Film / Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows

Lean, green, and back on the screen!

Out of the Shadows is a film in the Ninja Turtles franchise, following the 2014 reboot of the film series. The fifth live-action film overall, it was released on June 3, 2016. It was also produced by Michael Bay and distributed by Paramount, while Dave Green (Earth to Echo) took over from Jonathan Liebesman as director.

Megan Fox reprises her role as April O'Neil. Most of the main previous cast returns, except for the Shredder, Karai and Baxter Stockman, who have been recast (now played by Brian Tee, Brittany Ishibashi and Tyler Perry). The movie also introduces Casey Jones (Stephen Amell) and Bebop and Rocksteady (Gary Anthony Williams and Sheamus), as well as classic villain Krang (Brad Garrett).

Has the same name as a 2013 video game and a 2016 board game. Confusingly, neither is based on this movie; the video game is inspired by the 2012 animated series, while the board game is an adaptation of the IDW comics.

Trailer 1 (preview), Super Bowl TV spot (preview),Trailer 2 (preview).

Paramount announced that the movie will not have a sequel, causing this to be the last of this iteration of the turtles. Pre-planning for another TMNT live-action movie is underway, while a new theatrical animated film, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem, would be released in 2023.

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Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows provides examples of:

• Aborted Arc: Most of the events of the past movie are forgotten, except that the turtles beat Shredder (or Shredder's western apprentice, anyway). Shredder remains as The Unfought throughout the entire movie, ending any hope for a rematch in this film.
• Acrofatic: Bebop and Rocksteady are noticeably chubby — especially with the former — but that doesn't slow them down in the slightest, and they have no problem taking on the Turtles by themselves.
• Action Film, Quiet Drama Scene: While Krang and pieces of his Technodrome are being transported to Earth, the Turtles are on the ground talking to Chief Vincent, even as the pieces are flying above their heads.
• Actually Pretty Funny: Leo tried to stop Mikey and Raphael from goading Casey into fighting Splinter. But he eventually got a chuckle out of it.
• Adaptational Badass:
  • In the original cartoon, Bebop and Rocksteady were never particularly dangerous enemies. While they were physically stronger than the Turtles, they were Dumb Muscle who were too incompetent to be a threat. As the turtles in these films already have Super-Strength, Bebop and Rocksteady are even stronger and more violent, easily tossing cars out of the way while on a rampage. And while they are still idiots, they are somewhat more competent, presumably because this Shredder won't stand for failure.
  • Krang is much more of a powerhouse here than he was in the original show, though that itself is a throwback to the TMNT video games where Krang was usually the penultimate boss.
• Adaptational Modesty: Krang's robot body has the upper area look more armored than shirtless and his lower legs have parts that look like armored boots compared to the original version.
• Air-Vent Passageway: Mikey and Raph sneak into a police station using the air vents. Mikey can move around fairly easily, but Raph's shell gets stuck at one point.
• Always Someone Better: As highly trained and proficient in close combat Karai is, she is still taken down by the numerical superiority of the untrained Combat Pragmatism of April O'Neil and Vernon teaming up against her.
• Art Evolution: The Turtle character designs are mildly altered to be less gritty and realistic and be more stylized. Their choice in clothing reflects this, they originally had ninja/samurai styled outfits made from scraps they found in the sewer, now they appear to wear newer, nicer clothing with a lot less random gear on them.
• Artistic License – Biology: Baxter Stockman claims that the mutagen regressed Bebop and Rocksteady into the form of their animal ancestors. Rhinos and Boars are distant genetic cousins to humans, not their ancestors.
• Ascended Extra: Among the Turtles the previous film focused more towards Raph and Leo. This film is more of an ensemble, giving Donny and Mikey more dialogue and screentime, and the Turtles in general pair off differently.
• Avoid the Dreaded G Rating: Honestly, aside from some April Fanservice and profanity, the movie itself is pretty much a hard PG.
• Badass Biker: Both Bebop and Rocksteady get some ferocious choppers strong enough to support them, but the latter ditches his to chase down Casey the old-fashioned way.
• Badass Boast: When Casey Jones tries (and fails) to convince the police and Police Chief Vincent that what he saw actually of the Turtles fighting the Foot clan happened, they refuse to believe him and she walks away, all while slipping that he should leave the police work to the real professionals, prompting Casey to shouts this:
  Police Chief Vincent: Thanks for your statement, Jones! [walks away]
  Casey Jones: THAT'S OFFICER JONES! [Chief Vincent stops abruptly; beat drops]
  Casey Jones: And I'm gonna be a detective someday!
• Bad Boss:
  • Shredder is prone to making snide remarks about Bebop and Rocksteady's incompetence, constantly whipping out his blades with Audible Sharpness to make a point, and also popping in unexpectedly. He ups it later, when he has everything he needs from Baxter Stockman, he has Baxter imprisoned and shipped off to the Japanese branch, rather than share the glory with him.
  • Krang is also an example of this, as in his introductory scene he repeatedly throws slime emanating from his body in Shredder's face, and pretty much says he's spied on his activities for quite a while, unnervingly. And of course, he soon declares to Shredder that You Have Outlived Your Usefulness, and freezes him in the Technodrome.
• Beard of Evil: The Shredder has one for the first time. And so does Krang, disturbingly (though it's made out of tentacles).
• Big Bad: Krang is the main antagonist, with Shredder as The Heavy.
• Big Brother Instinct: Crosses over with Hypocritical Heartwarming. The brothers spend most of the movie ripping into one another, but... Nobody messes with Mikey.
• Big Damn Heroes: The Turtles arrive just as Casey Jones is fending off Foot Clan ninjas trying to break Shredder out of the armored car he is transported in. They proceed to make quick work of the Foot Clan ninjas but are unable to stop Shredder from teleporting away from the skirmish.
• Big Eater:
  • Rocksteady and Bebop are seen eating out of oil drums full of spaghetti and meatballs.
  • Mikey is seen eating three pizza slices all at once.
• Bilingual Bonus: The truck Donnie is driving has "Tartaruga brothers" painted on the side. Tartaruga means turtle in Italian.
• Billions of Buttons: The Turtles have a van that sports this.
• Body Horror: Although it's played for laughs, when Bebop and Rocksteady are exposed to the mutagen and begin to change, it doesn't look pleasant at all. According to them it feels great, though.
• Buffy Speak:
  Mikey: It's an interdimensional-portal-opening thingymabob!
  Don: Well, there's probably a more technical name for it, but...
• Breaking Old Trends: Unlike the previous films where the turtles existence continues to remain a secret, they accidentally reveal themselves to the NYPD, but they manage to convince the police they are heroes.
• Broad Strokes: While a sequel to the 2014 film, some aspects of the first don't seem to have carried over, much of it in regards to the Foot Clan; the Mutagen that Shredder kept at the end of the first seems to have been dropped, Eric Sacks goes completely unmentioned despite his importance to the first film's plot, and the Foot Clan itself are more like the ninja clan from prior incarnations rather than the prior films' reimagining as a domestic terrorist organization (though they keep the modern weaponry and equipment).
• Bully Hunter:
  Police Chief Vincent: What are you?
  Raphael: Let's just say we're four brothers who hate bullies and love this city.
• Butt-Monkey: Most of Casey's scenes involve him being beat up, pranked, or disrespected.
• Characterization Marches On: In the 2014 movie, Vernon, while having some humorous moments, was still an Adaptational Hero and The Every Man who didn't quite get the girl he wanted at the end but was an otherwise Nice Guy. Here, he becomes much more like his 1987 cartoon counterpart who was significantly more selfish, goofy, and big-headed. However, this becomes somewhat subverted when it's revealed that the Turtles actually made an arrangement for him to take all the credit for defeating Shredder and become a celebrity in the process. And when push comes to shove, Vernon still shows his true colors by finally confessing that it was actually the TMNT who saved the city and by risking his life to help April take down a significantly more dangerous opponent in Karai.
• Chekhov's Gun: Donatello's drone is initially presented as a marginally impressive piece of training and reconnaissance equipment, but is used by the Turtles to banish the Technodrome back to Dimension X.
• Chekhov's Skill: The turtles' new ability to hide inside their shells comes in handy in Brazil.
• Chronic Backstabbing Disorder: Notably, the only villains that don't get in on this trope are Stockman and Bebop & Rocksteady. Krang has an enormous freezer filled with dozens of allies he has betrayed once they helped him access their worlds with the Technodrome.
  Shredder: As you asked, everything has been set, and once the Technodrome is assembled, we can rule the planet.
  Krang: I'm sorry, WE? We will rule?! Ha-ha!
  Shredder: We were a team...
  Krang: [in mocking tone] WE WERE A TEAM!!! [normal tone] Teams are for the WEAK! Family is for the SCARED! The Earth is MY toy, and I! DO! NOT! LIKE TO SHARE!!!
  Shredder: You betrayed me!
  Krang: Actually, I barely even thought about you! [freezes Shredder] Back to the toy chest, with the rest of the things I've broken! Silly little earthling!
• Chuck Cunningham Syndrome: Eric Sacks, one of the most prominent main antagonists of the first movie, is left completely unmentioned throughout this one.
• The Comically Serious: The Shredder is played dead seriously and threatening. Krang, Bebop, Rocksteady, and Baxter Stockman are all Large Ham, wackier villains (though the former three are still a threat), making most of their interactions with Shredder this.
• Composite Character:
  • Bebop and Rocksteady heavily resemble their classic cartoon counterparts, but have the Adaptational Badass traits of their 2012 and IDW counterparts.
  • Kraang is based on his '80s incarnation, but has the extra 'A' in his name like the 2012 Kraang. He also is a far more badass fighter much like 2012's Kraang Sub-Prime. Kraang also has the rank of "commander", similar to how in the IDW comics he has the title of "general". This was changed at some point in production — in the film his name is spelled with the original single A.
• Crazy-Prepared: During his battle with the Turtles, Krang has one of his android body's hands chopped off by Leonardo. Of course, he's already one step ahead of them, unleashing an entire armory of interchangeable parts. He even lampshades the trope in his battle banter!
  Krang: You don't think I've got spares for this?! [summons a ball-and-chain mace and a pincer claw]
  Mikey: Uh, guys? He is literally re-arming.
• Company Cross References: In the Halloween parade, Mikey encounters a guy dressed as Bumblebee from the Transformers film series, another film franchise owned by Paramount.
• Demoted to Dragon: While Shredder is The Heavy of the film, he's Krang's chief enforcer and is carrying out his agenda.
• Demoted to Extra:
  • Splinter has a much smaller role here, and Karai is even more of a minor character here.
  • The Shredder as well. He gets outstaged by Krang and never gets to fight the Turtles.
• Denser and Wackier: Is much more light-hearted, comical, and wackier than the first film was. The villains in particular are less brutal and have more humorous moments this time around. The Shredder and his Foot Clan are the sole exceptions.
• Didn't Think This Through: Rocksteady uses a machine gun on the turtles during a fight inside a cargo aircraft. The hail of bullets proceeds to tear apart the cockpit and sends half off it flying off before the jet starts a nosedive. Even Bebop calls him out on it.
• Dramatic Irony: Funny in that this example is very meta. When the Technodrome finally arrives and begins assembling, Krang remarks to Shredder that he had barely thought about him before he arrived. Funny, considering that Krang didn't even appear for the majority of the first act and the entirety of the second...
• Dumb Muscle: Bebop and Rocksteady, though Rocksteady is just slightly dumber than his partner. This is invoked by Shredder, who specifically chooses them because he wants someone stupid enough he'll have no problem controlling them after he mutates them into powerful monsters.
• Dynamic Entry: At one point, Rocksteady pops out of a flood in a tank and tries to take a shot at Donatello with it.
• Epic Fail: Krang is a little too big for his android body's stomach in this incarnation. So much so that after he sends Shredder off to find the artifacts for his doomsday weapon, he orders his android to stuff him in the cockpit.
  Krang: Place me back in!
  [the android tries pushing him in gently]
  Krang: Push me in, you stupid robot!
  [the android begins punching him into its stomach, and finally crams him in uncomfortably]
  Krang: You idiot!
• Evil Is Hammy: Per the norm for TMNT, every single villain (minus Karai) falls into this. Bebop and Rocksteady stand out as Those Two Guys under the Cold Ham of the Shredder, who is pretty much the errand boy of the Psychopathic Manchild Commander Krang.
• Evil vs. Evil: Near the end of the movie, Shredder throws away Baxter. Not much later, Krang freezes then imprisons Shredder in his toy chest filled with other enemies from different worlds throughout the universe.
• Exact Eavesdropping: When Leonardo tells Donatello not to speak a word of the purple ooze to the others, little did they know that Michelangelo overheard the whole conversation and tells Raphael about it, who in turn, chastises Leonardo for keeping it a secret from him and Michelangelo.
• Explain, Explain... Oh, Crap!: Donatello finds the beacon that's drawing in the Technodrome's components.
  Donatello: [excitedly] I got it! I've found the beacon! It's just... [looks upward] ... up... [looks further upward at the beacon more than a mile above his head] ... there...
• Fake Ultimate Hero: Vern, who was given credit for defeating the Shredder last time and loved by all of New York. April and the Turtles exploit it multiple times.
• Fan Disservice: Bebop is a grossly fat human-warthog mutant who wears a vest that barely fits him, letting it all hang out. His mohawk also grows to stretch all the way down his back, so he's not that pleasant to look at. Also, him and Rocksteady looking down their pants after their mutation and being pleased with what they see paints a rather nasty mental picture.
• Fanservice: April tying her shirt into a knot, exposing her bare midriff.
• Fashion-Victim Villaininvoked: Michelangelo takes time to make fun of the newly-mutated Bebop's mohawk. Bebop is not amused.
  Michelangelo: Dude, bringing back the mohawk! Good for you.
  Bebop: Oh, y'all got jokes, huh?
• Final Battle: Three of them, in fact! We've got the Turtles vs. Krang, Casey vs. Bebop and Rocksteady, and April and Vern vs. Karai and her Foot soldiers.
• Forced Transformation: Bebop and Rocksteady were originally human, but are pretty thrilled at being turned into badass mutants — though Bebop is a bit perplexed that he got turned into a warthog while his partner is a rhino.
• Foreshadowing: In the film's opening scenes, the boys are practicing aerobatic maneuvers that will come in handy later when dealing with a plane in South America, and the pieces of the Technodrome assembling in the skies over New York City.
• For Halloween, I Am Going as Myself: Invoked by Mikey, who attempts to go into the crowd during a Halloween celebration... only to be pulled back into the sewers by Raph.
• For Science!: Baxter Stockman is super pumped to be making his own batch of super mutants at Shredder's behest. And even more so to open the portal for Krang.
• Full-Boar Action: Bebop is transformed into a warthog.
• Funny Background Event: When Raphael is discussing with Michaelangelo, April and Casey how to break into police headquarters to get the purple ooze, there's a visible red neon sign behind him that reads "Eat me".
• Gilligan Cut: The Shredder speaks of the latest, most powerful, most advanced weapons of the Foot Clan. One Gilligan Cut later and we are looking at Bebop and Rocksteady stuffing themselves with a couple of barrels of spaghetti and meatballs.
• Glass Smack and Slide: The way Raphael lands on an airplane. His face is mushed against the glass of the cockpit, under the stunned gazes of the pilots, and he just has time to mumble "Hello," before starting to slide sideway.
• Good News, Bad News: Raph to a group of Foot Ninja on a plane.
  Raph: The good news is: you're wearing chutes. The bad news is...
  [cut to the mooks hurtling out of the plane]
• Groin Attack: Casey nails one of the Foot ninjas in the family jewels. With his hockey stick. Ouch!
• Halloween Episode: The Turtles pass by a Halloween parade at the start of the movie.
• Heterosexual Life-Partners: Bebop and Rocksteady are portrayed with the same close, bromantic friendship they have in the original medias. Despite their lower intelligence they work just as well as a team as the turtles do.
• Hidden Depths: Casey Jones is actually cultured enough to recognize source of the turtles' names, as evidenced by the fact that he calls them extremely pretentious.
• Huddle Shot: After Raph and Mikey trick Casey into charging Splinter for shit and giggles, and he gets his ass trounced by the ninjustu master, we get a short shot from Casey's viewpoint, with the Turtles, April and Splinter huddled above him.
• Hypocrite:
  • Raphael is angry at Leonardo for lying to him about the possibility that the ooze could turn the Turtles human... so he lies to April and Casey to get them to help him retrieve the ooze from the police station. Back in the lair, Leonardo calls him out on it once he finds out about it.
  • Shredder calls Krang out for betraying him after he brought the Technodrome to Earth, conveniently forgetting that he did the same thing to Baxter Stockman a moment ago.
• Idiot Ball: Shredder joins forces with a creepy brain creature alien bent on conquering Earth almost immediately, and expects them to be equal partners with no contingency plan for being double-crossed. This is particularly funny because literally a few minutes before this, Shredder betrays Baxter Stockman and sends him away to be tortured or locked up at the Foot's Japanese branch. Guess he expected Krang to be more honorable than himself.
• I Just Want to Be Normal: Mikey in particular, but all of the turtles to some extent. In the end, they leaned to accept who they are and what they are.
• Improbable Weapon User: Casey Jones defeats a group of Foot ninjas with a hockey stick alone. Later he uses a lead pipe as a hockey stick to defeat Bebop and Rocksteady.
• Informed Ability: When Krang had assembled his weapon above New York City, it was mentioned that it can cause massive extinction and destruction, but we never get to see it in action, since the Turtles had disabled it before its activation. Before that, we also see its pieces fly and brush against skyscrapers, but it's never shown shredding apart the NYC skyline.
• In Name Only: A lot of fans felt that Casey Jones was this. He only wears his iconic hockey mask in one scene, is a corrections officer instead of a thug, and his trademark anger issues are hinted at but never developed or seen in detail. His backstory and motivations are more in line with a separate Batman like character from the original comics (who also appeared in the 2003 animated series) called Nobody.
• Irony:
  • Before hiring Bebop and Rocksteady, Shredder hears their proposal for equal partnership, and makes it very clear to them that he isn't looking for equal partners, but for "errand boys". After Shredder completes Krang's transdimensional portal to Earth and comes to him to share the glory of its inevitable conquerment, Krang tells him that he had no intention to share the ruling of it with him, and puts him into his personal freezer. In the end Shredder was nothing but an errand boy himself.
  • In another twist of irony, Shredder treats Stockman like a footnote, only for Krang to treat Shredder like a footnote.
• Instantly Proven Wrong: After finding out about Leo's secret from Mikey and getting benched in respond, Raph recruits April and Casey to help him and Mikey to show Leo that they can handle the situation of the purple ooze. It all ends in failure and Leo says that no thanks to Raph, they ended up getting revealed to the whole world and April taking the blame for his mistake.
• It's All About Me: Krang, as demonstrated when he refuses to give Shredder his "cut" of the earth, asserting he hates sharing things.
• Jump Scare: When the turtles face off against Krang's android body, Mikey has the bright idea to find out what's inside by knocking on the glass dome in his stomach. Needless to say, Krang doesn't take it lightly and lashes out at him like a facehugger.
• Knuckle Cracking: Raphael does this in response to Vern not wanting to confess the truth to Chief Vincent that the turtles were the real heroes who stopped the Shredder in the last film, not him "the Falcon".
• Lame Comeback: Just part of Casey's Butt-Monkey status.
  Raph: What are you, chicken?
  Casey: Who you calling chicken, turtle?
• Left the Background Music On: From above, we see a tank driving through virgin rainforest to the sound of the awesome '70s song "War! Huh!" Then, Bebop and Rocksteady pop out from the tank and they are singing along to it.
• Let's Get Dangerous!: The turtle brothers vs. Crazy-Prepared Krang was this from the start, but Krang takes it up a notch by whipping out a huge BFG that attaches to his android's chest to take the turtles down. Not to say it doesn't do a little damage to the Technodrome's interior, at that...
  Krang: Okay, turtles! Playtime is OVER!
• Lighter and Softer: The design of the turtles themselves appears to have been "smoothed" out and made less freakish, likely in response to the complaints made about the previous film. The overall tone, in fact, is far less gritty and "realistic" compared to its predecessor, taking more cues from the 1987 cartoon.
• Logo Joke: The stars in the Paramount logo during the opening credits are replaced by ninja throwing stars.
• Low Clearance: Mikey accidentally breaks off mechanized nun-chuck arms on the Turtles' truck by raising them in the air in celebration before driving under an overpass.
• The Main Characters Do Everything: By the end of the movie, the turtles are actively working with the cops, but the vital job of getting control of the teleporter is still given to April, Vernon, and Casey, rather than a SWAT team or two. Justified, as they did have police with them, but they were the only ones to make it past a booby trap Karai set off.
• Make Way for the New Villains: Krang is a new and more powerful foe for the Turtles. Even Shredder gets less of a role than him and ends up frozen near the end.
• Marquee Alter Ego: Some versions of the Shredder have gone unmasked when not in action, but in this movie he remains unmasked even during the museum robbery, though he gets a few minutes with his helmet right before being betrayed and frozen by Krang. The trope is also teased with the turtles but finally subverted when they decide not to become human.
• Metaphorically True: While Splinter calls him out for getting his brothers to be like him, Leo wasn't entirely false when he points that he knew his brothers couldn't handle the truth of the purple ooze and how they always fool around: Donnie is always into technology, Raph is so stubborn and doesn't listen, and Mikey is too immature and like to goof off in the clouds.
• Misplaced Wildlife: The real tortoise that Raphael sees after falling into the river looks like a Galapagos tortoise, which doesn't live in Brazil.
• Mythology Gag:
  • The Turtle Van launches manhole covers, similar to its 1987 equivalent's toy which launches whole pizzas and the Nickelodeon series' Shellraiser which also fires manhole covers.
  • The Turtle Van also has "Tartaruga brothers" painted on its side, similar to how the Turtles' vehicle in the fourth season of the 2003 cartoon had "The Tortuga Brothers" painted on its side.
  • April had a midriff-exposing outfit for the majority of the 2003 cartoon.
  • Mikey's character poster features a billboard for a zoo in the background — featuring a Triceratops with the tagline "Discover new worlds" — an allusion to the alien Triceratons.
  • Michelangelo wanting to use Baxter's mutagen to turn himself into a human is a nod to a similar story from an episode of the 1987 cartoon. It also hearkens back to an abandoned follow-up film to the original live-action trilogy where the Turtles' mutation would've continued, and Mikey would've become human himself.
  • Mikey trying to blend in with the Halloween crowd is similar to how Raphael got into a costume party by pretending to wear a ninja turtle costume in the '80s cartoon. "All Hallows Thieves", a Mirage comic story that later was adapted to the 2003 cartoon, also features the Turtles walking on the streets publicly on Halloween.
  • Splinter's now grayed fur and brown robe make him more heavily resemble the 2003 Splinter.
  • As in the classic cartoon, Krang keeps himself housed in a robot body that resembles a cyborg sumo wrestler. However, it has several more mechanical and silver parts protruding from it this time around, making it look like Krang Sub-Prime's body from the 2012 show as well as the mostly robot-looking body from the IDW comics. Krang also apparently has a Hyperspace Arsenal inside the Technodrome, allowing him to exchange his broken hands for other weapons; not unlike the '80s cartoon.
  • Krang inspiring the Shredder to turn Bebop and Rocksteady into the mutants they are is ripped straight from the '80s cartoon.
  • The film's basic premise of Shredder hiring two powerful mutants to fight his battles against the Turtles, having lost against them previously, recalls The Secret of the Ooze. Other prominent elements that are reprised here include a hapless scientist working for Shredder, a plot-critical amount of ooze, and kinda the Utroms (as while Krang appears here, Jordan Perry was originally going to be revealed as an Utrom at the end of The Secret of the Ooze).
  • Casey mistakes the turtles for aliens, just like he did in the original 1980s cartoon.
  • Baxter has a computer called O.M.N.S.S., a one-shot villain from the '80s cartoon.
  • During the airplane fight, Rocksteady yells "Mommy!" after getting tossed by Raphael. This harkens back to the '80s cartoon, where Bebop would yell "MAMA!" whenever he was in peril.
  • Rocksteady's police file shows that one of his aliases is "Ivan Steranko", his real name in the 2012 continuity. Rocksteady also has golden brass knuckles pre-mutation (that are broken upon his mutation) like that incarnation had.
• Negated M Oment Of Awesome: Mikey raising his mechanized nun-chuck arms in celebration during a high-speed chase, resulting in their sacrifice to the gods of Low Clearance.
• Never My Fault: Leonardo, when he lies about the Purple Ooze by having Donnie keep it a secret from Raphael and Mikey, and when Raph confronts him about it (after finding it out from Mikey, who overheard the conversation), he bluntly denies it, setting off a brief argument between the two brothers.
• Never Trust a Trailer:
  • The Super Bowl TV spot would lead you to believe that we would indeed be getting a traditional Krang android, complete with bald robot head and visor. In the final film, the portion of the head above the visor is replaced with handles and a control pad for Krang's interchangeable BFG.
  • The trailers would also have you believe that an army of alien ships has traveled through a portal in the sky to wreak havoc on New York. However, the "ships" are actually automated blocks of Krang's battlestation, the Technodrome, going piece-by-piece through a doorway from Dimension X to re-assemble on the other side.
• No Celebrities Were Harmed: Tyler Perry as Baxter Stockman definitely evokes a similar look to Neil Degrasse Tyson. One piece of the Dismantled MacGuffin is even at the Hayden Planetarium, which Tyson is the director for.
• Not So Above It All: When seeing Krang for the first time, Michelangelo tells his brothers that Krang looks "like a chewed up piece of gum with a face". Moments later, Leonardo calls Krang "Bubblicious".
• Older Than They Look: Due to the actor being recast, the Shredder now looks like a man in his 30s rather than an old master old enough to have raised the 40-something Eric Sachs from childhood. This may possibly be an effect of the dose of mutagen he took at the end of the first movie.
• Out of Focus: The Shredder gets a bit of this, despite being The Heavy. Krang as well, relatively speaking.
• Painful Transformation: Averted. Bebop and Rocksteady's transformation looks painful from the outside, but according to them it feels great.
• Plug 'n' Play Technology: Donatello's computer is able to tell that the giant vessel coming through the transdimensional portal has the designated name of Technodrome and that its commander is known as Krang, even though it's not of this Earth or dimension.
• Pre Ass Kicking One Liner: The film has several of these.
  Bebop: Oh ho, you all got jokes, huh? Well let's see how funny you are after we bust your heads in!
  
  Krang: I'll show you what I've got! THIS!
  
  Leonard: NO ONE MESSES... WITH MIKEY!!!
• Product Placement: The turtles are big fans of Crush soda, apparently. They have a Crush dispenser installed in the Turtle Van and, according to a featurette, their fridge is stocked with only orange and grape-flavored cans of Crush with a spinning rack so they can get the coldest cans from the back!
• Psychopathic Manchild: Krang, who sees taking over the Earth like a child getting a new box of toys to play with.
  Krang: Hmm... time for a new game! Look out, Earth! It's playtime!
• Punctuated! For! Emphasis!:
  Krang: The Earth is my toy! And I! DO! NOT! LIKE TO SHARE!
• Reasonable Authority Figure: Police Chief Vincent is portrayed as a bit of a Bitch in Sheep's Clothing at first but gradually evolves into this at the latter end of the film, setting April and Casey free when April's innocence was finally proven and even deciding to overlook the fact that Casey had stolen her cell phone in order to prove their innocence. Her attitude towards the TMNT also evolves, seeing them as monsters at first but eventually coming to see them as heroes.
• Refuge in Audacity:
  • The level of mostly undeserved fame Vern has attained as "the Falcon" is insanely huge and useful to the protagonists.
  • April, while disguising herself, just walks through the Grand Central market and steals clothes from nearby stalls and nobody even notices!
• Retool: Set photos show the Foot ninja as looking more like traditional ninja than the gun-toting ones from the previous film. The Shredder also has more traditional ninja armor instead of the previous film's high-tech Powered Armor.
• Reveling in the New Form: Bebop and Rocksteady, a pair of Ax-Crazy thugs, are mutated into hulking monsters (one giant warthog, one rhino). They have ZERO issues with it, bragging about their new Super-Strength and endurance, and also cackling over their other new enhancements.
• Rhino Rampage: Courtesy of Rocksteady, who is transformed into a rhino mutant.
• Sequel Hook: Krang has been defeated, but not killed, nor has his war machine the Technodrome been destroyed; both were sent back to their home dimension. Shredder is likely joining them, as he was frozen and stored in the Technodrome before the final battle with Krang, meaning he's likely in Krang's home dimension now. Bebop and Rocksteady were defeated by Casey but they survived a grenade to their faces and subsequently arrested. Karai was also defeated by Vern and April, and of course Baxter was taken away by Foot soldiers to somewhere in Tokyo.
• Say My Name: Raphael shouting Donnie's name as he goes to save his brother by front-flipping him out of the way of Bebop and Rocksteady's tank preparing to shoot him.
  Michaelangelo: WHOA!!! [gets knocked into the water from Bebop & Rocksteady's tank rising out of the water, ready to fire at Donnie]
  Raph: DONNIE!!! [screames echo; leaps onto the way of the tank and grabs Donnie and frontflips him out of harm's way]
• Serkis Folk: Bebop, Rocksteady, and Krang join the ranks of the Turtles and Splinter as this.
• Ship Tease: It's easy to interpret out of all the turtles, Raph has hidden feelings for April while Mikey is open about his, as seen when Mikey asks if Casey and April were "a thing".
• Shout-Out:
  • Rocksteady's character poster, featuring him clad in leather and wielding a large, deadly bat bears quite a few similarities to Negan.
  • Krang's robot body being able to switch broken parts for replacements brings to mind another giant robot being able to change parts that happens to be controlled by someone smaller in comparison who also happens to be fighting green people.
  • Leo sarcastically refers to Casey as "Friday the 13th".
  • Krang's arc capacitor, which sounds like someone slapped together an arc reactor with a flux capacitor.
  • The scene where the Turtles introduce themselves to Casey is very similar to the scene from Transformers, where Optimus Prime introduces himself and the Autobots to Sam and Mikayla.
• Small Name, Big Ego: Baxter Stockman thinks he'll make famous scientists and inventors of the past such as Galileo and Steve Jobs into footnotes while he'll become immortalized for his teleportation research and bringing Krang's Technodrome to Earth. He gets hoisted by his own petard at the end when Shredder tells Stockman that he himself is nothing more than a footnote and has him taken away to some undisclosed location in Tokyo.
• Spell My Name with a "The": Krang refers to himself as "The Krang", most notably in his first appearance to the Shredder, who's clearly angered at his botched escape attempt.
  Krang: I know what you're feeling right now; you're thinking of all the ways you'd like to kill me! But that would require outthinking me! And no-one, nothing is smarter THAN THE KRANG!
• Stout Strength: Bebop and Rocksteady are both portly and powerful in this incarnation. However, Bebop is noticeably fatter than Rocksteady.
• Stunned Silence:
  • When Leo and Raph argue over Leo's decision in keeping purple ooze a secret from Raph and Mikey, Raph angrily stares at Leo, failing to argue back when Leo says that the only one who gets the vote is him.
  • Raph had another moment when he angrily storms off after Leo calls him out for his reckless plan, which ended up with the turtles getting exposed and April taking the blame.
• Surprisingly Realistic Outcome: Usually in fiction when a villain who uses advanced tech escapes from custody, they get their old tech back pretty much immediately (unless they upgrade) with little to no explanation despite the fact that any competent law enforcement would have confiscated it and locked it away very securely somewhere else at minimum. After escaping in this movie, Shredder is never seen with the Powered Armor he used in the previous film, effectively downgrading to a his more mundane bladed armor from most adaptations.
• Tank Goodness: Beebop and Rocksteady drive a tank to navigate their way through the forest. Then, Rocksteady tries to shoot Donnie while floating the tank down river rapids.
• Toilet Humour: When Shredder, Bebop, and Rocksteady are sneaking into a museum, Bebop mentions how the Big Bang created everything to Rocksteady. Rocksteady gives Bebop his own "Big Bang" by farting into his hand and shoving said hand in Bebop's face.
• Too Dumb to Live: Bebop and Rocksteady, both of which more or less only survive some of the things they do by being super mutants.
• Trailers Always Spoil: The first trailer opens with Krang's Technodrome being transported to Earth and also spoils Chief Vincent confronting the turtles, both of which occur towards the end of the film.
• The Unfought: Unlike the previous film, the Turtles don't get to fight the Shredder this time, as Krang literally puts him into ice before the four brothers reach him.
• Vigilante Man: Casey Jones, who is armed with sports gear.
• Villain Ball: Krang ditching his BFG so he can have the pleasure of slowly crushing Michelangelo to death proves instrumental to his own defeat.
• We Will Meet Again: Krang promises a return "thousand times stronger" even as he's being sucked back into his dimension.
• Wham Line: After having their shells kicked by Bebop and Rocksteady and arguing on their way home, Leo has this moment that no one could say anything afterwards.
  Leonardo: ... Fair enough... Wanna know the one thing I am feeling? We may be brothers... but we are not a team.
• What Happened to the Mouse?: Sure would have been nice if Casey's coworker had been around to corroborate his story.
• What the Hell, Hero?:
  • Raphael calls Leonardo out for trying to keep the transformative powers of the Ooze a secret from him and Michelangelo. Technically, Leonardo had good intentions for keeping it a secret because he knew that they wouldn't take the truth of purple ooze well and turned out to be right.
    Raph: Pop quiz: what are three most important traits of being a ninja?
    Leo: Speed... Stealth...
    Raph: And Honor. Where's the honor in keeping secrets from your brothers?
    Leo: I don't know what you're talking about...
    Raph: So now you're adding lying to the list?
    Leo: If you're referring to what Donnie told me about the purple ooze, it's called "compartmentalization of information".
    Raph: If there's even a chance that ooze can make us human.
    Leo: We're turtles, whether you like it or not.
    Raph: It's not about what I like, it's about what people up there are willing to accept!
    Leo: True acceptance comes from within.
    Raph: Don't give me that fortune-cookie, muck! You should have consulted with your brothers before you decide to do something like that!
    Leo: I consulted Donnie and we decided that...
    Raph: And what about Mikey? [pushes Leo] He don't get a vote?
    Leo: There's only one vote that counts in this family: Mine!
    [Raph angrily stares at Leo, failing to argue back]
  • Leo fires one right back at Raph for his recklessness by enacting a plan to break into a police station that ended up exposing the turtles to the outside world and forcing April to take the heat.
    Leo: Tell him, Raph! Tell him how you broke in and got us all exposed! For the most selfish reasons.
    Raph: The Foot was gonna get their hands on it.
    Leo: You didn't know that.
    Donnie: Stealing from police headquarters...there's no scenario where you wouldn't get caught.
    Raph: Maybe if you hadn't lied to your own flesh and blood.
    Leo: [to Raph] Oh, wait. The way you lied to April?! And now she's taken the fall for your mess.
    [Raph is unable to refute]
  • Splinter later reprimands Leo for trying to force others to think and act like him, instead of taking their unique traits into consideration as a valuable asset in combat.
    Splinter: You can't walk away from this.
    Leo: I told him, Master Splinter. But Raph, he never hears a word I have to say. Now, I knew they couldn't handle the truth about the purple ooze, and you know what, they proved me right.
    Splinter: Leonardo.
    Leo: I don't know what to do. Donnie's nose is in his computer, Raph's brains are in his biceps, and Mikey's heads in the clouds! I can't get them all on the same page. To think with one mind.
    Splinter: You shouldn't want them all to think the same. It's their different points of view that make the team strong. A good leader understands this. A good brother accepts it.
• What Would X Do?: Raph asks himself "What would Vin Diesel do?" while psyching himself up for the plane jump.
• Where's the Fun in That?: Raphael says this verbatim at the end of the movie when Police Chief Vincent asks if the turtles would want to live a normal life.
• The Worf Effect: Raph, the colossal bruiser of the team, is pretty easily picked up and pushed around by Rocksteady. Though he does return the favor by doing the same and actually manages to throw Rocksteady a fair distance despite the weight difference.
• You Can't Thwart Stage One: The Turtles are unable to stop the Foot Clan to obtain all the pieces for Krang's transdimensional portal, and have to face him in the climax as he's about to start conquering their dimension.
• You Have Outlived Your Usefulness:
  • After Stockman succeeds in opening the portal for Krang, Shredder has him dragged off to an unrevealed fate.
  • Ironically, Shredder himself suffers this shortly after, as Krang has him frozen and stuck in a trophy room.
• You Have to Believe Me!: Casey has no luck convincing Chief Vincent that he was ambushed by ninjas and then saved by a garbage truck. Possibly he should have left out the part about the garbage truck firing manhole covers...

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