Aliens in the Attic

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Aliens in the Attic is a basic "kids save the planet from invasion" movie, released in 2009. The story follows the five Pearson children trying to stop four surprisingly outmatched aliens from taking over the planet. The mind control plugs that are to be the aliens' only weapons don't work on anyone under 18, so they have to defeat an alien invasion without involving their parents or the authorities.

Tropes used in Aliens in the Attic include:

• Adults Are Useless: Handwaved to an annoying extent. They don't even bother trying to get adult help.
• Alien Invasion
• Applied Phlebotinum: The mind control plugs. Also, the molecular expander machine that the aliens came here to get
• Attack of the 50-Foot Whatever: The alien's master plan is to dig up a device that makes them two stories tall.
• Can't Get Away with Nuthin': Only applies to Tom, who gets in trouble for everything everyone else does.

Mr. Pearson: (to the Sheriff) Look, the kids made a big mistake, and I assure you Tom will be punished.

• Competence Zone: The alien Mind Control Device only works on adults (with an arbitrary cut-off apparently around 18), so it's not even worth telling them anything.
• Defcon Five: Averted
• Did Not Do the Research: "They turned off the gravity! Just like in Halo!" In Halo 3, zero gravity is only possible by exploiting a glitch.
  • But then again, the twins are portrayed as serious gamers, so maybe they did exploit the glitch.
• Displacement Billing: Ashley Tisdale is a supporting character at best, but she's treated as one of the mains.
• Easily-Thwarted Alien Invasion: Six kids and one turncoat is all it takes.
• Five-Man Band:
  • The Hero: Tom
  • The Lancer/ The Big Guy: Jake
  • The Smart Guy: The twins
  • The Chick: Hannah and Bethany
  • Sixth Ranger: Sparks
• I Know Mortal Kombat: The kids manage to use a mind controlled adult against the invaders because the Mind Control remotes work like game controllers.
• Jerkass: Ricky, even worse when considering he's actually a college student trying to take advantage of a high schooler.
• Mind Control Device: Pretty much the only weapon the aliens have. And it uses a video game controller!
• Not Now, Kiddo: The youngest girl does actually tell the parents, but they assume she's just playing. She also calls the police, which results in the sheriff showing up to berate them for making prank calls.
• Protagonist-Centered Morality: It's okay for the main characters to completely humiliate the admittedly Jerkass boyfriend because hey, it's fine if the good guys do it.
• Puny Earthlings: Inverted: The aliens are barely over a foot tall and only one shows above human intelligence. This doesn't stop them from referring to the humans as such, though.
• Rule of Cool: Nana versus Ricky: An eighty-year-old woman and the older sister's Jerkass boyfriend have a Matrix style battle while under the influence of mind control plugs. The pinnacle of this sequence: Nana - AKA Raymond's Mom - beaning Ricky with an honest-to-God Shoryuken.
• Separated From the Adults: Enforced by the above mentioned mind control device's odd inability to affect children and teens.
• Too Dumb to Live: The parents and sheriff. *monumental bizarre explosion in the sky* "Ooh, what a pretty meteor shower!"