F/X

Is it murder or is it Title Drop?

Rollie: In this hand are the bullets for the gun. And in this hand... is Krazy Glue. A thousand and one uses. Now a thousand and two.

F/X is a 1986 movie starring Brian Brown and Brian Dennehy, about a movie special effects man, Rollie Tyler (Brown), who gets dragged into the criminal underworld when he is hired by the F.B.I.'s witness protection program to fake the death of a notorious mob boss. The F/X shoot goes awry, and now it looks like Rollie - through criminal negligence or deliberately - is responsible for the death of the man whose death he was supposed to fake.

While Rollie frantically tries to figure out what went wrong, NYPD Detective Leo McCarthy (Dennehy) is investigating the same murder, and increasingly frustrated that the FBI is being less helpful than usual.

It was followed in 1991 with a sequel, F/X 2, and then in 1996 by F/X: The Series, which recast the roles of both Rollie and McCarthy, likely for budget reasons.

Not to be confused with FX, the Fox Entertainment owned cable channel.

Tropes used in F/X include:

• Amoral Attorney^[context?]
• Banned in China - Rollie's work got him banned in Australia.
• Car Chase
• Chekhov's Armory - Any and all special effects equipment that is shown at one point in either movie will come in to play by the end for more than Rollie's work.
  • Also pay attention to any and all character traits mentioned, even if it's only once. Rollie does.
• Cowboy Cop
• Cryptic Background Reference: There are plenty of mentions of Rollie's past work.
• Gadgeteer Genius: Rollie
• Groin Attack
• Fake Action Prologue: The film opens up with an In-Universe film shoot.
• Faking the Dead
• Fight Scene
• Hey, It's That Guy!: The mob guy is Detective Lennie Briscoe and Baby's dad.
  • One of Leo's colleagues is Gordon from Sesame Street!
• It Works Better with Bullets
• Jump Scare: Rollie has a latex movie monster set up to leap at his door while a recording of the monster's roar is played, whenever somebody comes in. An effective anti-intrusion method. He surprises Leo with it at one point.
• Knife Nut
• Latex Perfection
• MacGyvering: Rollie is a special effects wizard. If you ever get the chance, ask an effects man just how much of their job involves this trope.
• Master of Disguise
• Shallow Parody: I Dismember Mama, a slasher film on which Rollie worked.^[1]
• Show Within a Show: Numerous films on which Rollie's worked are mentioned. Some almost become running gags.
• Slashed Throat
• Staged Shooting

1. ↑ Amusingly, a real film by that name was made several years later, possibly because of this movie.