The History of Future Folk is a science fiction musical concerning the adventures of General Bill Trius (Nils d’Aulaire) and the Mighty Kevin (Jay Klaitz), two bucket-headed space aliens from the planet Hondo, who hide out on Earth disguised as folk musicians whose gimmick is that they're space aliens.
The film is based on the starring duo's comedy musical act Future Folk and essentially dramatizes their backstory.
Tropes
- Aerith and Bob: General Trius and Kevin (later "The Mighty Kevin")
- Alien Arts Are Appreciated: Trius gave up his mission to destroy the Earth the moment he walked into a hardware store and heard elevator music playing.
- Aliens Speaking English: The people of Hondo apparently speak English. Trius's broadcast to the planet is in English, and Kevin speaks English right off the ship. The lizard assassin, however, speaks another language.
- Almighty Janitor: Trius' day job on Earth is that of a groundskeeper at a science lab.
- Assassin Outclassin': Kevin is such an incompetent assassin that Trius realizes that he was sent as a ruse to get Trius to lower his defenses before the real assassin arrives.
- Cool and Unusual Punishment: After Trius defeats Kevin, he seems to threaten him with a set of spiky metallic fingernails. Turns out they're banjo picks.
- Everybody Lives.
- Fate Worse than Death: A second assassin arrives on Earth to hunt down Trius. But instead of killing him, he uses Trius' thumbprint to start the timer on the virus, and doom Trius to see the world he loves die.
- Half-Human Hybrid: Trius' daughter, Wren. Though since there's effectively no difference between Hondoians and humans, it hardly matters.
- Heel–Face Turn: General Trius when he arrived on Earth, and later Kevin.
- Hiding in Plain Sight: Trius and Kevin hide the fact that they're aliens by dressing in their old uniforms and taking on the roles of musicians pretending to be aliens.
- Human Aliens: Hondonians are almost exactly like humans except that they're immune to pepper spray and can emit a blue light from their hands that has abilities as the plot demands.
- Humans Are Special: Humanity is the only species to have ever invented music. However, Kevin notes that humans are just as violent and flawed as any other species.
- I Am Spartacus: Trius and Kevin give the police the slip when they go into a bar filled with bucket headed fans. Somewhat unusually for this trope, the fans weren't trying to confuse the police: Trius and Kevin were scheduled to play at the bar that night, and their fans had already taken to wearing homemade Hondonian costumes to their shows.
- Instant Expert: Lampshaded by Trius when he notes that, in the 25 hours they've been apart, Kevin has learned to sing, play guitar and compose music.
- Karma Houdini: The assassin attempts to release the virus and wipe out humanity, and then disappears without receiving any comeuppance.
- Minion with an F in Evil: Kevin's original mission was to assassinate Trius. He fails miserably, is easily persuaded to spill the beans about it to his target, and is more than happy to do a Heel–Face Turn and reinvent himself as a musician
- The Movie: The film is Klaitz and d’Aulaire's musical act Future Folk converted into a cinematic narrative.
- Mythology Gag: Nils d’Aulaire and Jay Klaitz were performing in character as Future Folk for years before making a film about the characters, and early shows had them in deliberately shoddy-looking, homemade costumes including actual store-bought plastic buckets with holes cut out of them used as helmets (as opposed to the custom made but still bucket-like helmets the characters wear in the film) - the fans' costumes in the aforementioned I Am Spartacus scene look a lot like how the band themselves actually used to dress.
- The Power of Rock: Trius is convinced to to give up on killing all humanity when he hears music. He tries to do the same for Kevin, but while Kevin appreciates music, he still wants to kill humanity for a while.
- Stalker with a Crush: Oh, Kevin. Paralyzing a cop with a stun rifle in her house to sing a love song to her is not cool.
- Ugly Guy, Hot Wife: Eventually played straight with Kevin and Carmen.
- Unusually Uninteresting Sight: Apparently the police and general public don't even notice the seven foot tall grey lizard assassin stalking Trius through a Brooklyn neighborhood.
