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> That is normal and standard procedure if you're having issues lifting the plane, because retracting the gear means _increasing_ drag for a crucial 10/15 seconds as the doors open and thus slowing the plane further.

Oh fascinating! I would not have considered that but it totally makes sense.

True on both counts, was a quite early comment and initially thought they're coming back in to land vs barely having taken off. Only leaves control inputs but given how short the video is it could also be that there simply wasn't much to input/correct anymore despite the slight rocking.

Can't edit anymore, but the general gist of catastrophic failure needed to prevent a 787 from climbing out of this situation still holds.

I don't think you'd expect any control inputs in that scenario. They were level with a reasonable pitch angle. Aircraft attitude was fine, they just didn't have enough power to arrest the descent. Such a loss of power with a full load of fuel definitely indicates a swift catastrophic failure to the engines at least.

Very much so. Gear retraction should only happen if (generalizing here) you've established a "positive rate of climb".