History Main / HardBoiled

!!This name may refer to the following:
----
* Film.HardBoiled: A critically-acclaimed 1992 action film by JohnWoo, starring Chow Yun-Fat and Tony Leung Chiu-Wai.
* Comicbook.HardBoiled: A 1990 three-issue comic book written by FrankMiller.

* Comicbook.HardBoiled: A 1990 three-issue comic book written by FrankMiller.

* Film.HardBoiled: A 1992 critically-acclaimed 1992 action film by JohnWoo, starring Chow Yun-Fat.

* Comicbook.DeadRingers: A 1990 three-issue comic book written by FrankMiller.

[[redirect:Film/HardBoiled]]

[[quoteright:212:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/hard-boiled_445.jpg]]

->''Give a guy a gun and he's Superman. Give him two and he's God!''
->-- '''Superintendant Pang''', on Tequila and his "attitude" with firearms

Hard Boiled is a critically-acclaimed action film by John Woo, starring Chow Yun-Fat in his slightly younger years. This 1992 action classic that has aged very gracefully, and boasts action very few modern contemporary films can match up to. Has a sequel in the form of a computer game called ''{{Stranglehold}}'', also produced by John Woo.

Hard Boiled is all about two cops - one undercover, another much maligned for always, always playing the Bad Cop (tm) - working together to bring down a gunrunning ring. There is plenty of plot in between which establishes the characters of Tequila (the Bad Cop) and Alan (the undercover cop) nicely.

But what you're here for are the action scenes, intricately choreographed and masterfully done by John Woo. What [[{{Film/ShootEmUp}} Shoot 'Em Up]] played for humor, Hard Boiled plays absolutely straight - and both movies end up totally awesome (for different reasons).

----
!!This film provides examples of:
* {{Badass}}: Pretty much all the cops, but especially Tequila and Alan.
* BadassAndBaby: One of the movie's most iconic moments is Tequila protecting a baby while blasting up bad guys during the finale of the hospital shootout.
* BeyondTheImpossible: If ''TheKiller'' took John Woo's trademark action tropes [[UpToEleven up to 11,]] then ''Hard Boiled'' took them [[MemeticMutation Over 9000.]]
* BlackAndGrayMorality: This film is your classic story of a cop who shoots first and asks questions later, and an undercover cop who kills people for the mob in order to maintain his cover, up against an ruthless gun smuggler and his gang.
* CoolGuns: Pick a modern automatic weapon on the list from before 1992. It ''will'' appear in this movie.
* CowboyCop: Tequila. Full stop.
* TheDanza: Tony is played by Tony Leung Chiu Wai.
* DieHardOnAnX: The second half of the movie can be best described as "Die Hard in a Hospital."
* EvenEvilHasStandards: Mad Dog
* EyeScream [[spoiler: Johnny Wong's death at the end of Tequila's gun. The climax of a series of [[BeyondTheImpossible ever-escalating]] [[CrowningMomentOfAwesome Crowning Moments Of Awesome.]]]]
** Also, Mad Dog.
** And a real life version: Tony Leung's eye was injured by explosion debris during the climax, with the shot of it happening remaining in the film.
* GoryDiscretionShot: While at the hospital, [[spoiler: Mad Dog uses a scalpel to kill an informant. Just we're treated to a close up shot of the scalpel being pressed against the informant's neck, we cut to a shot of his blood spraying across the window.]]
* GratuitousEnglish: Serves as an aid in decoding the cryptic messages left by Alan.
* GunsAkimbo: See the page quote, played straight with awesomeness.
* GunFu
* GunKata: WordOfGod has described the gunfights as "gun ballet."
* HeelFaceTurn: [[spoiler: Mad Dog, not that it helps him much]].
* HeroicBloodshed
* HeroicBSOD: Averted, Tequila talks Alan out of falling into one of these after realizing he may have shot a fellow cop.
** Which leads into a CrowningMomentOfFunny a moment later:
->[[spoiler: '''Alan''': Did I just shoot a cop?\\
'''Tequila''': Yes.\\
'''Alan''': ''Fuck'']]
* HeroicSociopath: [[AlternateCharacterInterpretation You can arguably describe]] Tequila as this.
* HonorBeforeReason: The cops, naturally. And quite surprisingly, even TheDragon of Johnny Wong.
* ImprobableAimingSkills: Par for the course on a John Woo movie, but deserving of special mention for one scene. Tequila has placed several rounds of gunpowder into a metal pipe, with a bullet covering the entrance. He fires a shot from at least seven feet away, one handed, and hits the bullet, blowing the gunpowder in the pipe. This description in no way reflects how awesome and impossible that is.
** He later uses this skill to [[spoiler:finally take out Johnny Wong with a MoeGreeneSpecial]].
*** Allan shooting the lighter when he was supposed to kill the informant for Johnny Wong.
* MadeOfIron: Another John Woo staple. Mad Dog loses or has an eye severely injured, and at one point suffers Tequila repeatedly punching it, apparently with no adverse affects. In the final shootout the characters take damage which would render normal people paralytic, instantly dead, or at least incapable of serious action, yet they never stop.
* MexicanStandoff: Between Tequila and Alan at the warehouse. [[spoiler: Allan refusing to shoot Tequila is his first clue that Allan's an undercover cop]]
* MoeGreeneSpecial: [[spoiler:Johnny's death]].
* MoreDakka: While played relatively straight with everyone else, it is allegedly averted by Tequila who we are informed "never wastes a slug."
* NeverHurtAnInnocent:
-->'''[[NobleDemon Mad Dog:]]''' Boss, let's set the patients free.
-->'''[[CompleteMonster Johnny:]]''' Oh, why do you care about what happens to them.
-->'''Mad Dog:''' [[EvenEvilHasStandards It's the decent and honorable thing to do.]]
-->'''Johnny:''' [[ScrewTheRulesIHaveMoney I'll run this show MY FUCKING WAY, thank you!!]]
** When Mad Dog and Alan's cataclysmic battle raged into the emergency ward, the found helpless patients, many on crutches suddenly trapped between them. Both men burned with bloodlust and hate to slay each other; [[CrowningMomentOfHeartwarming yet the cop and the gangster nodded at each other with brotherly understanding, lowered their weapons, and told the patients to quickly run before they would resume their duel]].
** Which is ruined by [[spoiler: Johnny and some of his men bursting in and simply killing the patients, causing Mad Dog to briefly switch sides]]
* NobleDemon: Johnny Wong's right hand man, Mad Dog, who wants to let the hostages at the hospital go and [[spoiler: eventually turns on Johnny when he kills some crippled patients just to get at Allan]].
* TheOner: The hospital's elevator scene.
* OutOfTheInferno: [[spoiler:Johnny Wong]].
* RedShirtArmy - Played straight with the cops at the teahouse, averted with the SWAT team at the hospital.
* RuleOfCool
* ShootTheDog: Johnny does it throughout the movie
* ShoutOut: See InfernalAffairs after watching HardBoiled or vice versa, notice something upon viewing? Hear that shouting?
** Tequila carrying a baby during the climax is a reference to the famous story of the ancient Chinese general Zhao Yun saving the infant son of his lord Liu Bei during the Battle of Chang-Ban. Woo later got to tell the original story in ''{{Red Cliff}}''.
*** Tony sends coded messages to the police by sending flowers to Teresa (Teresa Mo), a police secretary and Tequila's on-again, off-again girlfriend, with the message on the card. Before it's decoded, the message on the first card reads, "Are you somewhere feeling lonely/Or is someone loving you?", which is a lyric from Lionel Richie's "Hello".
* StuffBlowingUp: IN SPADES.
* TragicBromance: [[spoiler:Tequila and Alan]]
* WhatDoYouMeanItsNotSymbolic: The obvious example would be the birds, always with the damn birds, Mr. Woo.
----

* MexicanStandoff: Between Tequila and Alan at the warehouse.

* NobleDemon: Johnny Wong's right hand man, Mad Dog.

* ShootTheDog

* CompleteMonster: The BigBad, Johnny Wong.

* CrowningMomentOfAwesome: Many to speak of, most can be found in the hospital scene such as the infamous "2m42s" scene.

* EndingFatigue: The final hospital shootout lasts for ''half an hour''. Of course YourMileageMayVary as to whether that's a bad thing.

* TheWoobie: Tony Leung Chiu-Wai is good at playing the Woobie, and his character Alan is no exception.

** When Mad Dog and Alan's cataclysmic battle raged into the emergency ward, the found themselves between a group of helpless patients, many on crutches. The cop and the gangster nodded at each other with understanding, lowered their weapons, and told the patients to quickly run before they would resume their duel.

-->'''Johnny:''' [[ScrewTheRulesIHaveMoney I'll fucking run this show MY way, thank you!!]]

* WouldNotHarmAnInnocent:
-->'''[[NobleDemon Mad Dog:]]''' Boss, let's set the patients free.
-->'''[[CompleteMonster Johnny:]]''' Oh, why do you care about what happens to them.
-->'''Mad Dog:''' [[EvenEvilHasStandards It's the decent and honorable thing to do.]]
-->'''Johnny:''' [[ScrewTheRulesIHaveMoney I'll fucking run this show MY way, thank you!!]]

-->'''Mad Dog:''' [[EvenEvilHasStandards It's the honorable and decent thing to do.]]

->[[spoiler: '''Alan''': Did I just shoot a cop?\\
'''Tequila''': Yes.\\
'''Alan''': ''Fuck'']]

-->'''Johnny:''' [[ScrewTheRulesIHaveMoney I'll fucking run things the way I like, thank you!!]]

* BeyondTheImpossible: If ''The Killer'' took John Woo's trademark action tropes [[UpToEleven up to 11,]] then ''Hard Boiled'' took them [[MemeticMutation Over 9000.]]

** He later uses this skill to [[spoiler:finally take out JohnnyWong with a MoeGreeneSpecial]].

* NobleDemon: Johnny Wong's right hand man.

Hard Boiled is a critically-acclaimed action film by John Woo, starring Chow Yun-Fat in his slightly younger years. This 1992 action classic that has aged very gracefully, and boasts action very few modern contemporary films can match up to. Has a sequel in the form of a computer game called ''Strangehold'', also produced by John Woo.

Hard Boiled is a critically-acclaimed action film by John Woo, starring Chow Yun-Fat in his slightly younger years. This 1992 action classic, while looking a little dated by today's standards, boasts action very few modern contemporary films match up to. Has a sequel in the form of a computer game called ''Strangehold'', also produced by John Woo.

* EndingFatigue: The final hospital shootout lasts for ''half an hour''. Of course YourMileageMayVary as to whether that's a bad thing. This troper was shouting "[[WhyWontYouDie Aren't they all dead]] ''[[WhyWontYouDie yet]]''?" long before the end.

* EndingFatigue: The final hospital shootout lasts for ''half an hour''. Of course YourMileageMayVary as to whether that's a bad thing. This troper was shouting "[[WhyWontYouDie Aren't they all dead ''yet''?]]" long before the end.

* EyeScream [[spoiler: Johnny Wong's death at the end of Tequila's gun. The climax of a series of [[BeyondTheImpossible ever-escalating]] [[CrowningMomentOfAwesome Crowning Moments Of Awesome.]] ]]

* GunKata: WordOfGod has described the gunfights as "gun ballet".

* HonorBeforeReason: The cops, naturally. And quite surprisingly, even TheDragon of Johnny Wong.
* ImprobableAimingSkills: Par for the course on a John Woo movie, but deserving of special mention for one scene. Tequile has placed several rounds of gunpowder into a metal pipe, with a bullet covering the entrance. He fires a shot from at least seven feet away, one handed, and hits the bullet, blowing the gunpowder in the pipe. This description in no way reflects how awesome and impossible that is.

* MoeGreeneSpecial: [[spoiler:Johnny's death]]
* MoreDakka: While played relatively straight with everyone else, it is allegedly averted by Tequila who we are informed "never wastes a slug".

* OutOfTheInferno: [[spoiler:Johnny Wong]]

* StuffBlowingUp