Attack the Block

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.
Jerome, Biggz, Moses, Pest and Dennis

"That's an alien bruv, believe it!"

—Pest

South London Gang vs. Giant Alien Gorillas.

Attack the Block is a 2011 British comedy-horror film directed and written by Joe Cornish and produced by Edgar Wright. In South London, a teenage street gang -- Moses, Pest, Dennis, Jerome, and Biggz -- are mugging a female nurse (Sam) when a meteor comes crashing down into a nearby car. It's no meteor, though -- it's an alien. A hostile, violent alien. With big scary teeth. After attacking Moses, the alien is killed by the gang -- but more come crashing down, and it’s up to these kids to take them down and save their block.

Check out the trailer here.

Tropes used in Attack the Block include:
  • Anyone Can Die: Two of the main five teens are killed, as well as their dog.
  • Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking: When the gang sees some kids playing with guns, they confiscate them and Moses orders them to, "Go home! Lock your doors! Do your homework! Watch Naruto!"
  • Asshole Victim: Hi-Hatz. You will not feel sorry for him.
  • Badass Normal: Moses.
  • Beleaguered Assistant: Played with, as when compared to Hi-Hatz's overly confident, arrogant, impulsive and hot-headed nature, Tonks is quite calm and level-headed, at least for what little we see of him, as Hi-Hatz threatening him to check what was behind the car gets Tonks killed.
  • Bioluminescence Is Cool: The aliens have neon turquoise teeth.
  • Bittersweet Ending: Moses saves the block, while he and Sam come to terms. However it looks like he and Pest (not to mention Brewis and Ron) are gonna serve time in prison. Also Dennis and Jerome don't make it.
  • Bizarre Alien Biology: A "queen" arrives via crash landing and spread pheromones. Then males also crash land and get to breeding with her. The males have perfectly black fur (no shine at all) and have nothing to their faces but a mouth full of four-plus rows of glowing blue teeth.
  • Black Blood: The gorillas have "the blackest blood ever."
  • Blue and Orange Morality: How the teens' code of honor appears to Sam. They don't seem to think that getting mugged is that big of a deal and only regret that they mugged her after learning that she lives in the same block.
  • Buffy-Speak/Phrase Catcher: The aliens are consistently described as 'big gorilla wolf motherfuckers'.
  • Chained by Fashion: Well, it's not a fashion choice, but Moses spends most of the movie wearing a broken pair of handcuffs.
  • Chekhov's Gun: The Union Jack draped over the side of the apartment building ends up saving Moses when he blows up his flat.
  • Chekhov's Skill:
    • The nature documentary on moths Brewis is seen watching later helps him figure out why the aliens seem to be pursuing Moses.
    • Also, the jump Biggz makes from the bridge to the stairwell when being chased, after previously boasting that he could make it.
  • Council Estate: The Block, where the story takes place.
  • Deadpan Snarker: Sam can be this at times.
  • Delinquent: The boys, at the beginning at least.
  • Don't Tell Mama: All the boys lie about what they are actually doing (mugging people/fighting aliens).
  • Drives Like Crazy: Hi-Hatz.
  • Eagleland Osmosis: Averted when one of the characters mentions the FBI will arrive, only to be told that "that's America".
    • Played straight when they repeatedly call the police "Feds", not realising that England doesn't have a Federal Government (besides the fact that their crimes wouldn't be Federal crimes even if it did).
      • That's actually become a commonly-used term in British teen-speak over the last couple of years. Too much watching The Wire?
  • Establishing Character Moment: Played with. The boys are introduced in an unsympathetic light, mugging a defenseless woman. Part of the point of this movie was to show that this event actually doesn't show their full character.
  • Exactly What It Says on the Tin

"What's Ron's weed room?"
"It's a big room. Filled with weed. And it's Ron's."

Moses: I think I think the government sent them things. First they sent drugs. Then they sent guns. Then these monsters. Black boys aren't killing each other fast enough so they thought they’d speed up the process.

Sam: We should call the police.
Pest: You'd be better off calling the Ghostbusters love.

    • They somehow fail to notice an alien invasion.
  • Pretty Fly for a White Guy: Brewis. His introduction? Woop Woop! Dat's da sound of da police.
  • Screwed by the Network: The American release by Screen Gems. After a successful test screening in 25 markets (22 markets had an excellent rating, the other three had a very good rating), they have proceeded to dump the film into just 11 markets with no advertising, no website and a trailer released just a week before opening. Even when the film added theaters, it was mostly in markets already playing the film. Also, reports on new markets aren't even known (this is usually reported weeks in advance).
  • The Stoic: Moses.
  • The Stoner: Most of the boys smoke but Brewis and Ron in particular.
  • Team Pet: Subverted in that Dennis' dog is killed almost immediately by an alien.
  • Teens Are Monsters: Subverted. The main characters are young hoodlums, one on his way to becoming a street pusher, but over the course of the film they come across more sympathetically and show their inner humanity.
  • Those Two Guys: Little kids Reggie and Gavin - or rather Probs and Mayhem.
  • True Companions
  • What the Hell, Hero?: Sam delivers this to the boys after one says that they wouldn't have mugged her if they knew she was also from the Block - she sarcastically asks if that means it's acceptable to mug people so long as they don't live in the same complex.
  • Xtreme Kool Letterz: Hi-Hatz and Biggz.
  • The Yardies: Deconstructed. We go into these boys' lives and see why they are the way they are.
  • Younger Than They Look: Much to Sam's surprise, Moses is only fifteen years old.
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