YMMV / American Ultra

• Audience-Alienating Premise: The marketing essentially tried to sell it as The Bourne Identity as a stoner comedy, which fell very flat to begin with. And then those who saw it found out that there is actually very little "stoner comedy" in the plot.
• Like You Would Really Do It: Midway through the film, Mike is felled by a seemingly-fatal dose of toxic gas employed by TOUGHGUY troops. Although Phoebe administers a countermeasure and sad music plays over a Montage of their life together... but there's still an hour left in the film. Plus, the film opened with Mike in questioning after the events of the body of the film; he wouldn't be around for that questioning if he hadn't survived.
• One-Scene Wonder: John Leguizamo only appears for a couple of scenes as Mike's drug dealer, Rose, but his Cloudcuckoolander tendencies, easygoing nature and helpful demeanor make him one of the most memorable characters in the film.
• The Woobie: Mike himself. Prone to panic attacks whenever he detoxes from drugs, stuck in a dead-end job at a convenience store, unable to give Phoebe the kind of life he thinks she deserves and subjected to random harassment by the local sheriff. Even when he proposes to Phoebe at the end of the film, they both end up being tazed by the cops. Luckily, the events of the film help him get over his situation, and by the end, he's become a suave CIA operative.

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