Nimona (film)

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Nimona is a 2023 Annapurna and Blue Sky film, based on the graphic novel of the same name. It features Chloe Grace Moretz, Riz Ahmed, and Eugene Lee Yang.

In a steampunk city with knights, smartphones and streaming, a queen prepares to knight a commoner, Ballister Boldheart. Just as the queen knights Ballister, his sword shoots out a laser and kills her. Now Ballister is on the run, framed for the queen's death. He is determined to find the real assassin.

Next thing you know, a teenager named Nimona shows up at his "evil lair". She wants to be his sidekick. Ballister refuses, only to find out Nimona is ready to bail him out of any situation and become a new friend.

Tropes used in Nimona (film) include:

Adaptational Badass: Ambrosius Goldenloin in the graphic novel is an Idiot Hero and willing pawn of the Institute, because he believes in its cause. Here, he is a Reasonable Authority Figure who will hunt down and arrest his boyfriend but is willing to see reason when Ballister and Nimona post an Engineered Public Confession that shows the Director as the true criminal. In fact, the only graphic novel-like moment when Goldenloin confronts the Director and seems to get killed is just Nimona hamming it up to get said confession.
Adaptational Heroism:
- Nimona doesn't have as high a body count in this movie. And in her backstory, she didn't hunt down her parents or kill anyone; the fire in Gloreth's village was caused by an angry mob tossing torches at her. It's implied Gloreth shooed her into the woods not out of fear of Nimona being a monster and setting the village on fire, but of fear about what her family would do to Nimona. In the climax, rather than forcing Ballister to fire on her and kill her, Nimona pulls a Heroic Sacrifice to save the city from the Director's canon.
- Goldenloin is truly committed to justice, unlike in the graphic novel where the fear of the Institute killing Ballister or demoting him kept him in line. He is a Reasonable Authority Figure that is willing to arrest or detain the Director after seeing evidence that she killed the queen and framed his boyfriend. When she attempts to fire on the city, despite her injuring him, he gets back up and tries to stop her.
- The Institute itself did not commit experiments on Nimona as a child. Indeed, Nimona reveals that it was founded out of a misguided fear of her. The Director still crosses the Moral Event Horizon with her actions, but unlike with how she plans to kill Ballister in the graphic novel For the Evulz, she settles for imprisoning him without a trial.
Adaptational Weakling: While Ballister is still a formidable fighter and Guile Hero, he still makes rookie mistakes owing to his insistence that he is "not a bad guy" or a villain. He freaks out despite promising not to when Nimona breaks out her shapeshifting powers, while in the comics he accepted it matter-of-factly and strategized from the start to break people's faith in the Institute. Indeed, in the comics he is the one advocating to destroy the Institute and its power over the kingdom.
Art Shift: 34 minutes into the film, when Nimona is giving "information" about her "backstory", the art style shifts to be like animated tiles on a wall. It's a nice use of the environment to give visuals for exposition.
Cell Phone: People have one, and it's used as part of the mixed technology level in the world. The squire records himself on a phone playing with Ballister's armour, and incidentally catches the director swapping out Ballister's sword.
Disproportionate Retribution: Why the Director had the Queen killed and framed Ballister for it; she says that the Queen knighting a commoner goes against precedent and the regimented life of the city. The Queen would threaten their safety with the wall.
Easily Forgiven: Nimona lampshades that Ballister took it well how his boyfriend cut off his arm. Ballister explains that knights are trained to remove limbs, and Goldenloin was only doing his job when everyone thought Ballister killed the queen. Goldenloin himself is freaked out and mortified on the inside about what he did, and doesn't understand why Ballister spares him during their fight.
Empathic Environment: The thunder a pretty good job of punctuating Nimona's speech when it rains.
Evil All Along: The Director of the institute is revealed to be the bad guy, first after both Nimona and Ballister find a video of her swapping out Ballister's sword. This is developed 54 minutes into the film, where the Director abruptly kills "GolDEnLOiN".
Flying Car: 38 minutes into the film, Nimona and Ballister take one and fly away from the guards, but not before a saleswoman tries to convince Ballister to buy the car.
Freudian Slip: 22 minutes in, Nimona remarks that she wants to ~~kill~~ get the squire.
Genki Girl: Nimona is way too energetic, dashing basically everywhere, with frantic fast-paced dialogue and transformation scenes. This is especially prominent in the scene where she busts Ballister out of jail, which destroys half of the Institute. This girl gets bored when there's a logically and well-thought-out but slow-paced plan, instead wishing to take on everything headfirst.
Gilligan Cut: Around 12 minutes into the film, Ballister remarks that he is "not going to get arrested". He gets arrested and thrown in jail 1.5 seconds and a camera pan later.
Imperial Stormtrooper Marksmanship Academy: The guards who posses energy weapons keep missing the main characters. This leads to frantic action scenes with energy bolts flying everywhere.
Interrupted Suicide: Ballister intervenes right before monster Nimona impales herself on a statue holding out a sword.
Knight in Shining Armour: Goldenloin looks like one, has a set of armour like one would wear, and is displayed as one by the kingdom.
Make a Wish: Played with. 34 minutes into the film, Nimona explains that, as a child, she found a wishing well and made a wish to be "one day trapped on a subway with an uptight knight asking small-minded questions". It's clear she isn't being serious.
Medium Blending: The film's art style is a cross between 2D and 3D animation. It's obviously 3D animation, but you could convince someone it's traditional animation if you pause on the right frame. In the fake advertisement for Dragon Krisps around 32 minutes in, Kwispy the mascot is drawn in 2D, while everything else is in 3D, further blurring the lines.
Mook: There are a lot of guards whose sole purpose is to get their asses handed to them in action scenes, by both Nimona and Ballister.
Morphic Resonance: All of Nimona's animal forms keep the signature pink colour. Her transformation into humanoids don't.
Not Helping Your Case: Ballister keeps insisting that he is not a bad guy and was framed. Yet his lair is shrouded in darkness, and he has a String Theory wall. When going to find the squire, he steals a car while telling the saleswoman that he's innocent, rams the Squire, and flies off as the knights shoot. Nimona even points out he "makes a pretty good bad guy" 38 minutes in.
Opposite Gender Protagonists: Nimona teams up with Ballister, and the duo sets out on proving his innocence. They slowly bond over the adventure, with Ballister initially being tired of Nimona's Genki Girl shenanigans as well as desperation to be a villain. Initially, they look out for each other because Nimona wants to be a villain causing mischief, but they eventually start looking out for each other because they genuinely care about each other. They both bond over the fact that they want to be accepted in society.
Out-of-Character Moment: Nimona reveals she can impersonate people by becoming Ballister's doppelganger and leading the guards on a Wild Goose Chase during an infiltration to find the Squire. During her performance, she picks up a busker's saxophone and starts playing freestyle jazz. Goldenloin sees this on video footage and says something is wrong, because Ballister hates freestyle jazz and sees the real Ballister sneaking on the subway.
Really Seven Hundred Years Old: Implied in the graphic novel and confirmed here: Nimona has been around for at least a thousand years, since Gloreth the city founder was a child. In fact, it's implied that Nimona can't even die, given that during her rampage, she seeks to impale herself on Gloreth's statue rather than burn everything down.
The Reveal: Nimona = Gloreth's Monster.
Schizo-Tech: Knights in shining armour and mediaeval looking buildings exist in the world, mixed in with rail guns and flying pods. There's even cameras and mass surveillance.
String Theory: In Ballister's "Murder Wall", there are around three strings connecting three bits of paper to Goldenloin. It is eventually "updated" to include a lot more blood and strings.
Unwitting Instigator of Doom:
- Sweet Gloreth did mean well, but thanks to her founding the city after an angry mob attacked child Nimona and burned down her village, Nimona became a cynical Blood Knight determined to take down the Institute one thousand years later. The Director uses Gloreth's intentions to protect people to frame Ballister for murdering the queen, all because the queen was breaking precedent by knighting a commoner.
- Todd destroys the phone that has video footage, on the Director's orders when she screams that Ballister has a weapon. Later, tracking down Ballister and Nimona at their lair, shortly after Ballister has confronted Nimona about what she is, means that Nimona has her breakdown and rampage in the city. In the ending at least, Todd is paying homage to a Nimona shrine, showing that he may regret his actions.
Urban Fantasy: The story takes place in a world where modern technology exists alongside shapeshifters and ancient Big Bad monsters as mentioned in the prologue, and takes advantage of this fact to deliver a pretty striking visual appearance.
Wanted Poster: Nah, a poster is so mediaeval Europe. A wanted wall is something more modern and up to date. There's a big one hunting for both Nimona and Ballister as they descend into the underground subway, a bit before a third into the film. Nimona remarks that "we're famous". There's also "Wanted Newspapers".