Lincoln did not free the slaves alone.
Army of Frankensteins is a 2014 American Science Fiction Horror Comedy war movie distributed by Scream Factory.
Alan Jones is having a rough day. His landlord threatens him with eviction, his girlfriend cancels a date he was planning on proposing for, he's beaten within an inch of his life by street thugs, and he's experimented on by a Mad Scientist! The experiment rips a hole in spacetime, and Alan is sucked back into The American Civil War. Worse, a bunch of Frankenstein monsters from alternate universes came too! Now, Alan has to fight the creatures, get home and maybe, just maybe, improve history in the process.
Not to be confused with Frankenstein's Army.
This film contains examples of:
- Accuser of the Brethren: Virginia's sister Maggie doesn't believe that the Frankensteins are on their side, and ends up stabbing the leader in the middle of a battle against the Confederates. Walton has her Rewarded as a Traitor Deserves.
- Alternate History: Aside from the Frankensteins, General Lee hires Booth and one of his captains to kill Lincoln earlier than his actual assassination. The assassination fails, but Lincoln is accidentally killed by a falling Frankenstein. From what we see, not much changes after that, but the Frankenstein is on the $5 bill.
- Antagonist Title
- Arm Cannon: After Solomon gets his arm taken off, Igor gives him a cannon for a prosthesis.
- Artistic License – History: The Confederates use the Confederate Battle Flag
, as opposed to any of the three flags the Confederacy actually used. While it is true that they were representing the Army of Northern Virginia, whose flag the modern was was based off of, the flag they would have used was square. - Been There, Shaped History: Alan is forced into the American Civil War by the time portal, and ends up fighting the Confederacy mistakenly changing the assassination of Abraham Lincoln.
- Big Bad: Captain Robert E. Walton, a Confederate officer seeking to use the Frankenstins to win the Civil War.
- Big Bad Wannabe: Dr. Terrence Finski, the Mad Scientist who ripped out Alan's eye and is trying to make his own Frankensteins, would be a credible threat if it weren't for the fact that the time travel kills him twenty minutes in and the Frankensteins and Confederates take over.
- Bond One-Liner: During the fight between Alan and John Wilkes Booth:Alan: You're an actor, right?
Booth: Yes.
Alan: Then break a leg! (kicks Booth in the knee) - Bring the Anchor Along: When Ginny and the original Frankenstein are captured by the Confederates, they are ties to stakes driven into the ground. The enraged Frankenstein stands up, pulling the stake out of the ground still tied to his back.
- Building Is Welding: Igor is shown using a miniature high-power arc torch as he finishes constructing Solomon' steampunk Arm Cannon (despite it seemingly being constructed mostly of wood and brass).
- Cane Fu: During their fight in the theatre, Booth reveals that his walking stick is actually a Sword Cane and Alan grabs a cane from a box of props to defend himself and they start fencing.
- Child Prodigy: Igor, Finski's assistant, looks to be about twelve, and is already Creating Life.
- Death by Looking Up: Abraham Lincoln gets knocked out of his box by the Frankenstein which is trying to protect him from Booth. The Frankenstein then falls out of the box. Lincoln, lying on the floor of the theatre, looks up and sees the Frankenstein plummeting towards him. It lands on top of him, crushing him to death.
- Death of a Child: Walton shoots Igor In the Back for spying on his meeting with Booth.
- Disc-One Final Boss: The Frankensteins seem to be the main threat for the first half of the movie, but it turns out they were only rampaging because they were terrified from all the dimension jumping, and are eventually calmed down and turned against the Confederate States of America to free the slaves.
- The Dog Bites Back: Swanson gets sick of Walton's abuse and tosses him into the crowd of Frankensteins to be torn apart.
- Edible Bludgeon: Alan hits one of the two thugs who try to grab with the plastic bottle of milk he is carrying.
- Eyepatch of Power: Alan is given one by the war nurses due to Finski removing his eye before the time portal opened.
- Eye Scream: Dr. Finski pulls out Alan's eye to implant it in the monster—while Alan is still conscious!
- Fanboy: Dr. Finski did his experiments out of a love of Frankenstein and its adaptations, down to naming his adopted son Igor.
- Frankenstein's Monster: The main antagonists of the first half are a horde of Frankenstein's Monsters from various dimensions, all dropped in the middle of the American Civil War.
- Grave Robbing: One of Igor's main duties is securing body parts from graveyards for Mad Scientist Dr. Finski's experiments.
- Greater-Scope Villain: The Confederate government are portrayed completely unsympathetically in this film, which focuses on the slavery, but the highest ranking member we see is a Captain in the Army of Northern Virginia, barring a brief cameo by General Robert E. Lee, relegating the heads such as Lee and President Jefferson Davis to GSV status.
- Hate Sink: Alan Jones' life before he's sent back in time absolutely sucks, and these two are significant reasons why:
- Mrs. Henderson, Alan's landlady, sexually harasses him when trying to collect the rent. After seeing the ring Alan intends to propose to his girlfriend, Ashley, with, she demands the ring on the threat of eviction. She's also a brazen hypocrite, Slut-Shaming Ashley not five minutes after trying to sleep with a taken man.
- Eugene, Ashley's boss, regularly hits on her even though she rejects him every time. Eventually, he starts to force kisses on her. One of the kisses happens at just the wrong time for Alan to walk in and think she's into it.
- Heel–Face Turn:
- Igor starts off as the assistant of a Mad Scientist, but when he dies, he ends up teaming up with Alan to stop the Frankensteins and get back home.
- The Frankensteins are calmed down by a war nurse who realized that they were only rampaging out of panic from too much dimensional travel, and are convinced to fight to end slavery out of empathy for the black community's marginalization.
- Lieutenant Swanson gets tired of Walton's abuse and throws him to the Frankensteins to be torn apart, being allowed to leave for his assistance.
- Historical Domain Character:
- Our heroes eventually meet Abraham Lincoln, who takes a personal interest in the Frankensteins.
- Robert E. Lee shows up in a brief cameo, ordering Walton to set his mutant on Washington DC itself, with John Wilkes Booth being his contact.
- Historical Hero Upgrade: The Union is portrayed as being completely non-racist, compared to the slaving Confederacy. While they were less racist than the Confederates, even Lincoln still believed that white people were superior to black people.
- Historical Villain Upgrade: Robert E. Lee orders the assassination of Abraham Lincoln, which in Real Life was nothing to do with the Confederacy and was condemned by them.
- Kid from the Future: Alan ends up meeting his distant ancestor Solomon, who fought for the Union.
- A Lady on Each Arm: When Walton meets John Wilkes Booth in a tavern in Washington, Booth has a scantily clad woman seated at each arm.
- Lightning Can Do Anything: A lightning storm causes Mad Scientist Dr. Finski's equipment to malfunction: ripping a hole in The Multiverse and summoning versions of the Frankenstein Monster from different universes into his lab, before sending him, Alan, Igor and the army of Frankensteins back in time to The American Civil War. Later lightning is used to resurrect Igor, who had drunk the Frankenstein serum before being killed.
- Literal Disarming: Jimmy has his arm ripped off by a Frankenstein who then proceeds to literally beat him with the soggy end.
- Mrs. Robinson: Alan is introduced being sexually harassed by his attractive female landlord, who looks to be twenty years older than him.
- The Multiverse: Each Frankenstein is from a different universe, due to an experiment Gone Horribly Wrong rupturing a hole in the Multiverse.
- Music Soothes the Savage Beast: Ginny is trapped is a balloon with an enraged Frankenstein Monster bearing down on her. Thinking she is about to die, she starts singing a hymn and this calms the monster down.
- No-Nonsense Nemesis: Captain Walton is shown as utterly coldhearted from the beginning, killing his men without blinking and ordering Union troops slaughtered. He even shoots a child in the back without blinking.
- Pistol-Whipping: During their first encounter, Igor hits Swanson with a rifle butt. Later, during the battle with the Confederates, Alan uses his rifle as a club after it fails to fire.
- Psychic Link: Alan is linked to the Frankenstein that has his eye, and periodically sees what he sees. All of the Frankensteins are linked to the same, which causes them to feel the effects of any injuries he receives.
- Psychic Nosebleed: Every time Alan sees through his Frankenstein's eyes, he gets a splitting headache.
- Psycho Serum: Walton has Swanson inject himself with the Frankenstein serum which does turn him into mutant Super-Soldier, but also renders him a trifle psychologically unstable.
- The Revolution Will Not Be Civilized: The main antagonists are the Confederate States of America, who are portrayed as a bunch of brutes fighting to keep their slaves.
- Right-Hand Cat: Big Bad Captain Walton is introduced sitting his tent stroking the grey cat on his lap. He later uses the cat to test the Frankenstein serum.
- Seeing Through Another's Eyes: Because his eye was transplanted into the Frankenstein Monster, Alan experiences uncontrolled instances of seeing what the monster is seeing.
- Slavery Is a Special Kind of Evil: It's so bad that the Frankensteins, who are all only about a day old, understand on a fundamental level that it's wrong and immediately fight against it the second they learn about it.
- The Sociopath: Captain Robert E. Walton, a coldhearted Confederate general who has no loyalty to the rebellion beyond a desire to win, and is willing to kill his own men to achieve that. He doesn't even blink when killing a child.
- Stop Hitting Yourself: Jimmy suffers a Literal Disarming at the hands of one of the Frankensteins, who then proceeds to beat him with his own arm.
- Strapped to an Operating Table: After being struck by lightning, Alan wakes up strapped to an operating table in Dr. Finiski's lab, with the doctor about to remove his eye without anaesthetic.
- Sword Cane: When John Wilkes Booth sneaks into the theatre to assassinate Lincoln, he uses his sword stick to attempt to dispose of Alan.
- Super-Soldier: Walton has Swanson inject himself with the Frankenstein serum, which turns him into a powerful mutant intended to be sicced on the North. The Frankensteins themselves become an army of super soldiers for the Union.
- Tear Off Your Face: One of the Frankensteins tears off a Union soldier's face.
- Teaser-Only Character: Maggie's boyfriend Jimmy is ripped apart by a Frankenstein Monster during the teaser.
- Victoria's Secret Compartment: Alan's landlady Mrs. Henderson keeps a sizable roll of banknotes stuffed down her cleavage.
- Weird Historical War: Frankensteins and time traveller in the American Civil War.
- The X of Y
