Line #10 Film/IComeInPeace


1	[[quoteright:250:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/I-Come-In-Peace-Poster_9318.jpg]]
2	[[caption-width-right:250:[[IncrediblyLamePun ...But you'll leave in pieces.]]]]
3
4	''I Come in Peace'' (1990) (released and known worldwide as ''Dark Angel'') is a science fiction action thriller film about a [[CowboyCop rule-breaking vice cop]] who becomes involved in the investigation of a number of mysterious drug-related murders on the streets of Houston, Texas. The film was directed by Creator/CraigRBaxley, and stars Creator/DolphLundgren, Creator/MatthiasHues, [[Series/DreamOn Brian Benben]], Creator/BetsyBrantley, and Creator/DavidAykroyd. Future Creator/{{ESPN}} college UsefulNotes/{{basketball}} analyst Jay Bilas has a small role as an alien cop.
5
6	Jack Caine (Lundgren) is a Houston cop who is determined to wipe out the White Boys, a gang of white-collar drug dealers who killed his partner while Caine was waylaid stopping a convenience store robbery. Little does he know that there is a new drug dealer in town (Matthias Hues), one who preys on heroin addicts in order to get his own drug of trade - made from the endorphins extracted from heroin users. But this guy's home turf isn't in Houston. It isn't even on planet Earth...
7	----
8	!! This movie contains examples of:
9
10	* AddledAddict: Bruce the Scientist, the police lab technician shows signs of several personal issues relating substance abuse and dependency. His body constantly shakes, he screams, he brews extra-caffeinated coffee because regular coffee isn't strong enough for him, and the presence of a federal agent makes him paranoid and overly agitated, leading to him stashing various unnamed drugs and pills lying around on his lab table in a panic.
11	* TheAggressiveDrugDealer: A SpaceWhaleAesop version of this in the BigBad: an alien drug dealer that gains [[AlienCatnip his alien drugs]] by ''forcing a heroin OD on his victims and draining their cerebral fluid while they are dying'', and plans an AlienInvasion that will turn Earth into a galactic drug lab.
12	* AlienBlood: The aliens bleed a blue clay-like substance.
13	* AliensInCardiff: Alien mayhem on the streets of Houston, Texas. While Houston is the fourth-largest city in the United States, it rarely gets featured in media due to being [[SmallReferencePools neither New York City nor Los Angeles.]]
14	* AliensSpeakingEnglish: Yet another film example of this trope with no explanation.
15	* AllThereInTheManual: Talec is only named in the credits.
16	* AlmostDeadGuy: After the alien drug dealer mortally wounds the [[SpacePolice space cop]] who was pursuing him, the good one survives just long enough to tell Jack and Larry about the drug dealer's plans and give them his energy gun.
17	* AssholeVictim: The gangsters the bad alien kills to steal their drug.
18	* BadassInANiceSuit: Downplayed with the White Boys Gang, who dress in tailored suits and drive top-of-the-line roadsters and fire top-of-the-line sub-machine guns and make business from their downtown Dallas office building and thus try to present themselves as classy as a result, but in reality are just a bunch of heroin-peddling yuppie scumbags that boast big.
19	* BadassLongcoat: The aliens wear these.
20	* {{BFG}}:
21	-->'''Jack Caine:''' [while being chased by the White Boys, Larry produces a huge firearm, which resembles a cannon more than a gun] What the hell is that? \
22	'''Arwood "Larry" Smith:''' A Christmas present from my mother.
23	* BigBad: Talec, the alien criminal killing everybody.
24	* BigBadWannabe: The White Boys Gang talk big and [[MoreDakka fire guns a lot]], but the plot makes clear again and again that they are most definitely not the badass criminal outfit they consider themselves to be, culminating with them being completely exterminated by the evil alien in the third act.
25	* BlatantLies: "[[TitleDrop I come in peace]]" is said repeatedly by a mass-murdering alien who manufactures drugs [[HumanResources out of said dead people]].
26	* BrainFood: The evil alien injects humans with overdoses of heroin in order to harvest endorphins that could be rendered into a powerful recreational drug on his home planet.
27	* BuddyCopShow: A CowboyCop is paired with a ByTheBookCop as they find themselves having to stop the rampage of a monstrous alien serial killer.
28	* CarCushion: The alien throws Smith into a car. Despite being dropped from a considerable height, he only hurts his shoulder.
29	* CoolCar: The White Boys drive around in top-of-the-line roadsters like Lamborhinis and Porsches that they purchased with their drug money. Instead of making them cool, it only provides more fuel to the point that the White Boys are just braggarts when they swerve out of the way in a GameOfChicken with Jack Caine to prevent damage to their cars and later Jack is able to march right into their headquarters by distracting the members assigned to guard the entrance by making the car alarms sound.
30	-->'''Jack Caine''': If there's one thing a White Boy can't stand, it's a scratch on his car.
31	* CowboyCop: Jack Caine prefers to play by his own rules, but this does get him into a lot of trouble at the start. The only reason he isn't booted off the force is because the FBI agents pull some strings.
32	* DeadlyDisc: The alien shoots small magnetically-powered disks that ricochet around the room and home in on humans' electrical patterns.
33	* DeadPartner: Detective Ray Turner, Caine's original partner. He is killed by the White Boys in a [[UndercoverCopReveal failed sting operation]].
34	* DidIMentionItsChristmas: Christmas in Houston, Texas... prevented from being a full-blown example of AnAssKickingChristmas because the characters almost don't talk about it (except for a couple of sarcastic lines) and aside from the occasional background decoration it could have been set at any time of the year.
35	* EvilGloating: Victor Manning, the drug lord who killed Jack Caine's partner in the opening, later sends Jack a photo of himself with some half-naked girls to show that he's having a great time on his vacation in Brazil.
36	* FalseReassurance: Caine is smart enough to warn Larry that if his boss starts being chummy and talking about how good he's been at serving his country, [[HeKnowsTooMuch Larry should start to worry]]. And so he does, [[OhCrap and Larry does too]].
37	* FantasticDrug: The alien drug "collector" overdoses humans with stolen heroin so he can extract endorphins from them for sale off-world.
38	* GroinAttack: Threatened when Jack interrogates one of Victor Manning's associates by pressing his gun against the guy's crotch.
39	* HandCannon: The alien's weapons look like regular handguns. But when shot, [[StuffBlowingUp HUGE explosions]] ensue. Larry's own revolver is a [[http://www.imfdb.org/wiki/Dan_Wesson_revolvers .357 Dan Wesson]] with a telescopic sight.
40	* HateSink: Victor Manning is the leader of the White Boys, a gang of drug dealers who hide their crimes behind kitschy attempts at glamour. Before the start of the film, Manning killed [[TheHero Jack Caine]]'s partner when he tried to bring him down, a fact he regularly taunts Caine with. Manning opens the story by bombing an FBI office to steal some drugs they seized, killing several officers in the process. Despite Caine's attempts to track him down, Manning [[KarmaHoudini flees to another country]], last seen in a postcard he sent his nemesis.
41	* HeKnowsTooMuch: Larry's FBI boss tries to kill his subordinate after Larry hands over the energy weapon which he retrieved from the alien cop, but Larry's local partner Jack saves him by shooting the guy first.
42	* HumanAliens: The aliens look like regular humans, only with [[ProphetEyes white eyes,]] strange haircuts and tall statures.
43	* HoistByHisOwnPetard: Jack wounds the Alien in the final battle by turning it's own heroin-overdosing wire on it.
44	* HyperDestructiveBouncingBall: The alien uses a sawblade-like disk zips and bounces around while homing in on the "electrical charge" in human beings, until it attracts itself to a stronger magnetic field.
45	* IComeInPeace: Subverted. The main alien says this to the Earthlings almost out of reflex, but in reality he wants to steal their brain fluid for the intergalactic drug trade. He's not trying to deceive us however, as he uses the line the moment he appears and starts attacking. Perhaps he believes the phrase is a standard human-alien greeting before getting down to business.
46	* IGaveMyWord: It's a recurring plot point that Jack Caine always keeps his promises when he does make one. The alien cop seems to be aware of this reputation, since when he is dying, he also makes Jack promise to stop the alien drug dealer before he can kill even more people.
47	* ItsPersonal: Caine was already going after the [=WhiteBoys=], but then they had to go and kill his partner...
48	* KarmaHoudini: Victor Manning, getting out of Dodge after his one scene and sending a picture to Caine in order to gloat about it. On the other hand, the complete slaughter of his gang back on Houston is going to make things harder for him in the long run... and the last joke of the film is Jack musing about "taking a vacation" to hunt him down (with Larry wanting to tag along).
49	* LetsGetDangerous: Larry has a moment like this when he and Jack get ready for their climactic showdown with the alien.
50	-->'''Larry:''' Let's kick some ass.
51	* TheMenInBlack: After the two aliens have a shoot-out in a convenience store, the crime scene is quickly cordoned off by these people and the case closed. It's implied that Larry's boss is one of them, as he reveals that they want to make a deal with the alien and ignore how many he's already killed on Earth.
52	* NameOfCain: Jack Caine, who is a CowboyCop AntiHero who frequently flouts protocol.
53	* NoBiochemicalBarriers: Human endorphins work on alien brain chemistry. Unless there's a PlaceboEffect involved... Zigzagged: There are many animals just on Earth with excretions, etc...that humans use for various effects. Given that these aliens breath oxygen and are humanoid, there's no telling how much processing would be required for an effect.
54	* OddCouple: Caine is a scruffy rule-breaking vice cop while Smith is a suit-wearing by-the-book FBI agent. The difference is emphasised by the actor's heights - Dolph Lundgren at 6'5" is significantly taller than the 5'6" Brian Benben.
55	* OffscreenKarma: The last few lines of the movie are Jack making plans to go to Brazil to have a face-to-face encounter with Victor Manning (the escaped leader of the White Boys Gang) and administer proper revenge for his dead partner. After what he just went through, it'll be practically a vacation.
56	* OutsideContextProblem: The alien drug dealer arrives in the middle of a botched sting operation to kill the human gangsters. Later, he kills more of them [[VillainousRescue when they arrive to kill protagonist Jack Caine]]. For a good part of the film the alien is in the periphery of Jack's RoaringRampageOfRevenge against the White Boys and both sides think it's some insane vigilante or RuthlessForeignGangsters striking from the shadows.
57	* PickyPeopleEater: The alien drug dealer harvests brain fluid from Earthlings that can be rendered into a powerful recreational drug on his home planet.
58	* PlotArmor: The Alien that kills cops and gangsters in droves naturally becomes far less efficient when trying to kill the protagonists, constantly missing with his devastating explosive-gun and even his homing disc attack ([[ForgotAboutHisPowers when he actually uses it on them.]]) The Alien also only dies when his runs out; he wears armor that lets him shrug off shotgun blasts, explosions, and shots from it's species own powerful gun, but gets fatally impaled by a pipe.
59	* PlotIrrelevantVillain: Victor Manning is a drug kingpin who only exists to kill off Caine's original partner, then disappears from the narrative entirely (he skips the country to enjoy his freedom in Brazil, sending a postcard to Caine just to be a dick) as Caine suddenly has to deal with an ''[[OutsideContextProblem alien]]'' [[OutsideContextProblem drug kingpin]] who starts rampaging through town. Caine doesn't even have time to avenge his partner (though the ending implies that he's heading off to Brazil to do so).
60	* PoweredByAForsakenChild: The alien drug dealer collects his narcotics by injecting humans with heroin before using a spike to extract the endorphin-laden brain fluid.
61	* ThePreciousPreciousCar: When Jack is playing Chicken with some White Boys (all of whom drive expensive sports cars), Larry is worried at first, but Jack knows he'll win because "if there's one thing a White Boy can't stand, it's a scratch on his car".
62	* PreMortemOneLiner: After the evil alien has been impaled on a pipe:
63	-->'''Bad Alien:''' [[TitleDrop I come in peace]]. \
64	'''Jack Caine:''' And you go in pieces, asshole.
65	* ProphetEyes: The aliens have white eyes.
66	* RunForTheBorder: After Victor Manning, the leader of the White Boys Gang, kills a cop, he flees to Brazil. He's cocky enough to send a postcard of himself with a bunch of Brazilian babes to the detective who was investigating him. After the whole ordeal with the [[OutsideContextProblem alien drug dealer]] is over, Caine mentions that he's going to travel there to take care of Manning.
67	* ScrewTheRulesImDoingWhatsRight: Caine already lives by this code, but Larry grows into it once he finds out that the government has no problem with letting the alien kill people (and possibly bring along an AlienInvasion to turn Earth into a space-meth lab) as long as they can get a deal out of it.
68	* SlasherSmile: The bad alien during the fight with Caine at the climax.
69	* TheSociopath: Talec, an alien who comes to Earth to kill people and sell their endorphins as a drug.
70	* SpacePolice: Another alien turns out to be a law enforcement officer who gives NotQuiteDead exposition on the alien drug dealer's reason for being on Earth.
71	* TheSpeechless: The evil alien, except for his CatchPhrase "I come in peace", doesn't talk very much.
72	* SuperToughness: The two aliens are much tougher than ordinary humans. The cop still lives for quite a while after half his torso is shot off, and the drug dealer isn't even phased when Jack tries to kick his ass, while gunfire barely slows him down.
73	* TerminatorTwosome: An alien cop does show up to hunt down the alien criminal, but he turns out to be the TheWorldsExpertOnGettingKilled and gets gutshot pretty quickly. His only real contribution is giving Jack an alien gun before he dies and explodes.
74	* TitleDrop: Unless seeing it as ''Dark Angel'', multiple repetitions of "I come in peace" make up almost all of the bad guy's dialogue (his only other line: "I win").
75	* WeComeInPeaceShootToKill: One of the aliens keeps repeating "I come in peace" while murdering people.
76	* WroteTheBook: Played with in this BondOneLiner after Caine kills Smith's boss when he's going to [[HeKnowsTooMuch silence Smith]]:
77	-->'''Jack Caine''': "Trust no one". The book of Caine, Rule One, Chapter One.
78	* {{Yuppie}}: The White Boys are a gang of yuppie drug dealers, presumably to have something different from the stock villains from TheMafia, TheTriadsAndTheTongs and TheCartel.

Context Film / IComeInPeace