Extinct is an American computer-animated comedy film directed by David Silverman and Raymond S. Persi. The film is about a fictional extinct species called the Flummels, who are rodent-like creatures with holes in their stomachs who live in the Galapagos Islands in the 19th Century, and outcast sibling pair, Op and Ed, are flung into the future by a magical flower and they soon decide to save their species when they learn that Flummels go extinct.
The film stars the voices of Rachel Bloom, Adam Devine, Ken Jeong, Zazie Beetz, Benedict Wong, Reggie Watts, and Jim Jefferies.
It debuted on Netflix on November 19, 2021.
Tropes:
- All of the Other Reindeer: None of the other Flummels consider Op and Ed as part of their community due to the amount of chaos they bring.
- All Myths Are True: Clarence reveals that Greek monsters were real when he brings a Cyclops to attack Op and Ed.
- Artistic License – Biology:
- It is highly unlikely that any species would have a naturally-ocurring hole in their center mass.
- The end of the movie reveals that Ed and Dottie are expecting a child. In real life, it is utterly impossible for a mammal and an avian to reproduce.
- Big Bad: Clarence. He tries to get rid of the Flummels due to pure, unadulterated envy.
- Cannot Talk to Women: Ed has trouble speaking to any females who aren't his sister (that is, until he meets Dottie).
- Cassandra Truth: No Flummel is willing to believe Op when she said she came from the future.
- Cartoon Creature: The Flummels are some sort of donut-shaped mixture of a flying squirrel and a kitten.
- Chekhov's Gun:
- When Bernie worries about the dangers a time-lost Clarence could encounter, he brings up a Cyclops. Clarence later uses an actual Cyclops to attack Op and Ed.
- Bernie's "magic trick" of using two time flowers to transport anything caught between them is used on a grander scale by Op in order to bring the Flummels' island to the present.
- Conspiracy Theorist: Bernie the Tasmanian tiger believes in such things as aliens and mythical creatures.
- Damsel in Distress: Op becomes this when Clarence straps her to a tree on the mountain with the bomb he's going to use to destroy it flying near her.
- Didn't Think This Through: This is Op's Fatal Flaw, as she often does things out of pure impulse.
- The Eeyore: Ed constantly complains about the trouble he goes through.
- Failed a Spot Check: Professor Chung's wife Sun hasn't noticed her husband's absence (mostly because Clarence set up a crude puppet in the Professor's likeness).
- Fantastic Slur: After Clarence's true colors are revealed, he refers to Flummels by insulting names like "napkin rings" and "hula hoops".
- Foreshadowing: When Clarence first sees Op and Ed, he barks at them angrily. It is later revealed that he had engineered the Flummels' extinction.
- Freudian Excuse: Clarence grew up in a world where Flummels were the number one pet. He spent most of his life in a pet store, never getting adopted, inciting much resentment toward the far more popular Flummels.
- Gentle Giant: Hoss is the biggest Extinctable, but also the nicest.
- Green-Eyed Monster: Clarence is so completely jealous of Flummels that he knocks his owner into the past for showing some affection towards one.
- Heel–Face Turn: Clarence's cyclops minion reforms at the end.
- Hidden Villain: Clarence.
- Historical Domain Character: Charles Darwin, Captain Fitzroy, Ernest Shackleton, and Mozart (the latter a
Voice-Only Cameo). - Interspecies Romance: Ed, a Flummel and Dottie, a Dodo bird, get together.
- Large and in Charge: Jepson is the leader of the Flummels and is the tallest out of them.
- Large Ham: Clarence goes full ham when he reveals their true evil nature.
- Life Will Kill You: The Extinctables are just fine with staying in the Time Terminal, as it protects them from the dangers in the outside world. As they say in their song, "You can kill time here, or time will kill you out there."
- Line-of-Sight Name: Professor Chung named Clarence after a "Clearance" sign (with the "E" scratched out).
- Manchild: Charles Darwin shows signs of this near the movie's end where he pleads for his boat captain to go see the Galapagos Islands.
- Motor Mouth: Wally the whale constantly jibber-jabbers.
- Neat Freak: Alma is terrified of the idea of getting dirty or infected by germs.
- No More for Me: Invoked and inverted twice over; when the Flummels' island vanishes before their eyes, the Captain of the Beagle empties his container of alcohol, while Charles Darwin gulps down his. The island appears in the present, in front of what are implied to be the two's descendants, whose reactions are the exact opposite of their ancestors.
- Only Friend: Wally the Whale is the only friend Op and Ed have at the movie's beginning.
- Our Time Travel Is Different: Time travel is achieved in the movie via special flowers. Each one is keyed to a certain year, and the time travel device requires a matching seed to open the flower portal.
- Place Beyond Time: The Time Terminal where the Extinctables and the time travel device reside is said to be somewhere between the past and the present.
- The Reveal: Clarence tells Op that Flummels were once the most popular pet in the world and that he had changed history to negate that.
- Ridiculously Cute Critter: Flummels are considered utterly adorable by anyone who sees them.
- Shout-Out: In the original timeline, a poster for a movie called "1001 Flummels" is shown.
- Stealth Pun: A Tasmanian tiger who believes in aliens, monsters, and conspiracies is humorously appropriate, given that Tasmanian tigers are often considered cryptids today.
- The Stinger: Op uses the Time Terminal to bring Wally to the Time Terminal in present.
- Time-Passage Beard: When Professor Chung returns, he is shown to have facial hair from spending almost a year in the past.
- Time Traveler's Dinosaur: The Extinctables are a collection of extinct animals that were saved by Professor Chung through the use of Time Travel.
- Vocal Dissonance: Hoss is said to be five years old, and referred to as a "kid" by his fellow Extinctables. Despite this, he has the voice of a grown man.
- Walking Spoiler: Clarence, due to him being the Hidden Villain.
- Wham Line: When Clarence reveals their true colors to Op.Op: You've gotta tell the Flummels they're in trouble.Clarence: Oh they most certainly are in trouble...from ME!
- What the Hell, Hero?: After Op's poorly thought-out attempt to save Clarence ends up getting Hoss injured, Ed calls her out on her recklessness.
