Western Animation / Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Movie

Spoilers from Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles will be left unmarked. You Have Been Warned!

"It wouldn't surprise me if someday someone made a movie about you."

Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Movie is a 2022 animated film based on the fourth cartoon incarnation of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, directed by series creators Ant Ward and Andy Suriano. The film is currently the last installment of the Rise continuity, as the franchise would be rebooted a year later with the theatrical animated film Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem.

When a mysterious stranger arrives from the future with a dire warning, Leo is forced to rise and lead his brothers, Raph, Donnie, and Mikey, in a fight to save the world from a terrifying alien species...the Krang!

The film was released on Netflix on August 5, 2022.

Trailer.

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Tropes:

• Achievements in Ignorance: They had no idea the Krang existed, much less had any interest in dealing with them, yet the mysterious chemical scientists at Eastlaird University created became the one weapon that has ever done any real damage to them. Krang Two gets hit by the chemical, which destroys half her face, as well as a large amount of her brain-like body and is apparently unable to regenerate.
• Adaptational Badass: Krang in prior incarnations largely relies on others or his exosuit to fight, but in this incarnation, the Krang are bigger, and Krang One alone is able to go toe to toe with the heroes without an exosuit and nullify their powers before his brother and sister arrive, and they end up taking over New York over the course of a few hours. The film also highlights that even when the Turtles have their mystic powers back, they still can't defeat them in a straight fight, to the point Krang One stops their Combination Attack with nothing but a finger flick, and have to stall for time to send him and the Technodrome back to the prison dimension.
• Adaptational Seriousness: Krang in the 1987 incarnation is a fairly goofy character, and the 2012 incarnation also has some moments of humor despite being an emotionless hive mind. The Krang in this film however have little-to-no jokes at their expense, and don't make many themselves, and are instead treated as incredibly dangerous alien invaders that significantly darken the tone of the film.
• Adaptational Ugliness: Krang's exosuit in prior incarnations generally looks like a half-naked human man, though some incarnations try to make it look more robotic, such as the IDW comics or Out of the Shadows. This version makes the exosuits look more monstrous, with Krang One's looking unnaturally lean, having fin-like protrusions across the body as well as a large red eye, and a gaping mouth, the result looking similar to a Xenomorph.
• Adaptation Personality Change: Justified. Most portrayals of Casey Jones portray him as more of an Anti-Hero with varying degrees of sarcasm and wise-cracking behavior. Here, because of the Bad Future he grew up in, Casey is more of an Adaptational Nice Guy with a more serious and somber personality.
• Adaptation Relationship Overhaul: In most TMNT incarnations, Casey tends to be the closest to Raphael out of all the Turtles. In this movie, it's Leonardo that Casey has the most interaction with and has a backstory of being Leonardo's student in the Bad Future he came from.
• Ambiguous Situation: It's unclear if the effects of the super herbicide on the Krang are due to it being noxious to organic life in general, or if their biology is such that they qualify as plantlife.
• Animation Bump: The animation in the show was already pretty good, especially when it came to the action sequences. Here, the animation looks even more impressive with fluid movements, richer backgrounds, and a broader color palette.
• Arbitrary Skepticism: The Turtles, Splinter and April laugh at Casey's claims he's a time traveler from the future. This is coming from four mutated reptiles and a rat who was once human, having done battle against monsters and supernatural forces. They only take his warnings about the future seriously when Casey says the Krang's name, which Splinter recognizes, which make them decide to get proactive about stopping the Foot Clan from summoning them.
• The Assimilator: These versions of the Krang have the ability to extend biomatter and convert organics or machines into their servants, which they use on the Foot Clan.
• Bad Boss: Krang One gets Krang Three to forcibly turn the Foot Clan into mooks for them, despite the Foot Lieutenant assuring them that they would serve them with no complaints.
• Bad Future: This version of Casey Jones comes from one where the Krang has been terrorizing Earth for years, and have just crushed the last real resistance against them. The future version of Leonardo sends him back in time to help his younger self set things right.
• Bloodier and Gorier: Compared to the rest of the Rise series. It's only there for a brief moment in both instances, but Future Leonardo could be seen bleeding heavily from an injury in the opener, and later on during the final battle, blood is knocked out of Leo's mouth several times during his fight with Krang One.
• Body Horror: Assimilation by the Krang is not a pretty picture, with their Meat Moss growing all over and consuming those they attempt to assimilate, reaching underneath into their body, and morphing their bodies into a more alien like biology, with alien eyes forming all over. Krang Two gets a nasty case of this, with April throwing a mysterious chemical she looted from Eastlaird university into her face that seem to react to Krang matter like super-powered hydrochloric acid, burning a hole straight through her head that remains for the rest of the movie, taking one of her eyes with it. The fact that this kind of grievous injury only angers her serves to underscore how tough this iteration of the Krang are.
• Book Ends:
  • The future Michelangelo opens a portal to the past, winking at Leo and Casey as he dissipates. In the finale of the movie, the present Michelangelo opens a portal (albeit with the assistance of his brothers) to save Leonardo, and winks to Krang One and closes the portal on him.
  • The Turtles are playing a game involving stacked pizza boxes when the viewers first see them, with Leo breaking the record. Raphael decides to try said game and break that record at the end of the movie.
• Break the Haughty: Leo was made leader of his brothers at the very end of the series. While his wing-it attitude helps him and the team now and then, the events of the movie give him a nasty wake-up call to be the kind of true leader Casey had known in the bleak future and listen to his friends.
• Broad Strokes: The movie was developed largely at the same time as Season 2, which Ant Ward and Andy Suriano admitted means the movie doesn't totally align with the events of the show, along with the movie being designed to be viewable as a standalone piece. It shows due to the Turtles using a mixture of their old and new mystic powers and the lack of mention of the Hidden City and Baron Draxum, along with the film not directly confirming the Krang's involvement with Shredder (the only thing stated is the Krang were worshipped by the Foot Clan) or their implicit ties to the mysticism in the setting (although Krang One is able to disable the Turtles' powers), though the movie is still very clearly a continuation of Season 2 due to the mention of the Shredder's defeat, and showing Cassandra Jones (through a cameo) is still on the heroes' side.
• Broken Pedestal: Casey sees the mature Future Leo as "the greatest ninja the world has ever seen", which was why he is extremely disappointed in seeing an arrogant and impulsive Present Leo when their first attempt to rescue Raph falls apart. Luckily, this doesn't last when Leo starts listening to his family instead of barking out orders.
• Broken Masquerade: It's heavily implied by the end of the movie that after the Krang's invasion, while the Earth Protection Force is working on covering it up, that New York is aware of at least some of the weirdness all around them now due to video and photographic evidence of the alien invasion, and also suggests that witnesses saw the Turtles fighting the Krang and consider them heroes.
• Brought Down to Badass: Krang One seals the powers of the Turtles early on, and while the heroes are still hideously outmatched against the Krang themselves, they manage to survive largely by virtue of their already existing martial arts skills.
• Call-Back: The Turtles attempt to use a variation of the Mystic Hot Soup Hibernator against Krang One. Krang One manages to deflect it just by flicking at it.
• Chainsaw Good: Casey's weapon of choice here is not a traditional hockey stick, but rather a futuristic tech one that has a built-in saw blade function in the tip. Him lacking any other sport-based weaponry like he usually has implies it's a holdover from the training he's implied to have from his sport-obsessed mom.
• Chekhov's Gun: April was busy trying to expose a college's corruption of making chemical deforestation bombs for the government before she ran into Casey. The chemicals she gathered turn out to be useful against the Krang during her and the heroes' escape, though she ran out by the final act.
• Chuck Cunningham Syndrome: Despite being a major character in the series and his redemption in Season 2, Baron Draxum is completely absent from the movie. Big Mama's impaled corpse makes a brief cameo in the opening sequence, but is otherwise unmentioned, with Hypno-potamus and Warren Stone being the only other Mutants/Yokai present.
• Composite Character:
  • Casey Jones looks and fights more like his traditional incarnations, but being descended from the original, being from the future, and developing a strong familial bond with the Turtles who are older than him is more similar to Cody Jones, Casey's descendant from the 2003 series' Fast Forward retool.
    • He is also a version of Casey Jones, named after his parent, who is trained by one of the remaining Ninja Turtles in a Bad Future, similar to Casey Marie Jones, daughter of the original Casey Jones, from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Last Ronin.
  • The Krang are alien conquerors who seek to turn the entire universe into an extension of themselves like the 2012 series incarnation and are sized very similarly to that series' Kraang Prime, but their concise dialogue is more similar to their 1987 namesake.
• Continuity Nod: The Turtles have taken refuge in an abandoned subway by the time the movie begins, due to the Shredder having destroyed their old home in the series.
• Continuity Snarl: Due to being put into production at the same time as the second season of the show, which ended the show abruptly, some minor plot elements are inconsistent with the rest of the series or strangely absent even though it's meant to be set after the series. Draxum and the Hidden City aren't mentioned, the Turtles' mystic powers have some elements from season one rather than season two, and the connection between the Shredder's armour and the Krang, which was established in the series' final episode, is not brought up.
• Cosmic Horror Story: The Bad Future has shades of this, with the remaining Turtles and their allies trapped in a hopeless war against the Krang forces.
• Creator Cameo: At some point after Rise's Grand Finale, April is seen attending college at Eastlaird University, named for the co-creators of the Turtles, Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird.
• Dangerous Forbidden Technique: Michelangelo is shown having developed the power to open portals in space-time in the Bad Future, but the effort required to do so kills him. Of course, at that point, they were all being killed by the Krang anyway, so the Godzilla Threshold was long passed. Late in the film, present day Michelangelo forces himself to make an inter-dimensional portal to rescue Leo from the prison dimension; it almost kills him again, but Raph and Donny support Mikey this time to share the strain.
• Darker and Edgier: A good bit more so than the original Rise series (which was Lighter and Softer than most of the other TMNT series for reference), with the below mentioned R-Rated Opening, and the Krang being perhaps the most dangerous threat the Turtles have faced in Rise, as they are much more horrifically dangerous compared to other foes.
• Decomposite Character:
  • The movie features a more traditional Casey Jones, but as a son of Cassandra Jones.
  • Krang is split into three characters in this movie, Krang One, Krang Two, and Krang Three, the first being the one who commands the other two, the second who is his primary enforcer, with the third being responsible for "recruiting" and who largely operates the Technodrome. According to Krang One there were more of them, but they all died in the thousand year wait.
• Demoted to Extra: Despite being one of the Turtle's closer allies after her Heel–Face Turn, and her future son being a major character in the narrative, Cassandra Jones herself is completely absent from the story until the very end, wherein April receives a bunch of pics on her phone of her fighting off the Krang mutants on the streets with improvised weaponry and taking selfies doing so, so Casey can clarify his real relationship with her.
• Downer Beginning: The opening minutes of the film features New York in 2044, decimated by the Krang and the resistance being overwhelmed, with Leonardo, Michelangelo, and Casey Jones running through the battlefield, the former two being the only Turtles left with Raphael and Donatello heavily implied to have already died, with Leo likely being at death's door. Leo and Mikey decide to send Casey back to try and stop the Krang from ever arriving because the situation has become unsalvageable, and both die in the process.
• Earn Your Happy Ending: After the Krang take over New York, the world is seemingly fated to lose to the Krang, but the Turtles eventually manage to come through, saving Raphael from his assimilation, and not only managing to defeat the Krang, but come back together despite it looking like Leonardo may be impossible to save after sacrificing himself.
• Eldritch Abomination: The Krang are very close to being this. In addition to being worshipped by cultists (in the form of the Foot Clan) and having vast powers over both physical forces like gravity and mystical energies, they cannot be destroyed, merely delayed or trapped in other dimensions. The one exception to this being the chemical April steals from her college at the start of the film. Their Technodrome seems to be particularly intended to invoke this trope, with its appearance over New York heralded by a tear in space and huge Cthulhuesque tentacles reaching out from the breach.
• Evil Is Not a Toy: The Foot Clan summon the Krang to Earth for their assistance. However, they get assimilated for their trouble.
• Evil Is Visceral: Here the Krang employ Organic Technology in the form of Meat Moss to assimilate man and machine alike. The Technodrome is heavily redesigned to resemble a giant floating, severed eyeball.
• Exactly What I Aimed At: In the final act of the movie, Leonardo throws one of his swords at Krang One, which misses, making its way into the prison dimension, with Krang One using that to pin Leo down. Leo then uses the teleportation ability to trap Krang One and himself on the other side of the portal.
  Leonardo: "What you fail to understand is I missed on purpose."
• Eye Scream: April loots a mysterious chemical from the school labs of Eastlaird university that she suspects has some illegal ingredients mixed into it, holding several vials of them as proof for her newspaper expose. Later, in a moment of desperation, she chucks one of them into the face of Krang Two, which apparently reacts to Krang biomatter like super-powered acid, burning not only one of her eyes out, but burning a hole straight through her skull behind it as well, which remains for the rest of her appearance and is apparently unhealable despite the Krang's Meat Moss abilities.
• Face Death with Dignity: The future versions of Leonardo and Michelangelo die knowing that Casey will succeed on his mission to the past.
• The Family That Slays Together: The three Krang are brothers and sister, united together in the goal of conquering the universe and destroying all they consider weak.
• Fighting Your Friend: Brother in this case. Raph gets assimilated by the Krang, forcing Leo to fight him.
• Flat Character: Krang Two is obsessed with killing, which seems to be all there really is to her. Splinter even states that the psycho shtick is getting old and even directly asks her to demonstrate something beyond it.
  Splinter: The psycho routine is a little thin! Where's the Character Development?
• Fling a Light into the Future: Leo declares that the Krang may have defeated the resistance, but they still have hope, so he and Mikey send Casey Jones to the past to help their younger selves save the world.
• Freeze-Frame Bonus:
  • In the opening of the movie, while the future battlefield is being shown from Leonardo's point of view, Todd Capybara can be seen firing guns at incoming Krang.
  • As the giant Krang mechs in the future congregate toward the light left by Michelangelo's attack on the Krang dogs, the corpses of Big Mama impaled on a spire and a recently dead April can be seen.
  • The opening minutes never call attention to it, but future Leo's sword's wrappings on the hilt are not the traditional blue in the show, but red and purple, and hanging off the hilt, suggesting that they are this timeline's Raphael and Donatello's bandannas, and that the two are long gone.
  • As Splinter and April try to destroy the key, the whiteboard of methods show that they've tried to burn it, throw it in acid, and even flush it down the toilet (with a note to call the plumber as a result).
  • During April's fight with Krang Two in the subway tunnel, she starts desperately throwing everything in her backpack at Krang Two, including a textbook that momentarily lodges in the alien's face titled "So... You're Running Out of Ideas. By E. Piphany"
  • As Leo arrived on the Technodrome, Krang One is on a throne that's a giant skull of a Triceraton.
• Godzilla Threshold: Despite how terrible the Bad Future is, opening a portal through time was still the absolute last resort option that Leo only suggests when the rest of the Resistance has been decimated, likely because they knew it would kill Mikey to do so.
• Grappling-Hook Pistol: Casey lacks much in the way of his traditional versatile arsenal of sport-related weaponry, and instead comes decked out in futuristic armour that contains multiple grappling hooks to enable him to Le Parkour around the environment.
• Gravity Screw: When the Krang start opening a massive portal in the skies above New York to bring the main spaceship, the Technodrome, through, it starts causing gravity to turn off in a radius around it, and for cars, buildings and debris to starts floating randomly around it. This is most prominently shown with Leo and Krang One having a face-off on the vertical side of the spaceship, horizontal to them thanks to the wonky gravity.
• Half-Human Hybrid: The Krang are able to assimilate any human being they encounter with ease in a manner of moments, but when Raph is captured and assimilated by them, it's a considerably more involved process that involves cocooning him, and Raph is only left half-transformed by the end. its implied to be a result of their half-human biology enabling them to be infected by the Krang, but able to resist it better than a normal human being. At the climax, all 4 turtles are able to pull themselves free of their biological restraints even as it's trying to assimilate them at the same time, with Raph tearing off his own Kranged components as he fights off the Krang's influence.
• Heroic Sacrifice: The future Michelangelo opens a portal to the past, which he knows will kill him, but does so anyway since there isn't any other way to defeat the Krang in their time. Future Leo chucks Casey through moments before being vaporized by a Krang soldier before his eyes, his last words being to tell Casey to 'have a slice' after saving the past.
  • Raph also shoves Leo into his escape pod after Leo manages to grab the portal key during the first fight with the Krang. This leads to Raph being captured, interrogated, and ultimately brainwashed by the Krang.
  • At the film's climax, Leo strands himself in the prison dimension in a Hold the Line moment in order to keep Krang One there while Casey removes the key to the portal. Though it's subverted as the other Turtles manage to save him after Michelangelo unlocks his mystical portal powers, with Raph and Donnie assisting him so he didn't have to perform his own Heroic Sacrifice.
• Hope Spot:
  • Donnie manages to assimilate himself into the Technodrome's core to pilot it back to the prison dimension. Unfortunately, Krang One quickly captures him and Mikey.
  • In the final battle of the movie, the Turtles seem to be overwhelming Krang One, and are about to use the Mystic Hot Soup Hibernator, one of their most powerful attacks, on him. Krang One manages to, with just a flick, blow them away, showing that it's impossible for the Turtles to actually defeat him in any sort of fight.
• Hopeless Boss Fight: The Krang prove too powerful and dangerous to be overcome in a direct confrontation, especially after Krang One successfully seals off the Turtle's mystic powers. Instead, the heroes decide their only option is to repeat the actions of the predecessors and seal them back into the mystic prison dimension with the key. This is most clearly shown with Krang One himself, who overcomes everything the turtles throw at him even when their mystic powers are restored, and never even comes close to looking winded or seriously injured. He even equals their Combination Attack with a single finger flick to illustrate the difference in sheer might between them, and when Leo takes him on solo by the end, it's clear he has no chance of winning, or even being able to flee from such a superior foe.
• "I Know You're in There Somewhere" Fight: Leo has to fight with an assimulated Raph in order to bring him back.
• Late-Arrival Spoiler: Anything that has happened in the original series finale gets spoiled here, such as Shredder's defeat, Leo being made leader, or the fact that the Foot Recruit is really the modern-day version of Casey Jones, Cassandra Jones, with this movie's version of the character being her future son.
• Made of Indestructium: The Key to the prison dimension is effectively impossible to destroy. April and Splinter try literally everything they can to try and break it, but can't so much as scratch it.
• Mythology Gag:
  • In the Bad Future, Leo is much more taller, bigger and bulkier than his present day counterpart, like Michelangelo in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Last Ronin.
  • Krang Three is much more flesh-colored and smaller than the other two, which gives them a resemblance to the Fred Wolf cartoon version.
  • Warren Stone and Hypno-Potomus are introduced driving a Channel 6 News van.
  • The Earth Protection Force from the 2003 series are shown at the end of the movie taking away Krang Two, with a government agent in a longcoat, glasses, with slicked back hair who tells New Yorkers they aren't allowed to take pictures, who resembles Bishop from the same show.
  • When Raph tries to protect Leo from getting stabbed by the Krang, he gets his plastron shell cracked on the upper left side, much like the 2012 version of Raph. He also loses part of his shell, like Leo did in the 2003 series.
  • The Turtles' final battle with Krang One is done above New York on the Technodrome above New York city, similar to the final battle against Krang in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows.
  • Krang One's throne in the Technodrome heavily resembles a giant Triceratops skull, a clear nod to the Triceratons, a race of alien dinosaurs that have appeared in nearly all TMNT incarnations prior (in the 2012 incarnation, their homeworld was destroyed by Kraang, so this may subtly imply the same thing happened here).
  • The exosuits of the Krang have a dominantly black color scheme with red lights, similar to the 2003 cartoons' Utrominators from "Same As It Never Was", an episode also dealing with a Bad Future.
    • Krang One is hit by Donnie’s drill (albeit to no effect), recalling how 2003 Don infamously killed Ch'Rell in “Same As It Never Was” with the drill of the Tunneler.
  • The Krang's exosuits all have a single eye, similar to the Technodrome, likely due to the Technodrome's eye being only being seen in some interior shots in this incarnation.
  • The Turtles have evidently taken up residence in an abandoned New York subway station (most likely due to the Shredder having destroyed their lair in the series), similar to their home in the sequels to the 1990 movie.
  • At the end of the movie, Cassandra Jones is seen in a picture◊ making the same pose as the original Casey Jones◊ in the 10th issue of the original comics.
• Obi-Wan Moment: The last Casey sees of his mentor Leonardo before being sucked into the past, Leo bids him farewell and to 'have a slice' once his victory is complete before going out to fight, only to be vaporized by the Krang.
• Omnicidal Maniac: Ultimately the grand scheme of the Krang is to begin apocalyptic invasions on every single planet in the universe and assimilate them all so the universe can be remade into how they see fit.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Splinter normally refers to the Turtles by color and only ever uses their names for serious moments. He refers to Leonardo by name when questioning why Raph didn't return with the rest after Donnie activated the escape pods.
• Opt Out: After the Foot Clan successfully summon the Krang, Warren and Hypno-Potamus look at each other and decide they want no part of this, and never appear in the movie again afterward.
• Organic Technology: The Krang utilize organic technology that looks like masses of flesh. At one point Donnie must "interface" with the Technodrome to control it, and is freaked out by the thought of connecting with all the gooey tissue.
• Portal Cut: Leonardo accidentally cuts the fist off of Raphael's energy construct, which allows the Foot Clan to retrieve the key they were trying to stop from being stolen. He was apparently unaware of the function until that point, and takes to calling it 'Portal Chop'. As the Technodrome is being thrown back into the prison dimension, it isn't all the way through before the portal is closed, which results in its destruction.
  Leo: You've been portal chopped!
• Precision F-Strike: The future Michelangelo is called a badass mystic warrior by Leo.
• Prison Dimension: The Krang could not be defeated in combat when they first invaded Earth so a collective of mystic warriors sealed them all away in an empty dimension. In the present, its an apparently endless void, filled with the remains of the Krang and their technology.
• Punched Across the Room: Krang One's sheer strength in combat enable him to do this to the turtles with ease even in just his base Krang form, and it gets worse when he dons an exosuit designed for fighting, turning him into a Lightning Bruiser on par with the animalistic Shredder, but full control of his mental faculties. When Leo manages to seal him back into the prison dimension at the cost of getting stuck in there with him, he goes ballistic and starts really letting leo have it, resulting in him getting punched across the planetoids of the dimension.
• Race Lift: While most traditional depictions of Casey Jones are that of a White male (usually a vaguely-aged young adult, but sometimes aged contemporaneously with the Turtles), this version in the trailer is visually coded as ethnically Indigenous and/or of East or Southeast Asian descent in his complexion and features. It makes sense, too, since Casey's mother, Cassandra/Casey, is visually East or Southeast Asian coded herself.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech: After a disastrous fight against the Krang in the subway leaves them separated from the rest of the team, Casey gives Leo a major dressing-down for his reckless behavior and refusing to listen to anyone else.
  Casey: What the heck was that?
  Leo: Some kind of drippy, crazy Krang monster.
  Casey: No, I mean you! Why weren’t you listening to anybody?!
  Leo: Because I was trying to get us to the other side of the fight and into the building!
  Casey: Well, that sure worked out well!
  Leo: But I was doing everything right. How could it go so wrong?
  Casey: Because you weren’t listening to your team! You don’t have all the answers all the time!
  Leo: But I’m the greatest ninja the world’s ever seen! You said that!
  Casey: (sighs) …I was wrong.
  Leo: What?
  Casey: You’re impulsive, you’re arrogant, and you don’t see that every decision you make could cost someone their life! You wanna know what really happens to your brothers in the future?! …They die. Everybody dies fighting the Krang. The world needs Master Leonardo, and all we got is this guy.
• R-Rated Opening: The opening minutes to the film are a lot more darker than the rest of the PG-rated film, with Future Leonardo visibly bleeding from an injury, a Precision F-Strike in him referring to Future Michelangelo as a "badass mystic warrior", and both turtles dying onscreen with Future Leo in particular being disintegrated.
• The Right of a Superior Species: The Krang justify their conquest of the universe by their belief in their own supremacy. Krang One proclaims that by subjugating other lifeforms, the Krang are liberating them from their own mediocrity.
• Running Gagged: Throughout the series, whenever the Turtles seem like they're about to do a Title Drop, the last word is always replaced. During their final battle with the Krang, they finally address themselves as the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
• Screaming at Squick: Donnie learns that the Technodrome's control system is borderline organic, with organs and tendrils instead of regular buttons and switches. He soon realizes in horror and disgust that he has to assimilate with said system. Taken a step further when he is forced to use his soft shell for a better connection and dives into the control panel. Mikey shares this sentiment.
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here: Warren Stone and Hypno-Potamus literally back out of the movie together once they see that thingy they were trying to steal summoned an evil tentacle alien that they're told will conquer the Earth.
• Sealed Evil in a Duel: "Duel" is heavily stretching the definition of such a one-sided beatdown, but at the end,Leo manages to use his portal abilities for forcibly move himself and Krang One to the other side of the gateway back into the Krang's prison dimension just before Casey removes the key, causing the gateway to close on the Technodrome and blow it into two, and stranding both inside the dimension with no apparent way out. His plans ruined, Krang One can do nothing but vent his ire against Leo with a brutal No-Holds-Barred Beatdown that he can only endure, as Krang One is simply too fast and strong to be evaded or overcome in combat, even when the quartet were working together with their full mystic powers. If his brothers hadn't managed to open a temporary gateway into the dimension to rescue him, it's made clear Leo would have died in short order.
• Sequel Hook: While Krang One is stuck in the prison dimension again and Krang Three might be dead, Krang Two is detained by the government in the epilogue, which sets up the possibility of her returning later.
• Shoo Out the Clowns: Warren Stone and Hypno-Potamus decide to refuse to partake after the Foot Clan summon the Krang, after which the film becomes a lot darker.
• Shout-Out: The ship that gets shot down by the Krang in the beginning of the movie highly resembles the SHIELD Helicarrier.
  • Casey being sent to the present to undo a Bad Future overrun with killer machines certainly sounds familiar. Moreover, he also finds that the stern leader he knows is a rebellious teenager in the present timeline.
• Silent Antagonist: Krang Three never speaks during the movie, being largely content to wordlessly do what Krang One says.
• Slouch of Villainy: Krang One sits back in his throne as he watches Leo and the brainwashed Raph fight.
• The Social Darwinist: Krang One, as the primary mouthpiece of the Krang, expresses the belief that the only objective truth of the universe is the strong feeding on the weak. He even dismisses the deaths of all but three of his people as removing their weakness from their soon to be rebuilt empire.
• Sorting Algorithm of Evil: The Krang really secure their spot as Greater-Scope Villain of the series. Shredder, whose armor was provided by a Krang, was a nigh unstoppable force, feared by all who knew of him who took the combined strength of eight people channeling Hamato Ninpo to defeat. The Krang, reduced to three in the modern day, show that a single unarmed one can not only fight the central Hamato clan to a standstill, but also nullify their mystic powers. Even after regaining their powers, the same Krang in armor stops a combined attack from the Mad Dogs with a single finger flick, and can only be defeated by being sealed away again.
• Superhero Horror: The Krang's threat marks a shift from the largely comedic Urban Fantasy antics of the Turtles trying to be superheroes to them desperately trying to fight off otherworldly creatures who can not only shrug off everything they can throw at them, but conquer New York within hours using their Body Horror-based abilities, with scenes of the heroes walking and fighting through cavernous tunnels of Krang bio-mass.
• There Are No Police: Surprisingly averted, despite having been played completely straight (usually due to mystic shenanigans) in the series. Police are shown responding to the situation at the Metro Tower, and the military even tries to hold back the Krang forces once the invasion begins in earnest. They're torn apart in a matter of seconds.
• Thinking Up Portals: The future Michelangelo is able to do this when he creates a time portal to send Casey back in time, at the cost of his own life. The present day version of Mikey learns this technique as well to save Leo, though he needs his brothers' help to not kill himself like his future counterpart did.
• Title Drop: The Turtles unofficially go with Mad Dogs throughout the series, but during their final battle with Krang One, they embrace the name of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
• Truer to the Text: The time-traveling Casey Jones is more in line with how he's depicted in previous Turtles Media than his mother Cassandra, as seen in the trailer. Not only is he still a male, but he wears a hockey mask, has long dark hair, and is armed with not just a hockey stick but also a baseball bat.
• Uncertain Doom: Krang Three's fate after the Technodrome explodes is never disclosed.
• Villainous Breakdown: After the Turtles manages to trap Krang One back in the prison dimension along with destroying the Technodrome, Krang One is clearly trying to keep his composure but eventually lets his anger come through as the Turtles have ruined his plans, and he doesn't have any other outlet beyond killing Leonardo, who is trapped with him, but can't even enjoy killing Leonardo because he feels his sacrifice was worth being trapped there. Once the Turtles do manage to find a way to save Leonardo and keep Krang One trapped, Krang One can't do anything beyond scream in anger.
• Virtue Is Weakness: Krang One only believes in the objectivity of domination and denounces all other virtues as meaningless proclamations from the weak.
• We Win, Because You Didn't: The Krang are too powerful to beat completely, even with the heroes' mystical powers. So they come up with an alternative: send the Technodrome back to the Krang's dimensional prison and cut off their power.
• What Happened to the Mouse?: Krang Three more or less disappears from the movie after Donatello hijacks the Technodrome and detains him. Although considering the Technodrome ends up exploding, it's possible that Krang Three died in the explosion.
• The Worf Effect: Rise's version of the Shredder may had been a force to be reckoned with, having destroyed the Turtles' mystic weapons in the series finale, but he had never sealed away their powers like the Krang did.
• You Are in Command Now: Leo's character arc is struggling with the fact that he's been made leader, with the others encouraging him to push forward despite their massive disadvantage due to the Krang.
• You Can't Thwart Stage One: The first act has the team retrieve the key that opens the Krang dimension. Though Leo manages to get it, the Krang eventually take it back.

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