Splice: Difference between revisions

[[File:SpliceMoviePoster_9710.jpg|frame|With that tail, she'd better not be.]]

 

 

 

Acting in secret to avoid getting busted by their bosses at the pharmaceutical company, Clive and Elsa create Dren, a [[Half-Human Hybrid|hybrid creature]] made from human and animal DNA that exhibits remarkable intelligence and physical attributes, as well as accelerated aging. Initially treating their creation as a cute pet, they soon have to move her to Elsa's old farmhouse once it grows too big for its britches. In addition, they have to worry about Gavin, Clive's brother and co-worker at the lab, once he figures out about Dren and threatens to spill the beans to their boss.

There's also the fact that Dren, once a cute child, is now entering the equivalent of her teenage years, with all of [[Hormone-Addled Teenager|the hormonal swings]] that this implies...

 

 

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{{tropelist}}

** Elsa much, ''much'' more so than Clive, as per [[Too Dumb to Live]] and [[Strapped to An Operating Table]] below.

* [[Arc Words]]: "What's the worst that could happen?"

* [[Bald Women]]: Dren... {{spoiler|until she becomes a man.}}

* [[Beware My Stinger Tail]]: Dren has one of these.

* [[Blood-Splattered Innocents]]: The people in the front row at the press conference get showered with blood once Fred and Ginger, the two {{spoiler|transgenic}} organisms created by Elsa and Clive, start fighting.

* [[Does This Remind You of Anything?]]: Dren's stinger coming out when {{spoiler|she orgasms during sex with Clive}}.

** It looked like she was going to kill Clive at that point. Probably a result of her life cycle: {{spoiler|mate with a male, kill him, turn male yourself, impregnate a female}}.

** Possibly unintentional, but stripped of its sci-fi elements, Dren's story is a pretty close match to what [[Real Life]] pet chimpanzees often go through: pampered like human babies as infants, then locked up and treated more like animals as their strength increases, and eventually driven by frustration and cross-species sexual confusion to violent outbursts that get them put down.

* [[Dysfunctional Family]]: Would be [[Black Comedy|darkly funny]] to watch if it wasn't so simultaneously sad and disgusting.

* [[For Science!]]: Subverted. On the surface, Clive and Elsa seem to be at least as motivated by fame and fortune as by the pursuit of science. Elsa also has another motivation -- {{spoiler|to have a child that she could have complete control over.}}

* [[Freudian Excuse]]: {{spoiler|Elsa's secret reason for making Dren, as well as her later abusive, controlling nature, comes from her abusive mother.}}

* [[Full-Frontal Assault]]: {{spoiler|Male Dren vs. the scientists.}}

* [[Fun with Acronyms]]: '''N'''ucleic '''E'''xchange '''R'''esearch and '''D'''evelopment.

** A cat is too dangerous, it might make her sick. It's not like taking her from a presumably sterile lab and eventually winding up in an abandoned barn could possibly be bad for her. Ah, hell, take the cat back, kid.

** There's a strange new creature which has bitten me before--I think I'll take off my safety mask and glove!

** {{spoiler|Maybe pheromones?}}

** Also, note how while {{spoiler|Dren may have been a bit pushy with Clive, it was certainly consensual, but with Elsa, male Dren nearly IMMEDIATELY decided he was GOING to have sex with her, and didn't care if she wanted to.}}

* [[My Beloved Smother]]: The relationship between Elsa and Dren eventually devolves into this. It doesn't help that {{spoiler|Elsa used her DNA to make Dren}}.

** Elsa had to deal with this with her own mother.

* [[Never Trust a Trailer]]: Actually [[Tropes Are Not Bad|somewhat of a positive case]]: the trailers make it seem like it's going to be a conventional horror movie about a genetically engineered monster that escapes from the lab and starts killing people. {{spoiler|Granted, this is what happens ''eventually'', but not until the last ten minutes or so}}, and before that it's actually a rather nuanced movie about Clive and Elsa <s>struggling with</s> <s>concerned about</s> casually commenting on [[What Measure Is a Non-Human?|the ethics of what they've done]].

** {{spoiler|[[Not Quite Dead]] occurs multiple times throughout the film, generally foreshadowing a new change in Dren.}}

* [[Our Demons Are Different]]: While not a demon Dren is resembling the classical succubus {{spoiler|and even going so far as to changing gender.}}

[[Category:Science Fiction Films]]

[[Category:Films of the 2000s]]

[[Category:Film]]