History Film / ChildrenOfMen

** When Theo is dining with his cousin Nigel, Pablo Picasso's painting 'Guernica' hangs on the wall behind them.

** 'La Pieta' would later get referenced in a shot of a mother holding her dead son's body, which also references the aforementioned 'Guernica' and a photo from the Balkan wars.

* AmbiguousDisorder: Nigel's son, who seems to have some kind of attention disorder.

* GovernmentDrugEnforcement: A mild form. Numerous advertisements are seen for '[[CyanidePill Quietus]]', which is either available on demand or is actually issued together with each citizen's anti-depressant ration. The instructions assure the would-be user that not only is it quick and painless, but no-one has survived taking it.
** Jasper jokes at the irony that the government is openly providing suicide kits to the public, yet the marijuana he grows is still considered illegal under current law.

** [[EnforcedMethodActing This also extends to Clive Owen himself]], as Cuaron ensured that his shoes hurt during the whole shoot.

%%* ApocalypseHow: Class 1, on the way to Class 3.

* ArtisticLicenseBiology: Julian says that tinnitus is the sound of your "ear cells dying," and it's the last time you'll hear that tone. This is not the way tinnitus works.

* BittersweetEnding: The optimistic interpretation. Depending on how you look at it, [[spoiler:Theo either succumbs to his wounds or passes out from blood loss.]] Either way, [[spoiler:Kee and her baby are alive, and The Human Project is definitely real, giving humanity a fighting chance at survival.]]

* BlatantLies:
** After [[spoiler:Julian is shot by masked gunmen, the police claim credit for killing her themselves.]]
** Also after [[spoiler:Jasper is shot, Theo tells Kee that he's fine.]]

* CigaretteOfAnxiety: After [[spoiler: Julian]] dies Theo goes to light a cigarette but ends up falling to the ground sobbing.

* DeliveryStork: Used as the basis of an in-universe joke.

%%* DownerEnding: The cynical interpretation.

** In the middle of the parade of Muslims at the end, there is a group carrying a dead man on a makeshift stretcher, surrounded by women in Muslim funerary garb, suggesting that this protest is actually a funeral procession.

** During the car attack Miriam, previously only really characterized as something of a spiritual ditz, suddenly starts giving sound medical advice when [[spoiler:Julian is shot]]. She later reveals that she used to work in a hospital.
** Theo is confused why, when stopped by the police following the attack, Luke shot the cops and the medics with them. As fugitives from the law, it makes sense that Luke wouldn't trust dealing with the police [[spoiler:but the reveal that he ordered Julian's assassination explains why he shot the medics too.]]

** [[Music/TheFugees Also possibly]] a ShoutOut.

* HandicappedBadass: The one-legged hustler whose part of Luke's resistance.

* TheHeroDies: [[spoiler:[[DeathByAdaptation As opposed to the novel]], where Theo]] takes his brother's Coronation Ring and authority as Warden of England and baptizes the new baby.
* HeroesWantRedheads: Julian is played by Julianne Moore.

* ImprovisedWeapon: While he, Kee, and Marichka are fleeing from Syd, Theo pauses outside the iron door that's holding Syd back, and when he manages to break it down, Theo grabs a car battery off the hand and gives him a good knock in the head with it to kill him.

* MauveShirt: Sirdjan, Marichka's friend or relative, who briefly accompanies them as an escort before being shot by some of Luke's men.

* NoCelebritiesWereHarmed: Creator/MichaelCaine has said he based Jasper on Music/JohnLennon, down to the long hair and the [[RoundHippieShades Lennon Specs]] (well, [[Literature/HarryPotter Potter]] specs, but you get the idea).

** [[AvertedTrope Not all instances of the continuous shots are, though]] -- while it requires an almost obsessive viewing of the film, a few very minor blips here and there show that some editing of multiple shots was involved.

* PietaPlagiarism: A compound example - the film includes a shot of a woman wailing while holding her dying son in her arms, which was a ShoutOut to a similar photograph taken in the Balkans, which was itself an obvious allusion to the ''Pietà''.
** Foreshadowed by a mention earlier in the film: Theo's cousin managed to save [[Creator/MichelangeloBuonarroti Michelangelo's]] ''David'' for the Ark of the Arts, but ''La Pietà'' was smashed up before they got there.

* [[RealIsBrown Real is Grey]]: It's Britain in winter. [[TruthInTelevision What do you expect?]]

* ShoutOut: Two serious ones at the camp at Bexhill.

* StealthPun: Theo's last act in the film is to [[spoiler:lead the girl to the buoy]].

*** David and Victoria Beckham celebrating their anniversary.

** The background of Theo's young nephew is told through details that can only be seen on close inspection. Likely a Zed (a member of the nihilistic, chaotic final generation of humans to be born), he is implied to have lived the reckless lifestyle of his peers, given the assortment of scars and tattoos on his body, poorly concealed by his fathers choice of smart clothing. He appears to be in rehabilitative therapy to quell such behaviour, being shown taking medication and pacified with a strange interactive game. Furthermore, he is shown wearing a medical security barcode bracelet provided by the institution treating him.

** There is a pig-shaped balloon floating over the Battersea power station (which has been turned into a museum). It's a reference to the cover of Music/PinkFloyd's 1977 album ''{{Music/Animals}}''.

** As the bus drives away, the "hooded man" from Abu Ghraib prison can be seen in one of the cages, in the exact pose [[https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/abu_ghraib.jpg from the infamous torture pictures.]]

* ObligatoryWarCrimeScene: The Fishes are shown executing unarmed people and disarmed prisoners on quite a few occasions. There is also a scene where the British Army guns down a group of unarmed civilians as they exit a building waving white flags.

* AssholeVictim: "Baby" Diego Ricardo, the youngest person on the planet at the time. He is killed at the start of the film when he gets stabbed by someone that asked for an autograph, which he not only refused to give, but also spat in the guy's face.

* BittersweetEnding: The optimistic interpretation. Depending on how you look at it, Theo either succumbs to his wounds or passes out from blood loss. Either way, Kee and her baby are alive, and The Human Project is definitely real, giving humanity a fighting chance at survival.

*** David and Victoria Beckham celebrating their Golden Wedding Anniversary.

* HighConcept: What would the world be like after 20 years of no children being born? Despite falling under High Concept, that didn't stop the movie receiving showers of praise.

* ColdBloodedTorture: It is heavily implied that Jasper's wife's catatonic state was caused by torture at the hands of MI5.

** Technically [spoiler:Theo]], but given circumstances (not to mention the tone and themes of the film) their chances don't seem good.

** Technically [spoilers:Theo]], but given circumstances (not to mention the tone and themes of the film) their chances don't seem good.

* ThrowItIn: During the third and final TheOner of the film, almost precisely halfway through the six and a half minute scene blood splatters onto the camera lens and remains there for the rest of the lengthy shot. It's a brilliant way to bring the audience into the moment and make it feel authentic and dangerous...and the effect was completely accidental. According to director Alfonso Cuoron, he actually yelled "cut!" when the blood from an actor's squib splashed onto the camera lens by chance, but because of an explosion in the same moment no one one set heard him order a stop. Instead, the shot continued, and accidentally gave the film one of its defining moments.

* EpicTrackingShot: Director Alfonso Cuaron is very fond of this technique and the film is famous for it. The action climax is shot in one long shot in is ''over seven and a half minutes long''.

* CoolOldGuy: Jasper is the epitome of this. A devoted husband to his catatonic wife, grows his own weed, listens to cool music and is a defiant former political cartoonist. Michael Caine based it on John Lennon.

''Children of Men'' is a 2006 {{childless dystopia}}n apocalyptic {{science fiction}} film co-written and directed by Creator/AlfonsoCuaron (Film/HarryPotterAndThePrisonerOfAzkaban, Film/{{Gravity}}) starring Creator/CliveOwen, Creator/JulianneMoore and Creator/MichaelCaine. It is [[PragmaticAdaptation loosely]] [[TheFilmOfTheBook based on the novel]] ''The Children of Men'' by P. D. James.

* ArmiesAreEvil: Subverted. [[spoiler: British soldiers massacre civilians at one point, but they are shown to still have humanity when they cease firing upon seeing Kee's baby. The fighting only resumes because some random ''rebel'' interrupts the ceasefire, by opportunistically taking a shot with an RPG.]]

* DeadGuyJunior: Kee eventually settles on [[spoiler: naming the baby after Theo and Julian's dead son Dylan.]]
* DeadStarWalking: The characters played by both [[spoiler: Julianne Moore]] and [[spoiler: Creator/MichaelCaine]] die before the 1 hour mark.

* DefiantToTheEnd: [[spoiler: "Pull my finger" was Jasper's way of saying "fuck you" one last time, as in, "You can kill me but I'll still prank on you before I die."]]

* DueToTheDead: [[spoiler:Julian]] gets a proper burial.

* FalseFlagOperation: The Fishes have committed terrorist bombings in the past, but claim to have stopped after a bombing in Liverpool and accuse the the government of framing them by carrying out false flag bombings since. It's left ambiguous whether they're telling the truth [[spoiler: since they launch an armed uprising near the end]].

** The fighter jets that [[spoiler: carpet bomb Bexhill]] at the end of the movie are F35 Lightening II's, which were only in the prototype design stage at the time of filming.