History Film / PainAndGain

** Dwayne Johnson's Paul Doyle weighs about as much as two of the men he was largely based on – Carl Weekes and Stevenson Pierre, who weighed about 135-140 pounds and were considered too scrawny at first to hang with Lugo and Doorbal.

* CloudCuckooLander:

* DirtyOldMonk: Pastor Randy gets violently attacked by Paul after he comes on to him, thus leading him on the path toward Daniel and the Sun Gym Gang.

* TheBeautifulPeople: Daniel arranges for the gym to have a lot of attractive people (including deals for strippers to join) to increase the clientele. This contrasts with women who are shown to be really unattractive, but with hints of Daniel being an UnreliableNarrator at these points.

* AdaptationalNiceGuy: Adrien Doorbal. In real life he was described as being aggressive and violent and he was the one who killed Frank Griga. In the movie, he's relaxed and even-tempered.

* AdaptationalNiceGuy: Adrien Doorbal in real life was described as being aggressive and violent. In the movie, he seems relaxed and even-tempered and only resorts to violence if it's in his best financial interests.

-->Danny: Do you know what fear is?\\
Paul: "'''F'''alse '''E'''vidence '''A'''ppearing '''R'''eal"? [[note]]might be incorrect[[/note]] \\
Danny: You know Johnny Wu?!\\
Paul: That's from Alcoholics Anonymous!

* ButtMonkey: Kershaw spends most of his screentime being tortured or made fun of. Also the Sun Gym manager that is coerced into participating the scheme by Daniel.

* ChubbyChaser: Adrian, who goes after the fat nurse treating his erectile dysfunction.

* RaceLift: The real-life Danny Lugo was Porto Rican and Cuban.

* BadBoss: Victor treats his employees at the sandwich shop like crap. They liked their new boss Daniel.

** Doorbal and his wife, the nurse, were happily married [[spoiler: until Doorbal is arrested and she becomes ''very'' unhappy]].

* ShockinglyExpensiveBill: Paul and Sorina's bill for their hotel room is $40,000 and that's not even getting into Paul's cocaine habit and Sorina's shopping.

* WhereDaWhiteWomenAt: Adrian marries a fat white nurse, [[spoiler: who eventually divorced him]].

->''My name is Daniel Lugo, and I believe in fitness.''

* AllJewsAreAshkenazi: While averted in Kershaw himself, who is from Colombia (based on a man from Argentina), he still addresses his rabbi in Yiddish.

* AdaptationalAttractiveness: The end credits gives a WhereAreTheyNow overview with pictures of the actual people involved, both Lugo and Doorbal are significantly more average looking than Wahlberg and Mackie. Although Sorina (whose name was changed from the real life counterpart) looks remarkably similar.

** OverdrawnAtTheBloodBank: [[spoiler: The toe is still dripping blood however long it was between it getting shot off and Paul giving it to the dog, plus the next morning when it's found by Griga's maid.]]

** {{Greed}}: The other one. Lugo doesn't just want Victor's stuff, he wants to Victor to "''not have it''". He even steals [[spoiler: the contents of Victor's safety deposit box ''after'' declaring his disappointment that it was just old photos and a pair of bronzed baby shoes]].

* AssholeVictim: Victor Kershaw, which is part of the reason why cops don't believe his story at first (he was so unpleasant that not one person reported him missing). Ed even says that he is a "very difficult victim to like". Subverted with the later victims who are certainly sleazy, but are nowhere near the jerk levels Kershaw is. It is also subverted in that as the movie proceeds, Kershaw [[LesserOfTwoEvils ends up]] ''far'' more sympathetic than Lugo.

** IronButtMonkey / MadeOfIron: Parodied: Kershaw is essentially immortal -- he takes a truly staggering amount of punishment as the main trio tries to off him, but ''survives'' every turn.

* GoneHorriblyWrong: Paul's attempt to steal money from a bank guard which [[spoiler: gets him splattered with green security dye, chased and shot at by cops who take off his big toe]] leads to...

* [[GuileHero Guile]] [[HeroAntagonist Hero Antagonist]]: Ed Du Bois is the only individual in this movie who can be even remotely described as clever.

* HappilyMarried: A minor subplot shows Ed Du Bois relationship with his wife and we last see them enjoying the sunset on their back porch, which adds meaning when he talks about enjoying the small things in life in contrast to what the Sun Gym Gang had done for easy money.

* JerkWithAHeartOfJerk: Victor Kershaw shows moments of sympathy towards Paul to get him to care only to drop the act at the right moment. This is what causes Paul to snap and beat Victor.
** Subverted, however, as it's very understandable that Victor would try to escape.
** JerkWithAHeartOfGold: Victor sounds sincerely worried when he's telling his wife to get their son and leave; Lugo is disappointed to discover [[spoiler: Victor's top-secret off-shore safety deposit box is only filled with old family photos (possibly the only things left of his father's life in Germany) and a pair of bronzed baby shoes. He takes it anyway]].

* LackOfEmpathy: Lugo. See TheSociopath.

* MetaCasting: A director version: the writers said they loved MichaelBay taking on the script because they felt like the characters believed they were in a Michael Bay movie.

* ObliviouslyEvil: Adrian and Daniel are so stupid that they seem to be totally unaware that they have done several horrible things over the course of the movie. Paul is just about as stupid, but he eventually grew a conscience.

** "This is still a true story" appears while Paul is grilling a ''human hand'' in broad daylight and happily waving at pedestrians.

* ChainsawGood: Zig-zagged. It gets jammed by hair rather easily, but then Daniel complains it's a cheap piece of crap.

* NeverTrustATrailer: Part of the reason for the above controversy (under DudeNotFunny) is that the trailers for the film made it appear as if the Sun Gym Gang were pulling off some wacky heist against an unscrupulous crime boss. The movie, however, does not present the [[VillainProtagonist protagonists]] on the whole as even remotely sympathetic, portrays the victims sympathetically and has the Sun Gym Gang do some fairly gruesome things.

Daniel is a mainstay of the Miami personal fitness community, very proud of what he does but he has to work hard to make a living. Seeing a wealthy client of his, Victor Kershaw (Creator/TonyShalhoub), and knowing some of the underhanded tricks he pulled to gain his fortune, Daniel begins a plan to steal his money and brings in friend Paul to help him accomplish it. They prove themselves wholly incompetent, as even though they get Kershaw's money they were [[IronButtMonkey unable to kill him]] and his story is so outrageous the police don't give him a second thought.

* AntiVillain: Paul Doyle. He didn't want to be part of the kidnapping at all but was persuaded by Daniel and Noel into doing so and felt guilty the entire time.

* DeconstructiveParody: Of TheAmericanDream. The film even has most of the visual excess (shot like some of the cheesier music videos of the day) during scenes where Daniel discusses what he thinks the dream is.

* DeconstructiveParody: Of the AmericanDream. The film even has most of the visual excess (shot like some of the cheesier music videos of the day) during scenes where Daniel discusses what he thinks the dream is.

* DeconstructiveParody: Of the "American Dream". The film even has most of the visual excess (shot like some of the cheesier music videos of the day) during scenes where Daniel discusses what he thinks the dream is.