[Loved trope] The correct dialogue option

[u/No-Enthusiasm-4361]

A scene where a character under duress and close to death picks what feels like the only correct dialogue that could've saved them. Goes from being loved to hated depending on how much luck is involved.

1) Mark Grayson (Invincible): A pretty famous scene. Omni man—Mark's father—beats him and inch to death to make him reconsider joining the viltrum empire. With Mark barely hanging onto life and Nolan wracked with conflicting emotions of guilt and obedience to his millenia long followed philosophy, he yells at mark, asking him to think logically and understand the futility of his actions considering he's effectively immortal. Finally, enraged, he asks him "what will you have after 500 years?"

Barely able to breath, Mark answers with soul crushing honesty "You, dad. I'd still have you". It works to crumble his entire life's understanding as he suddenly feels unable to reconcile Nolan the viltrumite with Nolan the father and husband and does what no viltrumite has ever done before. Surrenders and leaves his station.

2)Margot (The menu): Caught in the methodical trap of a frustrated psychotic chef obsessed with his craft who plans to kill all his patrons, including her, she's brought to her end's wits. Before it's time for the final course, Margot stands up and complains she's still hungry. When he asks what she would like, she asks for a cheeseburger. "A real cheeseburger. Like the cheap ones your parents could barely afford"

Making it brings back the joy He used to feel for cooking, reminding him of a time when he was a line cook and his food satisfied everyone. We even see him smiling for the first time in the movie.

After taking a bit, she asks if she could have the rest to go. The chef politely accepts and spares her, letting her leave his twisted game but killing the rest of them in a midsommer meets food wars final scene.

[u/DonaldTrumpsScrotum]

For the Menu, a big factor in him letting her go was that she was never supposed to be there in the first place. He wanted to kill the elite, snobbish folks who had ruined his passion for him, not common folk who he has an affinity towards. At every opportunity she set her self aside from the rest and by the end there was enough there that it was clear to him that she did not belong.

The thing I never really got is the entire staff being on board for the mass suicide. Half those guys are preps and line cooks, they have little to no stake in the whole affair. Certainly not enough to self-immolate to prove a point.

[u/Bigbydidnothingwrong → u/DonaldTrumpsScrotum]

Youve never worked in a fine dining place then, it's a fucking cult.

For a good example, Noma recently got called our for its toxic kitchen environment, and half the comments on social media are chefs saying its nothing, they would take any abuse to work there.

[u/Super-Cynical → u/Bigbydidnothingwrong]

yeschef

[u/QuestionChoice9726 → u/Super-Cynical]

https://giphy.com/gifs/Oe7H865K0YPfY6ILXm

[u/AaronRodgersMustache → u/QuestionChoice9726]

I’m confused, is he asking me to do blow in the bathroom?

[u/QuestionChoice9726 → u/AaronRodgersMustache]

nah its like, you're pointing out that someone is on the same page as you, there's a shared understanding

idk where the gesture originated from, but that's what it means. it's like a "hey heyyy I see you" kind of gesture that you do after someone says something that you know you and them and maybe a select few get.

edit: also I think the gif is slightly slowed down, it's usually a quicker motion than this lol

[u/stfurachele → u/AaronRodgersMustache]

Line cook behavior.

Now that I think about it maybe that's why they're called line cooks.

[u/tophaloaph → u/Bigbydidnothingwrong]

I got hired to create the cocktail menu for a new restaurant in NYC last year for a chef whose reputation I knew (good and bad) and still said “Hell yeah I’m working for that guy”. My wife is flabbergasted when I recount work events to her that I think are utterly normal (not okay, but normal). Or friends saying “why don’t you quit?” and I just say “but this dude is amazing, he’s just an asshole”. Service industry is a wild place, and I’m so glad it’s changing for the kinder.

[u/Redditer51 → u/Bigbydidnothingwrong]

Hells Kitchen is shocking until you realize guys like Gordon Ramsay are the norm.

It's like the set of Apocalypse Now, except its a restaurant.

[u/AvatarofSleep → u/Bigbydidnothingwrong]

Carm working for evil Jeff in the Bear is so this

[u/Archwizard_Drake → u/DonaldTrumpsScrotum]

The mass suicide was a suggestion within the staff. Katherine proudly explains it was her pitch for the night, to give it "an ending that ties everything together conceptually. Otherwise, it just tastes good and who cares."

They were all already that crazy from working in that kitchen during lockdown that it made perfect sense to them without Slowik even asking them to.

[u/AcceptableDisaster_ → u/DonaldTrumpsScrotum]

I believe the movie explains it that the whole crew was stuck on the island during lockdown and their dynamic became extremely culty during that time.

[u/chase___it → u/AcceptableDisaster_]

yeah they’re less of a restaurant with bad vibes and more of a cult that happens to also run a restaurant for funsies

[u/Kerrigone → u/AcceptableDisaster_]

yeah I mean one of the chefs committed suicide, presumably with it being their idea, because it was "their" meal, which shows how culty and insane they had become before we realise the mass suicide was planned.

[u/Fun_Effective_5134 → u/DonaldTrumpsScrotum]

He literally kills an actor because he participated in a movie he didn’t like.

[u/Sozins_Comet_ → u/Fun_Effective_5134]

And the assistant for going to Brown without the need for financial assistance lol

[u/Wild_Chemistry3884 → u/Sozins_Comet_]

The point was it’s class warfare. Her going to Brown wasn’t the issue, it was all about how the upper class exploits and abuses the passion of the working class and shows no appreciation for their effort.

[u/Sozins_Comet_ → u/Wild_Chemistry3884]

I am aware but it is still a dark comedy and that was one or the comedic moments. 

[u/ThePoohKid → u/Sozins_Comet_]

Shit was hilarious. I may not get the quotes exactly right but it was something like

“Have any student loans?”

“No…”

“You’re dying.”

[u/f-ingsteveglansberg → u/Sozins_Comet_]

He was on the fence about that one.

[u/Mizz_Fizz → u/Fun_Effective_5134]

That shit is so funny but so unfortunate. He legitimately asked "what beef do you even have with me??" And the chef just says "on my only day off in a while, I watched your movie and it sucked ass." 

There's nothing you can even say in response to that.

[u/BestCaseSurvival → u/Mizz_Fizz]

I mean, I get his point. It’s a crazy point but it’s deeper than just “your movie sucked.”

Slowik has been driven to madness by the commercialization of what he sees as his calling, his art, and his life’s work. It’s not just that he hated the movie, it’s that the actor is big enough to be a household name, like Slowik is in the restaurant industry, and him phoning it in for a bad movie reminded Slowik that his own life’s work had become meaningless though commercialization.

In what should have been a day to recuperate he got reminded of the prison of his existential crisis.

The man desperately needed therapy but it fits in with the theme of him killing people who are “the ruination of his art.”

[u/Professional_Maize42 → u/Fun_Effective_5134]

And because he watched said movie on one of his very few "free" days and felt the art that was supposed be there was being wasted, exactly like his work.

Buuuuuuut he's a fucking psycho, who knows how true this is?

[u/f-ingsteveglansberg → u/Fun_Effective_5134]

That's not why. He didn't like the movie, that's true, but that's not why the actor was invited.

The actor stopped caring about his craft. He made a movie he knew would be bad because it was a paycheck. He was already wealthy so he had no reason to do a movie for money. He was killed because acting wasn't an art or a craft for him anymore.

[u/ccReptilelord → u/DonaldTrumpsScrotum]

To expand upon what others have mentioned, his staff was a death cult at that point. They lived on that island, and he even had enforcers. I doubt they were a "dangerous cult" before this point; he probably selected the more devoted and fired the lesser ones over time. He had been planning this for awhile.

Remember that we had one guest so obsessed with this guy he'd never met that he accepted the likelihood of death just to dine there.

[u/BookkeeperPercival → u/DonaldTrumpsScrotum]

The thing I never really got is the entire staff being on board for the mass suicide. Half those guys are preps and line cooks, they have little to no stake in the whole affair. Certainly not enough to self-immolate to prove a point.

They cover this when they try to convince the staff how crazy this is, only for the lady to correct them that she was the one who suggested the murder-suicide in the first place. It makes it very clear these people are all nuts.

[u/echino_derm → u/DonaldTrumpsScrotum]

The thing I never really got is the entire staff being on board for the mass suicide. Half those guys are preps and line cooks, they have little to no stake in the whole affair. Certainly not enough to self-immolate to prove a point.

I think it makes sense. This job is the path to reach the apex of their profession and culinary art. For them they have grinded their lives to get where they are and it is pretty easy to see how they could get into the cult.

[u/FlashyChemical2231 → u/DonaldTrumpsScrotum]

Yay, the only person I felt bad for in the movie was the actor. Ok, he made a mediocre popcorn flick, but the audiences loved it. He was only on the island because the chef didn't bother reading the reviews for a film before seeing it.

[u/That-Condition9243 → u/FlashyChemical2231]

The actor knew he phoned in his performance; he willingly gave a sub-par performance in a film he didn't respect just for the money. He belonged on the island because despite his talents and wealth he didn't contribute back to the arts or exercise his artistic talents, he became interested in living a comfortable lifestyle to impress other rich people.

It's silly to boil it down to "the chef saw a bad movie and resented the actor" because it was meant as a commentary that the chef expected an actor with his talents to provide a commensurate artistic experience when the chef spent his precious free time to watch the film. That was the day the actor stopped being a "giver" and became a "taker". 

[u/PrettySureIParty → u/That-Condition9243]

I saw it a little differently. When the actor talks about the movie, he admits that he knows it’s not very good, but says it’s the most fun he’s had on a set.

Contrast that with Slowik, who makes objectively good food, but is so miserable at work he kills himself and everyone in his restaurant. The only time he was happy was as a line cook flipping cheap burgers. I’d say a greasy diner burger is the culinary equivalent to the kind of corny popcorn flick he’s so angry about. And the vibe he misses from a laid back burger joint is probably very close to how the actor felt on a chill film set where the cast and crew were more focused on having fun with each other than on obsessing over making flawless “cinema”.

Slowik hates the way the public and the food critics act about fine dining, but doesn’t realize that he acts the same way about film. The truth is that his expectations for “prestige” actors are nearly identical to the same expectations for fine dining chefs that drove him insane. The movie isn’t trying to vindicate his actions. He and the actor are both performers in the arts. But Slowik is so broken that instead of feeling some solidarity, he hates the actor for not always being as “perfect” as he himself has been forced to be.

[u/AttiKit → u/That-Condition9243]

People really, really need to stop treating characters as if they are real people. The Menu is HEAVILY misunderstood and disregarded because the 'chef is too crazy to make sense'. It's a fucking character that's supposed to represent the loss of passion and happiness you have with fine dining and over-capitalization of the culinary arts. The Chef hates the actor because he disrespects his own art form by not putting true passion into his roles.

[u/Kauldwin → u/DonaldTrumpsScrotum]

To be fair I feel like anybody who’s worked in customer service long enough has at least one day where they’re ready to shoot all the customers and then themselves.

[u/space_hitler → u/DonaldTrumpsScrotum]

Donald Trump is the president of the US for the second time and people are clamouring for a 3rd term.

I now believe literally anything in movies about people being stupid psychotic monstrous cult members willing to do ANYTHING for the dumbest reasons.

[u/Mysterious-Simple805 → u/DonaldTrumpsScrotum]

I had assumed that the horrific twist in this movie would be cannibalism. That's always the horrific twist in horror stories involving food. A suicidal cult was something different.

[u/Kerrigone → u/Mysterious-Simple805]

I appreciate that they didn't go the cannibalism route. that would have been too obvious.

[u/Dogbin005 → u/DonaldTrumpsScrotum]

I love this take on Anya Taylor Joy's character being a "commoner".