As a Fridge page, all spoilers are unmarked as per policy!
Fridge Brilliance:
- Throughout the movie, Detective Morneau is alarmingly blasé about threatening Soldier and/or putting him in mortal danger. Then we find out that Soldier is the latest in a line of clones created to assist Morneau, and suddenly it makes sense: Jacques has no real reason to worry too much about Soldier's safety, because if the latter ends up biting it he can just get another copy out of storage and continue on like nothing happened.
- It's easy to miss on first watch, but during his "The Reason You Suck" Speech in "Crossroads," Morneau yells at Soldier and says "I don't care what wretched battalion you think you come from, you are not coming with me!". At first it just sounds like the corporal getting fed up with his assistant's inane and improbable war stories. But his partner is a clone, perhaps the most recent in a long line of them. He has even less claim to the Soldier's rank than the original did, and Morneau knows every trench story he's telling is a false memory that he's never gotten to actually experience for himself.
- The first scene has Jeremy recount a nightmare he had about his teeth falling out, with blood everywhere. As it turns out, these sorts of dreams
are frequently interpreted as being indicative of fear for your future, a sense of loss and losing control of your life... all of which Jeremy is probably feeling, having been in a work accident, losing his job and being ravaged by mental illness. - Part of the reason Cyclops freezes to death so quickly in the cryogenics lab could be because of his drunkenness - alcohol intoxication can mask, and even exacerbate the symptoms of hypothermia.
- The three rewards Detective Morneau was given in exchange for executing three BLU Mercenaries for supposed 'treason' come back to haunt him throughout the movie.
- A new car: blown up by his own hands by knocking down Soldier's rocket launcher.
- A personal assistant: while helpful, Soldier is an extremely frustrating assistant to work with who causes more trouble than he's worth in Jacques's eyes.
- An earned vacation: ...to the afterlife with a gunshot to the head (courtesy of Fritz) for all the terrible things he's done.
- In the end credits, Detective Morneau is only referred to as "The Detective" even though his name had been revealed in the movie, and is in fact the only BLU mercenary not referred to by name in the credits (with the exception of Soldier). This may be a subtle nod to him becoming the antagonist in the final chapters of the film.
- The film that Jeremy sneaks home from Ludwig's office is a German Noir film titled M - A City Searches for a Murderer. In it, the town of Berlin is embroiled in a search for a serial killer targeting children, both by law enforcement for obvious reasons, and by different figureheads of the town not just because the thought of killing children simply disgusts them, but because the increased police activity puts their own shady operations at risk, and the major tell about the murderer's identity is his penchant for whistling "In the Hall of the Mountain King". His kidnapper, preying on the youngest member of the team, proceeds to whistle "In the Hall of the Mountain King" as he holds his mother's severed head up around a corner, not just solidifying the narrative foreshadowing of this being retaliation for Jeremy's coming lawsuit against Builders League United drawing attention to the Respawn Machine and all the horrors and war crimes attached to it, but implicating Fritz as the kidnapper on the off-chance someone could possibly hear it since Jeremy got the tape from him, and would naturally assume it'd be someone familiar with the film.
- And additionally, in the movie, the murderer is marked with the letter M at one point- similar to the Butcher branding Fritz's face with the letter M, right before Ludwig chops off the Butcher's head. It's incredibly fitting that Ludwig, the one who had that movie in the first place, the one who's heavily, HEAVILY implied to at least be implicated with Jeremy's mother's death, is literally branded as a murderer by the one other person who could've killed Jeremy's mother.
- The Smoker (Detective Morneau) forcing Fritz and Soldier to play Russian Roulette with him seemingly comes out of nowhere since he could've either shot or arrested both, but it actually benefits him regardless of the outcome:
- Outcome 1: The Smoker shoots himself. Considering how horribly burned he was after his bout with The Butcher, getting a bullet to the head would be a quick way to end the pain (which is plausible considering how he, unlike the other two, pulled the trigger without any hesitation). He had already taken his revenge on Archibald, the man who he considered responsible for his woes, so he wouldn't die with much regret.
- Outcome 2: Soldier shoots himself. The Smoker eliminates a major nuisance and one of the few living witnesses of what happened within the Conagher Slaughterhouse, allowing him to easily arrest Fritz as a scapegoat and give his own version of the events. Soldier's death could easily be ruled as a suicide, thanks to the bullet's angle (since he was aiming the gun at himself during the Russian Roulette) and his fingerprints on the gun (while the Smoker's would be absent since he wears gloves).
- Outcome 3: Fritz shoots himself, which is what ends up happening. As explained above, the Smoker could easily make it seem like the doctor killed himself and frame him for Archibald's murder. Soldier is left alive to testify against him, but considering that he's a mere grunt while Morneau has connections within the company, it would be unlikely anybody would believe him.
- The end credits play to an instrumental of "Silent Night". This being a horror film, it may seem strange to have a Christmas carol of all things play during the end credits, especially when the events of said film take place around Halloween, but there may actually be a good reason for it. The song we know as "Silent Night" is actually the English cover of a German song called "Stille Nacht, heilige Nacht", which began as a poem written by Josephus Franciscus Mohr, an Austrian pastor. In addition to the more religious meaning behind the song, "Silent Night" is also about finding inner peace after facing chaos and turmoil. We all know Fritz is The Medic and therefore German, but he's also implied to be at least somewhat religious at least thrice throughout the film; he crosses himself, is given a cross that he proceeds to wear, and begs God to help him in his native language. In all three of these scenes, Ludwig seems to find some sense of peace via turning to Christianity in times of emotional distress. With all this, the song's lyrics, and the film's ending in mind, it's possible that the use of "Silent Night" during the credits may be the film's way of reassuring the viewer that Fritz has indeed found peace in the afterlife, having been reunited with Jeremy.
- A combination of Fridge Brilliance and Fridge Horror: In real life, Diazepam has serious side effects including suddenly falling over, hallucinations, and sudden mood changes. Clearly the Mercs are suffering the first three adverse affects throughout the film, particularly the Medic, who is implied to be heavily over medicating on it. The most serious side affect? Amnesia. BLU is making the Mercs take Diazepam to forget their time between respawns.
- Blutarch insisting that there must NOT be a "respawn gap" makes sense upon remembering the Loose Canon comic. He saw the other side — he may well have personally experienced the time dilation effect of resurrection.
Fridge Horror:
- One of the more common side-effects of the respawn machine seems to be mental deterioration. How much of the mercs' mental issues (Scout's stupidity and narcissism, Soldier's aggressive tendencies, Heavy's parasocial bond with his guns, Pyro's signature pyromania) are actually indicative of them as people, and how much were actually caused by the Respawn Machine?
- Archibald's phone conversations with Blutarch and Redmond imply that he had plans to sell the respawn machine and clones of the mercenaries on a larger scale. And as it turns out, the CIA has been monitoring his activities and have a vested interest in the Respawn Machine remaining a secret. They may be acting like this so that no-one gets any ideas to replicate the technology, but considering the geopolitical climate at the time and the CIA's sketchy activities in particular, they could very well have their own sinister plot brewing...
- More so Fridge Sadness, but bear with us: Even if Jeremy hadn't been abducted, his brain was beginning to atrophy as a result of using the Respawn Machine, meaning his mother and/or Ludwig would have to watch him slowly waste away and lose himself over several years. And he's only around 23 as all this is happening, meaning the poor guy would barely make it into his thirties at best... So no matter what path he chooses to take, Jeremy is seemingly doomed to die horribly.
- The central nervous system is installed roughly two thirds of the way through the respawn process. The Respawn Machine failed to rebuild Jeremy at the very end of the process, after "threading muscle tissue" and "starting metabolic functions". Given the distorted screaming we hear from inside the Respawn Machine, and that the central nervous system was started some time before the process failed, it's possible that Jeremy was conscious (or at least somewhat aware) of being rebuilt and subsequently liquified.
- The Slaughterhouse Respawn Machine itself seems to be in pretty bad shape. A perfectly operational Respawn Machine has a 1% chance of deformity, as well as time dilation in between spawns. So a Respawn Machine in a state of disrepair may well explain why the slaughterhouse mercs are so deranged.
- The damaged Respawn Machine may also be why The Surgeon found... other means of getting the dead back on the battlefield. He may not have just done this with the Heavy. Notice that the revived Hunter has a peg leg in the same place his leg was blown up. Perhaps the Respawn Machine is in such a decrepit state that it can't possibly assemble a body anymore (leaving them to the fate of Jeremy). Regardless, this is even less likely to end well.
