That’s the possibility I’m preparing myself for, but it would be a bummer and I’m glad John, at least, has come out openly in support of Finnrey. No matter what happens canon-wise, we know that at least one of the people most closely involved saw the story and Finnrey shippers weren’t seeing things. And if the rumors are true and KK is on her way out, she wouldn’t have much creative input into IX and JJ would have no reason to be bound by her wishes.
…how does John in any way not read as a romantic lead? Who said that? D: Putting aside how handsome he is, his perfomance as Finn around Rey just screams adorable, slightly awkward rom-com. In Attack the Block you could slot him as the bad boy archetype. Just, what? DDD:
Though romance was not a big part of AtB his character was pretty heavily implied to be dating Tia, the hottest and cleverest girl in the movie played by the lovely Danielle Vitalis. His character in Imperial Dreams also had a beautifully understated romance with the mother of his son.
Also do I have to kill that dog to take its place because I s2g I’ll do it
Why were the male gorilla/wolf aliens coming after Moses and his friends rather than the carcass of the female alien, which was presumably Pheromone Central and must have had a much stronger scent than the traces left on Moses and the others’ clothes? (This must be, of course, why the carcass was part of the final bait along with Moses–also it had to be burned anyway to keep away the other aliens.) Is it because the weed room where the carcass was kept was insulated from smells to avoid detection? This seems the likeliest explanation, since the male aliens weren’t coming for the weed room once Moses and the others got behind the door but rather crowded outside. This is consistent with them losing the trail and hovering at the last place where they had the scent.
Which is kind of mind-boggling in its own way. These pheromones can cross outer space but they can’t get past a weed room’s scent insulation, evidently. Who knew weed dealers were our line of defense against alien invasions? Respect.
Also, is there a chance another female alien could land on Earth, drawing males after her? If so, Earth is fucked unless the authorities–or an audience of violent tin hatters, which seems likelier–listen to Moses and the others’ story. Unless they know to shoot any further female alien from a distance and then napalm the carcass, then thoroughly cleanse any trace of the pheromones on people and the surroundings under UV light, there are going to be repeat landings of male aliens and more deaths.
I’m also trying to figure out how reproduction works for this alien species. If the male:female ratio in the movie is representative for the species as a whole, and assuming male and female are even vaguely analogous terms for this species, maybe it works like a queen ant mating with multiple males and storing their semen for years to fertilize and lay eggs at her leisure. We may have been watching something like an ant mating flight in progress, only to be violently interrupted by Moses.
I mean Moses regretted what he did, but would things really have been better if he didn’t kill the female alien? He himself was already marked by the pheromones just by their initial contact (First Contact, if you will) when she pounced on him, and probably the same people who had been marked by touching him in the original timeline would have been marked even if he had let the alien go. Maybe there would have been a smaller pheromone footprint on him, since he would not have had the queen’s pheromones all over him from killeng her, and so fewer people might have been marked, but that’s about it.
But really, best case scenario, even if Moses hadn’t even reached into the car and never come into contact with the queen, she would have touched and marked someone eventually in a city as crowded as London. The males would have arrived and killed the people who were marked. They could have arrived in even greater numbers without her scent being shielded by the weed room (remember, our planetary line of defense). And if the queen had lived and successfully mated, there would have been aliens born on Earth to wreak havoc unless she moved on elsewhere to give birth/lay eggs. All in all I can’t think of Moses killing the alien as a bad thing, though his intentions at the time were not noble.
Tl; dr AtB is a movie about how weed dealers and disaffected teenaged boys are our best defenses against an alien invasion, God help us all.
@jewishcomeradebot True, I don’t think the army and police, as opposed to inidividual and generally rogue soldiers and policemen, have ever been an effective force against an alien invasion in the history of cinema. The PacRim series are the closest I can think of where an official, sanctioned military group held their own against aliens, and even the Jaeger program was the result of the conventional military’s utter failure against the kaiju.
Why were the male gorilla/wolf aliens coming after Moses and his friends rather than the carcass of the female alien, which was presumably Pheromone Central and must have had a much stronger scent than the traces left on Moses and the others’ clothes? (This must be, of course, why the carcass was part of the final bait along with Moses–also it had to be burned anyway to keep away the other aliens.) Is it because the weed room where the carcass was kept was insulated from smells to avoid detection? This seems the likeliest explanation, since the male aliens weren’t coming for the weed room once Moses and the others got behind the door but rather crowded outside. This is consistent with them losing the trail and hovering at the last place where they had the scent.
Which is kind of mind-boggling in its own way. These pheromones can cross outer space but they can’t get past a weed room’s scent insulation, evidently. Who knew weed dealers were our line of defense against alien invasions? Respect.
Also, is there a chance another female alien could land on Earth, drawing males after her? If so, Earth is fucked unless the authorities–or an audience of violent tin hatters, which seems likelier–listen to Moses and the others’ story. Unless they know to shoot any further female alien from a distance and then napalm the carcass, then thoroughly cleanse any trace of the pheromones on people and the surroundings under UV light, there are going to be repeat landings of male aliens and more deaths.
I’m also trying to figure out how reproduction works for this alien species. If the male:female ratio in the movie is representative for the species as a whole, and assuming male and female are even vaguely analogous terms for this species, maybe it works like a queen ant mating with multiple males and storing their semen for years to fertilize and lay eggs at her leisure. We may have been watching something like an ant mating flight in progress, only to be violently interrupted by Moses.
I mean Moses regretted what he did, but would things really have been better if he didn’t kill the female alien? He himself was already marked by the pheromones just by their initial contact (First Contact, if you will) when she pounced on him, and probably the same people who had been marked by touching him in the original timeline would have been marked even if he had let the alien go. Maybe there would have been a smaller pheromone footprint on him, since he would not have had the queen’s pheromones all over him from killeng her, and so fewer people might have been marked, but that’s about it.
But really, best case scenario, even if Moses hadn’t even reached into the car and never come into contact with the queen, she would have touched and marked someone eventually in a city as crowded as London. The males would have arrived and killed the people who were marked. They could have arrived in even greater numbers without her scent being shielded by the weed room (remember, our planetary line of defense). And if the queen had lived and successfully mated, there would have been aliens born on Earth to wreak havoc unless she moved on elsewhere to give birth/lay eggs. All in all I can’t think of Moses killing the alien as a bad thing, though his intentions at the time were not noble.
Tl; dr AtB is a movie about how weed dealers and disaffected teenaged boys are our best defenses against an alien invasion, God help us all.
Why did I wait this long to see Attack the Block? I just played it on
a whim after meaning for a while to see it and it was like… so good? Moses
is one of the best film characters I’ve ever seen, with a clear and
well-defined arc yet plenty of complexity. I’m absolutely blown away
that John played this character when he was 17 to 18.
I
mean there’s a good reason for the tendency, little as I may like it,
for teens to be played by actors in their 20s. It’s hard to get teenaged
actors with the chops to convincingly portray a range of emotions and
experiences. John was clearly a rare find, young enough to be believable
for the character (and it really doesn’t seem like a good idea to have
young Black characters in particular be played by much-older actors),
yet already an accomplished actor who could portray a character of
Moses’s range and depth.
It’s no wonder J.J. Abrams fell in
love with John from this film; I don’t think it’s possible for anyone to
come away without loving John and Moses. This is the kind of favor a
good script can do for a good actor, when it lets them express
everything they can do and shows off their strengths. On the flip side,
of course, a bad script or bad director can hobble an actor like a pair
of pants around their ankles and make them look ridiculous.
Spoilers
below the cut. Usually I wouldn’t bother with spoiler warnings for a
film older than my kid but you’re seriously missing out if you haven’t seen
this one. Believe.
I
admit, I struggled at first trying to figure Moses out. He seemed so
nihilistic and violent, what was it that made him tick? Where was the
character people raved about so much–how could he be salvaged from all
this? Given how flatly the script refused to pull its punches,
sparing absolutely nothing of the details of his mugging Sam down to
pulling a knife and even taking her cheap little ring, I really wondered
how the movie was going to make a likable character out of him. The
case against him seemed as overwhelming as the evidence the cops found on him
when they arrested him.
Then, as the layers fell away in the
midst of an alien invasion, the movie did the impossible. I watched
Moses’s keen awareness of the injustices he and his neighbors lived
under, the communal code–messed up as it may be–of not mugging someone
who lived in the Block, his unfolding regret at what he had done.
And
then I understood. I mean, I can’t fully comprehend his experiences at
any level, but at last I got on an intellectual level what drove him.
Oh. Oh. Of course. The way he led the mugging while quaking
inside with fear. His pursuit and violent killing of the creature that
turned out to be the female alien. The way he led his friends into
action, the stoic planner, the first to charge into every fight. His
uncertainty around Hi-Hatz, not sure if this was what he wanted.
I
was looking at a young boy who desperately wanted to be a hero. This
character, who seemed straight out of every middle-class nightmare, had a
burning need to save, to take action, to use his considerable talents,
and the only outlets that seemed open to him were violence and crime.
This
shift in perspective had seemed impossible early in the movie, but a
combination of the writing and acting sold me on it. It’s also obvious
that this is a shift that has more implications than for this one fictional
character.
Moses may have been the big revelation but the
film is full of these jabs, like the one at the white savior industrial
complex where Pest wonders why Sam’s boyfriend is in Ghana with the Red
Cross when there are so many people who could use help right at home.
Also, I may not be a Brit but I’m pretty sure there’s no way for anyone
to miss the symbolism of Moses hanging on to the Union Jack after his
ultimate act of heroism, unfurling it fully.
I would also like to
add that THIS is how you do a redemption arc. Have the character’s
actions, even violent ones, make sense in their circumstances. Make it
clear they were in the wrong nonetheless. Show them truly regret it, and
not just because they got caught. Show them take action to make things
right, even at great risk or cost to themselves. Finally, of course,
make the whole thing consistent with who they are so that their
reactions and decisions are believable. You wanted to be a hero, Moses?
Well here’s your chance.
The ending, with the crowd chanting
“Moses!” and the character himself looking peaceful and at ease for the
first time, so vulnerable and open, was the
perfect culmination of his arc and will stay with me a long time. I’m
astonished and thankful to be alive at the same time as John Boyega and
to be able to watch his career.
Random AUs 2/? — Finn and Rey are a paranormal investigation team that’s been hired to look into strange disturbances at landlady Leia Organa’s apartment complex. The residents are convinced Leia’s son Ben—long-missing and presumed dead—is the ghost behind a series of unexplained violent attacks and threatening messages. What Finn and Rey find is far worse than anything they could have imagined.
L.J.'s Obsessions 