Some are born heroes. Others are maids.
Game Over, Man! is a 2018 action-comedy film released on Netflix starring Adam Devine, Anders Holm, Blake Anderson, Neal McDonough, and Daniel Stern.
Written by Holm and directed by Kyle Newacheck, it's like Die Hard, as a stoner comedy. The story centers on three loser friends (Alexxx, Joel, and Darren) working as hotel maids who want to get their business idea off the ground. Just when they are on the verge of getting their video game financed, their benefactor is captured by terrorists who take the hotel hostage for ransom. They must fight the terrorists, save the hostages, and get their business off the ground. Hilarity Ensues.
This film stars the main actors from Workaholics, and whilst this isn't explicitly a Workaholics film, it shares a lot of the same cast and crew.
Tropes!
- Action Survivor: The three main guys are not trained professionals, and get by largely on luck and resourcefulness.
- Armoured Closet Gay: Joel is very defensive about trying to appear straight. He tries to overcompensate to not make the Transparent Closet so obvious.
- As Himself: Steve-O, Chris Pontius, Donald Faison, Mark Cuban, and the singer Shaggy are among those celebrities that make cameos in the movie. Jack Black and Joel McHale also appear, though its not explicit if they're playing themselves or just party guests.
- Atrocious Alias: Joel doesn't like being called "Baby Dunc."
Joel: My name is Joel, you idiots!
- Attention whor*: Every time someone compliments anyone but Darren, he immediately tries to take credit for the idea.
- Ax-Crazy: Erma, big time.
- Autobots, Rock Out!: The skintendo is debuted to the sounds of Metallica.
- Badass Normal:
- Utterly deconstructed at the start; the trio's first attempt at fighting the criminals is completely sub-par and clumsy, only winning through sheer luck.
- Erma reminds one of the mooks that he was once a garbageman prior to becoming a terrorist.
- Bad Boss:
- The Bey is surprisingly cruel to Mr. Ahmad. Dissing his choice in phone (BlackBerry), making him eat a crab-infested hooker's ass for his birthday, the list goes on. It's why he became the villain.
- Mr. Ahmad is just as bad for being just as terrible a boss, killing two of his own men, at least.
- Berserk Button:
- "I'm not a loser!!!"
- "My friend!? YOU SOUND LIKE MY DAD! HE WASN'T MY FRIEND! HE WAS MY EVERYTHING!!!"
- "Oh, I know you didn't just call me the f-word!"
- Big "NO!": Mr. Ahmad's last words as he finds his supposed bags of money containing active bomb collars.
- Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: The Bey becomes a real asshole in private. No affability. And he tells the guys he won't write another check to piss off Ahmad and because it made him laugh. This gets Lampshaded.
Alexxx: He seemed like a nice guy on Instagram.
- Black and Nerdy: Discussed Trope. Donald knows he's this, and he gets annoyed when he's compared to the same kind of nerd in Die Hard.
- Bread, Eggs, Breaded Eggs: Alexxx loves using this trope in his wordings.
Alexxx: Fine! Yes! I live here! I paint myself here! I jerk off here! I paint myself while jerking off here!
- Bring My Brown Pants: One of the hostages craps herself in fear when the terrorists kickstart their plan.
- Broken Pedestal: The Dew'd Crew loses a lot of respect for The Bey when he screws them over at the end.
- The Butler Did It: Even though Mr. Ahmad insisted that he isn't a butler, he is the true mastermind behind the hostage situation. Alexxx even quote the trope after Mr. Ahmad's secret is out.
- Camp Gay: Joel thrives in this trope once he comes out.
Darren: He's gay now.
- Character Development: By the end of the film, Cassie stops being an Extreme Doormat and stands her ground.
- Cruel and Unusual Death: A notable example being Bilbo, the mook that suffers getting an ear and part of his face sliced off by Alexxx shoving his face into the rotating blade of a meat cutter. Subverted when it doesn't quite kill him, and he actually dies when Joel shoots him.
- Dark Action Girl: Erma, played by Rhona Mitra.
- Death by Cameo: Several celebrities get killed throughout the movie. Steve-O and Donald Faison are executed by Conrad and Ahmad with pointblank shots to the head. Flying Lotus' head exploded by his bomb collar. Joel McHale is stabbed in the head with a high-heeled shoe by Sugar Lyn Beard in a forced battle to the death.
- Death by Falling Over: Joel inadvertently cause Jared, a mook who was charging at him, to trip and fatally breaks his neck on a nightstand.
- Decoy Antagonist: Conrad is just a puppet to the real antagonist, Mr. Ahmad.
- Defiant Captive: The Bey doesn't comply with his captors and especially Mr. Ahmad to giving up his access codes, and instead making Trash Talk throughout the ordeal.
- "Die Hard" on an X: A variation. Rather than other films that follow Die Hard and usually just change the setting, this film has been described as being Die Hard as a stoner comedy.
- Dirty Old Man: Mitch, the main trio's boss, frequently makes crude remarks about and at younger women.
- Disney Villain Death: Donald gets his leg caught on the guys' Bedsheet Ladder and the mattress tied to it falls out the window, dragging Donald out to fall to his death.
- Earn Your Happy Ending: The bad guys, including Mr. Ahmad, are dead and the hostages are saved. However, the guys do not get their funding from The Bey. Fortunately, Mark Cuban offers to buy their story which casting them in a video game which turns out to be highly succesful. The guys celebrate their newfound fortunes on a yacht...until the audience sees a boat carrying armed mercenaries who are headed towards their yacht.
- Elevator Escape: Both played straight and Played for Laughs. The guys escape on a elevator from getting caught by Conrad and Erma, and attempt to climb through the access panel. A mook waiting for them finds their elevator empty and presumes that pulled this stunt before walking away. But the camera pans to the actual elevator carrying the guys, who are still struggling to open the access panel.
- Equal-Opportunity Evil: The bad guys are led by a Tunisian, with an albino (according to the Bey) as the second in command, with a German woman (though Conrad claims she's faking it), three black guys, two gay lovers, an eastern European, and several white and Ambiguously Brown men.
- Establishing Character Moment: Erma gets on in her first kill, by throwing a knife into a security guards eye, and then yanking it out to lick the blood off of it.
- Even Evil Has Loved Ones: The two mooks that were in a relationship together. When one of them is killed, his partner is enraged and devastated, taking it upon himself to take revenge personally against the trio.
- Even Evil Has Standards:
- Erma did not approve of Mitch's blatant sexism.
- It's all but stated that the initial dog bombing was botched on purpose. Too bad Mr. Ahmad didn't have this issue.
- Everybody Knew Already: Joel confesses that he is gay before the climax only to be told that his friends already knew, as apparently he has gotten drunk and confessed to them dozens of times.
- Evil Is Petty: More or less every terrorist has shades of this.
- Explosive Leash: The terrorists have the hostages strapped with motion sensitive explosive collars to prevent them from escaping.
- Extreme Doormat: Cassie is this at the beginning of the movie.
- Extreme Omnisexual: The Bey; he brags early on about engaging in both necrophilia and bestial*ty (at the same time, using a taxidermied hyena with a fake vagin*), and when forced to perform sex acts on a male hostage, he does so gladly and makes it clear he enjoys it.
- Eye Scream: Erma kills a hotel security guard with a thrown knife to the eye.
- Face Doodling: dild*, a mook, does this to Erma when she's high on salvia and takes pictures. She shoots him when she comes to her senses.
- Fake Nationality: In-Universe. According to Conrad, Erma isn't German, she's from Pacoima.
- False Friend: Mr. Ahmad tries to invoke this with The Bey saying that people are only friendly with him because he's rich. The Bey doesn't really care, though.
Mr. Ahmad: Half his followers are bots, you know.
- Foreshadowing: Mr. Ahmad is the only guy at the party with a phone, even though phones were forcefully taken away before even the terrorists showed up (because The Bey likes there to be no cameras).
- Gag Penis: Mitch's (chopped off) penis is as huge as a soda can.
- Gender Flip: In-Universe, Joel casts Cara Delevingne as himself in the video game adaptation of their adventure.
- Genre Savvy: The Bey is aware that if he gave the codes to Conrad, a man he doesn't truly know, he might live. But if he gave the codes to Mr. Ahmad, somebody he really knows, he knows he'll get killed.
- Get-Rich-Quick Scheme: The Dew'd Crew have been working on these for years. From Medieval BLT (Breakfast, Lunch, and Tournament), Jeans club ($20 a month for a thousand jeans), hot tutors for kids, and of course, Skintendo.
- Gorn: This movie really doesn't shy away from bloodshed.
- Groin Attack:
- The hotel manager, Mitch, gets his dick cut off by Erma for being sexist.
- Alexxx gets punched really hard in the dick by Jared.
- Have I Mentioned I Am Heterosexual Today?: Joel overcompensates himself by bringing this up constantly. Sad thing is it's pointless since everyone knows.
- The Hedonist: Bey Awadi does whatever he wants, whenever he wants. In his own words, he came to America, to "Drink, Play, f*ck, and Pop Molly."
- Hypocrite: Mr. Ahmad is doing all this because he hates what a disrespectful man he works for. That being said, he's a worse boss, killing about two of his own men.
- Idle Rich: The Bey spends his time indulging The Hedonist within, paying people to do crazy sh*t, or just doing whatever. The closest he's ever done to work is a TED talk...On being 'bout it.
- Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: Erma dies this way during her fight with Joel in which Joel sweep kick Erma to fall on a broken table leg.
- Implausible Deniability: Conrad refuses to take Mr. Ahmad's obviously ringing phone, lying that he doesn't hear it. The Bey Lampshades what bullsh*t this is.
- Involuntary Battle to the Death: Joel McHale and Sugar Lyn Beard are forced to fight to the death by Mr. Ahmad on live TV in order to make his threats come through to the police and for his own sick amusem*nt. McHale refuses to fight Sugar, but without warning Sugar suddenly stabs him in the head with her high-heeled shoe. Although Sugar is appalled at what she had done.
- It's All About Me: Alexxx goes into this a lot. Darren and Joel use this as reasoning to work on Skintendo without him. And they're right because the moment they reveal this, he deliberately sabotages them in a very selfish manner. He gets called out on this after becoming The Millstone.
- Jerkass Has a Point: Mitch may have been a complete jerk to the Dew'd Crew when he fired them, but they did overstep their boundaries when trying to sell a customer a video game idea.
- Karmic Death: Mr. Ahmad, who had the hostages tied with explosive collars, unzips his bags of money to find inside ALL of the explosive collars left by the hostages that are about to go off.
- Kick the Dog: Conrad, the decoy villain threatens to kill the Bey's little dog, Little Puma, but doesn't. But then, Mr. Ahmad does kill him, proving he's worse.
- MacGyvering: Darren and Joel's speciality. But subverted that most of them and comes up very short, such as the zipline.
- Male Frontal Nudity: Alexxx lets it all hang out while playing dead. That was Adam DeVine's actual junk there too.
- Manchild: Much like the characters that made them famous.
- The Millstone: Alexxx slips into this throughout the movie due to his selfishness, and general Manchild tendency. He finally gets chewed out on it for sabotaging their rescue plan just because he was mad at his friends.
- Mistreatment-Induced Betrayal: Constant belittlement from The Bey is the very reason Mr. Ahmad is behind the hostage situation. Once his cover is blown, Mr. Ahmad takes pleasure in torturing his former employer.
- Never My Fault: Somewhat Justified But Conrad ends up blaming every mistake on Erma.
- No Honor Among Thieves: When Mr. Ahmad makes his debut as a villain by killing Conrad, the other terrorists don't even bat an eye. This proves to be his undoing, as Mr. Ahmad starts abandoning and killing his own mooks just to get out with what money he can, giving the Dew'd Crew the chance to trick him with a bag full of bombs.
- Not-So-Well-Intentioned Extremist: The terrorists spend the first half spinning some spiel on how they're trying to "Tax" The Bey for his so-called invasion. Once Mr. Ahmad reveals he's actually in charge, it's just a disgruntled employee throwing a temper tantrum against his Bad Boss.
- People Puppets: The guys rig up a dead mook (Rich) as a meat puppet using spa electrodes and whatever else they can scrounge up, then link him to a tablet. He proves surprisingly effective up until the vacuum batteries powering the suit overheat and explode.
- Pet the Dog: Erma takes some pity on Cassie and gives her advice on how to get respect from others.
- Police Are Useless: Justified in that the terrorists force it to where the police can't do anything without killing hostages. All they can do is hold down the ground and follow their demands.
- Politically Incorrect Villain: Erma calls Joel a fa*ggot.
Joel: Ooh, I know you did not just call me the F-Word!
- Rape by Proxy: Mr. Ahmad does this by forcing Bey to orally service a man. This doesn't work out due to both being Too Kinky to Torture.
- Red and Black and Evil All Over: Erma is the sole terrorist that isn't dressed solely in black, opting for a red dress-suit and a black jacket. Mr. Ahmad however, only wears a grey suit.
- Red Right Hand: Mr. Ahmad has rotten teeth and foul breath.
- Refuge in Audacity: Aware that two Mooks are about to discover them, the trio opt to hide in a suite. Alexxx immediately pulls off this belt, declaring "I haven't done this in a long time". The camera then cuts to the two Mooks entering the hotel suite, who discover that Alexxx has staged his own death scene, made to appear as a botched attempt at autoerotic asphyxiation, with his erect penis still in hand. The Mooks then proceed to try and
have sex on the bed in front of a still hanging Alex, who is Forced to Watch. - Sequel Hook: The guys save the day and got their fortunes. As the guys are celebrating on their yacht, a boatload of mercenaries are aporoaching their ship. Cue the sequel title Game Overboard.
- Shout-Out: The title comes from an iconic line in the movie Aliens uttered by Bill Paxton's character.
- Darren makes several movie references throughout the first act, suggesting that he's a movie buff.
- Sore Loser: Alexxx during Rock-Paper-Scissors.
- Spanner in the Works: Conrad makes it clear that if Erma hadn't cut Mitch's dick off in front of the trio, they wouldn't have been such big threats.
- Straight Gay: The two terrorists that are lovers are actually very manly, even cracking gay jokes between the two.
Rich: Grab him by the ankles, your good at that.
Jared: f*ck off, fa*g.
Rich: Oohh...
- Stupid Evil: Erma really should not have cut Mitch's dick off.
Conrad: My darling, have you lost your f*cking mind?
- Surprisingly Realistic Outcome: Several moments:
- When The Bey gives the Dew'd Crew money to make their game, Mitch pulls them aside and gives Ahmed the check, drags them out of the party along with Cassie and proceeds to fire the three. They were supposed to be waiters, not selling a game. They should've seen it coming.
- Donald starts out with a briefcase, which intimidates some security guards it's something messed up. It turns out to contain just a sandwich and chips.
Donald: What, y'all don't pack a lunch?
- The guys try to sneak through the elevator shaft, but not only do they fail to open the latch, the bad guys lose them due to a neighboring elevator opening first empty.
- The guys first attempt at fighting is subpar, especially when they try to throw vases and knives, which don't hit anywhere near their targets.
- The man-made zipline was a failure when they didn't reach the other side, leaving them dangling 9 stories in the middle of the air.
- Obsessed with money and fame, Alexxx has dragged Darren and Joel from one hair-brained scheme to another. However, by the time the movie began, they've had enough of his selfish greed and were planning on cutting ties with him.
- Any time the trio handle a gun, they don't know the proper safety so they accidentally unload a shot or two. When Donald did it, he held his finger on the trigger as he was being dragged out of the window.
- The "Skintendo" that the guys build was made of various things found in the spa. Thus it's function is limited, and after a few minutes it's batteries catch fire, and the bullets fired at it eventually make it explode.
- Take That!: To quote Darren:
Darren: No I said Home Alone style zip-line. This is Home Alone 3 at best!
- Teeny Weenie: Alexxx is scared the others will think of this after seeing his dick, balls, and butthole.
Alexxx: Guys, if you thought my dick was small, the A/C was really blasting earlier.
Joel: It's hot right?
Darren: Really hot.
- Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: The bad guys do not particularly like each other, outside of some friendships here and there.
- Donald is the butt of jokes between Roger and Chet.
- Conrad reveals he thinks Erma is a lunatic.
- Nobody batted an eyelash at Conrad's execution by Mr. Ahmad.
- Jared and Rich avert this because they're lovers.
- Erma treats the others like complete sh*t. Leading to a funny moment when one of them draws on her face while she's high on salvia. She responds by shooting him four times.
- The bad guys have no idea Rich is already dead, yet they keep shooting his "Skintendo" controlled body anyway.
- Mr. Ahmad and Alan abandoned Erma and the last mook to die. Ahmad actually shoots the last mook when he becomes a Dirty Coward and didn't bring any money. Alan and Mr. Ahmad start fighting amongst themselves since they don't know how to fly a helicopter well.
- The Stoner: The main trio, particularly Darren, who smokes salvia.
- Too Kinky to Torture: The Bey has no issue with the Laser-Guided Karma Mr. Ahmad attempted on him.
- Transparent Closet: Even if Joel hadn't already told anyone when he gets blackout drunk, he still made it really obvious.
- Unfortunate Names: The Dew'd Crew name their passion project the "Skintendo Joysuit." Literally nobody points out what an obviously terrible name it is. Mark Cuban tells them the moment he hears the name that it's bad.
- Ungrateful Bastard: The guys save The Bey from Mr. Ahmad, but he blames them for getting him shot and refuses to give them their paycheck.
- Villain Has a Point: Two moments:
- Erma tells Cassie that being an Extreme Doormat won't get her anywhere but leave her under the foot of disrespectful people (mostly men). In her words:
Erma: You don't ask for respect. You take it.
- Mr. Ahmad may have been a disgruntled employee throwing a temper tantrum, but he does have a point about what an asshole his boss is. For one thing, The Bey made him eat out a crabs-infested hooker's ass for his birthday, and showed himself to be an Ungrateful Bastard for the Dew'd Crew when he screws them over.
- Villainous Breakdown: Conrad and Mr. Ahmad die screaming like little girls.
- Wham Line: The Bey delivers an unexpected one at the end.
The Bey: The f*ck are you talking about, I ain't writing you another check.
- Wham Shot: The guys find Donald's phone and find a strange number in it. They call it... and Mr. Ahmad's cell phone starts ringing.
- What the Hell, Hero?: Alexxx deliberately sabotages Joel and Darren's plans to drug the hostage takers with salvia out of spite for his friends planning to abandon him behind his back, in complete disregard of the deadly situation they are in.
- World of Jerkass: The only genuinely nice person in the entire movie is Cassie, and she gets pushed around for it.
