Film / Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom

One king will lead us all.

Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom is a 2023 superhero movie and the sequel to 2018’s Aquaman. It is the fifteenth and final film in the DC Extended Universe, directed once again by James Wan and starring Jason Momoa, Patrick Wilson, Amber Heard, Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, Dolph Lundgren, Randall Park, Temuera Morrison, and Nicole Kidman.

Four years after the previous film, Arthur Curry finally has it all - a family and a job as the King of Atlantis. However, his perfect world is brought crashing down when Black Manta returns for his revenge, wielding the powerful and deadly Black Trident. In order to save the world, his family and his kingdom, Arthur is forced to team up with his half brother Orm to delve into the past and protect their future.

The final DCEU film to be released before the impending Continuity Reboot as the "DCU", it was released in theaters on December 22, 2023 (with early releases in some markets).

Previews: Trailer

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Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom includes examples of the following:

Tropes A to B

• Achilles' Heel:
  • The Trident of Atlan is the only weakness of the Black Trident.
  • Being away from any source of water for Atlanteans. Unlike humans, water seems to be the source of the super strength in their bodies, and without it, they lose most of their body fat and muscle.
• Adaptational Ugliness: In the comics, Kordax looked like a green-skinned human. Here, he is far more monstrous in appearance.
• Aesoptinum: Orichalcum, an ancient, volatile material which used to be Atlantis' main source of power in the past, until they stopped harvesting and processing it a long time ago, after learning about its dangers to the environment. A few batchs of orichalcum are enough to disrupt the global climate, raising ocean temperatures and lowering oxygen levels in the water, bringing upon The Plague in Atlantis and costing the life of Arthur's former mentor, Nuidis Vulko, before the events of the movie.
• Alternate Company Equivalent: The Black Trident is suspiciously similar to the One Ring from The Lord of the Rings. The Black Trident is a weapon forged with dark magic by Kordax —who is himself quite similar in design and role in the story to Sauron— and acts like a Soul Jar for his spirit. Its existence gets forgotten for thousands of years like the Ring, until is found by David Kane, who immediately gets corrupted by the trident and develops a strong attachment to it. Its abilities include being a vessel for Kordax's spirit, enhancing the abilities of its wielder, giving visions based on their deepest desires, Demonic Possession and turning living creatures into liches and undead monstrosities. The Black Trident is destroyed in the end in the same place it was created, just like the One Ring.
• Always a Bigger Fish: Giant flesh-eating locusts trying to devour Aquaman and Orm are instead devoured by giant flesh-eating plants.
• Amplifier Artifact: The Black Trident can grant its users enhanced speed, reflexes, endurance and enough raw power for humans to overcome metahumans such as Arthur.
• Antlion Monster: The Deserter mounts can breach through hard rock and emerge to the surface keeping same pace.
• Artifact of Doom: The Black Trident, in same fashion as the One Ring, but with a lot of Dark Magic. It's a Soul Jar for Kordax's spirit, allowing him to possess anyone who gets their hands on the trident, it can be used to turn living creatures into undead monstrosities, and it preys on its wielder's deepest desires and gives them haunting visions.
• Ascended Extra: The Brine King leads his forces to assist Arthur in facing down Black Manta in the climax. Compared to the previous film where his role amounts to simply being defiant to Orm, here he is given a lot more personality and treated on a similar level to King Nereus.
• Barefoot Captives: Orm is kept both shirtless and barefoot by the Deserter remnants.
• Batman Cold Open: The movie opens with Aquaman arriving on a cargo ship and beating the shit out of the pirates that were attacking the ship. The scene is cut to another one where is revealed that Arthur is narrating this story to entertain his son.
• Big Creepy-Crawlies: Black Manta's use of the orichalcum refinery has mutated the surrounding wildlife, making the island's bugs grow to gigantic size. Arthur and Orm witness a butterfly the size of a small plane trying to drink nectar from an equally gigantic flower, and later must flee from a swarm of SUV-sized locusts.
• Big Damn Heroes: During the Final Battle, all hope seems lost and Black Manta is about to win...and then Mera arrives to save Arthur.
• Big "NO!": Arthur and Mera yell this when they learn that their son has been kidnapped by Manta.
• Black Site: The Deserter Prison in the Sahara operates as a secret Atlantean prison where prisoners considered to be enemies of Atlantis are sent.
• Blood Magic: King Atlan used his own blood to create a spell that sealed Kordax and his kingdom in ice. As a result, only the spilling of the blood of Atlan's descendants can break the seal.
• Book Ends:
  • The film begins and ends with "Born to Be Wild" by Steppenwolf being played.
  • Black Manta's feud with Aquaman began with Manta begging Aquaman for mercy only to be rebuffed. Their feud ends with Aquaman offering mercy to Manta only to be rebuffed.
• Break Out the Museum Piece: For his plans, Black Manta recovers millennia old Orichalcum-powered Atlantean tech (an oddly earthling-looking submarine and amphibious capsules with tentacles), which still works. It doesn't pack the punch of modern Atlantis' salt water-powered tech but he surely makes good use of the Sonic Stunner that's added to the submarine.
• Brick Joke:
  • Arhur praises surface food to Orm (to the latter disgusts), especially a greasy burger served with Guinness. In the ending, Orm (who has moved to live incognito on the surface) is seen sitting at a restaurant and orders a greasy burger and a pint a Guinness.
  • Arthur tricks Orm into eating a cockroach by telling him it's something surface people eat as a delicacy similar to shrimps. In The Stinger, Orm finds a cockroach on his table at a restaurant and decides to put it in his burger.
• Bridge Logic: Arthur creates a bridge by charging at a statue and knocking it over.
• Brown Note: Owning the Black Trident for extended periods of time will just make the bearer more susceptible to Kordax's manipulations.

Tropes C to F

• Cain and Abel: Kordax was King Atlan's brother, and the two came to blows over Kordax's use of the Orichalcum.
• The Chains of Commanding: Arthur doesn't have unilateral power across all seven kingdoms but answers to a council consisting of those members for all his decisions. He is not especially happy about the job, as the only reason he claimed the throne was to thwart Orm's warmongering.
• The Chanteuse: The Kingfish's place has a female (presumably Fishermen) singer.
• Chase Scene: Black Manta and his crew attack Atlantis and steal a part of its orichalcum storages. They are chased by Mera and Atlanna who both get badly injured during the chase by Black Manta.
• Continuity Nod: The Brine King got his claw severed by Orm in the final battle of the first film, and brings it up as a reason not to trust him.
• Continuity Snarl: The Deserter Kingdom was meant to be abandoned in the first film. In this film it's got residents and is primarily seen as a prison for Atlanteans.
• The Corrupter: Kordax can and will corrupt anyone who wields his trident, praying on their desires, flaws and vulnerabilities. Of course, his goal is to revive himself.
• Cosmopolitan Council: The Council of Atlantis consists of consists of eleven members representing different Atlantean kingdoms. They mostly seem to oppose any decision Arthur is trying to make, clinging too much to their ancient traditions of staying hidden from the surface world. Arthur has hard times trying to convince them to change their ways, and on their side, they believe that all Humans Are Bastards, and trying to coexist with them is a waste of time. They are not wrong to be wary of humans given that David Kane is the reason the plot of the movie is happening.
• Costume Evolution: Aquaman's royal suit is still the same physically as it was at the end of the first film, but it has more orange-reddish tones this time around (compared to how it was firmly golden in the first film).
• Creepy Cave: Kane's team finds an gallery of caves under the ice in Antarctica which is connected to the ocean through underground lakes. The galleries are huge and filled with animals and plants from other ages, encapsulated in ice. Of course, said caves are inhabited by a dangerous creature.
• Curb Stomp: Once Orm made it to the water and regained his Atlantean physiology back, the Deserter Remnants stood no chance against him, landing not even a single punch on him the whole fight.
• Cut to Another Scene: Arthur gets cut off while saying "oh, fu-" as he accidentally woke his son in the middle of the night, to another scene where he rides a bike on the beach.
• Deadly Environment Prison: The Deserter Prison was built right underneath Sahara, which is quite deadly to cross without water, from humans to Atlanteans.
• Demonic Possession: Kordax can channel his will through the Black Trident to exert varying degrees of influence over its wielder, evidenced by the wielder's eyes glowing in the same green color as the trident itself. Initially, Black Manta only hears Kordax's voice in his head, but as Kordax regains his strength over the course of the film, he is able to gradually exert increasingly stronger influence over Manta's actions, eventually taking over Manta's body completely at the film's climax.
• Demoted to Extra: Slightly. Mera in the first film was almost a co-protagonist and accompanied Arthur in his quest for the Trident of Atlan. In this film she is given some presence in the action sequences but is more of a supporting character, only having a couple dozen lines of dialogue by the end.
• The Diaper Change: Right after Arthur Jr. is introduced, his father has to change his diapers, of course. And he gets peed on (and when he manages to dodge that later on, Mera still redirects the pee stream on him with her powers).
• Disney Villain Death: Black Manta is last seen falling into an icy abyss at the end.
• Dropped a Bridge on Him: Vulko dies from one of the plagues affecting Atlantis during the five month Time Skip.
• Earthquakes Cause Fissures: Right at the beginning of the movie, Doctor Shin and his assistant fall through a chasm created by the breaking of an ice sheet piece. At the bottom of the chasm, they are attacked by a mysterious cephalopod creature. Only doctor Shin survives.
• Easily Forgiven: Played With. The Brine King doesn’t outright forgive Orm for invading his kingdom and severing his arm, yet he doesn’t hold a lot of hostility towards him. It helps that he can regrow his arm, and the fact Orm didn’t trick him into an alliance and went back on his word.
• Eerie Arctic Research Station: David Kane set up a secret scientific outpost that has been searching for orichalcum in Antarctica for at least 463 days.
• Empowered Badass Normal: The Black Trident gives Black Manta enough strength to match Aquaman even underwater. While he scoured for Atlantean technology he could use to rebuild his Powered Armor, the helmet was repaired but the suit itself doesn't notably enhance him this time.
• End of an Age: At the end of the film, Atlantis, Xebel and the Brine reveal their existence to the world.
• End of an Era: While The Flash ends the DCEU in-universe as per Word of God, this is the final DCEU film altogether.
• Enemy Mine: Arthur is shown being forced to release Orm from prison so that the half brothers can work together to stop Black Manta. Orm is not particularly thrilled and ultimately turns good, reconciling with his half-brother and the people he had once harmed.
• Everyone Has Standards: A comedic example. Arthur has no problem with tricking Orm into eating a live cockroach as a joke, but when he tries to repeat the joke with a random jungle fruit and discovers that it's full of a rotten black sludge, he thinks better of it.
• Everything Trying to Kill You: The wildlife of the Pacific island where Black Manta has set up the Orichalcum-burning machine has grown giant, from rats to bugs to carnivorous plants, which makes the island all the more dangerous for Arthur and Orm to venture on.
• Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: Orm is genuinely confused when Arthur admits he never wanted the throne of Atlantis, as his father had told him "every day" that Arthur would one day try and take it.
• Evil Weapon: The Black Trident is one, presented as a corrupted counterpart to the Golden Trident that Aquaman wields. It explicitly fuels its wielder's negative attributes and amplifies their strength enough that Black Manta, as a surface-dwelling human without his Power Armor, is able to fight evenly matched against Atlanteans like Arthur and Orm. At some point it practically performs a Demonic Possession with Kordax's mind taking over the wielder's body.
• Exact Words: Turns out Arthur's Blood from the Mouth is enough to unlock the blood seal on Kordax. He didn't need to kill Arthur Jr, he was just being a massive asshole.
• Faking the Dead: At the end, Arthur recommends that Orm lay low for awhile and let people think he died in the collapse of Necrus, since he is still a fugitive from justice. He blends in with the surface dwellers and is last seen eating a cheeseburger (and paying for it with Atlantean currency).
• Fast Tunnelling: The Deserter mounts move very fast through both rock and sand.
• Final Battle: Aquaman vs Black Manta, in the final conclusion to their bitter rivalry. Subverted in that Black Manta is defeated and a resurrected Korvax is the true final threat.
• Final Solution: The council of Atlantis promises Arthur that if they ever decide to make themselves known to the surface world, it would be to eradicate the human race, not co-exist with them. Arthur is not exactly happy to hear this given that his biological father is a man from the surface world and his own son is a Child of Two Worlds like him.
• Fire-Forged Friends: In confronting Black Manta three kingdoms sent their forces to stop him, Atlantis, Xebel and Brine, each of whom were at odds in the events of the previous film. Arthur and Orm also manage to bury their grievances with each other, recognizing mistakes and part as brothers.
• Forced into Evil: Doctor Shin initially agreed to work with Manta in hopes of seeing Atlantis, but quickly finds himself being complicit in the villain's schemes (with Manta making it clear that he will not be allowed to simply walk away).
• Fun with Acronyms: In this continuity "Topo" stands for "Tactical Operations and Pursuit Operative".

Tropes G to L

• Girly Run: Orm is not experienced in moving on the surface, at several points in the film he is at a dead sprint but his arms are unnaturally stiff. Arthur gives him some grief over it.
• Good Thing You Can Heal: The Brine King managed to grow back the claw that Orm cut off (though he complains that it took a year for him to do so). He loses it again in the battle against Kordax's forces.
• Great Escape: Arthur decides to break out Orm from his imprisonment in the Fishermen kingdom, without involving Atlantis. Said and done.
• Green and Mean: Kordax and his army of zombies all emanate a sickly green glow.
• Guilt-Ridden Accomplice: Doctor Shin grows more and more uncomfortable with the extremes Manta is taking. Trying to kill Arthur Jr. is the last straw for him.
• The Heavy: Black Manta. Kordax is the real threat, but since he's a Sealed Evil in a Can, Manta as Kordax's agent (with some degree of Grand Theft Me towards the end) working to free him is the more immediate danger.
• Heel–Face Turn: Orm gets multiple opportunities to stab Arthur and Atlantis in the back, but ultimately he stays loyal to his nation and his family. He ends the film on good terms with Arthur, Mera, Xebel and the Brine.
• Hellhole Prison: The Deserter Prison is not a nice place to be a prisoner. It violates any human and living creature's rights. Not giving too much water to Atlantean prisoners such as Orm is reasonable as access to water can give their powers back and facilitate an escaping, but the Deserter guardians abuse their power all the time and torture the prisoners with beatings and electroshock.
• Hobbling the Giant: Manta's henchwoman attacks Aquaman and Orm while piloting a squid-like mecha, but Orm managed to take it down swinging a heavy chain and ensnaring the mech's legs together.
• Horse of a Different Color: The Deserter Remnants ride their insectoid mounts like horses. They are simple animals obeying whomever is riding them.
• How the Mighty Have Fallen: Orm really had it rough in prison, as Arthur puts it. From a powerful rich prince and heir to the throne to Atlantis, to an emaciated-looking man kept in chains and abused by the guardians on a daily basis.
• I Ate WHAT?!: Subverted, Arthur tries pranking Orm over surface world cuisine and says a cockroach is a delicacy. Orm eats a cockroach... and likes it. Arthur is mildly disappointed.
• If It Swims, It Flies: Ancient Atlantian technology offers various mobility bonuses to packs and vehicles.
• "I Know You're in There Somewhere" Fight: After Orm is temporarily possessed by Kordax through the Black Trident, Arthur desperately tries to get through to his brother. It works, as Orm is ultimately able to resist Kordax's influence and help Arthur defeat him.
• Invisibility Cloak: Aquaman dons a black suit which grants him invisibility, for his mission to break Orm out of his imprisonment.
• Irony: Nereus was Orm’s biggest supporter in the first film, and becomes the one most reluctant to join forces with him again. It would most likely stem from the fact that Orm tried to have Mera assassinated behind his back.
• I Surrender, Suckers: Inverted. Doctor Shin pretends to engage with Arthur and Orm when they invade Black Manta's submarine, but as soon as the door closes, he surrenders and offers to join their side.
• Jurisdiction Friction: Orm was kept imprisoned by the Fishermen Kingdom because he killed their king in the first film. Despite Arthur having greater authority he still answers to the Atlantean Council and can't override their claim. This forces him to retrieve Orm secretly using a stealth suit.
• Laser-Guided Karma: Nereus is cautious about handing Orm a gun in the leadup to the final conflict. This comes back to literally bite him in the ass when a kraken-like Necrus kaiju tries to grab and eat him. Orm briefly leaves him to his fate... until he reappears in a better position to use the pithy weapon he was assigned with on the kraken's tentacles. This convinces Nereus to hand him a gun.
• Logo Joke:
  • The WB and DC logos are underwater, just as the previous film, but with a school of fish swimming around them.
  • In the trailer, the WB and DC logos are presented on icebergs.

Tropes M to R

• Made of Evil: The Black Trident was forged with Dark Magic, then Kordax sealed a part of his spirit in the trident.
• Major Injury Underreaction: After the final battle, the Brine King is annoyed that he lost his right claw again. But considering he can regrow his limbs, it would somewhat make sense for him to treat it like an inconvenience.
• Man-Eating Plant: While exploring a jungle of overgrown vegetation, Aquaman and Orm are assaulted by a horde of carnivorous trees. Who gobbled up a horde of insects trying to swarm over the duo.
• Mic Drop: The movie ends with Arthur whooping into a mic he breaks from its holder, then casually flipping it onto the podium before walking off.
• Mordor: Necrus, a sister city to Atlantis that got corrupted and polluted by its reckless use of Orichalcum. Its mad king Kordax turned himself and everyone there into sorts of undead, Kordax himself became a Sauron-like figure, and his own black citadel recalls Minas Morgul in mind.
• Mythology Gag:
  • Black Manta hunts for Atlantean gear to hurt Aquaman with, which he had done in the Geoff John comics.
  • Kordax has a missing limb. In the comics, he had his hand severed as punishment for his crimes.
  • Black Manta accelerating Climate Change by burning orichalcum with the intent of disrupting the environment in Atlantis, eventually causing The Plague... only a bit subtler and sneakier than what he did in his very first appearance in the comics, directly poisoning the waters in Atlantis and bringing in an Artificial Plague, just to mess with Aquaman.
  • Black Manta's endgame of kidnapping Arthur Jr. with the intent of sacrificing him and using his royal blood to free the imprisoned Kordax bares a strong resemblance to his infamous murder of Aquaman and Mera's infant child in the comics. Fortunately, Aquaman's timely intervention prevents the same tragedy from playing out here.
  • Making Atlan and Kordax brothers and rivals reflects Peter David's claim that the history of Atlantis is always about two brothers fighting for the throne.
  • Part of Orm's imprisonment involved placing him in a dry environment and rationing his water to rob him of his natural Atlantean strength. This reflects a Weaksauce Weakness from the comics where Aquaman couldn't be out of the water for much more than an hour, but adjusted to be more of a Logical Weakness.
  • Topo "can play a variety of musical instruments". A famous (or infamous) Silver Age panel has him acting as a One-Man Band.
  • The scuba equipment Manta's crew employs is reminiscent of the suits worn by Aquaman villain the Scavenger.
  • The toxic orichalcum trident comes from the comics; it was created by Devil Ray, a former associate of Black Manta, and is highly radioactive and lethal to humans and Atlanteans.
  • When Orm arrives at the cafe, he is wearing a Jabberjaw T-shirt. Aquaman and Jabberjaw had a crossover comic.
• "Not So Different" Remark: Orm reveals he was conditioned from childhood by his father to expect Arthur to challenge the throne. As brutal as his methods were, Orm was trying to do what he thought was best for Atlantis. Learning that Arthur had no interest in the throne until Orm tried to become Ocean Master catches him off guard, as Arthur doesn't revel in the power that comes with being King.
• Orichalcum: The orichalcum is the biggest Chekhov's Gun in the movie. According to Atlanna, "the orichalcum is a power source that was used in ancient times. It emits tremendous amounts of greenhouse gases, that are highly destructive for our planet. [...] It can't be disposed of safety, so the remaining stockpile has been buried in 12 storage vaults deep underground."
• Out of Focus: The Fishermen kingdom are absent from this movie (chiefly due to Arthur wanting to avoid them finding out about him freeing Orm).
• Outside-Context Villain: The technology Manta recovers from the Lost Kingdom is not necessarily more advanced than Atlantis tech, only that they have no frame of reference on where it came from.
• Power Glows: The Black Trident is shown to glow green as a sign of its power.
• Pretender Diss: While speaking through Manta, Kordax taunts Arthur by claiming he isn't half the man King Attlan was.
• Product Placement: The film contains some very obvious placement by Guinness. Arthur's first scene with his father begins with a close-up shot of a refrigerator stocked to bursting with Guinness cans. They each take a can, cheers, and drink from them. Virtually every subsequent scene with the pair includes cans of Guinness and branded Guinness glassware scattered between them.
• Prolonged Prologue: The opening titles are not shown until after 7 minutes in the movie. The prologue recapitulates what happened in the first movie and it shows Arthur becoming a father in the 4 years time skip from the events of the first movie.
• Related Differently in the Adaptation: In the comics, Kordax was a great-great...uncle to Atlan. Here they're brothers.
• Redemption Rejection: At the end of the film, despite everything Black Manta has done to him, Arthur still extends his hand to help Black Manta when the latter is dangling from a cliff. Manta, after staring at Arthur's hand for a moment, sneers "Never" and lets himself fall to his death.
• Running Gag: Arthur getting his face splashed with piss.

Tropes S to Y

• Save the Villain: Subverted. Arthur tries to help Black Manta escape from the collapsing temple after Kordax is defeated, but Manta rejects the offer and allows himself to fall to a presumed Disney Villain Death instead.
• Scary Scorpions: The Deserter Renmants from Sahara ride giant insectoid creatures roughly resembling scorpions, with around 12 limbs, a Lamprey Mouth, and tubes coming out of their backs. Despite the very scary appearance, they are obedient creatures trained to be mounted, more similar to horses in behavior. They will attack only on command, outside of that they are shown to be harmless.
• Silly Walk: Silly running in the case of Orm. While escaping the Deserter Remnants, Arthur is shown running like normal human toward the ocean, while Orm doesn't not uses his arms at all, keeping then completely wooden.
• Thirsty Desert: After his defeat, Orm has been imprisoned in the Deserter Prison, located somewhere in Sahara, as far away as possible from any water source. Arthur travels there to release him. The prison is guarded by Deserter remnants that evolved to survive in such a hostile climate, after Sahara went dry thousands of years ago.
• Sequel Non-Entity: Nuidis Vulko is not in the film, due to Willem Dafoe not being available.
• Shout-Out:
  • It's probably not a coincidence that the Lost Kingdom of Necrus and its undead ruler and armies are specifically located in Antarctica. Some of the monsters seen in visions by Black Manta and others once they lay their hands on the Black Trident even bear a resemblance to the Elder Things, as well as to the Ogdru Jahad.
  • Building on the above, the entire Necrus arc bears many similarities with Arthas' story arc in Warcraft III and its expansion The Frozen Throne. Kordax in his icy prison looks almost exactly like the Lich King while sealed in his Frost Throne, and when talking to Orm through the Black Trident even orders him to "free [him] from this prison", a direct quote used in almost the exact same situation as in the game.
  • Aquaman jokingly calls Orm Loki and compares the prison Orm starts the film in to Azkaban. In another scene he calls him Cast Away and tells him to pick up Wilson and get moving (bonus hilarity points for Orm being played by Patrick Wilson).
  • Much of the design for the lost kingdom of Necrus bears a striking resemblance to Minas Morgul, from the black tall towers with striations to the Sickly Green Glow.
• Sibling Team: Arthur/Aquaman and Orm have to team up to stop Black Manta's plans.
• Sickly Green Glow: Kordax's black trident glows green when it's used by someone, and the kingdom of Necrus gains a bright green glow when it gets freed by Kane, similar to Minas Morgul from the movies.
• Sleepyhead: Constantly dealing with stressful and boring political conflicts between the Atlanteans, turned the king of Atlantis into a sleepyhead. Good thing Meera is there to wake him up whenever he falls asleep at the most inopportune moments.
• Small, Secluded World: The Desterter Prison is not just an Alcatraz underneath Sahara, but is also the home of the Deserter Remnants that evolved to survive the harsh and dry climate.
• Smoke Out: Arthur throws smoke bombs through the ventilation ways of Orm's cell before assaulting the guardians wearing his invisible costume.
• Space Whale Aesop: Global warming is bad, because if the ice caps melt an army of undead monsters will be unleashed.
• Spared by the Adaptation: Arthur's infant son, Arthur Jr., survives the events of the film, unlike the comics, where he was (infamously) murdered by Black Manta.
• Speaks Fluent Animal: At only several months old, Arthur Junior already can communicate with the sea life. Naturally, Arthur is very proud of his baby boy and finally having someone to share this special gift.
• Spiteful Suicide: After Kordax dies, Black Manta falls into a bottomless pit and is barely hanging on to the ledge. Aquaman offers to pull him out, but Manta would rather die than accept the help of the hated enemy who let his father die. After taking a moment to sneer at Arthur, Manta lets go and plummets to his death.
• Stealthy Cephalopod: Atlanna wants to send Topo with Arthur in the secret mission to release Orm from prison because of his infiltration and espionage skills. Then again, TOPO stands for Tactical Operations and Pursuit Operative. Topo proves to be of a greate help to Arthur and Orm as without him, the mission would have failed.
• The Stinger: Mid-end credits, Orm starts to enjoy life in the human world by having his first bite in a greasy cheeseburger. Then a cockroach lands on the restaurant table, and Orm adds it to the burger.
• Submarine Pirates: Black Manta and his crew of mercenaries become this after they find a Hammerhead shark-shaped submarine in Antarctica. They use the submarine to attack Atlantis and travel all around the world searching for orichalcum. The submarine is armed with devastating weapons created with the lost technology from Necrus.
• Sudden Sequel Death Syndrome: invoked Due to Willem Dafoe not returning, it's mentioned that Vulko died sometime between the events of the first film and this film because of a plague caused by pollution from the surface world.
• Superman Stays Out of Gotham:
  • Arthur needs to get Orm out of his prison without the jailbreak being connected to Atlantis. For some reason, outsourcing the job to a non-Atlantean superhero never occurs to anyone.
  • Arthur also doesn't call for such reinforcements to go against Black Manta either on his island or in Necrus. Superman could very easily go to those places. He would rapidly be warned of the green column of smoke from Manta's Orichalcum burner and come to check also.
  • And, by the end, while superheroic presence is not required, no superhero shows up to welcome the people of the Seven Seas when they eventually reveal their existence to the world.
• Surprisingly Realistic Outcome: Being the king doesn't mean you can do anything you want. The Council of Atlantis can and will oppose anything Arthur wants to do for his kingdom if it doesn't fit their own agenda as well. Oh, and of course, Arthur being the fun-loving, thrill-seeking man means he easily got bored from figuring out the politics going on among the kingdoms, making him literally doze off on the throne, and later on flat out admits to Orm that he hates his job as the King of Atlantis.
• Tailor-Made Prison: Orm is kept in the ancient ruins of the Deserter Kingdom, territory claimed by the Fishermen Kingdom. They hold him captive with nasty guards and he is given barely enough water to sustain himself. Orm is quite emaciated when Arthur comes calling.
• Throwing Your Sword Always Works: Zigzagged. When Arthur throws the Black Trident at Kordax, the villain simply catches it. But when Arthur throws his own trident, it tears right through the Black Trident and Kordax himself.
• Time Skip: After Manta finds the Black Trident, the film jumps ahead five months.
• Toilet Humor:
  • Arthur Jr. pees on his father a couple of times at the beginning of the movie. Mera is even shown deliberately curving the urine stream into poor Aquaman's mouth.
  • Topo splashes Arthur with what could be ink piss for questioning the cephalopod's espionage skills.
• Two Lines, No Waiting: After the opening sequence where Arthur narrates what has happened since the last film, the movie divides between Arthur dealing with an environmental mystery and Black Manta recovering tech from the Lost Kingdom and acquiring orichalcum, which is more pronounced when Arthur and Orm's team up to track him down.
• Underwater Ruins: The ruins of what was left of Necrus are deep down under Antarctica.
• The Unmasqued World: After Kordax's defeat, Arthur decides to reveal Atlantis' existence to the world.
• Un-person: After Kordax was sealed away, all records of both him and the seventh kingdom were removed from Atlantis' history.
• Villain Opening Scene: After Arthur's Opening Narration and the opening titles, the main plot is introduced by Black Manta, who is somewhere in Antarctica searching for the Lost Kingdom.
• What Happened to the Mouse?: The Trench from the first film and its “people” are never directly brought up.
• What Measure Is a Mook?: Not much is made of the minions of Kordax having once been people, after it is revealed. Nobody seems to raise the idea of turning his minions back to normal, but when Kordax is slain, they all die at once.
• What You Are in the Dark: When King Nereus is grabbed by one of Kordax's monsters, Orm appears to leave him to his fate... only to leap in and save him moments later.
• Would Hurt a Child: Black Manta kidnaps Arthur's infant son and has every intention of sacrificing the baby on an altar to free Kordax.
• Wretched Hive: Orm brings Arthur to one of these. It's a collection of shipwrecks from both surface and under-sea cultures, being brought there over the centuries. According to the person running the place, the Kings of Atlantis have always turned a blind eye to the place.
• You Can't Go Home Again: In the trailer, Black Manta destroys Tom Curry's home.
• You Have GOT to Be Kidding Me!: Stingray's last words.

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