History Film / FallingDown

* SuddenlyShouting: "You think I'm a thief? No. I'm not a thief. I'm not the one charging 85 cents for a STINKIN' SODA! [[{{Inverted}} ''You're'' the thief!"]]

--->'''Foster:''' "Now you're gonna die wearing that stupid little hat!"

* ArmoredClosetGay: Nick the Nazi, who graphically fantasizes about Foster getting {{Prison Rape}}d by a black man.

** Bill himself to a degree, being emotionally abusive toward his wife and child, as well as his mother.

* PaterFamilicide: Prendergast claims that Foster intends to do this to his wife and daughter, even though he refuses to admit it. It's ambiguous whether he planned to hurt them or not, but he almost certainly planned to take his own life at least.

* WorldOfJerkass: Prendergast, Sandra, Beth, and Adele aside, most of the characters in this film are deeply unpleasant people. Bill Foster was an abusive husband to Beth and scared her so much that she slapped a restraining order on him. The people he encounters on his journey across the city include GangBangers, a Neo Nazi, a PhonyVeteran looking to mooch off him, a greedy shop owner who won't break a bill for a man in need and overcharges for everything in his store, a restaurant manager who won't give him a breakfast order despite the fact that breakfast only ended a minute prior and they still have breakfast meals warmed and ready to serve, a construction crew screwing up the roads for no reason other than justifying their inflated budget, and a golfer who intentionally attempts to hit him with a golf ball. Even some of Prendergast's colleagues at the LAPD are pricks, especially his [[DaChief captain]] and Sandra's new partner.

-->'''Prendergast:''' Don't you want to see [your daughter] grow up?

* AmbiguousDisorder:
** Foster's emotional instability, intense anger, hostility, unstable relationship with his family and reckless behaviors all suggest he suffers from Borderline Personality Disorder.
** Prendergast's wife is needy, self-centered, high-strung, temperamental, and prone to delusions. It is possible she is suffering from some bipolar or codependency disorder. [[spoiler:Losing a daughter to SIDS at age two might have contributed to it]].

* AwfulWeddedLife: Elizabeth, Foster's wife, [[spoiler:was emotionally abused by her husband with a HairTriggerTemper, which motivated her to divorce and file a restraining order against their husband to protect their young daughter. When her daughter's birthday comes, her husband is gunning for both of them, restraining order be damned. He eventually does succeed in meeting them both, and it turns out he had a gun on him. Prendergast even theorizes Foster intended to [[PaterFamilicide kill his family and then himself]], which he denies]].
** Prendergast's marriage is also hardly a happy one. His wife is needy, clingy and apparently mentally ill. Among other things, she basically ruined her husband's career and self-respect by forcing him to take a desk job and later into early retirement.

* AllForNothing: Foster pulls out a gun at WhammyBurger 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 is implied that Foster only drew a gun because the manager was very rude to him.

* ArtisticLicenseLaw: In real life, [[spoiler:Foster's SuicideByCop would leave his family with nothing, because insurance companies do not pay out benefits for losses incurred during the commission of a felony]]. Of course, Foster himself doesn't know that.

'''Foster:''' Behind bars? *shakes his head*

-->'''Prendergast:''' Don't you want to see [your daughter] grow up?\\
'''Foster:''' Behind bars? *shakes his head*\\

* ActuallyPrettyFunny: Prendergast's boss Captain Yardley dislikes him because he took a desk job and because he doesn't curse. Towards the end, Prendergast tells the Captain to go fuck himself on national television. Although surprised, the Captain smiles that a man he thought was craven had the balls to do that.

** Don’t be rude to people.

* ATeamFiring: Gang members attempt to get revenge on Bill Foster during a drive by shooting, but end up wounding everyone else on the block except him, before crashing into a telephone pole and being either killed or severely injured themselves.

** Done on a narrative level with the audience regarding [[spoiler:Foster himself. The film has the audience believe that Foster is the hero and that his anger towards the world for treating him as expendable is justified... until the end, where [[HeroAntagonist Prendergast]] confronts Foster and reveals [[TomatoInTheMirror he was the villain all along]]. No matter how [[{{Jerkass}} asshole-ish]] people were, no matter what they did to him, Foster still had no right to act like an angry white man venting his frustrations on everyone, which is what he was actually doing the entire time. This is marked as the moment Foster realizes what he's become, and the moment the audience's admiration for him is broken as they, too, are forced to see that they were essentially supporting a criminal]]. Fittingly, the movie poster above depicts [[spoiler:Foster standing on a pedestal not unlike a hero's statue, which echoes the audience's initial impression of him]].

* TranquilFury: Foster always tries to stay calm, but his vile temper is clearly on display in many of his interactions, such as the fast food restaurant.

* ButtMonkey: {{Deconstructed}}. Everything goes wrong for Foster throughout the movie, and [[UpToEleven even before that]] his life was on a downward spiral. This leads to his SanitySlippage and him [[WoobieDestroyerOfWorlds going off the deep end.]]