Legion

File:Poster legion-poster.jpg

Legion is an action movie starring Paul Bettany, Dennis Quaid, and Lucas Black about what happens when God sends down an apocalypse and all that's left is an archangel that defected and a diner full of people. Oh, but it's the pregnant woman who's important, since she's carrying the one who will be the second Christ.

Syfy is currently preparing a television series based on the film.

---

This film contains examples of :

• And Starring: Dennis Quaid.
• All Love Is Unrequited: Jeep and Charlie
• Anyone Can Die: Considering that Gabriel, Charlie, and Jeep are the only characters that survive to the end of the film without being resurrected...
• Anti-Hero: Michael. Especially since nobody trusts him until about an hour into the movie.
• Anti-Anti-Christ: The baby...technically. It is destined to be the savior of mankind, but since God's already decided that Humans Are Bastards this technically makes the baby evil.
  • Except this trope page also agrees that God is evil, making the baby good. Anti Anti-Anti-Christ?
• Arab-Israeli Conflict: In a comic book tie-in. A Palestinian is sent to suicide bomb an Israeli airport but ends up fighting angels instead. Yeah, he basically has to fight angel-possssed IDF troops.
  • Oooooh boy...
• Archangel Michael: Is the main character.
• Archangel Gabriel: As the Final Boss.
• Armor Is Useless: Averted all to hell with Gabriel; his wings can deflect just about anything, and he uses them constantly.
• Badass: Michael.
• Badass Family: Jeep, Charlie, and their baby at the end of the film. Given that they have guns in the back of their car.
• Bad Humor Truck
• Big Brother Mentor: Jeep, who is constantly worried about everybody in the diner, not just Charlie.
• Big Damn Heroes: Plenty of instances, from Percy saving Sandra and dying because of it to Michael rushing in to save Jeep at the absolute last minute after being resurrected.
• Big "Shut Up!": The angel-possessed old lady tells a woman to "SHUT THE FUCK UP", because she's tired of her "bitching".
• Bittersweet Ending: God regained his faith in humanity but he caused the deaths of countless people who are not shown being revived (except Michael) and since they were killed while they were going against God's will they're probably in hell, suffering for all eternity since they can't be forgiven. Maybe bittersweet is being generous
  • There's another Bittersweet Ending for humanists and misotheists, Yay! Humans survive. But... only because god let them. Fucking what?
• Body Horror: What happens to Howard
• Bond One-Liner: "Sorry... We're out of business." Right before Bob makes the diner go kablooie.
  • This counts as Crowning Moment of Awesome! It's too bad it doesn't kill Gabriel, though...
• Brought Down to Normal: Michael voluntarily cuts off his wings, the source of his angelic powers, at the start of the film.
• Car Fu: A guy gets hit by a car driven by a possessed person at one point.
  • Jeep also sends Gabriel flying through a windshield towards the end when the angel grabs on to their car and almost manages to kill the baby.
• Cell Phone: Kyle's gets no bars in the middle of nowhere, which is what prompts him to stop at the Truck Stop Diner.
• Chekhov's Gun: Bob's cigarette lighter.
• Children Are Innocent: Given that much of the movie is spent protecting a pregnant woman...
  • Also subverted heavily with a Creepy Child that kills Kyle and nearly succeeds in killing Charlie.
• Dawson Casting: Jeep, if Michael is to be believed, is only 20.
• Diner Brawl: Most of the action takes place in and around a small diner.
• Dreaming of Things to Come: Jeep's nightmares. Gladys knows it.
• Dropped a Bridge on Him: When the car crashes, the baby survives but Audrey died. And is quickly forgotten.
  • Possibly justified: they had bigger things to worry about then. Such as Gabriel still being alive and still trying to kill the baby.
• Estrogen Brigade Bait: Just look at that poster, and see Ho Yay on the YMMV page.
• Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Gabriel and Michael treat each other like brothers before their big fight scene.
• Fingore: The Creepy Child attacks Charlie with a knife. She blocks his blows with a metal pan and, as the knife has no guard, he ends up accidentally cutting off his thumbs.
• Frying Pan of Doom: Wielded as a ranged weapon by Percy, making it a Flying Pan of Doom.
• "Get Out of Jail Free" Card: Michael gets resurrected at the end of the movie for restoring God's faith in humanity.
• God Is Evil: Subverted. He's just "tired of this shit".
  • Could have fooled me.
• Good Bad Girl: Audrey, although her sexual history is never touched on throughout the movie.
• Good Smoking, Evil Smoking: Subverted. Bob, Kyle and Charlie all smoke. They all have their issues with hard luck and drama in their lives, but none are truly evil. However, there is the Anvilicious bit about Charlie being a pregnant woman who smokes.
  • Some Anvils Need to Be Dropped
  • And yet, perhaps not as anvilicious as one might think! Because the only reason the humans 'win' is because the baby is born prematurely. And what is one thing that smoking can cause? Premature birth! That's right. Smoking saved the world.
• Harbinger of Impending Doom: The old lady at the beginning. I mean, she casually comments that Charlie's baby is gonna burn, proceeds to say everyone else in the diner will burn, bites a guy in the neck when told to apologize for that, and runs on the ceiling before finally getting shot by Kyle. She even tells the guy's wife to shut up and hates her complaining.
• Hey, It's That Guy!: Sergeant Epps is helping John Nash's friend defend a pregnant woman from possessed zombies and Martin Keamy. Dr. Addison Montgomery whines and panics.
• Heroic Sacrifice: Lots. Percy dies saving Sandra from an acid attack, and Kyle dies trying to save a Creepy Child who turns out to be possessed and which tears his throat out. Michael stays behind to fight Gabriel, and when he loses, a mortally-wounded Bob blows up the diner to by the escapees some time. Audrey shoots Gabriel in the face with a flare-gun and winds up thrown out the windshield of a car doing 90 down the freeway, trying to strangle him. Really, among those who die, only Sandra and Howard don't sacrifice themselves for something.
• Hidden Heart of Gold: Kyle; it's implied early on that he was involved in criminal activities prior to getting stuck at the diner with everyone else.
• Humans Are Bastards: The sole reason why God sends his angels to exterminate him. God and His angels prove to be no better.
• Humans Are Special: Michael still believes this.
• Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: Gabriel's fatal attack against Michael
• Karma Houdini: God, Gabriel, and possibly all the Mook angels. "Sorry about the mess, I'll stop making my angels body snatch y'all" is not a satisfactory apology. Seriously, where is Kratos when you need him?
• Kick the Dog: Sandra gives her daughter a little speech about how all the bad things happening to them are her fault. She's not a nice person.
• Kill'Em All: See Anyone Can Die above.
• Kung Shui: At one point the battered old television is used as a weapon.

--Percy: "One of these days that thing is gonna hit you back."

• Manly Tears: Percy, when speaking of his father's nightly admonishments to him.
• Mood Dissonance: The first of the sieging on the diner begins with an ice cream truck playing a merry little version of Turkey in the Straw.
• Nice Guy: Jeep
• One-Scene Wonder: Everyone can agree that the possessed granny is probably the best part of this film.
• Ooh, Me Accent's Slipping: Charlie seems to forget she's supposed to have a southern accent after the first ten minutes or so.
• Our Angels Are Different: They possess people, and they swear while doing so. Oh, and their wings are also made of metal.
  • Fridge Brilliance: the angel's Demonic Possession seems weird until you realize that demons are usually imagined as fallen angels.
• Outside Ride: Gabriel on top of the police car.
• Parental Abandonment:
  • Jeep has a Missing Mom who left when he was 15, and Charlie's own father was a Disappeared Dad who left when she was a kid; then there's the "out of sight, out of mind" father of her own unborn child.
  • And there's a subversion. Kyle is on his way to his child, to be a not disappeared dad.
• Plot-Driven Breakdown: Everything goes down during the course of this movie. Phone lines, cell phone reception, TV signal, radio, power, it all goes down. Lampshaded by Bob when he mentions that the only thing still running is the gas.
  • It's inverted briefly when the radio is able to pick up one station and the lights go back on for a brief period of time.
  • It's also subverted for much of the film, given the fact that calling for help wouldn't really do a whole lot given that all the people in the nearest towns are crowded around the diner trying to kill them.
• Punch Clock Villain: Gabriel.

— Michael: "You were always so eager to please him."

• • Given a touch of bitter irony after Michael is resurrected and tells Gabriel that he's failed when he points out he wouldn't have spared Michael's life.
• Razor Wings: Gabriel has very sharp wings.
• Recycled in Space: It's a bit Zombie Apocalypse and more than a bit Terminator, right down to certain shots and scenes that seem torn whole cloth from the other franchise.
• Rule of Fun: Bettany has said he did the movie largely because the idea of playing an archangel with a bunch of guns was just too much fun to pass up, especially since if he's in an action movie he's almost always the bad guy.
• Running on All Fours: The angel-possessed.
• Sanity Slippage: Sandra. Not a huge problem for the group until she decides to give the baby up to Gabriel, thinking that if she does, they can just leave.
• Shell Shocked Senior: Percy. In case the shot of the dog tags didn't cue you in, he also uses a prosthetic hand.
• Shout-Out:

--Bob: "All right, Rambo, you mind telling us what we're fightin'?"

• Shut UP, Hannibal:

-- Gabriel: "Why do you do it? Why do you keep on fighting when you know all hope is lost?" —Jeep: "Fuck you!"

• Single-Stroke Battle: Between Michael and Gabriel near the end.
• Symbol Motif Clothing: Did nobody notice that Charlie was wearing the colors of the virgin Mary in her first appearance?
• Tears of Remorse: From both Gabriel and Michael. It's played much more prominently with Gabriel, though.
• Title In: December 23
• Too Dumb to Live: Sandra. Oh dear lord, Sandra.
  • Even if she gives them the baby, they'll STILL kill them! Predictably, Michael shoots her.
    • Let's not forget for a second that she was also dumb enough to bite into the obvious trap that was her husband being crucified upside-down. And unfortunately, Percy pays the price when she gets too close and her husband explodes in acidic goodness. To her credit, Kyle also falls for a similar trick with the aforementioned Creepy Child, but there's less of an excuse for Sandra since everybody including her own daughter was telling her that it was a trap and it's also harder to tell something is a trap when a complete and very innocent stranger is involved.
• Triple Shifter: Michael doesn't sleep once during the two days the movie takes place. Partially justified in that being a former angel, he's got more stamina than the average human.
• Tracking Device: Word of God states that the collars Michael and Gabriel wears are used to keep track of their whereabouts.
• Unfortunate Names: Jeep. Let's hope it's a nickname.
  • It probably is, given that he's shown to be in charge of repairing broken-down vehicles early in the movie.
• Wall Crawl: Gladys, and a Creepy Child.
• World of Cardboard Speech: Michael's aformentioned speech to Jeep.
• X Meets Y: Religious Horror meets Zombie Apocalypse, with a very liberal dose of The Terminator thrown in.