Code 8 is the name of a 2016 short film, and its 2019 feature film remake.
In the short film, a young man with superhuman abilities, Taylor Reed, has an altercation with a militarized police force in the wake of a petty crime he committed.
In the feature film (starring Robbie Amell and Stephen Amell), a young man with superhuman powers, Connor Reed, is recruited by a crime boss, Marcus Sutcliffe, to work on heists.
A sequel to the feature film, Code 8 Part II, was released on Netflix on February 28, 2024.
Powered Tropes:
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Tropes applying to both works
- Does This Remind You of Anything?: Most powered individuals live in poverty, work second-class or outright illegal jobs, are discriminated both verbally and physically by law enforcement, and have to be registered as citizens, facing worse punishment if they are not. Sounds very similar to Real Life racism, doesn't it?
- Fantastic Racism: Of the Muggle Power type. The small percentage of people with superpowers are discriminated against, being called Specials by the normal populace.
- Mundane Utility: In the short, a flame-based super uses his ability to light a cigarette - in the film, they're routinely hired for construction work because it means the foreman has to provide less equipment (e.g. welders).
- Muggle Power: Powered individuals are often persecuted for their abilities.
- Rabid Cop: The Lincoln City Police has a history of using excessive force against powered individuals.
Tropes applying to the short
- Bolivian Army Ending: The short film ends with Taylor destroying the robotic cops and going on the run from the LCPD.
- Mistreatment-Induced Betrayal: After the construction specialist who hires them stiffs them, Taylor retaliates by putting a cinder block through the man's windshield.
- Playing with Fire: One of Taylor's powered friends, Alex, lights a cigarette for another using a flame from his thumb, displaying fire based powers.
- Shock and Awe: Taylor has extremely potent electrical powers.
- Super-Strength: Freddie can lift a car with his bare hands, displaying feats of extreme strength.
Tropes applying to the feature film
- Adaptation Expansion: The feature film adds deeper worldbuilding, as it delves into the historical development of Lincoln City as well as its superhuman criminal underworld. There are also far more important characters than in the short.
- All for Nothing: Connor is unable to save his mom despite gaining tons of money from the heists and befriending a Healer.
- Armed Blag: The final heist involves an armed robbery of the truck carrying Psyke for destruction.
- Assassination Attempt: Copperhead, a shape-shifting Loan Shark, tries to attack Marcus in his own club but is quickly taken out by his bodyguard Rhino.
- Bad Boss: Marcus ends up sending in additional forces during the final heist to rid of Garrett’s crew, resulting in the deaths of everyone on the crew except for Garrett himself and Connor.
- Big Bad: Marcus Sutcliffe is the leader of the largest Psyke manufacturing organization in the city, and the primary antagonist.
- Bittersweet Ending: Marcus is defeated, Nia saves her father, the narcotic Psyke has been close to eradicated in Lincoln City, and Connor learns to become a better person. However, Maddie, Freddie, and Connor’s mother have died, prejudice towards power-enabled individuals continued to plague the city, and Garrett is still conducting illegal business.
- By-the-Book Cop: Officer Park is less ruthless than the other police officers, preferring diplomacy, and refusing to charge without sufficient evidence. He even calls his partner out for planning to plant evidence.
- The Caper: Marcus hires Connor to assist him in multiple heists, including a chemical raid, a bank robbery, and an armoured car run.
- Caretaker Reversal: Connor gets involved with Marcus and Garrett in order to pay for medical treatment for his ailing mother.
- Cluster F-Bomb: Garrett drops a string of expletives after he and his crew discover the vault has been cleared of almost all of its cash.
- Cowboy Cop: Officer Davis is extremely confrontational, and plays fast and loose with law enforcement, even toying with the idea of planting evidence.
- Cruel and Unusual Death:
- Marcus's henchman Rhino is killed when Garrett telekinetically shoots a metal rod straight into his eye and Connor blasts it with his electricity to fry his brain.
- Marcus himself is killed by Garrett by being telekinetically strangled to death with his own necklace.
- Dark Lord on Life Support: Marcus keeps Nia around to heal his ailing body on a regular basis.
- The Dog Bites Back: In revenge for Marcus' betrayal and the deaths of Freddie and Maddie, Garrett shoots and telekinetically strangles Marcus to death.
- Evil Debt Collector: Marcus forcibly keeps Nia as a healer as a means for her to pay off her father's debt.
- Eye Scream: Garrett and Connor kill Marcus's bodyguard by telekinetically shooting a metal rod into his eye, then sending a heavy charge down the rod to fry his brain.
- Fantastic Drug: Psyke is an illicit substance which is harvested from the spinal fluid of power-enabled individuals.
- Foreshadowing: Nia displays a persistent cough similar to Marcus', an early indication that her Healing power isn't "free"—she takes on the wounds/illness that she heals in someone else.
- Framing the Guilty Party: Officer David suggests to Officer Park that they plant some Psyke in Connor's home since they have reason to suspect he's guilty but not enough evidence to bring it to the DA. Park shoots the idea down as crossing a line.
- Healing Hands: Nia has the ability to heal others by touching them, but takes those wounds onto herself in the process.
- Healthcare Motivation: Connor starts his life of crime because his mother desperately needs treatment.
- An Ice Person: Connor's mother has the power to freeze things by touching them. Because of a brain tumor, she has lesions on her skin where her powers have gone haywire, which only gets worse as the tumor grows.
- Man of Wealth and Taste: Marcus is a wealthy and well dressed mobster whose façade of cordiality belies a sleazy drug trafficker who takes advantage of the disenfranchised and betrays his own men.
- Mind over Matter: Garrett has telekinesis, which he can use to restrain people or grab onto objects without laying a finger on them.
- Nebulous Criminal Conspiracy: The Trust is a large cartel which distributes Psyke.
- No Honor Among Thieves: Marcus tries to have Connor and Garrett killed, and successfully had Freddie and Maddie killed so that he could have his other men take the Psyke to him.
- Playing with Fire: Maddie uses her fire manipulating abilities to breach locks, amongst other things.
- Power Incontinence Connor's mother has a brain tumor which causes her powers to go out of control at random times.
- Progressive Era Montage: The Title Sequence includes news footage ranging from the early 1900's to the modern-day setting, showcasing the power-enabled individuals' aid in the construction of Lincoln City to their eventual discrimination at the hands of crime lords and the militarized police force, showcasing society's downfall into a dystopian Crapsack World.
- Shock and Awe: Connor has extremely potent electrical powers, which can knock a drone out of mid-air.
- Slimeball: Marcus is self centred, morally bankrupt, and sleazy, always trying to make things turn out in his favour. He tries to weasel his way out of a debt with the Trust, and betrays Garrett and Connor the first opportunity once he gets his Psyke supply back. He also talks down to Garrett habitually.
- Smug Snake: Marcus Sutcliffe has an inflated ego and sense of self worth for a man who keeps powered people captive and uses their spinal fluid to produce a narcotic.
- The Speechless: Freddie is completely mute, communicating through sign language.
- Superhuman Trafficking: Psyke is a drug extracted from the spinal fluid of powered individuals. Marcus Sutcliffe is a major distributor, and the police are shown raiding one of his production facilities in the opening of the film.
- Super-Strength: Freddie has the strength to lift barrels of chemicals with ease.
- Super-Toughness: Marcus's bodyguard has extremely tough skin, enough to shrug off bullets with only moderate pain - it's mentioned that he's part of the Brawn power set.
- Techno Dystopia: The world itself isn't a post-apocalyptic hellhole or anything. The worst thing about it is the discrimination against superpowered individuals as a result of over a century's worth of technological revolutions, including drones and mechanized police officers.
- Telepathy: Marcus has the ability to read minds, which he uses to confirm that Connor did not say anything to the police.
- What the Hell, Hero?:
- Connor's mom calls him out for lying to her about his job.
- Nia calls Connor out for essentially seeing her as a walking hospital.
- You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: This belief was held on a societal level by humans towards the power-enabled citizens of Lincoln City, as progressively advancing technology proved to be more effective at handling jobs and tasks than their powers were. This was what made way for the ensuing prejudice and violence.
