G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra: Difference between revisions

 

 

 

''GI Joe The Rise Of Cobra'' is a 2009 action movie directed by Stephen Sommers (''[[The Mummy Trilogy (Film)|The Mummy Trilogy]]'' and ''[[Van Helsing (Film)|Van Helsing]]''), based on the [[G.I. Joe]] franchise by Hasbro. The story follows two soldiers, Duke (Channing Tatum) and Ripcord (Marlon Wayans), part of a squad which gets ambushed while delivering four hi-tech warheads by an enemy deploying radically advanced weapons, vehicles and ground troops. To Duke's surprise, one of the assailants is his ex-girlfriend Ana, now going as "[[The Baroness]]" (Sienna Miller). Duke and Ripcord are saved from the attack by an secret elite squad of soldiers called G.I. Joe, who take over the warhead mission.

*** 50% knowing, 25% red lasers, 25% blue lasers.

* [[As You Wish]]: Zartan is quite fond of whistling the tune to "Jolly Good Fellow". {{spoiler|When the man we think is the President comes out of the bunker, he goes into his office, relaxes and begins whistling. No prizes for guessing the tune.}}

* [[Author Appeal]]: Steven Sommers certainly seems to enjoy filming two women beating the stuffing out of each other...

** Stephen Sommers claimed that the MARS base was set underwater as a homage to his favorite film, ''[[Thunderball (Film)|Thunderball]]''.

* [[Brainwashed and Crazy]]: {{spoiler|The Baroness, as it turns out. Presumably, the rest of the Neo Vipers as well to some degree (although most were presumably already M.A.R.S. Industries mooks in the first place).}} Zartan, for his part, is [[Genre Savvy]] enough to casually smash his control chip just before implantation.

** {{spoiler|Neo-Vipers are brainwashed, feel no pain, have a minor healing factor, etc.; as Cobra Commander stated, the normal Vipers have Baroness level of brainwashing.}}

** This is well in accordance with several previous versions of their backstory, though the Old Master is sometimes Stormy's ''uncle''.

* [[The Cameo]]: Brendan Fraser (of ''[[The Mummy Trilogy (Film)|The Mummy Trilogy]]'') plays Sgt. Stone in a brief scene involving a spar between Duke and Snake-Eyes.

* [[Cutting the Knot]]: How Snake Eyes deals with a control panel, as Breaker is trying to tell him how to disable it, then after the fact finishes helplessly with, "...Or you could just stab it."

* [[Dark Action Girl]]: Baroness.

* [[Dark Is Not Evil]]/[[Light Is Not Good]]: Storm Shadow is the ninja in white, and a Cobra-aligned terrorist; the silent black ninja is a Joe and a damn good one.

** Although Storm Shadow also is shown to be one of the few on the side of Cobra with a moral code (he doesn't kill women or children and is angry when Zartan does so).

* [[Dead Little Sister|Dead Little Brother]]: The Baroness' [[Start of Darkness]] motivation. {{spoiler|Subverted, he isn't dead.}}

* [[Death By Looking Up]]: Twice in the opening battle to Scarlett's arrows.

* [[Designated Girl Fight]]: A rather brutal example involving Baroness, Scarlett, a chain, a screwdriver, and a pan of motor oil. The motor oil is only used to defeat the "invisibility suit" though. Played with in that Scarlett is wearing BDUs instead of, say, her workout clothes, and Baroness hits her in the face with the pan.

* [[Dirty Coward]]: Zartan especially when he knifes Cover Girl in the back.

* [[Fake American]]: The President of the United States is British. If you've played ''[[Command and Conquer]]: Red Alert 3'', he's particularly eyebrow-raising.

** The President? That's nothing. Try ''the Baroness''. Which is pretty damn funny, given the character's origins in the comics.

* [[Fan Service]]: The scene with the Joes working out. All of the men are shirtless, and Scarlett is in a sports bra and track pants. Storm Shadow strips off his shirt during his second fight with Snake Eyes.

* [[Fatal Family Photo]]: The Baroness makes Duke promise that he'll take care of brother and not let him get hurt. He is of course killed, and is her [[Start of Darkness]] . {{spoiler|Subverted, he didn't actually die}}.

* [[Fighting From the Inside]]: {{spoiler|The Baroness was apparently the only person to ever fight off the nanomites' brainwashing at all.}}

* [[Flash Back]]: Quite a few, detailing the relationships and origins of basically everyone.

** The [[Big Bad]]: Destro {{spoiler|at first. Later The Doctor/Cobra Commander.}}

** [[The Dragon]]: Zartan to Destro.

** [[The Brute]]: Storm Shadow, full stop.

** The [[Dark Chick]]: [[The Baroness]].

** [[The Hero]]: Duke

** [[The Lancer]]: Ripcord

** [[The Chick]]: Scarlett

* [[Flynning]]: And how!

** Cobra Commander even gives "science requires sacrifice" (or words to that effect) as his explanation for his actions.

* [[Foreshadowing]]: Zartan's reading material when he's introduced makes a lot of sense given the ending.

* [[Genre Savvy]]: Destro's ancestor finds out the hard way that the French are not falling for the [[My Death Is Just the Beginning]] trap and decide to make an example of him by forcing a red hot metal mask on his face. Unfortunately for them, shoving red-hot metal around his face is clearly going to kill him.

** {{spoiler|Cobra Commander is planning on the evil scheme that he supports failing.}}

* [[Good Looking Privates]]: [[Your Head Asplode|Gaaah]]...

* [[Grey Goo]]: The Nanomite warheads (technically Green Goo).

* [[Heroes Want Redheads]]: As pointed out quite clearly, Ripcord was attracted to Scarlett.

* [[Hero Insurance]]: Somewhere between this and a [[Get Out of Jail Free Card]]. During the Paris escapade the Joes cause minimal damage compared to the Baroness and Storm Shadow (a few yards of pavement, a train window and a few dozen cars). General Hawk is able to get them freed from the Paris Police but {{spoiler|the French give the team involved a permanent travel ban as a "thank you for saving our most famous city" present}}. Of course, to a large degree they were enacting a [[Godzilla Threshold]]; stopping them was more important than a few million dollars of property damage.

** One, he's just that awesome, and two, their base is under a polar ice cap.

** [[Rule of Cool]], guys.

* [[Incendiary Exponent]]: During Cobra's assault on the Joes a random Viper gets set on fire in the background and continues as normal. He dies when he reappears, because they stick a grenade in his neck guard.

* [[Interrogating the Dead]]: Breaker can download images from a dead guy's brain to his palm pilot with the help of a pair of knitting needles.

* [[Ironic Echo]]: "This will only hurt a little. What comes next... more so." {{spoiler|1=First said by Dr. Mindbender to a test subject, then by Rex to McCullen.}}

* [[Its Going Down]]

* [[Meaningful Name]]: The crazy scientist performing illicit nanobot experiments happens to be named Dr. ''Mindbender''.

** {{spoiler|Also Cobra Commander's real name is "Rex", which means "King"}}

* [[Mighty Whitey]]: Anyone else notice that Snake Eyes, who is in the top percentile of his class, happens to be a white former street urchin?

** Amusingly, Snake Eyes being [[Mis Blamed|a white super-ninja comes directly from the comics]], which were written by a Japanese-American. Well, at least Storm Shadow was Japanese-American too...

* [[Moe Greene Special]]: One of the ways to stop a Neo-Viper.

* [[Mole in Charge]]: {{spoiler|Zartan has replaced the US President at the end of the film}}

* [[Monumental Damage]]: The Eiffel Tower gets eaten by nanomites and falls on a bridge full of people.

* Mooks: Naturally Cobra has them, but perhaps the strangest mook is the guard at The Pit who first witnesses the mole tunnelers arrive. He is not only visibly surprised but doesn't sound the alarm, just nervously levels his gun at them. Yep, G.I. Joe, only recruiting the A-list commandos.

** AND killing cancer cells; we can't forget that since that's what McCullen says the nanomites were originally used for. Basically, they're the movie series all purpose [[Applied Phlebotinum]]. Much like futurists in real life.

* [[NGO Superpower]]: McCullen is able to afford his own personal army and outfit them with technology surpassing every other army on Earth. Given that he basically ''supplies'' every other army on Earth, that part at least is sensible.

* [[Not Even Bothering With the Accent]]: The President of the United States has an English accent. Rather troublesome since to be eligible to run for President, you have to be ''born'' in the United States.

** He only has to be a citizen by birth, and to have lived there for 14 years. Nothing about living anywhere ''else'' in the meantime.

* [[Offhand Backhand]]: While infiltrating the Pit, Storm Shadow casually kills a guard standing behind a pillar without looking at him or slowing down.

* [[Oh Crap]]: When Snake Eyes unexpectedly drops out of the Paris car chase, [[The Baroness]] gloats "He gave up!" Cue Storm Shadow -- "He ''never'' gives up." {{spoiler|They get blindsided by a train}}.

* [[One Way Visor]]: Snake Eyes

** Mantis fighter sub pilots.

*** Sounds like a very dangerous universe to be a random pedestrian in.

** It only can't be referenced on-screen because ''The Mummy'' is by another studio (Transformers, at least, isn't).

* [[Shout Out]]: Many

** The underwater base is a [[James Bond]] homage.

* [[Trailers Always Spoil]]: Despite being played as a high-tension race against the villains, everyone already knows that the Joes do ''not'' prevent the attack on the Eiffel Tower. In fact, most of the plot twists were in the trailers or promo clips.

* [[Uncle Tomfoolery]]: Averted. He may be the black sidekick, but Ripcord is still allowed to be a hero and have courage rather than just be the movie's comic relief.

* [[Villain Exit Stage Left]]: {{spoiler|Subverted. At first it looks like Destro and Cobra Commander are going to do this, but Duke refuses to let them escape and catches them.}}

* [[Villain Override]]: And with a dose of [[Cyanide Pill]] thrown in for good measure. Nanomites are ''fun''.

* [[Why Don't Ya Just Shoot Him]]: Duke to the Baroness. Occurs so many times it almost crosses over into [[Wouldn't Hit a Girl]]. The Baroness does the same to Duke as well. Granted, the two used to be massively in love. Heavy Duty, on the other hand, has absolutely no excuse for what happens near the beginning of the movie (apparently the Baroness was unarmed at the time, but that really doesn't count for much in the middle of a shootout, especially when she's escaping with the multi-billion dollar mission objective).

** To be fair, it '''was''' a weapon of mass destruction. Remember the comment by the scientist to avoid potholes?

* [[Wouldn't Hit a Girl]]: Storm Shadow {{spoiler|...but not Zartan!}} and Heavy Duty.

** Well, Heavy Duty didnt say that he wouldnt, just that he would prefer not to.

[[Category:Films of the 2000s]]

[[Category:GI Joe The Rise Of Cobra]]