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Children of Men is a 2006 dystopian apocalyptic Science Fiction film co-written and directed by Alfonso Cuarón, starring Clive Owen, Julianne Moore and Michael Caine. It is loosely based on the novel The Children of Men by P. D. James.

In the year 2027, no child has been born for nearly two decades, and the entire world has fallen into lawless chaos as humanity awaits their extinction. The United Kingdom has one of the only functional governments left in the world, albeit barely, and British society teeters on the verge of collapse due to the problems thrown up by a long economic decline, totalitarianism, refugee ("'fujee") crisis, and terrorism. Theo (Owen), a white-collar worker, is distracted from his rut when he is abducted and his ex-wife Julian (Moore) approaches him for a favor: to help smuggle a refugee girl named Kee (Clare-Hope Ashitey), who by some miracle is pregnant, out of the country. Theo agrees to protect Kee on a dangerous journey — past rebels, a repressive government, and traitors — to see her to safety.

This movie contains examples of:

• 20 Minutes into the Future: As the film is set in 2027, only 20 years after it was made, it is done deliberately subtly.
  • Cars, for example, may look ordinary at first glance, but are more unfamiliar upon closer inspection. They are also equipped with hi-tech heads-up displays (e.g. projecting the speedometer or warning notices onto the windscreen).
  • London buses carry scrolling holographic adverts on the side, contrasting with the rickshaws now present on London's streets.
  • There is a product called Quietus which is used by people who wish to painlessly commit suicide.
  • Adverts in the street reveal human organs can now be legally purchased on 'The British Organ Market'.
  • Various stalls throughout London (such as that of the 'Digital Evening Standard') use alternating digital screens to advertise.
  • Radio Avalon, a former short-lived festival radio station, is now a major broadcaster in the United Kingdom.
  • Queen Elizabeth II is implied to have passed, with Charles taking over as ruling monarch (implied via the royal cypher on police helmets and various newspaper headlines referring to Charles). This ended up being a correct prediction, as Queen Elizabeth passed away in 2022.
  • Newspaper headlines reporting on 'Test Tube Daisy' dying suggest that Uterine Replicators have been prototyped, even if they aren't successful.
  • Miniaturization and the versatility of mobile communication devices and portable computers have also advanced considerably since the 2000s.
  • The British Army has upgraded to darker digital camouflage fatigues and body armour, and some soldiers are seen with what appears to be compact targeting devices built into their helmets.
  • Both British soldiers and police officers are seen carrying the Heckler & Koch XM8 rifle, which was only in its prototype stage during filming.
  • Some of the in-universe advertising and tech can be glimpsed in this featurette.
• Abandoned Playground: Kee is sitting on an old swing in an abandoned primary school while waiting for Syd. Considering there are no more children, it makes sense that it is abandoned.
• Absurdly Spacious Sewer: The sewer at the refugee camp is wide enough to steer a rowboat across.
• Accidental Child-Killer Backstory: Theo, in the novel. He recalls inadvertently running over his own daughter while backing out of the driveway. His then-wife never forgave him, and he does not seem to have ever forgiven himself. (In the film his child, a son, died in an epidemic.)
• Action Survivor:
  • Theo spends most of the film running away from people with guns who want to kill him.
  • And Marishka who survives the encounter with the Fishes though wearing a red parka.
• Adaptational Attractiveness: The descriptions of Theo in the novel do not exactly call to mind a Clive Owen. Then again, the film is only a very loose adaptation.
• Adaptation Distillation: In order to bring the book to the big screen, several key character roles were switched and streamlined, the main villain and his mooks were removed entirely and a Love Triangle was eliminated in order to focus more on The Chase. It all works in the book, but would have been quite clunky in a 100-minute movie. Not only that but Theo's occupation and overall character were switched from an Oxford historian who had to rely on his brain to a former activist who had to think quickly on his feet. It works perfectly in terms of the action-filled movie.
• Adaptation Explanation Extrication: The scene with the mob chasing the car and being covered up by the media seems like a random plot device to provide a reason for Julian dying, however there is an explanation from both the novel and earlier versions of the script. The youngest generation (called Omegas in the novel and Zeds in early drafts of the script) go on random sprees of chaos and violence throughout the country. As they are the last generation of humans in existence, they feel they have nothing to lose. It is later revealed that The Fishes paid the Zeds to carry out the attack, and one of the motorcycle gunmen was Patric.
• Ad Dissonance: Shiny advertising in a Crapsack World.
• Advert-Overloaded Future: The London of 2027 has moving digital billboards on buildings and the sides of buses, as well as flatscreens inside public transport and shops. Mostly they show government propaganda and adverts for various medications.
• Affectionate Nickname: Tomasz, a Polish man working for The Fishes, refers to his English wife as a "cod" (an English fish).
• Agony of the Feet: As a prime visual indicator of how maladjusted to his circumstances Theo is, he spends a lot of the film without proper footwear (or any footwear at all), which leads to his feet getting beaten up badly. He even cuts a foot on broken glass, which gives him a lasting limp.
• Anyone Can Die: People are dying left and right as soon as the main plot gets going. The final scene leaves only one main character and her newborn baby alive, with all other major characters either dead or presumably dead.
• Apathetic Citizens: Try a whole society of them. When Theo is kidnapped off the street in broad daylight by masked gunmen, people don't even stop to look.
• Apocalypse Anarchy: Society descends further and further into chaos as people realize that the human race will be extinguished in a matter of decades since reproduction is no longer possible.
• Apocalypse How: The human race is grappling with the likelihood of going extinct due to a lack of new children being born.
• Archangel Gabriel: On the bus about to perform a Heroic Sacrifice to protect Kee, Miriam prays to Gabriel.
• Armies Are Evil: Largely played straight with British soldiers continuously shown violently subjugating helpless illegal immigrants, though subverted near the end where they cease firing upon seeing Kee's baby. The fighting only resumes because some random rebel interrupts the ceasefire, by opportunistically taking a shot with an RPG.
• Artistic License – Biology: Julian says that tinnitus is the sound of your "ear cells dying," and it's the last time you'll hear that frequency. This is not the way tinnitus works.
• As Long as It Sounds Foreign: "Marichka" is a Ukrainian name, but the actress playing her speaks Romanian.
• Asshole Victim: "Baby" Diego Ricardo, the youngest person on the planet at the time. He is killed at the start of the film when he gets stabbed by someone who asked for an autograph, which he not only refused to give but also responded to by spitting in the guy's face. In fairness, having spent your entire life as a celebrity simply for being born later than anyone else would give anyone attitude problems.
  Theo: Come on, though, Baby Diego? The guy was a wanker.
  Jasper: Yeah, but he was the youngest wanker on the planet.
• As the Good Book Says...: Not made clear in the movie, but the title comes from Psalm 90:3 of the King James Version ("Thou turnest man to destruction, and sayest, Return, ye children of men").
• As You Know: Jasper is the first person to explain that children are no longer born, which he does in the context of a joke.
• Bad People Abuse Animals:
  • Kee says that the cows at the safe house have parts of their udders cut off so that they can fit in the milking machines, and she asks why not make machines that fit the udders instead of inflicting such cruelty.
  • Jasper feeds his dog Quietus offscreen so that the Fishes can’t hurt it.
  • Blink and you miss it, but the prison guards are shown to have not only stripped refugees of their possessions but also of their pets - there’s a cage full of dogs behind the pile of items when Theo and Kee get off the bus.
• Bilingual Bonus:
  • The old German lady in the cage is complaining that her family has been locked up with black people.
  • The woman weeping over her son’s body is speaking in Sinhalese (apparently, she's played by a notable Sri Lankan actress).
• Bittersweet Ending: The optimistic interpretation. Depending on how you look at it, Theo either succumbs to his wounds or passes out from blood loss. Either way, Kee and her baby are alive, and The Human Project is definitely real, giving humanity a fighting chance at survival.
• Blast Out: After Theo and Kee bring the baby through a silenced battle, a single RPG fired at an armored personnel carrier prompts a devastating response from the army, with nearly every single soldier returning fire, shredding the concrete facade of the building they came out of.
• Blatant Lies: After Jasper is shot, Theo tells Kee that he's fine.
• Bond Villain Stupidity: Justified. Luke orders Patric to wait with Theo's execution until he and Kee are out of sight to not distress her further. This opens up the chance for Theo to escape when warfare starts in the streets right after Luke has left.
• Bring Me My Brown Pants: When the prison guards check the bus and Kee’s water is broken, Theo pretends to look crazy and claims someone pissed themselves and they should smell it.
• Chair Reveal: Subverted. When Theo arrives at Jasper's house, he sees Jasper from behind sitting in his chair, his arm hanging limp with some empty syringes by his chair. The scene is set up for us to assume that he committed suicide but instead he was just taking a nap.
• Chekhov's Gun: Theo's flask, which he uses to sterilize his hands before delivering Kee's baby.
• Chekhov's Gunman: The one-legged hustler Theo and the others pass, who later reappears leading some of Luke's men against the soldiers.
• Childless Dystopia: The whole point of the movie.
• Cigarette of Anxiety: After Julian dies Theo goes to light a cigarette but ends up falling to the ground sobbing when he sees her blood on his hands.
• Cold-Blooded Torture: It is heavily implied that Janice's catatonic state was caused by torture at the hands of MI5.
• Commonality Connection: Both Miriam and Jasper are spiritually minded, serving as a contrast to Theo being a nonbeliever.
• Composite Character: In the movie, Theo and Julian's son Dylan died from a disease epidemic, while in the book Julian's character was the one that is pregnant and the one Theo is protecting. In the book, Theo is married and divorced Helen and had a daughter named Natalie who was killed when Theo backed out of the driveway and accidentally ran her over. Both the film and book show this death as the reason for either relationship not working. The movie changed and combined Julian and Helena while creating Kee.
• Conditioned to Accept Horror:
  • To get out of work early, Theo has to use the excuse of mourning Baby Diego’s death instead of the fact that he almost died in a terrorist bombing that morning on the way to work.
  • Illegal immigrants are packed in cages on the side of the streets while everyone else tries to go by about their day.
  • The Fishes kidnap Theo in broad daylight while bystanders act as if nothing is happening.
• Corrupt Cop:
  • Syd breaks government protocol by allowing the protagonists to enter Bexhill in exchange for a large amount of Jasper's weed.
  • Before he is forced into Bexhill, a Homeland Security soldier seizes Theo's watch.
• Crapsack World: No babies are being born, dooming humanity to a slow but inevitable extinction. As a result, society has completely broken down, with pretty much the entire world being turned into nuclear wastelands or lawless war zones. Britain, possibly the only remaining pocket of civilization left, is a horribly authoritarian and xenophobic dystopia. Argentina, the only other nation hinted at being at least moderately stable is no better, as "Baby Diego", the youngest person in the world, is stabbed to death in Buenos Aires at the start of the film simply for refusing to sign an autograph. The situation has gotten so bad that Theo tells Jasper he thinks it doesn't matter if a cure for global infertility is ever found, as the world is already beyond salvaging.
• Creator Cameo: P.D. James, author of the book The Children of Men plays the old woman in the cafeteria with Theo.
• Cryptic Background Reference:
  • "What about Liverpool?"
  • "That thing in Madrid was a real blow for art." "Not to mention people."
  • "Were your parents in New York when it happened?" It was a nuclear explosion if the quick shots of scenes from a government propaganda film are to be believed.
• Curb-Stomp Battle: The British Army vs the Fishes. On one side, some plucky, if morally questionable guerrillas, on the other side a professional army with tanks, armoured vehicles and superior numbers and tactics. The Fishes and their much-awaited Uprising (which is the whole reason for Julian's death and the hunt for Kee) are crushed even before the Army flattens Bexhill with bombers.
• Cyanide Pill: The government issues free suicide kits called Quietus along with food rations. Jasper re-purposes the formula however, mixing it with bread to kill the rats in his home.
• Dark and Troubled Past: Comes standard for a world as bleak as this.
  • Theo and Julian lost their son to a pandemic in 2008.
  • Jasper's wife was tortured and left catatonic by the government for criticising their fascist practices.
  • Miriam bore witness to all the new babies being stillborn, and was only able to save a precious few in the last month or so back when it was happening.
  • Hinted at with Luke's reflections about his sister.
• Dead Guy Junior: Kee eventually settles on naming the baby after Theo and Julian's dead son Dylan.
• Dead Star Walking: The characters played by both Julianne Moore and Michael Caine die before the 1 hour mark.
• Death by Adaptation: Theo Faron.
• Death of a Child:
  • Theo and Julian's young son Dylan died from a flu pandemic in 2008, almost twenty years before the present day.
  • Miriam mentions that when the infertility crisis started, she saw many babies being stillborn and was only able to save a few.
  • On the way to the boat, the group passes a refugee woman mourning over the body of her son - a possibility that Kee may face with her own baby if they don’t get to the boat.
• Defiant to the End: "Pull my finger" was Jasper's way of saying "fuck you" one last time, as in, "You can kill me but I'll still prank on you before I die."
• Delayed "Oh, Crap!": Miriam explains that the general populace didn’t realize how the end of pregnancies meant the end of humanity until the last generation grew up.
  "Once the sounds of the playground faded, the despair set in."
• Delivery Stork: Jasper's expository joke has a punchline humorously blaming stork hunting as the reason for no babies being born anymore.
• Disappeared Dad: Kee, a prostitute, unsurprisingly has no idea who the father of her baby is. However this plays on the Christian allegory, since she also jokes that she's a virgin (i.e. her baby is akin to Jesus).
• Disproportionate Retribution: The news broadcast at the beginning of the film mentions that the world's youngest person was killed because he spat in the face of a fan who asked for his autograph. Said fan then stabbed him to death and was in turn beaten to death by a mob.
• Does This Remind You of Anything?:
  • The heroes are trying to smuggle a refugee (i.e. illegal immigrant) across the border and out of the country, and this ends up saving civilization as they know it (or so they hope).
  • The ads used to sell Quietus (the suicide pills) are deliberately meant to resemble antidepressant ads.
  • There's also the political situation in Britain, where the country responds to a national catastrophe by using a persecuted minority group as scapegoats and victimizing them with organized violence — ultimately rounding them up in prison camps.
  • When Miriam is pulled off the bus, The Libertines' "Arbeit Macht Frei" can be heard in the background. The song title translates to "Work will make you free", which was written above the entrance to Auschwitz.
  • As the bus drives away, the "hooded man" from Abu Ghraib prison can be seen in one of the cages, in the exact pose from the infamous torture pictures.◊
  • The hallway with stiles to the camp is like one used for livestock when they’re being sent to be slaughtered.
• Double Meaning: Julian’s quote about the ringing in your ears is about choosing how to “enjoy” life before humanity dies out (i.e., being materialistic or idealistic) and also about what Theo will do with his life before it ends (i.e., he chooses to give up the things he values in order to create real meaning or "joy").
• Drink-Based Characterization: Theo orders his coffee black and then adds alcohol to it as he leaves (or at least he would have, if the explosion hadn’t spilled it). This represents that Theo is practical and hands-on - if he had stayed in the cafe any longer and waited to let the baristas add other things to his coffee for him, he would’ve been killed.
  Jasper: I'm just glad you take your coffee black.
• Driven to Suicide: Not for a particular character, but for society in general. Given that there is no hope for a future because no children have been born in 18 years, the government rations suicide kits and anti-depressants.
• Due to the Dead:
  • Julian gets a proper burial.
  • In the middle of the parade of Muslims at the end, there is a group carrying a dead man on a makeshift stretcher, surrounded by women in Muslim funerary garb, suggesting that this protest was sparked by a murder.
• Dying Race: The human race is doomed to die out, which pushes people into depression.
• The End Is Nigh: We come across these people in the scene when Theo takes a ride to see his cousin.
• Epic Tracking Shot: Director Alfonso Cuaron is very fond of this technique and the film is famous for it. The action climax is shot in one long shot in is over seven and a half minutes long. And this is an action scene with multiple gun fights, explosions, and the consistent and active presence of a tank.
• Escort Mission: The plot follows Theo escorting Kee to a meeting point with the Human Project.
• Eternal Prohibition: Jasper complains about the government sending out suicide kits with the food rations but not legalizing cannabis.
• Evil Versus Evil: The British government, one of the last functioning governments on the planet, has become an oppressive regime, while the Fishes are (mostly) ruthless and would kill their own leader if it furthers their goal.
• Exact Eavesdropping: Theo is right there to overhear the members of the Fishes disclose the ambush to be an inside job and what they are planning to do to him and Kee.
• Explain, Explain... Oh, Crap!:
  Theo: What time are we supposed to meet the boat?
  Miriam: Sunset tomorrow.
  Theo: How do we know Luke and his rebels haven’t intercepted it?
  Miriam: Luke has no way of contacting the Human Project, nor does anyone else.
  Theo: (Beat) …Say again?
  Miriam: Contact with the Human Project is done by mirrors. Julian was our mirror.
  Theo: Wh–What do you mean “mirrors”?
  Miriam: Mirrors: they contact one of our people, that person contacts someone else, and so on till word gets to Julian. She tells Luke.
  Theo: (exasperated) You mean you never actually talked to any of them?! (facepalm) Don’t fucking tell me you never actually talked to them…
• Extremely Short Timespan: The movie seems to take place in the span of 8 days, starting on November 16 and ending on November 24, based on the timestamp given in the first scene.
  • Day 1: The morning of Baby Diego’s death to Theo visiting Jasper.
  • Day 2: The Fishes kidnap Theo.
  • Day 3: Theo visits his cousin -> Theo drinks with Luke.
  • Day 4: The dog race -> Car ride -> the Fishes’ meeting.
  • Day 5: Theo, Kee, and Miriam flee and spend the day at Jasper’s home.
  • Day 6: Jasper is killed by the Fishes while the group flees to the school.
    • However, Jasper’s security cameras read December 6, 2027. It’s possible this is a blooper.
  • Day 7: Theo, Kee, and Miriam meet Syd to Kee giving birth at Bexhill.
  • Day 8: The group fleeing Syd to Kee and the baby being rescued.
    Theo: What a day, huh?
• "Facing the Bullets" One-Liner: "Pull my finger."
• Failed State: The United Kingdom teeters between being a Police State and one of these, having to deal with hordes of refugees and a failing economy. Multiple other nations have already collapsed entirely due to the infertility crisis.
• Fallen States of America: Various news media throughout the film show that the USA has collapsed, with a nuclear bomb going off in NYC, and militias taking control of the cities of Spokane, Cincinnati and Bozeman. A newscaster in the opening credits also makes mention of "day 1000 of the Siege of Seattle".
• False Flag Operation: The Fishes have committed terrorist bombings in the past, but claim to have stopped after a bombing in Liverpool and accuse the the government of framing them by carrying out false flag bombings since. It's left ambiguous whether they're telling the truth since they launch an armed uprising near the end.
• Fictional Counterpart:
  • The BCC reports the news in 2027 instead of The BBC.
  • Higham Cigarettes, the tobacco brand Theo smokes.
  • RUF, a pet clothing equivalent of GAP.
  • Niagra, a sexual aphrodisiac seen advertised throughout, whose branding is similar to Viagra.
  • One of the Fishes' cars is stolen from the Biology Institute of the fictitious Swinton University.
• Foil: Both Theo and Luke view Julian as impractical, but for opposite opinions: Theo disapproves of the needless violence and prioritizes the baby, while Luke can’t see anything but defeating the government being of greater importance.
• Foreshadowing:
  • Theo bumps into the left arm of a woman while getting his coffee at the cafe. The same woman is shown literally carrying her severed left arm after the explosion.
  • While Theo is on the train to visit Jasper, one of the Fishes, Ian, is sitting in the row behind Theo, explaining how the Fishes know about Jasper.
  • When Theo visits Jasper, there’s an immigration bus on the same way heading to the Bexhill refugee camp, and Jasper says that he’s been trading weed with an officer stationed there.
  • Theo is offered to live with Jasper, which Theo rejects because there’s nothing to look forward to. We also see that Jasper owns Quietus pills. These foreshadow that Jasper is okay with dying since he doesn’t have much to live for anymore once Janice is gone.
  • During the car attack, Miriam, previously only really characterized as something of a spiritual ditz, suddenly starts giving sound medical advice when Julian is shot. She later reveals that she used to work in a hospital.
  • When Theo arrives at the Fishes’ safe house, the rebels mention that the cars aren’t working and need to be jumpstarted.
• Freeze-Frame Bonus: Lots of the history regarding the state of the world and the characters is given through environmental and background means.
  • In the background of the opening shot, The Shard (yet to begin construction in 2006 when the film was made) can be seen next to St. Paul's Cathedral.
  • The royal cypher present on the helmets of the Metropolitan Police officers who walk past Theo in the opening shot is no longer that of Queen Elizabeth II◊, but of her presumptive successor King Charles III◊.
  • All crown images on government and police branding are the Imperial Crown (arches rising to centre) as opposed to the Royal Crown (arches depressed), also indicating a male monarch is in power.
  • Background advertisements reveal that due to the lack of children, companies have started making expensive designer clothes for pets instead, suggesting many people treat them like surrogate children.
  • When Theo is seen walking through London, hundreds of bouquets of flowers and candle vigils are seen left at the entrance to the Embassy of Argentina, in memoriam of "Baby Diego", the youngest person in the world who was stabbed in Buenos Aires at the start of the film.
  • A special features option on the DVD shows further graphics and media, including a newspaper front page which shows that in 2018 a referendum was held in the UK regarding what the legal status of foreigners residing in the country should be. 83% of public voted for them to be considered illegal.
  • Various newspaper clippings show backstory:
    • The reason Janice Palmer (a photojournalist) is catatonic is that she was tortured by the government for questioning the ethics of their actions in her reporting.
    • They also show the buildup to Britain becoming a totalitarian state, starting with massive floods of immigration to the country, and progressing to placing mosques under surveillance, converting southern coastal towns into refugee camps, and finally the closing of the Channel Tunnel and declaring all foreigners illegal.
    • Other international incidents, such as the bombing of a Saudi pipeline disrupting the world's oil supply and a dirty bomb going off in Munich, are also shown.
  • Old newspapers blocking the windows of the room Theo is held in by the Fishes also reveal large amounts of expository information about the current state of the world. This includes events such as:
    • Prince Charles ascending to the throne and receiving criticism ('Charles Should Be Throne Out')
    • Russia annihilating Kazakhstan with a nuclear bomb.
    • The FA Cup being cancelled due to the international crisis.
    • David and Victoria Beckham celebrating their anniversary.
    • Various American cities (including Cincinnati and Spokane) becoming overrun by militias.
    • Mandatory fertility testing (seen advertised on billboards throughout the film) becoming law.
    • The attempt to create a fertility hormone drug, and the subsequent arrest of the surgeon who pioneered it when it failed and produced fatal results in human trials ('Surgeon arrested, hormone attacks: violent reaction', 'Fertility drug kills').
    • A scandal involving a plastic surgeon, presumably catering to the rich who want to look younger and younger in the face of extinction.
    • The death of 'Test Tube Daisy', presumably an attempt to grow a fetus/baby outside a human body.
    • A bombing carried out by the Fishes in Liverpool, which killed dozens of civilians.
    • Hundreds of dead bodies of refugees being discovered in shipping containers entering Great Britain.
    • Homeland Security confiscating weapons found in refugee camps after raids.
    • The government conceding it is struggling to deal with sprees of Zed violence. Zeds are the name given to the youngest, last generation of humans (who were given more screentime/exposition in earlier versions of the script).
  • The background of Theo's young nephew Alex is told through details that can only be seen on close inspection. Likely a Zed (a member of the nihilistic, chaotic final generation of humans to be born), he is implied to have lived the reckless lifestyle of his peers, given the assortment of scars and tattoos on his body, poorly concealed by his father's choice of smart clothing. He appears to be in rehabilitative therapy to quell such behaviour, being shown taking medication and pacified with a strange interactive game. Furthermore, he is shown wearing a medical security barcode bracelet provided by the institution treating him.
  • Theo is seen wearing a well-worn London 2012 Olympics hoodie. Despite the movie being filmed in 2006, in the 2027 setting it would be considered an old piece of clothing.
  • Close ups of Theo's cigarette packet show the health warnings have changed from focusing on the risk of cancer and heart disease to those more pertinent to the current crisis, now warning that smoking causes "INFERTILITY, MISCARRIAGE and IMPOTENCE". It also shows they are imported into the UK under the fictional EU Directive License 2026.
  • There is also a water conservation poster in the Ministry of Energy that illustrates Britain didn't escape the Atomic Hate: 38% of the water supply is contaminated by radioactive fallout.
  • Another poster in the Ministry of Energy urges employees to report any colleagues they suspect of being illegal immigrants to the authorities, in an effort to provide "British Jobs for British Workers".
  • The fighter jets that carpet bomb Bexhill at the end of the movie are F-35 Lightning II's, which were only in the prototype design stage at the time of filming.
• Friend to All Living Things: Theo. Pretty much every scene incorporates some kind of animal in them and they are always friendly to Theo.
• The Fundamentalist:
  • A large group of religious folk wearing yellow capes and holding signs saying 'Repent' are seen gathered in London, blaming humanity's sin for the Sterility Plague.
  • A conversation between Theo and Jasper reveals there are two main fundamentalist groups: "The Repenters", who kneel for a month at a time as penance for humanity's sins, and "The Renouncers", who self-flagellate to punish themselves for humanity's sins.
  • It's implied that Muslim extremists are a threat to British society as they were suggested by Theo as a suspect for the cafe bombing. Averted when Theo runs into a funeral procession of scary, bearded, angry Muslims (many wielding assault rifles) in Bexhill. They completely ignore him as if he weren't there and he runs right through the midst of them.
• Future Music: Jasper's Zen music. The song, minus the screaming, is actually "omgyjya Switch 7" by Aphex Twin.
• Future Slang: "'Fujee" (pronounced like "Fuji"), as a semi-derogatory shorthand for "refugee."
• Gallows Humor:
  • An In-Universe example is the graffiti that reads "Last one to die, please turn out the light."
  • Another in-universe example is Jasper using the entire hopeless situation as the basis for a silly joke, with the punchline being that stork hunting is responsible for the lack of new babies.
• Gambit Roulette: Julian's death involved a perfect pistol shot, taken from the back of a speeding motorcycle, into a very small car containing not only the pregnant girl who could be the last hope of humanity, but the would-be leader as well. In a realistic film like this it's hard to imagine a plan so dangerous even being considered.
• Gender-Blender Name: Julian and Dylan. Kee lampshades this by noting that Dylan is a girl's name too.
• Gender Rarity Value: In the film, a fertile female is the sought-after rarity. In the book, it's a lack of fertile men.
• Generic Graffiti: "Last one to die, please turn out the light."
• Government Agency of Fiction:
  • A British version of 'Homeland Security' oversees law and immigration enforcement.
  • County and regional police forces in the UK (aside from the London based Metropolitan Police) have been merged into a routinely armed National Police, which assists Homeland Security operatives in arresting illegal immigrants.
  • A poster briefly mentions the 'Deportation and Exile Department', tasked with removing illegal immigrants from the country once they have been captured by Homeland Security.
  • The 'Ministry of the Arts' collects and displays classic works of art and monuments rescued from various parts of the now Crapsack World.
  • The 'Ministry of Energy' regulates fuel and electricity consumption throughout Britain. It is where Theo works.
• Gray-and-Grey Morality: The government and the "Fishes" are equally as radical and dangerous.
• Grief-Induced Split: In both the book and film versions, Theo and his wife split following the death of their child, but the cause of death is different. In the book, it was because he accidentally ran his daughter over when backing out of the driveway, while in the film, his son died during a flu epidemic.
• The Group: The "Human Project" is a group of scientists dedicated to curing infertility, supposedly based in the Azores. They are secretive to the point of being a myth.
• Handicapped Badass: The one-legged hustler who's part of Luke's resistance.
• He Knows Too Much: Theo’s involvement with the Fishes as an outsider along with his personal connection to their deposed leader who had other plans for Kee gets him targeted by Luke and his rebels, as this makes him a liability and potential threat.
• Hellhole Prison: Bexhill has been converted into basically a post-modern concentration camp.
• Hell Is That Noise: The ringing sound heard throughout the film, always immediately following somebody's death via blast or gunshot. Julian claims it signifies a loss of frequencies (which isn't actually accurate), but this interpretation also symbolically parallels the loss of life.
  "You know that high-pitched ringing sound you hear? That 'eeeeeeeeee'? That's the sound of the ear cells dying, like their swan song. Once it's gone, you'll never hear that frequency again. Enjoy it while it lasts."
• The Hero Dies: Theo passes out from a gunshot wound at the end of the film. It's unclear if he's died or is still unconscious.
• He Went That Way: Discussed. Jasper intends to pull this trick on the Fishes to throw them off Theo and Kee's tracks. Sadly, he doesn't get a chance to execute his plan.
• Hope Bringer: The point of the whole movie. After 18 years of despair that children are no more, the fact that a woman is pregnant is a major sign of hope.
• Humans Are Bastards: The bulk of humanity is shown to have become this trope. Though the trope is touched on in the book, the film version places way more emphasis on it. In both, however, humans, being unable to mentally cope with being unable to stave off human extinction, use the worldwide infertility as an excuse card to commit all sorts of horrible behaviors.
• Improvised Weapon: Theo bashes Syd over the head with a discarded car battery.
• Invisible President: No senior members of the British Government are ever shown or mentioned verbally, but a news ticker on the television reveals that the country is still ruled by a Prime Minister.
• It's Personal with the Dragon: Luke's Dragon Patric develops a personal vendetta against Theo after Theo knocks his cousin off the motorbike he and Patric used during Julian's assassination, killing him.
• Jade-Colored Glasses: Theo was a daring Merry Prankster and activist before the world's population ceased growing. After the crisis, he is so jaded and tired that he can barely muster a tear for anything.
• Jitter Cam: The film uses handheld cameras extensively, and often in concert with lengthy tracking shots.
• Just Before the End: With no babies being born, humanity is doomed, but it will still be some time before everyone dies. The world responds by descending into nationalistic, nihilistic mayhem.
• Kidnapped by the Call: Theo is kidnapped at gunpoint by the Fishes, but it was at the behest of his ex-wife, who wants his help in securing travel papers for an illegal immigrant.
• Leitmotif: Whenever a character dies, a ringing sound akin to tinnitus is heard.
• Longevity Treatment: In contrast to the many who want to end their life due to the impending extinction of mankind, it is implied that there is a large section of society who are trying to live for as long as possible. Throughout the movie numerous advertisements are seen for both plastic surgery (Forever Young Medical), organ replacement (The British Organ Market), discount Botox and even an early version of cryogenesis.
• Losing a Shoe in the Struggle: Theo loses a slipper while fleeing from Syd and then injures his foot almost immediately after. Theo spends the climax forward with a limp.
• "Lost Property" Live Drop: Variant - because they're officially a terrorist movement wanted by the government, the Fishes can't contact Theo through normal channels after their first meeting; so, Luke gives Theo a missing poster of a lost dog and tells him to pin it to the notice board at Camden tube station if he ever decides to accept their offer. When he finally does, Theo's left in the dark until a woman approaches him at the dog track with the poster and directs him outside. Not only does the woman actually own the "lost" dog, but this is just a pretext to get Theo onto a bus where he can meet up with Julian and Luke for the mission.
• Lyrical Dissonance: When the group arrives at Bexhill, the entrance imprisoning and torturing refugees has "Arbeit Macht Frei" by The Libertines playing over the intercom for fun by the military - the song is about criticizing those who hate Nazis yet also hate minorities.
• Madonna Archetype: Theo realizes Kee is pregnant in a barn (analogous to a manger), she jokes that she was a Virgin and that she doesn't know who the father is, and when her baby is born, people react to it like a religious figure. Theo himself plays the Joseph role by shepherding Kee to safety.
• Magic Plastic Surgery: Various advertisements are seen for the Forever Young Medical Group throughout the film, suggesting many people have chosen to deal with the inescapable fact of no more children being born by making themselves look younger. Interestingly, one of the signs the yellow parka-wearing fundamentalists is seen holding reads "REJECT BOTOX", suggesting that the fundamental religious groups believe humanity should embrace its old age in sin.
• Maternity Crisis: Kee starts going into labor while Theo and Miriam are escorting her into the refugee camp, forcing Miriam to create a distraction. She is subsequently detained and never seen again, and Kee gives birth later that night.
• Mauve Shirt: Sirdjan, Marichka's friend or relative, who briefly accompanies them as an escort before being shot by Patric.
• Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane:
  • As a part of the movie's biblical themes, the animals are naturally drawn to Theo - the farm dogs that "don't like anybody" are friendly to him and herald his escape, a kitten climbs his leg when he first shows protectiveness of Kee, the caw of crows and roosters during the farm escape cover the group's noise, dogs bark while Kee screams from child birth as if they know a miracle is happening and just so happen to cover the sounds of her screams.
  • Within the novel, Year Omega came on so suddenly and inexplicably that any potential explanation feels implausible at best. Not only did all humans alive at the time stop being able to produce viable sperm, but so did the Omegas. Even frozen sperm samples had somehow lost all potency. Many at the time considered the whole thing an act of witchcraft or divine intervention.
• Meaningful Background Event:
  • We see Ian (the Indian Fish) sitting behind Theo on his train ride to meet with Jasper. The Fishes have been tracking Theo’s every move before they kidnapped him (as they all but outright say afterwards) and this also explains how the Fishes know to look for the group at Jasper’s home later.
  • We see in Theo’s apartment that his poster of Mao Zedong is obstructed by the TV showing a commercial for Quietus, foreshadowing that he used to be a leftwing activist.
  • While visiting his cousin, Theo sits with Guernica behind him. Guernica portrays the horrors of war on civilians, foreshadowing that Theo will be in the foreground of it.
  • When Julian tells Luke to speed up to beat the burning car, the speedometer shows he’s slowly braking instead. It seems he was just being realistic, but it turns out later that he let it happen.
  • At the end of the car ambush scene, the camera pans out to show that the Fishes’ car belongs to Swinton University’s Biology Institute, a hint that the Fishes have an interest in solving the infertility crisis.
  • The tall man and amputee who try selling room and board to Theo and Kee once they enter the camp and who get angry when they reject them are later shown guiding the Fishes to Theo and Kee in the climax.
• Meaningful Name:
  • Kee ("key" meaning the most important thing, or the thing that opens a previously locked door).
  • Theo Faron is Greek for "The God of the Lighthouses".
• MegaCorp: The "British Leaf Of Eden Company," a government-sponsored conglomerate that operates companies specializing in: organ trade (The British Organ Market), plastic surgery (Forever Young Medical Surgery Group) and anti-depressants (Bliss).
• Mercy Kill: Jasper feeds Quietus to his wife and dog so that the Fishes can’t torture them.
• Molotov Truck: The heroes are ambushed after a flaming car blocks their path.
• Mood Whiplash: Frequently. Interrupting a light scene with horrible violence and death is a favorite.
• Moral Myopia: Patric's reaction to Theo inadvertently killing the other assassin. Could be because the kid was so young, and young people are held up to a deity status in a society with no future. Also, it was his cousin.
• Mortal Wound Reveal: In the final scene, Kee sees blood on the bottom of the boat and assumes it's her own (she'd given birth a short time earlier), but Theo assures her he'd been shot minutes ago and just paid it no mind in the heat of the situation. He sags soon afterward.
• Move Along, Nothing to See Here: The police officer with his Angry Guard Dog shouts this at Theo.
• My Car Hates Me: Happens when the heroes try to escape the farm. A tense chase then ensues, with the heroes pushing their non-starting car, followed by angry pursuers on foot.
• My Secret Pregnancy: Kee hides her belly by wearing loose clothes and carrying objects in front of her.
• A Nazi by Any Other Name: British soldiers are rounding up minorities, locking them in ruined cities that have been converted into ghettos, and exterminating them. Not to mention the use of The Libertines' "Arbeit Macht Frei" in conjunction with images of the government executing people. The intended message is also a criticism of present right-wing anti-immigration hysteria.
• No Celebrities Were Harmed: Michael Caine has said he based Jasper on John Lennon, down to the long hair and the Round Hippie Shades.
• No, Except Yes: Neither Theo nor Julian is sure (or is willing to admit) why they’re actually gravitating towards each other again. On the surface, it seems they’re just using each other for their own goals and despise each other over the grief of what happened to Dylan, but it gradually becomes clear they still love each other and that Julian believes Theo is still capable of good.
  Theo: (after they just had an argument) So what happens after?
  Julian: You take the bus home.
  Theo: That's not what I meant.
  Julian: I don't know. (kisses him) You wanted the money.
  Theo: Did I?
• Nuke 'Em:
  • It is implied both by conversations between Theo and Julian and a government propaganda video that New York City was destroyed in a nuclear attack.
  • Newspaper clippings in the Palmer residence mention a 'dirty bomb' being detonated in Munich.
  • A headline on an old newspaper in the Fishes' hideout reveals that Russia nuked and completely obliterated Kazakhstan, and that Africa has also been devastated by nuclear fallout.
• The Oner: Part of the visceral thrill of the film is the way many action scenes are filmed in long, continuous takes that make it seem like the viewer is inside the scene. The three longest shots make up about 1/8th of the film's running time.
• One-Woman Wail: Can be heard on the soundtrack after Jasper is killed.
• Oppressive Immigration Enforcement: The United Kingdom has turned into a Police State due to the infertility crisis, in response to massive waves of migrants and refugees trying to enter the nation. Illegal migrants who are arrested are subject to draconian laws, with many being imprisoned or executed.
• Pietà Plagiarism: A compound example - the film includes a shot of a woman wailing while holding her dying son in her arms, which was a Shout-Out to a similar photograph taken in the Balkans, which was itself an obvious allusion to the Pietà. Foreshadowed by a mention earlier in the film: Theo's cousin managed to save Michelangelo's David for the Ark of the Arts, but La Pietà was smashed up before they got there.
• The Plague: Whilst talking to Miriam and Kee, Jasper mentions the "2008 flu pandemic", which was responsible for the death of Theo and Julian's son, Dylan.
• Police State: Britain has become a militarized police state as British government forces round up and detain immigrants.
• Post-Apocalyptic Dog: Pets, including dogs, are everywhere, showing how humanity has been trying to fill the hole caused by the absence of children in the world.
• Powder Keg Crowd: The film opens with the youngest person in the world being shanked to death in Argentina because some asshole got homicidally impulsive when the guy didn't want to give him an autograph, over video footage of a big riot that probably wanted to lynch the killer. This threat also dangles in the background constantly amongst all of the melancholia, with the script having some excised scenes in which authority figures admit that rioting has reached an almost uncontrollable level. The apocalyptic Blast Out at Bexhill that starts after the baby is born happens because someone couldn't stop being Trigger-Happy even while witnessing what everybody In-Universe is considering a miracle.
• Product Placement:
  • Theo's alcohol of choice throughout the film is Bell's Whiskey.
  • A Carling beer mat is given an unusual amount of screen time when Theo meets with Luke in a London pub.
  • Dog racing events in the film are sponsored by British betting giant William Hill.
• Propaganda Machine: The BCC, the setting’s stand-in for the BBC, reports that Julian was killed in a shootout with police, when she was actually killed by the Zeds. While the authorities don’t have explicit confirmation, they have enough information to know the Zeds likely killed Julian, but they take credit for her death to make the police and government look good at quashing the rebels.
• Quick Nip: Theo, constantly.
• Race Against the Clock: Theo has to get Kee to the Human Project’s boat by a certain time off the coast of Bexhill. There’s no time to reach the first meeting point, there’s no way of contacting the Human Project again, and the Fishes have the same information to try to stop them.
• Racist Grandma: Courtesy of Bilingual Bonus. When Theo is on his way to visit Jasper, he walks past a holding cell with some refugees of various races detained within. An elderly German detainee can be seen complaining about being detained alongside some black detainees.
• Rage Against the Heavens: La Pieta was “smashed up”. Considering the current state of affairs, there’s a strong possibility that it was destroyed out of anger against God for taking away their ability to have children, just as Mary lost Jesus.
• "Ray of Hope" Ending: The sound of children laughing and playing at the end credits.
• Real Is Brown: The film is extremely grey. It being Britain in winter helps.
• The Revolution Will Not Be Civilized: The anti-government resistance group, the Fishes, quickly turn into this when the more radical Luke hijacks the organization, after assassinating his predecessor.
• Rule of Symbolism:
  • The movie starts on November 16 and happens in 8 days, ending on November 24 – one month and one day before Christmas. November 24 is the day that Kee’s baby is christened Dylan.
  • Michelangelo's David is missing part of its ankle. The statue represents the independent Florentine Republic vs. the tyrannical Medici Italy as David vs. Goliath respectively - that David would not be able to stand or walk properly with that kind of leg injury represents that the underdogs (David/the rebels) won’t win.
  • Similarly, Theo sits in front of Guernica while meeting with his cousin. Guernica portrays the horrors of war inflicted on innocent civilians during the Spanish Civil War, where the Nationalists (working together with the Nazis) attacked the village of Guernica because they believed they were housing the Republican resistance, not too dissimilar from the British military subjugating refugees because they perceive them all as rebels and criminals.
  • Julian says that only Theo "out of hundreds" has been able to successfully play the car game with her, and he’s still able to despite his initial worries. This symbolizes that when push comes to shove, Theo is still able to return to the ideals he and Julian believed in together, and that despite meeting many other rebels, Theo is still the only one Julian can rely on.
  • Kee reveals her pregnancy to Theo in the barn, surrounded by cows. Cows represent fertility, and Mary gave birth to Jesus in a barn, surrounded by farm animals.
  • When escaping the Fishes, Theo runs barefoot (barring socks) because there's no time to get his shoes. At Jasper's house, none of the shoes fit Theo (symbolizing that Theo is literally barely fit for the job of protecting Kee) and he has to resort to flip flops (like sandals worn in the Bible).
  • When Theo is being driven by Jasper and after the group flees the safe house, we see burnt piles of mass cow corpses in the fields, implying some disease necessitating their bodies be incinerated, reinforced by the exposed pipes and factories in the distance. We only see living cows at the safe house and Kee says that the farmers have to mutilate their udders to control the milk flow rather than accommodate for their udders. This can be taken as a metaphor for the infertility crisis (potentially caused by disease and/or pollution) and how the surviving remnants of humanity are facing unnecessary cruelty under the claim of order and control.
  • As Kee is about to give birth, Theo rushes to get her shelter in the camp, finding Marichka who provides them a rundown room and ignoring the sneaky salesmen claiming they have better luxuries, a parallel to Mary and Joseph being forced to stay in a barn because the inn was full.
  • The movie covers the timespan of eight days. It is on the eighth day that Kee names her baby. Jesus was named eight days after his birth.
  • Theo continuously loses something over the course of his journey to protect Kee and the baby, just as a parent gives up everything for their child.
  • From the final scene: A dying Theo paddles the boat with his back turned so he can’t see what’s coming, only seeing Kee and the baby looking past him. As a parent and knowing he doesn’t have much time left, Theo passes on to Kee the knowledge of how to care for the next generation. Kee sees the future ahead, but Theo dies before he can see Tomorrow.
• Sacrificial Lamb:
  • One of the highest-billed stars Julianne Moore dies 25 minutes into the movie, with maybe 10 minutes of screen time.
  • Michael Caine follows suit around the 1-hour mark.
• Safe Zone Hope Spot: The final destination for the MacGuffin Escort Mission is to bring Kee in contact with a mysterious, non-governmental group called the "Human Project", supposedly based in the Azores. This group is thought to be humanity's last hope for curing infertility. We never learn if they manage to live up to that expectation.
• Scenery Gorn: The desolate hellscape of Bexhill, a former seaside town turned refugee camp.
• Screaming Birth: Kee gives us lots of painful screams well before and during the delivery.
• Second American Civil War: While Britain has mostly held together in the face of the existential crisis of no children having been born in the last eighteen years, in the background America has become engulfed in internal conflict and militias have seized several cities.
• Secret Stab Wound: Kee sees blood on the bottom of the boat and assumes it's her own (she'd given birth a short time earlier), but Theo assures her he'd been shot minutes ago and just paid it no mind in the heat of the situation. Theo survives long enough to help Kee escape before succumbing to his wound.
• Serendipitous Survival: At the very beginning of the film, Theo buys coffee at a cafe that is packed with people watching a news story. About thirty seconds after he leaves, a bomb explodes in the cafe. Had he taken longer to wade through the crowd of people, had he stopped to watch the news report a bit longer, or had his order taken a bit longer to make, Theo could very well have been killed.
• Shout-Out:
  • To The Godfather. There are two scenes where Kee is offered an orange, which is then followed by horrific death.
  • When Theo is dining with his cousin Nigel, Pablo Picasso's painting Guernica hangs on the wall behind them.
  • There is a pig-shaped balloon floating over the Battersea Power Station (which has been turned into a museum). It's a reference to the cover of Pink Floyd's 1977 album Animals.
  • Syd. The real Syd Barrett quit the rock business, shaved his head, and the hippie dream of the sixties died with him.
  • Battersea Power Station being turned into an art gallery is itself a shout-out to fellow power station Bankside, slightly downriver, which is now the Tate Modern (which provided the internal set for the scene where Theo entered the gallery).
  • In the gallery, Michelangelo's 'David' can be seen in a damaged state, as can a piece of Banksy graffiti; it would have had Michelangelo's 'La Pieta', but it had gotten smashed.
  • 'La Pieta' would later get referenced in a shot of a mother holding her dead son's body, which also references the aforementioned Guernica and a photo from the Balkan wars.
  • When Kee reveals her pregnant belly, her pose resembles Venus in Boticell's 'Birth of Venus'.
  • Jasper and Miriam recite "Shantih Shantih Shantih", a reference to the Upanishads and T. S. Eliot's The Waste Land.
  • Quietus, the state-sponsored suicide drug, is named for a section of the famous "To be or not to be" soliloquy from Hamlet, in which Hamlet speaks favorably of suicide (''But who would bear the whips and scorns of time ... when he himself might his quietus make with a bare bodkin?").
  • Given that the story is about a baby representing a new hope for humanity, there are not surprisingly many references to the story of Jesus, Mary, and Joseph from the Christian Bible.
    • Theo (whose name is the Greek root meaning "God") first sees that Kee is pregnant in a barn, among farm animals, a reference to Jesus' birth in a manger.
    • When Theo becomes aware of Kee's pregnancy, he swears "Jesus Christ!"
    • Kee jokes that she is a virgin, a reference to the Christian belief that Mary was a virgin before, during, and after her pregnancy.
    • Kee also admits that she doesn't know who the father is. Since we don't know the identity of the father, it could be assigned to "God."
    • Also Theo as surrogate father and protector (i.e. Joseph) and his switch to wearing sandals halfway through.
    • Theo is seen washing or soaking his feet several times during the movie; there are several references to Jesus or saints washing their feet or having them washed in the Christian Bible.
    • The name of the 'Fishes' group is also a Christian reference. In fact, the 'fish' was one of the very first symbols in Christian art. Fish, in Greek, is spelled "IXTHYS" which served as an acronym for "Iesous Xhristos Theou Hyios Soter": I (esous = Jesus) X (ristos = Christ) TH (eou = God's) Y (ios = Son) S (oter = Saviour).
    • Later in the film during the long take there is a lot of religious suggestion in the peoples' reactions to the child, such as reaching their arms out, singing, crying, and crossing themselves. The child literally represents the salvation of all mankind.
• "Shut Up!" Gunshot: Syd does this in order to shut up the Gypsy lady when they find Kee with her baby.
• Slap-Slap-Kiss: Theo and Julian’s conversation before the car ride consists of amiable banter, then an argument about grieving their dead son, and then back to amiable banter.
• Smoking Is Cool: Used as a form of lazy suicide. Interestingly, although Theo tries to smoke several times over the course of the film, he is never allowed to finish a cigarette.
• Soundtrack Dissonance: After an hour and forty minutes of dark drama, this song plays over the credits.
• Spiteful Spit: Kee spits on Luke's face when he seizes her in the wheelchair.
• State Sec: Homeland Security, a highly militarised police agency operating throughout the UK responsible for general law and immigration enforcement.
• Sterility Plague: This trope forms the basic premise of the movie. No one knows why.
• Stiff Upper Lip: A dark example: "The World Has Collapsed: Only Britain Soldiers On"
• Suicide Pill: Quietus, a government-distributed suicide pill for anyone who doesn't want to wait for society to collapse on its own. Jasper uses one on his wife just before sacrificing his life to delay the Fishes.
• Swiss-Cheese Security: The guards at the Fishes refugee house. They let Theo overhear the plan about his execution, let him enter Kee's room unchallenged, don't notice him sabotage the cars and only notice the group escaping when the car is right behind them.
• Tested on Humans: Various HM Government billboards seen throughout the movie imply that the government selects random members of the public for fertility tests in the small hope of finding someone who is able to reproduce. Refusal to undergo one is an offense.
• They Would Cut You Up: The rebels fear this would be Kee’s fate, and though the Human Project is believed to be safer, the possibility is left open.
• Too Good for This Sinful Earth: Subverted. The news report in the prologue reports the death of 18-year-old "Baby Diego", fatally stabbed to death by a fan in Buenos Aires after Diego refused to sign an autograph and spat in the man's face. Paraphrasing Jasper, "he was the youngest wanker on Earth". It's a really effective way to quickly establish the film's Childless Dystopia.
• Toyota Tripwire: Happens twice to the same guy. Once using the motorcycle gag (albeit, the car is reversing to accomplish this), and once chasing a car downhill. On foot.
• Trailers Always Spoil: The trailer reveals Kee's pregnancy, which was carefully set up as a Wham Shot in the movie.
• Trauma Conga Line: At the start of the movie, Theo has lost his son to illness. It's not long before his ex-wife and best friend are dead as well, both murdered right in front of him.
• A Truce While We Gawk: At the climax of the film when Kee's baby is seen by everyone. Then someone pops off an RPG and the fighting resumes.
• Trust Password: "You're a fascist pig."
• Uncertain Doom: Most of the soldiers and resistance fighters from the climax.
• Unnaturally Blue Lighting: Scenes in the streets of Crapsack World London are shown in a blue/greenish light.
• Unsafe Haven:
  • The thousands of refugees flocking to Britain come to realise this when they are rounded up and put in concentration camps.
  • Theo and company arrive at a refugee house only to discover that the people there are planning to kill Theo and kidnap Kee so that they can use her baby for their own political ends. They manage to escape, and the trope is lampshaded with this exchange:
    Miriam: We need to find a safe house.
    Theo: Yeah, 'cause the last one was really fucking safe.
• Unspecified Apocalypse: We don't know why mass infertility happened. Director Alfonso Cuarón even stated that he doesn't like backstories in his movies. Furthermore, the book this movie is based on didn't reveal the cause of mass infertility, either.
• Urban Segregation: Although most of 2027 London appears far scruffier and more ramshackle than present-times, there are clearly enclaves within the city where a gentrified lifestyle still exists — although these once-public areas are clearly now highly restricted. When Theo travels in a Rolls-Royce to visit Nigel at Battersea, he goes through a checkpoint clearance gate at Admiralty Arch and travels down The Mall towards Buckingham Palace. During the journey, it appears as if the area around the Palace, St. James' Park and Green Park is physically unchanged, although it has now become an exclusive gated enclave where people relax in the parks, walk dogs (as well as other more exotic animals) and listen to a brass band play whilst the Household Cavalry process by.
• Used Future: The juxtaposition of mildly futuristic technology and slowly decaying public infrastructure gives the setting an almost Post-Cyberpunk feel.
• Viking Funeral: Several corpses are seen being burnt on a bonfire in the Bexhill refugee camp, with various people huddled around them for warmth.
• We Will Have Euthanasia in the Future: The government issuing Quietus to its citizens.
• Wham Shot: In the barn when Kee reveals her pregnancy to Theo.
• What Happened to the Mouse?: Jasper has a pet cat, seen sitting with Theo during the first visit, but it doesn’t show up again.
• Who Names Their Kid "Dude"?: Froley if it's a boy, Bazooka if it's a girl. She finally settles on Dylan, to honor Theo's dead son.
• World Half Empty: The human race has lost its source of new life. All nations in the world have plunged into mayhem, save for Britain, now under the oppressive heel of an authoritarian state. Refugees are everywhere, and the last hope for humanity may well go into the wrong hands.
• Your Terrorists Are Our Freedom Fighters: The Fishes can be seen as either.