A 2021 American Sci-Fi Action Film directed by Edward Drake that follows rogue soldiers launching a strike against an alien world to end a war before it starts.
The Movie stars Bruce Willis, Frank Grillo, Brandon Thomas Lee, Corey Large, Perrey Reeves, CJ Perry, Lochlyn Munro, Costas Mandylor, Adelaide Kane, and Eva De Dominici.
It was released on March 12, 2021.
Tropes for the film:
- As You Know: Ardene is fitting an Icarus suit onto Dash while explaining what it is for the audience's benefit. Snark-to-Snark Combat ensues.Dash: Who do you think I am?Ardene: General Ford's drinking buddy?Dash: You never heard of the Red Rider of Puga, the Slayer of Eos?Ardene: Must have been before my time.
- Better to Die than Be Killed: During a battle between alien-assimilated humans and soldiers, the commander finds a hysterical female soldier who insists that she's been infected. He tells her to Pull Yourself Together and hands her a pistol to fight the aliens, which she instead uses to blow her brains out.
- Braids of Action: Sol Cantos (played by Lana), the Elloran soldier who wields a BFG, has braided hair colored a bright yellow. This makes her stick out somewhat in the woods, but from appearances the unit she is with are Mildly Military.
- Brake Angrily: Done for an Oh, Crap! when someone calls up General Eron Ryle as he's driving home. The general is trying to foist the job off to someone else when he's informed that someone has made First Contact with an alien race, causing him to slam on the brakes. The use of this trope is probably why he's not driving one of the Flying Cars we see in the distance.
- Decontamination Chamber: When the crew of the spacecraft who've made First Contact have to go into decontamination, over the objections of the scientist who would rather debrief them right away while their memories ares still fresh. And if they had spent less time arguing over it, they might have noticed the blatant Virus-Victim Symptoms on the crew before they started to Kill All Humans.
- Doomsday Device: The Q Bomb that the First Contact Team take on their mission.Braxton: Maybe we blow us and them all to hell when their fleet arrives?Ardene: Well, technically we'd all be sucked to hell in the black hole the Q-Bomb creates.Braxton: Well being sucked off by the universe doesn't sound like the worst way to go.
- First Contact Team: Subverted. The team assembled within minutes of receiving word via Subspace Ansible of a hostile First Contact is actually an illegal military strike force with a Doomsday Device; the belief being that humanity really can't afford to give the aliens the benefit of the doubt when facing a Technologically Advanced Foe.
- Genocide Dilemma: First contact with an alien species turns hostile and within hours the military launch an illegal mission to destroy the alien homeworld with a Doomsday Device. Various issues are raised - are they going to wipe out an entire alien species for what could be acts of a rogue faction? Should they commit genocide regardless because this is the only way humanity can survive an Outside-Context Problem? All these issues are put to a stop by revealing a massive invasion fleet ready to come through a portal gate, and having an alien-possessed human do some Evil Gloating about how the aliens are an assimilating Hive Mind of apex predators whose entire culture is based on war.
- I Want You to Meet an Old Friend of Mine: Corey Large previously worked with Willis on Breach.
- Just Following Orders: General James Ford (Bruce Willis) is despised for using a Q-Bomb to end a planetary revolt, killing 70 million people. He claims he was just following orders, only for it to be pointed out that he actually gave the order himself. Fortunately the next time he uses a Q-Bomb on his own volition it's to stop an Alien Invasion, so the politicians pretend he was acting on their orders to share the credit.
- The Last Man Heard a Knock...: A couple on a scouting expedition to another planet are about to have sex when the woman hears something. The man is amused as they literally have the entire planet to themselves, and to prove it fires his gun at random into the darkness. Cue sinister growling from the hostile aliens who have just landed on the planet.
- Self-Destruct Mechanism: Gen. Ryle decides to destroy the alien portal gate by detonating the fuel in his spacesuit. Unfortunately the suit's AI won't activate the self-destruct because it detects a live person inside the suit. So he gives an order to blast him with the orbital cannon, and his own nephew is the one who has to pull the trigger.
- Scientist vs. Soldier: James Ford is a former general who became disgraced and divorced after using a Doomsday Device to end a revolt. He's assigned to work with his ex-wife Dr. Lea Goss, who as a young student wrote a thesis advocating genocide in response to an Outside-Context Problem but is having second thoughts when faced with actual First Contact.
