No Bullets (Situational Irony)
After getting out of prison, Ali receives a directive from the FLN to assassinate a police officer. He finds the officer at the café, as planned, and a woman hands him a pistol. However, when Ali takes the shot, he discovers there are no bullets in the weapon. In this instance of situational irony, Ali realizes he cannot carry out the assassination because someone set him up to fail.
Don't Touch Their Women (Situational Irony)
When French paratroopers set up checkpoints around the Arab neighborhood of the Casbah, they pat down Casbah residents to check for weapons. Pontecorvo shows a veiled woman hitting a guard when he touches her, prompting a fellow guard to tell him not to "touch their women." Despite the security operation, the French paratroopers respect the Muslim cultural expectation that men will not touch women they are not married to. However, in an instance of situational irony, Pontecorvo shows the same woman leaving the Casbah and delivering a pistol to a fellow FLN member who uses it to assassinate a French police officer.
Checkpoint Impatience (Dramatic Irony)
Midway through the film, three female FLN members discard their veils and alter their traditional appearances to blend in with the secular community in Algiers so they may carry out a coordinated terror attack. However, one of the women encounters a long wait at a checkpoint while French paratroopers harass a Muslim man who forgot to carry his identification. Posing as someone who would have no affiliation with the FLN, the woman politely asks in French if she may proceed. In this instance of dramatic irony, the viewer watches as the guards let her through without checking her purse or identification papers, oblivious that she is in a rush to carry out a bombing.
Blonde Woman Captured in Footage (Dramatic Irony)
After the coordinated bombing in the city of Algiers, French paratroopers try to discover who in the FLN might have carried out the attack. Lieutenant-Colonel Philippe shows his men security footage of checkpoints around the Casbah and speaks about how the culprits are likely among the people in the footage. Meanwhile, the viewer sees a shot of the woman who dyed her hair blonde before carrying out her attack. In this instance of dramatic irony, the viewer knows Philippe is correct in his statement while Philippe and his men remain oblivious to the woman's involvement.
