"Welcome to the rat-pocalypse..."
"Evolution is forcing the animal kingdom to adapt, et cetera, et cetera."
In future Scotland, old farmer Mason (Craig Ferguson) has a rat problem. But not your typical rat problem, mind you: the rats infesting his farm have formed their own society, and are currently in the process of armed rebellion against him. With the insurrective little beasts threatening his livelihood (and his life), he consults a Traptech salesman (Dan Stevens) for help in winning this rodent revolution. But Traptech has an...interesting mindset when it comes to the term "pest control", and Mason may have gotten more than he bargained for.
Directed by Carlos Stevens, written by Joe Abercrombie, based on a short story by Neal Asher.
Tropes:
- Armor Is Useless: Except for the TT-15, all the rat-hunting robots are easily destroyed with miniature crossbow bolts despite being armoured.
- Brave Scot: Mason himself, and the evolved rats are depicted as such.
- Cat Scare: The first time we see the farmer enter the barn, he gets startled by his cat.
- Chekhov's Gun: The Traptech technician carting away the wrecked TT-6s notes that one of them is missing. The missing TT-6 later turns up combined with one of Mason's tractor drones into a jury-rigged tank.
- Collateral Damage: The farmer's cat ends up a victim of the TT-6, as it can't distinguish between rats and other animals. The farmer angrily demands a discount on his buy because of this. Later, a stray shot of the TT-15 destroys the farmer's mug.
- Decapitation Presentation: The first thing the TT-15 does is present the severed head of a killed rat to the farmer.
- Desecrating the Dead: The TT-15 does not settle for merely killing the rats, but keeps mutilating and shooting their corpses till only the head remains. This is what eventually causes the farmer to have second thoughts about using the machine.
- Destroy the Security Camera: The rats take out the TT-6s by disabling their cameras.
- Determinator: The TT-15 is programmed for one thing and one thing only: killing rats, and it will not stop for any reason, even after being critically damaged by a mini-tank kamikaze attack, and only does when farmer Mason decides enough is enough and finally puts the thing down with his shotgun.
- Easily Forgiven: Despite Mason purchasing the machines that slaughtered dozens of their number, the rats are almost instantly willing to bury the hatchet. The fact that he was horrified at what he'd wrought upon them and went out of his way to put a stop to it might've had something to do with that.
- Everyone Has Standards: Mason purchases machines with the intention of exterminating the rats, but he is disturbed by the brutal manner in which the TT-15 drone deals with them. It is bad enough to convince him to destroy the drone and make peace with the very rats he wanted to destroy.
- Foreshadowing: Mason's reaction at seeing how brutally effective the TT-15 is at hunting rats isn't satisfaction, but downright horror at the carnage and frankly unnecessary amount of violence that the robot hunts the vermin. It makes it fairly apparent that he's not fully supportive of the TT-15's methods which results in him taking out the machine itself in the finale.
- Genetic Engineering Is the New Nuke: The heavy use of GMOs is responsible for accelerated evolution. It's even acknowledged as such in-universe.
- Gigantic Gulp: For a rat, drinking booze from a shotgun shell is impressive. For a human, not so much.
- Gone Horribly Right: The TT-15 is extremely effective at exterminating rats. So horrifically effective is it at that in fact that Mason begins sympathizing with the rodents.
- Gosh Dang It to Heck!: Mason swears with "Christ on a bike!"
- Hand Wave: The Traptech technician who explains why rats are becoming sentient vaguely mentions evolution and GMOs, then handwaves the rest with "et cetera, et cetera", since the viewers watching the show will both immediately get the premise and will understand that it's not really important.
- Happy Ending: Mr. Mason and the rats put their differences aside and live happily together, brewing excellent whiskey out of his grain.
- Lensman Arms Race: The rats evolve their defense system to cope with the ever-improving rat-killing contraptions the farmer employs.
- Mechanical Animals: The TT-15 is essentially a robotic scorpion, with a laser gun at the tip of its tail.
- Mook Horror Show: We get glimpses of the rats fighting against TT-15 and it's a massacre. On top of that, the drone is deliberately excessive and employs terror tactics, driving them to leave. The drone is so excessive, Mason eventually sides with the rats, putting down the damaged machine.
- Mouse World: GMOs have caused rats to evolve to the point they are now able to make their own tools and form their own society.
- My God, What Have I Done?: Mason's response to seeing just how effective the TT-15 is at murdering rodents... sentient rodents who now can't care less about anything else but escaping its warpath. It's what leads him to destroy the robot himself, ending his conflict with the rats on a happy note.
- No New Fashions in the Future: Judging by the fashion, along with architecture, you could easily set the short somewhere in the second half of the 20th century, despite it being at the very least 2362note , if not a decade or two later.
- Non-Malicious Monster: The TT-15 may employ horribly brutal methods in its disposal of the rats but there's never really any evidence that it's anything other than a machine following its programming. Granted, this opens up the question on why it had to be programmed to be incredibly cruel, ruthless and brutal.
- Ramming Always Works: Since TT-15 is a No-Sell to all the rats have at their disposal, they desperately ram it with Mason's mini-tractor. The drone is heavily damaged, but that doesn't take it out of combat entirely.
- Rock Beats Laser: When the TT-15 goes too far for Mason's liking, he destroys the robotic scorpion with a single shot from an ordinary break-open shotgun.
- Scary Scorpions: The TT-15 is a mechanical version of this trope.
- Sentry Gun: The TT-6s are stationary automated laser turrets, when the rats figure out how to sneak up on them the Traptech salesman says they need to "go mobile."
- Shotguns Are Just Better: What finally puts down the TT-15 is Mason's quintessential farmer's double-barreled shotgun. Which is pretty damn impressive considering the amount of punishment the thing can put up with.
- Sir Swears-a-Lot: Almost every other line from Mason has a curse word of some kind.
- Stunned Silence: Then TT-15 proceeds to fire its laser cannon so much it keeps the rat's carcass in the air and shreds it until there is only the head left, both Mason and the escaping rats are just standing and gasping, unable to even stammer anything.
- Tastes Like Friendship: Mason eventually bonds with the rats over a shared love of whisky when they offer him some of their own making.
- There Is No Kill Like Overkill: Laser cannons and attack drones (with military-grade systems)... to get rid of a rat problem.
- Thrifty Scot: Mason asks for a discount once he discovers TT-6 killed his cat.
- Used Future: The farm is run down, even if it includes agri-drones, mini-mecha and massive wind turbines.
- What Measure Is a Non-Human?: Inverted. Due to the excess violence of the attack drone, Mason eventually sides with the very rats he wanted to get rid of, being shocked by how extreme the TT-15 is in its operations.
- World War Whatever: The old farmer from future Scotland compares the carnage in his barn to something "like World War fucking IV", implying his world had the misfortune of having at least one or two world wars more than ours.
- You Dirty Rat!: Initially the rats are framed as pests, but this is quickly subverted once they're seen being brutally massacred by the pest control devices and robot. Mason eventually finds kinship with them.
