Line #126 Film/Bright


1	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/bright_uk.jpg]]
2
3	->'''Jakoby:''' I think we might be in a prophecy.\
4	'''Ward:''' We're ''not'' in a prophecy, all right? We're in a ''stolen Toyota Corolla''.
5
6	''Bright'' is a 2017 crime/fantasy film directed by Creator/DavidAyer and written by Creator/MaxLandis. It stars Creator/WillSmith, Creator/JoelEdgerton, Creator/NoomiRapace and Lucy Fry.
7
8	Set in an alternate present-day where humans, orcs, elves, and fairies have been co-existing since the beginning of time. ''Bright'' is a genre-bending action movie that follows two cops from very different backgrounds. Daryl Ward (Will Smith) and Nick Jakoby (Joel Edgerton), embark on a routine patrol night and encounter a darkness that will ultimately alter the future and their world as they know it.
9
10	Instead of a theatrical release, the film was released on Creator/{{Netflix}} in December of 2017. The trailer is [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2SRM1WpVEY4https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2SRM1WpVEY4https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2SRM1WpVEY4 here]].
11
12	Less than a month after its release, Netflix stated they were working on a sequel, but as of 2022 it is no longer in development. In 2021, it was announced that that ''Bright'' was getting an animated film spin off set in medieval Japan, ''Anime/BrightSamuraiSoul''.
13	----
14	!!Tropes:
15
16	* AbortedArc:
17	** Internal Affairs' plot to have Ward [[EngineeredPublicConfession tape Jakoby confessing]] to get him expelled from the police is never mentioned again. [[spoiler: Given that both are declared heroes at the end and awarded, they presumably backed off the idea]].
18	** At first, it looks as if the Shield of Light member whom Ward and Jakoby arrest will have a much larger role in the film. The first trailer also emphasizes this by having him clutch a flaming sword (which he never does). His extremist group does appear later if only [[spoiler:to be killed off,]] but after his interrogation scene, he's never seen again.
19	* AerithAndBob: Dorghu, the leader of the Fogteeth clan, has a son named Mikey.
20	* {{Afrofuturism}}: The film's use of [[FantasticRacism fantasy tropes]] to [[DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything comment on present-day racial issues]] makes it at least an attempt at the genre.
21	* AlienArtsAreAppreciated: Orcish music sounds like heavy metal music, even their love songs. Nick tries to play some in the radio to bond with Ward, but he doesn't want to hear any of it. Later, orcs are seen in a violent thrash metal club, but are calm and relaxed [[SugarWiki/FunnyMoments as if they were in a smokey and romantic jazz/blues club]].
22	* AllOfTheOtherReindeer:
23	** Jakoby is treated with scorn and disgust by his fellow cops because he's an orc. Even his own kind despise him, considering him a race traitor for becoming a cop and working with humans, who in turn generally work for elves. This in spite of the fact that Nick is an "unblooded" orc who, per orcish tradition, is an outcast with no obligation to any orc clan.
24	** Nick's unblooded status is indicated by his filed-down teeth, as orc culture allows only blooded orcs to display tusks. Several orcs, like the chauffeur in Elftown, insult Nick by simply pointing to their own teeth.
25	** Blooded status is apparently hereditary, given several bits of dialog and the fact that multiple orc children and teenagers are seen with unfiled teeth. This makes it all the more poignant when [[spoiler: Nick gets blooded by Dorghu and the Fogteeth gang, as it means that the Jakoby family is honored with him. No wonder he briefly breaks into ManlyTears over it.]]
26	* AllThereInTheManual: Netflix released a [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PRRoAZcwQMY supplementary video]] detailing the backstory of magic, the wands, the Dark Lord's rising and the Brights in general. It also confirms the Dark Lord and Jirak were the very first Brights in existence.
27	* AlienBlood: The fairy beaten up by Ward bleeds purple blood.
28	* AlternateHistory: In this universe, humans have co-existed with fantastical creatures since the dawn of time and over two thousand years ago, a figure known as the Dark Lord nearly took over the world and it took the combined might of nine armies to bring him down. Apart from that major event, history seems to have followed more or less the same path. The Alamo and the [=LAPD's=] Rampart corruption scandal are specifically mentioned.
29	* AmbiguouslyGay: Tikka spends almost the entire run of the movie in a state of panic and terror...except when Ward and Jakoby take her to a strip club. Then she gets positively giddy and delighted at the sight of half-naked women writhing on stage. Jakoby exhibits shades of this, too, as some of his attempts to tease his partner while on patrol sound ''very'' much like genuine flirting. Ward even calls Jakoby out on Jakoby possibly being gay and Jakoby says nothing to deny it.
30	* AncientTradition: The Shield of Light, an ancient order that fights to prevent the resurrection of the Dark Lord and believe that magic will be necessary to defeat him should he ever arise again.
31	* AndroclesLion: Jakoby [[spoiler: helped a tagger escape, knowing he would have been made a fall guy for the attempted murder of a cop. He turns up later in the Fogteeth's HQ, and refuses to kill him.]] [[SubvertedTrope Subverted]] when [[spoiler: his father understands, but simply sends his son away and then shoots Jakoby himself.]]
32	* ArmorPiercingQuestion:
33	** When Ward tells Jakoby to just ask him for guidance and trust his advice, Jakoby points out the hypocrisy of the statement by asking why he is supposed to have total trust in someone that doesn't trust him.
34	** Ward gets a humorous one in when criticizing the FantasticRacism of Pollard and the other cops in his unit: "How is it that a bunch of dumbasses who can't remember their baby-mommas' birthdays still have a hard on for some shit that happened two thousand years ago?"
35	* TheArtifact:
36	** In the initial drafts of the script, Ward was estranged from his wife and daughter, and that's the reason Jakoby tells him he's lacking in love in the car. Along the lines it was changed so that Ward has a happy marriage, but the line was still left in.
37	** Some of Tikka's behaviour is a holdover from when she was a child in early drafts.
38	* ArtifactOfDoom: Magical Wands are weapons of mass destruction that presumably have unlimited power in the hands of a Bright (a person able to wield magic). It also kills any non-Bright that tries to touch it. How powerful are they? Tikka, who still is only a novice in their use, uses it to [[spoiler: bring Jakoby back from the dead.]]
39	* AssholeVictim: Played with [[spoiler:the corrupt cops that try to kill Ward, Jakoby, and Tikka, when they are gunned down by Ward in self-defense, with Jakoby, having no clue what's going on, sticking to the book and trying to arrest Ward despite how horribly the shot cops had treated Nick in the past. Pollard survives long enough for Leilah's arrival, and unfortunately for him she's there to kill all witnesses. Messily. With that said, in order to protect Ward and Jakoby, the feds concoct a cover story where the slain corrupt cops died fighting an extremist group, thus ensuring that they go down as heroes, much to Ward's disgust, as they are posthumously honored alongside Rodriguez, who was a good cop]].
40	** Also the gangsters who get massacred by the Inferni. Yeah they were jerks, but shoot that was a hard way to go.
41	* AuthorAppeal:
42	** Much in the vein of Ayers' other films like ''Film/TrainingDay'', ''Film/StreetKings'', ''Film/HarshTimes'' and ''Film/EndOfWatch'', this film takes place in the world of cops and gangsters of modern Los Angeles.
43	** Writer Max Landis is a noted fan of fantasy/sci-fi themes. He also slips in oblique references to the Orcs being like Jews in addition to the much more obvious African-American allegory.
44	* AwLookTheyReallyDoLoveEachOther: Ward and Jakoby have a pretty tense relationship from the get go, despite being Partners in the LAPD. Ward tolerates his presence, but holds some pretty deep racism against Orcs, and/or is really fed up with being partnered with a guy who makes him a target. However, as they work to survive the events of the film, signs of them beginning to trust and respect each other show through.
45	** Ward was apparently willing to go along with the Internal Affairs plot to disgrace Jakoby until Jakoby [[spoiler: comes clean about how he let a suspect escape.]]
46	** Ward ends up [[spoiler: single-handedly saving Jakoby (and himself and Tikka) from a group of corrupt cops who were plotting to steal the magic wand and murder the protagonist trio in order to leave no witnesses.]]
47	** Nick saves Ward at numerous points in the film, mostly toward the end, where he [[spoiler: shoots Leilah as she was about to kill Ward, and then risks his life by running into a burning building to save Ward.]]
48	** Their SnarkToSnarkCombat throughout the film shows signs of them getting to like one another.
49	** The one to take the cake is possibly when [[spoiler: Jakoby is briefly murdered by Dorghu. Ward appears absolutely mortified, and then begins daring his killer to shoot him too, spewing out any Orcish insult he can think of. Thankfully, due to magic, Jakoby is resurrected before he fires.]]
50	* BadassBoast: When Ward has his gun [[spoiler: trained on Jakoby, daring him to draw his sidearm and threatening to kill him.]]
51	-->'''Ward:''' I will fuck you up in a gunfight!
52	* BeethovenWasAnAlienSpy: According to supplementary backstory, Pharaoh Khufu and Sargon the Great of Akkad were both magicians with the former using his powers to build the Egyptian pyramids and the latter [[AscendToAHigherPlaneOfExistence transcended mortality]] and that the Wands were forged out of his body from his executioner, the Dark Lord.
53	* BittersweetEnding: On the bad side, [[spoiler:the {{dirty cop}}s are honored as heroes and despite his heroism, Jakoby is still viewed with scorn from most of the public]]. On the good side, [[spoiler:Tikka turns out to be alive, Jakoby is accepted by his orc brethren, and he and Ward have a closer relationship and are also honoured as heroes.]]
54	* BlackSpeech: Orcish, following the usual Tolkien tradition. PlayedForLaughs when Jakoby plays what he calls one of the greatest love songs ever written, despite the fact that the actual song playing is, in real life, "Hammer Smashed Face" by Music/CannibalCorpse.
55	* BigBad: Leilah, the elvish Bright and Inferni leader [[spoiler: who had intended to use the wand that was taken from her as one of three needed to bring the Dark Lord back to life.]]
56	* BigGood: Agent Kandomere is the closest thing we have in the story as a federal agent that has been hunting [[BigBad Leilah]] for twenty years and he is the only one that can protect Ward and Jakoby, who spend the entire movie trying to keep the wand safe, not knowing who they can trust. He actually seems skeptical of the Dark Lord's return, but nonetheless goes after the Inferni as a mass-murdering terrorist group.
57	* BodyHorror: In the warehouse where Tikka is hiding, there's an elf who's been fused to the wall, her torso completely gone, yet [[AndIMustScream still alive]].
58	* BookEnds:
59	** The movie begins and ends with a fairy's appearance.
60	** [[spoiler:The climax also takes place inside the warehouse where Ward and Jakoby found Tikka]].
61	* BreakingTheGlassCeiling: Nick Jakoby is the first orc police officer in the Los Angeles Police Department.
62	* BrokenAesop: Some critics have taken issue for the story's heavy-handed "Racism is Bad" message, but while the Orcs are depicted as NotEvilJustMisunderstood and DarkIsNotEvil, it has a huge in-universe ScrewYouElves mentality in how elves are widely hated by most of the humans for being rich Kardashian types obsessed with shopping in the Beverly Hills Expy, but is not presented as a bad thing like the Orcs. Either rendering it a confused metaphor for the upper class or the writers unintentionally invoking a DoubleStandard which is compounded by how they're presented as [[SissyVillain more feminine]] compared to the rugged, stoic orcs and humans.
63	* BuffySpeak: Ward's report to Sergeant Ching regarding the wand:
64	-->'''Ward:''' As far as we can tell, a Bright came in, used the wand... uh, magicked everybody the fuck up.
65	* BullyingADragon: Surrounded by orc gangsters, Ward has the balls to go up to one of them and compare him to ''Franchise/{{Shrek}}'', then doubles down by telling Nick to translate that into Orcish. Nick, on the other hand, [[ThisIsGonnaSuck just looks down and quietly says that they speak English]]. Expectedly, Ward gets his ass kicked by all of them.
66	* CainAndAbel: [[spoiler:Leilah and Tikka, respectively. The former sent an assassin to kill the latter when she deserts their group and tries one last time to bring her back during the climax. Tikka instead tells her to GetItOverWith and just kill her already, which Leilah tries to do before Ward stops her]].
67	* CardCarryingVillain: The ''Dark Lord'' is referred as such even by his devoted followers.
68	* TheCameo: Creator/JoeRogan and his podcast show make a brief appearance at the start, interviewing an Orc spokesman who considers Jakoby a CategoryTraitor for joining the LAPD.
69	* CantArgueWithElves: Elves are shown as being rich and glamorous. Their neighborhood in LA is the nicest and most affluent, with police checkpoints at all entrances to keep "undesirables" (mostly orcs, though humans are evidently also considered riffraff) out. They're also said to control the majority of the government and produce far more magic users than any other race. To quote Ward, in Elftown "Even the [Orc] chauffeurs are snobs."
70	* CategoryTraitor: Most of the orc population of LA looks at Jakoby with contempt for joining the police.
71	* TheCavalry: When Ward and Jakoby start investigating a crime scene, Jakoby asks if they should wait for the cavalry. Ward replies that they ''are'' the cavalry.
72	* CharacterTics: Tikka often jumps, slides, and swings around Parkour-style when running, even when there’s no particular reason to. Even when not running, she often climbs on anything nearby. Ward quickly gets tired of it, telling her to sit her crazy ass down for a second.
73	* ChekhovsGunman: The [[spoiler: young orc boy that Jakoby saves from the police turns out to be the son of the Fogtooth gang's leader, and when asked by his father to kill Jakoby, the orc boy refuses for this reason.]]
74	* ChildrenAreInnocent: Though she repeats some prejudiced comments from her mother, Ward's daughter Sophia is very friendly to Jakoby, and even admonishes her father for yelling at him.
75	* ColourCodedForYourConvenience: The wand glows an with an incandescent blue-white light when its magic is activated or when it is wielded by an elf Bright, but it glows red when [[spoiler:wielded by a human Bright.]]
76	* ComboPlatterPowers: Magical Wands have seemingly unlimited potential. It has been used to strip enemies to the bone, create money out of thin air, resurrect the dead, heal ailments and assuming Pollard isn't exaggerating when describing their power, it's likely possible to travel back in time with it.
77	* ConLang: Creator/DavidJPeterson created languages and scripts for the languages the elves and the orcs use in the movie. The elvish language is called Övüsi, and orcish is Bodzvokhan.
78	* ContrivedCoincidence: The Shield of Light member, when interviewed by the MTF, points out how it's a "strange coincidence" that elves, who produce the most brights and thus are more able to wield magic, happen to also be largely rich, successful, influential, and generally rule the world and aren't held accountable for the actions of the Dark Lord or the Inferni, contrasting the way orcs are looked at. It's never outright said, but it seems heavily implied that elves use magic to ensure this status quo in order to maintain control.
79	* CopKiller: Plenty to go around; Leilah and her sidekicks. [[spoiler: Officer Ward is one too, but he did it in self-defense and his victims were all corrupt cops.]]
80	* CrapsackWorld: The city of Los Angeles is a crime-ridden hellhole wracked with both regular and FantasticRacism full of violent human and orcish gangs, [[DirtyCop corrupt cops]], PoliceBrutality, and poverty. The establishing shot of the LA skyline sums it up: glittering skyscrapers downtown (with the tallest and fanciest being in Elftown, behind machine gun-equipped checkpoints with "Elves Only" signs) while smoke from numerous structure fires rises from the less-affluent (and predominantly orcish) neighborhoods. Played with, as it is implied that the rest of the world is nowhere near as bad, as an orc describes [[OnlyInFlorida Miami as a place where humans, orcs, and dwarves get along pretty well]].
81	** Crime is much higher in this universe than in ours. The LAPD ride around in MRAP vehicles with .50-caliber machine guns on top like they're in a warzone, and even the regular patrol cars have bulletproof windows.
82	* DarkActionGirl: Leilah, and her sidekick Tien.
83	* {{Deconstruction}}:
84	** Of [[Film/TheLordOfTheRings Legolas type]] super-elves. Turns out having a race of such beings in real life would be completely horrifying for a multitude of reasons: their incredible physical abilities make them nigh-impossible to kill (though it's unclear how much of the villains' martial prowess is pure elvishness and how much is their affiliation with the Inferni), their magical prowess makes the average one akin to a super-weapon if they get a [[ArtifactOfDoom Wand]], and their total superiority to all races makes them sociopathically immoral with the vast majority of them openly controlling society.
85	** Also of [[BeautyEqualsGoodness beauty equaling goodness]], or at least people tending to believe such. The Dark Lord was an incredibly evil elf heading an army of mostly orcs, against some other orcs mixed with the other races. This could have resulted in elves being hated, and orcs being viewed neutrally. But elves are beautiful and orcs are ugly, which amplifies the issue of elven physical superiority, so the ultimate result is that orcs are viewed as the villains while the elves rule the world. Made more blatant by the hero who rallied the joint resistance against the Dark Lord having been an orc. And yet this does not seem to buy his race any credibility.
86	* DenOfIniquity: The various clubs the characters stumble through, full of coke sniffing gangsters and strippers.
87	* DirtyCop: All over the LAPD, with many of them acting as obstacles to our protagonists. [[spoiler: Ward is forced to gun down four of them, including his watch sergeant, after they plot to steal the wand and murder Ward, Jakoby, and Tikka in the process.]]
88	-->'''Ward:''' Half of this division is in on some old-school Rampart shit!
89	* DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything: The plight of orcs parallels the experience of almost every ethnic minority in America in some way or other.
90	** An urban US setting in which one race is openly discriminated against, gets the crummy jobs at best, has developed a gang culture in response and is subject to extreme violence by the police? What could that stand for?
91	** Also, an ethnic group getting hated on for the actions of some members two thousand years ago. There is also the fact, they endured persecution and extermination for centuries as well, since Pollard boasts that his ancestors killed orcs by the thousands in Russia (mirroring real-life pogroms).
92	** Orcs speak English as their first language but still maintain fluency in Orcish, using it for [[HidingBehindTheLanguageBarrier discreet conversation]] or when they want to spite an anglophone (human) cop. In inner-city California, this obviously mirrors a lot of hispanic neighborhoods, but can easily draw comparison with almost any immigrant population.
93	** If the fact that the Elven district of LA is walled off with armed guards, and even Ward, ''a police officer,'' is trepidatious about just passing through there as a shortcut to get to the precinct, is taken into consideration, you could easily argue that ''enforced racial segregation'' in this city is still around to some degree.
94	* DramaticThunder: Multiple times, mostly when the Inferni are on screen.
95	* DungeonPunk: We've got orcs and elves, dragons and fairies, all coexisting in a cynical modern-day setting where magic works. The only genre hallmark this movie ''doesn't'' have is {{Magitek}}.
96	* EvenEvilHasLovedOnes:
97	** Pretty much the ''only'' sympathetic moment Leilah has in the movie is when she tries to [[spoiler: convince Tikka to return to the Inferni... because she is her sister. She even rants and screams at Ward, convinced the human must have somehow corrupted her. Subverted in the next scene, when she remorselessly threatens to kill her if Ward doesn't return her wand.]]
98	** Poison, the Altamira shot caller, mentions he wants to "make love" (as opposed to just fuck) his old lady again.
99	** Dorghu, the Fogteeth gang leader, treats [[spoiler: his son]] with nothing but pride, and respects his decision [[spoiler: not to kill Jakoby (who had saved his life)]], rather than blindly follow orders.
100	* EvilCripple: Poison, complete with wheelchair and colostomy bag. He hates this so much he is more than willing to risk ''magically exploding'' if there's even the slightest chance it will get him out of the chair.
101	* EvilOverlord: The Dark Lord, a powerful elven renegade who tried to use magic to TakeOverTheWorld two thousand years before the events of the movie.
102	* TheFairFolk: Leilah and her associates embody all the worst and most monstrous traits associated with elves. And the Dark Lord himself is said to be so much worse. Really at best, elves as a whole are viewed as arrogant and privileged twits that not even humans can stand.
103	* FantasticNoir: The film is a crime-thriller with fantasy creatures in co-existence with society, including both sides of the law.
104	* FantasticNuke: Jakoby outright compares the MagicWand to a nuclear weapon. He says that just one wand in the wrong hands would result in "all of L.A. on fire."
105	* FantasticRacism:
106	** Most races look down on orcs as violent or untrustworthy, to the point that Jakoby is the first orc cop. This is because most orcs once sided with the Dark Lord, a Sauron-style Elvish overlord that tried to conquer the world two thousand years ago. Although most races seem to forget it was an orc who led the nine races to defeat the Dark Lord.
107	** Ward beats a fairy with a broom because it was eating from his bird feeder, though the casualness with which he does so indicates fairies are not considered a sapient species in this universe. Several ads for pest control services offering fairy removal are prominently posted around the city.
108	--->'''Ward:''' [[DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything Fairy lives don't matter today.]]
109	** Elves are despised by human and orc alike for being influential, rich and having more Brights than any species in the world. Their haughty, supremacist attitude towards the other races doesn't do them any favors, either. The LAPD visibly includes humans and centaurs, but elves seem to regard being a street cop as beneath them. Even Agent Kandomere, who heads an FBI task force, is implied to be very unusual as an elf in law enforcement.
110	--->'''Ward:''' Just a bunch of rich-ass elves running the world and [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking shopping]].
111	** There's plenty of real-world racism as well. Deputy Rodriguez responds to Nick's complaint about anti-orc prejudice with, "Hey, man, Mexicans still get shit for the fuckin' Alamo!"
112	* FantasticSlur: "Pigskin" seems to be the N-word equivalent for orcs.
113	** With "Puerco" being the Spanish equivalent.
114	* FantasticUnderclass: Orcs fill the role of a societal underclass, facing discrimination from other species and largely living in impoverished neighborhoods and ghettos.
115	* FantasticVermin: Fairies are urban pests of animal intelligence, acting much like aggressive birds.
116	* FantasyCounterpartReligion: Orcish religion has traits of both Christianity and European pagan faiths since they worship a MessianicArchetype that saved the world and their priests dress themselves like druids, respectively. It's unknown if traditional religions like Christianity and Islam exist in this universe, though multiple exclamations of "Jesus Christ!" suggest that some form of Christianity, at least, probably exists.
117	* FlamingSword: Very briefly seen in the trailer, wielded by a human.
118	* {{Foreshadowing}}: The crazy Shield of Light member rambles that Ward is blessed. [[spoiler:He identifies him as a Bright]].
119	* FromNobodyToNightmare: Dorghu, head of the Fogteeth gang, was a bus driver before he moved to LA and took over.
120	* FunnyBackgroundEvent:
121	** While Ward and Jakoby are preparing to fight a horde of GangBangers coming for the Wand at a strip club, behind them Tikka is busy staring at the strippers with an [[LesYay extremely happy]] look on her face.
122	** Before that, there's a shot of the L.A. skyline at night... with a ''freaking dragon the size of a 747'' lazily cruising around above it. No-one so much as ''mentions'' dragons throughout the movie, which raises the question of just how common and dangerous they are.
123	** During the civil disobedience scene, a centaur can be seen on the shield line, complete in LAPD riot gear.
124	** Anti-orc graffiti is prominently visible in the quicky mart bathroom. One graffito in between Ward and Jakoby reads, "'I Love Orcs' -Nobody."
125	* GenreBusting: Urban fantasy crime action thriller with a side of contemporary political allegory and buddy cop movie.
126	* GenreSavvy: [[spoiler: Ward tries to pick up the wand at the end because he realizes he's involved in fulfilling a prophecy, so there must be some twist involved. There is - he's a bright himself.]]
127	* GoodParents:
128	** For all his racism against non-humans (but mostly towards orcs), Ward tries to teach his daughter to not share his bigoted viewpoints. While he falls short of the standard himself, at least he tries and his little girl certainly doesn't.
129	** The orc gangleader doesn't get mad at his son nor is he in the least bit disappointed in him for not being able to pull the trigger on Jakoby [[spoiler: because Jakoby helped him escape to save him from taking the fall for the orc that shot Ward]].
130	* GovernmentAgencyOfFiction: Federal agents Kandomere and Montehugh work for the United States Department of Magic as part of the specialised Magic Task Force (MTF).
131	* GreaterScopeParagon: Jirak, the orc that led TheAlliance against the Dark Lord. Several graffiti show that some orcs revere him in modern times, despite the fact they are second-class citizens at best. Jakoby looks up to him and recites his legend in order to [[spoiler: convince Ward to save Tikka's life]].
132	* GreaterScopeVillain: The Dark Lord. He is responsible for the racism that modern orcs face today since many of their ancestors chose to fight for him, which led to many of them being hated and discriminated by everyone else. He is long dead by the time the movie takes place, but many people such as the Shield of Light fear his return, since it's believed that not even the most advanced modern weaponry could be able to bring him down.
133	** If he did come back, he would most likely command an army with comparable modern armament that could easily match the US military, if not every military forces in the world combined. Given that he’s an {{Expy}} of Sauron, no matter how many casualties his forces were to suffer, the Dark Lord himself would be vulnerable only to weaponized magic and lots of it.
134	* GrenadeTag: Jakoby deals with one of Leilah's minions by sticking an IED ([[ChekhovsGun that Ward had previously grabbed from the Shield of Light’s stash of guns]]) in her waistband, then shoving her out a window before Ward triggers it.
135	* HeroicSacrifice: Attempted towards the end of the movie when [[spoiler:Ward grabs the wand expecting to explode him and [[TakingYouWithMe take Leilah down with him]]. Turns out no self-sacrifice is required since he is a Bright and manages to use the wand to dispatch Leilah]].
136	* {{Homage}}: A Dark Lord graffiti depicts him as a white-haired elf similar to a range of characters from fantasy media, including [[Literature/TheElricSaga Elric of Melnibone]], [[Franchise/TheElderScrolls Mannimarco]], or [[Literature/TheLordOfTheRings Sauron]]'s [[VideoGame/MiddleEarthShadowOfMordor Annatar Lord of Gifts form]].
137	* HornedHumanoid: The orc priest wears a mask made up of a deer skull and antlers, giving him the appearance of this trope.
138	* HufflepuffHouse: Only humans, elves and orcs play an active role in this movie, but centaur cops can be seen in the background in some scenes, a crosswalk sign at the beginning is shown with a lizard-man silhouette, and the dwarves are mentioned as having a thriving community in Miami. Further, since the alliance that defeated the Dark Lord two thousand years ago was made up of ''nine'' races, and assuming that included some orcs who didn't fight on the Dark Lord's side, there are by implication three other sapient races unaccounted for who exist but don't play a role in the story.
139	* TheIlluminati: When Ward flippantly calls the Inferni "Elf Illuminati," Tikka corrects him by saying the Inferni massacred the Illuminati a hundred years ago.
140	* ImNotHereToMakeFriends: Jakoby says it's OK if Ward doesn't like him (presumably due to FantasticRacism, above), and Ward replies with this almost verbatim.
141	-->'''Jakoby''': Are we friends?\
142	'''Ward''': I think we should spend our time just trying to survive this shit.
143	* ImpaledWithExtremePrejudice: Jakoby nails Serafin to the wall with a chunk of pipe from a foosball table. [[spoiler: It doesn't take.]]
144	* ImplacableMan: Leilah and her two goons need a lot of firepower to be brought down, with Leilah herself catching a second wind [[spoiler: after being shot twice by Jakoby]].
145	* InformedAttribute: The Magic Wand is said to be able to grant any wish, but since the only people who use it are very inexperienced we're never shown ''how'' it does this exactly, or in fact see it do anything besides blowing people up. The wand clearly has limitations, and the general lack of experience with them that most characters display suggests that a fair amounts of the claims made about it are urban legends.
146	* InSpiteOfANail: Even though magic exists and non-human sapient species share the world with humanity, human history and technology seem to have progressed along more or less the exact same lines as in the real world. A line from Deputy Rodriguez indicates that even the events of [[RememberTheAlamo the Alamo]] still somehow occurred. Taken to an extreme when Ward makes a crack about Franchise/{{Shrek}} to an Orc, which begs the question of why a movie like Shrek would exist in a world where the various fairy tale creatures it references are ''actually real''.
147	* InterspeciesRomance: Any glance at the background characters makes it obvious that the different races (humans, orcs, elves) getting it on with each other is a pretty everyday sight.
148	* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: Ward. He is bigoted against non-humans, but is shown to be a caring family man and [[WhatYouAreInTheDark even defend Nick from his racist co-workers]], despite nurturing resentment towards him.
149	* KarmaHoudini: The orc that shot Ward before the start of the movie. He's never caught.
150	* KickTheDog: Leilah and her cohorts slaughter an innocent Mexican family to leave no witnesses, including their [[WouldHurtAChild baby]] just to show how [[TheFairFolk amoral and uncaring they are towards humans]].
151	* KneelBeforeFrodo: [[spoiler:After Jakoby is revived, the rest of the orcs who were previously demeaning him bow respectfully, recognizing him as their next hero.]]
152	* LanguageFluencyDenial: [[spoiler:Tikka spends half the movie pretending she doesn't understand or speak English until she decides she can trust Ward and Jakoby.]] Luckily Jakoby took two years of Elvish in high school.
153	* LanguageOfMagic: The Wand requires speaking Elvish words to cast spells. ''Vykwarus'' for example is capable of [[StrippedToTheBone reducing a person to a charred skeleton]].
154	* LaserGuidedKarma: Near the beginning of the film, [[spoiler: Pollard and his fellow corrupt officers plot to have Ward and Jakoby killed, and cover up the circumstances of their deaths by claiming they died as heroes. However, Ward kills them all first, and in order to cover up the events surrounding the wand, the MTF creates a cover story claiming Pollard and the other corrupt officers died heroically fighting terrorists.]]
155	* LenoDevice: Early in the film, Daryl is shown watching an ork being interviewed on the Creator/JoeRogan podcast who denounces his ork partner Nick.
156	* LivingLieDetector: Orcs can tell when someone is lying to them thanks to their incredibly heightened sense of smell. [[spoiler: Jakoby points this out when Ward criticizes him for his lack of trust, pointing out that it's hard for him to trust someone who so clearly does not trust him]].
157	* LizardFolk: While none physically seen in the film, a crossing sign in the opening montage has a person with a distinctly reptilian head and tail, implying that they exist in this world in some capacity. A woman in the strip club is also shown to have nictitating membranes in their eyes, a common indicator of reptilian humanoids in conspiracy theory literature.
158	* LoyalPhlebotinum: The wand has a binding spell cast on it which will prevent it from being taken too far from its owner. When Ward and Jakoby try to drive out of the area, it creates an invisible barrier which totals their police SUV.
159	* MacGuffin: The MagicWand that everyone in the movie is trying to get their hands on.
160	-->'''Jakoby:''' It's like a nuclear weapon that grants wishes.
161	* MagicWand: The entire story revolves around a vicious fight to gain control of a powerful wand that is found with a young elf. Just one, in the hands of a Bright, is compared to a nuke. Three would enable the resurrection of the Dark Lord.
162	* MessianicArchetype: Both [[GreaterScopeParagon Jirak]] and [[GreaterScopeVillain the Dark Lord]] fit this in different ways.
163	** Jirak is the orc equivalent of Jesus Christ, as he shares the same first initial, also lived 2000 years ago and saved the world from the EvilOverlord in this setting. He is the subject of worship in Orc religion, and orcs partly correspond to real-life Jews, since they have been long discriminated against and accused of betraying Jesus, even though he was Jewish himself, much like orcs are hated for siding with the Dark Lord when it was an orc that united other races to oppose him.
164	** The Dark Lord, on the other hand, is the DarkMessiah mostly towards the Inferni - renegade elves that seek to revive him so he could complete his conquest of Earth. Leilah even refers to herself as his "priestess". It's shown that some orcs still revere him if his graffiti pictures in the prologue are any indication.
165	** [[spoiler:Jakoby is implied to be one. When he's brought back from the dead the priest says "He is risen", the other orcs kneel before him, and he's part of a major prophecy that he has yet to fulfill.]]
166	* MoralMyopia: The orcs are treated like pariahs because their ancestors sided with the Dark Lord two millennia ago. Meanwhile, the elves get to be treated like a privileged class despite the Dark Lord being an elf himself. The fact that an ''orc'' himself rose up against him doesn't even make the irony clear to anyone else. And nevermind that it's a sect of elves that are trying to bring him back.
167	* MysteriousWaif: The plot of the movie is kicked off when Ward and Jakoby investigate a crime scene to find a young elf named Tikka with a MagicWand.
168	* NeighbourhoodFriendlyGangsters: The Orc Gang leader, all he wants is that there be peace between the races, hosting a big party where everyone has a good time, until the police came and wrecked things. [[spoiler: He even Bloods Jakoby at the end.]]
169	* NiceGuy:
170	** Jakoby through and through. [[spoiler: Best shown when he helped an orc teen that's only tagging from taking the blame for the one that shot Ward.]]
171	** Tikka herself qualifies as the only elf that isn't [[CantArgueWithElves arrogant and pompous]] or just [[TheFairFolk straight up evil]].
172	* NoTrueScotsman: Agent Kandomere makes a comment calling the Inferni "renegade elves", to which the human he's interrogating snarks that ''of course'' he makes that distinction. [[SarcasmMode Because regular elves are just universally awesome]].
173	* NobleBigot: The MTF agents express their disgust at seeing Jakoby, an orc police officer. That said, they do help out Ward and Jakoby, [[spoiler:even covering up that Ward had to kill four police officers, in self-defense.]] Ward himself isn't quite above it either - while he tries to teach his daughter that all races are equal and everyone just wants to live their own life, he actively tries to get out of being partnered with Jakoby and repeatedly insults him by wondering whether he'll have his back when they're up against other orcs.
174	* NobleDemon: The orc gang leader, despite being, well, a gang leader, tries his best to create peace between the different races.
175	* NoNameGiven: Leilah's goons (Tien and Serafin) and the two MTF agents (Kandomere and Montehugh) are named only in the credits.
176	* NotSoStoic: Leilah hardly has any facial expression for most of the film. Up until the end, where [[spoiler:she starts moaning when Tikka, her sister, refuses to join the Inferni. She then angrily blames Ward and Jakoby for "ruining her."]]
177	* TheNoseKnows: Orcs have a greater sense of smell than most other species. So good that Jakoby was able to tell the difference between two different orcs based on smell alone, and he can just tell that "something bad" happened to Ward at the station when he wasn't there (presumably the scent of sweat and adrenaline).
178	* ObviouslyEvil: The two Internal Affairs detectives are obscenely SmugSnake pricks even before either of them says a word. They only get worse when they start talking.
179	* OhCrap: Ward and Jakoby when they find Larika fused to a wall. Ward immediately gets on the radio to report a possible magic-user and request backup. Even more so when they find a MagicWand with Tikka.
180	* OnceDoneNeverForgotten: When the Dark Lord tried to conquer the world, most of the orcs sided with him. The other races still hold it against them, despite the fact that this happened ''two thousand years ago''. FridgeBrilliance kicks in when you remember it's probably thanks to the long-lived and [[CantArgueWithElves supremely petty]] ''Elves'' that are responsible for this attitude.
181	* OneManArmy: Elves aligned with the Inferni are super-strong, super-fast, highly acrobatic and skilled fighters that manage to slaughter entire groups of enemies without breaking a sweat. Leilah and her CoDragons display this when they kill Poison's gangbangers effortlessly when both Ward and Jakoby have been trying to evade them rather than fight them off. Leilah herself personally kills several [[CopKiller SWAT members]] in less than a minute. It is unknown if this is the natural capability of an elf, or if it's due to their associations with the Inferni. No other elves are seen in combat, unless any of the [[RedShirt fully-masked and helmeted SWAT cops and FBI agents]] happen to be elves.
182	* OnlyTheChosenMayWield:
183	** A Wand can only be used by a Bright. Anyone else that tries to touch it directly explodes into a cloud of dust and ash, taking those nearby with them. [[spoiler: This area of effect is a plot point during the climactic fight when Ward is willing to take out everyone else to kill Leilah because she's going to kill them all anyway.]]
184	** Serling, the Shield of Light member, claims that the only way to know if you're a Bright or not is to pick up a wand and see if you die or not. Presumably there are other means of detection - [[spoiler:Serling himself seems to have some idea that Ward is a Bright well before Ward finds out himself, and Ward's exceptional speed and skill when shooting seem to foreshadow the reveal]] - but most people would never have access to them.
185	* OurElvesAreDifferent: Long-lived, supremacist snobs that live in gated communities and are considered the elite of society due to having the majority of Brights in the world. At first glance, they look just like normal humans with PointyEars, but upon closer inspection it turns out they have sharp teeth and eyes and hair of unnatural color, such as Kandomere's ''blue'' hair while Tikka, Leila and Tien had silver hair.
186	* OurFairiesAreDifferent: Fairies in this universe don't appear to be sentient; despite being humanoid, their appearance and behavior is shown to be animal-like, with feathers all over their bodies, sharp teeth and an apparent inability to speak. They're treated as pests by most people as well, with Ward's wife asking him to kill one when it gets in their birdfeeder and a few ads for pest control specializing in getting rid of them.
187	* OurMagesAreDifferent: A "Bright" is a person born with an affinity for magic, and can freely handle wands without exploding (which happens to everyone else who tries). Almost all Brights are elves, which has led to their species winding up in positions of power, though it is mentioned a very small number of humans ("one-in-a-million") are also Brights. [[spoiler: Near the end of the movie, Ward is revealed to be a Bright, as he handles a wand without exploding, and even manages to cast a spell.]]
188	* OurOrcsAreDifferent: Overall, Orcs are pretty normal people for all of their racial differences. They maintain some vestiges of being a ProudWarriorRace, with the idea of being "blooded" having a central role in their society. They have intelligence roughly on par with humans, though they're stereotyped as dumb, and Jakoby is frequently shown to be very slow on the uptake. They are apparently larger, heavier, stronger (one orc is shown fairly casually lifting the front end of a pickup truck so a child can retrieve a soccer ball from beneath it) and slower than humans on average (an IA detective mentions that this is why most NFL linemen are orcs, but there are no orcs in the NBA), and Jakoby exhibits some extraordinary toughness. They are extremely clannish and generally discriminated against by other races making them second-class citizens in the wider society.
189	* PlotArmor: Leilah and her lieutenants massacre an army of gangsters in seconds, then do the same to a SWAT team. Somehow they can't seem to manage such a display of effortless murder against the two or three protagonists, either in the convenience store fight (where at least Tikka provided assistance (or in the final battle where they are outright defeated (despite Tikka being pretty much down for the count).
190	* PoliceBrutality:
191	** A half-dozen human LAPD officers (supervised by a centaur) give a vicious Rodney King-style beating to an unarmed orc with his hands up. This happens on a sidewalk, in broad daylight, in front of dozens of witnesses, including the orc's wife and child, and nobody bats an eye. [[FantasticRacism It ain't easy being an orc in LA]].
192	** MTF agent Montehugh has no problem roughing up a Shield of Light member to get him to talk.
193	* PoliticallyIncorrectHero: Ward is one of the main protagonists, but he is heavily prejudiced against non-humans in general; he dislikes orcs despite his partner being one and always being [[TheFarmerAndTheViper nice to him]], considers fairies sub-human and is disdainful towards elves. Though, to be fair, all of these beliefs are [[EverythingIsRacist pretty standard for the setting]].
194	* PowerAtAPrice: Subverted; most of the time using the wand has no price. When used too much it loses its glow for a while and has to recharge, but that's it. However, resurrecting someone causes a serious backlash on the Bright using the wand, and they will die if they don't get treatment from people experienced with magic.
195	* PowerGlows: The wand glows with a blinding blue-white light during most of the movie. [[spoiler:When wielded by a human Bright that glow turns red.]]
196	* ProudWarriorRaceGuy: Jakoby is a more subtle example of this than most. He's a nice, even dorky guy, but his eagerness to die if it means he dies a heroic cop shows that underneath the goofy nerd is someone who fundamentally believes in his people's warrior philosophy.
197	* PropheticNames: 'To ward' is to protect or guard something. Ward protects Tikka, the wand, is grudgingly protective of Jakoby [[spoiler:and was possibly prophesized to protect the world from the Dark Lord's return.]]
198	* ARealManIsAKiller:
199	** The orc gang leader believes this to some degree. They revere being "blooded" above all other honors, which can involve slaying an enemy, but also nonviolent actions like standing up to torture or risking your life to save a comrade (the courage of the act is what's important).
200	** Averted by Jakoby, who is quite distressed when he has to shoot and kill one of the Mexican gang members in self-defense.
201	* RecycledInSpace:
202	** ''Film/AlienNation''... WITH FANTASY CREATURES!
203	** ''WesternAnimation/{{Zootopia}}''...IN MODERN DAY LOS ANGELES WITH HUMAN AND STANDARD FANTASY RACES!
204	* SchmuckBait: The Magic Wand kills anyone who touches it if they're not a Bright (and it seems like the odds of being a Bright are one in a million or worse for humans). Naturally, the first thing anyone who sees it wants to do is try to pick it up, in the hope they might beat the odds and gain limitless power.
205	* ScrewYouElves: It's pretty clear in-universe that some characters such as Ward don't have a high opinion about elves and how they run the Earth, sort of like their version of EatTheRich.
206	* SeeksAnothersResurrection: The Inferni seek to resurrect the Dark Lord.
207	* SelectiveObliviousness: The other races are very quick to condemn the orcs as the followers of the Dark Lord, but seem to regularly forget the fact that not only were there a number of elves who did the same thing, but that the Dark Lord himself was an elf. They also seem to forget the detail that it was an orc who united the races, and led them against the Dark Lord.
208	* SeriouslyScruffy: Montehugh, especially in comparison to Kandomere, his elven superior in the MTF.
209	* SheFu: All elves who are shown fighting, many of them female, fight like they've got even more than the normal [[TableTopGame/DungeonsAndDragons +2 racial bonus to Dexterity]].
210	* ShoutOut:
211	** During the intro, there's graffiti stating "IN THE BEGINNING GOD CREATED ALL RACES EQUAL" with "[[CantArgueWithElves but elves]] [[Literature/AnimalFarm are more equal]]" below it.
212	** Daryl Ward compares an orc to Franchise/{{Shrek}} as an insult, uttering the line: "So I need you to take your fat Shrek-looking ass back to your vehicle and drive the fuck home to Fiona. A'ight?"
213	* SinsOfOurFathers: Because most of their ancestors sided with the Dark Lord, most orcs are seen as lesser, if not evil.
214	* SpaceJews: The orcs seem like an [[CultureChopSuey amalgamation of several real-life minorities]]: at first glance, they appear to be parallel with African-Americans due to racial tensions, but their backstory is also similar to the discrimination faced by Jews in the past, while their faith is similar to Celtic/Viking pagan religions.
215	* SpiritualSuccessor:
216	** This film has many similarities with the cyberpunk tabletop game ''TabletopGame/{{Shadowrun}}'' and the 1988 sci-fi BuddyCopShow film ''Film/AlienNation''.
217	** Could be seen as one for the HBO MadeForTVMovie ''Film/CastADeadlySpell'', which is similarly a gritty crime drama that also takes place in an alternate version of Los Angeles where magic and fantasy elements are commonplace, set in the 1950's.
218	* StandardFantasyRaces: The movie takes the standard fantasy races and puts them in a modern UrbanFantasy setting, with a lot of FantasticRacism. Humans are the most mundane and most numerous ones, and [[HumansAreDivided have within-species racism, such as Americans disliking Mexicans]]. Elves are the snobbish elite who look down on the other races, whereas orcs are mostly lower class and form urban gangs. Orcs also get the most hate from other races due to being the {{mooks}} of TheDarkLord back when the world was a StandardFantasySetting (despite the fact that the Dark Lord was an elf and the hero who defeated him was an orc). Fairies are common, non-sapient pests; a human killing one is seen as disturbing, but not a crime. There are references to "the nine races", suggesting that other stock fantasy races also exist.
219	* StrippedToTheBone: One of the wand's spells can reduce people to ash while leaving their glowing skeleton behind. Ward and Jakoby find several bodies in this state when they first stumble upon Tikka. [[spoiler:This ends up being how Leilah is killed in the final battle.]]
220	* SuperStrength: Orcs and elves both have it, being able to casually toss people across a room. Early in the movie, an adult orc is seen lifting a ''pick-up truck off the ground, by the front''... so that an orc child can reclaim their football.
221	* SuperiorSpecies: The elves. They are all impossibly beautiful, stronger than humans and are pretty much the only ones able to wield magical [=WMDs=]. They don't even subject themselves to jobs that "lesser" races can perform, since one federal agent notes that seeing an orc as a cop is as rare as seeing an elf as a janitor.
222	* SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome:
223	** The Shield of Light may be all about safeguarding good magic users for the return of the Dark Lord... but if you're an underground society that stockpiles weapons and explosives, not to mention fooling around with magic that is explicitly compared to ''nuclear weapons'', the government is going to slap a "Terrorist Organization" label on you. They're not necessarily wrong, either, given the collateral damage that ensues when the Shield of Light clash with the Inferni (who also happen to be the FBI's Most Wanted).
224	** Rather than admit that the Dark Lord is coming and a wand was on the loose in L.A., the government [[spoiler: covers up everything, takes the wand, and paints all the cops involved (including the corrupt ones, much to Ward's disgust) as heroes who died fighting an "extremist group". Better to keep TheMasquerade intact and a potential magical WMD under wraps than cause mass panic, after all.]]
225	** Look closely at [[spoiler:Ward and Jakoby's medal ceremony. The crowd is silent during Jakoby's crowning but not at Ward's. Despite doing the same heroic actions as his partner, many people are still going to see Jakoby as another violent Orc not worthy of respect.]]
226	* TakeThat: Ward's neighbors encourage him (possibly sarcastically) to kill a fairy "[[PoliceBrutality L.A.P.D. style]]".
227	* ThisCannotBe: Leilah says, "This is impossible!" [[spoiler:when it turns out Ward is also a Bright and can wield the Wand.]]
228	* TokenHeroicOrc:
229	** Jakoby is the first and only orc police officer in the LAPD in a world where many of his kind are criminals.
230	** Two thousand years ago, the Dark Lord led an army of orcs in an attempt to conquer the world. Jirak was one of the few orcs who opposed him, and eventually wound up leading an army of nine races against him. This is curiously ignored by the other races, however, given how they seem to unanimously hate all orcs regardless.
231	* TookALevelInKindness: Ward starts off as an antagonistic bigot to Jakoby. Even though Ward never does a ''complete'' 180, his adventures with Jakoby and Tikka have a profound impact on his views.
232	* TranquilFury: When Ward and Jakoby are brought before Dorghu, the Orcish head of the Fogteeth clan, they try their best to keep from admitting they're in possession of a magic wand — unfortunately, their best is not good enough, and Dorghu doesn't take long to grow tired of it.
233	-->'''Dorghu:''' Altamira thinks there's a wand...the police think there's a wand...the feds think there's a wand...'''I THINK THERE'S A WAAAAAND!!'''
234	* TreacheryCoverUp: [[spoiler: Pollard and the other 3 corrupt cops are lionized as heroes at the end to keep word of the wand from getting out. Ward finds it disgusting but Jakoby knows it's for the best.]]
235	* UnlikelyHero: Jakoby mentions that Jirak, the orc who united all nine races to defeat the Dark Lord, was a simple farmer at the start.
236	* UrbanFantasy: With a heavy emphasis on the "urban" side of things -- while the nonhuman species are important to the story, the emphasis is clearly placed on the movie being set in a modern day WretchedHive.
237	* VillainHasAPoint: The orc gang leader accurately points out that it was humans who disturbed the peace between the different races, which Ward agrees is true.
238	* VillainRespect: Dorghu pronounces his respect for Jakoby when he doesn't break under a beating, and later bloods him when he runs into a burning building to save someone.
239	* VillainousBreakdown: For most of the movie, Leilah has been TheStoic and very rarely shows any emotion. And then during the climax, [[spoiler:she tries to bring Tikka back to the Inferni, but she refuses, preferring to die than return to her. At this point, Leilah starts ranting and screaming angrily at Ward for having "corrupted" her sister. She also shows [[ThisCannotBe complete disbelief]] when Ward is revealed to be a Bright]].
240	* VillainousRescue: The heroes are cornered in the strip club by the Altamira GangBangers who are heavily armed and outnumber them, then just as Ward and Jakoby are preparing to go down guns blazing, the Inferni charge in and slaughter the gangsters.
241	* WeakBossStrongUnderlings: Poison is an EvilCripple bound to a wheelchair who commands a couple of [[EthnicScrappy trigger-happy cholos]].
242	* WhiteHairBlackHeart: Leilah and the Dark Lord are both villainous elves with silver hair. Averted with Tikka, who has silver hair but is one of the heroes.
243	* TheWorfEffect: The Illuminati are referenced as having once existed in this world. The Inferni killed them all.
244	* WouldHitAGirl: Given that many of the females they meet are trying to ''kill'' them, neither Ward nor Jakoby have a problem with killing them as well.
245	* WouldHurtAChild: Leilah and her cronies wipe out an entire family after questioning them to clean up any witnesses. ''Including the baby in the crib nearby.''
246	* YourTerroristsAreOurFreedomFighters: The Shield of Light sees themselves as the last line of defense against the Dark Lord, and are implied to be descended from the army that defeated him two thousand years ago. Modern governments just see a bunch of delusional radicals who are stockpiling weapons and magic. While the MTF is willing to use them to take down the Inferni, who they admit are a much greater threat, they still treat them as criminals. Serling seems a little bitter about this treatment, but insists that when the time comes, they will protect the world regardless.
247

Context Film / Bright