Clarke's Third Law: The aliens are never called as such.The answer is the lit cigarro he's been smoking the whole scene. Cigar-Fuse Lighting: After one of the bandits drops all the matches off a cliff, he asks how he's going to light the dynamite.
Turns out he does, but they fail to collect. Bounty Hunter: The people seen at the beginning of the film assume Lonergan might have a bounty, given the state they find him in.Boom, Headshot!: Doc learns how to sharpshoot at just the right moment.This is also an Achilles' Heel, as using these arms also exposes their hearts. Bizarre Alien Biology: The aliens have a secondary pair of arms that come out of their chest, which they seem to use for more delicate work than their main arms, which seem more suited for combat.Bittersweet Ending: Ella sacrifices herself to ensure the alien scouts don't return home, and Lonergan decides not to settle down, but the aliens are dead, and the town of Absolution sees a boom on the horizon, as all the gold the aliens mined and refined has rained down over the praeries nearby.BFG: The aliens who aren't packing arm cannons are packing these.His advice to Doc is to get a gun and learn how to shoot it. Jake Lonergan sounds only slightly less badass. Awesome Mc Coolname: Colonel Woodrow Dolarhyde.They don't accept him as a great warrior because they expect this trope if he were, he would already have a big band of followers behind him. Asskicking Equals Authority: A source of friction between Dolarhyde and the Apaches.Arm Cannon/ Hand Blast: The device attached to Lonergan's arm packs a hell of a punch.Annoying Arrows: Arrows do little more than distract the aliens.Aliens Steal Cattle: Or blow them to smithereens in this case.Aliens in Cardiff: The aliens come to Arizona looking for gold, and the Wild West still has plenty.Aliens Are Bastards: The aliens are complete assholes, except Ella, of course, who's a different species of alien.Alien Blood: The aliens have greenish blood.Alien Among Us: Ella, although she's of a different species from the main aliens.He gets better, both in terms of sobriety and as a parent.