The Mother is a 2023 action film on Netflix starring Jennifer Lopez.
An unnamed female assassin comes out of hiding 12 years after an attempt on her life in order to protect her recently born child who is now being targeted by her old enemies.
The film was released on May 12th, 2023, in time for Mother's Day.
This film provides examples of:
- After-Action Patch-Up: Played for the usual Unresolved Sexual Tension when the Mother treats the stab wound in William's back. There's no sex but she does explain her backstory, something she doesn't even tell Zoe.
- All Animals Are Dogs: Zoe is shown feeding and happily playing with the wolf pups. Until one bites the hand that feeds them, they're shown to be a lot more at ease with her than wild animals who haven't had much contact with humans would be.
- Big Bad Duumvirate: Adrian Lovell and Hector Alvarez, both of which are trying to kidnap Zoe.
- Big "NO!": The Mother yells this when she thinks she failed her final shot to take out Adrian and may have hit Zoe instead.
- Boom, Headshot!: How the Mother finally takes out Adrian.
- Chekhov's Gun: The salt shells in the shotgun that the Mother uses to frighten off the wolf, and the driving lessons that Zoe gets.
- Everyone Has Standards: The protagonist is a Professional Killer who works for arms smugglers but she turns against them once she finds out they are involved with child trafficking.
- From Camouflage to Criminal: The Mother was a US sniper in Iraq, but allowed herself to be recruited by Adrian because she realised there was no room for her skills in the civilian world. Which isn't strictly true as she's told she can make good money as a hunter in Alaska.
- Harmful to Minors: Gets raised several times
- When she first rescues Zoe, the Mother drops her torch so she can shield Zoe's eyes from the sight of a mook she killed.
- Zoe's foster mother wants to know if she saw Williams die, which she did.
- Zoe is delighted to see a stag only to be aghast when the Mother shoots it dead for food. The Mother has trouble empathizing with her refusal to eat afterwards.
- The Mother refuses to explain her Dark and Troubled Past because her daughter is too young to hear it. Zoe is understandably angry given what she's already seen and experienced.
- I Owe You My Life: When the FBI safehouse is attacked, Zoe drags Williams to safety and superglues his injury, stopping him from bleeding out. "Because you gave me water" as she later explains it. Williams in turn arranges for Zoe to be placed with a good family.
- Just One Little Mistake: Two actually; Zoe feeds the wolf pups despite being warned that they are wild animals, and one bites her hand. When she's taken to the hospital, she gives her real name to the doctor who enters it onto his computer. The Mother doesn't hold it against her, because she should have warned Zoe not to give her real name. But it's enough to bring Adrian and his mooks after her.
- Mama Bear: The Mother. Don't try to kidnap or hurt Zoe.
- Mama's Baby, Papa's Maybe: The mother became pregnant after being involved with both villains and therefore doesn't know who's the father; However, she makes clear that she doesn't care.
- No Name Given: Our protagonist has no name, and is simply referred to as "the Mother".
- Two-Faced: After the explosion knocked Adrian unconscious in the prologue, we later see that said explosion had scarred the left side of his face.
- Water Torture: The Mother is torturing a Cuban gangster for the whereabouts of her kidnapped daughter. After beating him with barbed wire handwraps doesn't work, she pulls his shirt over his face, breaks the neck off a bottle of beer and pours it over the shirt (apparently the fizz makes the wounds hurt more). That gets him talking, but when he taunts him about what the captors will do to her daughter, she knocks him off the chair and his neck gets impaled on the broken beer bottle.
- We Do Not Know Each Other: Jons is told to pretend he doesn't know the Mother if they ever meet in town. However Zoe isn't fooled due to the stilted way they're speaking, which she says might as well be talking in code.
- Would Hurt a Child: When Adrian sees the Mother is pregnant, he deliberately stabs her in the belly, even though the child could well be his own.
