning that the pop-up book itself was the target, and so is more valuable than anyone previously suspected.
• Gray Rain of Depression: It rains outside when Paddington writes his letter to his aunt from his prison cell.
• Great Escape: Paddington and three other inmates manage to escape prison via a hot-air balloon.
• Hairpin Lockpick: Mrs Bird uses a hairpin to free herself and the Browns after Phoenix handcuffed them to metal bars on the train.
• Happy Ending: For everyone. Jonathan becomes more confident in himself and no longer feels a need to pretend, Judy's paper is a hit, Mary succeeds in swimming the English channel, Henry is promoted at work, Knuckles and his gang are pardoned and open a very successful cafe and, most of all, Paddington gets to see Aunt Lucy and finally show her London. Even Phoenix is much happier in prison, finally able to work with others again and put on shows much to his and everyone else's delight. It's all every bit as delightful and heartwarming as it sounds.
• Hero Stole My Bike: Downplayed. The Browns hi-jack the steam train to follow Paddington and Phoenix. Nobody complains about the train's untimely departure though.
• Hidden Depths: A lot of the prisoners turn out to have quite a lot of nifty skills, starting with how to make lovely desserts.
• High-Speed Train Reroute: During the climactic train chase, Paddington is left stranded in the train's rear which Phoenix decouples, sending it on a dead-end track by hitting the railroad switch with a rod when passing it by.
• Hollywood Law: The judge presiding over Paddington's trial is already biased against him due to the earlier haircutting incident, and even manages to add this to his prison sentence. Though it mainly serves as an amusing call-back, in real life the court would not enlist a judge with previous personal enmity against the accused, in order to assure that the trial is fair and impartial.
• Hollywood Mid-Life Crisis: Henry's having one, having been passed over for promotion in favour of a younger man.
• Home-Early Surprise: Though they managed to lure Phoenix away from his home, he unsuspectedly returns to fetch his tie only to find Mary and Henry red-handed.
• Honor Before Reason: Paddington is initially uncomfortable with the idea of a prison escape.
• Hypocritical Humour: Henry insists there is nothing wrong with Phoenix but, upon seeing his attic, he immediately says "he's a weirdo".
• I Call Him "Mister Happy": Apparently, Phoenix named his buns "Mr and Mrs Botty-cheek".
• I Can Explain: At the barbershop, Paddington tries to explain the mess he created to the owner but it's no use.
• I Lied: When Knuckles admits to Paddington that he never intended to help him clear his name after the break.
• I Never Said It Was Poison: When Phoenix talks about the thief's blue eyes, Mary guesses he's the culprit (as she had only sketched the thief with an ordinary pencil).
• Inevitable Waterfall: The A Minor Kidroduction shows cub Paddington on a river that ends in a dangerous waterfall.
• Informed Attribute: The entire prison is afraid of Knuckles Mc Ginty, even the previously established tough guy. However besides being a bit grumpy, he never commits an act of violence. He even keeps his temper when he hears Henry insulting him.
• Innocently Insensitive: Paddington reminds Phoenix that he was once respected and now does dog food commercials in their first meeting.
• Inventional Wisdom: Great idea to place the button for opening the chute door at the prison laundry room right underneath the chute.
• Iris Out: The Stinger irises out on Phoenix's face.
• Irony: When Phoenix Buchanan falls through the train car's hatch door, he falls into a pile of teddy bears.
• Is This Thing Still On?: While visiting Paddington and his new buddies in prison, Mr Brown switches off the light and turns to his wife, intending to make some not-so-pleasant, private remarks about the prisoners... only for them to remind them that the microphone switch is on his other side. Whoops!
• Just Train Wrong: Uncoupling a train while it was in motion would cause the brake pipes to disconnect, bringing the uncoupled wagon(s) to a screeching halt.
  • A dead-end siding from the mainline would be controlled from a signal box, rather than a lever next to the track.
• Kangaroo Court: Paddington's trial turns into one of these when the judge turns out to be Gerald Biggleswade, the same man he gave a bad haircut to and Phoenix, the actual thief, testifies as one of the witnesses.
• Karmic Jackpot: Paddington has improved the lives of so many residents at Windsor Gardens that they all band together to help him in the climax and pay for Aunt Lucy to visit London.
• Knight's Armor Hideout: Phoenix hides in a suit of armour to sneak by a night guard.
• Lighter and Softer: The first film was far from dark, but Phoenix Buchanan is a notably more comedic antagonist than Millicent, who while still quirky and humorous was a far more malicious and direct threat to Paddington.
• Lonely Piano Piece: Plays when poor Paddington waits for the Browns to show up on visiting day, which they don't just as Knuckles predicted.
• Loud Gulp: Paddington lets out a loud gulp when he sees the judge in court.
• Low Clearance: While crossing the train top, Paddington has to duck a tunnel limbo-style.
• MacGuffin: Phoenix and Paddington both are after the antique pop-up book.
• Make It Look Like an Accident: Phoenix's grandfather killed the Flying Swan by cutting her rope and making it look like she fell mid-act.
• Mass "Oh, Crap!": When Paddington decides to speak to Knuckles, every other inmate looks on in horror and the warden requests a medic be sent to the canteen. When Knuckles looks like he’s about to respond in the expected manner, the inmates all hide beneath their tables, and the warden changes his mind and requests a priest instead.
• Match Cut: The transition of Paddington at the courthouse to him at prison happens via this technique.
• Meaningful Echo: The opening scene where Paddington greets / helps his neighbours is echoed in a later scene after he has been sent to prison, where the effects of his absence are clearly visible even if no one acknowledges it.
• Meta Casting: Hugh Grant plays Phoenix Buchanan, an incredibly versatile yet washed-up actor who was once famous for his vast range of characters. From the beginning of his career, Grant was often criticised for always playing the same romantic Upper-Class Twit in most of his well-known roles and his career had previously hit a standstill because of it ^note The success of Paddington 2 would go on to give Grant a Career Resurrection. According to Grant himself, the character in the script's first draft was actually named Hugh Grant.
• Metaphorically True: Paddington writes to Aunt Lucy after he ends up in prison, claiming he's just had to relocate, that the building is one of the oldest in London, and he gets to see the Browns once a month.
  • Although he lies under oath when he claims he saw Paddington out his window, Phoenix admits he didn't see the man the bear was chasing — not mentioning that he was the man at the time.
• A Minor Kidroduction: We're shown a scene of Uncle Pastuzo and Aunt Lucy finding Paddington as a cub.
• Mirror Monologue: Phoenix does one when he takes off his disguise as the bearded burglar.
• Mobile Shrubbery: Paddington moves across the train station hidden inside a garbage bin.
• Mock Surprise Reaction: When Phoenix faces Mrs Bird, Mr Brown and Judy in the train car, he mocks them by acting terrified and the following line:
  "The Cavalry. And old crone, a little girl and an insurance man."
• Mythology Gag:
  • The basic premise at the start of Paddington collecting money to buy somebody else something for their birthday is similar to the feature-length episode of the first animated Paddington series Paddington's Birthday Bash, though this time it's for Aunt Lucy rather than Mr Brown.
  • The sequence with Paddington at the barber's shop bares some resemblance to an episode of the aforementioned TV series wherein Paddington ends up working at a barbershop and cuts off the hair of a sleeping patron and attempts to stick it back on, though the results here are far more chaotic than the original episode.
  • The animation in the pop-up book segment is similar to the original series.
• Near-Villain Victory: Phoenix enters in all of the music notes on the organ, causing it to open up and display the contents of the treasure chest right in front of him... only for Paddington to cause him to close it right back up again, prompting a Big "NO!".
• Never Bring a Knife to a Gun Fight: Subverted. On the train, Phoenix threatens the Browns with a sword. Mrs. Bird pulls a shotgun from a rack and points it at him uttering a Badass Boast referring to this trope but Phoenix points out that the rifle shoots plastic darts only.
• No Animals Were Harmed: As with the original film, the credits assure us that "No bears were harmed in the making of this film."
• No Good Deed Goes Unpunished: Besides his strong desire to obtain the book, it's mostly Paddington's attempt to stop the disguised Phoenix from stealing the book that leads to him being accused of the theft, as he is seen by the police near Mr Gruber's shop right when the theft is committed, and the pawprints and marmalade stains he makes while running through the shop are used as evidence against him in court.
• Noodle Incident: When asked where he learned to use a knife with such efficiency, he simply states "You Do Not Want To Know."
• No OSHA Compliance: At the prison laundry, the button to open the hatch with the dirty laundry is positioned directly below the hatch.
• No, You: When Judy gets dumped by her boyfriend on the phone, she tells him that she just dumped him.
• Object Ceiling Cling: A first sign that Paddington may not be the best barber in town is when he pulls the scissors from his pocket and in doing so flings them pointy end into the ceiling.
• Parasol of Prettiness: The inmates carry pink parasols in the Busby Berkeley Number shown during the closing credits.
• The Pardon: Paddington is pardoned at the end, despite having escaped from prison. Knuckles and the other escapees also get released later for good behaviour in the end credits sequence.
• Parental Bonus: As in the first film, we get a few cheeky jokes. Nothing too risqué, but fun.
• Perp Walk: When the police walk Paddington down the street in handcuffs with the residents watching on.
• Pie in the Face: Seeing Paddington on the other train, the judge faints and his face plunges right into a cake on his plate.
• Playing the Heart Strings: The emotional string arrangement during the scene where Paddington is drowning in the train car and saying goodbye to Mary. It changes into a hopeful tune as soon as the Big Damn Heroes arrive.
• Plot-Driven Breakdown: The lever on Paddington's telescope ladder breaks off right before he can reach Mary on the other train.
• Plot Tailored to the Party: As in the first film:
  • The residents of Windsor Gardens help the Browns' car start, so they can get to Paddington station.
  • Paddington is able to hitch a lift with the binman he was helping study for The Knowledge.
  • Mrs Bird picks the locks on the Browns' handcuffs.
  • Jonathan's love of trains allows him to drive a steam engine to catch Phoenix's train.
  • Judy's camera blinds Phoenix, allowing...
  • Henry to knock him out with a well-timed ball throw.
  • Mary dives into the river to rescue a drowning Paddington.
• Plummet Perspective: The log dashing down the waterfall in the opening scene.
• The Pollyanna: Paddington, natch, and it really serves him well in prison, as it inspires the prisoners to be the best version of themselves, and transforms the prison from a grey Victorian nightmare to a very pleasant place.
• Poverty Food: The prison food is really disgusting which makes Paddington have a word with Knuckles.
• Prisoner Performance: Invoked. The film ends with Big Bad Phoenix Buchanan getting sent to jail. He accepts imprisonment happily, because now he can act to his heart's content and do musical routines with his fellow prisoners. As he himself points out, "I've always wanted a captive audience!" Later, a closing credits stinger features a scene where Phoenix performs a Busby Berkeley Number with his fellow inmates, and he is clearly delighted while doing so.
• Pun:
  • The newspaper in the prison is named the Hard Times.
  • The newspaper Knuckles is reading in the kitchen has a story "Dry cleaner accused of money laundering. A deal is being ironed out."
  • In The Stinger, Phoenix calls his fellow inmates a "captive audience".
• Real Men Wear Pink: The prisoner's uniforms get a pinkish hue when Paddington accidentally puts a red sock in with the black-and-white uniforms and the colour runs. Despite their initial anger, they gradually adopt it as their new standard uniform and wear it long after. It later turns out most of the prison inmates know how to make their own specialised desserts and later they all appear in a flamboyant prison-wide musical number and clearly having a wonderful time. They are also seen doing group dancing and the montage shows they take to gardening and planting flowers throughout the prison.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Mr Brown delivers an epic one to Mr Curry in the third act.
• Recorded Spliced Conversation: Judy uses a tape recorder when they meet Phoenix's agent. She then plays the recordings of her voice on the phone to Phoenix to get him out of his house - so Mary can investigate.
• Red Sock Ruins the Laundry: When doing the prison laundry, Paddington accidentally lets slip in a red sock with the standard black-striped white prison shirts and slacks but decides to let it pass, figuring it won't be a big deal. In the next scene, he thinks that the new pink look of the outfits really brightens up the place, though the looks on the faces of the other prisoners say otherwise.
• Rogues Gallery: Name-dropped by Mr Brown when he sees the crooks gathering behind Paddington during the family's prison visit.
• Rule of Funny: One red sock in one of the washing machines somehow turned all prison shirts vivid pink. It makes for a good laugh though.
• Sarcasm-Blind: Paddington refrains from complaining to the Lethal Chef... until said chef says he "just loves it when people complain".
• Secret Room: Phoenix has a secret attic in his apartment which Mary finds during her and Henry's "visit".
• Self-Deprecation:
  • Mrs Bird says that actors are inherently evil because they lie for a living.
  • In particular, Hugh Grant is clearly having a lot of fun parodying his own reputation as a somewhat foppish and self-important Large Ham who was an incredibly popular heart-throb in his younger days but whose career has since become stuck in a bit of a rut.
• Shipper on Deck: Paddington helps the kiosk lady and Colonel Lancaster get together.
• Shout-Out:
  • To Modern Times; when escaping from prison through a Clockworks Area, Paddington is forced to squeeze through the gears in the central clocktower, which also give him a Chaplinesque grease moustache on his muzzle.
  • The Art Shift depicting Paddington and Aunt Lucy visiting the London landmarks in the pop-up book is a homage to the classic BBC adaptations of the books in the 1970s and 1980s, which depicted Paddington himself as a stop-motion animated stuffed bear who interacted with a world presented as animated paper cut-outs.
  • The prison setting is a big shoutout to Wes Anderson's The Grand Budapest Hotel. Paddington's Old-School Chivalry, feeding of the prisoners and befriending hard-boiled inmates who help him escape is a direct reference to M. Gustave. The aesthetic influence is especially pronounced by the red sock dying the convicts' uniforms lavender pink.
  • One of the stories in the Hard Times reports that the warden is going to throw a party in the county jail at which Spider Murphy will play the tenor saxophone while the prisoners will all be dancing to the jailhouse rock.
  • One of the convicts Sir Henry Willcott, who is apparently standing for election, says "I couldn't possibly comment" when looking at Mrs Brown's sketches of suspects, which was the trademark phrase of the villainous politician Francis Urquhart in the original House of Cards.
  • To The Untouchables: "Never bring a knife to a gunfight". She even has a Scottish accent like Connery!
  • To William Shakespeare's The Winter's Tale: when Phoenix has Paddington cornered at the edge of the last train car, he quips "Exit bear, pursued by an actor" (which is an allusion to a stage direction of the play: "Exit, pursued by a bear.")
• Shrine to Self: Phoenix's attic contains mannequins with costumes from all his famous roles (including a green one for his Mr Toad outfit) and photos from his Glory Days.
• Sliding Scale of Idealism vs. Cynicism: The Paddington films are incredibly sweet, heartfelt, and idealistic.
• Slow-Motion Fall: When Paddington is dropped by the swan and falls onto Wolfie's back.
• Smash Cut: A hard cut from Paddington in court to him in prison.
• Smoke Bomb: Phoenix uses one to disappear after his heist.
• Snooping Little Kid: Inverted. It's the parents who do the snooping here.
• Songs in the Key of Lock: Madame Kozlova's fortune is hidden in a secret compartment inside a fairground organ which unlocks when a specific series of notes is played.
• Spit Shake: Knuckles wants to seal the marmalade deal with Paddington this way, but the latter doesn't know this gesture and spits on Knuckles' hand.
• Spotting the Thread: After the trial, Mr Gruber talks with Mrs Brown as he observes that the thief's most likely route into the shop during the robbery would have taken him past several more potentially valuable items before he got to the pop-up book. Since the thief didn't bother taking any jewels or other more obvious items, this helps them realise that the robber had a specific interest in that book rather than the crime being one of opportunity, giving the Browns a clue for their own investigations.
• The Stinger: Phoenix performs a Busby Berkeley Number with the inmates in prison and he is clearly delighted while doing so.
• String Theory: Mary created a whiteboard connecting clues about the mysterious burglar with red strings.
• Stylistic Suck: Everything about the Harley's Gourmet Dog Food advert shown on TV — from the premise, costuming, and sets to Phoenix's line delivery and plummy Gielgud accent — perfectly mimics cheesy 1980s commercials. It's not surprising why he sees them as an embarrassment and something to keep the lights on.
• Symbolism: While the other prisoners are cross with him at the time, Paddington accidentally turning the prison uniforms pink (via a red sock) can be interpreted as how the young bear is already influencing the prison to change for the better.
• Tastes Like Friendship: Paddington bonds with the prison chef Knuckles by introducing him to marmalade.
• Tempting Fate: Mary noting that they haven't broken anything at Phoenix's apartment is followed by Henry smashing a vase.
• Third-Act Misunderstanding: Paddington thinks the Browns have forgotten about him when they miss a visit. They just forgot because they were too busy investigating Phoenix.
• Time-Compression Montage: Doubling as a Hard-Work Montage when we see Paddington's Piggy Bank savings for his aunt's ticket growing due to his work. Another one shows Paddington's kindness transforming the prison into a nice place to live.
• Time Skip: The children have aged noticeably, and Henry is having a mid-life crisis. A few years have passed since the first movie, as in real life.
• Tongue on the Flagpole: Paddington's tongue gets stuck to a candy apple.
• Train Escape: Phoenix uncouples the train to lose Paddington.
• Trapped in a Sinking Car: Paddington gets trapped in a train car sinking into a river. Mary dives after him but they both cannot get the locked train door to open. Cue the Big Damn Heroes moment for Knuckles and his friends.
• Treasure Map: The pop-up book is actually this - leaving clues to the combination of the safe that contains the treasure.
• Unspoken Plan Guarantee: The prison break works flawlessly because we didn't learn any details in advance.
• Unwitting Instigator of Doom: Phoenix was just at the fair to be part of the opening ceremony. Paddington casually mentioning the book he wants to get Aunt Lucy kicks off his evil scheme to find the clues that unlock the safe with the Flying Swan's treasure.
• Villain Ball: Phoenix collects all of the musical notes for the steam organ to unlock the hidden fortune, but he's actually only written them in the book itself, which bites him when Paddington steals it back and he forgets the order without any backup notes for him to consult. Furthermore, him having the book there in the first place enables the Browns to photograph him holding the book.
• The Voiceless: Charley Rumble only ever speaks in a fierce growl.
• Vow of Celibacy: After being dumped by her boyfriend, Judy's first reaction was to become a nun. But she soon got over that.
• Wall Crawl: Paddington uses candy apples as suction cups to sneak up on Phoenix.
• What Have We Ear?: Mrs Bird pulls the coin trick on an utterly surprised Paddington.
• Wig, Dress, Accent: Phoenix disguises himself when committing his crimes. Justified since he's an actor and has the props and costumes necessary to pull off said disguises (not to mention knowing how to change his voice and body language).
• Writing Indentation Clue: Mary sneaks into Phoenix's apartment and uses the pencil trick to obtain info about the location of the book which Phoenix wrote down on a notepad earlier.
• Wrongful Accusation Insurance: Paddington is not charged for breaking out of prison and helping three other inmates escape.

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