History Film / SevenPsychopaths

'''Zach''': Ducky.

'''Billy''': Okay, you seem normal. Come on in. We gotta get this dog off the street because it's kidnapped from a maniac.

''Seven Psychopaths'' is a 2012 dark comedy written and directed by Creator/MartinMcDonagh, and starring Colin Farrell, Creator/SamRockwell, Creator/ChristopherWalken, and Creator/WoodyHarrelson.

* {{Badass}}: Billy again.

''Seven Psychopaths'' is a 2012 dark comedy written and directed by Creator/MartinMcDonagh, and starring Creator/ColinFarrell, Creator/SamRockwell, Creator/ChristopherWalken, and Creator/WoodyHarrelson.

* BrickJoke: [[spoiler:Zachariah's phone call to Marty during the end credits.]] See TheStinger.

* TakeThat: When Hans eats Peyote and gets a vision of a woman in purgatory:
-->'''Marty''': Maybe you've just eaten too many hallucinogenic cactuses tonight, Hans.\\
'''Hans''': Nothing to do with the hallucinogens.\\
'''Marty''': But you've just seen [a woman] on a chair with a bullet through her head.\\
'''Hans''': In some gray place.\\
'''Marty''': ''England?''\\
'''Hans''': It seemed a lot worse than that.\\
'''Marty''': [shocked] Wow...

'''''Seven Psychopaths''''' is a 2012 dark comedy written and directed by Creator/MartinMcDonagh, and starring Creator/ColinFarrell, Creator/SamRockwell, Creator/ChristopherWalken, and Creator/WoodyHarrelson.

'''''Seven Psychopaths''''' is a 2012 dark comedy written and directed by Creator/{{Martin McDonagh}}, and starring Creator/ColinFarrell, Creator/SamRockwell, Creator/ChristopherWalken, and Creator/WoodyHarrelson.

Marty (Farrell) is a struggling screenwriter, currently attempting to get his next screenplay, titled ''[[TitleDrop Seven Psychopaths]]'', past the title. Struggling at the first hurdle of ''who'' and ''what'' the seven psychopaths are, especially so as he doesn't want it to be a stock SummerBlockbuster thriller about men with guns. Thus, Marty starts hanging out with his best friend and dog-kidnapper Billy (Rockwell), who does his best to help him out. Unfortunately for Marty, Billy isn't happy enough helping with writing, and attempts to get things moving by putting out a personal ad ''[[TooDumbToLive asking psychopaths to contact them.]]''

Meanwhile, Billy's partner-in-crime Hans (Walken) soon learns the hard way that a Shih Tzu they recently took named Bonny belongs to Charlie Costello (Harrelson), an excessively-violent, [[HairTriggerTemper short-tempered]] gangster with a rather creepy obsession with his dog. Naturally, [[FirstLawOfTragicomedies things soon go to hell very quickly]] and Marty soon finds himself trapped in a very difficult (albeit script-inspiring) situation and [[CaptainObvious surrounded by several psychopaths.]]

* ArcWords: Billy repeatedly asks the [[MacGuffin Shih Tzu]] for "Paw. Paw. Paw." These are not unexplained, but rather unrequited [[spoiler: until after Billy has a bullet in the head.]]

* BetterThanABareBulb: Being a film about writing a script, tropes are [[LampshadeHanging lampshaded]], {{discussed|Trope}} and {{deconstructed|Trope}} rather often. This becomes more apparent as it gets further into the film, as Marty talks more about his work with Hans and Billy, they make more suggestions (which include common tropes).
* BittersweetEnding: [[spoiler: Billy and Hans are both dead, but Charlie is locked up and Marty has finished his screenplay. Whether Marty is actually in a better place is a bit ambiguous]].

** [[spoiler: Before thinking of the Quaker psychopath, Marty originally planned on making a Buddhist psychopath. At the end, thanks to Hans' suggestion, the Vietnamese psychopath is reimagined as a buddhist monk.]]

* ComedicSociopathy: A {{Black Comedy}}-esque take of "comedic." Largely {{Deconstructed}} with Billy, who can barely put forward a veneer of superficial charm and who eagerly lies and endangers his friends and lovers in hopes of getting along with them.

* TheDeterminator: Charlie

** At one point, Hans flat out refuses to put his hands up during a stick up, to which the {{mook}} points out ''[[SubvertedTrope it doesn't make any sense]]''.

** Billy also tips Marty that, even in the most violent of movie genres, it's always fine to kill off women ''[[KickTheDog but you can't even harm animals.]]''

* NoKillLikeOverkill: How Billy's proposed shoot out sequence plays out.

* OnlySaneMan: Marty

* ShootHimHeHasAWallet: [[spoiler:Hans intentionally does this so that the hitmen will draw the attention of the police]].

** The two hitmen in the beginning are talking about a scene from ''TheGodfather'', specifically the TropeNamer for the MoeGreeneSpecial.
** There's no way Billy Bickle's surname isn't a reference to ''TaxiDriver'', especially since we first hear it during his MirrorMonologue.

* StockUnsolvedMysteries: The reason the RealLife serial killers the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Texarkana_Moonlight_Murders Phantom Killer]], [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cleveland_Torso_Murderer Cleveland Torso Murderer]] and [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zodiac_Killer Zodiac Killer]] were never caught? They were killed by [[SerialKillerKiller Zach and Maggie]]. [[UnreliableNarrator Maybe]].

* TropesAreTools: InUniverse; since Marty is writing a film, several tropes are [[LampshadeHanging lampshaded]] and [[DeconstructedTrope deconstructed]].

* WoobieDestroyerOfWorlds: [[spoiler:Billy]]

* CastFullOfCrazy: It's in the title, what do you expect?

* PetTheDog: Charlie lets his dog caretaker live after finding out about the scam Billy and Hans run, realizing she wasn't at fault.

* {{Metaphorgotten}}: The "Ghandi" bit:

* CountryMatters: Billy uses the term cunt several times over the movie, including as a term for Marty's girlfriend for no real reason.

* AntiHero: [[spoiler:Billy Bickle]] is a mixture of a [[UnscrupulousHero Type IV]] and [[NominalHero Type V]]. Probably more on the nominal side, though.

* CastingGag: Michael Pitt and Michael Stuhlbarg as [[BoardwalkEmpire gangsters]].

* HiddenHeartOfGold: An interpretation of Billy. Hard to have one when you're a vulgar, amoral nutcase, but he does genuinely want to be friends with Marty.

* AntiHero: [[spoiler:Billy Bickle]] is Type IV

* AxCrazy: Billy.

* HiddenDepths: All of the main characters, and very nearly all of the side characters.

* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: Billy, at times. He does want to be a good friend to Marty, he's just so crazy and obnoxious he often fails.

** The Jack of Diamonds, since most of the mid-level mafia and Yakuza sorts he's targeted, such as the hitmen in the intro, are all killers.

* StockUnsolvedMysteries: The reason the RealLife serial killers the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Texarkana_Moonlight_Murders Phantom Killer]], [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cleveland_Torso_Murderer Cleveland Torso Murderer]] and [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zodiac_Killer Zodiac Killer]] were never caught? They were killed by [[SerialKillerKiller Zach and Maggie]].

* BillingDisplacement: Both Abbie Cornish and Olga Kurylenko play fairly minor characters with limited screentime but appear in the trailer and on the poster when Linda Bright Clay, Long Nguyen and Zeljko Ivanek don't despite playing arguably more important characters.

* OscarBait / PoliticalCorrectnessGoneMad: When Marty is done telling Billy the Vietnamese Psychopath's story, Marty feels dissatisfied about it. Billy then gives his thoughts on Marty's response.

* PoliticallyIncorrectVillain: Charlie makes racist and homophobic comments throughout. This is lampshaded by Hans.
-->I don't think they like being called 'fags'. I think they prefer 'homos', these days.

-->'''Zach''': My name is Zachariah Rigby, I left a message on Billy's telephone in answer to the advertisement.\\

Marty (Farrell) is a screenwriter attempting to write his next screenplay, titled ''[[TitleDrop Seven Psychopaths]]''. Struggling at the first hurdle of ''who'' and ''what'' the seven psychopaths are, his best friend (and dog-kidnapper) Billy (Rockwell) does his best to help him out. Attempting to ransom a Shih Tzu named Bonny with his friend Hans (Walken), Billy realizes too late that it belongs to excessively-violent, [[HairTriggerTemper short-tempered]] gangster Charlie Costello (Harrelson).

Naturally, [[FirstLawOfTragicomedies things soon go to hell very quickly]] and Marty soon finds himself trapped in a very difficult (albeit script-inspiring) situation and [[CaptainObvious surrounded by several psychopaths.]]

* FakeOutFadeOut: [[spoiler:The movie starts to fade to credits as Marty finishes his screen play and happy music plays, only for the film to continue in a matter of seconds with Zachariah reminding Marty that he forgot his message to Maggie in the credits and he was going to kill him. However, this could be seen as the ending before this one being fake, as Marty has rugged beard here and it is made very clear that he is still in a funk over the events of the film, unlike the other ending where he's living with Bonnie and is cleanly dressed. Zachariah {{lampshade}}s this a bit and it's made unclear if he's going to kill him or leave him alone now.]]

-->Not like those Fox News fucks.

* SerialKillerKiller: Zachariah and Maggie, according to the former's testimony.
** And the Jack of Diamonds, since most of the mid-level mafia and Yakuza sorts he's targeted, such as the hitmen in the intro, are all killers.

* WetSariScene: Billy's Script calls for a particularly FanService-heavy variety with Marty's girlfriend.

* ActorAllusion: The two hitmen in the prologue are played by Michael Pitt and Michael Stuhlbarg, who star together in ''Series/BoardwalkEmpire'', a show about gangsters and hitmen.

->'''Hans''': He takes out from his pocket a .44, and checks it's loaded. (beat) [[LampshadeHanging I don't know why he checks it's loaded, surely he is the one who loaded it.]]

* ExecutiveMeddling: [[spoiler:Bonnie was supposed to die in the original script, but the studio nixed it. This is [[DevelopmentGag referenced by Billy]] when he says, "You can't let the animals die in a movie. Only the women."]]

* TheOtherDarrin: Justified by the dream sequence format: Martin's visualization of the tale of the Quaker psychopath has Harry Dean Stanton in the role. [[spoiler: We later learn that it was Hans, played by Christopher Walken.]]

** Before thinking of the Quaker psychopath, Marty originally planned on making a Buddhist psychopath. [[spoiler: At the end, thanks to Hans' suggestion, the Vietnamese psychopath is reimagined as a buddhist monk]].

* {{Deconstruction}}: Once the movie moves out to the desert, it becomes a strait up {{deconstruction}} of action and revenge films.

* FlatNo: [[spoiler: Hans when he gets a gun pointed at him.]]