History Film / Brightburn

* SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome:
** It doesn't matter how [[GoodParents awesome your parenting is]] otherwise, nothing could prepare you for a kid developing superpowers, becoming influenced by technology beyond human understanding and suddenly revealing that his nature wasn't as human as you thought. Kyle and Tori did a great job raising Brandon, but are completely blindsided by the aforementioned factors and ultimately handle it... poorly.
** Being a FlyingBrick means that you can't just slam into someone at full speed and expect them to come out fine. [[spoiler:Case in point with Chief Deputy Deever, who's turned into paste as soon as Brandon hits him.]]
** What you think of as a GrandRomanticGesture can come off as extremely creepy if you're not careful about it. Caitlyn is rightfully freaked out by Brandon intruding in her bedroom and messing with her laptop.
** A heartbreaking example. [[spoiler: Near the end of the movie, after Tori Breyer has calmed down her son Brandon after his rampage, she takes off his mask and hugs him. She tell him that, despite all he has done she still thinks there is good in him, and Brandon tells her he wants to do good. As they hug, Tori tries to stab Brandon in the back using a shard of the alien spacecraft that can hurt him. Despite the love she has for her son, after seeing the damage he has caused she can't trust him. Even more tragically, it is implied that Tori did get through to Brandon, but being betrayed by her destroyed whatever good he had left in him. After she tries to stab him, he kills her, and goes on a rampage across the world massacring more people.]]
** [[spoiler:Brandon discovers the stabbing attempt because he will notice that one of his mother's arms is no longer hugging him, giving it away. Even if she started hugging with only one arm, NoPeripheralVision is averted as she raised her stabbing arm overhead, which will no doubt tip him off on the edge of his vision.]]

* AssholeVictim: [[AvertedTrope Averted]]. All of Brandon's victims are normal, decent people who in no way deserved their fate. It doesn't help that the trailer vastly overplayed how much he was bullied by his peers, and the [[JerkassHasAPoint people hostile to him had good reason to be]]. In fact, the one unrepentant bully shown (a [[FatBastard chunky]] black kid) is [[KarmaHoudini ''never'']] targeted by Brandon in the film.

* AssholeVictim: [[AvertedTrope Averted]]. All of Brandon's victims are normal, decent people who in no way deserved their fate. It doesn't help that the trailer vastly overplayed how much he was bullied by his peers, and the [[JerkassHasAPoint people hostile to him had good reason to be]]. In fact, the one unrepentant bully shown (a chunky black kid) is ''never'' targeted by Brandon in the film.

* KidsAreCruel: Brandon himself starts to take this trope UpToEleven when he [[spoiler:falls to his instincts]].

* ForWantOfANail: There’s one difference between Brandon and Clark: [[spoiler:the ship]]. Unlike Clark, [[spoiler:the ship]] does more to Brandon besides [[spoiler:send him to Earth: it also corrupts him]]. Unlike Clark, who can take most of the moral values given to him by the Kent’s to heart, the Breyers' moral values towards Brandon was misinterpreted due to [[spoiler:the ship's influence]].

*** [[spoiler:Brandon discovers the stabbing attempt because he will notice that one of his mother's arms is no longer hugging him, giving it away. Even if she started hugging with only one arm, NoPeripheralVision is averted as she raised her stabbing arm overhead, which will no doubt tip him off on the edge of his vision.]]

* AdultFear:
** The idea that your child might be turning into a psychopathic murderer, despite doing your damnedest to raise them right.
** The idea that your child is going to school with a psychopathic murderer.
** Some of Brandon's motives, such as his unrequentited former attraction to Caitlyn Connor, and how he is at the age range to be in school, combining with the fact that his powers are basically his equivalent to a "loaded gun", makes him eerily similar to a school shooter.

* FrighteningPowerUsage: Much of the main horror in the film comes from Brandon using his FlyingBrick powers of enhanced strength, flight and optical beams to inflict terror and harm on his victims. [[spoiler: Victims include Caitlin Connor, Erica Connor, Noah, Kyle Breyer and finally, Tori Breyer.]]

* RealityEnsues:
** It doesn't matter how [[GoodParents awesome your parenting is]] otherwise, nothing could prepare you for a kid developing superpowers, becoming influenced by technology beyond human understanding and suddenly revealing that his nature wasn't as human as you thought. Kyle and Tori did a great job raising Brandon, but are completely blindsided by the aforementioned factors and ultimately handle it... poorly.
** Being a FlyingBrick means that you can't just slam into someone at full speed and expect them to come out fine. [[spoiler:Case in point with Chief Deputy Deever, who's turned into paste as soon as Brandon hits him.]]
** What you think of as a GrandRomanticGesture can come off as extremely creepy if you're not careful about it. Caitlyn is rightfully freaked out by Brandon intruding in her bedroom and messing with her laptop.
** A heartbreaking example. [[spoiler: Near the end of the movie, after Tori Breyer has calmed down her son Brandon after his rampage, she takes off his mask and hugs him. She tell him that, despite all he has done she still thinks there is good in him, and Brandon tells her he wants to do good. As they hug, Tori tries to stab Brandon in the back using a shard of the alien spacecraft that can hurt him. Despite the love she has for her son, after seeing the damage he has caused she can't trust him. Even more tragically, it is implied that Tori did get through to Brandon, but being betrayed by her destroyed whatever good he had left in him. After she tries to stab him, he kills her, and goes on a rampage across the world massacring more people.]]
*** [[spoiler:Brandon discovers the stabbing attempt because he will notice that one of his mother's arms is no longer hugging him, giving it away. Even if she started hugging with only one arm, NoPeripheralVision is averted as she raised her stabbing arm overhead, which will no doubt tip him off on the edge of his vision.]]
* RedEyesTakeWarning: Brandon is shown to sometimes have glowing red eyes.

* NightmareFuelColoringBook: Mrs. Breyer finds Brandon's notebook... which is full of his SigilSpam and nightmarish depictions of his various atrocities that he's committed or is [[AtopAMountainOfCorpses planning to commit]].

* InTheBlood: It's unclear how much of Brandon's villainy is a result of his inherent nature, how much is [[spoiler:brainwashing from his ship]], and how much is just a socially outcast twelve-year-old coming to grips with the fact that he's an alien with superpowers, but it's likely a combination of all three (he's shown to have some... unusual interests before his powers manifest and he finds the spaceship).

* SelfMadeOrphan: [[spoiler:Both Kyle and Tori Breyer end up dead by their adopted son's hands (or eye lasers, as the case may be).]]
* ShootingSuperman: [[spoiler:Kyle tries to kill Brandon with a gun despite the fact that his boy can chew up a fork. It ends about as well as you'd expect.]]

* AssholeVictim: [[AvertedTrope Averted]]. All of Brandon's victims are normal, decent people who in no way deserved their fate. It doesn't help that the trailer vastly overplayed how much he was bullied by his peers, and the [[JerkassHasAPoint people hostile to him had good reason to be]]. In fact, the one unrepentant bully shown (a chunky black kid) is ''never'' targeted by Brandon in the film. [[spoiler:The closest to straight example is Erica, Caitlyn's mother, who unleashed some very uncalled-for invective at Brandon and demanded he be arrested and marched out of the school in handcuffs for breaking her daughter's hand. Perhaps understandable for a distraught mother, but a bit much. Still, what Brandon did in response was way, ''way'' worse.]]

** Brandon's name may possible be a subtle nod to Creator/BrandonRouth who played ComicBook/{{Superman}} in ''Film/SupermanReturns''

** Brandon's uncle Noah gets [[spoiler:his lower jaw torn off from slamming the steering wheel on his truck. He is alive for a few seconds, trying to reattach it despite sheer blood loss and shock, then ultimately dies, his lower jaw falling out of place]].

[[caption-width-right:350:''[[{{Tagline}} Evil has found its superhero.]]'']]

** Also of the argument of Superman's fairly happy upbringing making him into the kind person he is. Mrs. Breyer is just as loving and supportive as Martha Kent or even a traditional Jonathan Kent. However, despite the upbringing Brandon gets, [[spoiler:nothing can remove the underlying nature of his]]. This is also [[spoiler:Nature vs Nurture]] in play.

** Brandon Breyer also has a lot of similarities to [[Frachise/DragonBall Goku]], who also shares a lot of similarities with Superman. Much like Goku, Brandon is sent by a race of HumanAlien as a child with the intention of eventually conquering his adopted world. Unlike Goku, Brandon never forgets his true nature and ends up fulfilling his purpose.

''[=BrightBurn=]'' is a 2019 SciFiHorror film produced by Creator/JamesGunn, written by his brother and cousin Brian and Mark Gunn, and directed by not-a-Gunn-but-frequent-collaborator David Yarovesky. The film reunites James Gunn and Creator/ElizabethBanks, who previously worked together on ''Film/{{Slither}}.''

* AppropriatedAppellation: [[IAmNotShazam "Brightburn" is the name of the town, not Brandon's super name]], especially because he never takes up any names during the film, [[spoiler:but the final scenes showcase the world's reaction to the film's events and one of them is a vlogger using "Brightburn" as a name for Brandon, with the implication that this will eventually be what Brandon ''does'' call himself. It would only be appropriate, after all]].

A happy couple who dream of starting a family, get their wish come true one night when a rocket ship crash-lands near their farm, and a baby boy is found on board. The couple takes him in as their own and raise him lovingly. They soon find out that he has extraordinary superpowers. [[Franchise/{{Superman}} Sound familiar?]]

* FrighteningPowerUsage: Much of the main horror in the film comes from Brandon using his FlyingBrick powers of enhanced strength, flight and optical beams to inflict terror and harm on his victims. [[spoilers: Victims include Caitlin Connor, Erica Connor, Noah, Kyle Breyer and finally, Tori Breyer.]]