Trainwreck is a 2015 romantic comedy film produced and directed by Judd Apatow, written by and starring Amy Schumer.
Amy Townsend (Schumer) is a hard-drinking party girl in New York City, writing for a men's interest magazine headed by alpha bitch editor Dianna (Tilda Swinton). When she's assigned to write a profile on notable sports doctor Aaron Connors (Bill Hader) and falls into a romantic relationship with him, Amy's forced to choose between the noncommittal lifestyle imprinted on her as a child by her cynical father (Colin Quinn), or start settling down like her dutiful sister Kim (Brie Larson). Vanessa Bayer, John Cena, Ezra Miller, and LeBron James (Adam Westing as himself) also star.
Trainwreck was a critical and financial success, grossing $140.8 million worldwide on a budget of $35 million, and it earned two Golden Globe nominations: Best Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy, and Best Actress in a Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy for Schumer's performance.
Trainwreck contains examples of the following tropes:
- Absurdly Youthful Mother: Kim —probably in her mid-late twenties— is the step-mother of a young preteen through marriage. She eventually becomes pregnant with Tom's child.
- Adam Westing: LeBron James plays a heightened version of himself here.
- Alpha Bitch: Dianna isn't a very nice person, even finding it ridiculous that Amy is still mourning her father's death days after the fact.
- Ambiguously Bi: Steven says quite a few questionable things regarding his sexuality, like making intentionally gay threats to a disgruntled filmgoer and describing Amy as if she were a man during sex.
- Best Friend: Nikki to Amy.
- Butt-Monkey: How Dianna treats Nikki.
- The Cameo: Daniel Radcliffe and Marisa Tomei (as themselves playing characters) in The Dogwalker, while Matthew Broderick, Amar'e Stoudemire, Tony Romo, and Marv Albert appear as themselves.
- Deadpan Snarker: Amy, which she gets from her father.
- Deceased Parents Are the Best: Amy and Kim's mother dies before the movie happens, and she's never spoken ill-of by either.
- Disposable Intern: Donald's job at the magazine is pretty thankless.
- Dumb Muscle: Steven is a nice, jacked up guy who happens to be as dumb as a brick.
- The Fashionista: Dianna is very obsessed with her appearance.
- Foolish Sibling, Responsible Sibling: An inversion — older child Amy is the foolish one, while younger child Kim is the responsible one.
- Give Geeks a Chance: Aaron isn't Amy's usual type (dumb muscle airheads) but she falls for him nonetheless.
- The Glorious War of Sisterly Rivalry: Amy and Kim mostly get along, but they still often clash on certain things, like which retirement home to set up their father at.
- Going Commando: Amy. A scene shows Amy and Nikki in the restrooom talking, while Nikki has a bright colored thong around her ankles, Amy doesn't have any underwear under her miniskirt.
- Happily Married: Kim and Tom, in contrast to hers and Amy's parents.
- Hard-Drinking Party Girl: Amy, as you could probably tell from the above image.
- Has a Type: Before Aaron comes along, all of Amy's dates are dumb muscle airheads.
- Hopeless Suitor: Steven is into Amy more than she's into him, which is ultimately what ends their relationship.
- The "I Love You" Stigma: Amy may as well be actually phobic to the word "love."
- In Touch with His Feminine Side: Alistair, and to a lesser extent, Tom.
- Light Feminine and Dark Feminine: Kim and Amy, respectively.
- Missing Mom: Amy and Kim's mother is never seen.
- Nice Guy: Aaron and Steven are both perfectly decent guys.
- Old-Fashioned Rowboat Date: Played with; one of Amy and Aaron's dates involves remote-controlled miniature speedboating.
- Posthumous Character: Amy and Kim's mother has already been long-dead by the start of this movie.
- Red Oni, Blue Oni: Amy and Kim, respectively.
- Rom Com Job: Amy writes for a men's interest magazine, and Aaron is a sports doctor.
- Romantic Comedy: Trainwreck follows all the beats of one, but with subverted tropes and lots of raunchy humor.
- Troubled Sympathetic Bigot: Gordon is politically incorrect as they come, but he's an ailing older man who loves his daughters.
- Unsympathetic Comedy Protagonist: All things considered, Amy is kind of an asshole, and she comes to realize this toward the end.
- Waxing Lyrical: Lebron starts quoting "Gold Digger" in a Deadpan Snarker voice when Aaron talks about Amy. It takes him a minute to catch on.Aaron: You're quoting Kanye?!
- Younger Than They Look: Amy is shocked to learn that, mid-sexual encounter, Donald is sixteen.
