History Film / FourLions

* CallASmeerpARabbit: A policeman refers to Omar's Honey Monster costume as a "bear"... leading to his colleague shooting a fellow runner in a Wookiee costume instead.

* AntiVillain: All of the Four Lions are respectable people who are genuinely taken up with their cause. Omar is very devout in his faith, sincerely loves his wife and son and doesn't want innocent people dying, while Waj and Faisal are [[KindheartedSimpleton Kind-hearted Simpletons]] who don't really want to hurt anyone but don't fully grasp what it is they're doing either. Hassan is a clearer example as [[spoiler:but unlike the others, he realizes the gravity of the situation and tries to opt out. It doesn't end well]]. The only [[SubvertedTrope subversion]] is Barry, who is unstable, racist and cruel and only took up the cause to voice his radicalism and act on his own sadism.

* EvenEvilHasStandards: {{Played with}} bizarrely—Omar is heading a terrorist plot to kill who-knows-how-many innocent people, but he still tries to take the moral high ground over his brother for "locking women in a cupboard." He also, a lot more understandably, reacts like this to Barry's plans to blow up a mosque, [[spoiler:takes Faisal's untimely death due to their screw-ups very harshly]] and is ultimately unwilling to manipulate Waj into blowing himself up when he demonstrates having changed his mind. Also, Omar doesn't agree with Barry's blatant antisemitism.

* EvenEvilHasStandards: {{Played with}} bizarrely—Omar is heading a terrorist plot to kill who-knows-how-many innocent people, but he still tries to take the moral high ground over his brother for "locking women in a cupboard." He also, a lot more understandably, reacts like this to Barry's plans to blow up a mosque, and is ultimately unwilling to manipulate Waj into blowing himself up when he demonstrates having changed his mind.

* DesperatelySearchingForAPurposeInLife: This is a big part of Hassan's motivation for becoming a jihadist, given that a quick scene where he acts out an argument in his head shows he's not interested in the family business and struggling academically.

* BeliefMakesYouStupid: Inverted. Omar's brother Ahmed is a very conservative Muslim, who refuses to talk to non-related women and wears religious garb even when playing soccer. Omar cares about Islam more asa a cultural identity than as a religion, lives an outwardsly normal English suburban life, and treats his wife as his equal. But Ahmed is the nonviolent one, and he tries to persuade Omar that attacking civilians is immoral.

* BeliefMakesYouStupid: Inverted. Omar's brother is a very conservative Muslim who wears religious garb, whereas Omar cares more about Islam as an identity than about its religious commandments. But Omar's brother is the nonviolent one, and he tries to talk Omar out of carrying out the attack.

* BeliefMakesYouDumb: Inverted. Omar's brother is a very conservative Muslim, but he's nonviolent, and tries to talk Omar out of carrying out the attack.

-->''"Rubber dinghy rapids, bro!"''

* TheGreatPoliticsMessUp: A gag during the credits relates that when Omar fired his rocket launcher backwards, he killed Osama bin Laden. In RealLife Bin Laden was killed in an American special forces raid less than a year after this movie was released.

* CompletelyMissingThePoint: Waj's Chicken Cottage rant, Barry asking Faisal to "show me the voice"... The wannabe jihadists seem unable to agree on what the point actually is. Even Omar, the guy with the most gumption out of the lot of them, fails to come up with a point whilst telling his son about his plans.

* AxCrazy: Barry is clearly not very stable, and one gets the impression that he's turned to radical Islam largely because it gives him an excuse to be violent. WordOfGod is that he was originally in the BNP and once decided to read the Qu'ran to "better know his enemy", only to discover that [[NotSoDifferent Wahhabist/Salafist Islam was more appealing to him than white nationalism]].

* NotSoDifferent: An implied example. In [[https://www.telegraph.co.uk/expat/expatlife/7196487/Chris-Morris-in-the-lions-den.html an interview]], Morris revealed that Barry was based on a real-life person who was originally a member of the [=BNP=] but who decided to study the Qu'ran to be better able to attack Muslims, only to end up accidentally converting himself and becoming a key face of Islamic fundamentalism. While Barry's similar past is only subtly alluded to (it most obviously coming out in his suspicious eagerness to blow up mosque, implying he hasn't entirely abandoned his former prejudices), this backstory establishes a clear parallel between white nationalist terrorism and Islamic fundamentalist terrorism.

Creator/RizAhmed stars as Omar, the smartest (but still not-that-smart) of the gang of dim-witted wannabe terrorists. Creator/BenedictCumberbatch has a small but amusing role near the end as a hostage negotiatior.

The debut feature film directed by Creator/ChrisMorris, and written by Morris in collaboration with Jesse Armstrong and Sam Bain of ''Series/PeepShow'' fame. It's a comedy of the type where a bunch of ordinary blokes, none of them the very sharpest of minds, take on a task bigger than themselves. Similar to ''Film/TheFullMonty'', in a funny way. Except that they want to be [[BlackComedy Islamist suicide bombers]].

* TitleDrop: At the beginning of the final act.

* DownerEnding: [[spoiler:While the entire cast dying was always the intended goal, their suicide run is a complete ''disaster'' as they all explode in pointless and pathetic ways. Omar is by the end so disheartened his last appearance is him walking into a pharmacy, the one place he explicitely did not want to blow up in. Meanwhile the police shoot several innocent people and arrest Omar's brother as the mastermind on the sole basis of him being a Muslim fundie, even though he's the probably the most innocent person in the cast.]]

* DownerEnding

-->"I told you... it was a knee!"
-->"That was a head! It was obviously a head!"
-->"It had a hinge!"
* ManChild: Waj brings a toy gun to the shooting of his Jihad video, reads children's books, and his conception of the afterlife is that of a theme park ride. To a smaller degree, the rest of the protagonists are all crushingly naive. Conversely, Omar's son is shown to be pretty sharp when Omar tries to justify suicide bombing by way of ''Disney/TheLionKing''.

* AxCrazy: Barry is clearly not very stable, and one gets the impression that he's turned to radical Islam largely because it gives him an excuse to be violent. WordOfGod is that he was originally in the BNP and once decided to read the Qu'ran to "better know his enemy", only to discover that [[NotSoDifferent fundamentalist Islam actually suited him better than white nationalism]].

* IHaveThisFriend: In this case Omar's friend is called [[Disney/TheLionKing Simba]].

* TheWarOnTerror: Terror Alert Level: Red.

* AllForNothing: [[spoiler:Well, all for some tampons and cotton buds.]]

* DidNotThinkThisThrough: Hassan, when convinced by Barry to
"do something for Islam", jumps at the chance. [[spoiler:He realises what he's signed up to too late and attempts to turn himself in. Sadly, Barry doesn't let him]].