The year is 2027, nine years after an alien invasion that has made Earth into a vassal planet ruled by mysterious "legislators." Rarely seen, they have co-opted existing human institutions (police forces, municipal governments, etc.) to run daily life as they see fit.
In Chicago, a factory worker (Ashton Sanders), a cop (John Goodman), a prostitute (Vera Farmiga), and assorted others try to get by amid the constant surveillance, paranoia, and brutality of the alien occupation. There was a resistance, once, but now it's extinct. Maybe.
This film provides examples of:
- 20 Minutes into the Future: Most of the film is set in 2027, nine years into the alien rule of Earth.
- Alien Invasion: The film opens with one in which an alien race conquers Earth easily.
- Almighty Janitor:
- The prostitute turns out to be the resistance leader. What's more, prior to the invasion, she was just a school teacher.
- Harrison Ma, the Sole Surviving Scientist of the resistance, who found a way to take out the trackers, never finished medical school due to the invasion.
- Alternate History: The film starts in what's an alternate 2018, since the rest was 2027, nine years later.
- And the Adventure Continues: The film ends with Mulligan revealed to be a mole in the collaborationist government and launching a suicide attack on the aliens, while Gabriel is implied to aid the Resistance. It's also shown that the Resistance extends across the US (and likely the world), with a montage of attacks and protests seen.
- Arc Words: "Beware Greeks bearing gifts." said by Jane Doe and Mulligan. Mulligan turns out to be a Resistance spy all along, waiting until he was promoted high enough to access and destroy the Closed Zone.
- Army of Thieves and Whores: The Resistance Cell in Chicago. For starters, the mission we see carried out by the Cell are partially made of a Goth cross-dresser who's implied to be a prostitute, a butch lesbian mechanic, a deeply religious ex-priest, and an ex-Marine. Rafe's partner is a low-class, trashy wigger.
- Batman Gambit: The resistance's plan involves manipulating the Legislators and their human police state into doing things based off their general behavior, such as the way that they punish failure severely and reward success through promotions. They also gamble that Gabe will sell them out to save Rafe's life, which he does.
- Be Careful What You Wish For: Commissioner Igoe is aware that the Legislators are stripping Earth to the bone, and hopes to get off the planet in exchange for his service to them. He does, but on a prison ship, as a result of how You Have Failed Me.
- Benevolent Alien Invasion: The Legislators make a token effort at making their occupation of Earth look like this, but it's anything but. Anyone sufficiently high up on the chain of command is aware that all the talk of helping humanity is bullshit and that the aliens are actually just pumping Earth dry.
- Better to Die than Be Killed: The resistance does not want to be taken alive under any circumstances and will try to kill themselves without hesitation if exposed with no escape routes. Given what happens to Rafe after he's arrested, it's not hard to see why.
- Black Speech: Legislator language consists of guttural clicks, shrieks, and angry howling.
- Boom, Headshot!: How Jane goes out, courtesy of a police officer's bullet.
- Bread and Circuses: The Unity Rally, some kind of annual public event that seems to be mostly devoted to making humans praise and thank the Legislators for their occupation.
- Brick Joke: A very dark one. True to Gabe's complaints, the gun that Jurgis buys does indeed contribute to him getting captured.
- Chekhov's Gun:
- Tons. The computer teletype, the print on the wall, the record player, the Blackberry, etc.
- "Beware Greeks bearing gifts." The quote refers to the story of the Trojan Horse, which is what Mulligan turns out to be.
- Jurgis is shown to have bought a gun early in the movie and Gabriel complains about the money spent on it, not to mention that even owning it could get them arrested. Shortly after the gun is hidden when the police arrive and not used... until Gabriel tries to use it to protect Jurgis during the crackdown following the stadium bombing, leading to his capture.
- Connected All Along: The three main characters initially seem unrelated to one another. In truth, Mulligan and Jane are friends of Gabe's parents, and its implied their knowledge of him was a major part in their plans, such as knowing he would give up the resistance to save his brother.
- Cryptic Background Reference:
- The band performance reenactment of First Contact. It's weird, doesn't seem to mesh with the flashes we saw early in the movie, and simply raises more questions.
- Gabe and Jurgis are planning to flee Chicago by using a boat to cross Lake Michigan. Rula describes the area across the lake as lawless and dangerous, and Jurgis affirms this when justifying his purchase of a gun, but how and why this is the case is never explained.
- The Dog Was the Mastermind: Twice. A low-class prostitute, formerly a history teacher, is revealed to have coordinated the Resistance in Chicago - and implied to have a major hand in American Resistance. This was specifically so all the politicians and government personnel who slept with her spill enough beans for the Resistance to strike targets. And after that, her partner is a police commander who has been spearheading the investigation into eliminating the Resistance... and, by eliminating them, becomes the new commissioner, and thus gets a face-to-face audience with the Legislator colony in Chicago... who don't realize he's a suicide bomber packing enough explosives to kill them all.
- The Dreaded: The Legislators, obviously. When the human delegation is on its way to meet with them, even the translator—who, presumably, is the most familiar with them—is terrified.
- Driven to Suicide: After the resistance is exposed, most of their ringleaders commit suicide to avoid capture.
- Enforced Technology Levels: The internet has been shut down and many other modern luxuries have been stripped away, all in the name of enforcing the peace, leaving humanity at a roughly 80s level of technology.
- Evil Colonialist: The Legislators, an imperialistic alien force that has invaded and occupied Earth and are stripping it of all its resources.
- Eyeless Face: The Legislators have these under their environment suits. Except for their round, jawless mouths, their faces are mottled, white flesh.
- Fascist, but Inefficient: Thanks in part to their way of doing things, the Legislators and their human quislings end up incompetently letting a rebel group fester right under their noses, to a point that one of Chicago's top-ranking police enforcers is a mole for the resistance and the rest of the police leadership blabbed state secrets to a prostitute who turned out to be the leader of the insurgents.
- Fantastic Slur: Humans sometimes refer to the Legislators as "roaches", though not to their faces for fairly obvious reasons.
- A Fate Worse Than Death: Anyone who isn't killed for breaking the law is sent to an off-world prison. What little is hinted about it implies that death is very much preferable.
- Foreshadowing:
- The Trojan Horse painting on Jane Doe's wall. Which hints at the actual plan of the resistance.
- While the cops are investigating the brothel, Mulligan lies and claims he's never been there before, seemingly covering his ass preemptively. He is, but not in the way you'd think.
- Genius Cripple: The paraplegic resistance hacker.
- Heroic Sacrifice: Jane Doe allows herself to be uncovered and killed as the leader of the Resistance Cell in Chicago, so her partner will take the credit. He's thus promoted and given direct access with the aliens, permitting him to launch a suicide attack on them.
- Hired to Hunt Himself: Mulligan is in charge of hunting down Phoenix, of which he is one of the two leaders.
- Hoist by Their Own Petard: One of the aliens’ trump cards is an organic explosive that cannot be detected by any means by humans... or aliens. Subsequently, it’s used extensively by the Resistance.
- Illegal Religion: Public religious displays are banned, as shown in background references such as a sign saying that praying and congregating is prohibited. This sets up a switch when one of the resistance members tells another to take something off because "you might as well wear a target". The obvious choice is the bandage covering where her tracker was, but it's the cross necklace she's wearing. We also hear a rendition of "Battle Hymn of the Republic" with the lyrics edited to remove any religious references. It helps explain just how many people oppose the aliens' occupation, since this would alienate the majority.
- Imported Alien Phlebotinum: Inverted. Most modern computing technology seems to have disappeared: people call each other on pay phones, take photos with Polaroid cameras, etc. Any remaining high tech is part of the police surveillance apparatus. This is a result of the Internet being largely shut down to stifle any opposition.
- Inscrutable Aliens: There's never really any explanation for why the Legislators are conquering Earth beyond implied colonialist/imperialist motives. A lot of their behavior in general that we see is left unexplained; we never get a translation of their language when we hear it aside from Mulligan's decommissioning near the end, nor do we get any scenes from their perspective, just descriptions of what they're doing from their human minions and implications of what they're doing that can be discerned from the few times we see them directly.
- Jack Bauer Interrogation Technique: The police use torture on captured Resistance members to get information.
- La Résistance: Rafe is a member of a resistance cell called "Phoenix" that opposes the Legislators. It's later shown there's a national network in the US which they're a part of.
- Les Collaborateurs: It's stated a vast majority of politicians around the world - from local levels to global government - have capitulated. The majority of Resistance targets are such individuals.
- Ludicrous Gibs: The results of the Legislator's primary weapons, which basically vaporize anything they hit.
- Meaningful Name: Mulligan. A Mulligan is a second chance to perform an action, usually after the first chance went wrong through bad luck or a blunder. The Thanatos Gambit of the Phoenix Resistance involves the cell being seemingly slaughtered, getting Mulligan into the position necessary to make a strike against the aliens.
- Minimalism: There is a plot but the focus is very much on a slice-of-life depiction of a world under alien occupation, with the larger world and its history more hinted at than actually described.
- The Mole: Mulligan turns out to be one in the government for the Resistance. Their plan is a Thanatos Gambit to let him take credit for wiping them all out. This gets him promoted to the new Commissioner, earning him a face-to-face meeting with the Legislators, and so an opportunity to bring them a bomb.
- Nothing Is Scarier: The Legislators' underground headquarters. All we know is that getting there involves a decon shower, a breathing mask, a lonely walk along a narrow gantry, and being strapped into a tiny rocket-powered capsule that then plunges into the depths. The only concrete description we get is something along the lines of 'you won't believe what's going on down there'.
- Ominous Mundanity: The aliens that defeated and subjugated humanity are known only as the "Legislators".
- Organic Technology: A lot of the Legislators' technology appears to be this. For instance, the "bugs" they use as tracking implants appear to be literal bug larvae, and they also use an explosive transparent gel stated to be organic. However, their ships appear to be made of stone instead.
- Planet Looters: What the Legislators are seemingly conquering Earth for; to strip it of it's resources for their own use. Rafe claims that within a few years, they'll have drained everything.
- The Quisling: Many of the surviving human leadership are collaborators serving the Legislators in hopes of having a seat on the lifeboat when the aliens inevitably strip Earth of all resources and pull out. Commissioner Igoe in particular plainly states to Mulligan that he's only on the police force in hopes of getting off Earth.
- Retro Universe: Despite being set in 2027, the vibe is definitely more 70s or 80s in terms of aesthetics and technology. Justified by the nature of the alien occupation; see Enforced Technology Levels.
- The Revolution Will Not Be Civilized: The resistance's methods mostly entail carrying out a brutal bombing campaign on any collaborators with the alien regime. Their plan in the film involves planting a bomb on Chicago's mayor and blowing up him, his administration, and a delegation of alien diplomats at a public rally attended by thousands of people.
- Second-Hand Storytelling: A lot of the backstory and worldbuilding is more hinted implied through concise dialogue and visual hints than actually stated or shown.
- Show, Don't Tell: A big fan of it. Most of the film's worldbuilding and characterization is more implied than said outright, conveyed through environmental storytelling and concise dialogue rather than direct exposition.
- Spikes of Villainy: The Roaches/Legislator's environmental suits are covered in wicked black spikes that, in a pinch, serve as self-defense weapons.
- Starfish Aliens: The Legislators look like vaguely humanoid sea urchins in their environmental suits, and are even weirder beneath them if the one glimpse we get is any indication.
- Suicide Attack: Mulligan launches one on the aliens in Chicago at the end, destroying their colony and setting off revolts around the globe.
- Suicide by Cop: Jane baits the cops into shooting her by having her gun on hand when they breach her room. The cops don't find out until after they've blown her brains out that the gun was empty and she wanted to get killed.
- Suicide by Sea: Implied to be the fate of Raul the truck driver after the remaining Resistance leaders are exposed.
- Suicide Pill: The resistance members who carry out the stadium bombing carry cyanide pills with them as they do to avoid being taken alive. Daniel kills himself with his when cornered. Anita settles for the more immediate death of getting an alien hunter to shoot her. Rafe tries to take his pill, but is shot and wounded by Mulligan before he can.
- Thanatos Gambit: Mulligan's part in the big plan is getting promoted high enough to be granted a meeting with the Legislators, then carry a bomb with him to said meeting. He knows he will die doing this and doesn't care. Nor do the majority of resistance members, who are mostly aware that the plan requires their deaths in some way or form.
- Tracking Device: Humans are required to receive tracking implants in the form of insect-like creatures surgically placed into their bodies. The resistance has developed a way of removing it, but it's dangerous and not all the subjects survive.
- Trailers Always Spoil: The various ads for the film included shots of Mulligan wearing the gas-mask setup, showing that he was going to be visiting the alien headquarters before the movie was over.
- Trojan Horse: The trope namer is alluded to through the Arc Words "beware a Greek bearing gifts", foreshadowing the resistance's plan for striking the aliens by getting a mole into their base after he's been laced with explosives.
- Twist Ending: Despite the Resistance cell's elimination, it turns out the cop spearheading the anti-Resistance operation is, in fact, a Resistance member, and suicide bombs the Legislator colony underneath Chicago, triggering widespread rebellion across the Earth.
- Vichy Earth: It's stated the hostilities from the Legislators landing quickly ceased after the invading aliens were able to negotiate some kind of deal. Nearly all governments are cooperating with the aliens, now, with Chicago's mayoral system mostly in service to alien interests.
- Viewers Are Geniuses: There's surprisingly little exposition, a large cast, and a lot of unanswered questions.
- Voice of the Resistance: Downplayed, with the local DJ and the classified editor at the newspaper knowing not to publicly and obviously declare for the resistance, but delivering coded messages through classified adds and songs on the radio.
- Wham Line: "What if the plan was to fail?".
- What Happened to the Mouse?: A few rebels, including the DJ, aren’t seen on The Big Board after the resistance cell is apparently eradicated, which is one hint that it isn’t really.
- Xanatos Gambit:
- The Resistance Leader is a prostitute in the ghettos of Chicago. Not only are the ghettos less watched, but multiple government personnel are her johns - they don't suspect a thing from a mere sex worker, and see nothing wrong in telling her bits of what they do - enough for her to formulate plans to strike specific targets and alien infrastructure and discredit the Police Commissioner...
- A police commander forces a man he knew as a kid - Gabe - to be a patsy against the Resistance, ranging from bugging his apartment personally to targeting his still-alive brother with imprisonment and torture, forcing Gabe to cooperate and reveal the cell leaders. As it turns out, this was the exact plan - by Gabe cracking and revealing the cell leaders, the commander is credited with taking down the Resistance AND is instated as the newest Commissioner. It's also heavily implied that the cell leaders were relying on this betrayal.
- Government personnel are allowed to visit the Legislator colonies. With his new rank, the commander's able to enter the colony... strapped with enough plastic explosive to destroy it.
- You Have Failed Me: After the Police Commissioner is revealed to have passed classified intelligence to the Resistance cell leader unwittingly, he's next seen along with Rafe and other prisoners who are being deported offworld.
- Zeppelins from Another World: The strange rock-like spaceships that transfer people off-planet are very blimp-like.
