Deadpool (film)

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.
He can see you. Or not

Whatever they did to me made me totally indestructible... and completely unfuckable.

A 2016 movie directed by Tim Miller and starring Ryan Reynolds as Marvel's premiere Anti-Hero, Deadpool, the Merc with a Mouth. Wade Wilson, former special-ops commando turned merc and occasional champion of the little guy, finds love with a stripper named Vanessa Carlysle, and then learns he has terminal cancer. A mysterious recruiter offers him a chance to both cure his cancer and turn him into a superhero, and although Wade initially rejects the offer, at a low point in his life he changes his mind. Slipping out of Vanessa's bed and life without a word, Wade accepts the offer, and then finds it's not what he was promised -- instead of being a secret government super-soldier operation, it's a private super-slave manufacturing program, run by a British psychopath and mutant named Ajax Francis.

After a process that amounts to weeks of literal torture, Wade gains an awesome power -- he's become all but immortal, but at the cost of becoming horribly scarred and disfigured over his entire body. Ajax Francis claims it's something he can fix, but also gloats that it doesn't matter as Wade is destined to become a human weapon under someone else's control. Outraged at the idea, Wade engineers an escape that leaves Ajax Francis thinking he's dead. With the help of his friend Weasel, Wade creates the Deadpool persona in order to hunt down Ajax Francis and force him to fix his appearance. Until then, though, Wade feels he cannot return to Vanessa.

Complicating his search for revenge and restoration is Colossus of the X-Men, who wants Deadpool to join the team. Accompanying Colossus on his mission is gothy trainee X-Man Negasonic Teenage Warhead.

Starting in the middle of the action, as Deadpool is finally closing in on Ajax Francis, the film mixes fourth-wall-breaking exposition with multiple flashbacks (sometimes even nested flashbacks) to fill in the audience on Deadpool's Backstory and set the stage for its final escalation and showdown. Although quite small and intimate by Marvel standards, the resolution -- set in an abandoned, incomplete SHIELD helicarrier -- is still exciting and satisfying.

Easily the funniest and raunchiest superhero film of the decade, its mix of self-aware post-modern sensibility and classic Marvel action has been hailed by numerous reviewers as both refreshing and revolutionary. It also made scads of money. So, naturally, there was a Sequel -- Deadpool 2 came out in 2018.

Not to be confused with 1988's The Dead Pool.

Tropes used in Deadpool (film) include:
  • Actor Allusion: Many many for Ryan Reynolds, including a brief but very visible shot of a picture of him as a Captain Ersatz of Green Lantern during the opening credits.
  • Alliterative Name: Wade Wilson.
  • Anti-Hero: Deadpool, full stop. He explicitly disavows being a hero several times, although as of the earliest flashbacks in the film he is taking small, low-paying jobs where he helps "the little guy" rather than making bigger money as a merc.
  • Awesome McCoolname: What Ajax Francis has renamed himself to have.
    • Angel Dust.
    • This is also Deadpool's reaction to learning Negasonic Teenage Warhead's codename:

Deadpool: And you are...?
Negasonic Teenage Warhead: Negasonic Teenage Warhead.
Deadpool: Negasonic Teenage... what the shit? That's the coolest name ever!

  • Bad Guy Bar: Weasel's bar, called "Sister Margaret's Home for Wayward Girls". Sort of. It's a merc hangout, and its denizens aren't quite criminals, but they're all very dangerous.
  • Badass: Most of the core cast; it's a superhero movie, after all.
    • Everyone who drinks at "Sister Margaret's Home for Wayward Girls".
      • Actually about the only person in the movie who isn't a badass of some stripe is Weasel. Even Blind Al is implied to be a Retired Badass at the least.
  • Badass Longcoat: Negasonic Teenage Warhead wears a black trenchcoat when she goes into the field. Pity it doesn't survive the use of her powers.
  • Birds of a Feather: Vanessa is very much a female version of Wade Wilson.
  • Boom! Headshot!: A triple one, during the freeway fight.
  • Breaking in Old Habits: After we are shown how his amputated hand has regrown (although only to the size of a baby hand), Deadpool makes it clear that he intends to masturbate with said hand to feel himself bigger for a change.
  • Bring My Brown Pants: Explicitly invoked by Deadpool when he explains to a small army trying to kill him why he wears a red costume ("so bad guys don't see me bleed") -- and then points to one of them and says

Deadpool: This guy's got the right idea... He wore the brown pants!

  • Bullet Time: Many of his fights include extended bullet-time or a slow-motion so slow it's almost the same thing -- and of course, in the midst of it, Deadpool can react and comment at the audience's rate of perception.
  • The Cameo: Stan Lee, as required by Federal law. In this Marvel film, he's the DJ at a strip joint.
  • Camera Abuse: Deadpool flicks gum onto the camera lens in a cab, then cleans it off.
  • Cannot Spit It Out: Wade's unable to go back to Vanessa and tell her what's happened to him; he tries several times but chickens out each time. The last time he chickens out gives Ajax Francis the opportunity to kidnap Vanessa.
  • The Cape: Colossus, very much so. Actually taken to parody levels, to further contrast against Deadpool.

Colossus: Breakfast is most important meal of the day!

  • Captain Superhero: A couple monikers in this form are discarded by Wade and Weasel while coming up with his new codename.
  • Casting Couch: Deadpool claims it took sexual favors to someone whose name rhymes with "Poolverine" to get the movie made.
  • Catapult to Glory: Negasonic Teenage Warhead propels Deadpool to the top of the abandoned helicarrier by exploding underneath a scrap of armor on which he is laying.
  • Catch Phrase: Ajax Francis: "What's my name?"
    • And of course Deadpool's "Maximum effort!"
  • Chekhov's Gun: Blind Al's little pistol.
    • Dopinder the cab driver's romantic troubles.
  • Cluster F-Bomb: Pretty much all of Deadpool's dialogue.
    • One scene pretty much consists of him screaming "Fuck! Shit! FUCK!" for a solid minute or so.
  • Comic Book Movies Don't Use Codenames: Averted. Colossus, especially, doesn't call him anything but Deadpool. And Colossus' and Negasonic's real names are never mentioned.
  • Composite Character: Negasonic Teenage Warhead -- who is a telepath/TK in the comics -- replaced Sam "Cannonball" Guthrie in the script and had a lot of his powerset grafted onto her both to match the existing story and to better fit her code name. Though the early drafts had Cannonball as Colossus' trainee, Negasonic Teenage Warhead was subbed in to balance the gender ratio a bit and because her name was much, much cooler, per Word of God.
  • Conspicuous CG: Colossus. Probably a bit deliberately, since it's even pointed out in the credits.
  • Continuity Nods: Numerous to both the whole Marvel Cinematic Universe (regardless of who owns what rights) and the original Deadpool comic book. Among them:
    • The Weapon X program.
    • A half-built SHIELD helicarrier.
    • Bob, agent of HYDRA.
    • And:

Colossus: I'm taking you back to the Professor.
Deadpool: Which one? MacAvoy or Stewart? These timelines can get so confusing.

  • The Corrupter: Deadpool accidentally influenced the cab driver into kidnapping his romantic rival and putting him in the cab's trunk, planning to kill him later. When it's revealed, Deadpool pretends to disapprove of his actions, but in reality, he's very proud, adding that he should kidnap the girl too.
  • Crossover: With the X-Men, especially with the presence of Colossus and Negasonic. With Deadpool lampshading it, wondering which X-Men continuity it is.
  • A Date with Rosie Palms: Deadpool makes several comments about masturbation, including the infamous "I'm touching myself tonight" from the first red-band trailer. Also, a Flash Forward out of a Flash Back overshoots and drops the audience briefly in a moment where he's humping a unicorn plushie in his bed before he rewinds the story back to the right point.
  • Dirty Coward: Weasel. And he makes no bones about it.
    • Though he does at least manage to control his reactions when being threatened by Ajax Francis and Angel Dust and refuses to spill the beans. Apparently owning what's effectively a Bad Guy Bar at least lets him fake it.
  • Do Not Call Me "Paul": Ajax Francis.
  • Double Standard: Mocked like everything else. At one point while fighting a pair of Ajax Francis' female underlings, Deadpool laments "I just don't know! Is it sexist if I hit you?! Is it more sexist if I don't hit you?!" Of course, he says it while reloading his pistol and bringing it up to point at one's head.
  • The Driver: Dopinder the cabbie.
  • Dual-Wielding: Deadpool with his twin katanas or pistols and Ajax Francis with axes.
  • Evil Brit: Ajax Francis, explicitly identified as such in the opening credits.
  • Evil Gloating: Ajax Francis gets in his share.
  • Explosion Propulsion: See Catapult to Glory above.
  • Expressive Mask: Deadpool's costume includes one, although how is uncertain, since it's apparently completely mundane in origin.
  • Fail O'Suckyname/Embarrassing First Name: Ajax Francis. No wonder he tried changing his name to sound more badass.
    • "Captain Deadpool. ... N-nah, just... just Deadpool."
  • "Falling in Love" Montage: Played with, in that almost all we see of Wade and Vanessa's growing love and closeness is moments from their sex life. And often extreme or kinky ones at that.
  • Fast-Forward Gag: Deadpool can fast-forward and rewind the film as part of his Medium Awareness.
  • Flashback: Much of the first hour or so of the film is a series of flashbacks, sometimes nested, explaining how things got to the point where the credits started.
  • Good People Have Good Sex: Defied? Neither Wilson nor Vanessa are conventionally "good" people, but they apparently have one hell of a sex life before he leaves her to find a cure for his cancer.
  • Gory Discretion Shot: Deadpool reaches out and turns the camera away before torturing the Recruiter.

Deadpool: You're not gonna want to see this.

  • Gosh Dang It to Heck: Colossus is constantly trying to get Deadpool to moderate his language. Especially around Negasonic.
  • Goth: Negasonic Teenage Warhead all but radiates "goth" even when she's wearing bright yellow.
  • Groin Attack: Colossus is subjected to this by both Deadpool and Angel Dust. Notably, when Deadpool does it, he breaks his hand.

"Oh God! Your poor wife!"

  • Hooker with a Heart of Gold: Vanessa.
  • I Have Your Hot Stripper Girlfriend/Fiancee: Ajax Francis kidnaps Vanessa in order to force Deadpool into a final confrontation.
  • In Medias Res: The film starts with its credits slowly navigating through and out of the best-known moment from the trailers and the earlier proof-of-concept footage -- the highway fight -- and then spends about 90% of its first hour or so flashing back to explain how we got there.
  • Informed Attribute: Several scenes go into how hideously ugly Deadpool is supposed to be after his mutation. He really just looks like he has some moderate burn scars all over. This is likely for a number of reasons... for one, Deadpool's amount of deformity is very much Depending on the Artist anyway, and he's actually been drawn less disfigured than this. Others likely include the cost that more detailed and uglier makeup/CG would have entailed, as well as the audience's comfort level (it's one thing to say his skin is covered in a constantly shifting mass of tumors and melanomas in the comics, another to have to sit through watching it).
  • Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Even before becoming Deadpool, Wade Wilson was already something of a crazed mercenary who had no illusions of being a hero though he's shown to care about those harmed by people worse than him. Indeed, one of his motivations for going after Ajax Francis is to make sure no one else had to suffer as he did.
  • Left the Background Music On: Inverted/subverted/perverted. The Background Music is always the background music, but Deadpool can hear it -- and can cue it.
  • Line-of-Sight Name: "Deadpool", for the mortality betting pool at Weasel's bar.
  • Medium Awareness: Arguably Deadpool's #2 superpower.
  • Movie Superheroes Wear Black: Averted. Deadpool wears his familiar red-and-black fabric suit; Colossus is in his red singlet, and Negasonic Teenage Warhead wears a classic X-suit (with a leather trenchcoat over it initially, but it gets vaporized by her powers).
  • Murder the Hypotenuse: The solution taken by Dopinder the cab driver to his romantic issues, with Deadpool's encouragement, in a D-plot.
  • My Suit Is Also Super: Mixed. Colossus' singlet gets ripped up in his fight with Angel Dust. Negasonic Teenage Warhead's trenchcoat and other wear is vaporized when she activates her powers (though her black-and-yellow X-Man uniform is unharmed). But Deadpool's costume -- which is apparently entirely mundane -- seems to heal with him. And then there's its Expressive Mask...
  • Nigh Invulnerability: Colossus. Also Angel Dust, aka "less-angry Rosie O'Donnell".
  • No Fourth Wall: Deadpool is continuously addressing the audience. Lampshaded in a flashback that happens when he explains who Blind Al is, and then his self within the flashback addresses the audience:

Deadpool: Wow, a fourth wall break inside a fourth wall break. That's, like, sixteen walls.

Weasel: I'd come with you, but I don't want to.

  • Noodle Incident: Whatever that mission in California was. Also, Wade's time in the special forces in general.
  • One-Hit Polykill: At least one notable instance during the freeway battle, where he takes out three goons with one bullet and a triple headshot. The whole post-accident freeway sequence may count, as he has only 12 bullets at the start and far more than a dozen opponents.
  • Post Modernism: Deadpool's Medium Awareness lets him manipulate the film from inside in ways that range from simply moving the camera away from something he doesn't want the audience to see, to fast-forwarding and rewinding.
  • Power Walk: Deadpool, Colossus, and Negasonic Teenage Warhead approaching Ajax Francis's redoubt in the partially-constructed helicarrier.
  • Reaction Shot: When Deadpool moves the camera away from his impending torture of the Recruiter, we instead get to see the horrified reactions of nearby onlookers.
  • Robotic Torture Device: The airtight glass tube with the sensors and device which always keep the person within just on the edge of suffocating is a very simple one, but effective.
  • Running Gag: Ajax Francis.
  • Shot in the Ass: Happens to Deadpool.
  • Sir Swearsalot: Deadpool.
  • Smoking Barrel Blowout: Played with when Deadpool character holds his pistols up to his face and inhales the smoke with obvious pleasure.

I'm touching myself tonight.

Deadpool: She's got range, who knows?

  • Strip Club: Vanessa works as a stripper and her workplace is shown, complete with her coworkers prancing topless.
  • Superhero: Yes and no. Thoroughly embodied by Colossus, who spends the movie trying to recruit Deadpool into the X-Men, and actively lectures him on what it takes to be a hero. Averted equally thoroughly by Deadpool himself, although he does finally leave himself open to the possibility of becoming one in the last moments of the film.
  • Super Human Trafficking: The entire plot of the movie is driven by the fact that an unnamed group of villains has discovered a scientific process for triggering latent mutations in people with the right genetic potential. So they find people with the right genes who are already in desperate life situations, wave profitable recruitment offers at them, and get them into the laboratory... and then imprison them, torture them, break their wills, mutate them, fit them with "control collars", and then sell the resulting lobotomized "super-slaves" to Third World dictators, arms dealers, crimelords, and whoever else has a sufficiently large pile of money, a profound lack of ethics, and a job opening for a super-powered enforcer and killbot.
  • Take That: Multiple shots are taken at Green Lantern, and even more at X-Men: Origins, particularly for what it did to its version of the title character.
    • Deadpool himself started existence as an Expy of Slade "Deathstroke the Terminator" Wilson from The DCU; one of Deadpool's early attempts at a costume in the movie clearly evokes Deathstroke's "one-eyed" look.
    • At least one shot is taken at the studio for limiting their budget. See Real Life Writes the Plot on the Trivia page.
  • Talking Is a Free Action: At one point Deadpool talks at normal speed during bullet time.
  • That's All Folks: The Stinger.
  • Three-Point Landing: Deadpool calls this a "superhero landing" and points out when Angel Dust is going to perform one. Then he applauds when she not only lands, she does the optional head snap.
  • Torture Cellar: The Weapon X facility.
  • Torture Always Works: Well, almost always, for what Ajax Francis wants to get out of it -- activation of a subject's mutant genes.
  • Truer to the Text: Than the In Name Only version of Wade Wilson seen in X-Men Origins: Wolverine -- due almost entirely to Ryan Reynolds' tireless efforts to do right by the character.
  • Tsundere: Negasonic Teenage Warhead displays some mild traits of this. She clearly actually likes both Colossus and Deadpool (non-romantically), but uses a facade of "mean comments or sullen silence" to maintain her image of a jaded uncaring emo teen.
    • Deadpool himself could count for some definition. He's clearly got a big heart and cares deeply about all his friends, and shows it by insulting them mercilessly and constantly.
  • Two-Faced Aside: How Deadpool expresses his approval of his cab driver's actions in the presence of the two X-men in the vehicle.
  • Wham! Line: Well... a line involving Wham!, at least.
  • Why Don't You Just Shoot Him?: As much as Deadpool wants Ajax Francis dead, he'd rather have him alive at his mercy in order fix his condition, and then kill him. At first. When a wounded Ajax Francis reveals to him towards the end that there's no cure to Wade's predicament, he ultimately doesn't hesitate to pull the trigger.
  • Won't Work On Me: Deadpool breaks bones when dishing out fruitless attacks on Colossus. His, not Colossus'.
  • Wouldn't Hit a Girl: Averted by Colossus. While he states that he'd rather not, once Angel Dust goes after him and proves to be just as strong as he is, he has no problem attempting to beat the everloving crap out of her. Though being The Cape, he does stop to let her fix her top at one point.
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