Cocktail
A 1988 film starring Tom Cruise, Elisabeth Shue, and Bryan Brown. Cruise plays Brian Flanagan, a former soldier returning home to New York City. Brian hopes to make it big on Wall Street, only to be told by every investment firm in town not to waste his time. He has no college education, no job prospects, and no future. His part-time bartending job becomes his only option. But even becoming one of New York's top bartenders won't make him a millionaire. What might? Marrying a rich woman...
His outlook on life changing, Brian heads down to Jamaica where the money is flowing. There, despite early protests against falling in love, he meets the girl who will change everything.
Tropes used in Cocktail include:
- The Bartender: Naturally.
- Big Applesauce: Set in NYC.
- Driven to Suicide: Doug Coughlin.
- The Eighties: Made in good ol' 1988.
- Eighties Hair: Obviously.
- Fish Out of Water: Brian, when he first starts behind the bar. Let's just say he doesn't even know what's in a martini.
- Flair Bartending
- Food Slap: Tom Cruise's character goes to the restaurant where Jordan works, and she responds by offering him the "Daily Special" — right on his lap.
- Gold Digger: Both Doug and Brian are trying to be this at times.
- Goodbye, Cruel World
- Ho Yay: Brian and Doug's relationship is more of a driving force in the plot than the love story - by the end, Doug even says that Brian is the only person he's ever cared about. And his suicide note starts off "My Dearest Brian..."
- Nothing but Hits: The songs used in the movie.
- The Obi-Wan: Doug Coughlin (actually addressed as such by Brian).
- Returning War Vet: Brian, though the skills he used in the army don't help him get a job on Wall Street or behind the bar.
- Rich Suitor, Poor Suitor: A gender-swapped version, when Brian ditches the young artist/waitress he's in love with in favor of a rich older woman. He eventually changes his mind. Subverted when it turns out that the waitress is actually an heiress, and double-subverted when her family disowns her for getting back together with Brian, so at least in the short-term she really is poor.
- Travelling Salesman Montage
- What the Heck Is An Aglet??: A "Flugelbinder," apparently.
