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Killing Zoe

 Killing Zoe
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Killing Zoe
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Advertisement:propertag.cmd.push(function() { proper_display('tvtropes_mobile_ad_1'); })Killing Zoe is 1994 crime/heist/drug/postmodern film, written and directed by Roger Avary (best known for co-writing Pulp Fiction). It stars Eric Stoltz as Zed, Julie Delpy as the titular Zoe, and Jean-Hugues Anglade as Eric, the mastermind behind the heist. Roger Ebert called it "Generation X's first bank caper movie."Eric Stoltz plays Zed, an American safe-cracker in Paris to see his childhood friend Eric. After an interesting afternoon with Zoe, a call-girl (certainly not a prostitute), Eric shows up and takes Zed out to "live life." This is done by shooting up with Zed, and then telling him that he (Eric) is HIV positive. The following day is Bastille Day, and every bank except one is closed. Guess what happens. They rob the place, Eric goes crazy (well, crazier), the call-girl works there, and every piece of shit manages to hit the fan.Advertisement:propertag.cmd.push(function() { proper_display('tvtropes_mobile_ad_2'); })It's gone down in history as a lesser Quentin Tarantino film, but his only involvement was as executive producer. Similarities between Killing Zoe and other Tarantino films do exist, but that is because Roger Avary had a hand in writing those scripts. Some called Tarantino out on reusing a call-girl character, as he had already done True Romance, but the first draft of True Romance was written by Roger Avary. The true difference between Killing Zoe and the Tarantino's films is the nihilism. Avary writes villains who are selfish monsters and heroes that are nothing but apathetic. Does it come as a shock to anyone that the man's next film would be an adaptation of a Bret Easton Ellis's The Rulesof Attraction?
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Eiffel Tower Effect
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Eiffel Tower Effect: Averted. Roger Avary specifically wanted to avoid this and make a movie about the real Paris, not the one featured in every Hollywood movie.
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The Cameo
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The Cameo: The first security guard to die, shot-gunned to the chest, is Ron Jeremy, world's most famous porn star. In his autobiography, Jeremy put his appearance at number 1 on his list of greatest movie deaths.
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 Killing Zoe / int_1b65eaf3
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The Caper
 Killing Zoe / int_1b65eaf3
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The Caper: Probably would have gone better had they spent more than five minutes planning. And didn't do heroin the night before. And weren't lead by a psycho... it wasn't the smartest Caper.
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 Killing Zoe / int_225527db
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Cult Soundtrack
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Cult Soundtrack: The electronic score by musical duo tomandandy [sic] became an underground club hit in Europe, and also helped to set Roger Avary apart from former collaborator Quentin Tarantino. It's worth noting that the actual soundtrack album features the score in a drastically different form than was featured in the film. Avary explains:
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 Killing Zoe / int_24321e44
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Only Sane Man
 Killing Zoe / int_24321e44
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Only Sane Man: Zed isn't quick on the uptake that he is this. By the time he realizes, everything's already fucked.
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 Killing Zoe / int_2d4fa515
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Ax-Crazy
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Ax-Crazy: Eric, after he's done being Affably Evil. The fact that he abuses heroin during the heist doesn't help any, nor does the fact he may or may not be completely batshit insane.
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 Killing Zoe / int_2dd7a113
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French Jerk
 Killing Zoe / int_2dd7a113
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French Jerk: Eric was obnoxious and unpleasant even before he turned monstrously psychopathic.
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 Killing Zoe / int_34bfa91a
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Auteur License
 Killing Zoe / int_34bfa91a
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Auteur License: Roger Avary backed out of a deal with a Canadian production company because they wouldn't let him use his.
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 Killing Zoe / int_40bb59d0
type
Blatant Lies
 Killing Zoe / int_40bb59d0
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Blatant Lies: "I am not a prostitute!" Though here it's just that she calls herself a call girl instead.
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 Killing Zoe / int_46290b93
type
Manic Pixie Dream Girl
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comment
Manic Pixie Dream Girl: With a gun! Unlike most MPDG's in fiction, Zoe doesn't inspire a whole lot of change in Zed. He doesn't lift an eyebrow when Eric locks her out of the hotel room without any clothes on. He does, however, risk his life to save her.
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 Killing Zoe / int_535a2961
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Verbing Nouny
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Verbing Nouny: The film's title.
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 Killing Zoe / int_586589bc
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Journey to the Center of the Mind
 Killing Zoe / int_586589bc
comment
Journey to the Center of the Mind: Symbolically, as the Word of God says the bank represents Zed's mind. Watch the movie again with an eye towards that.
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 Killing Zoe / int_5a89975a
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Breast Attack
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Breast Attack: A gender reversed version. Zoe does it to Zed when he calls her a prostitute.
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 Killing Zoe / int_62434fe2
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Sanity Slippage
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Sanity Slippage: Eric (noticing a pattern?).
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 Killing Zoe / int_66755d29
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Author Avatar
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Author Avatar: Zed, for writer/director Roger Avary.
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 Killing Zoe / int_6bd689ca
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Meaningful Echo
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Meaningful Echo: "I'll show you the real Paris."
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 Killing Zoe / int_6c1cc4b
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Everyone Looks Sexier if French
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Everyone Looks Sexier If French: When played by Julie Delpy, you're damn right.
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 Killing Zoe / int_77063cd7
type
Hooker with a Heart of Gold
 Killing Zoe / int_77063cd7
comment
Hooker with a Heart of Gold: Zoe falls for Zed because he makes her orgasm (by her own logic, only a client who's a good person could make her come). Also, she's the least morally ambiguous character in the film by far.
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 Killing Zoe / int_7eaf99d
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Malevolent Architecture
 Killing Zoe / int_7eaf99d
comment
Malevolent Architecture and/or Alien Geometries and/or Eldritch Location: Word of God has it that the bank is meant to represent Zed's mind/brain. The farther into it they go, the deeper the red gets. The vault is his moral center, where he's forced to Mercy Kill the disfigured guard, thus changing his overall attitude (when Zoe was in trouble before, Zed didn't lift a finger; after the vault scene, he immediately risks his life to save her). Both the director and the production designer have gone on record saying the bank is highly unrealistic and was modeled on The Overlook Hotel from Stanley Kubrick's The Shining; French banks don't have giant French flags hanging from the ceiling or bizarre Roman paintings hanging on blood-red walls. For some audience members, this may break the Suspension of Disbelief, for others it's the best aspect of the film.
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 Killing Zoe / int_7f75baa
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The Public Domain Channel
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The Public Domain Channel: Silent classic Nosferatu plays on TV while Zed and Zoe have sex.
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 Killing Zoe / int_8344209e
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BFG
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BFG: Eric uses an MP-5 with three magazines 'jungle-taped' together, giving it a massive and intimidating appearance.
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 Killing Zoe / int_8767b1f3
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Black-and-Gray Morality
 Killing Zoe / int_8767b1f3
comment
Black-and-Gray Morality: When the hero is a heroin-using safe cracker and his old lady is a call girl, you know you're not in a very nice place. Predictably, the villain is a manic, remorseless psychopath who becomes a terrorist and machine guns people to death entirely for fun. That said Zoe is also a A Lighter Shade of Grey, being more good than morally ambiguous.
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 Killing Zoe / int_8966382e
type
Bank Robbery
 Killing Zoe / int_8966382e
comment
Bank Robbery: Eric, his American friend Zed, and Eric's gang carry out an extremely ill-conceived bank heist in Paris by cutting short on the planning stage and getting baked on heroin beforehand. It becomes a protracted hostage situation almost immediately.
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 Killing Zoe / int_8ca9bf12
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Sex Equals Love
 Killing Zoe / int_8ca9bf12
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Sex Equals Love: Zoe, who works part-time as a prostitute, falls in love with her client Zed because he makes her climax, which she believes only someone who's a good person could do. Later circumstances make this attraction more believable when Zed saves Zoe's life from his homicidal friend.
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 Killing Zoe / int_8d0785d5
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Didn't Think This Through
 Killing Zoe / int_8d0785d5
comment
Didn't Think This Through: Zed and co. do virtually no planning at all for the heist, are being lead by a delusional junkie/cold blooded psychopath, barely prepare for the caper at all (including visiting the bank they are supposed to hit) and instead get hopelessly drunk and high the night before, continue to take drugs whilst in the middle of robbery, talk and joke freely whilst ignoring the hostages, don't do their jobs correctly, murder several people unnecessarily, discard their masks completely maybe ten minutes in, alert the police with their gunfire (and maybe the silent alarm they didn't properly take care of) don't take a negotiating stance with the police so much as just brutally and pointlessly kill off hostages until the police are practically forced to storm the place, and then immediately go every man for himself when that happens. Now, who can tell me why the heist didn't succeed?
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 Killing Zoe / int_90d44f44
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Karmic Death
 Killing Zoe / int_90d44f44
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Karmic Death: Eric gets machine gunned to death by at least a half dozen cops. He spends almost 30 seconds having bullets rip through him.
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 Killing Zoe / int_916c72b3
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Rule of Symbolism
 Killing Zoe / int_916c72b3
comment
Rule of Symbolism: The French flag, like the American, is composed of the colors red, white, and blue. So Killing Zoe is similarly divided: the color palette is white from the start to Eric's introduction, blue during the gang's night out, and red during the robbery. Subtle bits, like lighting, change accordingly; Zed's plaid shirt is blue during the night and changes to red when he wakes up for the robbery. The director has also said that HIV-positive, Caucasian, French Eric having anal sex with Vietnamese Francois was meant to be a tongue-in-cheek comment on the French occupation of Vietnam. Since you only see them from behind, many viewers had trouble figuring out just who Eric was doing it with.
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 Killing Zoe / int_94274db1
type
Life Embellished
 Killing Zoe / int_94274db1
comment
Life Embellished: Believe it or not. Roger Avary based the script on his state of mind during a European trip he once took. Many quotable lines were actually said to him by his Parisian junkie friends. When Quentin Tarantino first read the script, he said the only appropriate title was "Roger Takes A Trip."
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 Killing Zoe / int_95b7c400
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Faux Affably Evil
 Killing Zoe / int_95b7c400
comment
Faux Affably Evil: Eric, who begins the film as Zed's old childhood friend. He always has a smile on, and says that the rest of the gang has already agreed to give Zed a big cut of the take. Later on, he's still smiling, while covered in blood, leaving his gang to die, and declaring that he doesn't give a shit about Zed. "We haven't seen each other in years!"
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 Killing Zoe / int_b58b4e3c
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Too Dumb to Live
 Killing Zoe / int_b58b4e3c
comment
Too Dumb to Live: You really would think that after Eric firmly establishes himself as a ruthless, utterly unstable maniac with an itchy trigger finger who tells everyone he will immediately kill anyone at all who mouths off to him that the hostages would really quit mouthing off to him. But you'd be wrong.
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 Killing Zoe / int_ba6cf869
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Rape, Pillage, and Burn
 Killing Zoe / int_ba6cf869
comment
Rape, Pillage, and Burn: Of a sort. The writer/director likened the characters to vikings, and gave them all copies of Beowulf to get them into character. Also alluded to with Oliver's strange rant about loving viking films. Over the course of the film, the gang pillages, grotesquely burns a guard, and though they don't rape, it is threatened. Eric can also be seen having anal sex with Francois after admitting to Zed that he (Eric) has AIDS.
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 Killing Zoe / int_beb9a361
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Anti-Hero
 Killing Zoe / int_beb9a361
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Anti-Hero: Zed is a career criminal who isn't exactly a nice guy.
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 Killing Zoe / int_c75df49a
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Shout-Out
 Killing Zoe / int_c75df49a
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Shout-Out: Oliver spends some time talking about his favorite episodes of The Prisoner (1967).
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 Killing Zoe / int_c91408cb
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Everything Sounds Sexier in French
 Killing Zoe / int_c91408cb
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Everything Sounds Sexier in French: Obviously any French spoken by Julie Delpy's Zoe, and strangely, many lines from Eric sounds incredibly hot when you get past the whole "murder" thing.
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 Killing Zoe / int_db88b941
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Malevolent Masked Men
 Killing Zoe / int_db88b941
comment
Malevolent Masked Men: All the bank robbers where Venetian-style masks that reflect their personalities. For example, Zed's mask is a wolf (though it's often mistaken for a pig). The actors all designed their character's masks personally.
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 Killing Zoe / int_dde43ab
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Tattooed Crook
 Killing Zoe / int_dde43ab
comment
Tattooed Crook: Zed has the Black Flag logo tattooed on his left bicep; Eric has a stylized bee on his arm, with the stinger ending in his (infected?) track mark.
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 Killing Zoe / int_e3b0cd87
type
Morality Pet
 Killing Zoe / int_e3b0cd87
comment
Morality Pet: Zoe becomes this to Zed.
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 Killing Zoe / int_e563bf09
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Insistent Terminology
 Killing Zoe / int_e563bf09
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Insistent Terminology: Zoe is a "call girl," not a "prostitute" (her reaction is almost identical to Alabama's in True Romance, an earlier Avary story).
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Killing Zoe

The following is a list of statements referring to the current page from other pages.

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Bank Robbery / int_929f2c66
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Breast Attack / int_929f2c66
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Cult Soundtrack / int_929f2c66
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Death by Cameo / int_929f2c66
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Everything Sounds Sexier in French / int_929f2c66
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Films of 1990–1994 / int_929f2c66
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Gay Paree / int_929f2c66
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Hooker with a Heart of Gold / int_929f2c66
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Hostage Situation / int_929f2c66
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Insistent Terminology / int_929f2c66
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Killing Zoe
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Manic Pixie Dream Girl / int_929f2c66
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Naked People Trapped Outside / int_929f2c66
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Sex Equals Love / int_929f2c66
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The Caper / int_929f2c66
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The Public Domain Channel / int_929f2c66
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Verbing Nouny / int_929f2c66