Click

Click is a 2006 American comedic-drama film, directed by Frank Coraci and starring Adam Sandler, Kate Beckinsale, Christopher Walken and David Hasselhoff. It was released in North America on June 23, 2006 by Columbia Pictures and Revolution Studios.

The film follows Michael Newman (Sandler), a married architect with two children. Michael loves his family, but is easily pushed around by his overbearing boss Mr. Ammer (Hasselhoff) and has little time for his family. One night, after Michael loses his temper at the amount of remote controls in the house, he goes in search of a universal remote control for his appliances. At a Bed Bath & Beyond, Michael collapses onto a bed and falls asleep, before waking up and proceeding to the section marked "Beyond." There, he meets the mysterious Morty (Walken), who happens to be an eccentric inventor. Morty gives him a universal remote control and warns that it can never be returned. To Michael's amazement, he finds out that the remote controls the universe, in particular allowing him to control time. The story follows Michael's experiments with the device, as well as the consequences and lessons resulting.

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Tropes used in Click include:

• Actor Allusion: Christopher Walken plays an undercover (arch)angel.
• All Just a Dream: Subverted; it actually happened. Michael was given another chance, though.
• Amazingly Embarrassing Parents: Michael's parents constantly joke about his supposedly small penis.
• Artifact of Doom: The remote
• Ass Shove: When Michael tries several times to throw the remote away only for it to keep reappearing in different places on his body, on his other hand or on top of his head, for example. Morty warns him there is only one place for him to pull the remote out of, which convinces Michael to stop.
• Bilingual Bonus: Played straight and parodied with Michael playing with the language feature. The first time is during the sensitivity training when Michael switches to the Spanish setting to amuse himself. The second time is during a meeting with a Japanese corporation where Michael uses the setting to find out what they're really saying about his model design.
• Brick Joke: Mixed in with a Tear Jerker. Early on in the movie, Michael's daughter Samantha asks him how long he's going to live and Michael says a throwaway line "I'll live to be 200, how about that?". Near the end of the film, as he lies dying in the rain, he says to Samantha, "I didn't quite make it to 200 but I still love you."
• Broken Aesop: It was the remote's automated fast-forward function^[1] that ruined Michael's life, not his lack of appreciation, or even any of the other features of the remote.
  • But the point was that if he never got the remote and kept living, it's how his life could have ended up for choosing work over his family. He may have learned his lesson, but to make sure he wouldn't relapse, it kept tormenting him.
• Body Horror: Due to lack of exercise (and his junk food binge-eating while working), one "fast-forward" of ten years takes Michael from Adam Sandler-sized to Morbidly Obese.
• Cerebus Syndrome: Oh so very much.
• Clingy MacGuffin
• Dark Is Not Evil: Christopher Walken's portrayal of Morty, the Angel of Death, certainly comes off as dark and a bit twisted at times, but ultimately he's rather kindly towards Michael, particularly following the climax when, instead of taking Michael to the afterlife, Morty gives him a second chance to turn his life around, rewinding time back to when he was in Bed, Bath and Beyond. He calmly explains that nothing bad happens to Michael because of him, but because Michael misused the remote.
• Deus Ex Machina
• Diabolus Ex Machina: The remote learns his responses and begins repeating choices based on previous choices even when he doesn't tell it to, in order to make sure he fully understands what he's missing and make sure the lesson is driven home fully.
• Digital Head Swap: during the segment in which Michael was enormously fat.
• Disappeared Dad: Michael, the "emotionally and mentally absent" variation.
• Earn Your Happy Ending: Michael's over-dedication to his work ends up ruining this life, and Morty points out that it would happen with or without the remote. By learning his lesson, he is finally able to enjoy the little things of life and be happy with his family.
• Fan Service: Kate Beckinsale wearing tiny shorts or wearing a Pocahontas costume.
• First Law of Tragicomedies: To a T.
• Gainaxing: With slow motion.
• Groundhog Day Loop
• Heel Realization: Somewhat; Michael is somewhat of a dick at the start.
• I Can Still Fight
• In-Universe Game Clock
• Jiggle Show: Slo Mo
• Married to the Job: Discovered the hard way.
• Meaningful Name: Morty is the Angel of Death - look at the first four letters of his name.
• Mood Whiplash: Going from typical Sandler-esque scenes like Michael watching a female jogger's breasts bounce in slo-mo, or farting in his boss' face, to seeing himself acting like a total Jerkass in his last meeting with his father, and later, then dying in the rain, is pretty jarring, thought that was most likely the intention.
• Oscar Bait: The rampant TearJerkers following the halfway Mood Whiplash are pretty blatant in this regard.
• Product Placement (?) - Bed, Bath & Beyond is a real store chain.
• Rewind, Replay, Repeat: Michael realizes that abusing the "skip" function too many times has caused him to miss several key events in his life, including the death of his father. He attempts to rewind back to that moment. Morty tells him it can't be done, because Michael wasn't there at the time of his father's death. Grief-stricken, Michael can only rewind back to the last time he saw his father alive. Michael has become a great success at his job, but is now a heartless businessman. When his father shows up for a friendly visit, he attempts to bond with Michael one more time. Michael gives him a careless and brusque brush off. Michael-watching-the-rewind sees what In-the-Moment-Michael missed.
• Running Gag: All the dogs Michael's family get shown having their way with a plush duck.
• Sensitivity Training: Michael has to sit through one and uses the remote to entertain himself while he sits through it.
• Setting Update: Click is "The Magic Thread", an old French tale, moved to the present-day United States. The source material was also dramatized on Adventures from the Book of Virtues.
• Trailers Always Lie: There was no indication in the ads whatsoever that this film would try make the switch to drama.
• Twenty Minutes Into the Future: Thanks to the constant time skips caused by the remote "learning" to skip to promotions and other work-related successes, we see glimpses of a future where Everything Is An iPod. Of course, it's a bit confusing as to when they take place; the first time skip of any substantial amount is shown to have transported Michael to the year 2017, but the other time skips are left completely ambiguous, other than that the last one where he dies shortly afterwards and thus would likely be somewhere in the 2030s considering he's probably in his 30s at the beginning.
• "Well Done, Son" Guy: During the periods where the Remote "fast-forwards" through his life, Michael becomes one of these.
• Wham! Line: This exchange between Michael and Morty in the cemetery after visiting Ted's grave.

Morty: *standing at Ted's grave* He was a good man. I'm sorry, Michael. I didn't want to take him.
Michael: What?
Morty: Michael, I'm an angel.
Michael: I thought angels were supposed to protect people.
Morty: I'm the Angel of Death.

• When You Coming Home, Dad?: Michael works too hard.

1. ↑ The magic remote put Michael's body in "autopilot" when using fast forward, which made him mentally and emotionally absent while the feature was in use. The fast forward function also remembered settings and automatically repeated them, even when Michael didn't want it to. On top of that, he can't disable this feature, or even get rid of the remote. This forced him to miss large chunks of his life and destroyed his marriage, even after he learned to stop using fast forward.