History Film / FallingDown

* The Korean store owner is a jerk who could have avoided everything if he'd just given Bill change like he asked but a customer trying to haggle over the price of a product and paying much less than what the store owner charges is not going to get a positive response.

* AnAesop:
** GoingPostal is not a good way to deal with life.
** Don't be rude to people. Pretty much every single one of Foster's outbursts in the movie is a result of people being rude (or threatening) to him.

This is a tale of [[TagLine urban reality and the adventures of an ordinary man...at war...with the everyday world]], set against a backdrop of the LA riots and focusing on themes of violent rebellion against the system.

* HeatWave: The movie takes place on the hottest day of the summer.

** He also has a literal PetTheDog at [[spoiler:his daughter's home in Venice: After Beth and Adele make a run for it, Foster watches the home movie from when he bought the puppy]]. In the present day, he pets the dog lovingly.

** He also tries to reassure the understandably terrified patrons during the Whammy Burger scene, wanting to make clear that he doesn't want to hurt anyone and being nice to everyone in the building even as he holds it up with an automatic firearm.

* TragicVillain: Foster. While it's clear he was always a guy with a very bad temper, he also endured some terrible luck and it's clear he's as much a victim of his flaws as everyone else around him is.

* AllForNothing: Foster pulls out a gun at Whammy Burger because the manager refused to serve him breakfast… only to later decide that he doesn’t want breakfast anymore and orders from the lunch menu.
** However, it's implied that Foster only drew a gun because the manager was very rude to him.

[[caption-width-right:315:"[[{{Tagline}} The adventures of an ordinary man at war with the everyday world.]]'']]

[[caption-width-right:315:"ICanSeeMyHouseFromHere."]]

* BittersweetEnding: [[spoiler:Foster finally realizes that his criminal activities aren't just grandiose justified cause so much as petty retribution that isn't doing much to change society other than cause some excess collateral damage. However, he refuses to be arrested and forced to watch his daughter grow up through prison bars, so he instead tricks Prendergast into killing him so his family can at least collect the insurance money.]]

[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/300px-Falling_Down_Poster_4099.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:300:"ICanSeeMyHouseFromHere."]]

''Falling Down'' is a 1993 film directed by Creator/JoelSchumacher about one man's mental breakdown, and his feelings of alienation, disgust, and mounting rage against what he perceives to be an increasingly unfair and depersonalized world, accumulating weaponry and becoming something like a vigilante as he travels across the city, shoving people out of his way.

William Foster (Creator/MichaelDouglas) is divorced, and living with his widowed mother. William Foster is under court order to stay away from his ex-wife, and small daughter. William Foster lost his defense contractor job about a month ago and his mother doesn't know. William Foster wants to attend his daughter's birthday party. William Foster is stuck in traffic. William Foster's [[TheAllegedCar 1979 Chevy Chevette]]'s air conditioner has just broken down, [[HeatWave on the hottest day of the year]].

* ABirthdayNotABreak: This applies to Foster's daughter Adele, as it is her birthday that he's trying to get to. It's also why Foster bought the snowglobe and gets [[RageBreakingPoint hugely pissed]] when the Neo-Nazi surplus owner smashes it. [[spoiler:Eventually, the climax of the film is a tense standoff with Foster, Prendergast, and Foster's estranged family. And finally, Beth (Foster's ex-wife) remembers Adele's birthday after the standoff and Foster's suicide-by-cop when a group of children show up with presents. Prendergast tells Beth to wait until after the birthday party to tell Adele about her father's fate.]]

* HateSink: While already a terrible setting filled with deeply self-centered and opportunistic people, Nick the Neo Nazi is easily the most unpleasant of them all, for being bigoted, misogynistic, homophobic, racist and an all-around unrepentant {{Jerkass}}. It makes it all the more worth it that he is the only person in the film Foster straight up directly murders in cold-blood.

** ''Film/{{Unhinged}}'' is also a successor, following an angry man who's been divorced and fired and is now lashing out, although Russell Crowe's character is portrayed much less sympathetically than Foster.

William Foster (Creator/MichaelDouglas) is divorced, and living with his widowed mother. William Foster is under court order to stay away from his family. William Foster lost his defense contractor job about a month ago and his mother doesn't know. William Foster wants to attend his daughter's birthday party. William Foster is stuck in traffic. William Foster's [[TheAllegedCar 1979 Chevy Chevette]]'s air conditioner has just broken down, [[HeatWave on the hottest day of the year]].

William Foster (Creator/MichaelDouglas) is divorced. William Foster is under court order to stay away from his family. William Foster lost his defense contractor job about a month ago and his mother doesn't even know. William Foster wants to attend his daughter's birthday party. William Foster is stuck in traffic. William Foster's [[TheAllegedCar 1979 Chevy Chevette]]'s air conditioner has just broken down, [[HeatWave on the hottest day of the year]].

* AxCrazy: It's a close call, but ultimately subverted. Foster doesn't set out to go on a killing spree, he just kind of falls into that pattern accidentally and then goes with it once it's too late to change anything. The fact that most of his victims are AcceptableTargets makes it much easier for him to become an accidental sociopath.