A cop out of time. Out of place. In a world he didn't understand. His name? Space Cop.
"I come from the future. The future of space."
— Space Cop
Space Cop is a No Budget action/comedy from 2016 by RedLetterMedia. The plot concerns a Cowboy Cop from the future who gets sucked back to modern times Milwaukee and teams up with a cryogenically frozen cop from the 1940s to stop a nefarious alien conspiracy.
The film began life in 2007, but the project was abandoned after a disastrous shoot involving Rich Evans's cat allergy. Production resumed after RLM took off on the internet. To date this has been the RLM crew's only feature-length production made in the "post-Plinkett" years (their previous film Feeding Frenzy was released in the wake of the prequel reviews but principal photography had been completed before them).
Tropes:
- Anti-Villain: The time-traveling aliens just want to revive their planet. Unfortunately the only person in the galaxy who can do this would rather use his invention to destroy the universe.
- Big Eater: One scene in the present shows Space Cop chowing down on a table full of his co-workers' food.
- Brain in a Jar: Dr. Marcus Schumann admits to being this trope which he definitely is albeit with a few extra fancy attachments.
- By-the-Book Cop: Detective Ted Cooper. Well, he is by 1940's standards.
- The Cameo:
- Patton Oswalt appears as Space Cop's captain in the future.
- Freddie E. Williams II is the man playing solitaire who gets interrupted by Space Cop.
- Catchphrase: Space Cop constantly says, "I'm Space Cop!" and "I come from the future. The future of space."
- Cowboy Cop: Space Cop routinely blows things up and kills people, which doesn't seem to be that big of a deal in the future, though it does get him "promoted" to Space Traffic Cop.
- Create Your Own Villain: If Space Cop hadn't decided to try and murder the child who would grow up to murder SC's wife, then the child wouldn't have felt a need for revenge that would lead him to murder SC's wife.
- Creator Thumbprint: The film includes a number of nods to RedLetterMedia running gags:
- Space Cop screeches "Oh my god!" just like Rich Evans will often do in RLM videos.
- Space Cop and Cooper resolve to go somewhere and then start marching away with comically small steps, a very common gag on RLM videos, particularly Best of the Worst
- A news reporter with the last name Grabowski appears to deliver some exposition. Not only are RLM fond of surnames ending in "-ski", and Polish surnames in general, but The Grabowskis was one of Mike's first series on You Tube.
- Cutting the Knot: Zorba tries to enact a complicated plan involving a quantum virus in order to halt Dr. Schumann's plans. Space Cop renders it moot by just walking up to the preoccupied Brain in a Jar and shattering his jar with a few punches.
- Da Chief: Chief Washington.
- Defective Detective: Space Cop is a total mess.
- Deliberate Values Dissonance: Cooper's Running Gag of blithely expressing archaic values, such as overt sexism and racism.
- Fantasy Metals: Chromotanium, as Space Cop explains, is a metal used in the construction of vehicles used by Space Cops like himself that's highly resistant to gravitational forces.
- Foil: Space Cop and Ted Cooper. Both are men forcibly removed from their home time periods and are trying to cope with the unfamiliar climes of 2015. While Space Cop is a trigger happy, slovenly and unprofessional idiot who openly complains about how no one he knows or loves has even been born yet, Cooper is a professional, intelligent and able officer who rarely resorts to violence and tries to make the best of his new life, but bottles up his depression that everyone from his old life is dead or doesn't remember him.
- Freeze-Frame Bonus
- In a briefing scene, notes on a white board beside a photo of Jay Bauman's character say that he's 4'9 and "possibly a boy wearing an adult beard costume."
- That same whiteboard has a data point indicating that Milwaukee has suffered a 500% rise in Space Cop related assaults in the last month.
- One of the pop-ups that invades Space Cop's view promises sex acts with various real people, including George Lucas and various RLM regulars.
- Freudian Slip: Dr. Marcus Schumann accidentally declares he's about to get revenge on the girl who dumped him in Jr High before correcting himself to mean earth instead.
- Funny Background Event: In a scene where Space Cop and Cooper talk in the police precinct, the cops behind them can be seen trading their sidearms.
- His Name Really Is "Barkeep": Space Cop is only ever referred to as Space Cop, even though he is a space cop and there are more space cops than him. About halfway through the film, he explains that all space cops change their name to Space Cop to protect their families, which didn't work for him.
- Human Popsicle: An early sequence takes place in a cryogenics lab. Frozen people keep getting thawed during a gunfight and then immediately shot. Detective Ted Cooper emerges during this scene and survives to become Space Cop's sidekick.
- Kicked Upstairs: Space Cop is "promoted" to Space Traffic Cop to minimize the damage he can cause. He takes it at face value, stating that it will be more money and less work. His superior seems relieved by his reaction, so it's unclear if he's really getting a promotion or is too stupid to see a demotion for what it is.
- Mad Scientist: Definitely Dr. Marcus Schumann.
- Misanthrope Supreme: Dr. Marcus Schumann is revealed to not only be this as the film comes to a close but whose grand scheme is to Kill All Humans by destroying the Earth.
- Mythology Gag: The film's final scene, where Space Cop comes home, hangs his gun on the wall and complains of his work being thankless, is a reproduction of the first scene filmed for the original cancelled project.
- Obvious Stunt Double: Parodied; during a fight scene in the film's climax, actor Rich Evans is conspicuously replaced in several shots by the leaner, ponytail-sporting, more physically-fit Len Kabasinskinote whenever he needs to perform some sick kicks (or tear his shirt off).
- Off with His Head!: Space Cop rips off the head off a hapless alien near the end of the film.
- Overly Long Gag: Two in the future:
- Space Cop spends about a minute of screentime punching in the combination to open his refrigerator.
- Space Cop's captain struggles to close the communication window while Space Cop just stares blankly at him.
- "The Reason You Suck" Speech: After Space Cop wonders out loud if the same aliens he followed into the past could be behind the case they're working on, a frustrated Detective Cooper angrily calls out Space Cop on all of his flaws.
- Snowclone Title: To such films as Hollywood Cop and Samurai Cop. Incidentally, both those films are referenced by Chief Washington.
- Space Police: Space Cop is a space cop.
- Spit Take: Detective Ted Cooper delivers one after accidentally drinking a cup of chemicals while investigating the cryonics storage facility shown near the start of the film. Strangely, he found the first cup of chemicals he drank quite tasty.
- Stock Footage: Obviously old, grainy parade footage is spliced in with new footage during the celebration ceremony.
- Sucks at Dancing: Zorba, one of the film's antagonists, perfectly showcases this in trying to pass herself off as a stripper in order to seduce then kill Space Cop and Detective Ted Cooper while they visit a strip bar.
- Trademark Favorite Food: Hot dogs for Space Cop.
- Ungrateful Bastard: Space Cop is given the key to the city by the mayor in front of a cheering crowd. When he gets home, it's clear that he couldn't care less. In the alternate ending it's even more exaggerated as he simply tosses the key away and walks off stage in the middle of the ceremony.
- Worst Aid: Ted Cooper was cryogenically frozen on the grounds he had a brain tumor, so that he might emerge when a cure was found. It turns out all he had was bad gas, which was somehow misdiagnosed as cerebral cancer.
- Would Hurt a Child: Space Cop is perfectly okay with murdering the child who would grow up and murder his wife.
- Verbal Backspace: Shortly after the dancing scene mentioned above, Zorba takes Space Cop to a small room for a private dance. She accidentally slips several accidental references to her true alien nature, including the especially damning "I came from a small planet- I mean, a small town". Naturally, Space Cop doesn't pick up due to being an idot.
- You Already Changed the Past: When the bartender mentions that he can change the future, Space Cop has the brilliant (and drunken) idea to try and prevent the murder of his wife by killing the man who would go on to murder her — while he's still a child. While he believes himself successful, it turns out the child survives the assassination attempt, and he harbors a hatred of Space Cop that eventually motivates him to exact revenge in the future.
