Babylon A.D. - Television Tropes & Idioms

Babylon A.D. is a Cyber Punk action film based on the novel Babylon Babies by French (naturalised Canadian) sci-fi writer Maurice G. Dantec. In a near-future world divided by nationalistic and religious conflict, a mercenary called Toorop (played by Vin Diesel) is hired by a Russian mobster to escort a woman pregnant with genetically-enhanced twins to North America for delivery to the Neolites, a New Age sect. The woman's odd behaviour, and other strange events, cause Toorop to realise that the babies she is carrying represent the next stage in human evolution.

As the film's development was hellish from A to Z, the final product bombed hard and was disavowed by its own director, Matthieu Kassovitz. A making-of called Fucking Kassovitz

was released in 2011 to reveal the extent of the disaster behind the scenes.

This film provides examples of:

Adaptation Decay: The movie centres around the Live-Action Escort Mission through a Crapsack World, with the emphasis on the action and the high-concept aspects of the novel shoehorned in at the end. In the novel Toorop simply jumps on the plane to Quebec with his charge, the action is mostly over by the first half and the high-concept aspects are not necessarily easier to understand. Therefore if you enjoyed either the novel or the movie, you're likely to be disappointed in its counterpart.
Almost Kiss: Between Aurora and Toorop just after the latter's Shower Scene (Sister Rebeka walks in on them).
Ascended Extra: Rebecca Waterman (an Israeli mercenary who's part of Toorop's team) becomes Sister Rebeka, Aurora's Parental Substitute and a martial arts-trained nun.
Astronomic Zoom: The movie begins with a zoom down to Earth's nightside through orbiting satellites, ending up on the New York street at the moment Toorop gets killed.
Attack Drones patrol the Bering Strait, killing everything that moves whether wildlife or illegal infiltrators.
Bait-and-Switch Gunshot: Toorop is hit by fighter drones while escorting Aurora and Sister Rebeka across the Bering Strait. His 'friend' Finn decides to take Aurora for himself, believing she's a priceless viral weapon. When Sister Rebeka objects he says matter-of-factly: "You, I don't need." A shot then rings out...and Finn falls dead, revealing the Not Quite Dead Toorop holding a pistol. The scene works well because Rebeka is not a main character, and thus more likely to get shot.
Beast and Beauty: The bare-knuckle brawler in the refugee camp is instantly smitten with Aurora and tries to protect her from kidnappers.
Bodyguard Crush: At first Toorop treats Aurora as The Load; by the time they get to Canada there's noticeable UST between them.
Border Crossing: The protagonists must cross the Bering Strait via submarine and snowbike, while avoiding Attack Drones.
Car Chase: The chase scene between Neolite Range Rovers and the Hummers, shown in the cinemas and available as a deleted scene on DVD.
Coincidental Broadcast: Used more judiciously than usual. There's an entire wall showing dozens of channels, which makes it easier to accept if at least one of the channels is showing something relevant.
Convection Schmonvection: In slow motion, during the New York shoot out, Aurora and Sister Rebekah have a missile pass not more than a foot in front of their faces. This should not be pleasant.
Cool Car: Gorsky's armoured personnel carrier with luxurious interior and all-round plasma screen 'windows' showing thermal images of what's outside.
Corrupt Church: The Neolites, a combination of New Age cult and high-tech corporate money-making machine.
Darquandier: "Your church is a lie! You're peddling miracles for your own profit!"
Creator Backlash: Babylon A.D. was hit with this before it even came out. The director, Matthieu Kassovitz, has been quite open about how his initial vision of a dark but thoughtful cyberpunk world was edited beyond all recognition and turned into "a bad episode of 24." (For context, Rotten Tomatoes rates this movie at 7% freshness.)
Crapsack World
Cyborg: Toorop's right arm and left leg are replaced with cybernetics to undo the damage of being dead for over two hours. This apparently gives him enhanced strength — When Toorop grabs his shoulder Darquandier winces, and he kicks open a chained metal door during the Hummer chase. Darquandier is also a cyborg as he was crippled by a carbomb.
Death by Adaptation: Darquandier.
Doesn't Like Guns: Sister Rebeka turns down the gun Toorop offers her, but doesn't hesitate to grab one in New York. Subverted with Aurora, who's the last person you'd expect to use a gun until she threatens them on the submarine and later shoots Toorop in New York.
Evil Matriarch/Corrupt Corporate Executive: The High Priestess of the Neolite sect.
Faceless Mooks: Gorsky's men in New York wear motorcycle helmets with skull facemasks.
First-Person Shooter: Toorop's downloaded memories of the New York shootout.
Fridge Logic: Toorop wouldn't have time to die from a shot to the heart (it takes at least ten seconds) before the missile struck; the tracker would still have been working.
Heel Face Turn: In the backstory; amoral scientist Dr Darquandier after he found himself thinking of Aurora as a daughter rather than an experiment.
Hey, It's That Guy!: The amoral scientist is the Merovingian.
The Ingénue: Aurora in the movie, but averted with Marie Zorn in the novel: a schizophrenic prostitute who was simply meant to be a courier for the babies. Unfortunately for the Neolites her Mysterious Past starts to complicate things.
Kick the Dog: The High Priestess destroys the convent where Aurora was brought up in with a missile strike, presumably to remove evidence of her past that would obscure her status as a modern Virgin Mary.
Laser Sight: The mooks Gorsky sends to grab Toorop use these. Justified as they're trying to intimidate him into coming quietly. He doesn't.
Le Parkour: Darquandier's men show these skills when chasing the protagonists through the marketplace and refugee camp.
Limited Animation: The CGI drones do the same "unloading the missile" animation several times. They don't even flip the scene to make it different.
Mad Scientist: Inverted with Darquandier; his experiment has positive rather than negative effects.
Messianic Archetype: Aurora fits this trope to a T, but that's because she's actually been genetically engineered by the Noelite sect who hope to create a real-life 'miracle' in order to become the dominant religion in the world.
Money To Throw Away: In the refugee camp Darquandier's men offer Toorop a bag holding a million bucks to walk away from his charges. He's clearly tempted for a moment, then he knocks the bag into the air and uses the subsequent money scramble to make a getaway.
Neural Implanting: Aurora was raised in a convert, yet can speak nineteen languages by the age of two and knows how to operate an obsolete ex-Soviet nuclear submarine. Darquandier later reveals he used Artificial Intelligence on her fetus in order to enhance her ability to process information.
Not Quite Dead: Toorop is shot by Aurora so the tracking missile won't kill him. He's then revived by Dr Darquandier, who's also supposedly 'dead'.
Artistic License - Nuclear Physics: A radiation-shielded train passes over a bridge built across a massive crater blasted by a nuclear power plant. While a cool scene (apart from the "reactors blow up" fallacy) it also raises the question of the difficulties of building a bridge in such a highly-radioactive area (not to mention the expense of creating shielded trains) versus just building a detour.
Oh Crap: Toorop realises he's been locked in with a punch-drunk bare knuckle brawler who's even bigger than he is. Toorop being targeted by a miniature guided missile. Gorsky being targeted by a nuclear weapon.
Old Shame: Matthieu Kassovitz (the French director) does not remember this movie well, notably because of Vin Diesel ("a completely idiot actor" according to him) and a heavy dose of Executive Meddling from 20th Century Fox. To him the film ended up like a "bad episode of 24".
One Last Job: Toorop wants to retire from war and live in Canada (in the novel he's more of a Blood Knight).
The Ophelia: Aurora has touches of this, though she's not mad. She does gets hysterical when she has visions, but that's because what she's seeing is not pretty.
Parental Substitute: Aurora has several of these; Rebeka who raised her in the convert, while Darquandier and the High Priestess both refer to Aurora as their daughter and act Like an Old Married Couple who've undergone a nasty divorce.
Person of Mass Destruction: Aurora in Babylon A.D. is believed to be a viral weapon at first. In "Babylon Babies" another woman is used in this fashion — when she comes into proximity with the pheromones of her target, her body rapidly creates a virus that kills several hundred people in minutes, wiping out the upper echelons of the Neolite sect.
Post-Mortem One-Liner: In the novel Toorop chants a sura from the Koran after he kills two border guards.
Product Placement: An airliner with a Coke Zero ad painted across its entire surface. The Big Applesauce is also full of advertising, some of it related to the plot, others for products well known to the audience.
Prophecy Twist: Aurora predicts they're all going to die in New York. Rebeka is indeed killed in the shootout. Toorop also dies, but he gets revived. Aurora dies during childbirth in a hospital in the state of New York.
Psychic Powers: Aurora is carrying twins who can affect events outside the womb before they're even born. They enable Aurora to see future events and survive a missile that explodes right in front of her.
Say My Name: Toorop calls Aurora by her name for the first time just before she dies.
Strolling Through The Chaos: Aurora in the New York shootout. But that's hardly surprising as she turns out to be impervious even to miniature guided missiles.
Tattooed Crook: Toorop has some impressive artwork.
Tearjerker: The refugees drowning in the Bering Strait after the submarine closes its hatches on them. Also Aurora's preprogrammed death in childbirth.
Tempting Fate: When the High Priestess of the Noelites threatens to kill Gorsky he scoffs it off, since he's so well-protected that she would pretty much have to drop a nuclear bomb on his head to do him in. Missile launch detected...
Twenty Minutes into the Future: Babylon Babies was published in 1999 and takes place in 2013. Based on several references throughout the film, the movie probably takes place in the late 2020s or the 2030s.
What the Hell, Hero?: Aurora after Toorop chokes the boxer and shoots an unarmed man, both of whom were trying to protect her.