Readin', Writin', and Radiation!
"It rotted their bodies. It corrupted their minds. And that's the good news."
Tromaville (See what they did there?) High School is right next to a nuclear power plant. A leaky nuclear power plant. You can already tell this isn't exactly the best of situations, right? First of all, the school's honor students turn into ultra-violent mutated thugs. Then, the school is menaced by a spiky nuclear mutant. And good, clean cut, boy-next-door Warren and his equally squeaky clean girlfriend, Chrissy, are caught in the middle.
This 1986 sci-fi/horror/comedy film was followed by two sequels in The '90s. Another follow up, titled Return to Nuke 'Em High and split into two parts, was announced to coincide with Troma's 40th anniversary; the first installment was released in 2013.
This movie contains examples of:
- Aborted Arc: Warren's Hulking Out is never dealt with again once he goes on the rampage a grand total of once.
- An Aesop: Simply put, do not build a nuclear power plant next to a school, or any heavily populated areas. Nuclear power is unpredictable, and can lead to an accident if not handled properly.
- The Aggressive Drug Dealer: When they say "Buy our weed", they fucking mean it.
- Balloon Belly: Overlaps with a good amount of
Squick. For example, in Chrissy's Nightmare Sequence, she's lying in bed at home, her belly starts swelling up at an alarming rate. Then some kind of dark green tadpole monster wriggles out of her navel.
- Big "SHUT UP!": At the beginning of the first Film, an English teacher gets her class' attention by shouting shut up really loud.
- Body Horror: Mutated weed ends up mutating people in horrific ways.
- Chekhov's Gun: The laser in the school's lab is used in the first film's climax to kill a mutant and destroy the school.
- Eye Scream: The creature impales Gonzo through the eye, from behind.
- Fetus Terrible: The killer mutant is technically Chrissy's baby, although it came out the wrong end.
- Hates Rich People: In the sequel, Chrissy immediately hates Lauren because of her wealthy background and tries to make her life in school miserable. Later on, she goes from a bully to a romantic love interest after slowly learning that Lauren isn’t the rich snob she thinks she is.
- In Name Only: The sequels have only slightly more to do with the original than Troll 2 has to do with the first Troll.
- Load-Bearing Boss: Justified by the fact that the laser in story reacts violently with nuclear materials.
- Marijuana Is LSD: Justified in that it grows right next to the local nuclear plant.
- Medium Awareness: Everyone in the second sequel knows it's the second sequel and constantly claim things like "I thought you were killed at the end of Class of Nuke'em High 2".
- No OSHA Compliance: And how. The director of the nuclear plant dismisses any leaking of radioactive materials and seems more concerned with covering it up than solving the problem. When employees at the Tromaville Nuclear Utility start collapsing due to radiation poisoning, their colleagues don't even bat an eyelid with one of them even stepping right over his fallen workmate.
- Oddly Named Sequel 2: Electric Boogaloo: Lampshaded by the second film's opening theme song, referring to it as a nuclear powered boogaloo.
- Our Presidents Are Different: By the time of Return to Nuke 'Em High, heavy metal god / Troma regular Lemmy Kilmister has been elected to the highest office in the land. He also continues to wear his trademark hat and jacket.
- The Quincy Punk: The Cretins are possibly the Quinciest Punks who ever Quincy Punked.
- Title Drop: In Class of Nuke'em High 2: Subhumanoid Meltdown.
- Revolvers Are Just Better: The .44 Magnum is the weapon of choice for the Cretins.
- Spikes Of Monsterdom: The nuclear mutant is covered in these.
- Understatement: (After the school has been reduced to rubble) "Tromaville high will be closed temporarily for our remodeling."
- Used to Be a Sweet Kid: The Cretins were originally honour students before essentially devolving into thugs and bullies. Whilst not outright stated, it's entirely possible this was because of their school's close proximity to a nuclear power plant.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: A few of the Cretins remain unaccounted for in the finale. Justified, as they probably blew up with the school.
