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* AdaptationInducedPlotHole: Those orbiting {{KillSat}}s that are mentioned so prominently in the original book [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Outer_Space_Treaty never really came to pass]], yet in the last episode Bill attributes the blindness plague and whatever mysterious sickness wiped out the survivors in London to some of them going off accidentally. Although it's downplayed significantly by the fact he's only speculating.
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* CompressedAdaptation: Characters and sub-plots are ruthlessly pruned to fit the whole story into six hours.
to:
* CompressedAdaptation: Characters and sub-plots are ruthlessly pruned to fit the whole story into six hours. Arguably an improvement, as the novel had a tendency to meander a bit.
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Do not spoiler tag trope names on work pages or the names of works on trope pages; please see Handling Spoilers for more information.
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* [[spoiler: HumanSacrifice: How the group led by the nun keeps the triffids at bay. They tie up their old and infirm for the triffid to eat and in return triffids have learnt to keep their distance from the buildings.]]
to:
* [[spoiler: HumanSacrifice: [[spoiler: How the group led by the nun keeps the triffids at bay. They tie up their old and infirm for the triffid to eat and in return triffids have learnt to keep their distance from the buildings.]]
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* [[spoiler:LittleStowaway: Susan tags along on Bill's mission to bag a male triffid.]]
to:
* [[spoiler:LittleStowaway: Susan LittleStowaway: [[spoiler:Susan tags along on Bill's mission to bag a male triffid.]]
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No spoiler tags in the description. See Handling Spoilers for more information.
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The book's narrator is an Englishman named Bill Masen, who details how some years previously the eponymous carnivorous plants mysteriously began to appear all over the world, eventually proving to be capable of movement and possessing the ability to attack humans with their poisonous stings; Masen's own theory is that they were deliberately bioengineered in the Soviet Union and then accidentally released into the wild, but [[LeaveThePlotThreadsHanging the truth is never revealed]]. Whatever their origin, the plants are also discovered to produce a high-quality vegetable oil, and so an entire industry grows up around farming them. Masen works as a researcher on a Triffid farm, and ends up in the hospital after a Triffid stings him on the face. His eyes thus bandaged, he misses a bizarre meteor shower that lights up the night skies all over the world. Come morning, Masen learns that the shower has struck blind everyone who viewed it. (He later speculates that the shower was actually a malfunctioning orbital weapons system, but again no proof is to be found one way or the other.) Wandering through a disintegrating London, he meets and quickly falls in love with a sighted novelist named Josella Playton (who missed seeing the "meteor shower" because she was sleeping off an [[PoisonedChaliceSwitcheroo unfortunate party experience]].) While the Triffids rapidly break free of their farms and begin wiping out the blinded population, Masen and Playton become entangled in the squabbles of other sighted survivors leading to [[spoiler: their unwilling separation. They are finally reunited at a small estate in the English countryside, taking up farming in an fenced enclave surrounded by hordes of Triffids. When a despotic new government appears on the scene, they join a colony of more freedom-minded individuals on the Isle of Wight, researching for the day they can defeat the Triffids and reclaim the Earth for humanity.]]
In 2001, the author Simon Clark wrote a sequel to the book entitled ''Night of the Triffids'', which attempted to be a pastiche of Wyndham's style, and details the adventures of [[spoiler: Bill and Josella's son.]]
In 2001, the author Simon Clark wrote a sequel to the book entitled ''Night of the Triffids'', which attempted to be a pastiche of Wyndham's style, and details the adventures of [[spoiler: Bill and Josella's son.]]
to:
The book's narrator is an Englishman named Bill Masen, who details how some years previously the eponymous carnivorous plants mysteriously began to appear all over the world, eventually proving to be capable of movement and possessing the ability to attack humans with their poisonous stings; Masen's own theory is that they were deliberately bioengineered in the Soviet Union and then accidentally released into the wild, but [[LeaveThePlotThreadsHanging the truth is never revealed]]. Whatever their origin, the plants are also discovered to produce a high-quality vegetable oil, and so an entire industry grows up around farming them. Masen works as a researcher on a Triffid farm, and ends up in the hospital after a Triffid stings him on the face. His eyes thus bandaged, he misses a bizarre meteor shower that lights up the night skies all over the world. Come morning, Masen learns that the shower has struck blind everyone who viewed it. (He later speculates that the shower was actually a malfunctioning orbital weapons system, but again no proof is to be found one way or the other.) Wandering through a disintegrating London, he meets and quickly falls in love with a sighted novelist named Josella Playton (who missed seeing the "meteor shower" because she was sleeping off an [[PoisonedChaliceSwitcheroo unfortunate party experience]].) While the Triffids rapidly break free of their farms and begin wiping out the blinded population, Masen and Playton become entangled in the squabbles of other sighted survivors leading to [[spoiler: their unwilling separation. They are finally reunited at a small estate in the English countryside, taking up farming in an fenced enclave surrounded by hordes of Triffids. When a despotic new government appears on the scene, they join a colony of more freedom-minded individuals on the Isle of Wight, researching for the day they can defeat the Triffids and reclaim the Earth for humanity.]]
humanity.
In 2001, the author Simon Clark wrote a sequel to the book entitled ''Night of the Triffids'', which attempted to be a pastiche of Wyndham's style, and details the adventures of[[spoiler: Bill and Josella's son.]]
son.
In 2001, the author Simon Clark wrote a sequel to the book entitled ''Night of the Triffids'', which attempted to be a pastiche of Wyndham's style, and details the adventures of
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* WeaksauceWeakness: Again, the water thing (in the movie).
to:
* WeaksauceWeakness: Again, the water thing (in the movie). \n Or maybe seawater; the narrative isn't very clear on this point, possibly because the whole subplot was allegedly added on rather late in production as quite literal {{filler}} because they needed additional run-time for a theatrical release. [[MST3KMantra Try not to think about it too hard.]]
!!Examples specific to the 1981 Television Series:
* AdaptationDistillation: The slightly patronising depiction of Coker is done away with, as is the whole ''Sex Is My Adventure'' sub-plot with Josella.
* BritishBrevity
* CompressedAdaptation: Characters and sub-plots are ruthlessly pruned to fit the whole story into six hours.
* LargeHam: John Duttine as Bill Masen, in noticeable contrast to every other version.
* SettingUpdate: It's not clear when the original novel is supposed to take place, but it was clearly NextSundayAD from the perspective of TheFifties. The producers took the decision to set it very definitely in TheEighties instead, which was probably for the best.
* TrailersAlwaysLie: The anti-triffid guns showed up in a lot of publicity stills, but only ended up being fired once on-screen. This was probably because the firing effect had to be done with CGI, which looked ''extremely'' unconvincing.
!!Examples specific to the 1981 Television Series:
* AdaptationDistillation: The slightly patronising depiction of Coker is done away with, as is the whole ''Sex Is My Adventure'' sub-plot with Josella.
* BritishBrevity
* CompressedAdaptation: Characters and sub-plots are ruthlessly pruned to fit the whole story into six hours.
* LargeHam: John Duttine as Bill Masen, in noticeable contrast to every other version.
* SettingUpdate: It's not clear when the original novel is supposed to take place, but it was clearly NextSundayAD from the perspective of TheFifties. The producers took the decision to set it very definitely in TheEighties instead, which was probably for the best.
* TrailersAlwaysLie: The anti-triffid guns showed up in a lot of publicity stills, but only ended up being fired once on-screen. This was probably because the firing effect had to be done with CGI, which looked ''extremely'' unconvincing.
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Changed line(s) 15,16 (click to see context) from:
* BabyFactory: One of the most horrifying aspects of the plot's entire setup is that they cannot ''possibly'' help the vast majority of the population, who have been blinded. Eventually even the ''"Good" faction'' of people led by Beadley grudgingly concludes that all of the blinded men are a drain on resources and thus a complete write-off. Conversely, Beadley's openly stated position - grudgingly accepted even by the ''protagonist'' - is that blind women of childbearing age will be kept alive and in polygamous relationships with the remaining sighted men, to try to repopulate as quickly as possible.
* BothSidesHaveAPoint: Bill Masen is initially somewhat shocked at the pragmatic abandonment of most of the blind population in London by Beadley and the Institute group and sympathizes with Coker's more idealistic attempt to help them. Ultimately, he comes around to the Beadley position when RealityEnsues.
* BothSidesHaveAPoint: Bill Masen is initially somewhat shocked at the pragmatic abandonment of most of the blind population in London by Beadley and the Institute group and sympathizes with Coker's more idealistic attempt to help them. Ultimately, he comes around to the Beadley position when RealityEnsues.
to:
* BabyFactory: One of the most horrifying aspects of the plot's entire setup is that they cannot ''possibly'' help the vast majority of the population, who have been blinded. Eventually even the ''"Good" faction'' of people led by Beadley grudgingly sadly concludes that all of the blinded men are a drain on resources and thus a complete write-off. Conversely, Beadley's openly stated position - grudgingly accepted even by the ''protagonist'' - is that blind women of childbearing age will be kept alive and in polygamous relationships with the remaining sighted men, to try to repopulate as quickly as possible.
* BothSidesHaveAPoint: Bill Masen is initially somewhat shocked at the pragmatic abandonment of most of the blind population in London by Beadley and the Institutegroup group, and sympathizes with Coker's more idealistic attempt to help them. Ultimately, he comes around to the Beadley position when RealityEnsues.RealityEnsues, as does Coker himself.
* BothSidesHaveAPoint: Bill Masen is initially somewhat shocked at the pragmatic abandonment of most of the blind population in London by Beadley and the Institute
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* CosyCatastrophe: As noted, perhaps the most famous example. Which is not to say it doesn't have its [[NightmareFuel not-at-all cosy moments...]]
to:
* CosyCatastrophe: As noted, perhaps the most famous example. Which is not to say it doesn't have its [[NightmareFuel not-at-all cosy cozy moments...]]
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* GoneHorriblyWrong: the Triffids are implied to have been genetically engineered, and made to survive in very inhospitable environments
** [[spoiler: it is also implied that meteorite storm was a satellite weapon that collided with something and not only caused blindness but might have had something to do with the outbreaks of viruses and diseases]]
** [[spoiler: it is also implied that meteorite storm was a satellite weapon that collided with something and not only caused blindness but might have had something to do with the outbreaks of viruses and diseases]]
to:
* GoneHorriblyWrong: the The Triffids are implied to have been genetically engineered, and made to survive in very inhospitable environments
environments.
** [[spoiler:it is It's also implied that meteorite storm the 'meteorite storm' was in fact a satellite weapon that collided with something something, and not only caused blindness but might have had something to do with the sudden outbreaks of viruses and diseases]]diseases.]]
** [[spoiler:
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* {{Irony}}: Sight being the greatest advantage humans have over triffids, the plants usually attempt to blind their prey with their stings. A triffid sting is what lands a temporarily blinded Bill in hospital, ultimately saving his eyesight.
* ItCanThink: The exact level of intelligence of the genetically-engineered triffids is a subject for debate, with the protagonist rubbishing the idea that they're intelligent —- after all, dissections haven't found anything remotely like a brain. Others are not so sure. One man points out that the triffids escaped from their farms within hours of everyone going blind. In another scene a triffid is waiting outside the very door which a person would run out of if they heard someone driving down the road. Much like the Velociraptors in ''Film/JurassicPark'', they're also smart enough to avoid an electrified fence...and to force it down when the electrical power is off. They even have a crude form of communication by drumming their branches against their trunk, though whether this is a crude but effective "hunting call", or an actual complex "language" is unknown. Overall, they seem to have ''at least'' the same basic intelligence level as a pack of dogs.
* ItCanThink: The exact level of intelligence of the genetically-engineered triffids is a subject for debate, with the protagonist rubbishing the idea that they're intelligent —- after all, dissections haven't found anything remotely like a brain. Others are not so sure. One man points out that the triffids escaped from their farms within hours of everyone going blind. In another scene a triffid is waiting outside the very door which a person would run out of if they heard someone driving down the road. Much like the Velociraptors in ''Film/JurassicPark'', they're also smart enough to avoid an electrified fence...and to force it down when the electrical power is off. They even have a crude form of communication by drumming their branches against their trunk, though whether this is a crude but effective "hunting call", or an actual complex "language" is unknown. Overall, they seem to have ''at least'' the same basic intelligence level as a pack of dogs.
to:
* {{Irony}}: Sight being the greatest advantage humans have over triffids, the plants usually attempt to blind their prey with their stings. A triffid sting is what lands a temporarily blinded Bill in hospital, ultimately saving his eyesight.
eyesight and his life.
* ItCanThink: The exact level of intelligence of the genetically-engineered triffids is a subject for debate, with the protagonist rubbishing the idea that they're intelligent —- after all, dissections haven't found anything remotely like a brain. Othersare not aren't so sure. One man points out that the triffids escaped from their farms within hours ''hours'' of everyone going blind. In another scene a triffid is waiting outside the very door which a person would run out of if they heard someone driving down the road. Much like the Velociraptors in ''Film/JurassicPark'', they're also smart enough to avoid an electrified fence...and to force it down when the electrical power is off. They even have a crude form of communication by drumming their branches against their trunk, though whether this is a crude but effective "hunting call", or an actual complex "language" is unknown. Overall, they seem to have ''at least'' the same basic intelligence level as a pack of dogs.
* ItCanThink: The exact level of intelligence of the genetically-engineered triffids is a subject for debate, with the protagonist rubbishing the idea that they're intelligent —- after all, dissections haven't found anything remotely like a brain. Others
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** Even worse, when it turns out that the oil quality improves if the sting is not removed
to:
** Even worse, when it turns out that the oil quality improves if the sting is not removedremoved...
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* MissingTheGoodStuff: Masen initially feels this way about being blindfolded during the spectacular meteor shower. Soon enough, of course, he comes to realize what a lucky break it actually was.
to:
* MissingTheGoodStuff: Masen initially feels this way about being blindfolded during the spectacular meteor shower. Soon enough, of course, he comes to realize what a truly lucky break it actually was.
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* RealityEnsues: One of the greatest and earliest examples of this trope in apocalyptic literature. The author takes the general "survive the Zombie Apocalypse" horror story (using plants instead of zombies or nuclear war), and extends it forward for several years. Quite simply...scavenging for canned food in the ruins of major cities is ''not'' a viable survival strategy on a long time scale. Crowds of blind people scavenge in the early days, but there's a finite supply of canned food and they run out eventually. Nor do the more lucky survivors simply flee to a pastoral existence raising their own crops in the countryside. The author repeatedly underlines the point that even those who survived long enough to plow their own fields, need to learn how to forge their own iron to make their own plows. If they're just scavenging old plows, they're not much better than the blind people scrabbling for cans in ruined shops. The entire set of interconnected relationships that are required for civilization are needed for long-term survival.
to:
* RealityEnsues: One of the greatest and earliest examples of this trope in apocalyptic literature. The author takes the general "survive the Zombie Apocalypse" horror story (using plants instead of zombies or nuclear war), and extends it forward for several years. Quite simply...scavenging for canned food in the ruins of major cities is ''not'' a viable survival strategy on a long an extended time scale. Crowds of blind people scavenge in the early days, but there's a finite supply of canned food and they run out eventually. Nor do the more lucky survivors simply flee to a pastoral existence raising their own crops in the countryside. The author repeatedly underlines the point that even those who survived long enough to plow their own fields, need to learn how to forge their own iron to make their own plows. If they're just scavenging old plows, they're not much better than the blind people scrabbling for cans in ruined shops. The entire set of interconnected relationships that are required for civilization are needed for long-term survival.
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* PromotedToLoveInterest: After Josella was removed from the 1962 movie version for God knows what reason they decided to replace her role in the story with ''Durrant'' of all people!
to:
* PromotedToLoveInterest: After Josella was removed from the 1962 movie version for God knows what reason reason, they decided to replace her role in the story with ''Durrant'' of all people!
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* GoneHorriblyWrong: the Triffids are implied to have been genetically engineered, and made to survive in very inhospitable envrionments
to:
* GoneHorriblyWrong: the Triffids are implied to have been genetically engineered, and made to survive in very inhospitable envrionmentsenvironments
Changed line(s) 32 (click to see context) from:
* MissingTheGoodStuff: Masen initially feels hs way about being blindfolded during the spectacular meteor shower. Soon enough, of course, he comes to realize what a lucky break it actually was.
to:
* MissingTheGoodStuff: Masen initially feels hs this way about being blindfolded during the spectacular meteor shower. Soon enough, of course, he comes to realize what a lucky break it actually was.
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* SovietSuperscience: Bill Masen speculates this might have been the origin of the triffids. However, he can only develop this story through several signs about things he learned during his work with the triffids.
to:
* SovietSuperscience: Bill Masen speculates this might have been the origin of the triffids. However, While he can only develop is more knowledgeable on the subject than the average man on the street, he is still basing this story through several signs about things on second and third-hand rumors he learned picked up during his work with the triffids.
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* KillItWithFire: there is a special anti-triffid squad armed with flamethrowers, always ready to go at the first signal of one or more triffids making their way to the Isle of Wight, or when there is an expedition to Britain.
** Since all the fuel the Isle of Wight uses comes from triffids, it means that the anti-triffid squads' flamethrowers must be fed with triffid oil. [[DontExplainTheJoke So, they are killing triffids with the remains of their fellow triffids.]]
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* NothingIsScarier: at the start of the novel, it is completely dark, and David only has a lamp without mirrors to see the path. He can't see the triffids, which adds to his nerves.
to:
* NothingIsScarier: at the start of the novel, it is completely dark, and David only has a lamp without mirrors to see the path. He can't see the triffids, triffids that he knows are coming, which adds to his nerves.
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Changed line(s) 30 (click to see context) from:
* ManEatingPlant: At least, after we've.. ripened.. a bit.
to:
** Even worse, when it turns out that the oil quality improves if the sting is not removed
* ManEatingPlant: At least, afterwe've.. ripened..we've... ripened... a bit.
* ManEatingPlant: At least, after
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* NeverLiveItDown: [[Invoked]] by Josella and her "scandalous" novel ''Sex Is My Adventure''. The 1981 adaptation, being made in much less straitlaced times, quite sensibly dropped this aspect.
to:
* NeverLiveItDown: [[Invoked]] [[InvokedTrope Invoked]] by Josella and her "scandalous" novel ''Sex Is My Adventure''. The 1981 adaptation, being made in much less straitlaced times, quite sensibly dropped this aspect.
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* TheEternalChurchill: Subverted; Torrence sees himself in this light, often shown admiring statues or paintings of UsefulNotes/WinstonChurchill, but he's just a sociopath with delusions of grandeur.
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* LastStand: Subverted; Torrence sees himself in this light, often shown admiring statues or paintings of UsefulNotes/WinstonChurchill, but he's just a sociopath with delusions of grandeur.
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* GoneHorriblyWrong
* InMediasRes
* InMediasRes
to:
* GoneHorriblyWrong
GoneHorriblyWrong: the Triffids are implied to have been genetically engineered, and made to survive in very inhospitable envrionments
** [[spoiler: it is also implied that meteorite storm was a satellite weapon that collided with something and not only caused blindness but might have had something to do with the outbreaks of viruses and diseases]]
*InMediasResInMediasRes
** [[spoiler: it is also implied that meteorite storm was a satellite weapon that collided with something and not only caused blindness but might have had something to do with the outbreaks of viruses and diseases]]
*
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Changed line(s) 15 (click to see context) from:
* BabyFactory: one of the most horrifying aspects of the plot's entire setup is that they cannot ''possibly'' help the vast majority of the population, who have been blinded. Eventually even the ''"Good" faction'' of people led by Beadley grudgingly concludes that all of the blinded men are a drain on resources and thus a complete write-off. Conversely, Beadley's openly stated position - grudgingly accepted even by the ''protagonist'' - is that blind women of childbearing age will be kept alive and in polygamous relationships with the remaining sighted men, to try to repopulate as quickly as possible.
to:
* BabyFactory: one One of the most horrifying aspects of the plot's entire setup is that they cannot ''possibly'' help the vast majority of the population, who have been blinded. Eventually even the ''"Good" faction'' of people led by Beadley grudgingly concludes that all of the blinded men are a drain on resources and thus a complete write-off. Conversely, Beadley's openly stated position - grudgingly accepted even by the ''protagonist'' - is that blind women of childbearing age will be kept alive and in polygamous relationships with the remaining sighted men, to try to repopulate as quickly as possible.
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* ChekhovsGunman: the EvilRedhead who shoots at Bill's blind group later appears as a member of a new despotic government.
to:
* ChekhovsGunman: the The EvilRedhead who shoots at Bill's blind group later appears as a member of a new despotic government.
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* NeverLiveItDown: [[invoked]] Josella and her "scandalous" novel ''Sex Is My Adventure''. The 1981 adaptation, being made in much less straitlaced times, quite sensibly dropped this aspect.
to:
* NeverLiveItDown: [[invoked]] [[Invoked]] by Josella and her "scandalous" novel ''Sex Is My Adventure''. The 1981 adaptation, being made in much less straitlaced times, quite sensibly dropped this aspect.
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* {{Irony}}: Sight being the greatest advantage humans have over triffids, the plants usually attempt to blind their prey with their stings. A triffid sting is what lands a temporarily blinded Bill in hospital, ultimately saving his eyesight.
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Changed line(s) 97 (click to see context) from:
* GeneticEngineeringIsTheNewNuke: The triffids are stated to be genetic engineered to have more oil but this made them more aggressive. Kind of ruins the "nature will find a way" aesop when it was because of genetic engineering's fault.
to:
* GeneticEngineeringIsTheNewNuke: The triffids are stated to be genetic engineered to have more oil but this made them more aggressive. Kind of ruins the "nature will find a way" aesop when it the apocalypse was because of genetic engineering's fault.engineering.
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* WeaksauceWeakness: [[spoiler: The triffids ignore anyone that has a bit of triffid venom in their eyes for some reason.]]
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* GeneticEngineeringIsTheNewNuke: The triffids are stated to genetic engineered to have more oil but this made them more aggressive. Kind of ruins the "nature will find a way" aesop.
to:
* GeneticEngineeringIsTheNewNuke: The triffids are stated to be genetic engineered to have more oil but this made them more aggressive. Kind of ruins the "nature will find a way" aesop.aesop when it was because of genetic engineering's fault.
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** How dumb are they? They get attacked by the triffids so they knowe that they are dangerous. And when everyone is blinded what do one of them do? ignore all the blind people and open the doors to lethally dangerous plants. Takes TooDumbToLive to another level.
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* GeneticEngineeringIsTheNewNuke: The triffids are stated to genetic engineered to have more oil but this made them more aggressive. Kind of ruins the "nature will find a way" aesop.
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* [[spoiler: HumanSacrifice: How the group led by the nun keeps the triffids at bay. They tie up their old and infirm for the triffid to eat and in return triffids have learnt to keep their distance from the buildings.]]
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* KillItWithFire: Flamethrowers prove to be the most effective anti-Triffid weapon, although a lack of fuel is a major problem.
to:
* KillItWithFire: KillItWithFire / FireBreathingWeapon: Flamethrowers prove to be the most effective anti-Triffid weapon, although a lack of fuel is a major problem.
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Changed line(s) 69 (click to see context) from:
* MoralDissonance: Mason returns to the chateau the find sighted convicts holding the blind women at gunpoint and sexually assaulting them. He gets Christine Durrant and Susan into the truck and drives away, making no attempt to save the helpless women. Even Durrant - who earlier had vowed not to abandon the others - never mentions the chateau incident again.
to:
* MoralDissonance: Mason returns to the chateau the to find sighted convicts holding the blind women at gunpoint and sexually assaulting them. He gets Christine Durrant and Susan into the truck and drives away, making no attempt to save the helpless women. Even Durrant - who earlier had vowed not to abandon the others - never mentions the chateau incident again.
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* TheEternalChurchill: Torrence sees himself in this light, often shown admiring statues or paintings of WinstonChurchill, but is just a sociopath with delusions of grandeur.
to:
* TheEternalChurchill: Subverted; Torrence sees himself in this light, often shown admiring statues or paintings of WinstonChurchill, UsefulNotes/WinstonChurchill, but is he's just a sociopath with delusions of grandeur.
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* DullSurprise: Dougray Scott as the hero was a particular offender, delivering lines like "we have to warn everybody" with all the urgency of someone reminding their wife to pick up milk on the way home.
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* AdaptationInducedPlotHole: The compressed timeline and the promotion of Torrence to chief villain leave a bit of an error on Coker's story. [[spoiler: The original storyline contrasted the actions of Coker trying help those affected and those of the Beadley Group who wanted to make a fresh start away from London. However in this version Torrence and Coker either completely remove or disrupt the Beadley group (Its never made clear). Coker manages to get away from Torrence and sets up an effective base for survivors on the Isle of Wight. Which he can't have done because the Beadley Group is not there to help. Plus the Original Book/series took over the space of years. In this version he somehow manages to do it in weeks.]]
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* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: Bill and Jo hook up with a group of survivors lead by a low ranking government officer and an Army Colonel (Who like their original group counterparts planned to leave London). Torrence leads a quick raid kidnapping Bill and Jo. But we never find out what happened to this group.
to:
* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: Bill and Jo hook up with a group of survivors lead by a low ranking government officer and an Army Colonel (Who like their original group book counterparts planned to leave London). Torrence leads a quick raid kidnapping Bill and Jo. But we never find out what happened to this group.
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* FromNobodyToNightmare: Torrence
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* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: Bill and Jo hook up with a group of survivors lead by a low ranking government officer and an Army Colonel (Who like their original group counterparts planned to leave London). Torrence leads a quick raid kidnapping Bill and Jo. But we never find out what happened to this group.
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* MainliningTheMonster: Triffids are initially culled because their predatory habits pose a threat to humans, but when it turns out they can be exploited as a source of a high quality oil, they are captured, have their stingers removed, and farmed instead.
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* NoFEMAResponse: A plot point. The first third of the book and the original TV adaptation is driven by the conflict between one faction of sighted survivors who are desperately trying to hold things together until an official relief effort of some sort arrives, and another group who have concluded that there isn't going to ''be'' one and they should salvage what they can and get out while the going is good. [[spoiler: The second group turns out to be right, and the desperate attempts to keep hundreds of blinded and near-helpless people alive were [[ShootTheShaggyDog all for nothing]]. Being a CosyCatastrophe doesn't stop this book being pretty bleak in places.]]
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* TheGreatPoliticsMessUp: Averted in the book, kind of; Wyndham liked to throw in a bit of exposition about the Soviet Union for the benefit of future generations too young to recall the Cold War. Illustrated neatly by a scene in the first chapter when a shady individual claiming he can supply triffid seeds to a British firm points out that dealing with the suppliers directly might be difficult; in the book, this is the cue to pause the action for about half a page of exposition. In the 1981 TV adaptation, the company executive sums it up with one sentence:
--> "Because they are behind the Iron Curtain."
--> "Because they are behind the Iron Curtain."
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* TheEternalChurchill: Torrence sees himself in this light, often seen admiring statues or paintings of WinstonChurchill, but is just a sociopath with delusions of grandeur.
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* TheEternalChurchill: Torrence sees himself in this light, often seen shown admiring statues or paintings of WinstonChurchill, but is just a sociopath with delusions of grandeur.
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* TheEternalChurchill: Torrence sees himself in this light, often seen admiring statues or paintings of WinstonChurchill, but is just a sociopath with delusions of grandeur.
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* WinstonChurchill: Torrence is frequently shown admiring statues or paintings of the great man.
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* BabyFactory: a non-enforced version appears in the Isle of Wight, where blind and sighted women live in great houses together, having children with any man ''they'' choose, and taking care of the children communally. [[spoiler:The New York community has women basically treated as slaves, forced to have many [[MultiplePregnancy Multiple Pregnancies]].]]
* BigApplesauce: seems to be an utopian community, protected from triffids thanks to blocked bridges. [[spoiler:The utopia part is a lie: there is a segregation system between white sighted people and the rest and slavery runs rampant in northern Manhattan (where factories manned by blind people, those who made the mistake of complaining about the system and those who are too weak run 24/7) and some other places (where the workers are forced to work non-stop to cut trees for ethanol or to mine coal) and many women are forced to be BabyFactories. Being the child of New York's leader won't save you, and in fact he will send you to that destiny because of his relation to you.]]
* BigApplesauce: seems to be an utopian community, protected from triffids thanks to blocked bridges. [[spoiler:The utopia part is a lie: there is a segregation system between white sighted people and the rest and slavery runs rampant in northern Manhattan (where factories manned by blind people, those who made the mistake of complaining about the system and those who are too weak run 24/7) and some other places (where the workers are forced to work non-stop to cut trees for ethanol or to mine coal) and many women are forced to be BabyFactories. Being the child of New York's leader won't save you, and in fact he will send you to that destiny because of his relation to you.]]
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* BabyFactory: a non-enforced version appears in the Isle of Wight, where blind and sighted women live in great houses together, having children with any man ''they'' choose, and taking care of the children communally. [[spoiler:The New York community has women basically treated as slaves, forced to have many [[MultiplePregnancy Multiple Pregnancies]].multiple pregnancies.]]
* BigApplesauce: seems to be an utopian community, protected from triffids thanks to blocked bridges. [[spoiler:The utopia part is a lie: there is a segregation system between white sighted people and the rest and slavery runs rampant in northern Manhattan (where factories manned by blind people, those who made the mistake of complaining about the system and those who are too weak run 24/7) and some other places (where the workers are forced to work non-stop to cut trees for ethanol or to mine coal) and many women are forced tobe BabyFactories.become a BabyFactory. Being the child of New York's leader won't save you, and in fact he will send you to that destiny because of his relation to you.]]
* BigApplesauce: seems to be an utopian community, protected from triffids thanks to blocked bridges. [[spoiler:The utopia part is a lie: there is a segregation system between white sighted people and the rest and slavery runs rampant in northern Manhattan (where factories manned by blind people, those who made the mistake of complaining about the system and those who are too weak run 24/7) and some other places (where the workers are forced to work non-stop to cut trees for ethanol or to mine coal) and many women are forced to
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''The Day of the Triffids'' is a 1951 science fiction novel by JohnWyndham, arguably the most famous of the British author's so-called "{{cosy catastrophe}}s".
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''The Day of the Triffids'' is a 1951 science fiction novel by JohnWyndham, Creator/JohnWyndham, arguably the most famous of the British author's so-called "{{cosy catastrophe}}s".
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''The Day of the Triffids'' is a 1951 science fiction novel by JohnWyndham, arguably the most famous of the British author's so-called "{{cosy catastrophe}}s".
The book's narrator is an Englishman named Bill Masen, who details how some years previously the eponymous carnivorous plants mysteriously began to appear all over the world, eventually proving to be capable of movement and possessing the ability to attack humans with their poisonous stings; Masen's own theory is that they were deliberately bioengineered in the Soviet Union and then accidentally released into the wild, but [[LeaveThePlotThreadsHanging the truth is never revealed]]. Whatever their origin, the plants are also discovered to produce a high-quality vegetable oil, and so an entire industry grows up around farming them. Masen works as a researcher on a Triffid farm, and ends up in the hospital after a Triffid stings him on the face. His eyes thus bandaged, he misses a bizarre meteor shower that lights up the night skies all over the world. Come morning, Masen learns that the shower has struck blind everyone who viewed it. (He later speculates that the shower was actually a malfunctioning orbital weapons system, but again no proof is to be found one way or the other.) Wandering through a disintegrating London, he meets and quickly falls in love with a sighted novelist named Josella Playton (who missed seeing the "meteor shower" because she was sleeping off an [[PoisonedChaliceSwitcheroo unfortunate party experience]].) While the Triffids rapidly break free of their farms and begin wiping out the blinded population, Masen and Playton become entangled in the squabbles of other sighted survivors leading to [[spoiler: their unwilling separation. They are finally reunited at a small estate in the English countryside, taking up farming in an fenced enclave surrounded by hordes of Triffids. When a despotic new government appears on the scene, they join a colony of more freedom-minded individuals on the Isle of Wight, researching for the day they can defeat the Triffids and reclaim the Earth for humanity.]]
In 2001, the author Simon Clark wrote a sequel to the book entitled ''Night of the Triffids'', which attempted to be a pastiche of Wyndham's style, and details the adventures of [[spoiler: Bill and Josella's son.]]
The novel has been adapted for film three times, the first being a loosely-adapted 1962 feature film, the second a 1981 BBC miniseries which, while low-budget, is quite faithful to the original work, and then once more by the BBC in 2009; again the plot deviated a great deal from the original.
----
!!Examples:
* AmericaSavesTheDay: Coldly subverted in the original.
* ApocalypseHow: Killer plants and blinding "meteors". Performs a relatively mild Class 1.
* AttackOfTheKillerWhatever
* BabyFactory: one of the most horrifying aspects of the plot's entire setup is that they cannot ''possibly'' help the vast majority of the population, who have been blinded. Eventually even the ''"Good" faction'' of people led by Beadley grudgingly concludes that all of the blinded men are a drain on resources and thus a complete write-off. Conversely, Beadley's openly stated position - grudgingly accepted even by the ''protagonist'' - is that blind women of childbearing age will be kept alive and in polygamous relationships with the remaining sighted men, to try to repopulate as quickly as possible.
* BothSidesHaveAPoint: Bill Masen is initially somewhat shocked at the pragmatic abandonment of most of the blind population in London by Beadley and the Institute group and sympathizes with Coker's more idealistic attempt to help them. Ultimately, he comes around to the Beadley position when RealityEnsues.
* ChekhovsGunman: the EvilRedhead who shoots at Bill's blind group later appears as a member of a new despotic government.
* CosyCatastrophe: As noted, perhaps the most famous example. Which is not to say it doesn't have its [[NightmareFuel not-at-all cosy moments...]]
* DepopulationBomb
* EvilRedhead: Torrence is first seen casually firing on Bill's blind group so they won't compete for resources. When we next see him he's posing as a member of a restored government (actually a feudal military dictatorship).
* GoneHorriblyWrong
* InMediasRes
* ItCanThink: The exact level of intelligence of the genetically-engineered triffids is a subject for debate, with the protagonist rubbishing the idea that they're intelligent —- after all, dissections haven't found anything remotely like a brain. Others are not so sure. One man points out that the triffids escaped from their farms within hours of everyone going blind. In another scene a triffid is waiting outside the very door which a person would run out of if they heard someone driving down the road. Much like the Velociraptors in ''Film/JurassicPark'', they're also smart enough to avoid an electrified fence...and to force it down when the electrical power is off. They even have a crude form of communication by drumming their branches against their trunk, though whether this is a crude but effective "hunting call", or an actual complex "language" is unknown. Overall, they seem to have ''at least'' the same basic intelligence level as a pack of dogs.
* JustThinkOfThePotential: Used both positively and negatively; the money to be made from the Triffids' oil, while pre-disaster one of Masen's colleagues speculates about Triffids' advantages over a blinded human.
* KillItWithFire: Flamethrowers prove to be the most effective anti-Triffid weapon, although a lack of fuel is a major problem.
* TheLastManHeardAKnock
* ManEatingPlant: At least, after we've.. ripened.. a bit.
* MissingTheGoodStuff: Masen initially feels hs way about being blindfolded during the spectacular meteor shower. Soon enough, of course, he comes to realize what a lucky break it actually was.
* NeverLiveItDown: [[invoked]] Josella and her "scandalous" novel ''Sex Is My Adventure''. The 1981 adaptation, being made in much less straitlaced times, quite sensibly dropped this aspect.
* RealityEnsues: One of the greatest and earliest examples of this trope in apocalyptic literature. The author takes the general "survive the Zombie Apocalypse" horror story (using plants instead of zombies or nuclear war), and extends it forward for several years. Quite simply...scavenging for canned food in the ruins of major cities is ''not'' a viable survival strategy on a long time scale. Crowds of blind people scavenge in the early days, but there's a finite supply of canned food and they run out eventually. Nor do the more lucky survivors simply flee to a pastoral existence raising their own crops in the countryside. The author repeatedly underlines the point that even those who survived long enough to plow their own fields, need to learn how to forge their own iron to make their own plows. If they're just scavenging old plows, they're not much better than the blind people scrabbling for cans in ruined shops. The entire set of interconnected relationships that are required for civilization are needed for long-term survival.
* SleptThroughTheApocalypse
* SovietSuperscience: Bill Masen speculates this might have been the origin of the triffids. However, he can only develop this story through several signs about things he learned during his work with the triffids.
* WhenTreesAttack: And how.
* ZombieApocalypse: Triffids aren't undead humanoids, but in terms of behavior and threat level they share more than a passing resemblance.
* ZombieGait: The blind, who are shuffling around mindlessly pawing at things and wailing -- they were sighted a few hours ago and with no experience in living without it or anyone to help, they're stumbling around in the dark. Possibly leads to UnfortunateImplications if it looks as if only sighted people can possibly think of ideas about working together. Subverted towards the end of the book by the original inhabitants of the farmhouse.
** Again, the Triffids themselves lurch slowly about using their three "legs".
!!Examples specific to Simon Clark's sequel:
* AcquiredPoisonImmunity: [[spoiler:the revelation of how humanity can take Earth back from the triffids. Small doses of triffid venom, combined with eating triffids, can help immunize people from the venom.]]
* AmericaSavesTheDay: The sequel completely subverts this. [[spoiler:Partially DoubleSubverted when the Native Americans that live near a LaResistance base help David to discover the solution to how to take the planet back from the triffids.]]
* BabyFactory: a non-enforced version appears in the Isle of Wight, where blind and sighted women live in great houses together, having children with any man ''they'' choose, and taking care of the children communally. [[spoiler:The New York community has women basically treated as slaves, forced to have many [[MultiplePregnancy Multiple Pregnancies]].]]
* BigApplesauce: seems to be an utopian community, protected from triffids thanks to blocked bridges. [[spoiler:The utopia part is a lie: there is a segregation system between white sighted people and the rest and slavery runs rampant in northern Manhattan (where factories manned by blind people, those who made the mistake of complaining about the system and those who are too weak run 24/7) and some other places (where the workers are forced to work non-stop to cut trees for ethanol or to mine coal) and many women are forced to be BabyFactories. Being the child of New York's leader won't save you, and in fact he will send you to that destiny because of his relation to you.]]
* CallBack: the beginning is a call back to the beginning of the original novel: both characters wake up unable to see anything, and think that when the situation is similar to what is going on then, something very bad is happening.
* ChekhovsGunman: General Fielding, the leader of the New York community in the sequel, is mentioned about still having some red hair amongst the white hair, and a blind eye from being hit there by a triffid. [[spoiler:He is actually Torrence, the BigBad of the first book, who managed to survive the triffids' attack at the end of the first book.]]
* {{Foreshadowing}}: [[spoiler:David finding Christine alive in the floating triffid island despite the fact that she has probably been living with triffids for most of her life. It is the signal that people can become immune to the venom.]]
* {{Irony}}: Bill Masen comments with David about the irony of triffids being both their greatest enemy and their greatest source of fuel.
** [[spoiler:Torrence, who hates blind people and the Masen for their role in leaving him half-blind, is finally toppled thanks to a march by blind people whose children are soldiers, and ends up being blinded by David Masen.]]
* LaResistance: a group with bases somewhere in the East Coast and in the Great Lakes is opposed to the semi-fascistic New York regime.
* MedievalStasis: Bill Masen tells David that the Isle of Wight community has hardly changed in the thirty years since it was established, and that, apart from a few things, the only thing they are able to do is to restore old things. He predicts their community will die if something is not done soon.
* NothingIsScarier: at the start of the novel, it is completely dark, and David only has a lamp without mirrors to see the path. He can't see the triffids, which adds to his nerves.
* SequelHook: [[spoiler:at the end of the novel, a transmission is detected from somewhere else in the world, and an expedition is announced to find those people.]]
* TheNightThatNeverEnds: the novel begins at 9 AM in summer, and when the main character awakens it is as dark as midnight in winter. [[spoiler:A combination of very dense clouds and an asteroid cloud passing between the Sun and Earth is the cause. Later in the story, when the clouds leave, there is light, but the sun looks like it is dying.]]
* UniversalPoison: the triffid venom is shown '''not''' to be this. A lecture in the first chapter tells that it is not an instant killer, but the antidote has to be injected into the carotid artery very soon.
* UtopiaJustifiesTheMeans: [[spoiler:General Fielding (also known as Torrence) thinks this.]]
* WildChild: Christine manages to survive surrounded by triffids for more than ten years, after her father died of cancer when she was four.
!!Examples specific to the 1962 film version:
* AmericaSavesTheDay: Embraced in the movie version.
* KillItWithWater: Bizarrely used as the monster-killer in the first movie adaptation.
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* MoralDissonance: Mason returns to the chateau the find sighted convicts holding the blind women at gunpoint and sexually assaulting them. He gets Christine Durrant and Susan into the truck and drives away, making no attempt to save the helpless women. Even Durrant - who earlier had vowed not to abandon the others - never mentions the chateau incident again.
* PlantAliens: As noted, the original didn't establish where they came from (casually speculating on aliens and SovietSuperScience); the movie version explicitly made them into aliens.
* PromotedToLoveInterest: After Josella was removed from the 1962 movie version for God knows what reason they decided to replace her role in the story with ''Durrant'' of all people!
* RevisedEnding: See KillItWithWater above.
* ScreamingWoman: Janette Scott in the movie. And despite that famous line from "Science Fiction / Double Feature" in ''TheRockyHorrorPictureShow'', she doesn't actually do any fighting.
* TouchOfTheMonster: The movie version's advertising poster.
* WeaksauceWeakness: Again, the water thing (in the movie).
!!Examples specific to the 2009 remake:
* AerosolFlamethrower: Bill Mason uses one in the warehouse scene.
* AnimalWrongsGroup: The dangerous male Triffids (who can release spores, vastly increasing triffid numbers) are released by a ''plants''' rights activist.
* ApocalypseHow: Killer plants and a solar storm. Performs a relatively mild Class 1.
* BadassAdorable: Susan and Imogen -- two cute little girls in CoolShades, [[CoolHat helmet and red beret]], packing [[MoreDakka automatic weapons]].
* BlackCloak: The triffids draw on the creepiness of this trope by having purple cowl-like hoods which they unfurl cobra-like before striking.
* TheCaligula: Torrence after he takes over London.
* TheCharmer: Torrence is a pretty charismatic leader though not quite the ladies' man he fancies himself to be.
* ChekhovsGun: [[spoiler:The masks used by the tribesmen in Zaire are not to protect their eyes from Triffids, but are a means of making them immune to their sting. Also Bill's triffid recording makes itself useful on several occasions.]]
* ChessMotifs: Chess pieces on a map of London show the expansion of Torrence's empire.
* [[CombatTentacles Combat Roots]]: These are used even more than the stingers.
* {{Corrupt Corporate Executive}}s: Triffoil conceals knowledge of how dangerous the triffids are.
* CoveredInGunge: The bodies of those killed are covered in triffid venom.
* EvilBrit: Averted, due to it being set in Britain. But also, kind of toyed with, given that the EvilBrit is EddieIzzard.
* FauxAffablyEvil: Torrence cheerfully maintains his mask of polite normality whilst plotting everyone else's downfall.
* GreenAesop: Exploited killer plants eat humans and TakeOverTheWorld - it's begging for it. Earlier adaptations came before mainstream environmentalism and avoided this, but the 2009 TV drama [[{{Anvilicious}} beats you over the head]] with it a few times.
* GunAccessories: The torches attached to the weapons wielded by Torrence's mooks are fully justified -- for those who still have their sight, [[DarknessEqualsDeath being able to see an enemy]] that doesn't use sight is one of the few advantages they have.
* HeelFaceTurn: [[spoiler:Troy]]
* HopeSpot: Mason's father develops a Triffid which will produce sterile spores. [[spoiler:It gets destroyed in an attempt to free him from its grasp.]]
* IdiotBall: [[spoiler: Mason's father plays a recording of a wild Triffid in a room connected to his captured Triffid's cage. It reacts badly.]]
** The survivors who follow Torrence decide to stay in London. Because an entire city filled with rotting corpses isn't going to cause a lot of outbreak of disease? Or you know, attract a horde of Triffids who ''eat the dead?!''
* ImmuneToBullets: Well difficult to kill at least, more so than in the TV series.
* KickTheDog: After Jo broadcasts a message warning people about Torrence's reign and does a bunk, Torrence empties his pistol into the guy manning the radio station.
** Torrence's first scene where he's awake involves him [[spoiler: realizing that everyone else on the place is blind, it's about to crash and then deciding to steal everyone's lifejackets so he can cushion himself from the impact with them.]]
* LargeHam: EddieIzzard plays Torrence with evil relish.
* LaserGuidedKarma: the plant rights activist releases the triffids from the farms. And then gets eaten by them.
* LineOfSightName: We never discover Torrence's real name -- he took it from Torrence Lane, where the airliner he was in crashed.
* [[spoiler:LittleStowaway: Susan tags along on Bill's mission to bag a male triffid.]]
* MakeItLookLikeAnAccident: [[spoiler:When Torrence [[TheStarscream takes over Major Coker's organisation]], he has TheDragon take Mason and Coker out to the woods to be fed to the triffids, then tells Jo they've been killed by a triffid attack.]]
* ManipulativeBastard: Torrence, subverted however in that he always slightly overdoes his lies so Jo and Bill can see through him.
* ParentalSubstitute: Susan and Imogen adopt Bill and Jo as mum and dad.
* TheReasonYouSuckSpeech: Jo tells Torrence that without the Triffids he's nothing. He yells at her to shut her face and threatens to shoot her.
* SharpDressedMan: Torrence loots a Saville Row suit and wears it from then on.
* {{Sociopath}}: Guess who.
* SuspiciouslyAproposMusic: Amusingly inverted -- Jo and Bill are doing a DanceOfRomance after being apart for so long; the music they are dancing to contains the lines: "Mother Nature and me are the best of friends."
* TownWithADarkSecret: [[spoiler:The convent is protecting itself by sending out expendable members of the community to be eaten by triffids, thereby keeping them docile.]]
* ShoutOut:
** Several shots are almost identical to iconic scenes from ''Film/TwentyEightDaysLater'' -- which itself, while not an official adaptation of ''[=tDofT=]'', openly reused several plot-points.
** Torrence in the airliner crash is probably a reference to a similar crash in the 1962 movie (though no-one survived that one). Likewise Susan's Sterling submachine gun is a modern version of the Sten gun wielded by Janette Scott in the movie's publicity material.
* VerticalKidnapping: An armed {{mook}} feels [[DroolHello triffid venom drop on his shoulder]], then a triffid that's climbed a tree yanks him screaming into the air.
* VillainousBreakdown: Torrence goes progressively more insane as the film progresses. He's completely gone by the last act.
* WhileRomeBurns[=/=]SoundtrackDissonance: A man is shown playing the violin while panicked policemen who've lost their sight fire blindly at civilians and [[UnfriendlyFire fellow officers]]. After he's finished playing, the man calmly walks to the balcony and [[DrivenToSuicide throws himself off]].
* WinstonChurchill: Torrence is frequently shown admiring statues or paintings of the great man.
----
The book's narrator is an Englishman named Bill Masen, who details how some years previously the eponymous carnivorous plants mysteriously began to appear all over the world, eventually proving to be capable of movement and possessing the ability to attack humans with their poisonous stings; Masen's own theory is that they were deliberately bioengineered in the Soviet Union and then accidentally released into the wild, but [[LeaveThePlotThreadsHanging the truth is never revealed]]. Whatever their origin, the plants are also discovered to produce a high-quality vegetable oil, and so an entire industry grows up around farming them. Masen works as a researcher on a Triffid farm, and ends up in the hospital after a Triffid stings him on the face. His eyes thus bandaged, he misses a bizarre meteor shower that lights up the night skies all over the world. Come morning, Masen learns that the shower has struck blind everyone who viewed it. (He later speculates that the shower was actually a malfunctioning orbital weapons system, but again no proof is to be found one way or the other.) Wandering through a disintegrating London, he meets and quickly falls in love with a sighted novelist named Josella Playton (who missed seeing the "meteor shower" because she was sleeping off an [[PoisonedChaliceSwitcheroo unfortunate party experience]].) While the Triffids rapidly break free of their farms and begin wiping out the blinded population, Masen and Playton become entangled in the squabbles of other sighted survivors leading to [[spoiler: their unwilling separation. They are finally reunited at a small estate in the English countryside, taking up farming in an fenced enclave surrounded by hordes of Triffids. When a despotic new government appears on the scene, they join a colony of more freedom-minded individuals on the Isle of Wight, researching for the day they can defeat the Triffids and reclaim the Earth for humanity.]]
In 2001, the author Simon Clark wrote a sequel to the book entitled ''Night of the Triffids'', which attempted to be a pastiche of Wyndham's style, and details the adventures of [[spoiler: Bill and Josella's son.]]
The novel has been adapted for film three times, the first being a loosely-adapted 1962 feature film, the second a 1981 BBC miniseries which, while low-budget, is quite faithful to the original work, and then once more by the BBC in 2009; again the plot deviated a great deal from the original.
----
!!Examples:
* AmericaSavesTheDay: Coldly subverted in the original.
* ApocalypseHow: Killer plants and blinding "meteors". Performs a relatively mild Class 1.
* AttackOfTheKillerWhatever
* BabyFactory: one of the most horrifying aspects of the plot's entire setup is that they cannot ''possibly'' help the vast majority of the population, who have been blinded. Eventually even the ''"Good" faction'' of people led by Beadley grudgingly concludes that all of the blinded men are a drain on resources and thus a complete write-off. Conversely, Beadley's openly stated position - grudgingly accepted even by the ''protagonist'' - is that blind women of childbearing age will be kept alive and in polygamous relationships with the remaining sighted men, to try to repopulate as quickly as possible.
* BothSidesHaveAPoint: Bill Masen is initially somewhat shocked at the pragmatic abandonment of most of the blind population in London by Beadley and the Institute group and sympathizes with Coker's more idealistic attempt to help them. Ultimately, he comes around to the Beadley position when RealityEnsues.
* ChekhovsGunman: the EvilRedhead who shoots at Bill's blind group later appears as a member of a new despotic government.
* CosyCatastrophe: As noted, perhaps the most famous example. Which is not to say it doesn't have its [[NightmareFuel not-at-all cosy moments...]]
* DepopulationBomb
* EvilRedhead: Torrence is first seen casually firing on Bill's blind group so they won't compete for resources. When we next see him he's posing as a member of a restored government (actually a feudal military dictatorship).
* GoneHorriblyWrong
* InMediasRes
* ItCanThink: The exact level of intelligence of the genetically-engineered triffids is a subject for debate, with the protagonist rubbishing the idea that they're intelligent —- after all, dissections haven't found anything remotely like a brain. Others are not so sure. One man points out that the triffids escaped from their farms within hours of everyone going blind. In another scene a triffid is waiting outside the very door which a person would run out of if they heard someone driving down the road. Much like the Velociraptors in ''Film/JurassicPark'', they're also smart enough to avoid an electrified fence...and to force it down when the electrical power is off. They even have a crude form of communication by drumming their branches against their trunk, though whether this is a crude but effective "hunting call", or an actual complex "language" is unknown. Overall, they seem to have ''at least'' the same basic intelligence level as a pack of dogs.
* JustThinkOfThePotential: Used both positively and negatively; the money to be made from the Triffids' oil, while pre-disaster one of Masen's colleagues speculates about Triffids' advantages over a blinded human.
* KillItWithFire: Flamethrowers prove to be the most effective anti-Triffid weapon, although a lack of fuel is a major problem.
* TheLastManHeardAKnock
* ManEatingPlant: At least, after we've.. ripened.. a bit.
* MissingTheGoodStuff: Masen initially feels hs way about being blindfolded during the spectacular meteor shower. Soon enough, of course, he comes to realize what a lucky break it actually was.
* NeverLiveItDown: [[invoked]] Josella and her "scandalous" novel ''Sex Is My Adventure''. The 1981 adaptation, being made in much less straitlaced times, quite sensibly dropped this aspect.
* RealityEnsues: One of the greatest and earliest examples of this trope in apocalyptic literature. The author takes the general "survive the Zombie Apocalypse" horror story (using plants instead of zombies or nuclear war), and extends it forward for several years. Quite simply...scavenging for canned food in the ruins of major cities is ''not'' a viable survival strategy on a long time scale. Crowds of blind people scavenge in the early days, but there's a finite supply of canned food and they run out eventually. Nor do the more lucky survivors simply flee to a pastoral existence raising their own crops in the countryside. The author repeatedly underlines the point that even those who survived long enough to plow their own fields, need to learn how to forge their own iron to make their own plows. If they're just scavenging old plows, they're not much better than the blind people scrabbling for cans in ruined shops. The entire set of interconnected relationships that are required for civilization are needed for long-term survival.
* SleptThroughTheApocalypse
* SovietSuperscience: Bill Masen speculates this might have been the origin of the triffids. However, he can only develop this story through several signs about things he learned during his work with the triffids.
* WhenTreesAttack: And how.
* ZombieApocalypse: Triffids aren't undead humanoids, but in terms of behavior and threat level they share more than a passing resemblance.
* ZombieGait: The blind, who are shuffling around mindlessly pawing at things and wailing -- they were sighted a few hours ago and with no experience in living without it or anyone to help, they're stumbling around in the dark. Possibly leads to UnfortunateImplications if it looks as if only sighted people can possibly think of ideas about working together. Subverted towards the end of the book by the original inhabitants of the farmhouse.
** Again, the Triffids themselves lurch slowly about using their three "legs".
!!Examples specific to Simon Clark's sequel:
* AcquiredPoisonImmunity: [[spoiler:the revelation of how humanity can take Earth back from the triffids. Small doses of triffid venom, combined with eating triffids, can help immunize people from the venom.]]
* AmericaSavesTheDay: The sequel completely subverts this. [[spoiler:Partially DoubleSubverted when the Native Americans that live near a LaResistance base help David to discover the solution to how to take the planet back from the triffids.]]
* BabyFactory: a non-enforced version appears in the Isle of Wight, where blind and sighted women live in great houses together, having children with any man ''they'' choose, and taking care of the children communally. [[spoiler:The New York community has women basically treated as slaves, forced to have many [[MultiplePregnancy Multiple Pregnancies]].]]
* BigApplesauce: seems to be an utopian community, protected from triffids thanks to blocked bridges. [[spoiler:The utopia part is a lie: there is a segregation system between white sighted people and the rest and slavery runs rampant in northern Manhattan (where factories manned by blind people, those who made the mistake of complaining about the system and those who are too weak run 24/7) and some other places (where the workers are forced to work non-stop to cut trees for ethanol or to mine coal) and many women are forced to be BabyFactories. Being the child of New York's leader won't save you, and in fact he will send you to that destiny because of his relation to you.]]
* CallBack: the beginning is a call back to the beginning of the original novel: both characters wake up unable to see anything, and think that when the situation is similar to what is going on then, something very bad is happening.
* ChekhovsGunman: General Fielding, the leader of the New York community in the sequel, is mentioned about still having some red hair amongst the white hair, and a blind eye from being hit there by a triffid. [[spoiler:He is actually Torrence, the BigBad of the first book, who managed to survive the triffids' attack at the end of the first book.]]
* {{Foreshadowing}}: [[spoiler:David finding Christine alive in the floating triffid island despite the fact that she has probably been living with triffids for most of her life. It is the signal that people can become immune to the venom.]]
* {{Irony}}: Bill Masen comments with David about the irony of triffids being both their greatest enemy and their greatest source of fuel.
** [[spoiler:Torrence, who hates blind people and the Masen for their role in leaving him half-blind, is finally toppled thanks to a march by blind people whose children are soldiers, and ends up being blinded by David Masen.]]
* LaResistance: a group with bases somewhere in the East Coast and in the Great Lakes is opposed to the semi-fascistic New York regime.
* MedievalStasis: Bill Masen tells David that the Isle of Wight community has hardly changed in the thirty years since it was established, and that, apart from a few things, the only thing they are able to do is to restore old things. He predicts their community will die if something is not done soon.
* NothingIsScarier: at the start of the novel, it is completely dark, and David only has a lamp without mirrors to see the path. He can't see the triffids, which adds to his nerves.
* SequelHook: [[spoiler:at the end of the novel, a transmission is detected from somewhere else in the world, and an expedition is announced to find those people.]]
* TheNightThatNeverEnds: the novel begins at 9 AM in summer, and when the main character awakens it is as dark as midnight in winter. [[spoiler:A combination of very dense clouds and an asteroid cloud passing between the Sun and Earth is the cause. Later in the story, when the clouds leave, there is light, but the sun looks like it is dying.]]
* UniversalPoison: the triffid venom is shown '''not''' to be this. A lecture in the first chapter tells that it is not an instant killer, but the antidote has to be injected into the carotid artery very soon.
* UtopiaJustifiesTheMeans: [[spoiler:General Fielding (also known as Torrence) thinks this.]]
* WildChild: Christine manages to survive surrounded by triffids for more than ten years, after her father died of cancer when she was four.
!!Examples specific to the 1962 film version:
* AmericaSavesTheDay: Embraced in the movie version.
* KillItWithWater: Bizarrely used as the monster-killer in the first movie adaptation.
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* MoralDissonance: Mason returns to the chateau the find sighted convicts holding the blind women at gunpoint and sexually assaulting them. He gets Christine Durrant and Susan into the truck and drives away, making no attempt to save the helpless women. Even Durrant - who earlier had vowed not to abandon the others - never mentions the chateau incident again.
* PlantAliens: As noted, the original didn't establish where they came from (casually speculating on aliens and SovietSuperScience); the movie version explicitly made them into aliens.
* PromotedToLoveInterest: After Josella was removed from the 1962 movie version for God knows what reason they decided to replace her role in the story with ''Durrant'' of all people!
* RevisedEnding: See KillItWithWater above.
* ScreamingWoman: Janette Scott in the movie. And despite that famous line from "Science Fiction / Double Feature" in ''TheRockyHorrorPictureShow'', she doesn't actually do any fighting.
* TouchOfTheMonster: The movie version's advertising poster.
* WeaksauceWeakness: Again, the water thing (in the movie).
!!Examples specific to the 2009 remake:
* AerosolFlamethrower: Bill Mason uses one in the warehouse scene.
* AnimalWrongsGroup: The dangerous male Triffids (who can release spores, vastly increasing triffid numbers) are released by a ''plants''' rights activist.
* ApocalypseHow: Killer plants and a solar storm. Performs a relatively mild Class 1.
* BadassAdorable: Susan and Imogen -- two cute little girls in CoolShades, [[CoolHat helmet and red beret]], packing [[MoreDakka automatic weapons]].
* BlackCloak: The triffids draw on the creepiness of this trope by having purple cowl-like hoods which they unfurl cobra-like before striking.
* TheCaligula: Torrence after he takes over London.
* TheCharmer: Torrence is a pretty charismatic leader though not quite the ladies' man he fancies himself to be.
* ChekhovsGun: [[spoiler:The masks used by the tribesmen in Zaire are not to protect their eyes from Triffids, but are a means of making them immune to their sting. Also Bill's triffid recording makes itself useful on several occasions.]]
* ChessMotifs: Chess pieces on a map of London show the expansion of Torrence's empire.
* [[CombatTentacles Combat Roots]]: These are used even more than the stingers.
* {{Corrupt Corporate Executive}}s: Triffoil conceals knowledge of how dangerous the triffids are.
* CoveredInGunge: The bodies of those killed are covered in triffid venom.
* EvilBrit: Averted, due to it being set in Britain. But also, kind of toyed with, given that the EvilBrit is EddieIzzard.
* FauxAffablyEvil: Torrence cheerfully maintains his mask of polite normality whilst plotting everyone else's downfall.
* GreenAesop: Exploited killer plants eat humans and TakeOverTheWorld - it's begging for it. Earlier adaptations came before mainstream environmentalism and avoided this, but the 2009 TV drama [[{{Anvilicious}} beats you over the head]] with it a few times.
* GunAccessories: The torches attached to the weapons wielded by Torrence's mooks are fully justified -- for those who still have their sight, [[DarknessEqualsDeath being able to see an enemy]] that doesn't use sight is one of the few advantages they have.
* HeelFaceTurn: [[spoiler:Troy]]
* HopeSpot: Mason's father develops a Triffid which will produce sterile spores. [[spoiler:It gets destroyed in an attempt to free him from its grasp.]]
* IdiotBall: [[spoiler: Mason's father plays a recording of a wild Triffid in a room connected to his captured Triffid's cage. It reacts badly.]]
** The survivors who follow Torrence decide to stay in London. Because an entire city filled with rotting corpses isn't going to cause a lot of outbreak of disease? Or you know, attract a horde of Triffids who ''eat the dead?!''
* ImmuneToBullets: Well difficult to kill at least, more so than in the TV series.
* KickTheDog: After Jo broadcasts a message warning people about Torrence's reign and does a bunk, Torrence empties his pistol into the guy manning the radio station.
** Torrence's first scene where he's awake involves him [[spoiler: realizing that everyone else on the place is blind, it's about to crash and then deciding to steal everyone's lifejackets so he can cushion himself from the impact with them.]]
* LargeHam: EddieIzzard plays Torrence with evil relish.
* LaserGuidedKarma: the plant rights activist releases the triffids from the farms. And then gets eaten by them.
* LineOfSightName: We never discover Torrence's real name -- he took it from Torrence Lane, where the airliner he was in crashed.
* [[spoiler:LittleStowaway: Susan tags along on Bill's mission to bag a male triffid.]]
* MakeItLookLikeAnAccident: [[spoiler:When Torrence [[TheStarscream takes over Major Coker's organisation]], he has TheDragon take Mason and Coker out to the woods to be fed to the triffids, then tells Jo they've been killed by a triffid attack.]]
* ManipulativeBastard: Torrence, subverted however in that he always slightly overdoes his lies so Jo and Bill can see through him.
* ParentalSubstitute: Susan and Imogen adopt Bill and Jo as mum and dad.
* TheReasonYouSuckSpeech: Jo tells Torrence that without the Triffids he's nothing. He yells at her to shut her face and threatens to shoot her.
* SharpDressedMan: Torrence loots a Saville Row suit and wears it from then on.
* {{Sociopath}}: Guess who.
* SuspiciouslyAproposMusic: Amusingly inverted -- Jo and Bill are doing a DanceOfRomance after being apart for so long; the music they are dancing to contains the lines: "Mother Nature and me are the best of friends."
* TownWithADarkSecret: [[spoiler:The convent is protecting itself by sending out expendable members of the community to be eaten by triffids, thereby keeping them docile.]]
* ShoutOut:
** Several shots are almost identical to iconic scenes from ''Film/TwentyEightDaysLater'' -- which itself, while not an official adaptation of ''[=tDofT=]'', openly reused several plot-points.
** Torrence in the airliner crash is probably a reference to a similar crash in the 1962 movie (though no-one survived that one). Likewise Susan's Sterling submachine gun is a modern version of the Sten gun wielded by Janette Scott in the movie's publicity material.
* VerticalKidnapping: An armed {{mook}} feels [[DroolHello triffid venom drop on his shoulder]], then a triffid that's climbed a tree yanks him screaming into the air.
* VillainousBreakdown: Torrence goes progressively more insane as the film progresses. He's completely gone by the last act.
* WhileRomeBurns[=/=]SoundtrackDissonance: A man is shown playing the violin while panicked policemen who've lost their sight fire blindly at civilians and [[UnfriendlyFire fellow officers]]. After he's finished playing, the man calmly walks to the balcony and [[DrivenToSuicide throws himself off]].
* WinstonChurchill: Torrence is frequently shown admiring statues or paintings of the great man.
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