History Film / ThePunisher2004

* {{Leitmotif}}: Saint's wife has one.

* AdaptationalAttractiveness: Joan the Mouse in the comics is a small, quiet, frumpy woman. In the movie she's played by Rebecca Romijn,--freaking Mystique herself.

* AdaptationalAttractiveness: Joan the Mouse in the comics is a small, quiet, frumpy woman. In the movie she's played by Rebecca Romijn,-freaking Mystique herself.

* BigApplesauce: Averted. Frank is nearly always depicted as a New Yorker, but this flick moves his story to Tampa. [[WordOfGod The DVD commentary]] reveals that the main reason to move to Tampa was Florida's tax incentives for film productions. The budget was too tight to film anywhere else.
** {{Hand Wave}}d by an exchange between Frank and his son, suggesting that his line of work has required the family to move several times.

* RichBitch: Livia Saint.

-->''Those who do evil to others - the killers, the rapists, psychos, sadists - you will come to know me well. Frank Castle is dead. Call me... The Punisher.''

* AdaptationDistillation: The film is largely composed of many characters or scenes from Garth Ennis' ''Welcome Back Frank'' arc. Frank's next-door neighbors in particular, The Russian, and Harry Heck (who even gets an upgrade over his original appearance where he was merely one of many hitmen that was hired to kill Frank that Frank assassinates in a single panel).

* ShoutOutToShakespeare: Frank's BatmanGambit against the Saints is very similar to Iago's plan in Theatre/Othello. See GuileHero above for how.

* ArmoredClosetGay: [Quentin Glass TheDragon], a secret that Frank used for his advantage.

* ArmoredClosetGay: [[Quentin Glass TheDragon]], a secret that Frank used for his advantage.

* ArmoredClosetGay: TheDragon, a secret that Frank used for his advantage.

* MistreatmentInducingBetrayal: Mickey turns into TheMole for Frank, who correctly guesses that Mickey doesn't want to spend the rest of his life as Howard Saint's lackey. He plays a crucial part in getting the pieces together to make Frank's BatmanGambit against Howard Saint work.

* DarkerAndEdgier: The film was basically the entire comic-book movie slate up to that point save for ''Blade'' and its sequels.

* ComicbookAdaptation: Like with the previous adaptation, it featured material that wa left out from the theatrical cut. See ReCut down below for more.

* KarmaHoudini:
** Jimmy Weeks. [[spoiler:That's if you watching the theatrical cut]].
** The theatrical cut leaves out the scene of Howard Saint blackmailing Weeks, making it seem like Weeks was innocent and his goons just figured out how to find Castle on their own.

* NeverBringAKnifeToAGunFight: Quoth Harry Heck;"You are one dumb son of a bitch. Bringing a knife to a gunfight." Little did Harry know, it was a spring-loaded ballistic knife.

* ActorAllusion: Frank says in response to someone acknowledging he's upset over his family's death: "I get '''upset''' when the Yankees win." This is both a MythologyGag, as Frank had always been depicted as a New Yorker, as well as an allusion to Thomas Jane's most famous prior role as Mickey Mantle in ''61*''

* CrazyJealousGuy: Howard Saint.

%%* ImplacableMan: The Russian.

* RevengeByProxy: Howard was content to simply have Frank killed in return for the death of his son, but it was his wife who insisted that Frank's entire family had to die, too.

* TranquilFury: While Frank's entire revenge is one big example, special mention goes to the scene where Quentin Glass and his gang torture Frank's neighbor David for info. David says nothing to rat out Frank and has all his piercings removed. In return the Henchman left guarding the complex gets brutally stabbed in the head with a paper cutter by Frank who moments before was forced to watch the poor guy through the entire torture, even blaming himself for the whole ordeal.

FBI agent Frank Castle (Thomas Jane) retires just after an undercover assignment that lead into the death of Bobby Saint, the son of famous Tampa crime boss Howard Saint (Creator/FrankSinatra). Holding Castle responsible for the death of his son, Saint orders Frank's entire family to be butchered during a family reunion; the kill squad leaves Frank for dead after slaughtering his family and killing his wife and son right before his eyes. Burnt out and taunted by memories of his murdered family, Frank returns to Florida and sets out to avenge his family. Becoming a one-man judge, jury and executioner, Frank decides to punish Howard Saint and his associates for their crimes -- and he isn't willing to give up until they're all dead.

* ActorAllusion: Thomas Jane, says in response to someone acknowledging he's upset over his family's death: "I get '''upset''' when the Yankees win." This is both a MythologyGag, as Frank had always been depicted as a New Yorker, as well as an allusion to Jane's most famous prior role as Mickey Mantle in ''61*''

* TrueCompanions: Frank doesn't believe he's friends with his neighbors. That changes when he gets to know them after he helped with Joan's boyfriend problem and [[spoiler:left them some of the stolen mob money he took early in the film]].
** This is cemented for him after the bad guys round up his neighbors and apply some ColdBloodedTorture to one of them to find out where Castle is. The guy doesn't talk. Later, Castle demands to know why. The reply? ''Because he's their friend.''

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