Rogue is a 2020 American action thriller film directed by M. J. Bassett, who wrote the screenplay with her daughter Isabella, and starring Megan Fox and Philip Winchester.
Samatha 'Sam' O’Hara leads a squad of mercenary soldiers on a daring mission: rescue hostages from their captors in remote Africa. But as the mission goes awry and the team is stranded, O’Hara’s squad must face a bloody, brutal encounter with a gang of rebels—and the horde of ravenous, enraged lions they encounter.
Tropes:
- Action Girl: Samantha 'Sam' O'Hara is a mercenary captain commanding her own squad, and racks up a body count larger than any of the men she commands.
- Action Survivor: The rescued schoolgirls Asilia and Tessa have become this by the end of the movie. They come out of hiding to lure the the jihadists into the open, and Asilia even kills one—stabbing him to death with a rhino horn—although goes into shock afterwards.
- African Terrorists: Within the grasslands of East Africa, a mercenary named Samantha "Sam" O'Hara is leading an operation with a team of multinational mercenaries on a rescue mission to retrieve Asilia Wilson, the teenage daughter of a governor who was abducted for ransom purposes alongside her two schoolmates Chloe and Tessa by Zalaam, the leader of a terrorist cell affiliated with al-Shabaab.
- Battle Amongst the Flames: Pata confronts Zalaam's second-in-command Masakh, the man who executed his family, in a brutal knife battle amid the flames caused by an explosion.
- Beauty Is Never Tarnished: Samantha 'Sam' O'Hara is a mercenary captain leading her squad on a rescue mission against a camp full of jihadists, and then being stalked by a rogue lioness. Despite being in the thick of all the fighting, she winds up far less dirty and disheveled than her men, suffering—at most—a minor cut on her chin.
- Big Bad: Zalaam, the leader of the terrorist cell who kidnapped the girls and subsequently leads the chase after the mercenaries.
- Bleed 'Em and Weep: Asilia - who, in her own words, has "Never fought back in my entire fucking life" - reacts this way after stabbing one of the terrorists to death, wandering away in shock. When Sam finds her afterwards, all Asilia can say is a quiet, "I killed a man."
- Break the Cutie: The case with all three schoolgirls to some degree, but Chloe seems to have taken their experiences as al-Shabaab prisoners the worst. Several times during the rescue, Asilia, Tessa or one of the mercenaries have to help her to safety, and she's the most obviously traumatised
- Complaining About Rescues They Don't Like: Initially, Tessa and Chloe spend a lot of time whining at the mercenaries who freed them: despite Sam pointing out they are not even the people they were hired to rescue, and they are only extracting them because it is the right thing to do. It mostly just seems to be a result of them not handling everything they've been through well; and none of the mercenaries hold it against them.
- Death Seeker: During the rescue mission against the al-Shabaab compound, Pata takes several suicidal risks; including standing up in direct line of fire of the jihadists to get a better shot at them and is only saved when one of his squad mates drags him down. Later it is revealed that Pata used to be a member of al-Shabaab, and that the group killed his family when he became a Defector from Decadence, and he is now seeking to die. He eventually manages to kill Masakh, the man who executed his family, in a Battle Amongst the Flames before expiring from his wounds: finally satisfied.
- Defector from Decadence: Pata confesses that he knows so much about Zalaam and his terrorist cell affiliated with al-Shabaab because he used to be one of them and recounts how the terrorists murdered his family and children in retaliation after he left the militant group.
- Doomed Hurt Guy: Bo Lin is mauled by the lioness and lingers for hours, eventually bleeding out as the battle winds down.
- Escaped Animal Rampage: At the start of the film, a lioness escapes from a game farm and kills the Evil Poachers who run it. The other animals escape and vanish into the grasslands, but the lioness stays around the farm and starts attacking the mercenaries when they hole up in the farm to await extraction.
- Evil Brit: Zalaam, the leader of the al-Shabaab cell, has a working class British accent, although it is at least explained that he arrived from the UK and took control of the group, rather than it merely being an unexplained accent.
- Evil Poacher: Opens on a game farm that belonging to poachers who specialize in trafficking wild animals for the exotic pet trade and their body parts for traditional medicine, and running caged hunts for wealthy foreigners. A lioness about to be slaughtered for body parts escapes and kills most of the poachers.
- Extremely Short Timespan: Starts with the assault on the jihadist compound in mid-afternoon and ends at dawn the next day when the helicopter arrives to extract the survivors.
- Friendly Sniper: Bo and Joey seem to be the team's marksmen, and are very much the nicest, most easygoing of them.
- Gunship Rescue: Averted. The mercenaries are expecting to be extracted by helicopter gunship after they rescue the governor's daughter. The helicopter arrives but Zalaam shoots it down, forcing Sam and her men to keep running and attempt to improvise a new extraction route.
- Hellish Copter: The mercenaries are expecting to be extracted by helicopter gunship after they rescue the governor's daughter. The helicopter arrives but Zalaam shoots it down, forcing Sam and her men to keep running and attempt to improvise a new extraction route.
- It Works Better with Bullets: After learning that Pata used to be member of al-Shabaab, Tessa grabs an automatic of the table and points it at his head. Following Pata's tearful confession, Joey reaches over and snatches the gun out of her hand, then tells her that it wasn't loaded; all of the guns having been unloaded earlier when they were checking how much ammo they had left.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Well, "heart of gold" might be overstating it, but while he's mostly an abrasive ass, Mike Barasa is never anything but polite and caring to the girls (and is the first to insist the team can't just leave Tessa and Chloe) and has a very close friendship with Pata (the two are rarely seen apart, and habitually call each other "brother", with Pata at his most relaxed around Barasa).
- Machete Mayhem: Pata confronts Zalaam's second-in-command Masakh, the man who executed his family, in a Battle Amongst the Flames where he is wielding a knife and Masakh is brandishing a machete.
- Matchlight Danger Revelation: Not a match, but the same principle. After nightfall, Barasa is keeping watch for Sam and Joey as they search for the generator when the water-damaged night vision binoculars go on the fritz. He accidentally knocks them of the tower and climbs down to get them. On the ground, he fiddles with binoculars until he gets them working again. He lifts them to his eyes, and immediately sees the jaws of the rogue lioness filling his vision as they close around his head.
- Molotov Cocktail: When the mercenaries are cornered in the shed where the hostages are being held, the jihadists use Molotov cocktails to set fire to it in an attempt to burn them out.
- Monster Is a Mommy: When he finds her cubs in a cage, Joey realises that the reason why the rogue lioness stayed around the farm when all the other cats fled was because she was looking for her cubs. The lioness mauls Zalaam to death in the barn and then turns to face Sam. She spares Sam after hearing the cubs meowing outside. She smashes down the door and is reunited with her cubs, and then stalks off into the savanna; leaving the remaining humans alive.
- Never Smile at a Crocodile: Chloe is whining at the mercenaries about not wanting to enter the water when she grabbed by and devoured by a giant crocodile.
- Night-Vision Goggles: The mercenaries have a pair of night-vision binoculars that prove vital in keeping watch for the rogue lioness at night. Unfortunately, the binoculars got soaked during the team's unplanned detour into the river and have the habit of fritzing out at the worst possible moment.
- No Escape but Down: Sam and her men and then schoolgirls are cornered on the edge of a ravine by Zalaam and his jihadists. With no option, Sam orders her men to abandon most of their gear and jump off the ravine into the river below.
- One-Word Title
- Panthera Awesome: At nightfall, the group find themselves stalked through the ranch by a lone lioness who had slaughtered the previous occupants after escaping from her cage.
- Private Military Contractors: Within the grasslands of East Africa, a mercenary named Samantha "Sam" O'Hara is leading an operation with a team of multinational mercenaries on a rescue mission to retrieve Asilia Wilson, the teenage daughter of a governor who was abducted for ransom purposes alongside her two schoolmates Chloe and Tessa by Zalaam, the leader of a terrorist cell affiliated with al-Shabaab.
- The Radio Dies First: After escaping from the compound, the mercenaries find that a bullet has shattered their satellite phone.
- A Real Man Is a Killer: Pata describes how killing a lion is regarded as the Rite of Passage to manhood among the Maasai, but confesses that he never completed the ritual because he not bring himself to kill something for a reason like that. Later, he kills Zalaam's second-in-command Masakh, the man who executed his family, in a Battle Amongst the Flames, he announces "At last I am a man" before expiring from his wounds.
- Interestingly, Sam apparently doesn't think this, commenting when Pata admits to never completing the ritual lion hunt;
"I think that the ability to kill, is the least quality it takes to be a man." - Sergeant Rock: While he doesn't have the explicit rank, Elijah Dekker otherwise fills the role to a T
- Slashed Throat: When two jihadists have Tessa cornered in the shed and are advancing on her, Sam grabs one of them from behind and slashes his throat before stabbing the second one repeatedly in the neck.
- Super-Persistent Predator: Discussed by the team as they try and figure out why the lioness is still hanging around the game farm. Pata speculates that it might have gone rogue; started killing simply for the sake of killing. He's wrong.Mike Barasa: Why's the fucking thing still here? Seriously; why is it not with its fucking fuzzy friends out there?
- Too Dumb to Live: Barasa accidentally knocks the night vision binoculars off the watchtower and climbs down to get them. Despite knowing that there is a rogue man-eating lioness on the loose (it's the reason he was keeping watch in the first place), he stands on the ground attempting to fix the binocculars rather than climbing back up the tower and fixing them there. Needless to say, when the does get them working, the last thing he sees is the jaws of the rogue lioness filling his vision as they close around his head.
- Villainous Rescue: Sam is about to be pounced on by the rogue lioness when the jihadists launch their attack on the farm with a large explosion that scares the lioness off. Later Joey and Bo are saved when the lioness leaps on the jihadist who is about to shoot them.
