Film / Stag

Stag is a 1997 American thriller film, directed by Gavin Wilding, made for HBO and later released theatrically. Stag features an ensemble cast including Ben Gazzara, Andrew McCarthy, Taylor Dayne, Mario Van Peebles, Lawrence Leritz, William McNamara, John Henson, Kevin Dillon, and Jerry Stiller. It was produced by Lionsgate Entertainment.

Victor Malick has it all—money, looks, charm, and he is about to marry the woman of his dreams. But, most of all, he has total control—until the night of stag party. As his buddies from the old days mingle awkwardly with his new professional friends and associates, a couple of strippers arrive to spice up the evening. But in the middle of the Sex, Drugs, and Rock & Roll, tragedy strikes, as one of the strippers is killed when an innocent party game turns into a nightmare. Facing the possibility of a jail sentence for their part in her death, the ten men must decide what story to tell the world and most importantly, what to do with the only innocent witness—the other stripper.

Tropes:

• Accidental Murder: The deaths of neither Kelly nor Stoker were planned. Kelly suffers Death By Falling over after the men tossing her in the air drop her on the tile floor and she breaks her neck. Stoker gets shot in a Gun Struggle as Taylor and Pete attempt to wrestle his gun off him. The epilogue states that those involved in Kelly's death were charged with Reckless Endangerment, and Stoker's death was treated as self-defense.
• Accidental Public Confession: Dan—while Bound and Gagged on the couch with Serena—accidentally knocks Jon's video camera off the coffee table. It hits the floor and starts recording: capturing the words of everyone in the room as they debate the merits of murdering Serena and framing her for the other deaths. In the epilogue, Dan mentions that the tape became the main piece of evidence in the subsequent trial.
• All for Nothing: When the police do finally arrive after Pete has been shot and they shoot Serena, the remaining members of the group are still arguing and assigning blame on everyone but themselves. After all the hours they spent trying to come up with a convincing story to explain what happened and avoid jail time, they are no closer to having a story than they were when they first started arguing about it. In the end, everyone except Dan gets at least three years in prison for Reckless Endangerment, Kidnapping, or both, they are unable to avoid the prison time they were attempting to, and their reputations they were trying so hard to protect are shattered after their successful prosecutions for the events. The two most worried about their reputations, Michael Barnes and Victor Mallick, end up getting sentenced to the most jail time, Victor because he ended up snapping and stating he was willing to shoot Serena, and Michael because he lied to the prosecutor for an immunity deal when he was just as guilty as everyone else, save for Dan.
• And Starring: And Ben Gazzara.
• Asshole Victim: Uncle Frank Grieco, who becomes more and more depraved the longer the situation wears on, to the point he suggests hiding the bodies in his restaurant freezer. He loses his temper with Dan and instigates a fight that goes very poorly for him.
  • Also: Pete Weber, who gets his just deserts from Serena after spending the majority of the film suggesting solutions to their problem that included killing her.
• Big Bad: Pete Weber. While all of the guys, save for Dan and Timon, are largely of the Jerkass variety, Pete is the worst of all. He not only has a lot to lose, being on parole, but most of the more extreme solutions discussed to deal with the problem are Pete's ideas. Additionally, it's Pete's idea to throw the stripper in the air on the sheet, resulting in her death, and Pete is involved with the struggle to disarm Stoker that results in Stoker getting accidentally shot, so not only is he the primary villain, he's the primary reason the rest of the group is stuck in the situation they're in.
• Bound and Gagged: After Dan tries to release Serena, Pete has the pair of them dragged downstairs to the living room and bound and gagged on the couch, while the remaining party-goers decide what to do with them.
• Bring the Anchor Along: Serena is duct taped to a chair. She manages to tip the the chair over and drag herself across the floor to the window using her elbows.
• Brutal Brawl: Subverted. After Dan and Uncle Frank almost come to blows, a later comment from Dan finally pushes the irritated Frank over the edge. He charges Dan, and due to Frank being played by tough guy Ben Gazzara, we expect a major fight is about to happen. Then Dan does a defensive move that slams Frank into the floor, and the action immediately puts Frank into a massive coronary, and he quickly dies.
• Building of Adventure: The entire film takes place in Victor's Long Island mansion: much of it in only two rooms.
• Chekhov's Gun: Jon's video camera. He is shooting footage of the party in the early scenes and only puts the camera away when situation goes to hell and Kelly and Stoker die. However, the viewer is certainly aware of it (and, if they are paying attention, it even remains in plain sight in scenes in the lounge), so it does not come out of nowhere when it plays a role in the denouement.
• Crime After Crime: Basically the entire plot. Party-goers, having committed two counts of manslaughter in the second degree, spend the rest of the film debating whether to commit first-degree murder in order to keep a witness from talking.
• Deadly Hug: In a bizarre act of bravado, Pete presses himself up against the gun Serena is holding, puts his arm around her waist, and leans in to kiss her. She shoots him.
• Death by Falling Over: The drunken revelers are tossing Kelly in the air in a blanket. One of them slips and lets go of the blanket, causing the others to drop her. Kelly lands awkwardly on the tile floor, breaking her neck.
• Disposable Sex Worker: A group of men attempt to cover up the accidental death of stripper at a stag party.
  • Also, they spend the movie trying to decide what to do to keep the dead stripper's sister (who actually is a sex worker and sleeps with one of the men at the party) and many of the solutions involve simply murdering her or framing her as the culprit. None of the men even care that she's a single mother as well, and everyone acts as though their own personal lives are far more important than hers.
• Dramatis Personae: Played with. Due to the large number of characters in the cast, rather than spend a lot of time on character development, all the characters are given a freeze frame with on-screen text that lists their full character's name, profession, and a little bit about them.
• Driven to Suicide: Timan. Early in the film, Pete discovers that Timon has a secret gay lover and quite publicly threatens to blackmail him over this. Later, the realisation that he is unlikely to be able to extract himself from the situation without either going to prison or helping to cover up a major crime (or, in extremis, becoming an accessory to murder), combined with the fact—that even if he does somehow escape with life, family, career and reputation intact—he will still be under Pete's thumb, drives him to drown himself in Victor's swimming pool.
• Dwindling Party: Played with. Even though the movie focuses on the group simply trying to come up with solutions to save their reputations and avoid prison after the deaths of Kelly and Stoker, Ben has a massive heart attack and dies after attempting to fight Dan, Timon commits suicide by drowning himself in Victor's pool, Pete gets fatally shot by Serena, and Serena gets killed when the police mistake her for an active threat when she turns towards them brandishing two guns.
• Extreme Doormat: Jon, who immediately agrees enthusiastically with whatever plan anyone suggests for dealing with the rapidly spiraling situation. Even if that plan involves dumping bodies, framing innocent people, or murder.
• Extremely Short Timespan: The film's events cover one night, following the events of an extremely eventful stag party. It starts in the late afternoon and ends at around sunrise the next morning.
• Fake Static: Pete uses Stoker's phone to call the agency to tell them that the strippers are leaving Victor's place and that they won't be able to make the next job. He does this so that—if anyone does report them missing—it will be assumed that it happened after they left Victor's. He pretends that the connection is bad to keep the call short and cover that he doesn't sound much like Stoker, and quickly hangs up.
• Final Girl: Subverted. Serena finally gets the guns, and the upper hand, and shoots her main tormentor, Pete, to death, and then is almost immediately shot by police right after, as they mistakenly believe she's an active threat.
• The Friend Nobody Likes: Pete Weber is definitely this. Barnes has no idea what Pete does for a living, and even his true friend, Victor, isn't that thrilled to see him at the party.
• The Ghost: Victor's fiancee, whose name is not even mentioned.
• Gun Struggle: When Stoker finds Kellly's body, he panics and starts shooting; wounding a couple of the guests. Taylor and Pete tackle him and attempt to wrest the gun off him. In the struggle, Stoker is shot and killed.
• A House Divided: Initially the ten men are agreed that they will be unanimous in whatever action they decide to take regarding the two dead bodies in the living room, and the live stripper they have imprisoned in the bedroom. However, as the night wears own, relationships become strained and cracks start to show in the united façade, especially as some of the plans suggested become more...'drastic'.
• Intoxication Ensues: The straightedge Michael consumes several of the brownies Jon bakes, not realizing that they contain hash.
• Jerkass: While everyone has their turn, the main one is Pete Weber. Uncle Frank Grieco also turns into one the more agitated he gets. Victor Mallick also turns into a big one by the end, and Michael Barnes is one, although he goes out of his way to hide it.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: While Dan is one of the most moral characters in the film, and argues against killing Serena every step of the way, that doesn't mean he doesn't have his moments of being a jerk, especially when he comes up with a solution that involves kidnapping Serena's son permanently so she wouldn't report what happened to the police.
• The Mafia: Uncle Frank Grieco sometimes comes across as a mafioso, and the character being played by Ben Gazzara certainly projects the image. At one point he even suggests they dispose of the bodies in the freezer at his restaurant, which he claims is as big as a cave.
• Mama Bear: The guests really compound their folly when they decide that the best way to ensure Serena's cooperation is to threaten her son. Never underestimate the protective instincts of a Single Mom Stripper.
• The Millstone: Pete Weber. It's his idea to toss the stripper in the air causing her death. He also orders all the phones be disconnected, very nearly getting everyone caught when the alarm goes off and the alarm company can't reach Victor on the land line. He also suggests numerous plans to make things go away, and ultimately is the main reason all the characters are in the mess they're in. Even when he gets his just deserts, he inadvertently causes Serena's death when the police burst in right after she shoots him, and she turns towards the cops, guns in hand, and they think she's an active threat and shoot her.
• Murder Is the Best Solution: Pete arrives at this conclusion as the night drags on, and decides that if Serena and Dan will not go along with the plan to cover up Kelly's death, then Dan and Serena will have to die as well. He tries to convince the other guests, and a disturbing number of them seem willing to go along.
• Nosy Neighbour: One of the main threats of exposure the men face is Victor's neighbor Ted who keeps coming over to investigate the noises coming from Victor's house. Every time, one of the party-goers has to be sent out to divert him. Given the noises include gunshots and an imprisoned stripper kicking out the glass in in upstairs window in an attempt to escape, he is right to be suspicious.
• Obvious Villain, Secret Villain: Andrew McCarthy's all-black-wearing, extortionist drug dealer on parole introduction (complete with a screen crawl that lets us know all of it, and also that he's self-employed) lets the audience know this is a bad dude who is going to be a serious headache. Unfortunately, so many of the other party guests are so anxious to avoid prosecution they eagerly side with Pete on a lot of his ideas, even when they go to a murderous extreme. As for the secret villain, while Victor eventually folds to the pressure and decides to kill Serena to protect his impending marriage and reputation, in the end, the secret villain is actually Michael Barnes, who is more than happy to let things play out (he leaves the room for legal cover during one tense sequence, and after the police arrive, he attempts to cut a deal to throw everyone else under the bus and protect himself. It doesn't work).
• One-Word Title
• Police Are Useless: Mostly subverted. They respond to the second alarm call when the alarm company can't confirm the second activation was a false alarm before Victor gets them called away. Later, after Serena has just killed Pete, they mortally wound Serena, but in their defense, she did have two guns in her hand and was turning towards them with the guns raised as they were telling her to drop her weapons. Due to Serena's shock from having just killed Pete, she technically gave the police a type of cause to shoot her.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Serena delivers one to the surviving men after she refuses their latest offer of her going into hiding while they hold her son hostage. She lambastes them; asking what gives them the right to declare her life worthless, when they are the ones who killed her sister, and are proposing killing her just to spare them from jail time.
• Shell-Shocked Veteran: Dan Kane is introduced as Gulf War veteran suffering from PTSD.
• Single Mom Stripper: Serena is a stripper and prostitute (she sleeps with Ed Labenski to earn extra cash, and also offers to sleep with Victor but he turns her down) who has a 10 year old son Jamie at home. When the men learn of this, they try to use her son as a bargaining chip against her.
• Stag Party: A stag party goes horribly awry when the drunken revelers accidentally kill a stripper and her escort. Most of this psychological drama centers on the men's attempts to reach consensus on how to handle the situation and avoid police intervention.
• Stripper/Cop Confusion: When the two strippers and their minder—all dressed as cops—show up at the stag party and pretend to put Victor under arrest, he initially thinks they are real cops and panics, due to large amount of drugs at the party. It is only when Serena pulls off her police hat and lets her long blonde hair tumble free that realizes what is going on.
• Suicide by Sea: Timon—seeing no way out of the spiraling Crime After Crime situation he is trapped in—drowns himself in Victor's swimming pool.
• Surprisingly Realistic Outcome: When Stoker opens fire on the group, Ben Marks dives for cover and ends up going through a glass coffee table. After things die down, the SFX team goes the extra mile by giving Ben cuts to the face and arms, a realistic outcome for someone who bodily shattered a glass table. He spends the rest of the film with a bandage over a nasty cut to his arm.
  • After Victor's nosy neighbor trips the alarm a second time, and the landlines have been disconnected at Pete's orders, a tense moment is interrupted by a call to Victor's cell phone from the alarm company. Since the alarm was tripped and reset, but they didn't get an all-clear call from Victor as he gave them previously, (and they couldn't call Victor due to the phones being out) the alarm company realistically notifies the police to investigate before reaching Victor on his cell phone. He panics and calls off the police, but they do arrive, and actually get out of the car before we see them respond to the radio call from the alarm company confirming it was another false alarm and leave.
• What You Are in the Dark: While he ends up a Jerkass as the film progresses, in the early goings on, Serena attempts to seduce Victor, basically telling him if they have sex, no one will ever know. But Victor, who's about to be married, maintains his scruples and turns Serena down.
• You Can Leave Your Hat On: Sisters Kelly and Serena perform a raunchy striptease for Victor at his stag party, to the whooping and cheers of all the men present.
• You Wouldn't Shoot Me: This seems to be the logic Pete is employing when he presses himself up against the gun Serena is holding and attempts to kiss her. Not so much that won't specifically kill him, but that she lacks the nerve to kill anyone. He's wrong.

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