History Film / TheLeagueofExtraordinaryGentlemen

A 2003 {{Film Adaptation|LiveAction}} of Creator/AlanMoore's popular graphic novel [[Comicbook/TheLeagueOfExtraordinaryGentlemen of the same name]], directed by Stephen Norrington and featuring a cast headed by Creator/SeanConnery.

* KnifeNut: [[spoiler:Sanderson Reed in his fight against Sawyer.]]

** Allan Quatermain is a badass who's every bit the GreatWhiteHunter that he was when he was younger. This is a major adptation to the comics where he was introduced as a burned-out opium addict. In the source books, Allan was a the mighty hunter but did become more human and less confident after multiple life tragedies but this film version is more in line with that then the comics.

** Cleverly subverted with Griffin the Invisible Man. In the [[Literature/TheInvisibleMan source material]] he was a sociopathic murderer who never cared about anything but himself and his whims. As normal per Moore, the comics upped him to rapist as well. In the movie it is made that Griffin did die like in his sorue novel but now the Invisible Man in the film is revealed to actually be Skinner, a thief who stole some of Griffin's invisibility serum and was turned transparent like him. Skinner is a straight up cheeky hero with none of Griffin's baggage.

* AdaptationalWimp: Mina, in a way. Her role as the founding member and leader of the League is given to Chamberlain instead. Instead of being the League's liaison with the British government, she's reduced to being their chemist and muscle.

* AdaptationWimp: Mina, in a way. Her role as the founding member and leader of the League is given to Chamberlain instead. Instead of being the League's liaison with the British government, she's reduced to being their chemist and muscle.

** The film in comparison to the comic is far tamer in some regards. What is interesting about this project however is of course each example also had a source material to also be compared back to. In short the film had bowdlerised some things that were UpToEleven in the comic back to the source or in a new direction.
** As noted elsewhere, in the comics, Hawley Griffin was a rapist and murderer. His replacement Skinner is merely a cheerful, mischievous sneak thief.
** There's also the fact that in the comics, Mina is both divorced from Jonathan Harker and TheLeader of the team, whereas here, Allan Quatermain plays a very conventional male leader with Mina as a FemmeFatale vampire who is widowed rather than divorced. Also, in the comics, they engaged in a MayDecemberRomance which was probably too much ValuesDissonance for mainstream audiences.
** Captain Nemo is also considerably more jovial and more of a team player, which is complete reversal from [[TeethClenchedTeamwork both the comic]] and Creator/JulesVerne's book in terms of [[{{Ubermensch}} personality]]. Nemo does get a little better after his VillainousBreakdown, and could probably be convinced to help save the planet as a whole, it seems unlikely he'd be anywhere near this noble to be acting as an agent of the British Empire in doing so. A deleted scene reveals that he agreed to help the British in exchange for the independence of India.
** Hyde is taken to some levels much tamer than his comic counterpart. There he was taken up to eleven in regards to how much of a monster he is. While it is certainly implied that Hyde did many horrible things, he ends up as a SuperpoweredAlterEgo, and the doctor is able to reason with (if not control) him in the end.
** Furthermore, the film has a more benign portrayal of British Intelligence, with TheReveal of [[spoiler:Moriarty as M]] being a kind of surprise; in the comics, the latter was always a British agent whose criminal activities were knowingly enabled by the government.

Jekyll and Hyde are a little different; Jekyll gets more screentime than Hyde, and he has to ingest a secret formula to release the monster. Oh, and Mina is now a widowed vampire instead of a divorced BadassNormal.

* AdaptationExpansion: Dorian Gray and Tom Sawyer are added to the film.

* AdaptationalBadass: Several examples of which, we'll compare both to the comic and their source materials.
** Quatermain is a badass who's every bit the GreatWhiteHunter that he was when he was younger, but in the comics was introduced as a burned-out opium addict. The comics being DarkerAndEdgier than the source, where Quatermain becomes more human throughout the series but never hits the lows he reaches in the comics.
** Here, Mina retains vampiric abilities from her past encounter with Dracula; in the comics she was a BadassNormal whose defining feature was her mysterious DarkAndTroubledPast. Both the comic and the movie are examples that help show Mina's mental (in this film as now being a chemist) and leadership (being the leader in the comics) skills. In her other adaptations of her source novel Mina is mostly reduced to being a DamselInDistress despite the fact she was very much important to the boys even figuring out Dracula's plot.

** Mr. Hyde here is somewhat of a SuperpoweredAlterEgo that is Hulk size and is brought out by Jekyll's drinking of his formula. In the comic Hyde eventually took over for Jekyll for good. Compared to the source novel this is both an upping where Hyde was originally smaller than Jekyll but one line can be read to imply he grew in size or health. There Jekyll started to change back to Hyde involuntary and it required more serum to reverse and stopped working. Jekyll was under the belief one of his chemicals he used may have been contaminated with something that made it work in the first place. Then Jekyll or Hyde commit suicide. It would stand to reason though that if he had of had more time he could have found more stable control over it.

** Cleverly subverted with Griffin the Invisible Man. In both the comic and [[Literature/TheInvisibleMan source material]] he was a sociopathic murderer. As normal per Moore, the comics upped him to rapist as well. Since the movie was going for a LighterAndSofter approach, they made this into a twist; the Invisible Man in the film is revealed to actually be Skinner, a thief who stole some of Griffin's invisibility serum and was turned transparent like him. Thus, the original character is left intact while the audience doesn't have to stomach having Griffin on the same team as the heroes.

** The villain actually intends to steal Nemo's technology, along with some others, and sell it to people to fuel wars.

* BrownNote: The concussion from the tank's main gun firing in the opening sequence puts the pursuing constables on the ground, groaning and helpless. {{Justified}} considering they just had several artillery shells powerful enough to blow the vault door off its hinges go off in a confined space; the bigger surprise is that the pressure didn't outright kill them and that the Fantom and his men can still communicate.

* ArtisticLicenseHistory: Besides the AnachronismStew already noted, the depiction of Venetians celebrating carnival is completely wrong - Napoleon Bonaparte banned the festival when he invaded Venice in 1797, and it wasn't reinstated until ''1980'', more than eighty years after this film is set.

* PreventTheWar: The League is assembled to find out who is inciting the powers of Europe to go to war, and stop their plot.

** The final scene appears to be a reference to a throwaway line told by Quatermain that he was blessed by a witch doctor after saving his village. [[spoiler:As the witch doctor said, "Africa would not allow [him] to die." Quatermain died in Mongolia but was brought back to Africa to be buried, possibly allowing the blessing to work. Also, the DVD reveals that the witch doctor is chanting "Arise."]]

* XanatosSpeedChess: The Fantom excels at this. His assassins succeed in killing Quatermain? Then that's one less potential threat to his plans. He survives? [[spoiler:The attempt on his life motivates him to come out of retirement to capture Hyde and Jekyll.]] He manages to kill the League at Dorian's home? [[spoiler:He gets to harvest at least Mina and Skinner's remains.]] If that fails? [[spoiler:Dorian will have earned their trust to enter the ''Nautilus'' and purloin its secrets as well as the intentions and genetic samples therein.]] If Venice is destroyed, World War I will get kickstarted and if it doesn't, he's confident that it will happen in due time and by that point he'll have all he needs to [[spoiler:make copies of the League's members]].

* WeCanRuleTogether: The BigBad makes an offer of this sort, to TheMole, who declines. It's something of a subversion of the trope, however; he doesn't refuse because he's a good guy (he's ''definitely'' not). He just doesn't want to be bothered, and would quite like to return to his old life. Another reason he refuses is because [[spoiler:he's seen empires come and go in his long life]], so he isn't interested. The BigBad is not happy with his decision, accusing him of thinking he's better than the BigBad.

* HoistByHisOwnPetard: [[spoiler:Moriarty forming the League in the first place, which Sawyer points out in a deleted scene.]]

** [[spoiler:Quatermain. He did eventually die in the 2012 story arc ''Century: 2009'', but he was still alive in the comics when the movie was released.]]

** They found Hyde in Paris, where he is originally described as a "[[Film/MurdersInTheRueMorgue big monkey terrorizing the Rue Morgue]]".

* OohMeAccentsSlipping: When the Fantom confronts the League, he speaks with a much different accent than the one he used to talk with at the very beginning of the movie. It's both an allusion to how he was partially inspired by MasterOfDisguise Literature/{{Fantomas}} and foreshadowing that [[spoiler:he's neither French nor Russian, but British.]]

* PlayingPossum: One of the Fantom terrorists before he tries to take Mina hostage. Suffice it to say that he meets with a gruesome fate.

* XanatosSpeedChess: The Fantom excels at this. His assassins succeed in killing Quatermain? Then that's one less potential threat to his plans. He survives? [[spoiler:Then he lives long enough to capture Hyde and Jekyll.]] He manages to kill the League at Dorian's home? [[spoiler:He gets to harvest at least Mina and Skinner's remains.]] If that fails? [[spoiler:Dorian will have earned their trust to enter the ''Nautilus'' and purloin its secrets as well as the intentions and genetic samples therein.]] If Venice is destroyed, World War I will get kickstarted and if it doesn't, he's confident that it will happen in due time and by that point he'll have all he needs to [[spoiler:make copies of the League's members]].

* BadassBeard: Nemo has a very long beard, in Sikh style, and is a feared and cunning warship commander.

** For the climax, the League travel in the ''Nautilus'' and track the Fantom via the stolen exploration pod... to one of the great frozen lakes of Mongolia. Mongolia, which is landlocked, ''has no coastline'' and no rivers that could be accessed from the Pacific Ocean.

* AntiHero: Skinner, Hyde and Nemo all have somewhat savory pasts and are a little reluctant to work with the others at different points, but have some good inner nobility.

** For the climax, the League travel in the ''Nautilus'' and track the Fantom via the stolen exploration pod...to one of the great frozen lakes of Mongolia. Mongolia, which is landlocked, ''has no coastline'' and no rivers that could be accessed from the Pacific Ocean.

* BadassBystander: When Quatermain is attacked at his club one of the other hunters there gets out his own rifle, getting a shot at the assassins which injures one with some splinters. After being forced to dive for cover he still yells out a warning to Quatermain when another killercomes at him from behind.

** Skinner wears a longcoat as well and is a shrewd, invisible thief who knows how to make an entrance and is able to figure out the whole EvilPlan while spying.
* BadassNormal: Quatermain, Sawyer and Nemo all lack in powers of their own (and Sawyer lacks Nemo's big ship or Quatermain's decades of adventures) but are capable of keeping up with those who do have powers.

** Hyde is taken to some levels much tamer than his comic counterpart. There he was taken up to eleven in regards to how much of a monster he is. While it is certainly implied Hyde did many horrible things, he ends up as a SuperpoweredAlterEgo, and the doctor is able to reason with (if not control) him in the end.

* ChekhovsGun

** Anyone who watched the movie carefully enough saw all of the actions of TheMole which were later revealed to be his tricks to obtain [[spoiler: the League's super powers and Nemo's technology]]. But in case you missed them, there's a brief montage of them during TheReveal.

** Explained in the novelization: Quatermain is shown to be an avid reader of ''The Strand'', he overhears "Ready, Professor?" at the beginning of the record Dorian left them (and indeed he is later shown to be fiddling with the recording, making sure he heard that sentence right), and when he and Sawyer sneak around M's private quarters, they hear a conversation between M and Dante where Dante refers to his boss as James. With that in mind it wouldn't be too difficult to imagine Allen putting Professor, James, and M together and coming to this realization.
* ComplexityAddiction: Much of the Fantom's actions and inactions can be excused in some way or another given the shrewd and paranoid crowd [[spoiler:whose secrets he wants to steal]]. Caution is required in those cases. [[spoiler:But letting Skinner live to act as a potential scapegoat for Dorian's espionage not only proves to be instrumental to his undoing, but largely excessive, as all he needed to take from him was a skin sample and he already had him in his custody for quite some time.]]

* DeathByAdaptation

* EvilCounterpart: Granted that the League were already morally grey at best, but during the final confrontation in the fortress, [[spoiler:Sawyer, Skinner and Quatermain have to face an invisible man working for Moriarty and his chief henchman, Dante, takes an overdose of the Hyde serum that turns him into a more twisted version of Hyde]].

** During a discussion with Captain Nemo, Quatermain says (referring to himself) "Old tigers, sensing the end, they're at their most fierce." Later in the movie, Quatermain has an encounter with a tiger (which may or may not have been real) and says "Just an old tiger sensing his end. Perhaps this was not his time to die after all."

--> '''Quatermain:''' Bruce, [[ICallItVera Mathilda]]!

* IHaveYourWife

%% * IronicEcho: "Eyes open, boy. I can't protect you all the time."

* MeaningfulFuneral: The finale features Nemo taking everyone and Quatermain's body back to Africa to lay him to rest. As they leave a witch doctor chants over his grave echoing the idea that Quatermain mentions earlier that Africa wouldn't let him die.

%% * ThePowerOfFriendship: What seems to be fueling the League after Sawyer's RousingSpeech.

** After Hyde is captured and chained he repeatedly hits Nemo's sailors with his fists and sends them flying into walls and through a door.

** Overlapping with SpellMyNameWithAnS, Quatermain isn't helped by the fact that his son's gravestone spells it "Quatermain". This one is actually excusable, given that H. Rider Haggard - the author of the Quatermain novels - had a tendency to alternate between the two spellings. However, Quatermain's first name is always ''Allan'', with two [=Ls=], something people tend to get wrong even on this website.

** The MeaningfulFuneral ends with [[spoiler:a native witch doctor doing... something, which makes the ground shake, lightning crash across the sky, and the clouds to turn dark. This was probably meant to be Quatermain coming back from the dead, since "Africa will never allow him to die."]] However, according to Jason Flemyng, the sequel will probably never happen because Connery doesn't want to do it, and has since retired from acting and passed away. The film's box office performance didn't help. To some people, though, this should be better explained. Talking just pure budget money, the film very much succeeded in recouping that cost. However, all reports clearly show that the studio wanted more. This in metaphor is like wanting an "A" in school and getting a "C". Sure, you passed, but you are still highly disappointed. And that kind of reaction surely doesn't help anyone wanting to fund another big budget action sequel.

* ShoutOut

* SpearCarrier: With the exception of first mate Ishmael, most of Nemo's crewmen only have a few of lines of dialogue at best that are related to their jobs on the sub, and not much characterization. The only thing that keeps them from being RedShirtArmy is how almost none of them actually die.

%% * TeamHandStack: The title group, just before entering the Fantom's factory/fortress.

* YouAreTooLate: After TheReveal and his escape, TheMole leaves behind a record of himself and the Fantom explaining their EvilPlan to the remaining League members. [[spoiler:Then the Fantom explains that there's a secondary sound on the record, which has triggered bombs planted throughout the ''Nautilus'' (Jekyll and Hyde could hear it, but didn't know what it was). Almost as soon as the explanation is given, these go off and nearly sink the ship, but Hyde manages to trigger an emergency blow, surfacing the sub. Nemo knocked down the recording, hoping to stop it in time.]]
* YoungGun: Tom Sawyer plays this part as the young good-looking guy with a gun. See CanonForeigner for more on why this is a problem for some.
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* CantKillYouStillNeedYou: Among the members of the League, [[spoiler:Quatermain and Nemo]] are the only two members that the Fantom can't kill right away. [[spoiler:Allan is needed to capture Hyde (and with him, Jekyll's formula), while the ''Nautilus'' is required in rder to keep whatever members survive his initial attack in close proximity to Dorian so he can collect what he needs.]] Once that's done, the villain wastes no time trying to murder them both.

** Explained in the novelization: Quatermain is shown to be an avid reader of ''The Strand'', he overhears “Ready Professor?” at the beginning of the record Dorian left them (and indeed he is later shown to be fiddling with the recording, making sure he heard that sentence right), and when he and Sawyer sneak around M’s privet quarter’s they here a conversation between M and Dante where Dante refers to his boss as James. With that in mind it wouldn’t be too difficult to imagine Allen putting Professor, James, and M together and coming to this realization.