History Film / GangsterSquad

* HeroesWantRedheads: Wooters and Grace.

* YouWouldntShootMe: One of the gangsters who was shot down by Wooters says this to him, saying that he's a cop. Wooters is a CowboyCop and said ganster had just shot a kid dead, so he was ''very'' mistaken; Wooters finishes him off.

* DeadlyEmphemism: When Cohen's men come to kill O'Mara and Harris, who are in jail, they refer to the order as "taking out trash, two bags".

* DeadlyEmphamism: When Cohen's men come to kill O'Mara and Harris, who are in jail, they refer to the order as "taking out trash, two bags".

* DressingAsTheEnemy: Wooters briefly pretends to be one of Cohen's men to get Harris and O’Mara out of jail before they get killed by Cohen's actual henchmen.

* UnusualEmphamism: When Cohen's men come to kill O'Mara and Harris, who are in jail, they refer to the order as "taking out trash, two bags".

* CowboyCop: The movie is about a whole squad of them. Bonus points for Kennard, who literally looks and talks like a cowboy while carrying a Colt Single Action Army revolver on a western-style gunbelt dressed in a business suit.

* FiringOneHanded: With a ''shotgun'', no less. Wooters is able to do this because he’s practically touching his target, who is lying on the ground.

* GoryDiscretionShot: Used when a gangster fails and is punished via [[ThisIsADrill a power drill to the head]].

* ModelScam: In the opening, a young woman is approached by one of Cohen's men to audition for a film role soon after arriving in L.A. She is almost raped by three of Cohen's men after arriving at the apartment (which is on Cohen's turf), but is saved by O'Mara before anything happens. The three men are subsequently then offed by being locked up in an elevator in a building that is then burned down for the insurance money.

* ShesGotLegs: Grace.

* GoodPeopleHaveGoodSex: A throwaway line from Connie early on implies that she's more than satisfied about John's performance between the sheets.

* HistoricalVillainUpgrade: Mickey Cohen, whose historically violent tendencies are taken UpToEleven in the film. The film also has him indulge in BadBoss antics worthy of a Franchise/JamesBond villain.

* KnifeNut: Harris, especially when it comes to throwing them.

** Con Keeler was not killed by Cohen's men, and lived to be interviewed for the book that Gangster Squad is based on.

* SpiritualSuccessor: To ''Film/TheUntouchables''.

The film is a GenreThrowback to the FilmNoir movies of the 1940's and 50's, and was released in January 2013 to mixed reviews. A key sequence involving a group of mobsters shooting through a screen in a movie theater was reshot due to the film's proximity to the 2012 Aurora, Colorado movie theater shooting.

* DressingAsTheEnemy: Wooters briefly pretends to be one of Cohen’s men to get Harris and O’Mara out of jail before they get killed by Cohen’s actual henchmen.
* EpicFail: The squad's first operation (in Burbank) gets inexplicably worse by the minute. The team tries to take down one of Cohen's casinos at gunpoint, only to run smackdab into a group of armed officers who arrest Harris and O'Mara after they fail to get into the squad's car while giving it a running boost. The two men get arrested and thrown in jail (after being briefly beaten), and are set to be picked up and whacked by Cohen's men. The team arrives to save them, but Kennard's plan of tying a rope from his vehicle to the prison window bars fails (the bumper gets ripped off the car), Keeler's plan to cut the power results in chaos in the prison block, and the whole thing would have gone south if Wooters hadn't shown up. Harris lampshades Kennard’s attempt, calling it the “dumbest thing [he’s] ever seen”, with Kennard firing back “You’re in detention, I’m the dummy?”

** O'Mara gets into one with one of Cohen's {{Mooks}} in an elevator with another {{Mook|s}}. In the struggle, O'Mara forces the {{Mook|s}} he’s struggling with to shoot his partner, then forces his hand out of the elevator, severing it on the approaching floor.
** When Jerry goes to spring O'Mara and Harris from jail, one of the guards realizes that he's not one of Cohen’s guys and pulls his sidearm. After every shot goes off in different directions (with the camera freeze-framing with each shot), Jerry just punches him out.

* {{Montage}}: About halfway through the film, there’s one of the Squad conducting raids on Cohen’s businesses and beating up his men.

* MutualKill: [[spoiler:Kennard is fatally shot by Karl during the final shootout, but manages to gun him down before he kills O’Mara before dying of his wounds.]]
* OhCrap: One of the prison guards does this when two of Cohen’s men show up to take O’Mara and Harris away for execution, realizing that Wooters, who was pretending to be a hitman, isn’t part of Cohen’s gang.

* UnfriendlyFire: O’Mara forces one of Cohen’s men to shoot the henchman’s partner in a fight in an elevator.