History Main / ChildrenOfMen

* For the episode from the show ''Series/{{Revolution}}'', go [[Recap/RevolutionS1E19ChildrenOfMen here]].

* For the film, go [[Film/ChildrenOfMen here]].
* The novel on which it was based [no page yet]

[[redirect:Film/ChildrenOfMen]]

[[quoteright:350:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/children_of_men_poster.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:350: Whether he wants to or not.]]

-->'''Last one to die, please turn out the light.'''

''ChildrenOfMen'' is a 2006 [[ChildlessDystopia childless]] {{dystopia}}n science fiction film co-written and directed by [[AlfonsoCuaron Alfonso Cuaron]]. It is loosely based on the novel ''The Children Of Men'' by P. D. James.

It's 2027, and humanity has ceased reproducing for the past two decades. Society is collapsing. It appears that the United Kingdom is the only remaining civilization in the world, and it is a grey and dreary place. Terrorism and refugeeism runs high.

Theo, a white-collar worker, is distracted from his rut when an old girlfriend approaches him for a favor - to help smuggle a refugee to safety. Theo agrees to protect Kee on a dangerous journey, past riots, an oppressive government, and betrayals, to bring her to safety.
----
!! This Movie Contains Examples Of:

* ActionSurvivor: Theo spends most of the film running away from people with guns who want to kill him. [[spoiler:But then, he doesn't actually ''survive''.]]
** And Marishka. She uses a ''hammer'' to the head to deal with a jerkass.
* AdaptationDistillation: In order to bring the book to the big screen, several key character roles were switched and streamlined, a LoveTriangle was eliminated, in order to focus more on TheChase. It all works in the book, but would have been quite clunky in a 2 and half hour movie. Not only that but Theo's occupation and overall character was switched from an Oxford historian who had to [[BadAssBookworm rely on his brain]] to a former activist who had to [[IndyPloy think quickly on his feet]]. It works perfectly in terms of the action-filled movie.
* AdaptationalAttractiveness: The descriptions of Theo in the book do not exactly call Clive Owen to mind, but it's irrelevant to the story, so we're not expected to believe Owen is HollywoodHomely.
** Theo in the book was actually well in his fifties and in the opening mentioned [[IWasQuiteALooker how handsome he used to be]].
* AnyoneCanDie: Did anyone expect so many of the main characters to die so suddenly?
* {{The Alcoholic}}: Theo.
** Made into a subtle CrowningMomentOfHeartwarming when Theo uses up the last of his alcohol to [[spoiler: sterilize his hands before delivering Kee's baby.]]
* ApocalypseHow: Class 1, on the way to Class 3.
* BadassLongcoat: While it is a pretty normal wool, business trench-coat, it's pretty badass how even though Theo undergoes multiple wardrobe changes in the film, for better or for worse, one article of clothing is constant: the coat.
* BittersweetEnding - The optimistic interpretation.
* BlastOut - After Theo and Kee [[spoiler: bring the baby through a silenced battle]], all it takes is one bullet for the fight to resume as if it had never happened.
** In the movie it's some idiot firing an RPG that hits a APC dangerously close to Kee and Theo. The military retaliates explosively, ''every soldier'' shooting their guns as the tanks start to level the building.
* CameraAbuse
* ChildlessDystopia: The whole point of the movie.
* CigaretteOfAnxiety: After [[spoiler: Julian]] dies Theo goes to light a cigarette but ends up falling to the ground sobbing.
* CrapsackWorld: No babies are being born, dooming humanity to a slow but inevitable extinction. As a result, society has completely broken down, with pretty much the entire world being turned into nuclear wastelands or lawless war zones. Britain, possibly the only remaining pocket of civilization left, is a horribly authoritarian and xenophobic dystopia.
* CreatorCameo: P.D.James can be spotted in the cafeteria scene.
* DeadGuyJunior: Kee eventually settles on [[spoiler: naming the baby after Theo and Julian's dead son Dylan.]]
* DeathIsDramatic: Not in this film it's not. Fall down and shut up, no {{Final Speech}}es allowed, surviving characters will be busy running for their lives.
* DeliveryStork: Used as the basis of an in-universe joke.
* DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything: The heroes are trying to smuggle a refugee (i.e. illegal immigrant) across the border and out of the country, and this ends up saving civilization as they know it (or so they hope). Cynical pundits didn't miss the opportunity to mock the apparent SpaceWhaleAesop.
* DrivenToSuicide: Not for a particular character, but for society in general. Given that [[WorldHalfEmpty there is no hope for a future because no children have been born in 18 years]], the government rations suicide kits and anti-depressants.
* DueToTheDead: [[spoiler:Julian]]
* EmptyShell: Theo, due to the death of his and Julian's son from an illness.
* EpicTrackingShot: Alfonso Cuaron, the Director, is very fond of this technique and the film is famous for it. The action-climax is shot in one long shot in is ''over seven and a half minutes long''.
* EvilVersusEvil: The British government, the last functioning government on the planet, has become an oppressive regime, while the Fishes are sadistic terrorists who would [[spoiler:kill their own leader]] if it furthers their goal.
* FriendToAllLivingThings: Theo. Pretty much every scene incorporates some kind of animal in them and they are always friendly to Theo.
* GenderRarityValue: In the film, a fertile female is the sought-after rarity. In the book, it's a lack of fertile men.
* GenericGraffiti: "Last one alive please turn out the light."
* GranolaGirl: Miriam.
** Also Jasper, though he's male.
* GrayAndGreyMorality - The government and the "Fishes" are equally as radical and dangerous.
* HellholePrison: Bexhill Refugee Camp is basically a post-modern KZ.
* HeroesWantRedheads: Julian is played by Julianne Moore.
* InstantDeathBullet: Averted in two cases. During an attack by [[spoiler:the Fishes]], [[spoiler:Julian]] is shot in the throat and bleeds out. [[spoiler:Theo]] is shot in the stomach by Luke and lasts a few hours before finally dying [[spoiler:in the boat well out of the city]].
* JitterCam
* JustBeforeTheEnd: With no babies being born, humanity is doomed, but it will still be some time before everyone dies. Doesn't stop the world from descending into nationalistic, nihlistic mayhem.
* KillEmAll: The final scene leaves [[spoiler:only one main character and her newborn baby]] alive, with all other major characters either dead or presumably dead. People are dying left and right as soon as the main plot gets going.
* LeaveTheCameraRunning: For at least 15 minutes as Theo guides Kee [[spoiler:and the newborn]] through the warzone.
* TheLoad: Miriam means well, but she's hopelessly out of her depth and has a tendency to lock up and start praying whenever things get intense. That, or completely panic. She does however redeem herself with her [[spoiler:HeroicSacrifice]].
* MeaningfulName:
** Kee ("key" meaning the most important thing, or the thing that opens a previously locked door)
** Theo Faron is Greek for "The God of the Lighthouses".
* MoodWhiplash: Frequently. Interrupting a light scene with horrible violence and death is a favourite.
* MoralMyopia: Patric's reaction to Theo inadvertently killing the other ''assassin''. Could be because the kid was so young, and young people are held to a deity status in a society with no future. Also, it was [[ItsPersonal his cousin]].
* NoodleIncident:
** "What about Liverpool?"
** "That thing in Madrid was a real blow for art." "Not to mention people."
** "Were your parents in New York when ''it'' happened?" ''It'' was a nuclear explosion if the quick shots of scenes from a government propaganda film are to be believed.
* TheOner: Part of the visceral thrill of the film is the way many action scenes are filmed in long, continuous takes that make it seem like the viewer is inside the scene. The three longest shots make up about 1/8th of the film's running time.
** [[AvertedTrope Not all instances of the continuous shots are, though]] - while it required an almost obsessive viewing of the film, a few very minor blips here and there show that some editing of multiple shots was involved.
* PaintingTheFourthWall: As Theo runs through a bus filled with people, someone gets hit with a bullet, making blood splatter onto the camera.
** This little touch was actually an accident. After the take, the director saw the blood on the lens and thought they'd have to reshoot the whole [[TheOner absurdly long monster]] of a shot, but the cinematographer said "But that's fucking brilliant, leave it!" and it made the cut.
* PietaPlagiarism
* PsychoForHire: Patric
* QuickNip: Theo, constantly.
* [[RealIsBrown Real is Grey]]: It's Britain in winter. [[TruthInTelevision What do you expect?]]
* SacrificialLamb: One of the highest-billed stars [[spoiler:Julianne Moore]] dies 25 minutes into the movie.
* ShoutOut: Two serious ones at the camp at Bexhill.
** The first comes when [[spoiler:Miriam is pulled off the bus]], The Libertines' "Arbeit Macht Frei" can be heard in the background. The song title translates to "Work shall set you free", which was written [[WorldWarII above the entrance to Auschwitz.]]
** As the bus drives away, the "hooded man" from Abu Ghraib prison can be seen in one of the cages, in the exact pose [[http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/abu_ghraib.jpg from the infamous torture pictures.]]
** When Theo is dining with his cousin Nigel, Pablo Picasso's painting 'Guernica' hangs on the wall behind them.
** A more light-hearted one appears early in the film: a pig-shaped balloon floating over the Battersea power station (which has been turned into a museum). It's a reference to the cover of PinkFloyd's 1977 album ''Animals''.
** Battersea Power station being turned into an art gallery is ''itself'' a shout out to fellow power station Bankside, slightly down river, which is now the Tate Modern (which provided the internal set for the scene where Theo entered the gallery).
* ShrugOfGod: It's been stated that the ending was deliberately designed to appear to be either a hopeful or DownerEnding, depending wholly on where you lie on the SlidingScaleOfIdealismVersusCynicism.
** [[spoiler:In-story its wholly unclear whether or not Kee and the child will survive, but as the credits start to roll we hear the sound of children playing and laughing, as opposed to the stark silence the film began with. It's pretty clear that this is a hint that hope will return to the world, and more children will be born.]]
* SmokingIsCool: Used as a form of lazy suicide.
** Interesting fact: Although Theo tries to smoke several times over the course of the film, he is never allowed to finish a cigarette.
* SlidingScaleOfIdealismVersusCynicism: Continually switching both sides of the middle point.
* StealthPun: Theo's last act in the film is to [[spoiler:lead the girl to the buoy]].
* SterilityPlague: This trope forms the basic premise of the movie. Much like a GeorgeARomero film, it isn't explained ''what'' exactly caused it, leaving the director free to focus on the story instead of padding the film with exposition.
* SurprisinglySuddenDeath
* TechnicalPacifist: Theo bashes a couple of heads in self-defense (with a [[CarFu car]] [[ToyotaTripwire door]] and [[ImprovisedWeapon car battery]], respectively), but not once during the course of the film does he ever pick up a gun.
** Not so much TechnicalPacifist as just trying to ''survive''. At no point does he even have an opportunity to arm himself, anyway.
* ATruceWhileWeGawk: At the climax of the film.
* TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture: Done deliberately subtley. Cars, for example, may look ordinary at first glance, but are more unfamiliar upon closer inspection. They are also equipped with a heads-up display projecting the speedometer onto the windscreen. London buses carry scrolling holographic adverts on the side, contrasting with the rickshaws now present on London's streets.
* ThirdPersonPerson: Syd doesn't know why they want to get inside the camps. Syd doesn't want to know. Syd doesn't care.
* UnlikelyHero: Theo. He begins the movie as an incredibly apathetic bureaucrat, feeling nothing about the world around him. However, throughout the film he is shown to be genuinely kindhearted, which distinguishes him from so many post/pre-apocalyptic story protagonists.
* ViolentGlaswegian: Syd.
-->'''Jasper:''' Make sure you call him a 'fascist pig'.
* WaveOBabies: Inverted.
* WellIntentionedExtremist: The Fishes. [[spoiler:And especially Luke. They want to eliminate Britain's horrible oppression of refugees. Their solution? Use Kee's newborn baby as a trump card. The Fishes certainly don't object to killing whomever gets in their way - including ''their own leader''.]]
* WhatDoYouMeanItsNotSymbolic: Deliberately invoked. [[spoiler:There is the odd vague suggestion of the second coming. Kee jokes that she's a virgin mother, but admits that she doesn't know who the father is. Since we don't know the identity of the father it can be assigned to "God". Later in the film during the long take there is a lot of religious suggestion in the peoples' reactions to the child. You can take the idea as merely cultural context (the child literally represents the salvation of all mankind, how else do you think people would react?) or as a genuine possible interpretation.]]
** [[spoiler:Also Theo as surrogate father and protector (i.e. Joseph)]] And his switch to wearing sandals halfway through.
* WhoNamesTheirKidDude: Froley if it's a boy, Bazooka if it's a girl. [[spoiler:Though she finally settles on Dylan, to honor Theo's dead son.]]
* WorldHalfEmpty: The human race has lost its source of new life. All nations in the world have plunged into mayhem, save for Britain, now under the oppressive heel of an authoritarian state. Refugees are everywhere, and the last hope for humanity may well go into the wrong hands.

----
<<|{{Film}}|>>

* SterilityPlague: This trope forms the basic premise of the movie.

It's 2027, and humanity has ceased reproducing for the past two decades. Society is collapsing. It appears that the United Kingdom is the only remaining civilization in the world, and it is a grey and dreary place ([[SelfDeprecation not much has changed on that front]]). Terrorism and refugeeism runs high.

* AdaptationDistillation: In order to bring the book to the big screen, several key character roles were switched and streamlined, a LoveTriangle was eliminated, in order to focus more on TheChase. It all works in the book, but would have been quite clunky in a 2 and half hour movie.
** Not only that but Theo's occupation and overall character was switched from an Oxford historian who had to [[BadAssBookworm rely on his brain]] to a former activist who had to [[IndyPloy think quickly on his feet]]. It works perfectly in terms of the action-filled movie.
** According [[http://www.internetwritingjournal.com/blog/108071 to this article]], the original author is among those who feel this trope applies.

** And Marishka. I mean , come on, she uses a ''hammer'' to the head to deal with a jerkass.

''ChildrenOfMen'' is a 2006 {{dystopia}}n science fiction film co-written and directed by [[AlfonsoCuaron Alfonso Cuaron]]. It is loosely based on the novel ''The Children Of Men'' by P. D. James.

* TheOner: Part of the viceral thrill of the film is the way many action scenes are filmed in long, continuous takes that make it seem like the viewer is inside the scene. The three longest shots make up about 1/8th of the film's running time.

* ActionSurvivor: Theo spends most of the film running away from people with guns who want to kill him. [[spoiler:But then, he doesn't actually ''survive''.]]

* AdaptationDistillation: In order to bring the book to the big screen, several key character roles were switched and streamlined, a LoveTriangle was eliminated, in order to focus more on TheChase. It all works in the book, but would have been quite clunky in a 2 and half hour movie.
** Not only that but Theo's occupation and overall character was switched from an Oxford historian who had to [[BadAssBookworm rely on his brain]] to a former activist who had to [[IndyPloy think quickly on his feet]]. It works perfectly in terms of the action-filled movie.

* AdaptationalAttractiveness: The descriptions of Theo in the book do not exactly call Clive Owen to mind, but it's irrelevant to the story, so we're not expected to believe Owen is HollywoodHomely.
** Theo in the book was actually well in his fifties and in the opening mentioned [[IWasQuiteALooker how handsome he used to be]].
* AnyoneCanDie: Did anyone expect so many of the main characters to die so suddenly?
* {{The Alcoholic}}: Theo.

* ApocalypseHow: Class 1, on the way to Class 3.
* BadassLongcoat: While it is a pretty normal wool, business trench-coat, it's pretty badass how even though Theo undergoes multiple wardrobe changes in the film, for better or for worse, one article of clothing is constant: the coat.
* BittersweetEnding - The optimistic interpretation.
* BlackAndGreyMorality - The government and the "Fishes" are equally as radical and dangerous.
* BlastOut - After Theo and Kee [[spoiler: bring the baby through a silenced battle]], all it takes is one bullet for the fight to resume as if it had never happened.
** In the movie it's some idiot firing an RPG that hits a APC dangerously close to Kee and Theo. The military retaliates explosively, ''every soldier'' shooting their guns as the tanks start to level the building.
* CameraAbuse

* CreatorCameo: P.D.James can be spotted in the cafeteria scene.
* DeadGuyJunior: Kee eventually settles on [[spoiler: naming the baby after Theo and Julian's dead son Dylan.]]
* DeathIsDramatic: Not in this film it's not. Fall down and shut up, no {{Final Speech}}es allowed, surviving characters will be busy running for their lives.
* DeliveryStork: Used as the basis of an in-universe joke.
* DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything: The heroes are trying to smuggle a refugee (i.e. illegal immigrant) across the border and out of the country, and this ends up saving civilization as they know it (or so they hope). Cynical pundits didn't miss the opportunity to mock the apparent SpaceWhaleAesop.
* DrivenToSuicide: Not for a particular character, but for society in general. Given that [[WorldHalfEmpty there is no hope for a future because no children have been born in 18 years]], the government rations suicide kits and anti-depressants.
* DueToTheDead: [[spoiler:Julian]]
* EmptyShell: Theo, due to the death of his and Julian's son from an illness.
* EvilVersusEvil: The British government, the last functioning government on the planet, has become an oppressive totalitarian regime, while the Fishes are sadistic terrorists who would [[spoiler:kill their own leader]] if it furthers their goal.
* FriendToAllLivingThings: Theo. Pretty much every scene incorporates some kind of animal in them and they are always friendly to Theo.
* GenderRarityValue: In the film, a fertile female is the sought-after rarity. In the book, it's a lack of fertile men.
* GenericGraffiti: "Last one alive please turn out the light."
* GranolaGirl: Miriam.
** Also Jasper, though he's male.
* HellholePrison: Bexhill Refugee Camp is basically future Auschwitz.
* HeroesWantRedheads: Julian is played by Julianne Moore.
* InstantDeathBullet: Averted in two cases. During an attack by [[spoiler:the Fishes]], [[spoiler:Julian]] is shot in the throat and bleeds out. [[spoiler:Theo]] is shot in the stomach by Luke and lasts a few hours before finally dying [[spoiler:in the boat well out of the city]].
* JitterCam
* JustBeforeTheEnd: With no babies being born, humanity is doomed, but it will still be some time before everyone dies. Doesn't stop the world from descending into nationalistic, nihlistic mayhem.
* KillEmAll: The final scene leaves [[spoiler:only one main character and her newborn baby]] alive, with all other major characters either dead or presumably dead. People are dying left and right as soon as the main plot gets going.
* LeaveTheCameraRunning: For at least 15 minutes as Theo guides Kee [[spoiler:and the newborn]] through the warzone.
* TheLoad: Miriam means well, but she's hopelessly out of her depth and has a tendency to lock up and start praying whenever things get intense. That, or completely panic. She does however redeem herself with her [[spoiler:HeroicSacrifice]].
* MeaningfulName:
** Kee ("key" meaning the most important thing, or the thing that opens a previously locked door)
** Theo Faron is Greek for "The God of the Lighthouses".
* MoodWhiplash: Frequently. Interrupting a light scene with horrible violence and death is a favourite.
* MoralMyopia: Patric's reaction to Theo inadvertently killing the other ''assassin''. Could be because the kid was so young, and young people are held to a deity status in a society with no future. Also, it was [[ItsPersonal his cousin]].
* NoodleIncident:
** "What about Liverpool?"
** "That thing in Madrid was a real blow for art." "Not to mention people."
** "Were your parents in New York when ''it'' happened?" ''It'' was a nuclear explosion if the quick shots of scenes from a government propaganda film are to be believed.
* TheOner: Part of the viceral thrill of the film is the way many action scenes are filmed in long, continuous takes that make it seem like the viewer is inside the scene. The three longest shots make up about 1/8th of the film's running time.

* PaintingTheFourthWall: As Theo runs through a bus filled with people, someone gets hit with a bullet, making blood splatter onto the camera.

* PietaPlagiarism
* PsychoForHire: Patric.
* QuickNip: Theo, constantly.
* [[RealIsBrown Real is Grey]]: It's Britain in winter. [[TruthInTelevision What do you expect?]]
* SacrificialLamb: One of the highest-billed stars [[spoiler: (Julianne Moore)]] dies 25 minutes into the movie.
* ShoutOut: Two serious ones at the camp at Bexhill.
** The first comes when [[spoiler: Miriam is pulled off the bus]], The Libertines' "Arbeit Macht Frei" can be heard in the background. The song title translates to "Work shall set you free", which was written [[WorldWarII above the entrance to Auschwitz.]]
** As the bus drives away, the "hooded man" from Abu Ghraib prison can be seen in one of the cages, in the exact pose [[http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/abu_ghraib.jpg from the infamous torture pictures.]]
** When Theo is dining with his cousin Nigel, Pablo Picasso's painting 'Guernica' hangs on the wall behind them.
** A more light-hearted one appears early in the film: a pig-shaped balloon floating over the Battersea power station (which has been turned into a museum). It's a reference to the cover of PinkFloyd's 1977 album ''Animals''.
* ShrugOfGod: It's been stated that the ending was deliberately designed to appear to be either a hopeful or DownerEnding, depending wholly on where you lie on the SlidingScaleOfIdealismVersusCynicism.
** [[spoiler: In-story its wholly unclear whether or not Kee and the child will survive, but as the credits start to roll we hear the sound of children playing and laughing, as opposed to the stark silence the film began with. It's pretty clear that this is a hint that hope will return to the world, and more children will be born.]]
* SmokingIsCool: Used as a form of lazy suicide.
** Interesting fact: although Theo tries to smoke several times over the course of the film, he is never allowed to finish a cigarette.
* SlidingScaleOfIdealismVersusCynicism: Continually switching both sides of the middle point.
* SurprisinglySuddenDeath
* TechnicalPacifist: Theo bashes a couple of heads in self-defense (with a [[CarFu car]] [[ToyotaTripwire door]] and [[ImprovisedWeapon car battery]], respectively), but not once during the course of the film does he ever pick up a gun.
** Not so much TechnicalPacifist as just trying to ''survive''. At no point does he even have an opportunity to arm himself, anyway.

* ThirdPersonPerson: Syd doesn't know why they want to get inside the camps. Syd doesn't want to know. Syd doesn't care.
* UnlikelyHero: Theo. He begins the movie as an incredibly apathetic bureaucrat, feeling nothing about the world around him. However, throughout the film he is shown to be genuinely kindhearted, which distinguishes him from so many post/pre-apocalyptic story protagonists.
* ViolentGlaswegian: Syd.

* WaveOBabies: inverted.
* WellIntentionedExtremist: The Fishes. [[spoiler: And especially Luke. They want to eliminate Britain's horrible oppression of refugees. Their solution? Use Kee's newborn baby as a trump card. The Fishes certainly don't object to killing whomever gets in their way - including ''their own leader''.]]
* WhatDoYouMeanItsNotSymbolic: Deliberately invoked. [[spoiler:There is the odd vague suggestion of the second coming. Kee jokes that she's a virgin mother, but admits that she doesn't know who the father is. Since we don't know the identity of the father it can be assigned to "God". Later in the film during the long take there is a lot of religious suggestion in the peoples' reactions to the child. You can take the idea as merely cultural context (the child literally represents the salvation of all mankind, how else do you think people would react?) or as a genuine possible interpretation.]]

* WhoNamesTheirKidDude: Froley if it's a boy, Bazooka if it's a girl. [[spoiler:Though she finally settles on Dylan, to honor Theo's dead son.]]
* WorldHalfEmpty: The human race has lost its source of new life. All nations in the world have plunged into mayhem, save for Britain, now under the oppressive heel of an authoritarian state. Refugees are everywhere, and the last hope for humanity may well go into the wrong hands.

* TheReveal: See TrailersAlwaysSpoil. Don't even think about it too hard, it's pretty obvious anyway.

* [[{{TearJerker/Film}} Tearjerker]]: As the film climaxes, the British government and the refugees begin a full-scale war, but the fighting briefly comes to a halt [[spoiler: when the fighting refugees and soldiers, for the first time in eighteen years, hear the sound of a crying baby. Full stop. All the soldiers and Fishes stop fighting. Total silence in the warzone as soldiers part to let the baby through, several of them dropping to their knees and making the sign of the cross. Once they're free of the building, someone fires a shot and [[BlastOut fighting resumes]] in a viscerally realistic way.]]
** Also earlier in front of the same apartment building; the army shooting a group of civilians walking out with a white flag.
** [[spoiler:Jasper's death.]]
** [[spoiler:Julian's death and funeral.]]
** Miriam getting pulled off the bus in Bexhill...
** Luke holed up in the shelter facing off with British soldiers. His confession to Theo about how he remembered his beautiful baby sister. Said in a tone like he wondered how he ended up a KnightTemplar with multiple bodycounts.
-->'''Luke:''' I had a sister...
** And at the end, [[spoiler:fighter planes flying overhead, with fireballs over Bexhill...]]
** Jasper's poor wife, who is in a catatonic state because [[spoiler:[=MI5=] tortured her]].
** Marishka leaving Theo and Kee in the boat only for everything to explode moments later.

* TrailersAlwaysSpoil: If you don't already know what TheReveal is about in this film, count yourself lucky.

* MoralMyopia: Possibly [[JustifiedTrope justified]]. Patric's reaction to Theo inadvertently killing the other ''assassin'' could be because the kid was so young, and young people are held to a deity status in a society with no future. Also, it was [[ItsPersonal his cousin]].

* MisterSeahorse: Many people seem to come to the mistaken conclusion that this is what the movie is about, based upon the title and emphasis placed upon women being infertile.

** This troper finds this to be a {{Crowning Moment Of Heartwarming}} as well.

** Humanity is dying out as reproduction plummets, but [[spoiler: for some reason [[DidNotDoTheResearch no scientists have bothered to check]] the fertility of mentally or physically disabled people. This is [[HandWave explained away]] with something about preserving genetic strength while ignoring crucial logic gaps: not all genetic disabilities are fatal or debilitating, not all genetic disabilities are passed down to offspring, and most importantly, preserving genetic purity won't matter if the human species GOES EXTINCT. A disabled woman is the first miracle pregnancy found--she's disabled by a ''mildly deformed hand.'']]