History YMMV / DeathSentence

** Creator/KellyPreston's character getting killed by a gunshot wound to the chest in this film is now cringe-jerking following her untimely passing in 2020 of breast cancer.

* HarsherInHindsight: Creator/KellyPreston's character getting killed by a gunshot wound to the chest in this film is now cringe-jerking following her untimely passing in 2020 of breast cancer.

* TheyChangedItNowItSucks: Averted. Author Brian Garfield loved the movie adaptation and how it makes the same point about revenge he was trying to make in the novel.

* TooBleakStoppedCaring: On the one hand, Nick wants to protect his wife and remaining son from Billy and his gang of killers. On the other hand, he made himself out to be a RevengeBeforeReason-invoker. Therefore, it can be hard to root for him.

* Anvilicious: [[CycleOfRevenge Violence begets violence]], and vigilantism can leave you worse off than you started.

* SomeAnvilsNeedToBeDropped: [[CycleOfRevenge Violence begets violence]], and vigilantism can leave you worse off than you started.

* DarknessInducedAudienceApathy: On the one hand, Nick wants to protect his wife and remaining son from Billy and his gang of killers. On the other hand, he made himself out to be a RevengeBeforeReason-invoker. Therefore, it can be hard to root for him.

* HarsherInHindsight: Creator/KellyPreston's character getting killed by a gunshot wound to the chest in this film now cringe-jerking following her untimely passing in 2020 of breast cancer.

* OneSceneWonder: John Goodman as Bones Darley, not in the film much but he owns the role he's given.

* SomeAnvilsNeedToBeDropped: [[CycleOfRevenge Violence begets violence], and vigilantism can leave you worse off than you started.

* CrowningMomentOfFunny: Since G+ abilities are linked to creativity, Verity and Weasel are at one point pumped full of psychotropic drugs in order to see how it will affect their powers. HilarityEnsues.
* CrowningMomentOfHeartwarming: For all that Weasel is a selfish fuck-up, he genuinely loves his son.
* InferredHolocaust: It's mentioned at one point that by the time Verity and Weasel reach London, Monty has murdered over ''three million people''. [[spoiler:And by the end, central London has been nuked to hell in order to wipe Monty completely out of existence.]]

* CompleteMonster: [[BigBad David "Monty" Montgomery]] is a depraved, hedonistic comedian who ends up infected by the incurable G+ virus. Now with the powers of [[CompellingVoice hypnosis]] and telekinesis, Monty decides to make the most of his last months on Earth. Initially using his powers to force a nun into sleeping with him--[[SerialRapist not an isolated incident]]--Monty quickly thereafter rapes and murders the Queen of England before telekinetically [[YourHeadAsplode blowing up the skulls]] of the Royal Family and proclaiming himself King of England. After [[PsychicAssistedSuicide hypnotizing an entire battalion of soldiers numbering in the hundreds to kill themselves]]--and forcing seventy of the survivors to shoot themselves--Monty decapitates the Prime Minister to secure total reign over England. Monty quickly lavishes in his new position and turns London into his own private hellhole, influencing millions through public broadcast to engage in whatever depraved pursuits they want out in the streets while using his powers to pursue further sexual fantasies. Monty further engrosses himself by blowing up the heads of an entire crowd of people simply for annoying him, and once he learns a naval fleet has been sent out to stop him, Monty murders over a million people--[[WouldHurtAChild children not spared]]--in one fell swoop, using his telekinetic abilities to extend his range. Monty hypnotizes the captain to rape one of his own men before making the entire armada kill itself, finally necessitating a nuke dropped on central London purely for the purpose of wiping him out. Even after all the carnage and millions adoring him under his influence—and millions more dead—Monty admits he still isn't satisfied in the end. A degenerate narcissist who thoroughly undermines anything that could be considered a humane quality within him, Monty represents a picture of what a psychopath with no other resources might become with the powers to exercise whatever they might have wanted.

* CompleteMonster: David "[[BigBad Monty]]" Montgomery is a depraved, [[TheHedonist hedonistic]] comedian who ends up infected by the incurable G+ virus. Now with the powers of [[CompellingVoice hypnosis]] and telekinesis, Monty [[ForTheEvulz decides to make the most]] of his last months on Earth. Initially [[PowerPerversionPotential using his powers]] to force a nun into sleeping with him--[[SerialRapist not an isolated incident]]--Monty quickly thereafter rapes and murders the Queen of England before telekinetically [[YourHeadAsplode blowing up the skulls]] of the Royal Family and proclaiming himself King of England. After [[PsychicAssistedSuicide hypnotizing an entire battalion of soldiers numbering in the hundreds to kill themselves]]--and forcing seventy of the survivors to shoot themselves--Monty [[OffWithHisHead decapitates the Prime Minister]] to secure total reign over England. Monty quickly lavishes in his new position and turns London into his own private hellhole, influencing millions through public broadcast to engage in whatever depraved pursuits they want out in the streets while using his powers to pursue further sexual fantasies. Monty further engrosses himself by blowing up the heads of an entire crowd of people simply for annoying him, and once he learns a naval fleet has been sent out to stop him, Monty murders over a million people--[[WouldHurtAChild children not spared]]--in one fell swoop, using his telekinetic abilities to extend his range. Monty hypnotizes the captain to rape one of his own men before making the entire armada kill itself, finally necessitating a nuke dropped on central London purely for the purpose of wiping him out. Even after all the carnage and millions adoring him under his influence—and millions more dead—Monty admits he still isn't satisfied in the end. A degenerate narcissist who thoroughly undermines anything that could be considered a humane quality within him, Monty [[TheUnfettered represents a picture of what a psychopath with no other resources might become with the powers to exercise whatever they might have wanted]].

* MoralEventHorizon:
** Billy and his gang of killers crosses this when one of their members kills Nick's son, Brendan, during a gang initiation dressed up as a gas-station holdup. And if that wasn't enough, they [[spoiler:raid Nick's house later on in the film, with the leader himself fatally shooting Helen, the former's wife]].

* CompleteMonster: Monty. In the first issue alone, he rapes a nun, and only gets worse from there.

** Billy and his gang of killers crosses this when one of their members kills Nick's son, Brendan, at the gas station hold-up. And if that wasn't enough, they [[spoiler:raid Nick's house later on in the film, with the leader himself fatally shooting Helen, the former's wife]].

* CrowningMomentOfHeartwarming: For all that Weasel is a selfish fuck-up, he genuinely loves his son.

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* DarknessInducedAudienceApathy: On the one hand, Nick wants to protect his wife and remaining son from Billy and his gang of killers. On the other hand, he made himself out to be as bad as the killers themselves. Therefore, it can be hard to root for him.

* UnintentionallyUnsympathetic: It's hard to sympathize with Nick by the end of the movie, considering that it's his fault that he put his family in danger in the first place. Which is the message of the movie; vigilantism isn't all it's cracked up to be.

** Nick himself also crossed the line after he [[spoiler:killed Billy and the rest of the gang at the end, which goes to show that they're NotSoDifferent.]]

* UnintentionallyUnsympathetic: It's hard to sympathize with Nick by the end of the movie, considering that it's his fault that he put his family in danger in the first place.