Line #153 Film/BoyKillsWorld


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2	[[caption-width-right:1000:''"Insert crazy action montage!"'']]
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5	''Boy Kills World'' is a 2024 action comedy thriller film directed by newcomer Moritz Mohr and written by Tyler Burton Smith and Arend Remmers. It stars Creator/BillSkarsgard, Creator/JessicaRothe, Creator/MichelleDockery, Creator/BrettGelman, Creator/IsaiahMustafa, Creator/SharltoCopley, Andrew Koji, and Creator/FamkeJanssen, with Creator/HJonBenjamin serving as the film's narrator.
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7	When an attack by an evil tyrant (Janssen) renders him deaf, mute, and orphaned, young man (Skarsgård) sets out on a years-long revenge plan to gain a sweet inner voice (Benjamin), train himself up, and take revenge on the tyrant with the help of an unlikely team. The film premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival on September 9th, 2023 and was released in theaters on April 26th, 2024.
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9	'''Previews:''' [[https://youtu.be/tztCsUyiQv8?si=RMIulNJHIAF1Z2VJ Trailer]]; [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z6NibtjmjOk Red Band trailer]]
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11	!!''Boy Kills World'' includes examples of the following:
12	* AbusiveParents:
13	** [[spoiler:Hilda forced Boy, her own son, to execute the Shaman's family when Boy was just a child. Even after Boy rediscovers his old identity after he returns years later, Hilda still doesn't hesitate to tearfully order his death, reasoning that he's just the Shaman's weapon now.]]
14	** [[spoiler:The Shaman himself is also a twisted example, as the TrainingMontage shows Boy had come to think of him as a ParentalSubstitute, due to him being the only meaningful human connection in the jungle wilderness and his deaf-muteness hampering his ability to directly communicate with others when scavenging in the city. However, The Shaman ''invoked'' this, deliberately causing Boy's disabilities to isolate him and then warping his mind through psychoactive drugs and repeated brainwashing to distort his memories, leaving himself the only one Boy could rely on. During their climatic fight, it's implied The Shaman was counting on Boy's attachment to him as a weakness for when he inevitably turned on him]].
15	* ActingUnnatural: While pretending to be a chef in Hilda's mansion, Boy's told to act like a chef by his hallucinated sister. He does so by absently grating cheese as he walks around the place.
16	* ActuallyADoombot: [[spoiler:Boy seems to kill Hilda rather early, only to learn he killed an actress]].
17	* AdvertisingByAssociation: The trailer boasts the involvement of producers Creator/SamRaimi (''Franchise/EvilDead'', ''Film/DontBreathe'', ''Film/TheGrudge'') and Roy Lee (''Film/{{It\|2017}}'', ''Film/{{Barbarian}}'').
18	* AllThereInTheScript: The grandmother of the Van Der Koy family is never referred to onscreen as anything other than "Gram Gram", but the credits reveal that her name is Beatrice Van Der Koy.
19	* AmmoUsingMeleeWeapon: One of the most distinctive weapons LaResistance give to Boy is a set of brass knuckles with a short barrel and pistol magazine attached, which is fired by punching.
20	* AnArmAndALeg: Dave, whom Basho says has "a lot of issues", ''tears off his own arm'' after Boy gets his hand stuck in a vice.
21	-->'''Boy:''' Player 2 is fucking crazy!
22	* ArmourIsUseless: PlayedWith throughout the film.
23	** Boy has zero defensive armour on him, but the Van Der Koy mooks he fights through can barely hit him thanks to his acrobatic speed and their [[ImperialStormtrooperMarksmanshipAcademy absolutely crap aim]]. Nonetheless, he does still get the utter shit hammered out of him throughout the course of the film, which would have been alleviated by wearing some kind of defensive gear, but Boy is notably pressured more by the goons wielding close-range weapons than any guns. [[spoiler:Ditto for June 27, who has a CustomUniformOfSexy that gives unobstructed access to her midriff, yet even when faced in a hallway full of gun-wielding enemies, none of them so much as graze her with a bullet. However, The Shaman has an easy time incapacitating her with an improvised shiv made out of her broken visor in part thanks to her lack of armour]].
24	** The Van Der Koy {{Mooks}} all wear uniforms that are presumably covered in bulletproof armour, and wear face-obscuring headgear for the most part, yet both are easily punctured by gunshots whenever Boy grabs a firearm. However, said armour ''does'' work...whenever Boy grabs one of them to use as a BulletproofHumanShield, blocking bullets from reaching Boy, but utterly failing to stop any of them from penetrating their corpse in the first place. [[spoiler:During their escape from Hilda's bunker, Boy and June 27 are accosted by a GiantMook wearing hi-tech plate armour, which is ''actually'' bulletproof, pushing them both back from his gradual advance. However, when he gets close enough, the duo are able to overpower him and use him as another shield against a minigun-wielding mook, whose barrage of high-powered bullets evidently penetrates through even his durable armour eventually, but not before the sibling duo get into range to take him down]].
25	** Benny and Basho don't wear any kind of bulletproof armour when engaging in a shootout with the Van Der Koy forces during their BigDamnHeroes rescue of Boy from The Culling, cutting through swathes of enemies despite one of them wearing a stage costume and the other only a tank top, despite both having stocked up at the armoury prior to their rescue. [[spoiler:It costs both of them, as Melanie mortally wounds them with blasts from her shotgun, though Basho is able to last a little longer thanks to the [[AgonisingStomachWound location]] of his injury]].
26	** [[spoiler:The Shaman is characterised by his humble and ragged attire, wearing little more than rags even when fighting Boy and June 27 2-on-1. He ''is'' [[MadeOfIron fairly hardy]] for an old man, at one point battering open June's helmet with [[HardHead his own head]], but his lack of defensive gear plays into his defeat, once Boy turns his fanged necklace into an improvised shiv against him, Despite the "blade" being only about half a finger long, it's enough for Boy and The Shaman to slice each other to pieces with since neither of them have anything to block with but their own bodies, and The Shaman ultimately dies from a SlashedThroat thanks to this]].
27	* BaitAndSwitch: Melanie is furious with Boy for killing her husband... because he's the host for The Culling which is airing in a couple hours, and she spent ''years'' making sure he was a good host...
28	* BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor:
29	** Anna the Flower Girl gushes to Boy about how much she loves the Culling and how excited she is to see it. [[spoiler:She ends up being one of its victims when the Van Der Koys find themselves short of actual guilty people to kill on camera.]]
30	** While doing a WalkAndTalk to the TV studio for The Culling, Melanie tells an underling that because they don't have Glen for colour commentary, she wants a camera "right in the splatter zone, if that lens isn't covered in blood you're doing it wrong". [[spoiler: The lens of one camera does indeed get [[CameraAbuse covered in blood]] when Boy uses it to splatter Melanie herself.]]
31	* BeingEvilSucks: Gideon is so sick and tired of the Culling (and by extension, the rest of the family and their sins) that he's willing to help Boy just so that, one way or another, there might finally be an end to it. [[spoiler:He doesn't even seem to mind when it becomes clear that Boy is about to kill him despite the help he provided, instead just telling him, "Do whatever you have to do."]]
32	* BigBad: Hilda Van Der Koy, the matriarch of a powerful, corrupt post-apocalyptic dynasty who is responsible for the murder of Boy's family. [[spoiler:However, whilst she ''is'' undoubtedly a bad person worthy of the position, the reveal that The Shaman is actually an EvilMentor who psychologically tortured and manipulated Boy into a TykeBomb to have him kill his own family as ironic vengeance for the Shaman's own loss makes the two serve as a BigBadEnsemble]].
33	* BigScrewedUpFamily: The Van Der Koys, consisting of a paranoid dictator, a psychopathic PR representative, her bumbling and cruel husband, a morally exhausted scriptwriter and enforcer, their grandma who nobody cares about, [[spoiler:the dictator's daughter taking out her pain and anger on their subjects]], and [[spoiler:a LaserGuidedTykeBomb unwittingly seeking vengeance upon them all]]. Furthermore, said dictator [[spoiler:is also paranoid and delusional... like mother, like son.]]
34	-->'''Boy:''' This family needs therapy.
35	* BossInMookClothing: Dave appears to be nothing more than a random {{Mook}}, but gives Boy an absolutely brutal fight in the warehouse.
36	* BreadAndCircuses: The tradition of a yearly Culling of dissidents was started by Hilda when the Van Der Koys first took power. In the years since, Melanie has added to the formula by making it a RiggedSpectacleFight with [[MascotMook Mascot Mooks]] and ProductPlacement.
37	--> '''Melanie''': [[EvilGloating They’re all going to watch and cheer as you die]].
38	* BumblingHenchmanDuo: An early scene features Glen and Gideon reporting to Melanie after they accidentally trigger a massacre and as a result fail to gather the full 12 victims for the impending Culling ceremony. It’s clear from Melanie’s reaction that this kind of ineptitude isn’t entirely out of character from them.
39	* ChildrenForcedToKill: [[spoiler:When his memories return, Boy realizes Hilda forced him to shoot the Shaman's family]].
40	* ClosestThingWeGot: As Gideon complains to Boy at one point, the Van Der Koys have long since won the war and crushed all opposition, so the political enemies and dissidents who are the actual intended targets of the Culling simply don't exist any more, and they're having to make due with whatever they can scrape off the streets on Culling day, and even that is getting hard.
41	* CoDragons: Melanie, Gideon, and Glen, the first two being Hilda's siblings and the third being her brother-in-law, are her primary underlings.
42	** Melanie is TheEvilGenius and TheHeavy who generally gives the orders, does most of the actual work of keeping the Van Der Koys in power and is the most prominent villain for much of the film since [[spoiler: Hilda has become an erratic recluse]].
43	** Gideon is supposed to be TheBrute as far as Melanie and Glen are concerned, but they allow him to write [[PropagandaMachine the regime's speeches]] to stop him complaining. He invariably produces overwrought nonsense that falls heavily into NonSequitur and TrueArtIsIncomprehensible.
44	** Glen is Melanie's HenpeckedHusband and the SmarmyHost of her [[BreadAndCircuses crowd-pleasingly bloodthirsty Culling events]]. Melanie's media wizardry maintains the entire family as [[VillainWithGoodPublicity Villains With Good Publicity]], but none more so than Glen who has legions of fans despite his StupidEvil and MilesGloriosus tendencies.
45	* CombatPragmatist: Shaman and Boy are both known for attacking enemy injuries, attacking unprepared enemies, and using whatever they can get their hands on as a weapon.
46	* CoolHelmet: June 27 rocks a stylish motorcycle helmet that can display electronic messages on the visor.
47	* CreativeClosingCredits: The credits see done in comic book style, not only showing the various characters as the names of the actors playing them appear onscreen, but also depicting a mini story of [[spoiler:Boy and June 27 fighting their way through many mooks together]].
48	* CruelAndUnusualDeath: Melanie has controlled the media narrative and subjugated the populace with her TV broadcasts for years, so [[spoiler: Boy dispatches her by zooming the Culling’s livestream camera into her head and [[ImpaledWithExtremePrejudice impaling her through the face or throat with its support rods]]. This is shown from the camera’s POV and [[CameraAbuse the lens cracks]] on impact so we only see a distorted GrossUpCloseUp of Melanie’s bloodied face and her eyes rolling up into her head as her last breaths rattle. To put the capper on it, the camera boom lifts Melanie into the air and as Boy walks away her body slides off the rods and crashes to the ground along with the chair she’s tied to. [[AssholeVictim As Melanie manages the impressive feat of being the worst human being even in her horrible family, it’s hard to feel sorry for her]].]]
49	* CrypticBackgroundReference: The movie makes reference to the fact that 25 years ago Hilda and her family took control of the City and instituted the Cullings, but who her revolution was directed against and how it was carried out is never elaborated upon, beyond the fact that eventually Melanie got the Frosty Puffs cereal company to pay the costs.
50	* CustomUniformOfSexy: June 27 wears a unique version of the Van Der Koy mooks' uniform which leaves her midriff completely exposed, giving everyone an unobstructed view of her magnificent abs.
51	* CycleOfRevenge: What the entire story is revealed to be: [[spoiler:The Shaman trained the rebels who killed Hilda's husband, so Hilda forced her son (a child at the time) to publicly execute the Shaman's wife and children in the first Culling as revenge. The Shaman escaped and in turn kidnapped Hilda's son and through torture, drugs and TrainingFromHell turned him into a killing machine to kill his own mother and the rest of the Van Der Koy family as revenge.]]
52	* DarkActionGirl: June 27, the Van Der Koys' main enforcer is a formidable hand-to-hand fighter whose skills are on par with Boy's, who is a OneManArmy himself. [[spoiler:Which is fitting considering they are brother and sister.]]
53	* DeadlyGame: Boy finds himself an unwilling contestant on a televised slaughter-fest called ''The Culling''. It is sponsored by cereal companies and their mascots gleefully murder the various participants.
54	* DeathByIrony: Every major character gets one of these, starting from the fact that [[spoiler:most of the kills are being done unknowingly between [[MurderInTheFamily the same family members]] as per The Shaman's intention]].
55	** Glenn is the SmarmyHost and TheFace of the Van Der Koy regime, being the one the public most recognises form his hosting of the televised Culling event. [[spoiler:He dies from Basho accidentally dropping a bench press onto his head, bursting it like a watermelon and leaving him an [[FacialHorror unrecognisable mess]] that's ''definitely'' unfit for camera]].
56	** Gideon is the scriptwriter for the Van Der Koys and firmly believes the pen is mightier than the sword as a result. [[spoiler:He dies from Boy killing him with a literal sword. Additionally, he metaphorically stabbed his family in the back by freeing Boy so he could stop the Culling games for good, and gets mortally wounded by Melanie shooting him InTheBack]]. Gideon also showcased himself to be fairly GenreSavvy, able to [[spoiler:lure Boy into a trap through a faked dinner scene between the Van Der Koys (actually actors)]], and by the end of it [[spoiler:he lampshades to Boy how [[TheUnfought narratively unsatisfying]] his "confrontation" is with him, even speaking about it in video-game terms like Boy does]].
57	** Melanie is the director of the Culling Games and is obsessed with the show and the high ratings it brings, despite her role keeping her off-camera. Worse, the Culling has long destroyed all criminals and reduced the Resistance to two people, so it now involves grabbing random people off the street and murdering them. [[spoiler:Boy goes out of his way to ensure a KarmicDeath by having one of the studio cameras slam into her after she boasts she'll be a martyr (read: bring in more ratings), which wipes the smug off her face by smashing into her face at high speed, along with the poles for the camera mount mashing into her chest]].
58	** Hilda is the leader of the Van Der Koys and in flashback [[spoiler:is shown to have been grooming Boy to become her eventual enforcer down the line, starting by teaching him how to shoot a gun before [[ChildrenForcedToKill forcing him to put it into practice]] against The Shaman's family as {{Revenge}} for his actions leading to her husband's death. The Shaman usurped her idea after the traumatised Boy ran away into the jungle, spending years psychologically brainwashing and torturing him into becoming a killing machine who'd then go on to destroy his ''own'' family as payback. When the truth is revealed, Hilda considers Boy too far gone to be saved anymore, and orders June 27: aka Boy's younger sister Mina, whom she'd switched her efforts to after his disappearance, to kill him. Instead, Mina buries her hatchet in Hilda's head, causing her demise by the child ''she'd'' raised into a killing machine instead]].
59	** Finally, [[spoiler:The Shaman meets his end at Boy's hands after a long and gruelling fight against the very Weapon he'd created, after he proves himself [[RevengeBeforeReason too far consumed with revenge]] to let his grudge with the Van Der Koy family go, despite having achieved everything he'd have wanted out of it. This is after Boy, who'd have several reasons to want payback on him for the abuse and brainwashing he put him through, was willing to walk away from the fight after reconnecting with his sister. Additionally, The Shaman was characterised by his [[HumbleHero lack of extravagant clothing]] throughout the years he spent with Boy, save for his animal-fang necklace. That same necklace gets turned into a weapon between the two during their fight, ultimately impaling The Shaman in the throat with the one item of material value he possessed]].
60	** Gram Gram Van Der Koy is the oldest and least important member of the family, such that she's actually present at [[spoiler:the faked dinner scene with the other decoy actors]] despite the risk she could get killed, highlighting how unimportant she is to the regime. [[spoiler:She's ([[UncertainDoom maybe]]) KilledOffscreen by The Shaman in the background of Boy and June 27's escape attempt out of the bunker, after ordering the deaths of the youngest (and only remaining viable heirs) of the family, but it's never clarified by the end of the film, being literally too unimportant to the climactic confrontation to be addressed]].
61	* DefectorFromDecadence: Gideon reveals to Boy that he's tired of the whole conflict between Hilda and the Shaman, stating he just wants it to end regardless of who wins. As such, he gives Boy a bit of help to escape his execution, in hopes he'll end things.
62	* DefiantToTheEnd: Once beaten and restrained, [[spoiler:Melanie]] mocks Boy by telling him his antics have only improved her ratings, and dares him to kill her on camera and make her a martyr, even spitting blood onto him and calling him a coward when he appears to walk away. Her resolve gives way to panic moments before her death [[spoiler:as the camera mount's poles prepare to zoom at her to spear her chest and smash her face]], but Boy [[KilledMidSentence doesn't give her time]] to make clear whether she's actually scared of dying in general, or just dying [[ImpaledWithExtremePrejudice the way she's about to]].
63	* {{Determinator}}:
64	** Dave, the EliteMook who Boy confronts, is a drugged-out crazy version of this, initially seeming to be just a tougher {{Mook}} before it's revealed that he repeatedly huffs some sort of aerosol pain-numbing drug to keep going, his fighting style [[CombatBreakdown going from decent to wildly flailing around]] at Boy in a [[ConfusionFu hyper craze of maniac ferocity]], no matter what damage he inflicts on him. Boy stabs him in the shoulder with a knife and throws him aside into a container, he gets back up. Boy shoots him in the foot and beats him around the face and throat with a radio, he gets back up. Boy breaks his jaw with a hammer, he just pops it back into place. Boy crushes his hand in a hydraulic vice, he ''rips the whole thing off''. Boy ultimately has to resort to slicing his leg off so his impaired mobility will keep him down long enough to bleed out from his excessive injuries.
65	** Boy spends the movie getting the absolute 7 hells beaten out of him in both flashback to his TrainingFromHell and the entirety of his raid against the Van Der Koy forces over the course of a single afternoon. He's beaten, slashed, stabbed, thrown around and absolutely ''covered'' in blood towards the end, but never gives up his drive for {{revenge}} against his tormentors.
66	** [[spoiler:The Shaman turns out to be an even bigger one. He apparently led resistance efforts against the Van Der Koys in the past and trained soldiers to fight against them, even killing Boy's real father through his efforts, and despite the loss of his entire family and being forced into hiding, he never gave up his own desire for revenge either, [[BestServedCold spending years psychologically torturing and moulding Boy into his weapon of ironic payback on the family]]. Hilda is ''deeply'' aware of this, and that as long as he's alive, her life will always be in danger no matter how many soldiers or defences she has. It seems to the rest of the family to just be mere excessive paranoia, but the ending of the film proves [[ProperlyParanoid she had the Shaman's measure utterly correct]], even down to the fact he'd infiltrated the Culling. However, the TrueFinalBoss fight against the Shaman becomes instigated when he proves ''[[DetrimentalDetermination too]]'' determined to take absolute revenge for his loss, demanding June 27's death as well even after Hilda's passing to wipe the whole family out. When he and Boy come to blows over the issue, it's an immensely painful and bloody struggle between two men who won't quit no matter how badly they're hurt]].
67	* DiscOneFinalBoss: [[spoiler:The whole film builds up to Boy killing Hilda, but then it's revealed she is his true mother and June 27 unceremoniously dispatches her with several minutes left of screentime. The actual FinalBoss is the Shaman.]]
68	* DragonInChief: Melanie considers herself to be the true ruler of the city, dismissing Hilda as a “crazy bitch” hiding in a cave, and reminding June 27 that while Hilda started the revolution that put them in power, Melanie was the one who got it paid for. She sees Hilda as little more than a tool to be wheeled out for a ratings boost on her show, while her own use of the media and The Culling events are what keep the Van Der Koys popular and in power. However, ItsPersonal between Boy and Hilda, so regardless of whether Melanie really is more powerful than Hilda, Boy still sees her as a secondary target and she’s accordingly dispatched before he reaches Hilda.
69	* EasilyForgiven: [[spoiler:June 27 has been security chief of the Van Den Koy dynasty for years, and by her own admission during that time she has been [[MisplacedRetribution making the people of the City suffer over the loss of her brother]], but as soon as she sides with Boy he seemingly acts as if none of that ever happened.]]
70	* EliteMooks:
71	** Dave is a drugged up enforcer who manages to hold his own against Boy for a while due to ConfusionFu and MajorInjuryUnderreaction.
72	** June 27 proves to be Boy's equal and has enough authority to countermand Glen and Gideon.
73	* EvenEvilHasLovedOnes:
74	** Unlike the rest of her family, who all seem to hate each other, Hilda genuinely loves [[spoiler:her children. [[SubvertedTrope Subverted]] when she shows no qualms in ordering her daughter to kill her son.]]
75	** June 27 [[spoiler:deeply loves her brother, and is willing to kill her mother the moment he shows a sign of remembering her]].
76	* EvenEvilHasStandards: June 27 will ruthlessly enforce the will of the Van Der Koy family, but she absolutely draws the line at harming and killing children. [[spoiler:The fact that being forced to murder children is what drove Boy to run away and apparently die might have something to do with that particular scruple.]]
77	* EvilMentor: [[spoiler:The Shaman, who mutilated and brainwashed Boy in order to make him kill his own mother]].
78	* EvilOldFolks: Gram Gram Beatrice, the grandmother of the Van Der Koy family, is as nasty as you would expect from the ultimate matriarch of such a clan. [[spoiler:After Hilda's death she is the one who orders all the remaining troops to kill her great-grandchildren]].
79	* EvilVersusEvil: [[spoiler: The Van Der Koys are a ruthless tyrannical family. However The Shaman is revealed to be just as evil as they are with everything he put Boy through and the fact he was using him as a tool for his revenge]].
80	* ExactWords: The Shaman repeatedly tells Boy that he "is the weapon." At first, it seems to mean that Boy shouldn't be reliant on actual weapons and instead focus on training himself. [[spoiler:In reality, he's referring to the fact that he's brainwashed Boy into being his weapon against Hilda]].
81	* ExpressiveMask: June 27's high-tech motorcycle helmet displays words and emojis on its visor so she can communicate without having to talk to anyone. How her thoughts are conveyed to the helmet without her dictating them or writing them is never explained.
82	* ExtremelyShortTimespan: While the start of Boy’s journey took place with the death of his family as a child, from the moment he first steps foot back in the city after his training the rest of the movie’s events take place over a single day, which just so happens to be the annual Culling event that the Van Der Koys use to boost their popularity and secure their power.
83	* FaceDeathWithDignity:
84	** Gideon, already dying from [[spoiler:being shot in the back by Melanie]], casually tells Boy to "do what you gotta do" and doesn't flinch when he's beheaded.
85	** Melanie [[SubvertedTrope tries]] to do this at first, saying that Boy killing her on national television is just going to make her a martyr. She quickly drops the "dignity" part when she [[OhCrap realizes]] how Boy's about to kill her.
86	* TheFaceless: June 27, the Van Der Koys' main enforcer wears a high-tech motorcycle helmet at all times which conceals her face, which isn't dramatically revealed until halfway through the film.
87	* FacelessGoons: The majority of the rank and file mooks working for the Van Der Koys wear masks which conceal their faces.
88	* FacialHorror:
89	** [[spoiler: Glen has a bench press accidentally dropped on his face by Basho while being interrogated, crushing his entire head into a bloody mess]].
90	** One of the kitchen workers Boy fights has part of his cheek torn off by a cheese grater.
91	** One of the innocent victims of Melanie's winter wonderland Culling is killed by having hooks inserted at either side of his mouth and then pulled. A GoryDiscretionShot and VomitIndiscretionShot follow.
92	** [[spoiler: The support rods attached to the camera that Boy rams into Melanie's head clearly do [[GoryDiscretionShot something bloody]] to her face and neck area, but it's shown from the camera's POV and the [[CameraAbuse lens cracks and distorts]] upon impact.]]
93	* FailedASpotCheck:
94	** After Boy starts his mission to kill Hilda, ''nobody'' he interacts with in the city seems to realize that he is deaf and most importantly, mute. They all seem to think that he is simply being TheQuietOne or refusing to answer questions.
95	** Likewise, nobody notices the chef (Boy in disguise) absently grating cheese over nothing as he walks around the mansion.
96	* FailedAttemptAtDrama: Basho dramatically introduces Boy to the resistance, only to find the apartment is empty and all that's left is a single man.
97	* FakeMemories: [[spoiler:That flashback of Boy's family being killed by the Van Der Koys we were shown in the intro? That turned out to be nothing more than a result of the Shaman brainwashing Boy through a combination of torture and drugs to turn him into his own weapon of revenge against Hilda.]]
98	* FantasticDrug: The unnamed aerosol drug which acts as a SuperSerum that can turn a regular Mook called Dave into a Determinator EliteMook who can shrug off pain and even limb removal appears to be some kind of 'upper' designer drug in the setting which he has presumably abused, as Melanie is seen using the same inhaler-style device without any similar side-effects.
99	* FiveSecondForeshadowing: Hilda calls off her goons when the protagonist shows her a crayon drawing his sister once made. [[spoiler:It turns out she recognizes it because her daughter drew it]].
100	* FlippingTheBird: During one flashback, Mina and Boy flip off a statue of Hilda times five (by holding out their full palms). [[spoiler:Boy recalling this is what turns Mina/June 27 against Hilda.]]
101	* {{Foreshadowing}}:
102	** There's a number of clues hinting at the fact that [[spoiler:Hilda Van Der Koy is Boy's mother]].
103	*** If Hilda was willing to kill a little girl, why would she only have Boy left a deaf mute? [[spoiler:Because she didn't kill Boy's family and the Shaman was the one to deafen him and cut out his tongue]].
104	*** When she sees Boy for the first time, Hilda does a noticeable double take at his appearance.
105	*** Boy remembers eating Frosty Puffs with his sister, the same cereal company that endorses the Culling, despite his mother's hatred for the Van Der Koy regime. When Melanie is arranging for Hilda to introduce the Culling in Glen's absence, she notably instructs an underling to make sure Hilda doesn't see who the event's sponsor is.
106	*** The Shaman made Boy eat small bowls filled with bugs while keeping a whole roasted chicken for himself, [[spoiler:due to still hating Boy for killing his family]].
107	*** Boy remembers his sister very loudly proclaiming that she's going to give an extra rude middle finger to a statue of Hilda Van Der Koy in the middle of a public park, which both siblings then proceed to do very flamboyantly, without a care that anyone might see them. [[spoiler:The reason they can get away with such a very public display in a tyrannical police state is because they are the tyrant's children.]]
108	*** Boy's picture of his mother doesn't feature him or his sister, [[spoiler:because it's a cropped picture of the Shaman's wife]].
109	*** The build-up to, and appearance of, Hilda at the Culling is forced to be improvised and has to work around [[spoiler:her instability; even then she goes off-script and very nearly shoots an imaginary figment of the Shaman while reveling in violence. That's not far off from Boy's own instability and imagining of his sister, and it's not far off from him breaking away from the Shaman's plans earlier in the film.]]
110	** There are also a number of things foreshadowing the fact that [[spoiler: June 27 is Boy's sister]]:
111	*** June 27 hardly ever speaks, only communicating through text displays in the visor of her motorcycle helmet [[spoiler:paralleling her brother's muteness]].
112	*** When the Van Der Koys become hard pressed for victims for the latest Culling, June 27 is absolutely adamant that no children will be taken or harmed and her orders carry enough weight to countermand Gideon and Glen’s order, [[spoiler: which is no surprise given that she’s Hilda’s daughter]].
113	*** June 27 is the only one in the Van Der Koy camp who is the Boy’s equal at hand-to-hand combat, [[spoiler:again drawing a parallel between them]].
114	*** During his TrainingMontage at the beginning, Boy gets the upper hand over The Shaman during a knife fight and is forcing the blade down towards him in an adrenaline rush until he's distracted by his hallucination of child Mina, who represents his [[TheConscience subconscious guilt]] over his more brutal and heartless actions, such as currently endangering the life of his ParentalSubstitute. This allows The Shaman to gain the upper hand with his distraction and knock him down, winning the fight. [[spoiler:During their fight, Boy succeeds in knocking off June 27's motorbike helmet, exposing her face, which causes Boy to see another hallucination of Mina which distracts him enough for the Van Der Koy enforcer to knock him out too. Subconsciously, Boy recognises the adult Mina and his guilt over fighting his beloved sister distracts him enough to lose the fight]].
115	** Sharp-eared viewers will pick up on the fact that when Boy first infiltrates the mansion disguised as a chef, the butler loudly announces to the staff that "[[spoiler:the dinner ''scene'' is about to begin]]", foreshadowing the reveal a few minutes later that [[spoiler:the whole annual dinner is a staged and scripted setup put on by Gideon to lure people trying to kill Hilda]].
116	** Basho and Benny's plan is ultimately revealed to be [[spoiler:to have Boy create a diversion by attacking the Van Der Koys full on, and sneak in past their security while they are distracted and focused on him]]. Fast forward to the climax of the film, and it is revealed that [[spoiler:this was also the Shaman's plan, as he used the confusion caused by Boy attack to be able to infiltrate the bunker undetected while all eyes were in him. [[ProperlyParanoid Only Hilda saw through it]].]]
117	* FormerlyFriendlyFamily: Or, if not friendly, at least united. In Boy's flashback to his family's death, the other Van Der Koys besides Hilda, Gideon and Melanie, are wearing outfits in similar styles to hers along with badges of the Van Der Koy crest and acting as her entourage. In the present, possibly due to her increasing paranoia, Hilda appears to have hit a ZeroPercentApprovalRating with her own relatives:
118	** Neither Gideon nor Melanie dress like Hilda, and they don't wear the Van Der Koy colours or crest anymore. Glen, who has joined the family in the intervening years, [[HenpeckedHusband wears an outfit with accents of Melanie's colours instead]].
119	** Glen is happy to [[TheDogBitesBack turn on Hilda because he resents being under the family's thumb]].
120	** Gideon [[DefectorFromDecadence secretly wants to see Hilda's downfall]] because of the misery and death that her paranoia causes to the people.
121	** Melanie openly disparages Hilda in front of her own underlings while claiming to be the real power behind the regime, although unlike the others she doesn't seem that bothered about having Hilda overthrown, just [[DragonInChief kept out of her way]]. She even does it in front of June 27, Hilda's main enforcer [[spoiler: and daughter, although it later turns out that June [[{{Matricide}} really doesn't like Hilda either]]]].
122	* FreezeFrameBonus: One that doubles as a RiddleForTheAges, as sharp-eyed viewers will notice that [[spoiler:the painting hanging in the wall of Hilda's bunker which reveals Boys identity also features a man whose face has been violently scratched out]]. Who this person might be ([[spoiler:Hilda's husband? Hilda's father? Gram Gram's husband?]]) or what possible reason Hilda might've had for [[spoiler:lashing out so violently at his portrait]] are left completely up to the audience's imagination.
123	* {{Hallucinations}}: Besides the MushroomSamba moments, Boy also tends to hallucinate his dead little sister talking to him. While at times, she seems whimsical, overall she seems to be a manifestation of his guilt, such as when he hesitates to kill Gideon who helped him. [[spoiler:She pointedly appears both when he's on the verge of seriously harming [[ParentalSubstitute The Shaman]] and manages to [[DramaticUnmask knock June 27's helmet off]], showcasing his subconscious guilt towards harming those he cares for. By the climax of his fight with The Shaman, once his [[EvilMentor true nature]] has been exposed to Boy, a hallucination of his younger damaged self appears when Boy and the Shaman are struggling over pushing The Shaman's fanged necklace into his throat. Having now been made aware of his manipulations and lack of care for him, this hallucination represent's Boy's buried pain, sorrow and anger over his TrainingFromHell and isolation over the years, giving him the strength to overpower his master, showing by the younger Boy putting his hand down on top of Boy's adult hands to push the necklace in]].
124	* HarmfulToMinors: [[spoiler:Hilda forced Boy to execute the Shaman's family when Boy was just a child.]]
125	* HeadCrushing: [[spoiler:Glen goes out this way due to an AccidentalMurder when Basho's sweaty hands cause him to drop the heavy piece of machinery he's holding over Glen to help with the interrogation]].
126	* HeelFaceDoorSlam: [[spoiler:Glen appeared to be having a genuine change of heart and deciding to help Boy and Basho infiltrate the mansion to kill Hilda, when Basho accidentally drops a heavy piece of machinery on his head crushing it.]]
127	* HenpeckedHusband: It’s very clear who wears the trousers in Glen and Melanie’s marriage (there’s a reason why he’s taken her surname), and Glen is visibly nervous when he has to report to Melanie that he’s failed to gather the full complement of victims needed for her Culling show, to the point that he ''actually flinches'' when she turns her gaze on him. In the CreativeClosingCredits that show comic book style artwork of the characters alongside their actors' names, when the artwork of Melanie is shown in a triumphant pose with her shotgun held aloft, Glen is depicted kneeling at her feet in the stereotypically feminine LegCling position.
128	* HeroKiller: [[spoiler:Melanie is the only villain in the film to inflict actual casualties on the good guys, killing Benny when he TakesTheBullet for Boy and fatally wounding Basho, along with Gideon for his [[DefectorFromDecadence defection from decadence]]]].
129	* HoistByHisOwnPetard: Happens multiple times with Dave, the EliteMook Boy tussles with whilst attempting to follow Glenn to the Culling. First, Boy stabs him in his shoulder with his own knife and tosses him aside. Then Dave gets back up and tries to blast Boy with his shotgun. Boy manages to dodge, wrestle the gun downwards, blast him in his own foot with it and then tosses him aside. Then Dave gets back up with the aid of some kind of pain-numbing aerosol drug, grabs a nearby hammer and tries to bash Boy's toes in with it to return the favour. Boy wrestles the hammer off him and uses it to break/dislocate his jaw before tossing him aside. Dave pops it back into place and tries another maniac charge on Boy, by which point he resorts to using a hydraulic vice to crush Dave's stabbed and broken arm in order to pin him in place so he can walk away. Dave then bodily ''rips his whole arm off'' to free himself, guaranteeing his demise from excessive blood loss, by which point Boy chooses to slice Dave's leg off just so his self-inflicted gushing wounds will do him in without further interference.
130	* ImpaledWithExtremePrejudice: Although they're not very long, [[spoiler: the camera dolly rods that go through Melanie's face/neck when Boy crashes one of her TV cameras into her are able to support her weight when the camera boom lifts her into the air... for a few seconds, before [[UndignifiedDeath her body slides off them and lands in a crumpled heap along with the wreckage of the chair she's tied to]].]]
131	* ImperialStormtrooperMarksmanshipAcademy:
132	** Glen shoots at a woman for insulting him and misses by several feet from maybe twenty feet away.
133	** The Van Der Koy's {{mooks}} can seemingly hit everything but what they're shooting at, such as one with a minigun being unable to hit Boy [[spoiler:or June 27]] in a straight hallway with tiny alcoves or several guards firing at Boy with machine guns while he's on an elevated walkway and missing every time.
134	* ImprobableWeaponUser: Boy uses anything he can get his hands on as a weapon, including a cheese grater, a necklace, and a fake carrot, though he prefers knives and guns when he can get them.
135	* InnerMonologue: Boy has one that he took from an arcade fighting game he and his sister played and it allows him to silently respond to the people around him.
136	* LandOfOneCity: The story takes place in a city-state under the control of the Van der Koy family.
137	* LaserGuidedKarma: [[spoiler: Anna the Flower Girl who Boy sees earlier in the movie, praises and supports the Van Der Koy family. Later on in the movie we see her at The Culling being forced to participate in the event where she is violently murdered by the Van Der Koys henchmen ]]
138	* LaserGuidedTykebomb: The Shaman puts Boy through a TrainingFromHell since childhood in order to turn him into a OneManArmy with a single purpose: To Kill Hilda Van Der Koy. [[spoiler:It is eventually revealed that the Shaman did this to avenge his ''own'' family and not the Boy's… who were actually the Van Der Koys]].
139	* LateToTheRealization: It takes Basho all the way until the climax to note that Boy "doesn't talk much".
140	* LogicalWeakness: [[spoiler:Shaman's brainwashing of Boy to hate his mother has a noticeable flaw because it doesn't touch Boy's memories of his ''sister'', which allows him to reconnect with June 27 and spoil Shaman's vengeance]].
141	* LukeIAmYourFather: [[spoiler: Hilda is Boy's mother]].
142	* MajorInjuryUnderreaction: Due to the drugs he's on, Dave keeps getting back up to fight Boy. When smacked in the jaw with a hammer, he simply pushes his jaw back in place and takes another puff. Even getting his hand stuck in a vice merely results in him ''tearing his own arm off'' to keep fighting. It takes Boy cutting off his leg, thus rendering him ''physically incapable of getting back up'', to keep him down.
143	* {{Matricide}}: [[spoiler:June 27 kills Hilda with a hatchet to the head when Hilda orders Boy's death.]]
144	* {{Metaphorgotten}}: While interrogating Boy, Gideon expounds how the Culling is "Nothing but a wild goose chase" and that it's gone on for so long that "There's no geese left. We're catching pigeons." Unsurprisingly, Boy stares at him in complete confusion.
145	* MinionWithAnFInEvil: Gideon is genuinely terrible as TheBrute, spending more time focusing on writing rather ridiculous speeches than actually enforcing anything.
146	* MisplacedRetribution: [[spoiler:As she admits to him while escaping the bunker, June 27 took out her pain and grief over the loss of her brother out on the people of the City, who had nothing to do with the Shaman kidnapping him.]]
147	* MoodWhiplash: Boy begins bonding with Anna the Flower Girl, who offers him a free flower, right up until she begins excitedly talking about how much she loves The Culling. He angrily throws her flower back at her and storms off.
148	* MundaneLuxury: While infiltrating the Van Der Koy mansion, Boy tastes a macaroon and goes wide-eyed at how great they are, promptly wolfing down an entire plate.
149	* MurderInTheFamily: Hoo, [[AccidentalPun boy]]:
150	** [[spoiler:[[SiblingMurder Melanie and Gideon hit each other]] with an indirect MutualKill; Gideon by slipping Boy a weapon so he can cut his bonds and get loose in the Culling which ultimately puts him in position to kill Melanie, and Melanie by shooting Gideon in the back as punishment for his betrayal, which leaves him probably fatally wounded as it is, but definitely unable to escape Boy or stop him from finishing the job.]]
151	** [[spoiler:After TheReveal that Boy is Hilda’s missing son, abducted and brainwashed by the Shaman, he realises that he’s been turned into a weapon designed to [[{{Matricide}} kill his own mother]], and that he's already killed his aunt Melanie and uncles Gideon and Glen.]]
152	** [[spoiler:No longer recognising any of her beloved son in Boy, Hilda tries to [[OffingTheOffspring Off The Offspring]], but being a NonActionBigBad she asks June 27 to do it. Because June is Boy’s long-lost sister, she instead performs a BodyguardBetrayal and buries a hatchet in Hilda’s head, completing Boy’s mission and making both of them [[SelfMadeOrphan Self Made Orphans]].]]
153	** [[spoiler:And to round it all up, their Great-grandmother immediately orders all remaining mooks to kill her great-grandchildren in retaliation.]]
154	* MusclesAreMeaningless:
155	** The Shaman is a small, slimly built man, but he has no trouble fighting and handing the Boy his ass during training, despite the fact that Boy is well over a foot taller than him, and probably outweighs him two-to-one in muscle. [[spoiler:During their actual fight to the death, he is more than a match for both (the admittedly heavily wounded) Boy and June 27 fighting together.]]
156	** June 27 also doesn’t have any trouble going toe to toe with Boy in hand to hand combat despite being half his size, and regularly swings her hatchets with enough force to sever limbs.
157	* MushroomSamba: The drugs Shaman uses and at times forces on Boy causes him to hallucinate things like Shaman saying things he'd never say or having his eyes float away like bubbles.
158	* NoDoubtTheYearsHaveChangedMe: [[spoiler:Due to the passage of several years, both sides presuming each other dead, and Boy's FakeMemories, Boy and the Van Der Koys don't recognize each other until Boy produces Mina's childhood drawing of their perfect place.]]
159	* NonActionBigBad: Hilda is not a hands on BigBad by any stretch of the imagination. At no point of the film is it even suggested that she personally engage in combat, as such things are delegated to Gideon and June 27.
160	* NoNameGiven: Boy, the Shaman, and June 27. [[spoiler:This last one is eventually subverted when it is revealed that she is Boy's sister Mina]].
161	* NoodleIncident: What exactly happened to the rest of the resistance, barring the fact they were likely killed, is never answered as it's told from Boy's perspective, who can't understand Benny.
162	* ObviouslyEvil: The Van Der Koys have legions of FacelessMooks, enforce an EvilWearsBlack dress code alongside the SigilSpam of the Van Der Koy flower (although Melanie and Glen prefer RedAndBlackAndEvilAllOver, possibly hinting towards her [[TheStarscream Starscream-like attitude]] towards Hilda), make liberal use of PublicExecution and a yearly RiggedSpectacleFight to eliminate dissidents (and after they ran out of dissidents years ago, innocent people grabbed off the street), and when they appear in public they make very little effort to hide their psychopathic, StupidEvil or EvilIsPetty tendencies from the populace. Despite this they remain VillainsWithGoodPublicity and enjoy tremendous support among the people; Melanie's PR wizardry generally gets the credit for this, but the obviousness of their evil is so pronounced that WillingSuspensionOfDisbelief is definitely required.
163	* OffingTheOffspring: [[spoiler:Hilda decides to kill Boy, her son, after deciding there's nothing left except the weapon the Shaman turned him into]].
164	* OhCrap:
165	** Boy increasingly gets this during his fight with Dave when the man keeps breaking bones, losing limbs but still ''keeps coming after him.''
166	** Despite her bluster, Melanie gets this moments before her death when she realizes just ''how'' Boy is about to kill her.
167	** Hilda has this when Boy shows her his childhood drawing because she suddenly realizes [[spoiler:she was about to execute her own son in cold blood and quickly calls off her men.]]
168	* OneManArmy: Boy is perfectly capable of wiping out armies of {{mooks}} despite typically being outnumbered 20 to one. Only June 27 is a match for his combat skills. [[spoiler:When they team up for the final battle, limbs start flying.]]
169	* OriginalPositionFallacy: Anna the flower girl loves watching people die in the Culling. [[spoiler:She is noticeably less enthused when it's her head on the chopping block.]]
170	* OutlivingOnesOffspring:
171	** [[spoiler:All three of the Van Der Koy children predecease Gram Gram.]]
172	** [[spoiler:The Shaman's children turn out to have been killed by Hilda and the child Boy, and his goal is to avenge their deaths along with that of his wife.]]
173	* TheParanoiac: [[spoiler: Hilda, who hasn't left her bunker in years, sees enemies everywhere, and tries to maintain her iron grip on society by any means necessary]].
174	* ParodyProductPlacement: Frosty Puffs is a kid-friendly breakfast cereal with colourful mascot characters, and is a long-lasting enough brand that Boy was eating it as a child. Melanie Van Der Koy has somehow arranged for them to sponsor the latest iteration of the Culling, a televised slaughter of innocent people, and they've even allowed Melanie's executioners to wear costumes of their characters during the event. Either Frosty Puffs are an EvilInc, or Melanie is just that persuasive.
175	--> '''Melanie''': [[VillainousBreakdown I'm a Goddamn broadcasting miracle worker! Do you know how hard it is to get a cereal company to sponsor mass murder?! THAT WAS ME!]]
176	* PostClimaxConfrontation: [[spoiler:After Hilda is killed and Boy and June 27 escape the bunker, their elevator is called back down, where they're forced to fight the Shaman, who insists on killing June 27 as well despite Boy's protests]].
177	* ProperlyParanoid:
178	** For years Gideon has taken the precaution of [[spoiler:having a group of actors pretend to be the Van Der Koys during the annual pre-Culling family dinner at the Mansion on the assumption that it was only a matter of time before someone tried to assassinate Hilda and/or or the whole family during this time when they were exposed]]. He turns out to be completely justified.
179	** Hilda has continued with the Culling even decades after every trace of resistance and opposition to the Van Der Koy regime in the city has been completely eradicated, to the point that Gideon and Glen have trouble even finding a dozen people every year to put a good show, a state of affairs that Gideon attributes to the fact that the Shaman remains at large and Hilda is convinced he is coming for her. As the audience knows from the very start of the film, she is completely right.
180	** Hilda is completely convinced that the Shaman was somewhere in the audience at the Culling itself, seemingly more of her paranoia. But it's later revealed he actually was present.
181	* RealAfterAll:
182	** Boy has hallucinations of his dead sister for most of the film, [[spoiler:except it turns out that she had never died in the first place.]]
183	** [[spoiler:Some of the memories Boy has of his childhood are actually real, namely: playing videogames with his sister (where he got his inner voice from), her explaining her plan to "escape this totalitarian hellhole" via crayon drawings (which even his mother recognizes), and the episode where they came up with a secret way FlippingTheBird at their mother's statue (the recalling of which convinces June 27 to side with him during the climax).]].
184	* RedAndBlackAndEvilAllOver: Melanie and Glen both use this colour scheme liberally, making them stand out among the Van Der Koy forces who stick to the Dynasty's colors of yellow and black.
185	* TheReveal: [[spoiler: The Shaman kidnapped, mutilated, and brainwashed boy into believing Hilda killed his family. In reality, Hilda is Boy's mother and June 27 is his sister]].
186	* RevengeBeforeReason: [[spoiler:The Shaman would have survived and potentially prospered, given all the Van Der Koys were dead and the regime overthrown, had he just allowed Boy's little sister, June 27, to live. She was even younger than Boy when the Shaman's family died and had nothing to do with his suffering, but he insisted the entire family had to be wiped out like his own was, leading to his death when Boy refuses to let him kill his sister]].
187	* RuleOfThree: Twice during Boy's fight against Dave, a drugged up guard with "a lot of issues".
188	** Dave gets back up three times after Boy thought he'd beaten him. First from a normal beating, then from hitting him in the jaw with a hammer, and finally from getting his arm stuck in a vice.
189	** Boy declares himself the winner only to pull an InnerMonologue Equivalent of a VerbalBackspace each time Dave gets back up.
190	* RunningGag:
191	** Boy has no idea what Benny, one of the resistance, is saying (due to his bushy beard) and keeps hearing random words which he then imagines as he tries to make sense of them, such as him and Basho cutting off a farmer's foot.
192	** Other members of the Van Der Koy family keep shitting on and belittling Gideon's writing and artistic pursuits. Over the course of the film Glen, Melanie and Gram Gram all do it.
193	* SacrificedBasicSkillForAwesomeTraining: Boy is amazing at parkour, as well as armed and unarmed combat, but completely helpless at planning, socializing, or even showing emotion.
194	* SanityHasAdvantages: Boy's hallucinations of his sister are often detrimental to him, distracting him at critical moments or goading him into making poor decisions to protect a figment of his imagination.
195	* ShooOutTheClowns: [[spoiler: At the end of the Culling event that acts as the climax for the second act, Melanie's VillainousBreakdown results in the end of the SnarkToSnarkCombat of her and Gideon's SiblingRivalry when she shoots him for helping Boy ruin her show, and she then goes on to kill overt ComicRelief characters Basho and Benny before being killed by Boy in turn. Also Boy's comedic inner voice almost completely vanishes save for one or two words during the climax. This leaves the stage much clearer of characters for the darker and more intimate conflict of the final act between [[ItsPersonal Boy, Hilda and June 27]].]]
196	* ShotgunsAreJustBetter: When Boy, Basho and Benny [[SpannerInTheWorks spoil Melanie's winter wonderland Culling show]] and deplete her Mooks, she wades in herself with an Armsel Striker and applies MoreDakka to compensate for her lack of melee combat ability. [[spoiler:[[HeroKiller Unfortunately for the fledgling Resistance, it's quite effective]]]].
197	* ShoutOut:
198	** Befitting of someone who's a fan of arcade games, Boy quotes the ''VideoGame/StreetFighterII'' announcer when fighting Dave. He also quips "[[Franchise/MortalKombat Fatality!]]" after finally putting the bastard down.
199	** Boy and his sister's escape plan as kids [[VideoGame/MetalGearSolid has them sneaking out of their home with a cardboard box]].
200	** [[spoiler:The entire final battle with the Shaman is one big homage to the final fight in ''Film/TheRaid'', right down to the [[Creator/YayanRuhian Shaman's actor]] spending most of the fight having the upper-hand on two siblings tag-teaming him only to be ultimately done in by an ImprovisedWeapon to the throat.]]
201	** June 27's outfit is identical to ''VideoGame/{{RUINER}}'''s protagonist -- a blend of street clothes and cyberpunk combat gear, down to the hi-tech helmet that displays relevant messages.
202	* SiblingTeam: Boy and his imaginary sister... initially and ineptly, as all the imaginary sister does is distract him at the worst moments. [[spoiler:Boy and the alive all along Mina team up in the climax to battle their way out of Hilda's bunker and then face the Shaman.]]
203	* SigilSpam: The crest of the Van Der Koy Dynasty, a four-petal yellow flower on a black field, is positively everywhere in the city.
204	* SlaveToPR: Melanie is a shrewd businesswoman and PR whizz who arranges the regime's BreadAndCircuses (complete with ProductPlacement) and [[TheSociopath doesn't care about anyone or anything]] except the TV ratings that her events get. This is mostly how the Van Der Koys get to keep being VillainsWithGoodPublicity despite being so ObviouslyEvil.
205	* TheStinger: There is a post credits scene [[spoiler:featuring Boy and June 27, patched up and eating cereal together somewhere in the jungle, confirming that they both made it out of the City alive]].
206	* StupidEvil: Glen decides to shoot a woman for insulting him. When he misses and kills a random man instead, he thinks he can calm the ensuing riot by saying "he's sorry." Eventually, Gideon just orders everyone present killed rather than let Glen continue to mess things up.
207	* SympatheticVillainDespicableVillain: Glen, Gideon, Hilda, June 27 and [[spoiler: the Shaman]] all either have some kind of FreudianExcuse related to trauma and [[EvenEvilHasLovedOnes loss]], or they're very well aware that BeingEvilSucks but don't have a way out until Boy comes along [[spoiler: although both Glen and Gideon get a HeelFaceDoorSlam]]. Melanie Van Der Koy, on the other hand, is TheSociopath and doesn't seem to care about anyone in her family or have any problem at all with the fact that ''The Culling'' has already wiped out all the actual criminals and rebels and is now just a yearly massacre of innocents, [[SkewedPriorities as long as it still brings in her precious TV ratings]]. And then there’s [[EvilOldFolks Gram Gram]], who spends every second she is on screen being nasty to everyone and [[spoiler:orders the execution of the last remaining members of her own family]] without a moment’s hesitation.
208	* TragicVillain: [[spoiler:[[PlayingWithATrope Played with]] in regards to the Shaman. While his backstory is pitiful (watching his entire family being killed on the orders of Hilda Van Der Koy), he loses sympathy with the TrainingFromHell he puts Boy through solely out of revenge.]]
209	* TrainingFromHell: The Shaman's training for Boy involves being BuriedAlive, rolling a giant stone head up a hill, and knife fighting while tied to the Shaman, among other things. [[spoiler:It's not just to make Boy strong, it's also to torture him for killing his family.]]
210	* UncertainDoom: At the climax of the movie, when [[spoiler:the elevator with Boy and June 27 is called back down to the bunker they find all the remaining mooks in the outer hall dead and the Shaman standing among their bodies. But it is never revealed what happened to Gram Gram and the other people in the inner chamber. The Shaman saying there is still ''one'' Van Der Koy left to kill would imply he already slaughtered everyone in the inner chamber while the siblings fought their way through the outer hall, but it is never confirmed.]]
211	* TheUnfought: By the time Boy catches up with Gideon, [[spoiler: he's an AlmostDeadGuy courtesy of Melanie shooting him in the back during her VillainousBreakdown, although he's [[FaceDeathWithDignity pretty accepting of it]]]]. He even jokes that Boy isn't going to get to have a [[LampshadeHanging boss encounter]] with him.
212	* UnspokenPlanGuarantee: Boy seems to completely ruin Basho's and Benny's plan because he can't understand the latter's explanation. In the climax, it's revealed he followed their plan perfectly: [[spoiler: Create a distraction so they can sneak in and replace the guards then follow him to where Hilda is actually being kept]].
213	* VagueAge: Between the flashback of the Van Der Koys executing Boy’s family when he was a child and the present day, Hilda, Melanie and Gideon don’t visibly age a single day, with only their hairstyles and outfits changing, meaning they were all either much YoungerThanTheyLook in the flashback or much OlderThanTheyLook in the present. This even applies to Gram Gram, who is Hilda's ‘’grandmother'', and judging by the painting in the bunker, has barely aged since she sat for it.
214	* VerbalBackspace: Boy has a few InnerMonologue equivalents.
215	** After getting Dave stuck in Boy, declares his victory, only for Dave to prove him wrong.
216	--->'''Boy:''' Player 1 wins!\
217	''[Dave rips off his own arm]''\
218	'''Boy:''' Player 2 is fucking crazy!
219	** When Benny is telling Basho something that Boy thinks sounds like "Dodo buns", Boy thinks they sound fun. Then Basho starts sobbing and he quickly corrects himself that clearly they aren't fun.
220	* VillainWithGoodPublicity: As demonstrated by the flower peddler Boy encounters in the market, many of the city's inhabitants seem to genuinely look up and admire the Van Der Koys, even among the very poor.
221	* VillainousBreakdown: The Van Der Koys go in for a few different flavours of this:
222	** Glen AintTooProudToBeg and even offers to help Boy and the Resistance bring down Hilda, but Basho accidentally drops the heavy machine part he’s [[HeadCrushing holding above Glen]] before he can be of any assistance, although realistically [[StupidEvil he probably wouldn’t have been]].
223	** Melanie cries BrokenTears as she rages at Gideon for helping Boy [[BerserkButton ruin the Culling broadcast she spent months arranging]], and then starts ChewingTheScenery and spraying MoreDakka, taking out both good guys and bad guys before Boy brings her down.
224	** Hilda shrieks hysterically for Boy to be killed, but instead [[spoiler: June 27 strikes Hilda dead with a hatchet]].
225	* WhereTheHellIsSpringfield: There is no clue whatsoever as to where the unnamed city-state where the story takes place is located. It is clearly a tropical place, but other than that, there's nothing about the culture or architecture that could help pin it down, the ethnic composition of the population is all over the place and the fact that everyone is speaking and writing in English could very well be just TranslationConvention. WordOfGod calling the setting "post-apocalyptic" doesn't help settle matters either.
226	* WordSaladHumor: Because of his bushy beard, Boy can't read Benny's lips accurately, resulting in a RunningGag of him just "hearing" random words that make no sense.
227	* WouldHarmAChild: The Shaman has no problem brutally beating Boy during his training. [[spoiler:Then it's revealed he almost murdered him years prior for killing his family]].
228	* YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness: [[spoiler:It's heavily implied that even if Boy had complied with The Shaman's demand to kill his sister, his sadistic, vengeful mentor would have turned on him at some point, to both kill the one who pulled the trigger on his family and utterly wipe the Van Der Koy bloodline out entirely (with the implications that he snuck into the bunker and personally assassinated the superfluous Gram Gram in the chaos by the end). He merely demanded Boy personally kill his sister to enforce a SadisticChoice on him by the end, either forcing him to deal with the guilt of wiping out all his own family or allow The Shaman [[GiveMeAReason the excuse to kill him there and then]]]].

Context Film / BoyKillsWorld