History Film / Outlander2008

''Outlander'' is a 2008 film with a BMovie plot and inexplicable A-List talent: the cast includes JimCaviezel, Sophia Myles, Jack Huston, RonPerlman and JohnHurt, and the crew includes Barrie Osborne, producer of the latter two ''LordOfTheRings'' films. The director, Howard [=McCain=], originally conceived of the story as a sci-fi adaptation of ''Literature/{{Beowulf}}'', then screenwriter Dirk Blackman reworked it into something that didn't wear its inspiration on its sleeves so. The resulting film could be considered a sci-fi [[HistoricalInjoke real story behind the legend]] of ''Beowulf''.

* ArtisticLicenseBiology: Kainan's computer describes Earth as an "abandoned seed colony." It is generally acccepted that humans evolved on Earth.

* BareYourMidriff: when we first see Freya, she is wearing a leather crop-top, and a fur mini skirt. She wears a dress for the rest of the film.

--> '''Boromir''': Now that, was ''not'' a bear...

** it makes a certain degree of sense if you take both TranslationConvention and HumanAliens at face value.

* CaliforniaDoubling: set in Norway, filmed in Canada.

* ClarkesThirdLaw: [[spoiler:Freya mistook Kainan for a servant of the Gods]] at the end of the film.

* DiesWideOpen: [[spoiler:Wulfric]], at the end of the film. [[spoiler:Kainan]] does the required palm-over-face eye-closing.

* HeroicBSOD: "There is no god. There is no destiny. There is just me."

* LastOfHisKind: The Moorwen and it's offspring.

* MamaBear: Needless to say, after already having the rest of its kind wiped out, the Moorwen was very pissed off over the death of it's one and only offspring.

* WhatMeasureIsANonHuman: The Moorwen, having her planet ravaged, her species exterminated and her family slaughtered (twice)... for being not human, she can't get her revenge.
* WhatMeasureIsANonCute: The Moorwen's child, it is just a cub, but it is blinded and beheaded anyway.

* ExpositionBeam: Kainan's computer beams the Norse language into his brain through his eyeball. It's quite unpleasant.

* CollapsibleHelmet: Kainen wears one in the opening scene. It never shows up again.

''Outlander'' is a 2008 film with a BMovie plot and inexplicable A-List talent: the cast includes Jim Caviezel, Sophia Myles, Jack Huston, RonPerlman and JohnHurt, and the crew includes Barrie Osborne, producer of the latter two ''LordOfTheRings'' films. The director, Howard [=McCain=], originally conceived of the story as a sci-fi adaptation of ''Literature/{{Beowulf}}'', then screenwriter Dirk Blackman reworked it into something that didn't wear its inspiration on its sleeves so. The resulting film could be considered a sci-fi [[HistoricalInjoke real story behind the legend]] of ''Beowulf''.

* HelloHaymaker: Freya's greeting to Kainan after his first escape attempt in which he knocked her unconscious.

* EverythingsWorseWithBears: Except when they have something ''much'' worse to deal with. Whilst hunting for the Moorwen in a cave, a bear attacks Rothgar and his men, which is killed by Kainan. Due to not entirely believing his story about the Moorwen, thinking the bear was responsible for the people it killed, they celebrate and believe the danger has passed. They later see that they were very, ''very'' wrong when they witness the Moorwen slaughtering Gunnar's men.
--> '''Boromir''': Now that, was ''not'' a bear...

* DeadLittleSister: Kainan's dead wife and son.

* Fiery Redhead: Freya. Despite becoming a [[DistressedDamsel]] halfway through the film, she is outpsoken, rebellious against her father's choice of groom, and can wield a sword well enough to kill a warrior.

* GoingNative: [[spoiler: At the end, Kainan chooses to remain on Earth and becomes a king.]]

* HeroicBSOD: "There is no gods. There is no destiny. There is just me."

* LastOfHisKind: The Moorwen and its offspring.

* MamaBear: Needless to say, after already having the rest of its kind wiped out, the Moorwen was very pissed off over the death of its one and only offspring.

* ShoutOut: Two vikings named [[LordOfTheRings Boromir and Faramir]].

* WhatMeasureIsANonCute: The Moorwen's son, it is just a cub, but it is blinded and beheaded anyway.

* DeusExitMachina: Kainin has a pretty cool RayGun at the beginning of the film, which presumably would have made killing the Moorwen much easier. So, when Wulfric attacks Kainin, the gun falls into a river and is never seen again.

* HumansAreBastards: Tell me you didn't feel sorry for the Moorwen's species during Kainen's flashback.

* OneSceneWonder: RonPerlman as Gunnar, the king of a rival tribe.

* EverythingsWorseWithBears: Except when they have something ''much'' worse to deal with. Whilst hunting for the Moorwen in a cave, a bear attacks Rothgar and his men, which is killed by Kainan. Due to not entirely believing his story about the Moorwen, thinking the bear was responsible, they celebrate and believe the danger has passed. They later see that they were very, ''very'' wrong when they witness the Moorwen slaughtering Gunnar's men.

* EverythingsWorseWithBears

* XMeetsY: The American cover repeats some critic's blurb, billing it as "''Literature/{{Beowulf}}'' meets ''{{Predator}}''".

* SlapSlapKiss: Freya and Kainan.

* IBroughtItHere: Actually spoken out loud by Kainen when referring to the Moorwen.

* ThunderboltIron: A rare non-meteoric example. Kainan salvages scraps of metal from his crashed spaceship for the Viking blacksmith to forge into a CoolSword.

* WrongGenreSavvy: [[spoiler: A priest mistakes the Moorwen for a demon and tries to exorcise it. He is predictably killed.]]

* IChooseToStay: At the end, [[spoiler: a rescue ship arrives for Kainan, but he destroys his distress beacon, and the presumably automated ship leaves.]]

* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: Wulfric warms up to Kainen pretty quickly.

* KarmaHoudini: Kainan is complicit in a planet's destruction and a species's near-total genocide... [[spoiler:and he ends up saving the day, gets the girl, and becomes a King]]. However he is [[MyGodWhatHaveIDone incredibly remorseful]] [[DefectorFromDecadence for the whole mess]]. [[spoiler:There is a moment before Kainan finally kills the Moorwen when he and the creature make eye contact, perhaps acknowledging this.]]

* ScreamingWoman: After Freya is kidnapped, she spends much of her time screaming.

* CombatTentacles / WhipItGood: The Moorwen's tail is deadly.

* ExpositionBeam: Kainan's computer beams the Norse language into his brain through his eyeballs.
* FromACertainPointOfView: The Vikings never suspect Kainan's true origins, because he uses terms and metaphors they would understand to explain his history and that of the Moorwen's.

* GoingNative: At the end, [[spoiler: Kainan chooses to remain on Earth and becomes a king.]]

* DidNotDoTheResearch: The last part of the movie takes place in lava-filled tunnels. The Fennoscandian Shield which makes up Norway's land mass is one of the most tectonically stable areas in the world, and has had no volcanic activity for hundreds of millions of years.

* DiesWideShut: [[spoiler:Wulfric]], at the end of the film. [[spoiler:Kainan]] does the required palm-over-face eye-closing.

''Outlander'' is a 2008 film with a BMovie plot and inexplicable A-List talent: the cast includes Jim Caviezel, Sophia Myles, Jack Huston, RonPerlman and JohnHurt, and the crew includes Barrie Osborne, producer of the latter two ''LordOfTheRings'' films. The director, Howard [=McCain=], originally conceived of the story as a sci-fi adaptation of ''{{Beowulf}}'', then screenwriter Dirk Blackman reworked it into something that didn't wear its inspiration on its sleeves so. The resulting film could be considered a sci-fi [[HistoricalInjoke real story behind the legend]] of ''Beowulf''.

* XMeetsY: The American cover repeats some critic's blurb, billing it as "''{{Beowulf}}'' meets ''{{Predator}}''".