The Warrior's Way

Ninjas. Damn.

—Ron ^[1]

The Warrior's Way is a western/ninja/circus movie released in 2010. The film's story revolves around the character Yang, an Asian swordsman who was exiled from his clan after refusing to kill a baby, and Lynne, a troubled woman with a horrific past. The film uses green screen throughout and liberal use of special effects.

Tropes used in The Warrior's Way include:

• Authority Equals Asskicking: Both The Colonel and Saddest Flute are significantly more dangerous than their respective underlings.
• Badass
  • Badass Longcoat: Yang wears one for the second half of the movie.
    • Really pretty much everyone that's any amount of badass wears some variation of one. Even the mooks.
  • Charles Atlas Superpower: Yang. He dodges a bullet at point-blank range!
  • Colonel Badass: The Colonel
  • Retired Badass: Ron.
  • Took a Level In Badass: Lynne
• Bathe Her and Bring Her to Me: The Colonel orders this done to the two Mexican girls he intends to rape.
• Battle in the Rain: The final battle between Yang and the Saddest Flute takes place in a storm that literally blows up out of nowhere (It seems to be a flashback to a training session substituted in place of their actual final fight).
• Bolivian Army Ending: Considering how Yang normally does against such odds, though...
• Booze Flamethrower: The fire eater from the circus uses this to light the candles on a birthday cake. It becomes a Chekhov's Skill when he later uses it to light a couple of the Colonel's henchmen on fire.
• Cherry Blossoms
• Chinese Launderer: Yang takes over the laundry when he arrives in Lode, mainly because that's what everyone assumes he'll be good at. He actually has to learn how to do it from Lynne.
  • Well, stereotypes might have had something to do with it, but it was also that the friend he came to town looking for owned the laundry previously, so he essentially inherited it.
• Conservation of Ninjutsu: Invoked and averted - ninjas react just like anyone else to gunfire. Indeed, in the big fight at the end the ninjas actually do so well against the gun-wielding cowboys because there are so many of them, so the cowboys have trouble picking targets properly before being cut down. As for Yang, he is, after all, the Greatest Swordsman in the World and thus not necessarily reflective of the overall quality of the brand.
• Contract on the Hitman: The Sad Flutes are not happy with Yang...
• Cool Versus Awesome: Cowboys. Vs. Ninjas.
• Covered with Scars: Yang
• Did Not Get the Girl: Yang must run from everyone he loves to prevent the Sad Flutes from killing them.
• Drowning My Sorrows: The reason Ron is the town drunk.
• Dodge the Bullet: Averted. Ninjas can dodge throwing knives, but not bullets. Yang does dodge a point blank pistol shot at the end, but starts moving a split second before the bullet is actually fired, so it's still reasonable.
• Faceless Mooks: The faces of the many ninjas are never seen. Most of the bandits wear bandannas over their faces as well.
• Facing the Bullets One-Liner: The Colonel, right before Lynne kills him.

Colonel: I'll see you in hell, little girl. Wear something nasty.

• Fiery Redhead: Lynne
• Follow the Leader: to Ninja Assassin, down to the casting of a Korean idol (Jang Donggun from The Promise).
• Foreshadowing: The Colonel, at one point, talks about how he hanged a man by his hamstrings. Lynne ends up leading into her killing blow against him by hamstringing him.
• Fun with Subtitles: At the beginning.

Subtitle: The Greatest Swordsman in History of Mankind. (Beat). Ever.

• Gatling Good
• Good Scars, Evil Scars: Yang and Lynne have scars that are covered by their clothing. The Colonel has horrible facial scars.
• Gory Discretion Shot: Not all the time, but there are an awful lot of shots of blood spatters hitting screens and such. One such massacre takes place entirely in a dust cloud.
• Groin Attack
• Guns Are Worthless: Throughly averted. The ninjas clearly have superhuman abilities and are able to dodge thrown knives, but they can't dodge bullets, and react to being shot just like anyone else. In the final fight the ninjas definitely have the advantage (due in large part to the panicked A-Team Firing of the cowboys), but the cowboys do manage to hold their own, especially once they bring out the Gatling guns). Noteably, Yang never faces gun-wielding opponents head-on; he either catches them by surprise, or fights while concealed inside a dust cloud or in darkness.
• Heroes Want Redheads
• Hitman with a Heart: Yang.
• Hope Sprouts Eternal: There's definitely something going on with the flower garden in the desert.
• Human Shield: Used primarily by Yang
• Implacable Man:
  • Yang
  • The Sad Flutes, who seem to have an inexhaustible supply of assassins hunting Yang to every corner of the world.
• Improvised Weapon: In spades.
• Infant Immortality: Forms the premise of the film, although it is averted in the case of Lynne's brother.
• Instant Awesome, Just Add Ninja: The Sad Flutes resemble, but are never specifically called, ninjas in the film. Doing so would spoil Yang's indeterminate home country.
• It's Not You, It's My Enemies: the reason Yang leaves April and Lynne.
• Knife-Throwing Act: Lynne's specialty
• Leave Him to Me: Lynne, regarding the Colonel
• Malevolent Masked Man: The Colonel wears a creepy half-face mask to conceal his burn scars. It makes him look more than a little like Leatherface.
• Martial Pacifist: Yang, after leaving the Sad Flutes.
• Meaningful Name: They name the baby April, the month in which cherry trees bloom
• More Dakka
• No Name Given: The main character's name is never uttered within the movie. You learn it in the credits.
  • Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep": The townsfolk tag him with the nickname "Skinny", which is all he's called until said credits.
• Non-Ironic Clown: Discussed
• Non-Specifically Foreign: It's never specified or clear where Yang comes from. He's played by a South Korean, uses a Japanese sword, and his name is most likely Chinese (though possibly Korean, certainly not Japanese).
• One-Man Army: Yang
• Painting the Fourth Wall
• Retired Outlaw/Retired Gunslinger: Ron
• Riding Into the Sunset: Well, technically walking.
• Rule of Cool: It's a ninja cowboy movie.
• Sacrificed Basic Skill for Awesome Training: One of the main themes of the movie, although Yang is at least not an extremely egregious example, as despite his lack of social skills he is able to take care of himself and function normally perfectly fine.
• Samurai Cowboy
• Scars Are Forever
• Single-Stroke Battle: All the sword fights are like this, the most traditional being the one at the beginning where Yang becomes The Greatest Swordsman in the World by killing The Greatest Swordsman in the World. The only two prolonged fights with any degree of Flynning are the ones at the end between Lynne and the Colonel, and between Yang and Saddest Flute (which appears to be a training flashback substituted in place of their actual final battle).
• Soft-Spoken Sadist: The Colonel.
• Stepping Stone Sword
• Stuff Blowing Up: "We only have 100 sticks of dynamite"
• This Is Something He's Got to Do Himself
• Throwing Your Sword Always Works
• Trailers Always Lie: see page quote
• Trailers Always Spoil: The last scene of the movie? In the trailer.
• Training Montage: in Flash Back
• We Have Reserves: The Sad Flutes keep throwing dozens of their men at Yang, even as he keeps cutting them down. Saddest Flute even has no problem wasting the majority of his men in a pointless fight against random bandit assholes, instead of focusing on the guy they came specifically to kill.
• What a Drag: The Colonel does this to Ron.
• Whip It Good
• William Telling: Using booze in place of an apple.
  • Subverted when Ron drinks the booze.
• X on a Stick: Baby on a stick!

1. ↑ Although this line was not actually in the movie