Line #3 Film/HeWasAQuietMan


1	[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/he_was_a_quiet_man.jpg]]
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3	''He Was a Quiet Man'' is a 2007 drama film written and directed by Frank Cappello, starring Creator/ChristianSlater, Creator/ElishaCuthbert, and Creator/WilliamHMacy.
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5	Bob Maconel (Slater) is an office drone who fantasizes about killing his co-workers with the gun he keeps in his desk. One day, after loading his gun and dropping a bullet, Maconel hears gunshots being fired; the man in the cubicle beside him, Ralf Coleman, has apparently gone postal. After a brief conversation, Maconel guns down Coleman and becomes a hero, also saving the life of Venessa (Cuthbert), although she is rendered quadriplegic by the bullet that hit her. Even as Maconel is hailed as a hero, gets promoted to upper management by his boss (Macy), and slowly wins over Venessa, he can't help but feel out of place in this world.
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7	Not to be confused with ''Film/TheQuietMan''.
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11	!!This film exhibits the following tropes:
12	* AccidentalHero: Bob Maconel was planning on GoingPostal in his office building, but a similarly maladjusted co-worker beats him to it by roughly a minute. Bob shoots the co-worker with the gun he was carrying at that moment, and is suddenly hailed by his company and the media as a hero.
13	* CountingBullets:
14	** An understated version at the beginning of the film. Maconel counts the number of shots he fires, six. [[spoiler:This reveals the ending, because he'd dropped one of his six bullets and never retrieved it.]]
15	** Both Maconel and Coleman reveal that they planned on saving the sixth bullet for themselves, but never got a chance to use it.
16	* DyingDream: [[spoiler:In the cinematic ending, and in one of the alternate endings, it's revealed that the whole thing is a dying dream, either from Maconel shooting himself in the head, or being shot.]]
17	* GoingPostal: Maconel was planning to do this at the beginning. He's beaten to the punch by his co-worker, but ends up killing the co-worker with the gun he brought himself and is [[AccidentalHero unexpectedly hailed as a hero by his bosses]].
18	* ImaginaryFriend: Bob's only friend is his pet fish. ''Who talks to him''.
19	* LonersAreFreaks: Even after he's hailed as a hero, people still see Maconel and his antisocial behavior and recoil from him.
20	* SignificantAnagram: Maconel (the protagonist) and Coleman (the co-worker GoingPostal in the beginning), hinting that [[spoiler:Coleman is merely a figment of Maconel's imagination]].
21	* TragicallyDisabledLoveInterest: Venessa becomes one for Maconel after she loses the use of her legs as a result of the office shooting and is confined to a wheelchair. He feels responsible for her in part because he feels guilty first that he didn't save her from being shot and later [[spoiler:that he couldn't finish the job]]. At one point, she tries to get him to help her commit suicide by letting her chair roll onto a subway track right before the train comes.

Context Film / HeWasAQuietMan