History Film / SpaceMutiny

** The Mortuary Keeper is just there running the facility where failed Mooks are frozen until necessary. He may work for the villain, but when the heroes arrive he asks if they need help or would like a SpotOfTea. He also answers all their questions about the BigBad's EvilPlan. He doesn't really seem evil at all, and is likely being forced to work for Kalgan against his will, if the sad look on his face while Lobster Boy roughs up a goon is any indication.

''Space Mutiny'' was filmed in UsefulNotes/SouthAfrica during UsefulNotes/TheApartheidEra (a fact understandably not mentioned on the end credits - see also ''Prisoners of the Lost Universe'', ''Golden Rendezvous'', ''Hellgate,'' etc.), which some viewers think ties in to all the pseudo-fascistic goings-on (and explains the all-white cast, not that that was exactly unusual in Hollywood action movies of the time). The film also borrows almost all of its spaceship footage from ''Series/{{Battlestar Galactica|1978}}'', including using the ''Galactica'' itself as a stand in for the ''Southern Sun''.

* DressingAsTheEnemy: Awkwardly handled. Ryder kicks the crap out a mook and steals his perfectly-fitted costume, even though the guy was half his size.

* DangerouslyShortSkirt: Lea's dancing outfit has one of these and her dancing scene has her bending over and showing how short it is.

* TheChosenOne: The Bellerians spend most of their scenes dancing around a plasma ball, possibly seeing into the future. They ''seem'' to believe that Ryder is destined to save the ship, though their dialogue makes it very unclear.

* MayDecemberRomance: The Bellerians giving a lapd-- ''ahem'', imparting the cosmic truth to the Commander.

* {{Zeerust}}: The future looks a lot like TheEighties. Having keyboards bolted to the wall is supposed to look high-tech.

* MoralDissonance: The way Ryder dispatches [[ManOnFire the evil MacPhearson]] is pretty brutal. It doesn't help that [=MacPhearson=] was helpless at that point and basically begging for his life.

* GenerationShips: The Southern Sun is one, but since Ryder and others shuttle back and forth to other locations it isn't at all clear ''why.''

* SpaceX:
** Not only the title...
** Kalgan says, "You let that space bitch slip through our fingers!"
** The pirates call upon the ''Southern Sun'' to surrender or be blown into "astro-dust".

* SpaceX: Seemingly happens every dozen lines or so, as demonstrated by Kalgan repeatedly calling Lea a "space bitch", and the SpacePirates threatening to blow the ''Southern Sun'' into "astro-dust".

* GreekChorus: The Bellerians don't do much accept comment on the goings-on around them... and maybe influence events with their poorly explained magical powers, but that's not entirely clear.

* ArtisticLicenseMilitary: Whoever wrote this didn't seem to know that, in the Navy, Captain is supposed to outrank Commander, because Captain Devers is shown to be subordinate to Commander Jansen. Devers always calls Jansen "Sir", while Jansen calls Devers by name or by rank. Ryder also says that Jansen "runs the ship". For what it's worth, the original ''[[Series/BattlestarGalactica1978 Battlestar Galactica]]'' had a similar rank structure with Commander as the highest-ranking officer on the ship, making it possible that the film-makers were cribbing more than just special effects shots from the show.
** It appears that Jansen is overall leader of the colonists, while Devers commands the ship proper. Something like a civilian head-of-state and the head of his military.

* ArtisticLicenseAstronomy:

* TheChosenOne: =The Bellerians spend most of their scenes dancing around, possibly seeing into the future. They seem to believe that Ryder is destined to save the ship.

* ArtisticLicenseMilitary: Whoever wrote this didn't seem to know that Captain is supposed to outrank Commander, because Captain Devers is shown to be subordinate to Commander Jansen. Devers always calls Jansen "Sir", while Jansen calls Devers by name or by rank. Ryder also says that Jansen "runs the ship". For what it's worth, the original ''[[Series/BattlestarGalactica1978 Battlestar Galactica]]'' had a similar rank structure with Commander as the highest-ranking officer on the ship, making it possible that the film-makers were cribbing more than just special effects shots from the show.

%%* TheChosenOne: Ryder, according to the Bellerians.

* TheChosenOne: Ryder, according to the Bellerians.

* SciFiWritersHave/NoSenseOfMass: The Southern Sun is said to house "thousands of migrants". However, when we see the main bar/club it looks big enough for maybe a few dozen people (granted, there could be more than one such bar, however there's nothing in the movie to indicate this).
** At one point Ryder is giving the other crew members a rousing speech before they go off to fight the mutineers. We see maybe 10-15 guys listening and cheering (likely because they [[NoBudget couldn't afford any more extras than that for the scene.]])
** The ship has thousands of people on it. There are only about 200 or so enforcers, yet they are able to nearly take over the ship. This ''might'' make sense if they were the only ones with guns, but most of the good guys have them as well. As such, you'd think it would be a CurbstompBattle in the good guys' favor.

* BridgeBunnies: Some of whom are dressed so scantily they may as well be Playboy Bunnies. At one point Mike notes that one lady's hair hides her entire outfit and she looks like she's sitting around nude.

* CoolStarship: The Southern Sun. Except it's the ''Galactica''.

* CrypticBackgroundReference: Someone talks about how the mutiny would "Oppose the Law Of The Universe, The Law Of The Galaxy." We never find out just what the hell he's talking about, and the whole thing just serves as a HandWave for why Parsons wont join. (it also seemingly uses galaxy and universe as synonyms, [[SciFiWritersHaveNoSenseOfScale but that's its own problem.]])

* PeopleJars / HumanPopsicle: Kalgan tends to freeze prisoners (or [[YouHaveFailedMe failure subordinates]]) in cryogenic suspension rather than kill them outright. This is actually a fairly canny move, as once he's taken over the ship he can thaw them out so they can still be useful to him. Unfortunately the movie didn't have a budget for a cryogenics lab so they just hung four or five guys wrapped in plastic up on a coat rack.

** The ship has thousands of people on it. There are only about 200 or so enforcers, yet they are able to nearly take over the ship. This ''might'' make sense if they were the only ones with guns, but most of the good guys have them as well. As such, you'd think it would be a CurbstompBattle in the good guys favor.

-->'''Tom:''' "I'm sitting in something wet!"

''Space Mutiny'' (also known as ''Mutiny in Space'') is a 1988 legendarily bad South African science-fiction action film starring Creator/RebBrown about, [[SarcasmMode surprisingly enough]], a mutiny aboard the spaceship known as the ''Southern Sun''.

* BackFromTheDead: Due to poor editing, a woman who was murdered reappears (as an extra) in the very next scene.

* TheChosenOne: Ryder, according to the Belarians.

** The Belarians are basically made of this trope. They spend all their time dancing around in swimsuits and gauze and give magical lapdances to the crew.
* {{Filler}}: The Belarians were obviously added at the last minute to fill time. Other than a brief scene with the Commander, nobody even talks about them except in voice-over. Their effect on the plot is tangential at best; at one point they pointlessly seduce a couple of guards for no stated reason, and later on they tell the Commander that there's a mutiny on his ship (which he already knows anyway) while giving him a mystical lapdance. What little interaction they have with the rest of the movie is clearly stitched together in editing from unrelated scenes, with an implication that they are somehow causing various events through magic (or something). The effects in their scenes also take a nosedive even for this movie, consisting entirely of some store-bought plasma balls and a fog machine.
* FixItInPost: The long list of editors in the opening credits should be a tip-off that this movie likely went through post-production hell. In addition to the Belarians mentioned above, the whole Pirate Attack subplot built up during the first half of the movie is a hastily thrown together collection of reused scenes from earlier in the movie combined with second-shoot footage of the B-cast explaining the plot to the audience.

* MartyrWithoutACause: The engineer who discovers the missing explosives is given the option to join Kalgon or die, and he picks option #2. It doesn't occur to him to simply pretend to join Kalgon to sabotage his plans or look for an opportunity to escape. Even worse, the options Kalgan gives him are to either join him or be cryogenically frozen. [[StupidSacrifice The engineer chooses to jump off the catwalk instead.]] Even if he was unwilling to pull a FakeDefector, he could have opted to be frozen in hopes of being rescued when the mutiny failed.
* MayDecemberRomance: The Bellarians giving a lapd-- ''ahem'', imparting the cosmic truth to the Commander.

** The Bellarians count as well. Who they are and why they are rescued is never explained. In addition, they are all forced to share a single cargo hold as living quarters (though they don't seem to mind), implying they can't be allowed to just roam the ship freely with everyone else, but again, we never learn why.

** You could arguably count the Enforcers as a whole, since they were all forced to JoinOrDie by Kalgon, though they're at the very least openly mean-spirited.

** The head of the Enforcers wears pants and red martial arts pads, but no shirt.

* TheDragon: [=MacPherson=], to Kalgan.

* EvilCripple: [=MacPherson=], co-conspirator of the mutiny, who needs a cane to get around and occasionally uses it to kill people.

* KillItWithFire: A, for want of a better word, flamethrower features during the main battle. Later, [=MacPherson=] makes the unwise decision of trying to hide in the Gas Expulsion Sump, which Ryder promptly fills with methane and sets on fire.
* LargeHam: The sheer amount of ham on this spaceship could put [[Franchise/StarTrek Captain Kirk]] to shame. Not only our hero Ryder qualifies, but also Kalgan and his right-hand flunky [=MacPherson.=] Even Lea gets in on it from time to time.

* MickeyMousing: When [=MacPherson=] stabs a dissenting crew member, with a ScareChord on each stab.

* OohMeAccentsSlipping: South African actress Billy Second's American accent as Lt. Lamont wavers ''very'' noticeably as noted by the [=RiffTrax=] crew during the live show.

* SpaceClothes: An unfortunate double standard seems to be set here. Men usually wear semi-futuristic jumpsuits, which are [[ColorCodedForYourConvenience white and silver for good guys and brown and black for the villainous mooks]] (except for [[{{Turncoat}} MacPherson]]). Women often wear Space Leotards, though a few of them do get jumpsuits too (see Stripperiffic, below). Commander Jansen wears a silvery Space Muumuu, and Lobster Boy wears what looks like red martial arts pads with no shirt underneath.

** Female crewmembers besides Lt. Lamont all dress like Series/AmericanGladiators.

* UnexplainedRecovery: As noted above, Lamont is killed in one scene and then appears on the bridge in ''the very next scene'' totally unharmed (though she has no more lines in the movie, so it was probably bad editing).

* {{Nerd}}: First Engineer Steve Cadell [[note]]''Codell? Godell? Gadell?''[[/note]] has [[TheShortGuyWithGlasses shades of this]], [[{{Meganekko}} complete with]] NerdGlasses and [[SmartPeopleWearGlasses general]] [[{{Adorkable}} awkwardness]].

* BreastPlate: A rare male example. Kalgon's bodyguard (who is NoNameGiven in the movie, but called Lobster Boy by fans) wears what looks like some sort of red sports padding over his upper body with nothing underneath, in stark contrast to the rest of the Enforcers, who wear full body jumpsuits.

** You could arguably count the Enforcers as a whole, though they're at the very least openly mean-spirited.