Primeval is a 2007 horror film about a group of American journalists looking for the notorious man-eating crocodile "Gustave
" in Burundi in the midst of a civil war.
This film provides examples of:
- Admiring the Abomination: Matt considers Gustave far more valuable than the lives of his victims, outright calling the lives of crocodiles more valuable than humans.Mathew Collins: There are more than enough human beings on this planet. The crocodile is exceptional. A creature of far greater value.Jacob Krieg: You don't seem stupid, so you must be insane.
- Always a Bigger Fish: "Little Gustave", the Burundi warlord, who proclaims, "out here in the bush... I'm God" is ambushed and devoured by his namesake, a gargantuan crocodile.
- Attempted Rape: One of the watch guards tries to do this to Aviva after she comes back and catches him stealing their money but Gustave comes out of nowhere and kills and eats him before he can do so.
- Asshole Victim: Little Gustave isn’t going to be missed by anybody, considering he terrorized the villagers for god knows how many years.
- The two watch guards who try to kill the entire group as also qualify.
- Also all of Little Gustave’s goons.
- The Beard: Tim and Steven assume Aviva is Sleeping Their Way to the Top with their boss, Roger, but she reveals that Roger just "likes to be seen with women", which is why she's not important enough for Roger to mount a rescue attempt. Tim and Steven honestly had no idea Roger was gay.Steven: He's not tapping your ass, somebody's tapping his?
[Tim laughs and fist-bumps Steven] - Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Harry seems like your average and charming government official in the city but out in the bushes? He’s actually god-aka Little Gustave.
- Bittersweet Ending: Little Gustave and his goons are defeated, Tim and Aviva, go back home and takes Jojo and Wiley with them. Due to the videotape being found and showing the brutal murders that occurred, It leads to the end of the Civil war but Steven, Matt, Krieg and the Shaman are all dead and Gustave is still alive hunting and killing people in the rivers of Burundi.
- Butt-Monkey: Jojo endures a LOT of shit over the course of the film. Getting trapped in the cage which was used to capture Gustave and nearly getting devoured by the man eater, nearly drowning from a grenade exploding in the water while he’s in the cage, being kicked literally in the ass by the one of the corrupt soldiers after being rescued, shot in the arm, almost drowned again one of Little Gustave’s men, nearly dies from the large amount of blood loss from his gunshot wound and nearly gets eaten again by Gustave. You can’t help but want to give him a hug at the end of the film and you can’t help but smile when he gets his wish to go to America and start a new life
- Create Your Own Villain / Humans Are the Real Monsters: Tim links the Shaman's words that "we make our own monsters" with Matt's information about the feeding habits of crocodiles, and realizes that Gustave would never have grown so large, or acquired a taste for human flesh, if Burundi's rivers hadn't been filled with the corpses of casualties from the ongoing civil war. Fittingly, warlord "Little Gustave" becomes one of the crocodile's many victims.
- Darkest Africa: Dark isn’t the word for Burundi. Beautiful scenery but most of the population is rural and have to deal with civil war, genocide, warlords and ON TOP OF ALL THAT?? A man eating crocodile who CAN’T be killed.
- Defiant to the End/Face Deathwith Dignity: Little Gustave’s goons have the Shaman and his family at gunpoint and are about to execute them. The Shaman’s reaction?? He spits at the goons and gives his wife and son a look of goodbye before giving the goons one last courageous look of contempt before being beheaded.
- Do Not Taunt Cthulhu: Orlando Jones' character, while running from Gustave, tricks him into wedging himself between two tree trunks, then turns around to give him the middle finger. Gustave escapes shortly afterwards, catches up to Jones, and kills him.
- Kick the Dog: Little Gustave’s goons murdering the Shaman and his family execution style. Say whatever you want about the movie but
that moment will give anyone watery eyes. - Mighty Roar: The giant reptile lets out a lion-like roar after devouring the Big Bad.
- Missing White Woman Syndrome: When Orlando Jones points out that the Crocodile is just like OJ: eating up a bunch of Africans, no one gives a fuck, kills one white lady, and they send the news crew.
- Never Smile at a Crocodile: The film centering around a real-life 20+ foot long crocodile named Gustave.
- Never Trust a Trailer: Notoriously used for the film, which is loosely based on the true story of man-eating crocodile Gustave. The trailer describes Gustave as a serial killer who has claimed more than 300 victims and remains at large. It completely omits the fact that it's a crocodile. The only mention of his non-human status is a brief line in the trailer where the narrator says "He's real, but he's not human" which can be interpreted in a variety of ways. A crocodile only flashes on screen for about a second.
- Police Are Useless: The soldiers who are assigned to protect the crew? Are actually in Little Gustave’s pocket. Most of them are as a matter of fact.
- Reptiles Are Abhorrent: And in a case of Humans Are Stupid, the movie stars SUV-sized "Serial killer" Gustave, whose large kill record is largely due to idiot fishermen and similarly idiot photographers and big-game hunters. However, it's at least more factually accurate than Lake Placid.
- Scenery Porn: Despite everything going on in Burundi with war, genocide, warlords and a killer crocodile, it still offers some very beautiful and exotic landscapes.
- To Serve Man: Apart from his gargantuan size and seeming invulnerability, what makes Gustave so dangerous is that he appears to have developed a taste for human flesh, and hunts them in favor of other prey. Tim reasons that this resulted from the corpses floating in the river during the civil war, which provided the crocodile with an easy feast.
- Very Loosely Based on a True Story: The movie, while it deals with an actual, real-life giant crocodile (Gustave), exaggerates every other aspect of the events it claims to recount, from doubling his number of human kills, to depicting him seeking out and attacking entire groups of clearly defended humans (the real Gustave strikes at groups of three or fewer tourists, primarily when they are off-guard, and certainly when they lack shelter). And that's without mentioning the film's ads, which portray him as "the most prolific serial killer in history". On top of all that, it's a case of Never Trust a Trailer — Gustave only appears in brief stretches, and most of the film deals with a local civil war, with the croc relegated to the background for the most part.
- Villainous Rescue: When one of Little Gustave's men tries to rape Aviva, Gustave shows up and tears him to shreds.
- Would Hit a Girl: One of the watch guards before getting fucked up by Gustave knocks around Aviva and tries to rape her. Also the other guard includes her in the attempted execution.
- Little Gustave uses his cigar to burn Aviva on the arm and knocks her to ground before putting his boot on her neck, threatening her with something even worse than death (possibly torture or more likely rape) if Tim doesn’t tell them where the Shaman’s murder tape is.
- Little Gustave’s men execute the Shaman’s wife and tries to kill Aviva.
- Gustave’s murder of the scientist at the beginning of film counts as well.
- Would Hurt a Child: Gustave doesn’t discriminate when it comes to his victims.
- Little Gustave’s men execute the Shaman’s son, who looks no more than 13 or 14 years old.
- You Need a Breath Mint: Steven offers Jojo Tic-Tacs as a friendly gesture. He later tells Tim that he did it only because his breath was bad.
