History Film / EnemyMine

** Right after the crash, his very first decision is not to fend for own survival or do anything else - he heads straight to the crash site of the Drac's fighter to finish off the survivor.

* CurbStompBattle: The beginning fighter scene starts out as this but turns ugly when the Drac [[ZergRush ambush]] the Alert squadron. Also pretty much every time Davidge faces off against the slavemaster.

* ColorCodedPatrician: Implied with the Drac elder, whose skin is greenish whereas all other Dracs we see have an earthy red coloration.

* ArchEnemy: Willis Davidge has Stubbs, an illegal mine owner who enslaved his adopted alien child.

* CrazyCulturalComparison: Early in the relationship, Davidge quotes, "If at first you don't succeed, try, try again." Jerry thinks he must have learned this from "great Drac teacher, Shismar." Davidge responds he learned it from [[Creator/{{Disney}} Mickey Mouse]], and Jerry assumes he was a "great Earthman teacher." They also have this with Shismar's book that has its own version of "love your enemies" and when Davidge comments on hearing it before, Jerry replies of course, since it's universal truth.

* EvilIsHammy: If Brion James's villainous performance were any more hammy, several major religions would have to forbid watching it.

* ThePowerOfFriendship

** Humans were calling Dracs "it" without knowing they were hermaphroditic, however, so it's more initially a case of ItIsDehumanizing.

And for the record, not actually the TropeNamer for EnemyMine. The phrase predates the movie.

Then Davidge decides to head out and see if there's any chance of them being rescued, but Jerry won't come with him. A good thing, possibly, as Davidge finds good news in the form of a futuristic [[ProductPlacement Pepsi can]] (evidence that humans have visited Fyrine IV) and bad news in the form of a Drac skull (evidence that the humans are illegal strip miners). Once Davidge gets back, he learns that Jerry is pregnant (turns out that Dracs can self-fertilize and have no control over the process). Sadly, something goes awry and Jerry dies in childbirth, so Davidge raises the kid, Zammis (ZAH-mees), by himself.

* TrulySingleParent: The drac parental lineage is truly ''linear'', since they are self-fertilizing like some terrestrial reptiles. In the words of the novella, "Don't tell a drac to boff himself, because he probably will!"

** Humans were calling Dracs "it" without knowing they were hermaphroditic, however, so it's more initially a case of FantasticRacism.

Either because the film studio thought that ViewersAreMorons or because [[PragmaticAdaptation films work better with a climax]], the [[HumansAreBastards villainous humans]] return to set up their mine run using Dracs as slaves. Since Davidge didn't teach Zammis that some humans are evil bastards, Zammis quizzically wanders into the area and gets captured. Davidge tries to save him but is shot dead by a [[LargeHam scenery-chewing]] slavedriver played by Brion James.

An 1985 Sci-Fi film, directed by Creator/WolfgangPetersen and adapted from a Barry Longyear [[Literature/TheEnemyPapers novella]].

* ABoyAndHisX: An Earth soldier and his parthenogenic reptilian alien adopted child.

* FollowTheLeader / RecycledInSpace: The novella and the film are ''Film/HellInThePacific'' IN SPACE!

In a final conflict with the evil miners, Davidge enlists the help of the Drac slaves, freeing them, taking out the overacting slavedriver and his cronies, and finding Zammis, who gets his CrowningMomentOfHeartwarming because it looked for a moment like he was dead but then he rouses and says his CatchPhrase from earlier, "Zammis get four, five?" (referring to how Dracs have only 3 digits on their hands while humans have 5).

An 1985 Sci-Fi film adapted from a Barry Longyear [[Literature/TheEnemyPapers novella]].

* WarIsHell: Par for the course for a Creator/WolfgangPetersen film. It starts with the debris from a shot-up human fighter and the frozen body of the pilot, and gets worse from there. Highlighted by the atrocities that the human leaders conveniently ignore because they're at war.

* FollowTheLeader / RecycledInSpace: The movella and the film are ''Film/HellInThePacific'' IN SPACE!

* CrazyCulturalComparison: Early in the relationship, Davidge quotes, "If at first you don't succeed, try, try again." Jerry thinks he must have learned this from "great Drac teacher, Shizumaat." Davidge responds he learned it from [[Creator/{{Disney}} Mickey Mouse]], and Jerry assumes he was a "great Earthman teacher." They also have this with Shizumaat's book that has its own version of "do unto others" and when Davidge comments on hearing it before, Jerry replies of course, since it's universal truth.

* EveryoneHasStandards: Davidge isn't too found of humans who slave Dracs, and is disgusted by the government who look the other way.

An underrated 1985 Sci-Fi film adapted from a Barry Longyear [[Literature/TheEnemyPapers novella]].

* SuperPersistentPredator: Taken to an extreme by the Fyrene Pit Fiend. Having its tongue blasted off and the inside of its mouth scorched wasn't apparently enough - it deliberately followed them to their camp to ''stage an ambush''.

* IdiotBall: Davidge, at first. He hounds Jerry down and inflicts a fatal wound on his fighter with his blasters. What does Davidge do? Follow him right into the planet's atmosphere. ''When he sees Jerry ejecting'', he just powers straight ahead, right on into Jerry's now-abandoned craft, causing the crash that kicks off the story proper.