Movie review score
5
Attack the Block is a 2011 British science fiction horror film in a comedic vein directed by Joe Cornish. It stars John Boyega, Jodie Whittaker, Nick Frost and Luke Treadaway. Set on a council estate in South London on Bonfire night, the film follows a street gang which have to defend themselves from rowdy alien invaders. The film was released in the United Kingdom on 11 May 2011. Attack the Block is the directorial debut of Cornish.
In Lambeth, nurse Sam is mugged by a gang of teenagers: Pest, Dennis, Jerome, Biggz and leader Moses. However, something crashes from the sky into a nearby parked car. Sam uses the confusion to run away. Moses tells the gang to "allow it"; instead he wants to see if there is anything to steal from the car. When he approaches it he is attacked and wounded on his face by a creature, which he kills with the help of the others. Realising that it is something rare, they hope to gain a profit from it and go to drug dealer Ron (Nick Frost) for advice. Dennis checks the wallet, sees that it belongs to a nurse, and says he feels sorry for her, as a nurse only has a modest income; the others laugh.
Ron and Brewis, a young zoologist who had come to buy marijuana, agree that it is a strange creature. Moses asks the owner of the flat, and Ron's boss, gangster Hi-Hatz, if they can keep it in the "weed room", as it is the safest place in the block. He agrees, if Moses, who sells weed for him, starts selling cocaine too, which Moses accepts.
More creatures come down, and the boys each go to their home to collect machetes, softball bats, swords, switchblades and fireworks. Their parents are not told anything. Dennis is told by his father to take the dog. Two young kids, calling themselves Probs and Mayhem, also go to the crash site, eager to prove how tough they are.
The new aliens are bigger, "big gorilla wolf motherfuckers", with huge claws and light-emitting teeth. They kill the dog, and the boys flee, but the police catch Moses while the others hide and watch. Sam, in the police van, confirms that Moses was the mugger, but two aliens kill the policemen, and attack the van. The others chase the aliens away with a large firework, and Dennis approaches and lets Moses out of the holding cell in the back; Sam enters it to protect herself from both the aliens and the gang. The three are attacked again, and speed off, but smash into Hi-Hatz' car. Hatz is enraged. As Sam runs off, the other gang members catch up to Moses and Dennis, just as Hi-Hatz pulls a gun out. Hatz does not believe their story about aliens, until they spot one. Hatz forces his henchman to check it out, but the henchman is then killed by the alien, which Hatz kills with his pistol, as the gang run off.
Again they attempt to get back to the block, but Biggz gets behind and hides in a garbage container, and an alien bites into Pest's leg. They take a pistol from Probs and Mayhem (not knowing that it is a toy, and letting them keep their super soaker), and drag Pest up the stairs; they see Sam going into her flat, and force their way in. She tells them to leave, but they assure her that they are on the same side now, united against the aliens. Sam treats Pest's leg. An alien bursts through her front door, but Moses kills it. Sam is impressed, and decides it is safer to stay with the gang. The gang agrees after Pest convinces the others that she, being a nurse, can still be needed.
Hearing more aliens coming, they all move to the apartment of some neighborhood girls. They are met with skepticism, but two aliens attack through a window, killing Dennis. One alien is killed by the girls with a lamp and a skating boots blade, but the second alien is about to kill Moses when Sam comes to his rescue, killing it with a kitchen knife.
The girls, recognizing that the creatures only want the boys, kick them out and flee to the street. The gang and Sam decide to go to Ron's safe room and hide out there, but are shot at by Hi-Hatz and his two goons. However, they escape. Hi-Hatz and his two goons, being attacked by an alien, try to hide in an elevator, but the goons are killed. Hi-Hatz manages to kill the alien and continues to search for Moses.
When the gang, joined by Brewis, go to Ron's apartment, Jerome is killed by the aliens. Inside Hi-Hatz wants to kill Moses, because his killing of the female alien brought both the other aliens and the police into the neighbourhood. However, aliens who have climbed the outside of the building attack through the window and kill Hi-Hatz. Moses, Pest, Brewis and Sam reach the safety of the weed room.
Biggz, still trapped in the bin by one persistent alien, phones for help, but nobody can help because the police, investigating the death of the two officers, have cordoned off the block. However, Probs and Mayhem use their super soaker filled with petrol to set fire to the alien.
Pest concludes that after all that happened Sam and the gang are friends now. Actually, he fancies her and asks whether she has a boyfriend. She confirms, he is helping children in Africa, after which Pest wonders why he does not help children in Britain.
Up in the weed room they see liquid on Moses' jacket under the UV light and conclude that the first, small alien was a female, who left a pheromone on Moses, and that the bigger males are attracted to the smell. Also they realize that the aliens are blind. After they check that Sam does not have any of the pheromone on her, she goes to Moses' empty apartment, where she opens the gas valves, then leaves the tower block safely. Moses and Sam have come to respect each other, and Moses tells Pest to return Sam's robbed ring to her, which Pest reluctantly does. Moses then straps the dead female alien to his back and runs out of the weed room to his apartment, with all the aliens in tow, throws the female into his kitchen, where all the males follow, ignites the gas, and jumps out of his flat, just escaping the explosion which kills all the aliens. Sam, the girls, Biggz, Probs, Mayhem and other people watch as Moses manages to grab onto a flag and survives.
Pest, Brewis, Ron and Moses are arrested, but Sam tells the police that they actually saved her life. In the back of the police van, Moses and Pest hear the crowds chanting for Moses, and Moses smiles, knowing that this time he has done something heroic.
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