Evolution (film)



A 2001 sci-fi comedy film directed by Ivan Reitman (of Ghostbusters fame), and released by Columbia Pictures and Dream Works.

Glen Canyon, Arizona, the present day. Wayne Grey (Seann William Scott), practicing at night in the desert for his upcoming firefighter entrance exam, witnesses the impact of a meteor. The next day, biology teacher Dr. Ira Kane (David Duchovny) and geology teacher Harry Block (Orlando Jones) from Glen Canyon Community College manage to get to the meteor, which is stuck in the ground at the bottom of an underground cave. By taking a sample, they discover a slimy blue fluid coming out of the meteor.

A little later, Ira finds out that myriad single-celled life-forms dwell in the fluid, evolve at an incredible rate, even while he's watching. What first seems like a sure ticket to Sweden for the Nobel Prize soon develops into a nightmare: by evolving and adapting at that unbelievably fast rate, the aliens start spreading out, killing people, and the military -- led by General Woodman (Ted Levine), who's accompanied by epidemiologist Dr. Allison Reed (Julianne Moore) -- comes in. Now it all comes down to what Darwin so rightfully stated: Survival of the fittest...

It gave rise to a short-lived animated series, Alienators Evolution Continues. It was short-lived for good reason.

Evolution contains examples of:
"Wayne: (trying to suppress a grin) "Well, uh... that's too bad.""
 * Actor Allusion: Ira doesn't trust government types because "I know these people." In-universe, he knows because he's an ex-army colonel. However, David Duchovny's previous role as Agent Fox Mulder is a notorious Conspiracy Theorist. This is especially notable because it wasn't on purpose; the director had never seen The X Files.
 * But those making the trailer evidently did, as it's used in quite a few.
 * Adaptive Ability
 * Alien Invasion: Via superior adaptability.
 * Apocalypse How: Class 5.
 * Artistic License Biology: Played for laughs.
 * Asshole Victim: Wayne's boss, who is eaten by an alien when he is about to have sex with a woman on a golf course.

"Ira: GIMME BACK MY FRIEND, YOU BIG SPHINCTER!
 * Also, the shoplifting teen girl in the mall, who gets attacked by one of the pterodactyl creatures, although she survives.
 * Ass Shove:.

Harry: IT'S HOR-R-R-RIBLE IN HERE!"

"Dr. Paulson: Maybe we can catch it in his colon.
 * Big No: Played for comedy during the "alien extraction" scene:

Nurse Tate: How are you going in?

Dr. Paulson: (dramatically) Rectally.

Harry: (in a VERY high-pitched squeal) Nooooooo!"

"Ira: Snag it and put it in the bucket.
 * Bigger Is Better:
 * Black Dude Dies First: The Trope Namer, though it is almost immediately Defied Trope.

Harry:I've seen this movie; the black dude dies first. You snag it!"

"Nadine: Um, Professor, the little wiggly worm things in there are breaking.
 * Bloodless Carnage: A lot of people are attacked and mauled by the evolving life-forms, with little mess to show for it. A flying raptor takes several slugs at point-blank range, and there's STILL no gore.
 * Brick Joke:
 * Call a Smeerp A Rabbit: For some reason, the lead characters refuse to call the obviously dragon/raptor-looking flying aliens that, and instead insist on calling them "birds." Maybe it's a case of Not Using the Z Word, and they're not shown to be capable of breathing fire either.
 * Earlier models of the dragon/raptor actually show it to look a lot more like a featherless oviraptor. Now that would have been weird.
 * Came From the Sky: How the aliens got to earth.
 * Can't Get Away With Nuthin': In one scene, a shoplifter is wearing her stolen clothes under her already-worn ones. As she comes out of the dressing room, she's snatched away by the flying raptor. Once she's rescued, she vows never to shoplift again to a somewhat confused Harry.
 * It's actually fortunate for her she was wearing the layers, as without them, the claws of the bird thing could have badly hurt her.
 * Comedic Sociopathy: Harry vs. the alien fly.
 * Creator Provincialism: Parodied (hopefully).
 * Cute Clumsy Girl: Dr. Allison Reed. She trips over sand.
 * And it was Julianne Moore's idea.
 * Everything's Better With Monkeys:
 * Eureka Moment: Two of these happen; one leads to the discovery that fire makes the beings grow faster, while the other leads to the discovery that.
 * Evolutionary Levels: Played with. In fact, the later stages of the habitat . This is lampshaded in the movie.
 * Everything Trying to Kill You: Oddly enough averted, given the type of movie it was. When Ira and Harry go down into the underground alien world, almost none of the creatures try to harm them. There was a carnivorous tree, but really the only one to go after anyone was that big mosquito.
 * Explosive Breeder

Ira: It's not breaking, it's splitting. It's mitosis. It's how they reproduce.

Harry: No sex?

Ira: No time for sex.

Nadine: Bummer."

"[Dr. Paulson is going to pull the alien bug out through Harry's rectum]
 * Fun T-Shirt: leads to one of the eureka moments referenced above.
 * Genre Savvy: Harry knows the black guy dies first.
 * Giant Flyer: The big dragon/raptor thing that gets loose in the mall. Wayne lures it back with his skills at karaoke, which enrages it.
 * Groin Attack: Wayne suffers one, courtesy of his firehose falling and hitting him right in the crotch during his exam.
 * Grotesque Cute: The dog-like alien a club member finds in a house, slowly dying of asphyxiation, with a sad expression. When one of them tries to pet it, it unleashes its defense mechanism: A really ill-tempered tongue with a beak. It bites one of them on the hand before it dies.
 * "Have a Nice Day" Smile: The movie poster features one of these with three eyes.
 * Used for the movie's Viral Marketing, where the three-eyed smiley began appearing all over New York City in the months prior to the film's release.
 * Heroes Want Redheads: Harry insists this of Ira.
 * Heroic Wannabe: Wayne, who wants desperately to be a firefighter or some other type of hero to get girls.
 * Heterosexual Life Partners: Ira and Harry, though Ira.
 * Hey, It's That Guy!: Dan Aykroyd stars as the governor.
 * Stifler is Wayne the would-be firefighter.
 * Donkeylips and Randy are students of Agent Mulder that know about hair care.
 * The resident General Ripper is Buffalo Bill. And Captain Leland Stottlemeyer.
 * Sarah Silverman is Ira's ex.
 * President Logan is Wayne's asshole boss.
 * Hidden Depths: Deke and Danny.
 * Hollywood Evolution: The whole point.
 * Hot Scientist: Allison or, for that matter, Ira or Harry, depending on one's gender/orientation.
 * Ignored Expert: Ira tries to warn Woodman that ..
 * The Immodest Orgasm: Harry's mocking impressions of what he imagines Allison's sex noises to sound like.
 * Insane Troll Logic: The heroes Of course, because this is a comedy film, the logic is perfectly sound.
 * In a sense, it's not as crazy as it sounds -- . Of course, in this case, the conclusion is still utter nonsense.
 * Instant Awesome, Just Add Dragons: The dragony Giant Flyer.
 * I Will Fight Some More Forever
 * Jerkass: General Woodman and his fellow army officers.
 * Killer Space Monkey: ...but not for long enough to get any use from it.
 * Literally comes in the form of three-eyed, no-nose, ape-like beings that are one of the last to breach the habitat seal.
 * : This ends so, so badly...
 * Let Us Never Speak of This Again:
 * Life or Limb Decision: When Harry finds himself with an alien fly burrowing into his leg, he refuses to let the doctors amputate his leg until he hears that it's headed for his testicles.
 * And then they decide to Take a Third Option and remove it rectally. That poor guy.
 * Mad Scientist: Ira.
 * Made of Explodium:
 * Miracle Gro Monster: This is why.
 * Nested Mouths: One creature that looks kind of like a green pig has this.
 * Nuke'Em: Offered as a solution to the alien problem, but the military ..
 * Orifice Evacuation:

Nurse Tate: I'll get the lubricant...

Dr. Paulson: No time for lubricant!

Harry: There's ALWAYS time for lubricant!"


 * Our Dragons Are Different: Alien predators resembling dragons are prominently featured, though the characters prefer to call them "birds." And they reproduce by regurgitating.
 * Product Placement: Head & Shoulder's dandruff-killing formula.
 * This was Ivan Reitman's son's idea.
 * Ragtag Bunch of Misfits
 * Sarcasm Failure: As the guys watch all Harry Block can do is shrug and say, "Mazel Tov! It's a boy!"
 * Shout-Out: Take a long look at the head of the dragony thing. It closely resembles the head of the creature from The Giant Claw.
 * Also, one of the bird calls that Wayne tries is "Aww-aww, ee-ee, tukki tukki!" from George of the Jungle.
 * Smart Ball: The two guys who failed biology forever by confusing a prison cell with a biological cell?.
 * Starfish Aliens: While the latter aliens resemble dragons, apes and giant single-celled monstrosities respectively, the aliens earlier in the animated series look really odd by Earth standards. Sketches of some storyboards show even more strange aliens, including trees with metallic scales (possibly based on Earth's Lepidodendron?).
 * The earlier aliens do look pretty weird, but there's some pretty weird stuff in Earth's evolutionary history too; some of the Burgess Shale critters are pretty strange in their own right.
 * They're supposed to be "nitrogen-based lifeforms." As anyone with a background in chemistry could tell you, this wouldn't work.
 * Sort of; nitrogen-based life-forms are unlikely, but not theoretically entirely impossible.
 * Ted Baxter: Somewhat subverted. Harry is well-aware that he's not on the same-level (scientifically) as Ira or Allison, but that doesn't stop him from milking what he does know for all it's worth.
 * Those Two Guys: Deke and Danny.
 * Troperiffic: The movie borrows tropes from any number of cheesy 1950s sci-fi films.
 * Weaksauce Weakness:.
 * What Could Have Been: The film was originally pitched as a serious drama to Columbia and DreamWorks; but when Ivan Reitman came on board, he had different ideas.
 * According to some design sketches, the final form of the alien's evolution would've been a much more humanoid form. However, seeing how difficult about how to make this a realistic threat, they decided with the giant cell.
 * X Meets Y: One critic even said the film is "Ghostbusters meets Men in Black."
 * You Don't Want to Die A Virgin, Do You?: A girl holding an "I can't die as a virgin" sign can be seen during the Arizona evacuation party.