20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (1954 film)

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A 1954 film adaptation of the book by Jules Verne made by Walt Disney Pictures - its first live-action science fiction film. The film featured an all-star cast (Kirk Douglas as Ned Land, Peter Lorre as Conseil, and James Mason as Captain Nemo) and a memorable design for the *Nautilus*. It won Academy Awards for Best Art Direction and Best Special Effects and has become one of Disney's classics.

Tropes used in *20,000 Leagues Under the Sea* include:
* All in the Eyes: There is a helpful close-up of Nemo's eyes when he's dancing on the thin edge of insanity.
* All Animals Are Dogs: Esmerelda, although it's partly because Ned is deliberately training her to do tricks and/or imitate him.
* Badass Beard: Captain Nemo.
* Battle in the Rain: The fight against the giant squid.
* Big Damn Heroes: Ned Land arrives in the middle of the giant squid attack, harpoons it right in the eye and saves Captain Nemo from drowning.
* Boisterous Bruiser: Ned Land
* Chronic Backstabbing Disorder: Ned Land, apparently unable to go a scene without attempting to betray Nemo in some small way.
* Cool Ship: The design of the *Nautilus* in the film is considered the iconic look for the submarine.
* Cultural Translation: Ned Land's ambiguously American in this version.
* Exotic Entree: Nemo serves a sauté of unborn octopus.
* Foreign Queasine: The dinner party.
* Grudging Thank You / Embarrassing Rescue: After Ned saves Nemo from the giant squid. It's the former for Nemo and the latter for Ned, despite the fact that he did the rescuing.
* I Love Nuclear Power: While the original novel used electric power itself as Nemo's Applied Phlebotinum, the movie had him splitting the atom decades before his time.
* My Fist Forgives You: Ned punches Conseil before admitting friendship. And then, generously, allows Conseil to hit him in return.

> **Ned**: "Go ahead!" [sticks out chin]
> **Conseil**: "Well if you insist." [punches Ned in the stomach]
>
>

* Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Ned and Conseil try sending messages in bottles with the location of Nemo's Island Base hoping for a rescue; instead, the base gets attacked just as Nemo was considering sharing his secrets with the world.
* Notable Original Music: "A Whale of a Tale", a G-Rated Bawdy Song sung by Kirk Douglas in-character as Ned Land.
* Ominous Pipe Organ: Nemo plays one. Cut to Ned tuning him out with a homemade banjo.
* Old Media Are Evil: Some subtext to this, when the reporters unabashedly twist Professor Arronax's words.
* Race Lift: Captain Nemo, who is definitely Caucasian in this version.
* Team Pet: Esmeralda the sea lion, who changes loyalties from Nemo to Ned through the film.
* The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything: Not quite, but in the opening scenes of the movie we see 3 ships sunk or crippled on-screen by the Nautilus and it's clear that several other ships have met similar fates in a short amount of time. But once the main characters come on board, Nemo and his men become the Pirates Who Hardly Do Anything, only attacking one ship on-screen over the course of many months - and dialogue supports that this is the only ship attacked in that time period, so we know he didn't go after anything else during any time jumps.
* Ungrateful Bastard: Ned Land. No matter how many times Nemo happens to save his worthless hide, after some calamity that *Ned* has inevitably caused during his escape attempts, he will *always* plan to betray him again by the very next scene.
* Wham! Line: But by this point observing, studying, and classifying were out of the question.
* What the Hell, Hero?: Ned Land frequently gives these to Nemo, despite being the usual cause of the predicaments in the first place.