History Film / SpaceMutiny

* JoinOrDie: Variant. Kalgan offers a technician who discovers his evil plot to either join or be cryogenically frozen. The technician chooses a third option of dying. Kalgan obliges.

* MartyrWithoutACause: The engineer who discovers the missing explosives is given the option to join Kalgan or die, and he picks option #2. It doesn't occur to him to simply pretend to join Kalgan to sabotage his plans or look for an opportunity to escape. Even worse, the options Kalgan gives him are to either join him or be cryogenically frozen. [[StupidSacrifice The engineer chooses to jump off the catwalk instead.]] Even if he was unwilling to pull a FakeDefector, he could have opted to be frozen in hopes of being rescued when the mutiny failed.

* PeopleJars[=/=]HumanPopsicle: Kalgan tends to freeze prisoners (or [[YouHaveFailedMe failure subordinates]]) in cryogenic suspension rather than kill them outright. This is actually a fairly canny move, as once he's taken over the ship he can thaw them out so they can still be useful to him. Unfortunately the movie didn't have a budget for a cryogenics lab so they just hung four or five guys wrapped in plastic up on a coat rack.

* ArtisticLicenseChemistry: At one point Ryder opens one of the ship's many methane tanks in order to start a fire. When he does, Lea says "What's that smell?" Pure methane is odorless.

** Female crewmembers besides Lt. Lemont all dress like Series/AmericanGladiators.

* CoitusEnsues: Between Ryder and Lea, [[MakingLoveInAllTheWrongPlaces on the carpeted walkway of the spaceship's greenhouse]].

* DressingAsTheEnemy: Awkwardly handled. Ryder kicks the crap out a mook and steals his perfectly fitted costume, even though the guy was half his size.
** Lea then is able to take another mook's outfit, despite her being half the guy's size.

* {{Filler}}: The Bellerians were obviously added at the last minute to fill time. Other than a brief scene with the Commander, nobody involved in the main plot even talks about them except in voice-over. Their effect on the plot is tangential at best; at one point they pointlessly seduce a couple of guards for no stated reason, and later on they tell the Commander that there's a mutiny on his ship (which he already knows anyway) while giving him a mystical lapdance. What little interaction they have with the rest of the movie is clearly stitched together in editing from unrelated scenes, with an implication that they are somehow causing various events through magic (or something). The effects in their scenes also take a nosedive even for this movie, consisting entirely of some store-bought plasma balls and a fog machine.

* UnexplainedRecovery: As noted above, Lemont is killed in one scene and then appears on the bridge in ''the very next scene'' totally unharmed (though she has no more lines in the movie, so it was probably bad editing).

''Space Mutiny'' was filmed in UsefulNotes/SouthAfrica during UsefulNotes/TheApartheidEra (a fact understandably not mentioned on the end credits -- see also ''Film/PrisonersOfTheLostUniverse'', ''Golden Rendezvous'', ''Hellgate,'' etc.), which some viewers think ties in to all the pseudo-fascistic goings-on (and explains the all-white cast, not that that was exactly unusual in Hollywood action movies of the time). The film also borrows almost all of its spaceship footage from ''Series/{{Battlestar Galactica|1978}}'', including using the ''Galactica'' itself as a stand in for the ''Southern Sun''.

''Space Mutiny'' was filmed in UsefulNotes/SouthAfrica during UsefulNotes/TheApartheidEra (a fact understandably not mentioned on the end credits -- see also ''Prisoners of the Lost Universe'', ''Golden Rendezvous'', ''Hellgate,'' etc.), which some viewers think ties in to all the pseudo-fascistic goings-on (and explains the all-white cast, not that that was exactly unusual in Hollywood action movies of the time). The film also borrows almost all of its spaceship footage from ''Series/{{Battlestar Galactica|1978}}'', including using the ''Galactica'' itself as a stand in for the ''Southern Sun''.

-->'''Crow:''' I have your mother!

* {{Nerd}}: First Engineer Steve Cadell [[note]]''Codell? Godell? Gadell?''[[/note]] has [[TheShortGuyWithGlasses shades of this]], complete with NerdGlasses and [[SmartPeopleWearGlasses general awkwardness]].

** The Enforcers miss constantly whenever they aim at anybody important. Their aim against the various {{Red Shirt}}s still loyal to the Commander is a little better, but even then they seem to miss most of the time.

** A colony ship that's old enough to have over a dozen generations of people on it can somehow take on three SpacePirate ships and win in a few seconds.

* WhooshingCredits: The credits do this effect.

* GratuitousDiscoSequence: With hula hoops. And an [[{{Fanservice}} equally gratuitous]] PantyShot when Lea drops hers.
-->'''Servo''': She's presenting like a mandrill!

* {{Nerd}}: First Engineer Steve Cadell [[note]]''Codell? Godell? Gadell?''[[/note]] has [[TheShortGuyWithGlasses shades of this]], [[{{Meganekko}} complete with]] NerdGlasses and [[SmartPeopleWearGlasses general awkwardness]].

* GratuitousDiscoSequence: With hula hoops. And an [[{{Fanservice}} equally gratuitous]] panty shot when Lea drops hers.

* GratuitousDiscoSequence: With hula hoops. And an [[{{Fanservice}} equally gratuitous]] PantyShot when Lea drops hers.

* DefrostingIceQueen: At first, Lea hates Ryder, blaming him for the death of her friend the professor. Of course, she falls for him the ''very next scene'', after he reveals that he, too, knew and liked the professor.