Western Animation / Ratchet & Clank (2016)

aka: Ratchet And Clank

The movie, based on the game.

Ratchet: So what do I call you?
Clank: I suppose my proper designation is... (Clank's torn arm begins clanking) ...warbot defect B5429–
Ratchet: Maybe I'll just call ya...Clank.

Released April 29, 2016 from the newly-resurrected Gramercy Pictures, Ratchet & Clank (and Captain Qwark) make their big screen debut, in a movie reimagining of the first game in the series. Insomniac Games served a big role in its production. The initial screenplay was by TJ Fixman, the writer for Ratchet & Clank Future: A Crack in Time, but the final script was heavily rewritten by Kevin Munroe (who directed the film) and Gerry Swallow.

This time around, Ratchet's lifelong dream is to join up with the great Captain Qwark and the Galactic Rangers, thinking he "has what it takes." After being told the exact opposite of that phrase by Qwark himself, Ratchet is then a witness of a ship crash. Investigating the crash, he comes across a willful robot he dubs "Clank". Clank informs Ratchet that he seeks the aid of the Galactic Rangers to thwart a heinous plot by Chairman Drek involving the destruction of innocent planets. Realizing the two of them have the same goal, Ratchet aids Clank in his quest, while getting his dream to come true at the same time.

A game was released on the PlayStation 4 as a tie-in with the film, leading people to believe that the film is a reboot of the franchise, though the developers insist that it's a re-imagining rather than a true reboot.

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Look, I workshop thousands of these tropes a year, and they can't all be gold!

• 10-Minute Retirement: Ratchet returns to his garage job on Veldin after failing the Deplanetizer assault and learning that Qwark betrayed all of them. Clank and the Rangers get him back in short order, though.
• Acquired Situational Narcissism: Discussed when Clank states that those who acquire fame often find it unfulfilling to their lives. Ratchet agrees but he's having so much fun he really doesn't care.
• Adaptational Badass:
  • The Galactic Rangers have a more noted reputation In-Universe compared to the original games.
  • Captain Qwark as well. In the video games, he's mostly all talk and no walk, and he tends to show up simply to steal all the glory, while Ratchet does all the hard work. Here, we actually see him holding his own in combat, as opposed to the Lovable Coward he was in the games. He and Ratchet even get into a serious firefight that almost ended with Qwark defeating Ratchet.
  • The Deplanetizer is updated from a bare-bones weapons platform into a full blown space station. It's able to shrug off an assault from the Galactic Rangers (albeit only because Qwark disabled the weapon systems on the Rangers' fleet), blows up six planets (including New Quartu, which in the original game was the only planet that was blown up by it) and (in the game, at least) is powered by a dwarf star!
  • Victor Von Ion went through this big time. In the original game, he was Drek's nameless Lieutenant on planet Eudora, who simply runs away when confronted by Ratchet and Clank, never to be heard from again, apart from a few brief minor scenes later on. In the movie, he has a much more powerful looking design, actually engages in combat, and is voiced by Sylvester Stallone.
  • While Dr. Nefarious's robot form has been shown to be able to hold his own in combat, the "Shadow of the Robot" vid-comic in Up Your Arsenal claims that Qwark cornered his organic form easily and accidentally took him down by chucking him into a set of gears. In this film, the organic Nefarious shows up near the end packing the RYNO and is ready to use it, though he doesn't get the chance before Ratchet intercepts him.
  • The R.Y.N.O. is updated from an impressive but simple multi-missile launcher into a combination of the Tools of Destruction RYNO IV visually and the A Crack in Time RYNO V mechanically.
• Adaptation Expansion: The movie is based off the story of the first Ratchet & Clank game, but Dr. Nefarious and the Galactic Rangers from Up Your Arsenal make an appearance.
• Adaptation Origin Connection:
  • Captain Qwark is depicted as the leader of the Galactic Rangers in this continuity, which enables both to be involved in the plot while streamlining the backstory such an element would otherwise require.
  • The still organic Dr. Nefarious is depicted as working for Drek as his chief engineer and the creator of the Deplanetizer. His backstory is also retconned—instead of being an old supervillain foe of Qwark, he was a former Galactic Ranger who left and went down a path of villainy because of Captain Qwark treating him poorly.
  • While Clank was still created from an error in Drek's robot-building assembly line, with Dr. Nefarious being the factory's founder and creator, this technically makes Clank one of his creations, a stark difference from how they met in Up Your Arsenal.
• Adaptational Early Appearance: This is based on the first game (released in 2002), but it also includes Dr. Nefarious and the Galactic Rangers even though they weren't introduced until 2004's Ratchet & Clank: Up Your Arsenal. The former is a bit more justified
  • A large number of characters, weapons, and alien species that were introduced in later installments of the games make minor apperances here as well, such as Neftin Prog and the Fongoids.
• Adaptational Heroism:
  • Ratchet is presented as a nice guy from the beginning whose ambition is to join the Galactic Rangers, rather than being a hotheaded jerk that was just out for adventure at first before gradually getting his priorities straight. Ratchet's heroism here brings him somewhat closer to his later game appearances, though still noticeably more upbeat and less snarky than Ratchet has ever acted in any previous incarnation.
  • While Qwark is still working with Drek as in the original game, he's openly horrified once he sees the scope of Drek's plan, is upset that Drek goes back on his word by trying to kill the other Galactic Rangers, and quickly comes to regret his actions. He eventually makes a Heel–Face Turn and tries to atone for his crimes.
• Adaptation Name Change: Not for a character, but a location — For unknown reasons, Kerwan's capital city of Metropolis was renamed to Aleero City in both the film and its tie-in game.
• Adaptation Personality Change: In the original game, Ratchet was selfish and arrogant, only helping to save other planets because Clank talked him into it. In the movie, he's an idealistic Glory Seeker who wishes to join the Galactic Rangers. His friendlier personality here harkens somewhat more to his portrayal in later games, but it is arguably different from any previous depiction of Ratchet, being far more of a wide-eyed, adorable, innocent as opposed to the more streetwise, world-weary snarker Ratchet became later on. The difference is most pointed in the accompanying game, when the movie's Ratchet, upon entering Al's Roboshack, proclaims himself to be in "Nerd Heaven" — the games' Ratchet, even as late as the third game, explicitly did not consider himself to be a nerd.
• Adaptation Species Change: Dr. Nefarious's pre-robotic appearance has been altered to be green-skinned with more "sharp" ears, as opposed to looking fairly humanoid but with pointed ears in Up Your Arsenal.
• Adaptational Villainy:
  • Drek has a small army of Mr. Zurkon units at his disposal. In the games, Mr. Zurkon is typically used by Ratchet against the enemies.
  • Victor himself, as mentioned above, is depicted as much more ruthless and brutal, and is a terrifyingly competent and dangerous commander, with many of the Blarg obviously afraid of him.
  • Dr. Nefarious, while still retaining his Large Ham qualities from the game, is much more ruthless and genocidal, and is depicted here as a Treacherous Adviser and even Omnicidal Maniac whose ultimate plan was to cause an explosive chain reaction that would destroy an entire solar system.
  • The R.Y.N.O., originally a black market Gadgetron weapon, is now a weapon created by Dr. Nefarious, and he uses it during the final fight with Ratchet.
• Adaptational Wimp:
  • In the games, Ratchet was an Instant Expert in the dozens of weapons he would acquire. Here it takes him longer to get the hang of using them.
  • Chairman Drek is changed from a cunning and ruthless businessman into a goofy bumbler who just happens to be a threat. And while he's still evil, his father is responsible for his home world getting over polluted instead of himself, with his motive being to create New Quartu to make up for this, rather than creating a new planet as part of a galaxy scale real estate scam. On top of that, Drek doesn't get to fight Ratchet; Near the end, Dr. Nefarious turns him into a sheep, puts him on a spaceship and takes over as the main villain.
• Adapted Out: Understandably, a lot of content had to be cut out from both the original game and the 2016 game to fit in the film's run time;
  • Plot wise, the Blarg homeworld is retconned into being Quartu, the planet with the factory Clank was manufactured in. Orxon, the Blarg homeworld from the original game, is completely absent.
  • This movie takes out even more characters and locations that had been in the 2016 game, which itself had already removed characters and locations that had been in the 2002 game. Justified for some of them in that in the movie, Ratchet doesn't need to go to a bunch of planets to get new gadgets.
    • For some of the characters that were left out, we have Big Al, Felton Razz, Skidd McMarx, Don Wonderstar, Wendell Lumos, the Blargian Brain Scientist, and the Blargian Snagglebeast.
    • Some of the locations that were left out include Aridia, Rilgar, Gaspar, Batalia, and Kalebo III.
  • Ratchet's original outfit from the first game is not present in the film.
  • The final mech fight from the end of both the original game and its reimagining are absent from the movie—Nefarious is fought on-foot by Ratchet.
  • Lawrence, Dr. Nefarious's butler, doesn't appear in the film.
• All There in the Manual: There's some material found only in the game adaptation, such as Qwark's prison time after the film. It's not consistent with the movie, though, since Qwark's the one narrating.
• And I Must Scream: Victor von Ion was conscious after being severely rusted by a Thundersmack-created rainstorm.
• Armor-Piercing Question: Dr. Nefarious hits Captain Qwark with an epic one near the climax.
  Nefarious: Oh, people will say and do just about anything for the right price. What was yours, Qwark? What was your price for selling out your friends? Your face on another cereal box, perhaps?
• Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking: Qwark claims that he betrayed the Galactic Rangers because Ratchet stole his fans, his sponsors, his lucrative endorsement deals, and his parking space.
• Art Evolution:
  • The art style abandons most of the cartoony aesthetic of the first game to look more in line with the Future series, although many of the character designs are identical to the original game.
  • The Galactic Ranger robots (which now serve as backup to the main Rangers) are so heavily redesigned, that they're unrecognizable from how they appeared in Up Your Arsenal. They basically look like a mass produced version of Cronk from the Future games.
• Artistic License – Gun Safety: Brax tends to gesture with his blaster, usually involving him pointing it at the person he's talking to point-blank, something that does not go unnoticed by Clank when the nozzle makes contact with his torso.
• Ascended Extra:
  • Lieutenant Victor Von Ion. He was an unnamed, generic thug in the original game, who had his boss battle cut over budget and time constraints, now he's a named character, secondary antagonist and played by Sylvester Stallone himself.
  • Zed only plays a small role in the game, making his main appearance on the Quartu revisit. He gets a lot more screen time in the film.
• Ascended Fanboy: In this movie, Ratchet admires the Galactic Rangers (as opposed to simply Qwark) and dreams of being one of them. After saving Aleero City, he finally gets his wish.
• Attention Whore: Captain Qwark, as usual, to the point where he outright betrays his own Rangers because Ratchet became more popular than he was. And it's revealed that it's the whole reason Drek was able to kick off the Deplanetizer scheme—the fallout of Qwark's behavior (namely stealing credit for his inventions and acting like a jerk to him) is what drove Dr. Nefarious to leave the Galactic Rangers and become a villain, siding with Drek and becoming his chief scientist.
• Author's Retaliation: In the first teaser trailer, Qwark, frustrated with the cheap sets and lack of dubstep, calls the movie's animators lazy. As revenge, they remove his textures and make him dance. They undo these things when he apologizes, but then when he insults them again, they drop the logo on him.
• Back-to-Back Badasses: Qwark, Cora, and Brax all stand with their backs together when it looks like the warbots have the upper hand.
• Bad Boss:
  • Captain Qwark is revealed to have been this to Dr. Nefarious when the latter worked for the Galactic Rangers, and that it was not only what triggered his descent into villainy, but also what kicked off the movie's entire plot in the first place.
  • Drek kills his own employees for texting behind his back during Victor von Ion's funeral.
• Batman Gambit: While Nefarious is in charge of building Drek's robot army, he is also the one who comes up with the battle strategy that Victor executes because Nefarious is aware of how the Galactic Rangers operate. If it wasn't for Ratchet and Clank's sudden appearance, their ambush at Metropolis could have worked and wiped out the Rangers, and later Nefarious comes up with the idea of turning Qwark against them, knowing how corruptible his Attention Whore priorities make him.
• Big Bad: Chairman Drek starts off as this, only for Dr. Nefarious to decide he's no longer useful, promptly sheepinating him and sending him off on a crash landing into New Quartu, taking the brass ring from then on out.
• Book Ends: When Ratchet first meets Clank, the robot is still very new to this whole "life" thing, including Greeting Gesture Confusion, so the lombax has to teach him how to shake hands. Clank doesn't know when to let go and continues shaking Ratchet's hand to the point of awkwardness. In the end, as Ratchet prepares to part ways with Clank, it's clear he doesn't want to leave his friend and now he's the one who doesn't let go.
• Brick Joke:
  • Drek's zero tolerance to any Blarg's usage of social media (on account they had broken numerous statutes and one ordnance): at the start of the film, Drek punishes a Blarg who was texting during his big speech by having Victor eat the Blarg's phone, whilst the Blarg's mother is still speaking on the other end! During Victor's send-off, all of the Blarg furiously text behind Drek's back. They're all jettisoned into space at the end of the funeral.
  • This exchange happens twice, once when a Blarg is having his phone confiscated, and again when the Blarg are all evacuating the Deplanetizer in blind panic via shuttles.
    Blarg: Mommy!
    Phone: Dialing Mother.
  • When Dr. Nefarious is first introduced, he protests to being called a mad scientist by Drek, claiming that it implies cognitive impairment, instead insisting that he is a 'vengeful' scientist. When he activates the Deplanetizer during the final battle in order to destroy Umbris, however...
    Nefarious: Y'know, maybe Drek was right. I AM a mad scientist.
• Broken Pedestal: Ratchet has this reaction when he finds out Captain Qwark betrayed the Galactic Rangers and sided with Drek.
• Butt-Monkey:
  • Captain Qwark in the teaser trailer.
  • Elaris isn't treated very well by the rest of the Rangers. Before Ratchet and Clank joined, she was the only one who wanted to discuss tactics, in a team that wanted to shoot things as often as possible.
• The Cameo: When Clank is attempting to identify Ratchet's species, a series of images are shown in the corner through Clank's eyes as possible candidates, three of them being Daxter, Dan Johnson and Sly Cooper.
• Card-Carrying Villain: Like in the games, Dr. Nefarious is well aware he's evil, and revels in it.
• Came Back Wrong: While Dr. Nefarious somehow survived disintegration by R.Y.N.O. while falling through the Star Cracker Chamber, he was severely wounded and then rebuilt into a robot by a wandering repairbot.
• Caught on Tape: Unbeknownst to Ratchet, Clank records all their conversations. That includes the time he claimed to personally know the Galactic Rangers.
• Character Development: Surprisingly, Captain Qwark goes through this, even more than Ratchet. He starts as an Attention Whore and arrogant blowhard who was a complete jerk to Dr. Nefarious and unwittingly set off his downward spiral into villainy, which also allows Drek's Deplanetizer scheme to come to fruition once Nefarious joins him as his chief scientist. Qwark is spitefully envious of Ratchet getting the spotlight from him, prompting a fall from grace when Drek successfully bribes him into joining his side with a promise of a PR comeback. To his horror, the deal blows up in his face when he finds out the scope of Drek's scheme upon seeing Novalis get destroyed by the Deplanetizer, with a PR disaster emerging once it becomes known he betrayed the Galactic Rangers, and Nefarious calls him out on his hypocrisy and misdeeds when he argues with Drek about going back on a term of the deal (not harming his Galactic Rangers). Even then, Qwark thinks he's crossed the path of the redemption and fights Ratchet on the Deplanetizer, nearly defeating him—only for Ratchet to convince him that despite all that he's done, it isn't too late to redeem himself (with the help of a trading card of Qwark), prompting Qwark to turn his back on Nefarious. After Nefarious is defeated, it's clear he wants to turn a new leaf and atone for his crimes (although unlike the game, he doesn't serve a prison sentence).
• Chekhov's Gun: The Mag-Booster becomes useful on two separate occasions.
• Co-Dragons: Both Victor von Ion and Dr. Nefarious act as this to Chairman Drek. Victor is Drek's go-to guy for destructive operations, general ass-kicking and cellphone eating. Nefarious, meanwhile, is his chief scientist and responsible for building his robots and weapons, including the Deplanetizer.
• Coincidental Broadcast: Ratchet says the first assault on the Deplanetizer was a complete disaster, and Clank says that it wasn't that bad. Not a second later, a news report is heard calling it a complete and utter disaster.
• Composite Character:
  • Clank is a composite of the original Clank in name and appearance and his Evil Twin, Klunk. Like the latter Clank starts out with red eyes upon activation and being created by Nefarious.
  • The R.Y.N.O. still has similar lore to that of the original weapon, but has the appearance of the R.Y.N.O. IV from Tools of Destruction and the energy weaponry of the R.Y.N.O. V from A Crack in Time.
• Compressed Adaptation: Far fewer planets are visited in the film, and some plot elements were changed for time as well. For example, in the game, you visit Kalebo III to get the Hologuise, which Elaris modifies to give Ratchet the appearance and voice of Qwark, but in the film, Elaris is the sole creator of the Hologuise.
• Contrived Coincidence: Clank's creation, which was seemingly a defect but purposefully done by the Quartu Robot Factory computer (his "mom") in the original game, is changed into a complete accident—a freak lightning storm strikes the Warbot factory on Quartu, causing it to malfunction and accidentally create Clank, who escapes to Veldin and alerts Ratchet of the threat Drek poses to the galaxy, setting the rest of the movie's plot into action.
• Crapsack World: Quartu, which is now the Blarg's homeworld instead of Orxon. Forget the rather plain-looking planet with a jaunty tune from the original game—this Quartu is a dark, dreary looking world full of factories, obviously suffering from the very heavy pollution that Drek's father inflicted on it. It's like if the Blarg took the factory on Yeedil from Going Commando and hired Dr. Nefarious as their interior decorator.
• Create Your Own Villain:
  • Captain Qwark unwittingly provoked Nefarious into going down the path of evil by stealing credit for his inventions.
  • This also happens to Captain Qwark himself, as he becomes evil due to Ratchet gaining more fame than him.
• Crowd Panic: The Blarg all go into a blind panic after Clank disables the Deplanetizer's weapons system and Ratchet disconnects the core stabiliser.
• Darkest Hour: By the end of the second act, Captain Qwark has betrayed the Galactic Rangers, Planet Novalis has been destroyed, Dr. Nefarious is gradually setting his own plans into motion, and Ratchet has left the Rangers, heartbroken over Qwark's betrayal.
• Death by Adaptation:
  • Planet Novalis is destroyed in the film's canon.
  • Victor von Ion, who simply ran off and was never seen again in the original game, is killed off here. Drek even holds a funeral for him.
• Disney Villain Death: Subverted with Dr. Nefarious, who's knocked to his death by Ratchet, but is later revealed to have survived.
• Dragon-in-Chief: Nefarious, despite working as Drek's chief scientist, turns out to be pulling the strings the whole time and usurps Drek as the threat of the film.
• Dream Team: While the Galactic Rangers in the original game continuity are an elite military faction full of robot commandos and a small fleet of fighter ships, here they are a Super Team of four (though they seem to think of themselves as a team of three, their chief engineer treated more like an intern). When Drek starts his planet-looting campaign, the President thinks they should increase their team number to 5.
• Earth-Shattering Kaboom: The Deplanetizer is capable of pulling this off.
• Easily Forgiven: Qwark seems to have been let off lightly for backstabbing the Galactic Rangers, only having to apologize for it. This is in contrast to the game, where he has to serve a prison sentence.
• Emergency Transformation: The Stinger reveals that Dr. Nefarious barely survived at the end. A repairbot discovered him badly damaged and "repaired" him, turning him into a robot.
• Evil Genius: Dr. Nefarious is behind many of the weapons in Drek's arsenal, and was hired by him to do so.
• Face–Heel Turn:
  • Captain Qwark betrays the Galactic Rangers after Drek promises him more publicity.
  • Dr. Nefarious was a former Galactic Ranger himself, but he turned evil due to mistreatment from the others, especially Qwark.
• Fallen Hero: Dr. Nefarious was a former Galactic Ranger, driven to supervillainy due to the constant mockery and abuse the Rangers - Qwark in particular - put him through.
  • Captain Qwark of the Galactic Rangers, who defects to Chairman Drek and is seen as this by Ratchet.
• Faking the Dead: Qwark is shocked to discover that Dr. Nefarious is still alive, with the Dr. revealing he had faked his death in a prison escape.
• Foil: Qwark's Dumb Muscle can be seen as this to Nefarious's smart and slim. Both end up as fallen heroes but Qwark pulls a Heel–Face Turn while Nefarious stays on the path of evil.
• Forced Transformation: Dr. Nefarious turns Drek into a sheep with the Sheepinator as part of backstabbing him. The effects are temporary, as Drek returns to normal after crash landing on New Quartu—only for the planet to get vaporized by the Deplanetizer shooting it.
• Fun with Acronyms: As ever the R.Y.N.O. is this. As stated by Nefarious himself:
  Nefarious: "Meet the R.Y.N.O., as in, Rip You a New One!"
• Fun with Subtitles: The on-screen captions when showing a planet provide extra jokes. The self-aware nature of these is most likely intentional for those who have been with the series since the beginning.
  • "Cue Villain Speech in: 3...2...1"
  • "Planet Veldin. Near...ish."
  • "Hall of Heroes. Gift shop open daily."
  • As Novalis is evacuated the population counter steadily goes down.
  • "Oh, like you didn't see this coming."
• Gadgeteer Genius: Dr. Nefarious is an expert inventor, and is Drek's chief scientist, having designed the Deplanetizer for him. When Nefarious was a Galactic Ranger, he also made inventions for them, but Qwark kept stealing credit for them.
• Gonk: Drek and the rest of the Blarg weren't a pretty sight to look at in the first place, and the heavily beefed up graphics of the reimagining succeed in making them look even uglier than they were in the original game.
• Grappling-Hook Pistol: The swingshot serves as a futuristic grappling gun in the movie. It can be used practically anywhere Ratchet wants, unlike in the games where the swingshot can only be used on certain targets to swing around.
• Green-Eyed Monster: In this game, Qwark is rather spitefully jealous of Ratchet. It's what leads him to working with Chairman Drek, who, at the suggestion of Dr. Nefarious, bribes Qwark into joining with them with the offer of free publicity from him. Qwark immediately regrets it once he finds out the full scope of Drek's plan.
• Greeting Gesture Confusion: Being a very new robot, Clank isn't entirely familiar with greetings and stares blankly when Ratchet offers his hand, then after being shown how to shake, continues to do so long after most would have stopped.
• Heel–Face Turn: Zed, Drek's personal assistant, willingly becomes an ally to the Galactic Rangers after Clank kills Victor. He eventually becomes Grim's assistant.
  Zed: (while drawing a smiley) Can I switch sides now?
• Heel Realization: Captain Qwark eventually realizes he was wrong to side with Drek after nearly killing Ratchet and looking at a trading card with him on it.
• Heroic BSoD: After the Deplanetizer destroys Novalis and Qwark backstabs the Galactic Rangers, Ratchet flees back to Veldin, tears down all his Ranger memorabilia, and wonders if he's fit to be a hero after all.
• Hijacked by Ganon: Dr. Nefarious usurps Drek near the end and takes his place as the Big Bad.
• Hoist by Their Own Petard: Part of Drek's plan is to have Qwark covertly disable the weapons systems of the Rangers' mothership. This is exactly what Elaris has Ratchet and Clank do when they infiltrate the Deplanetizer.
• Homeworld Evacuation: Clank and several others mention that the entire population of Novalis was able to escape before the planet was blown up.
• Hyperspace Arsenal: This movie justifies it as the armor of the Galactic Rangers having a "telequipper" in it. The weapons, when not in use, are sitting in a locker back at Galactic Ranger HQ, and the telequipper simply brings it to the user from there.
• I Did What I Had to Do: When Captain Qwark calls out Chairman Drek for going back on his word that the Galactic Rangers wouldn't be harmed as part of their deal, he retorts that he had no choice.
• Improbable Piloting Skills: Ratchet manages to safely land his spaceship vertically, and also take off in that same position without any issues.
• Incoming Ham: Drek unleashes a new weapon against the Galactic Rangers by pressing a button... and the audience is met with Mr. Zurkon's famous "YOO-HOO!" Shortly after, an entire army of Mr. Zurkons attack, all of them spouting his signature one-liners.
• Internal Homage: Two of the film's early posters had the main duo posed in the exact same way that they were on the 2010 comic miniseries' first issue.
• Ironic Echo: When Victor sees that Clank is on board the Galactic Rangers' ship he demands to be teleported over, when the technicians object that the ship is shielded he shouts back "Just get me close!" Shortly after Ratchet is racing his disarmed fighter towards the Deplanetizer to rescue Qwark when Clank says his odds of making it aren't good, Ratchet replies "I just need to get close."
• Ironic Echo Cut:
  • At the end of Qwark's recruitment speech for the Galactic Rangers on Veldin, he tells everyone "If you have heart, then you have what it takes." In the next scene, he tells Ratchet "You don't have what it takes" and Ratchet protests "But I have heart."
  • Ratchet rushes towards the Deplanetizer, saying that Qwark is probably fighting for his life in there. One cut later, Qwark is seen lounging back, eating treats, and asking for foot massages.
• Irony: In the original game, Ratchet agreed to take Clank to Captain Qwark because he needed a robotic ignition system for his ship and Clank could fill that role. Here, Clank can't fly a ship, that part of his programming either absent due to the error in his design or because the model in his line wasn't built for piloting.
• It's All My Fault: Ratchet blames himself for letting the Deplanetizer blow up Novalis. As Clank puts it, "blaming yourself and accepting responsibility are two different things."
• Jumped at the Call: Ratchet tries to join the Galactic Rangers after he learned they were hiring. Unfortunately they turn him down and it was due to a later chance encounter with Clank that allowed him to actually get in.
• Karmic Death: Chairman Drek spends the entire movie blowing up planets. It's more than fitting that he's killed after his newly-formed planet is blown up (by the Deplanetizer, no less) with him still on it.
• Kill It with Water: This results in Victor's demise, as Clank exploits this when Victor boards the Phoenix and chases Clank once again. After observing Victor nervously backing away from a water spillage that resulted from him throwing Elaris into a water pipe, Clank uses a Thundersmack, summoning a storm cloud directly over Victor that rains on him - causing him to malfunction and rust up.
• Kill Sat: The Deplanetizer weapon.
• Literal Metaphor: When Qwark makes his big entrance for the folks on Veldin, Brax says Qwark's on fire. This is because Qwark is actually on fire after walking through a wall of flames, so Cora puts him out. This is considered to be
• Mad Scientist: Dr. Nefarious. In fact, he even lampshades it.
  Nefarious: Y'know, maybe Drek was right: I am a mad scientist.
• Malaproper: Discussed near the end of the movie when Qwark flubs a line by combining "Now I'll have the last laugh" and "The joke's on you" into "Now the last laugh's on you" while giving a Badass Boast to Dr. Nefarious, which descends into a full-blown argument between them.
  Nefarious: Day after day, I slaved away, creating ALLLLL the weapons and devices that made you look like a hero! But you're not a hero! You're not even a good villain! You're the galaxy's biggest joke!
  Qwark: Maybe...but now, the last laugh...is on you! [draws gun]
  Nefarious: [mid-charging up weapon] Wait, what? That didn't make any sense.
  Qwark: Sure it did.
  Nefarious: No, it didn't! It sounded like you were combining "the joke is on you" with "I'll have the last laugh".
  Qwark: [whining] Take your pick!
  Nefarious: THAT'S NOT HOW IT WORKS!!!
  [a few moments later]
  Nefarious: My point is, if you're going to use a one-liner, it should make sense AND BE RELATIVE TO THE SITUATION!
  Qwark: Look, I workshop thousands of these a year, and they can't all be gold! Now put your hands in the air.
  Nefarious: Over your dead body!
• Mistreatment-Induced Betrayal: Part of the reason Nefarious turned to evil was because when he worked for the Galactic Rangers as their tactical support and weapons engineer, Captain Qwark treated him poorly by making him deal with poor working conditions, budget cuts, inadequate facilities, and then stole credit for his inventions and openly insulted him as a complete nerd (though Qwark claimed it was a term of endearment), gradually driving him insane to the point where he became a mad scientist and betrayed the Rangers. This ends up biting the whole galaxy in the ass when Nefarious teams up with Drek to create the Deplanetizer.
  • Actually discussed between Elaris and Clank where she reveals Nefarious' backstory and assures Clank that this won't happen again.
• Mood Whiplash: Happens a few times. One instance is during the Aleero City scene, in which the more comical scene of Clank badly flying the ship is in between more serious shots of the warbot assault.
• My God, What Have I Done?: Captain Qwark is visibly shocked when he witnesses the destruction of Novalis.
• My Greatest Failure: Clank getting away at the beginning is Victor von Ion's first and only one, and it reeeally bothers him. Rightly so, as Drek and Nefarious probably would have won if Clank had been stopped in their factory.
• Mythology Gag:
  • If you've played other Ratchet & Clank games, you may get a laugh out of the many weapons from the series that appear, including the Alpha Disruptor, Constructo Pistol, and Thundersmack. Ratchet gets to try out a lot of them during his Galactic Ranger training.
    • The weapons are introduced by cute cartoons like in A Crack in Time.
  • Neftin Prog is name-dropped by Qwark as a past foe, with his mugshot being displayed on-screen.
  • President Phyronix is shown pictured during a news broadcast announcing that the Galactic Rangers are recruiting.
  • Dallas (sans the awful toupée) and Juanita are shown working as comparatively civil newscasters on Kerwan.
  • The various background characters that populate Veldin are Fungoids from A Crack in Time and Tharpods from All 4 One
  • The ship that Clank uses to escape Drek at the beginning is a much better constructed version of Ratchet's first ship.
  • While Clank is scanning Ratchet to determine his species, the Dan Johnson model (a reference to the late Insomniac Games employee) appears alongside others.
  • When the crew go to meet Elaris, the game she's playing has a HUD that's based off the one in Up Your Arsenal. At the top-left corner of the screen, there's even an icon that looks like the one the Shock Cannon has.
  • The weapon Qwark nearly kills Ratchet and Clank with is the Tornado Launcher.
  • Nefarious' design has red glasses over his eyes which match his robotic form in the games in both color and design.
  • The Galactic Ranger soldier bots borrow their design from Cronk, a warbot from the Future series of games.
• Named by the Adaptation: Chairman Drek maintains his title, but gets a first name, Alonzo. Similarly, the previously unnamed Lieutenant from the Logging Site on Eudora went from being unnamed, to Victor Von Ion.
• Near-Villain Victory: Dr. Nefarious comes dangerously close to killing Qwark with the R.Y.N.O. weapon. Ratchet barely thwarts him by launching off a lucky shot at his head with the Omniwrench, knocking him over just before the R.Y.N.O. finished charging up.
• No Endor Holocaust: After Ratchet returns to Veldin for the second time, Clank is sure to note that everyone on Novalis was evacuated safely and accounted for. Whoever managed to pull off an evacuation of a planet with that many people on it deserves a raise.
• No Hugging, No Kissing: The movie has two females whose personalities complement the main characters: one takes action and shoots anything that gets in her way, like Ratchet, and the other prefers to create clever strategies, like Clank. In the interest of time, however, the movie skips any sort of romantic entanglements and instead chooses to focus on the newly-formed friendship between the two male leads, detailing how they became Heterosexual Life-Partners.
• No Indoor Voice: One of Drek's henchman has this.
  Drek: Commence Deplanetization!
  Jeff: READY THE DEPLANETIZER!
  Drek:...Seriously?
  [Then later on...]
  Drek: Bring in... New Quartu!
  Jeff: BRING IN NEW QUARTU!
  Drek: Uh, how are things at home, Jeff?
  Jeff: GREAT!
• No One Should Survive That!: Nefarious is hit in the face by his own partially-charged R.Y.N.O. by Ratchet and disintegrates as he falls into the Deplanetizer's laser chamber. But in the mid-credits scene, he is shown (or at least heard) to still be alive amidst the Deplanetizer's wreckage before being turned into a robot by repair bots. There is no explanation as to how he survived what seemed a definitive death, as there should not have been anything left of him to be turned into a robot.
• No Waterproofing in the Future: Most robots, including Clank, are waterproof, but Victor von Ion is an exception. He had just been damaged in combat enough times to expose his wiring, leaving him vulnerable to both electrical malfunctions and rusting.
• Noodle Incident:
  • During Qwark's big speech on Veldin, he lists off some of his previous accomplishments, like preventing Dr. Nefarious from atomizing Aleero City and stopping Neftin Prog from rendering the population of Aridia color blind. Twice.
  • Ratchet has a long line of citations which includes willful disruption of the space-time continuum. After Ratchet briefly quits the Rangers, Grim reminisces about an amusing incident that Ratchet got into as a child (taking Grim's rocket sled for a test drive).
• Oh, Crap!:
  • The Blarg all humorously go into a blind panic when Ratchet and Clank each disconnect the Deplanetizer's core stabilizer and deactivate the weapons system.
  Blarg: Run away! Everybody panic! What's happening?!
  • Drek gets a muted one when he realizes that the Deplanetizer is about to destroy New Quartu... with him on it.
• Outrun the Fireball: Novalis somehow manages to get its entire population evacuated in time before the Deplanetizer destroys it.
• Predecessor Villain: Drek's father is mentioned in passing as the main catalyst for why Drek embarks on his planet looting scheme, since in this timeline, his father is the one who overpolluted the Blarg home world instead of Drek himself.
• The Power of the Sun: In the accompanying game, the Deplanetizer is powered by a dwarf star at its core. When the initial plan to destroy Umbris with the Deplanetizer laser is sabotaged, Nefarious triggers a backup plan by turning the star into a supernova, which would destroy the station, the planet and everything else in the galaxy with it.
• Pull the Thread: Early on, Ratchet claims he's a Galactic Ranger to convince Clank to let him come with him to Aleero City and help the Rangers. When Ratchet makes a comment otherwise, Clank immediately rips him a new one and even plays back a recording of the first statement.
  Ratchet: Do you record everything I say?
  Recording of Ratchet: Do you record everything I say?
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Dr. Nefarious lays into Qwark during his Motive Rant.
  Dr. Nefarious: Day after day, I slaved away creating all the weapons and devices that made you look like a hero! But you're not a hero! You're not even a good villain! You're the galaxy's biggest joke!
• Redshirt Army: The robotic troops assisting the Rangers during the Aleero City assault. They're mostly there to give the bad guys something to blow up.
• Sequel Hook: During the credits, Dr. Nefarious is shown to have survived the destruction of the Deplanetizer, including disintegration by R.Y.N.O. while being thrown through the Star Cracker Chamber, and crash landed on Umbris. A wandering repairbot found him severely wounded in the wreckage afterward and transformed him into his robot form, as he discovers once he emerges from the wreckage.
  Subtitles: Oh, like you didn't see this coming.
• Shout-Out:
  • When scanning Ratchet to determine his species, Clank's visor determines he's not a certain ottsel nor is he a thieving raccoon.
  • Drek memorializes Victor von Ion all to the backing of "Amazing Grace" on bagpipes.
  • When Qwark sabotages the Galactic Rangers' weapons systems, the computer plays the PS1's boot screen music.
• Spanner in the Works: When Drek's forces invade Metropolis on Dr. Nefarious's planning, it could have ended the Galactic Rangers before they could have began fighting agains them. What they didn't count on was Ratchet and Clank swooping in and magnetizing their robotic forces, saving everyone and alerting everyone of Drek's threat to the Galaxy.
• Start of Darkness: Dr. Nefarious' backstory is elaborated on in the movie; Nefarious was originally the Galactic Rangers tactical support and weapons engineer before Elaris joined. But a combination of poor working conditions, including budget cuts, inadequate facilities, lack of appreciation and ridicule from Qwark drove the Doctor mad and resulted in his attempt to atomize Aleero City. He was thwarted by the Galactic Rangers and imprisoned. Nefarious was later apparently killed during a prison escape—though in reality he had escaped and paid witnesses to say he had died during his jailbreak so that the Rangers wouldn't pursue him.
• The Starscream: Dr. Nefarious sheepinates Chairman Drek, sends him off, and takes over the Deplanetizer.
• Stealing the Credit: Part of Nefarious' motivation for leaving the Galactic Rangers and turning evil—Captain Qwark treated him badly and kept stealing credit for the inventions he made for them.
• The Stinger:
  • Oh, like you didn't see this coming.
  • A second one at the end has The Plumber grumbling "I wish I knew who started all that...", before angrily telling the viewers to leave.
• Stock Scream: Parodied. When Drek attacks Aleero City, one of the Galactic Ranger robots gets knocked off one of the city walkways and bellows the infamous Wilhelm Scream. His fellow soldier helplessly reaches after him and calls "Wilhelm!"
• Stumbled Into the Plot: Ratchet tried to get in the Galactic Rangers, but it was mainly due to his chance encounter with Clank that allowed him to join.
• Teleportation Sickness: Clank notes that he's surprised the sudden change in inertia caused by going from a moving teleporter to a stationary landing platform has not made his organic companions ill. Cue Vomit Discretion Shot.
• Tradesnark™: When Dr. Nefarious is spelling out the R.Y.N.O.'s name, it's appended with a ™ symbol.
• Trailers Always Spoil:
  • The TV spots for the film show the Deplanetizer destroying Novalis and the aftermath of Drek getting turned into a sheep. Heck, the film's poster shows Drek in his sheep form, although you wouldn't know that until after watching the movie.
  • The tie-in video game, meanwhile, reveals that not only is Dr. Nefarious the Evil Genius, he's also The Starscream; he was the one to turn Drek into a sheep, and takes immediate command of the Deplanetizer not soon after.
• Two Girls to a Team: The Canon Immigrants Cora and Elaris round out the Galactic Rangers with a 1:1 gender ratio at the start of the story; 1:2 when you add Ratchet and Clank to the team. They are, of course, a Tomboy and Girly Girl pair.
• Unwitting Instigator of Doom: If Captain Qwark hadn't been such a jerk to Nefarious when he was a Galactic Ranger, the whole plan with the Deplanetizer would've have kicked off.
• Unwilling Roboticisation: Happens to Nefarious when a repairbot finds him wounded in the Deplanetizer's wreckage and "repairs" him.
• Used to Be a Sweet Kid: Based on the downright cute pictures of him during his early years as the Galactic Ranger tech guy, Dr. Nefarious of all people was probably a genuinely Nice Guy before the Rangers' constant dismissal of his contributions became his Start of Darkness. Given that he's become willing to blow up entire planets, it's clear that Nefarious is on the far end of Disproportionate Retribution, but it does beg the question of just how far things went.
• Villain Decay: As mentioned before, Chairman Drek is now a much more comical villain than in the original game and he gets upstaged by Dr. Nefarious as the film's real threat.
• Villain Has a Point: There's no question that Nefarious is a bad guy and that he clearly crossed the line by attempting to destroy Aleero City as part of a revenge scheme against the Galactic Rangers, but he's rightfully angry at Captain Qwark for how poorly he treated him when Nefarious worked for the Rangers. He also successfully calls out Qwark as a sellout and hypocrite later on when Qwark gets mad at Drek for going back on his word by trying to kill the Rangers, with Nefarious pointing out that Qwark's actions were just as low as anything Drek had done.
• Vomit Discretion Shot: Ratchet and Captain Qwark both vomit off-screen after using a teleporter to escape the crashing Deplanetizer.
• Weaksauce Weakness: Unlike just about every other robot in the galaxy, Victor von Ion isn't waterproof due to his exposed wires. This proves to be his undoing when the Thundersmack shorts him out and rusts him.
• "Well Done, Son" Guy: Drek's motive for destroying worlds to build a new homeworld for the Blarg is changed from an elaborate real estate scam into this. His father is the one who polluted the Blarg homeworld (now Quartu instead of Orxon), rather than Drek himself as in the original game. This Drek just wants to live up to his father's legacy.
• Wilhelm Scream: During the Aleero City attack, one of the robots gives this scream when he flies over the edge. Another robot yells "Wilhelm!" to drive the point home.
• You Are in Command Now:
  • After Qwark's betrayal, Elaris becomes the de facto leader of the Galactic Rangers.
  • After his Face-Heel–Face Turn Qwark attempts to arrest Nefarious... only to remember that since his defection he is no longer an active Ranger. He then diverts authority to Ratchet and lets the Lombax take the lead.
• You Have Failed Me:
  • Subverted in the beginning - Drek is giving a massive speech and makes it perfectly clear that he doesn't want anyone on social media, only to notice one who is still texting, before calling in Victor. He doesn't kill the henchman - he eats the Blarg's phone.
  • Played straight later, at Victor's funeral.
• You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: Drek's fate at the hands of Nefarious.

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The Plumber: ... Are you still here?! All the tropes and doohickies already went by. That means it's over! Move along, no extra little bit at the bottom of the page! Oh, if I find out who started this nonsense, why, I'm gonna plant my boot so far up - I said, BEAT IT! Sheesh...

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