History Film / Surrogates

* RidiculouslyHumanRobots: Hmm Bruce Will sure looks like [[RobotMe Robot Bruce Willis]], that could be confusing. Fortunately one has a beard and the other wears a wig!

* {{Homage}}: The film's overall focus on the implications of cyborgs makes it a clear homage to GhostInTheShell.

* AntiVillain: [[spoiler:Lionel Cantor, he regrets inventing the surrogates and wants to free humanity from his mistake. Until at the end in a case of [[WhatTheHellHero What the Hell Anti-Villain?]] he decides to kill one billion people for some reason.]]

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* AcceptableTargets: The non-surrogate-using populace in the Dread reservations (or the one we see) is primarily composed of various species of hillbillies. As well, the first half of Rule #29 is played with--twice.
* AlternateCharacterInterpretation: Greer, good guy or bad guy? [[spoiler: In the end, I mean.]]

* MoralEventHorizon: While the audience doesn't know it's [[spoiler: Lionel Canter]] operating the surrogate at the time, people seem to forget that he [[spoiler: murdered Greer's partner in while she was asleep]], and that [[spoiler:she was ''pregnant'']].

* TheChessmaster: [[spoiler:Lionel Canter.]]
* TheMole: [[spoiler:Strickland was working for Andrew Stone, who wanted Canter dead, possibly on VSI orders.]]
* TheReveal: [[spoiler:Canter is The Prophet.]]

* UncannyValley: The surrogates in the film. They have a shiny, overly made-up look and clearly aren't quite people.
** A number of the actors portraying surrogates appeared to take special care moving just a ''hair'' more stiffly, and to not look like they were breathing. And while certain surrogates are indistinguishable from real people [[spoiler:like the Prophet]], the "life-like" appearance varied according to the quality and model of the surrogate. The landlord, for instance, is using a cheap, temporary model.

To explain more fully: this is a film where everybody[[hottip:*:or at least the USA]] lives though robotic puppets known as Surrogates and the problems that result when the main character has to go out in the world without his robotic puppet.]]

To explain more fully: this is a film where everybody[[[[hottip:*:or at least the USA]] lives though robotic puppets known as Surrogates and the problems that result when the main character has to go out in the world without his robotic puppet.

* AlternateCharacterInterpretation: Greer, good guy or bad guy? [[supersecretspoiler: In the end, I mean.]]

* WhatYouAreInTheDark: I can be anything I want without anyone ever finding out, and the worst thing that can happen to me is that I have to order a new robot? What could ''possibly'' go wrong here?

* InformedWrongness: Transhumanism is wrong. The only definition of human is strictly biological. Sorry for anyone with a pacemaker, a cochlear implant, or a prosthetic leg.

* InformedWrongness: Transhumanism is wrong. The only definition of human is strictly biological. Sorry for anyone with a pacemaker, a cochlear implant to cure your deafness, or a prosthetic leg.

* BloodlessCarnage

* HeyItsThatGuy: James Cromwell as a techological genius whose invention has revolutionized the world? [[{{Ptitle46vep1yvhihu}} Where have I seen this bit before?]]

''Surrogates'' provides examples of:

** Well, the trope is really adverted due to it looking {{Badass}}.

Set TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture ([[ExtyYearsFromNow 14 years]], or 2017 for those reading this in TheFuture), ''Surrogates'' deals with [[WhatYouAreInTheDark identity problems]] and warns against the use of crutches for [[NoMedicationForMe those who don't need them]].