The Colony (sometimes titled Tides) is a 2021 German-Swiss dystopian Science Fiction film directed by Tim Fehlbaum.
The story is about an astronaut, Blake (Nora Arnezeder), returning to Earth after a The Elites Jump Ship scenario, and discovering that a survivor of a past expedition (Iain Glen) has become an Evil Colonialist ruling over the descendants of the people who were left behind and is hiding secrets about Blake's late father (Sebastian Roché).
Tropes:
- Black Guy Dies First: Blake (a white woman) and Tucker (a black man) are the only survivors of Ulysses 2's disastrous landing. Soon enough, only Blake is left.
- Broken Pedestal: After pretty much drilling into young Louise the importance of self-sacrifice and the overarching goal of saving people on Kepler, it turns out it was her father who intentionally jeopardised the original mission to Earth due to a sudden change of heart. Blake is thoroughly disillusioned with her father as a result, after having spent her entire life celebrating him as a heroic figure.
- Cyanide Pill: Hidden in the dog-tags of the astronauts.
- Deadly Euphemism: People don't die - they are crossing over.
- Doomed Hurt Guy: Blake's companion Tucker is injured when their ship crash lands and doesn't make it to the halfway point.
- Downer Beginning: The re-entry capsule fails and crash-lands, seemingly in the open ocean. The commanding officer dies and Tucker is badly wounded. All while the Opening Scroll tells you how vital their mission is.
- The Elites Jump Ship: Earth's wealthy fled to a new planet as cataclysms ravaged Earth but are forced to contemplate returning to Earth due to women being unable to get pregnant on their new homeworld.
- Evil Colonialist: The main reason why Gibson is the villain - he treats Earth as territory to be re-colonised by Keplers, and the fact that it is still populated by what's left of humanity on the surface doesn't concern him. They're just an obstacle that should be removed or at least rendered docile.
- Fantastic Slurs: The people who've been surviving on Earth since the cataclysm are called "Muds" by the people who fled to Kepler-209.
- Future Primitive: The Muds are your standard fare littoral hunter-gatherers - except they are using scrap and pieces of the old human civilisation.
- I Will Only Slow You Down: Dropped almost verbatim by the grievously wounded Tucker.
- Improvised Bandage: Blake uses her sleeves to make bandages for wounded Tucker, but that's too little, too late.
- Near-Rape Experience: Paling tries to have sex with Louise, and when she refuses, he prepares to take her by force.
- The Needs of the Many: Kepler seems to have developed this sort of ideology where the collective survival of its inhabitants is a priority over anything else and especially individual people, right down to the oft-repeated "For the many" salute. This does start causing friction where the Earth turns out to be still habitated by survivors of the world-ending cataclysm.
- Ominous Fog: The ever-present fog, which conceals everything, makes things soggy and creates a general creepy atmosphere, making sunlight a rare sight.
- Visionary Villain: Gibson is simply sticking to his original mission objective, or at least as close as he can under the circumstances. This means securing as much ground for the return of Keplers' as possible, and if all fails, at least restore order before he dies of old age.
- Voice with an Internet Connection: Tucker briefly takes on such a role - since he can't walk due to a busted leg, he helps Louise via comms.
- Wasteland Warlord: Gibson, the last survivor of the first expedition back to Earth, rules over the "Muds" as a benevolent dictator, but it doesn't take much to make him violent, and he views his people as little more than breeding stock for when his fellow residents of Kepler-209 arrive.
