History Film / ToLiveAndDieInLA

* CouldHaveAvoidedThisPlot: Chance's scheme to rob the drug courier is this. Instead of reporting Ruth's tip to his superiors like he's supposed to, he decides to steal the courier's money so he can use it to get closer to Masters. [[spoiler: Had he actually shared the information with the rest of the department, he might have learned that the courier was an undercover FBI agent participating in a sting operation.]]

** For that matter, [[spoiler: Chance's entire sting operation to take Masters down falls into this. He's so impatient to get the money for Master's down payment demand that he follows the tip of his informant Ruth, who clearly resents him. This leads to him accidentally robbing an undercover FBI agent. Chance and Vukovich continue with the plan even though Masters knows they're lying about who they say they are (IE, he points out they don't have a tan despite supposedly being rich guys from Florida). When Chance makes the payment drop of $50,000, Masters all but says he knows Chance's methods to secure it were illegal, and thus pretty much everything Chance will get on him will be inadmissible.]]

** Also, Judge Cirillo and Thomas Bateman.

** For that matter, [[spoiler: Chance's entire sting operation to take Masters down falls into this. He's so desperate to get the money for Master's down payment demand that he follows the tip of his informant, (who clearly has issues with him) and accidentally robs an undercover fed. Worse is that he keeps going with the plan as-is despite Masters very clearly indicating that he knows they're not who they say they are (rich guys from Florida with no tan) and when Chance makes the down payment drop of the $50,000, Masters all but says he knows Chance's methods to secure it were illegal, and thus pretty much everything Chance will get on him will be inadmissible.]]

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* BoomHeadshot: Every other death in the movie is given this treatment; you'd be surprised at the amount of times someone is shot in the face in particular. The first is a shotgun to the head, and it's ''not'' a PrettyLittleHeadshot.

* BoomHeadshot: Every other death in the movie is given this treatment; you'd be surprised at the amount of times someone is shot in the face in particular.

* AllForNothing: [[spoiler: Chance's efforts to entrap Masters to arrest him are so heavily against the rules by the end that it's possible it would be inadmissible in court anyway. Then Chance and Jack kill each other during the money exchange, and in a final confrontation, Masters reveals to Vukovich that he knew about his and Chance's involvement in the death of Agent Ling through his attorney, Bob Grimes, and makes it clear that he knew all along that Chance was attempting to set him up and merely played along, likely because he figured, (along with the audience) that all of Chance's rule-breaking to get to him would indeed make everything inadmissible in court. The only thing that slightly goes Chance's way is that Vukovich kills Masters as Masters is attempting to kill him, and Chance kills Jack before he dies, thus getting some retribution over their involvement with killing Jimmy Hart, but Chance doesn't live to enjoy it.]]

* TheJoyOfX: Popularized the "To Live and Die in [[[CityOfAdventure X]]]" title in media.

* SpiritualSuccessor:
** The film looked and felt enough like ''Series/MiamiVice'' that Creator/MichaelMann tried to sue for plagiarism. He wasn't successful. Ironically, William Petersen's performance in the film is what convinced Mann to cast him in ''{{Film/Manhunter}}''.
** Well, maybe. William Friedkin has said that "Michael Mann and I have been good friends for 30 years".
** If you watch a double-bill of this and ''Film/RepoMan'', you'll notice that both films feature (a) cinematography by Robby Müller and (b) car chases in the LA storm drains.