Film / Blue Beetle (2023)

Milagro: Did you know what was going to happen to my brother, when you stuck him with this world-destroying thing?
Jenny: I had no idea it would activate. It has to choose you.

Blue Beetle is a 2023 superhero film based upon the DC Comics' character of the same name. It is the fourteenth film in the DC Extended Universe, directed by Angel Manuel Soto and stars Xolo Maridueña, Bruna Marquezine, Belissa Escobedo, Adriana Barraza, Elpidia Carrillo, Damián Alcázar, Raoul Trujillo, George Lopez and Susan Sarandon.

Jaime Reyes (Maridueña) is a young Mexican-American go-getter trying to find both himself and his working-class family stable employment. But after a run-in with Jenny Kord (Marquezine), he's left with nothing to show for himself except a burger box. One bonding experience later, however, he finds that it contains an extraterrestrial scarab which grants him a superpowered suit, allowing him to become the world’s newest superhero. Unfortunately, Victoria Kord (Sarandon) is none too happy to share what she sees as her property, hoping to use the Scarab to manufacture her own One Man Army Corps, and the Reyes family will have to grapple with both the unpredictability of Jaime's new partner, as well as dive into the Kord family's history of superheroing.

Initially intended to be set in the DC Extended Universe as a direct-to-streaming movie exclusive to HBO Max ^note along with Batgirl, which became a tax writeoff despite being largely complete and was shelved indefinitely the film was then upgraded to a theatrical release and underwent additional production time. Blue Beetle was then reportedly promoted as the first installment in the new continuity replacing the DCEU and called just the DC Universe or DCU, though it is not a part of James Gunn and Peter Safran's forthcoming new slate of films titled Chapter One: Gods and Monsters as of now (go figure). Gunn later clarified that DCU canon starts with Chapter One but Maridueña is due to return as Jaime in his future plans, which makes the film both part of the DCEU and, in a Broad Strokes way at least, the upcoming DCU. The film released in theatres on August 18, 2023.

Previews: Trailer Tease, Trailer 1, Final Trailer

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Blue Beetle contains examples of the following:

• Abled in the Adaptation: Zig-zagged with Alberto Reyes. In the comics, he needed a cane to walk (due to suffering a leg injury in the past). Here, he can walk just fine, but also suffers from a heart condition which turns fatal.
• Actor Allusion: This isn't the first time Harvey Guillén plays a character who dramatically announces that his last name is De La Cruz.
• Adaptational Location Change:
  • Jaime lives in El Paso, Texas in the comics, and now lives in the movie-original Palmera City, located in the Florida Keys, though their street is named El Paso in reference to the original.
  • By the same token, Ted Kord is said to have been active as Blue Beetle in Palmera City, as opposed to Hub City in the comics.
• Adaptation Origin Connection: In the comics, the OMACs have no real connection to any of the Blue Beetles. Here, Victoria Kord created the OMAC technology by reverse-engineering the Scarab's tech.
• Adapted Out: Jaime's friends Paco and Brenda don't appear, and nor does Brenda's Aunt Amparo, who was one of Jaime's main non-Reach villains under the name La Dama. (Arguably Victora Kord takes La Dama's role... which would make Jenny Kord somewhat equivalent to Brenda.)
• Age Lift:
  • Jaime is normally a teenager when he becomes the third Blue Beetle. In the film, he's now college-aged, having just graduated when the film begins.
  • Likewise, comics Milagro is a pre-teen. Here, she's old enough to go to college herself.
  • In the comics, Ted Kord was a relatively young man, somewhere in his thirties, when he died, shortly before Jaime gained the Scarab and became Blue Beetle. In the universe of the movie, Ted, if he's still alive, would be considerably older, in his fifties or sixties, going by the age of his sister Victoria and the fact that he has a 22-year old daughter.
• Affectionate Nickname: Rudy frequently refers to Jaime as 'cabezón' ^note 'pigheaded'.
• Almost Kiss: After an emotional moment during which Jaime and Jenny discuss their relationships with their respective families, they lean forward for a kiss, only for Rudy to barge into the room.
• Amazingly Embarrassing Parents: Jaime is clearly embarrassed by his family chanting his name to encourage him when he enters Kord's building to meet Jenny after her offer to give him a job.
• And Starring: A June 2023 teaser has this for BeckyG, giving her an "Introducing Becky G" credit. She would be providing the voice of Khaji-Da, the Scarab.
• Artificial Limbs: Carapax lost his arm and leg to a landmine while serving in Guatemala and Victoria Kord replaced them with cybernetics as part of her OMAC experiments.
• Artistic License – Education: Jaime is mentioned to have a degree in pre-law. This does not actually exist; pre-law is usually offered as a concentration or separate program alongside a standard bachelor's degree.
• Autobots, Rock Out!: Apparently Ted Kord's Beetle ship has its own music system, with Mötley Crüe in the playlist.
• Bait-and-Switch:
  • After Jaime declares to Milagro that he's going to earn enough money to not only support his family but make them rich as well, cut to him looking out at the ocean from an extravagant estate and a woman addressing him as "Mr. Reyes", suggesting he's succeeded. Then the camera cuts to Milagro, working with him as cleaning staff on the estate, which belongs to Victoria Kord.
  • Later on in the climax, after Jaime sees Carapax’s traumatic memories just when he was about to kill him out of rage, Khaji-Da asked Jaime if he now understands why they shouldn’t kill Carapax since he was a victim of Victoria Kord like Jaime is. However, at first it seemed like Jaime doesn’t listen with his rage getting the best of him, going for the killing blow with the stinger arm to finish Carapax off. Then it shortly cuts to Carapax fortunately still alive, with Jaime actually stabbing the ground next to him, now having come to reason and refusing to kill Carapax after the revelation.
• Beneath Notice: How Jenny initially gets the Scarab out of Kord Industries: first she puts it in a standard burger box, then she hands it off to Jaime, who is just some random kid from the Edge Keys who she doesn't have any previous relationship with. As a result, he's able to walk right out even after they start locking the building down.
• Berserk Button: Happens to Jaime/Blue Beetle as he goes into a furious rage after Carapax/OMAC seemingly kills Uncle Rudy (although he fortunately survives the ordeal) when the latter distracted the OMAC. This gives Jaime the strength and power to gain the upper hand in defeating Carapax in revenge for his family, but he goes too far as he was hellbent on ending Carapax’s life to the point of Khaji-Da intervening and convincing him to spare him.
• BFS: During the Final Battle, Jaime is able to summon blades and combine them into a large sword resembling the Buster Sword from Final Fantasy VII.
• Big Bad: Victoria Kord, Ted's sister and current CEO of Kord Industries who wishes to use the Scarab to create her own version called OMAC and mass produce it.
• Big Damn Heroes:
  • Victoria unleashes her army on the Reyes household, holding them at gunpoint until Jaime swoops in to fight them off. Unlike most examples, this sequence ends quite tragically, with Jaime getting defeated and taken away while his father dies of a heart attack.
  • Jaime temporarily loses his powers while the Scarab reboots itself, putting him in danger when he's cornered by Kord's soldiers. Thankfully, Nana is there to mow them all down with Ted's minigun.
• Bilingual Bonus: During a scene, a television news report can be heard in the background saying in Spanish that Gotham billionaire Bruce Wayne has bought some social media app for 50 billion dollars.
• Bilingual Dialogue: Jaime's nana only ever speaks in Spanish, even when people talk to her in English.
• Bittersweet Ending: Mostly on the sweet side. Alberto is dead and Jenny has no immediate family with her due to the death of her aunt, but the Reyes family gets help from their community to rebuild their home while Jenny is able take over Kord Industries and intends to make sure the company is more generous in the future, while also hoping to clear the family’s debts. And it's implied she and Jaime will start a relationship.
• Blue Is Heroic: The Scarab has a shiny blue hue and it's used to fight the villains.
• Body Horror: The way the Scarab embeds itself in Jaime's spine. It enters his skin through his back and then it spreads its tech all across his body.
• Broken Faceplate:
  • In the climax, Jaime takes a stab wound, and the Scarab has to divert its attentions to healing it rather than keeping up the armor. Half of Jaime's mask is broken off and stays off for the rest of the scene.
  • Carapax also experiences this during the final battle as a furious Jaime beats him down after the former seemingly killed Rudy, damaging his helmet even to the point of ripping it off his head in a rage.
• Cathartic Crying: When Alberto dies, the Reyes family is breaking down, but Nana rallies them by saying that they don't have time to cry now when Jaime needs rescuing. After the climax and when they're safe and reunited in the Bug, she says that "now is the time to cry", and the whole family hugs and finally cries over Alberto's death.
• Central Theme: Family. Jaime's close-knit family is the source of his strength, Victoria Kord's messed up family drove her to villainy, and Carapax's Start of Darkness was losing his mother, while remembering her triggers his Redemption Equals Death moment.
• Chekhov's Gun: The special chewing-gum that Milagro finds in Kord's arsenal and that Jenny presents as something her dad made for her comes to play a role in the climax where Jenny uses it to disable Victoria's helicopter.
• Chronic Hero Syndrome: Jaime can't resist trying to protect Jenny when she seems threatened by Carapax (though his attraction to her certainly helped), which reveals to Victoria that Milagro had been sneaking into the owner's bathroom instead of the employees' and gets them fired.
• Close-Knit Community: The Edge Keys are shown to be this. While they can't help during the attack on the Reyes house, they immediately rush in after it's over, calling emergency services and staying with the family when Alberto dies. At the end, they all show up for Alberto's wake, and put together a potluck for the Reyes.
• Company Town: Kord pretty much owns every square inch of Palmera City, to the extent Victoria Kord can just casually send a small platoon of goons to raid a house and shoot at a family with intent to kill with no mention of possible legal problems.
• Comic-Book Fantasy Casting: The painting of Ted Kord, while not photorealistic, bears a noticeable resemblance to Jason Sudeikis, who director Angel Manuel Soto has named as his personal pick for the role.
• Comic-Book Movies Don't Use Codenames: Played with, as the name is associated with the scarab, but Jaime never once goes by Blue Beetle in the entire movie. The name was used by Jenny's father, Ted Kord, before his disappearance. Dan Garrett, Khaji-Da's previous host, also didn't go by the name.
• Continuity Nod:
  • Superman, Batman and Flash are mentioned.
  • A LexCorp building can be briefly seen next to the Kord tower.
• Cool Plane: Ted Kord's VTOL craft, the Bug.
• Cool Uncle: Rudy is basically like a second father to Jaime, supporting and encouraging him about as much as his actual father, and they even directly share an "I love you" with each other during one quiet scene. It contrasts Victoria being an Evil Aunt to Jenny.
• Corrupt Corporate Executive: Victoria Kord is the current CEO of Kord Industries and the film's Big Bad.
• Cut Lex Luthor a Check: Victoria might have won if she hadn't been so quick to resort to using her private strike team to attack the Reyes family. She's a billionaire. If she'd been a bit patient and done her research, she easily could have tricked the Reyes family into trusting her by framing her niece as unstable, offering them money, and pretending to want to help separate Jaime from the scarab.
• Curse Cut Short: Once Jaime sees his reflection of himself in the suit after transforming for the first time, he almost says the f-word before the Scarab interrupts him.
• Cyborg: Carapax has had numerous cybernetics implanted in his body as part of the process to perfect the OMAC, including a completely artificial foot and hand.
• Death by Adaptation: Alberto Reyes is still alive in the comics. Here, he dies from stress-induced cardiac arrest nearly halfway through the film.
• Defiant to the End:
  • Dr. Sanchez/De La Cruz, after been mistreated, ignored and misnamed by Victoria, pulls off a Heel–Face Turn and helps Jaime escape. He tells him he’ll be okay, but not before he is killed by Carapax.
  • When Carapax gains the upper hand against him in their second fight, Jaime screams in fury after he tells him the love for his family makes him weak (only for Jaime to throw the remark back at him after he overpowers him soon after), just before Jaime’s uncle Rudy saves his nephew by distracting Carapax.
• Determinator: Alberto is a subdued version, but no matter what life throws at the Reyes family he refuses to give up. He brought his family to America, worked endless jobs to support them all, and even at the Downer Beginning (when he's had a heart attack, lost his shop, and they're losing their home) he remains steadfast, saying they're the Reyes and they'll make it work. When everyone else is panicking about the Scarab, he calms them down and gets them moving forward. Not even dying will stop him from getting one last talk with Jaime and helping him accept the Scarab, saving his son's life from behind the grave.
• Didn't See That Coming: The Scarab hasn't bonded with anyone since Dan Garrett, even though Ted Kord spent decades working on it, so Jenny figured that it would be safe with Jaime. She never expected it to bond with him.
• Die or Fly: Jaime has trouble getting the Scarab to act on command. How does he summon the suit? By jumping off a building.
• Disappeared Dad:
  • Jaime and Milagro’s father Alberto suffers Death by Adaptation.
  • The film's opening credits reveal that Ted Kord vanished some time ago. We never find out what really happened to him. Victoria never even implies that she was involved. The fact that she seemed to have no intention of hurting Jenny until her niece made it clear that she'll never stop being a thorn in her side would imply that she has some qualms about committing fratricide.
• Distressed Dude: Jaime spends the first chunk of the third act imprisoned by Victoria, spurring the rest of the gang to regroup and form a rescue party.
• The Dog Bites Back: After being ignored and misnamed by Victoria all throughout the movie (and implied to be years before that), Dr. De La Cruz helps Jaime escape, furiously yelling his actual name at her before breaking the door separating them and Jaime.
• Dolled-Up Installment: It was originally meant to be set in the DC Extended Universe before they decided to set in James Gunn's new Shared Universe.
• Downer Beginning: The film opens with Jaime, after graduating from college, learning that his family might lose their house due the landlord's increasing rent, and how his father lost his business due to suffering a heart attack, forcing him to cancel his plans to attend grad school to keep his family out of any further debt.
• The Dragon: Carapax serves as Victoria's chief lieutenant and enforcer of her will.
• Even Bad Men Love Their Mamas: Carapax still has fond memories of his mother before she died. He even keeps her locket that has a picture of them, to show he still loves her.
• Evil Aunt: Victoria to Jenny, her brother Ted's daughter. Right from the start, she's rude and passive-aggressive to her niece, captures her at the climax of the film, and when Jenny refuses her We Can Rule Together offer, tries to murder her.
• Evil Counterpart: Carapax to Jaime, who by the end of the story has almost identical powers and a red color scheme to contrast Jaime's blue.
• Evil Knockoff: The OMACs are this to the Scarab, created by Kord Industries based off the Scarab's technology. Victoria wants to copy the Scarab's code so her the OMACs will have the same range of abilities.
• Expressive Mask: Thanks to nanotechnology, the face of the Beetle suit reflects all of Jaime's facial expressions, which is in line with his previous incarnations (apart from the lack of a visible mouth) as well as existing heroes like Atom Smasher or Deadpool.
• Eye Scream: Averted. When Jaime was about to deliver the killing blow on Carapax while enraged with his arm morphing into a stinger, Khaji-Da stops him from killing him, with the tip of the stinger only a few inches to Carapax’s eye.
• Face Hugger: The Scarab first attaches to Jaime by latching onto his face before migrating to his spine.
• Five-Second Foreshadowing: Jaime gets concussed in the first fight with Carapax, but when he wakes up later he doesn't act much like someone who's been concussed. Later, when cleaning up in the bathroom, he sees his cuts closing up, confirming that the Scarab gave him a Healing Factor.
• Forbidden Fruit: Jenny hands Jaime a burger box and tells him to guard it with his life and not open or mess with it. Jaime has no problem with it, but his family decide to open it anyway to see what it is, and then Milagro and Rudy take it out against Jaime's protests. It bites them when Jaime's touch activates it and it bonds with him.
• Foreign Cuss Word: Dr. "Sanchez" calls Victoria "pendeja", a Spanish slang term basically meaning "asshole" right before his Heel–Face Turn.
• Foreshadowing:
  • Early on, it's mentioned that Alberto recently had a heart attack, though he insists he's now fine. When Victoria and her forces storm the Reyes' home, he has another, more serious one, which kills him.
  • When Alberto dies, Nana is the one who rallies the family, telling them that it's no time to cry and they have to help Jaime now. It's later revealed that she used to be part of a revolutionary movement, meaning she has experience with losing people she loves suddenly and violently.
  • Pay attention to the television when Nana is channel flipping, and you know exactly what will happen the rest of the movie.
• Friendly Address Privileges: Uncle Rudy does not like being called that way by foreigners and asks Jenny to call him Cesar instead. She obliges, until he eventually allows her to call him Rudy after she proves she really is on their side.
• Good Colors, Evil Colors: Blue, of course, for Jaime and the Scarab, but yellow lighting and objects are also used for the Reyes family and home. The villains, particular Carapax and Victoria's goons, are red.
• Good Parents: And good siblings too! All of them are supportive to Jaime and help him in becoming a superhero.
• Gory Discretion Shot: When De La Cruz helps Jaime escape, he insists to Jaime that he’ll be fine. Then suddenly, his blood gets splattered on the window by Carapax.
• The Heavy: While Victoria serves as the overall Big Bad of the story, Carapax serves as the more present and physical threat that Jaime faces, with their final battle serving as the climax.
• Hero with Bad Publicity: Evidently, Batman's Terror Hero strategy has worked a little too well for some people, as Rudy outright calls him "a fascist".
• Horrifying the Horror: Despite inflicting pain and trauma on Jaime, Carapax soon seemingly experiences this when he gets utterly defeated by Jaime who unleashing his anger after he tried to kill his uncle Rudy and becomes terrified when Jaime was about to stab him in the eye and hellbent on killing him, but was stopped thanks to Khaji-Da.
• Ignored Epiphany: A heroic example, averted. After Khaji-Da shows a grieving and enraged Jaime all of Carapax’s tragic memories of his past when Jaime was about to kill him and asks him if he can understand now of why they can’t kill him, Jaime seemingly doesn’t listen and at first furiously goes for the kill anyway. But he pulls off a Bait-and-Switch by stabbing the ground next to Carapax, having listened to Khaji-Da and coming to reason.
• The Illegal: It is all but stated that Alberto, Rudy and Nana are all undocumented immigrants, with Rudy hesitating to call the police because they'll ask for documents while indicating the three of them, talking about how he and Alberto crossed the border, and saying he "feels a certain kind of way" about the word alien. It might have something to do with Nana's revolutionary past.
• Imagination-Based Superpower: The Scarab declares "Anything you can imagine, I can create." Jaime then tests this by forming a BFS.
• Imported Alien Phlebotinum: The Scarab is shown in the opening to have been sent from space, with many other Scarabs, where it traveled across the galaxy to arrive on Earth. Victoria Kord plans to analyze its capabilities to enhance her OMAC devices.
• In Working Order: The Bug has been sitting around in a forgotten basement for decades, but (mostly) works fine once it's booted up, needing only a kick to get it going again.
• Ironic Echo:
  • At the end of their first fight, Carapax asks Jaime if he really thought he could beat him and states that he should have killed him when he had the chance. At the end of their second fight, a grieving and enraged Jaime rebukes Carapax if he really thought he could beat him and states that he should have killed him when he had the chance.
    Jaime: You think…you can beat me?! HUH!?! You should have finished me when you had the CHANCE!
  • Victoria often says that "Sacrifices must be made for the greater good." as an excuse for her evil deeds. Carapax says the same to her before killing them both.
  • While first breaking into Kord Tower to get the key to Ted's secret lab, Rudy calls Jenny "cupcake" somewhat mockingly. She gives him a weird look but doesn't comment on it. In the last scene of the movie, Jenny calls Rudy "cupcake" when she asks him if he likes the new truck she bought him.
• Jerkass Has a Point: Even Jenny seems to sympathize with Victoria's bitterness about Ted inheriting the company. Ted was barely involved in Kord Industries while Victoria and their father made a fortune building and selling weapons. Still, Ted was given everything just because he was a man.
• Lack of Empathy: Victoria appears to be a full blown sociopath, having partaken in the drafting of child soldiers decades ago. Her Establishing Character Moment has her threatening her own niece and belittling her charity work as a drain on their business just because she doesn't like the idea of Kord industries getting back into war profiteering. She directly witnesses Alberto suffering a heart attack and Jaime desperately trying to get to him, but her response is to take the chance to paralyze him and drag him away while he's screaming in anguish. To top it all off, when her employee tells her that downloading the Scarab's code will probably kill Jaime, she doesn't care and eggs him on even when he points out that this could cost them lots of valuable data.
• Love Is a Weakness: Carapax twice calls Jaime's bond with his family a weakness, first when he's about to kill him in front of the Kord building, second when he's about to kill him on the island. Jaime finally gets to throw it back in his face after overpowering him and sparing his life, saying that his family makes him strong.
• Malicious Misnaming: Victoria refers to the doctor as "Sanchez" even though he repeatedly insists that's not his name. Her doing it one time too many precedes his Heel–Face Turn.
• My Name Is Inigo Montoya: When the doctor finally has enough of Victoria, he yells out his full name to her as one final defiance while sacrificing his life to save Jaime.
  Dr. de la Cruz: My name is not "Sanchez", pendeja! It's José Francisco Morales Rivera de la CRUZ!
• My Sensors Indicate You Want to Tap That: At the end of the film Jaime offers Jenny a ride to her dad's place. When she asks how Khaji pipes in with "I feel a surge of blood rushing toward your mid region." Jaime is not amused.
• Mythology Gag:
  • Two costumes seen in Ted Kord's mansion resemble the costumes worn by Dan Garrett and Ted Kord himself, the previous Blue Beetles before Jaime. Notably, Ted Kord's outfit has a crack in one of the lenses, referencing Ted's death in Countdown to Infinite Crisis.
  • Jaime receives the Scarab in a box from Big Belly Burger, a major fast food franchise in the DC universe.
  • The Reyes' house is located on El Paso St. Jaime in the comics hails from El Paso, Texas.
  • invoked Jenny claims the OMAC Project was cancelled years ago before Victoria continued its production. OMAC was originally going to make its cinematic debut in Justice League: Mortal and then the planned sequel to The LEGO Batman Movie before both films were cancelled.
  • When unleashing his most powerful attack, Jaime shouts the Scarab's name. In the original comics, Dan Garrett activated the Scarab's magic the same way.
• Naked People Are Funny: Whenever Jaime changes into the suit, his clothes get burned off and he is left naked after de-transforming.
• Near-Death Experience: When the Scarab is being drained and Jaime is on the verge of death, he comes to an Afterlife Antechamber that looks like his home, with his dead father waiting for him in front of a field of candles ala Macario. Alberto tells him It Is Not Your Time, gives him some final comfort and advice, and Jaime and the Scarab fully merge, reviving him.
• Near-Villain Victory: During their second fight in the climax, Carapax/OMAC manages to stab Jaime/Blue Beetle in the abdomen and gains the upper hand, only for it to fuel Jaime’s rage upon Carapax even after seemingly killing Rudy in front of him and gets overwhelmed by a grieving and infuriated Jaime hellbent on killing him.
• Never Mess with Granny: Jaime's nana was a Mexican revolutionary and she still kicks ass, killing several mooks by herself when they go to rescue Jaime.
• Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: As Carapax/OMAC gains the upper hand against Jaime/Blue Beetle in the climax and was about to kill him, he then shoots at Rudy when he distracts him from killing his nephew. This causes Jaime to go on an Unstoppable Rage and ultimately defeats him in battle as revenge for his actions.
• Non-Action Big Bad: Victoria Kord wouldn't last very long in a fight, which is why Carapax does the fighting for her. Indeed, when Carapax drags her off to destroy them both, all Victoria can do is futilely demand that he release her.
• Non Sequitur, *Thud*: Jaime says "It's Jamey, not Jaime," to his mother before passing out. (A secretary had persistently mispronounced his name as "Jamey" earlier in the film.)
• No-Holds-Barred Beatdown: A furious Jaime does this to Carapax in the final battle after the latter almost kills him in battle and seemingly killed Uncle Rudy (who survived), to the point where he almost kills him but is fortunately stopped by Khaji-Da at the last second.
• Noodle Incident:
  • Rudy claims he has seen worse than how Jaime looks with his back showing the Scarab, but when asked where, claims You Do Not Want To Know.
  • Nana's past, especially the details of when and where she gained her skill at wielding a minigun, is never fully revealed. If us implied she might be a former Mexican revolutionary, but never outright stated.
• Not the Fall That Kills You…: Jaime's first time in the Blue Beetle suit has it send him skyrocketing above the clouds, before dropping him back down again, with the Beetle wings apparently slowing his descent just as he's over water. Ironically, hitting the water at that speed would be less damaging than stopping like that.
• Only the Chosen May Wield: The Scarab chooses who it bonds with, being nothing more than a paperweight to anyone else. When Jaime picks it up, it chooses him.
• Orifice Invasion: Implied; once it activates and moves to bond with Jaime, the Scarab can be seen under his shirt on his back moving downward before emerging from his upper spine. Jaime's uncle Rudy believes it went up his butt, but Jaime twice denies this vehemently.
• Percussive Maintenance: Rudy's scrambling device only starts after he kicks it a couple of times. It also proves to work just as well on Kord's devices, to Jenny's surprise.
• Politically Incorrect Villain: Victoria Kord has a low opinion of the lower-class, largely Hispanic residents of Jaime's neighborhood and frequently calls De La Cruz, her head scientist, "Sanchez".
• Posthumous Character: Dan Garrett, whose death established that the only way for the Scarab to leave its host is through said host dying.
• Powers as Programs: Literally; Victoria Kord's plan hinges on forcibly downloading the Scarab's programming to implant in her OMAC devices. When she succeeds, it upgrades the armor used by Carapax to more closely mimic the nanotech capabilities of the Scarab.
• The Power of Family: The close bonds the Reyes family have with each other help keep them alive through the film. They rescue Jaime after he is kidnapped by Victoria Kord, and they also rescue each other when Jaime’s still figuring out his powers, sticking together despite the odds. On top of that, Jaime only grows strong enough to defeat Carapax when he believed Carapax killed Uncle Rudy.
  Jaime: You're wrong. The love, that I have for my family, that's what makes me strong.
• Purple Is Powerful: Kord Industries has a primarily purple aesthetic, from employees wearing purple to purple neon on the building and even a military drone.
• Rage Breaking Point: Jaime becomes extremely infuriated during the final battle when Carapax seemingly kills Uncle Rudy when he distracts him from killing his nephew, hellbent on killing him as revenge. It is only until Khaji-Da convinces Jaime not to kill Carapax when the former was about to kill the latter.
• Raging Stiffie:
  • Implied with Jaime after his Almost Kiss with Jenny in Kord's base. He hastily pulls his jacket down so that it covers his midsection, and is still bending forward a little in the next scene.
  • Right before Jaime finally kisses Jenny at the end of the movie, Khaji comments that there is a rush of blood towards his mid region.
• Rapid-Fire "No!": Jenny lets out a burst of this when Jaime takes drastic measures to summon the Blue Beetle suit.
• Razor Wings: The Beetle wings has the ability to shield Jaime and root him in place while also cutting clean through an oncoming bus. Notably, the membranes of his wings are some kind of plasma fields, so it's less like they cut and more so that they melt through, like a giant lightsaber.
• Retired Badass: Jaime's nana was a Mexican revolutionary and she shows she still has her skills when she wields one of Ted Kord's BFGs and easily guns down several mooks by herself when rescuing Jaime.
• Rogues' Gallery Transplant: Downplayed. Carapax the Indestructible Man, who is normally a villain fought by Ted Kord, fights Jaime in the film. So he's fighting the same heroic identity, but a different individual.
• Scarab Power: The Scarab is an extremely powerful alien weapon, with the wearer capable of easily defeating large of groups of enemies by themself.
• School Is for Losers: A couple jokes are made about how people who go to college are in debt for the rest of their lives.
• Shaking Her Hair Loose: There's a minor example when Jenny takes off her motorcycle helmet in the closing scene.
• Shapeshifting Excludes Clothing: Whenever the Scarab 'activates' the suit it burns off all of Jaime's clothes and when the suit retracts Jaime is left naked afterward.
• Shout-Out:
  • Milagro refers to Victoria Kord as "Cruella Kardashian" when she first sees her.
  • The Reyes family constantly (and mockingly) refers to Jaime's relationship with Jenny Kord as a gender-swapped version of the telenovela María la del barrio.
  • El Chapulín Colorado becomes plot relevant when Rudy uses a device of his own making that he calls "El Chapulin" to create interference with Kord Industries' security systems by broadcasting stop-motion animation of the character on all their feeds.
  • Jaime presents Rudy as a Mexican Doc Brown.
  • The Afterlife Antechamber where Jaime's dead father is has Death's life candle cave from Macario, which was foreshadowed earlier on when Nana was flipping through the TV channels to the channel showing the movie Macario.
  • While fighting Victoria's minions, Jaime grabs one from across the corridor with one of the suit's legs, and proclaims "Get over here!"
  • In addition to the BFS Jaime creates looking similar in design to the Buster Sword from Final Fantasy VII, he also uses an attack similar to Blade Beam to send Carapax flying though multiple structures.
  • When Jaime protects his family and asks for a weapon, the suit's left hand transforms into the ZF-1 from the The Fifth Element.
• Sistine Steal: When Jaime is almost dying and he is in a dream-like estate, his father's spirit convinces him that his time to die has yet to come and that it was always his destiny to have the blue scarab. Jaime's new resolution is symbolically shown by him floating and stretching his right hand and touching with his finger his costume's fingertip, which floats above him. When they finally touch the fingertips, it leads to the creation of Blue Beetle.
• Something Else Also Rises: Jaime's Blue Beetle suit antennae emerge, evoking this after a tender moment with Jenny.
• Standalone Episode: If taken as part of the DC Extended Universe, the movie has no explicit links to that continuity (like it merely references the existence of Batman, unlike say the first Shazam! movie which had a Batarang that was clearly the same design as those used by DCEU Batman) yet works as a standalone story within the DCEU, while also extending it further.
• Stay in the Kitchen: Despite having co-founded Kord Industries with her father Thomas, Victoria was passed over to inherit the company in favor of her brother Ted; her bitterness and resentment over this apparently helped shape her into the cold and ruthless person she is today. Even Ted's daughter Jennifer, who hates Victoria (and with good reason), is clearly angered that she was a victim of sexism.
• The Stinger:
  • In a mid-credits scene a message from Ted Kord automatically starts playing on his computer, with a video transmission to Jenny to let her know he's still alive.
  • After the credits, more stop-motion animation of El Chapulín Colorado starts playing.
• Stoners Are Funny: A trio of stoners are on a bench, waiting for "it" to kick in. When Jaime crashlands from the sky, cuts a bus in half, and then flies away, one comments "I think it just hit me.".
• Sufficiently Analyzed Magic: In the comics Scarabs are magical items that its creators use like technology. This is never brought up in the film, but the ability for Jaime to communte with his deceased father and The Power of Love power-up at the end certainly imply this.
• Superhero Movie Villains Die: Double subverted. Jaime has his chance to kill Carapax, until the Scarab itself talks him out of it. Instead Carapax goes for a Redemption Equals Death - taking Victoria with him.
• Take That!: When Jaime compares Ted Kord's high-tech Blue Beetle gear to Batman's arsenal, his uncle Rudy shouts that "Batman's a fascist!"
• Taking You with Me: As Carapax begins to overload the OMAC core in his suit, he drags Victoria with him so the explosion kills them both.
• Talking Weapon: The Scarab. It's some kind of world-destroying weapon, that announces "New host acquired." after bonding with Jaime, and comments "Nice choice." when Jaime chooses to make a BFS.
• Tempting Fate: Alberto claims that he's fine after his heart attack at the beginning of the film. Cue him going under cardiac arrest...
• Thou Shalt Not Kill: Played straight and averted.
  • Once he acquires the Scarab, Jaime is very adamant about not killing anyone, and only using the non-lethal tech on the suit to deal with his adversaries. Once they become fully synchronized, Khaji-Da comes to share Jaime's no-killing policy, especially when a furious Jaime was about to kill Carapax to which Khaji-Da prevented him from doing so.
  • In contrast the rest of the Reyes family has no such scruples, as Rudy uses the Big Bug's legs to impale mooks and Nana gleefully slaughters mooks by the dozen with a high-tech minigun. Justified, as it's in self-defense, and Nana in particular is a former soldier.
• Toilet Humor: The Bug's cloaking device isn't exactly a cloaking device. It's called a "fart shield", and has the vehicle emit a cloud of knock-out gas from pipes located at the rear, complete with an actual farting sound.
• Token Good Teammate: The doctor that Victoria employs goes along with her experiments, but shows notably more discomfort with it than any other person on her team and occasionally tries to talk him out of it. When Jaime escapes and she calls him "Sanchez" yet again, he finally snaps and saves Jaime instead, even knowing he'll die for it.
• Tragic Keepsake: Milagro wears her father's mechanic jacket for the second half of the movie.
• Tragic Villain: Carapax had his mom killed by a bomb from Kord Industries, and then Victoria took him in as a child soldier, experimented on him, and turned him into her weapon, with the intent of eventually replacing him once he’s no longer of use to her.
• Trauma Conga Line:
  • When he comes home from college, Jaime learns that his family concealed his father's heart attack, their auto shop going out of business, and their inability to pay rent. Then his body is taken over by an alien artifact in a Body Horror sequence. Then Kord mercenaries break into his house, kidnap him, and cause his father to suffer a fatal heart attack. Then he's held prisoner in a castle and experimented on by Victoria, nearly dying in the process.
  • It’s revealed in the climax that Carapax also went through this and while shown chronologically in reverse, he had lost his mother from a Kord Industries air strike during the war in the country back when he was a child, then kidnapped by Victoria Kord and forced to become a soldier, then stepping on a landmine years later at the loss of his right arm and leg, then got a transplant and finally getting the OMAC augmented into him by Victoria.
• Tron Lines: The Scarab shown off in the trailer tease has a number of visible glowing circuits on its surface.
• Unstoppable Rage: Jaime/Blue Beetle suffers through this after Carapax/OMAC shoots at Uncle Rudy after the latter distracts the OMAC during the final battle, causing Jaime to defeat Carapax to the point where he almost kills him out of revenge, but is fortunately stopped thanks to Khaji-Da, who finally calms Jaime down by convincing him not to kill Carapax and showing the latter’s traumatic memories of his past, to make Jaime understand and come to terms with him.
• Uptown Girl: The humble and working-class Jaime falls for the beautiful and wealthy Jenny.
• Villain Ball: At the climax, Victoria's head scientist even points out her method of getting data from Jaime and the Scarab is unnecessarily cruel, and they could do so without killing him. She ignores him.
• Villain Opening Scene: The movie opens with Victoria discovering the Scarab in a frozen tundra.
• Villainous Gentrification: Kord Industries is pricing people out from the Edge Keys for renovation and at the beginning of the film the Reyes' are three months from losing their home due to this. Luckily, Jennifer taking over at the end puts a stop to it.
• We Can Rule Together: Victoria does offer Jenny the chance to work with her after capturing her in the final battle, and expresses disbelief that she would choose to side with Jaime, whom she calls "Edge trash", over her own aunt. When Jenny angrily shoots back that Jaime knows far more about what it means to be family than Victoria ever could, she furiously tries to kill her niece.
• What Measure Is a Mook?: Jaime makes a point of not wanting to kill Carapax when he has the chance, and Khaji reminds him of that later. Yet his family shows no hesitation in slaughtering their way through countless guards to reach him.
• When Elders Attack: Jaime's grandmother joins the fight by picking up a minigun, without any strength-augmenting suit. This moment is also a minor example of Shaking Her Hair Loose as she pulls out a hairpin to let her braids down.
• With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility: At one point in the trailer, Rudy delivers this speech to Jaime:
  Rudy: The Universe has sent you a gift, and you have to figure out what to do with it.
• The World Is Just Awesome: The Scarab’s first action after powering up Jaime is to launch him into the upper atmosphere, complete with a revolving shot of Jaime taking in his surroundings. Jaime goes from panicking to in awe when he's in space for the first time.
• You Do Not Want To Know: Rudy claims that he has seen worse than the Scarab's appearance on Jaime's spine. When Milagro asks where, he responds with this trope.
• You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: It doesn't happen in the story, but Victoria Kord makes it clear in dialogue that she sees Carapax as expendable and has every intention of discarding him once his services as The Heavy are no longer needed.
• Zeerust: All of Ted Kord's equipment was probably cutting-edge... in the 80s and 90s, which is when he was active as a superhero. His lab is decked out in CRT monitors, and his wrist-based control device utilizes monochrome LCD screens instead of resembling a modern smartwatch.

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"You are a superhero, cabrón!"