History YMMV / CloudAtlas

* CompleteMonster: Bill Smoke, from the ''[[Characters/CloudAtlasHalfLivesTheFirstLuisaReyMystery Luisa Rey]]'' story, is a [[PsychoForHire psychotic hitman]] who shows little regret for anything he does. Hired by [[CorruptCorporateExecutive Lloyd Hooks]] to kill anyone who knows about his company's nuclear reactor conspiracy, Smoke sets out to murder anybody who gets in his way. He kills a much older Rufus Sixsmith and makes it look like a suicide, and almost kills an unaware Luisa, backing off when she ends up not discovering him. When a man named Isaac Sachs gives Luisa a copy of the nuclear report Sixsmith tried to give her, Smoke kills Sachs by blowing up the plane he's in, along with the people inside it, later attempting to murder Luisa by running her car off a bridge. After discovering that Luisa survived the crash, he tries to murder her again, along with her partner, Joe Napier. Before his death, Smoke [[KickTheDog shoots an innocent Mexican woman's dog]] and calls her a "[[PoliticallyIncorrectVillain stupid fucking wetback]]" for not telling him where Luisa and Joe are.

* TrueArtIsIncomprehensible: Partially, anyway. It's [[DiscussedTrope discussed]] in the film; one of the many protagonists notes that [[LeaningOnTheFourthWall once you stop trying to make sense of things and learn to roll with them]], you can figure out what's going on.

* {{Narm}}:
** Some of the makeup, especially in the "Neo Seoul" segments.
** The way people [[FunetikAksent talk]] in Zachry's era. Can also double as NarmCharm.

* GeniusBonus: The name of the music piece Robert Frobisher creates is called the ''Cloud Atlas Sextet.'' A sextet, according to Wiki/TheOtherWiki is "a formation containing exactly six members. It is commonly associated with vocal or musical instrument groups, but can be applied to any situation where six similar or related objects are considered a single unit." The novel is told through the PointOfView of six different people.

** Some of the makeup, especially in the "Neo Seoul" segments. See UncannyValley and SpecialEffectFailure.

* SpecialEffectFailure: In spite of some very good instances of makeup, the attempts to change the races of several actors runs straight into UncannyValley and is highly distracting. There's some amount of contention between critics over whether it was intentional or not.

* UncannyValley: Some of the attempts to change the actors' race end up looking extremely creepy.

* AcceptableTargets: A majority of the film's villains include racists, homophobes, corrupt executives and politicians, and cannibalistic savages.

* DirectorDisplacement: Tom Tykwer's involvement doesn't get as much discussion as the Wachowskis'.

* TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodPlot: Fans of the movie felt this way about the potential of a Frobisher-Sixsmith reunion.

* AwardSnub: It was completely ignored by the Academy. Many thought it should have at least been nominated for Make-Up, given how all the actors are transformed, or Editing for the way they cut back and forth between different stories. The score was also highly acclaimed, some even going so far to say ''Atlas'' had the best soundtrack of the year.

* SomeAnvilsNeedToBeDropped: Big time. The movie (and book) as a whole is a call for human beings to treat each other with more compassion, but each segment denounces a specific evil:
** The Ewing segment is a massive TakeThat against colonialism and social darwinism.
** The Frobisher segment is a battle of wills between a villainous StrawNihilist (who produces art because he wants to be remembered as a great man) and a sympathetic TheAntiNihilist (who produces art because it's his way to keep the darkness at bay).
** The Luisa Rey segment is a criticism of crooked corporate capitalism and sexism.
** The Cavendish segment criticizes ageism.
** The Somni segment is an epic TakeThat against consumer capitalism.
** The Zachry segment is the last stand of civilization against barbarism.

* ValuesResonance: "Disneys" becoming a generic term for movies by 2144 seems to be a lot relevant in light of Disney's unprecedented dominance of the film industry after its numerous massive acquisitions (Pixar, Marvel, Lucasfilm, Fox, etc.) since the book's publication in 2004.

* ValuesResonance: "Disneys" becoming a generic term for movies by 2144 is a lot more relevant in light of Disney's unprecedented dominance of the film industry after its numerous massive acquisitions (Pixar, Marvel, Lucasfilm, Fox, etc.) since the book's publication in 2004.

* The story revolves around six characters in different time periods, with separate story arcs in a single shared timeline and share a star-shaped birthmark. [[Manga/JojosBizarreAdventure Sound familiar to any anime fans?]]

* FunnyAneurysmMoment: "Disneys" becoming a generic term for movies by 2144 is a lot less funny now that there's greater concern over Disney's unprecedented dominance of the film industry after its numerous massive acquisitions (Pixar, Marvel, Lucasfilm, Fox, etc.) since the book's publication in 2004.

* CompleteMonster: [[PsychoForHire Bill Smoke]], from the ''[[Characters/CloudAtlasHalfLivesTheFirstLuisaReyMystery Luisa Rey]]'' story, is a psychotic hitman who shows little regret for anything he does. Hired by [[CorruptCorporateExecutive Lloyd Hooks]] to kill anyone who knows about his company's nuclear reactor conspiracy, Smoke sets out to murder anybody who gets in his way. He kills a much older Rufus Sixsmith and makes it look like a suicide, and almost kills an unaware Luisa, backing off when she ends up not discovering him. When a man named Isaac Sachs gives Luisa a copy of the nuclear report Sixsmith tried to give her, Smoke kills Sachs by blowing up the plane he's in, along with the people inside it, later attempting to murder Luisa by running her car off a bridge. After discovering that Luisa survived the crash, he tries to murder her again, along with her partner, Joe Napier. Before his death, Smoke [[KickTheDog shoots an innocent Mexican woman's dog]] and calls her a "[[PoliticallyIncorrectVillain stupid fucking wetback]]" for not telling him where Luisa and Joe are.

* CompleteMonster: [[ProfessionalKiller Bill Smoke]] from the ''Luisa Rey'' story is a [[PsychoForHire psychotic hitman]] who shows little regret for anything he does. Hired by [[CorruptCorporateExecutive Lloyd Hooks]] to kill anyone who knows about his company’s nuclear reactor conspiracy, Smoke sets out to murder anybody who gets in his way. He kills a much older Rufus Sixsmith and makes it look like a suicide, and almost kills an unaware Luisa, backing off when she ends up not discovering him. When a man named Isaac Sachs gives Luisa a copy of the nuclear report Sixsmith tried to give her, Smoke kills Sachs by blowing up the plane he’s in, along with the people inside it, later attempting to murder Luisa by running her car off a bridge. After discovering that Luisa survived the crash, he tries to murder her again, along with her partner, Joe Napier. Before his death, Smoke [[KickTheDog shoots an innocent Mexican woman’s dog]] and calls her a "[[PoliticallyIncorrectVillain stupid fucking wetback]]" for not telling him where Luisa and Joe are.

* RewatchBonus: The film is loaded with little touches and {{Foreshadowing}} you'll probably miss on the first go around. On top of that, some viewers found themselves having different opinions after watching it second time. Creator/MarkKermode outright called the film a failure (albeit an honorable one) on [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AKVfpRLfWOc his first viewing]] but on his [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n66GotwXN9I second viewing]], he found a new appreciation for it.

* TechnologyMarchesOn: Averted for Meronym, as she is mostly dependent on the exact same technology as Sonmi~451's era, some 175 years prior, such as the floating half-silvered video screens and the Mauna Sol broadcast facility. Inverted entirely for Village folk and Kona, who don't have a shred of anything beyond the stone age, aside from a single book, and crossbows.

** The Frobisher segment is a battle of wills between a villainous NietzscheWannabe (who produces art because he wants to be remembered as a great man) and a sympathetic TheAntiNihilist (who produces art because it's his way to keep the darkness at bay).

* DirectorDisplacement: Tom Tykwer's involvement doesn't get as much discussion as the Wachowski's.

* CrowningMusicOfAwesome: It wold be easy to say all of it, but special mention must be made to the film's final track, [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mXttp8_xSHQ "Cloud Atlas End Title".]]

* AcceptableTargets: A majority of the film's villains include racists, homophobes, corrupt executives and politicians and cannibalistic savages.

* CompleteMonster: [[ProfessionalKiller Bill Smoke]] from the ''Luisa Rey'' story is a [[PsychoForHire psychotic hitman]] who shows little regret for anything he does. Hired by [[CorruptCorporateExecutive Lloyd Hooks]] to kill anyone who knows about his company’s nuclear reactor conspiracy, Smoke sets out to murder anybody who gets in his way. He kills a much older Rufus Sixsmith and makes it look like a suicide, and almost kills an unaware Luisa, backing off when she ends up not discovering him. When a man named Isaac Sachs gives Luisa a copy of the nuclear report Sixsmith tried to give her, Smoke kills Sachs by blowing up the plane he’s in, along with the people inside it, later attempting to murder Luisa by running her car off a bridge. After discovering that Luisa survived the crash, he tries to murder her again, along with her partner, Joe Napier. Before his death, Smoke [[ShootTheDog shoots an innocent Mexican woman’s dog]] and calls her a "[[PoliticallyIncorrectVillain stupid fucking wetback]]" for not telling him where Luisa and Joe are.

* VisualEffectsOfAwesome:

** The Frobisher segment is a battle of wills between a villainous NietzscheWannabe (who produces art because he wants to be remembered as a great man) and a sympathetic [[Anti-Nihilist TheAntiNihilist]] (who produces art because it's his way to keep the darkness at bay).