Line #9 Film/BeforeTheDevilKnowsYoureDead


1	[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/beforedevilknowsdead_poster.jpg]]
2
3	->''"May you be in heaven a full half-hour [[TitleDrop before the devil knows you're dead]]."''
4	-->-- '''Irish proverb'''
5
6	''Before the Devil Knows You're Dead'' is a 2007 CrimeDrama directed by Creator/SidneyLumet in his last film, starring Creator/PhilipSeymourHoffman, Creator/EthanHawke, Creator/MarisaTomei, Creator/AlbertFinney, Creator/RosemaryHarris, and Creator/AmyRyan, scored by Music/CarterBurwell.
7
8	----
9	!''Before the Devil Knows You're Dead'' provides examples of the following tropes:
10
11	* AlliterativeName: '''H'''ank '''H'''anson.
12	* AnachronicOrder: The film portrays its chronological events in order of sequential, unraveling [[TheReveal reveals]] after the robbery.
13	* BigBrotherInstinct: Dex might be a menacing bully towards Hank, but, when all is said and done, he's looking out for his sister.
14	* {{Blackmail}}: Dex threatens to either kill Hank or go to the cops if Hank doesn't provide financial support for his sister Chris, now widowed because of Bobby getting shot during the robbery.
15	* CainAndAbel: Andy is Cain to Hank's Abel.
16	* TheDandy: Andy's drug dealer, a 20-something man who dresses and wears his hair in an effeminate style, insinuating that he's gay.
17	* DisappearedDad: ''Hank'', of the deadbeat sort. He's three months behind in child support and fails at his promise to pay for a special school outing his daughter wants to go on, resulting in her being humiliated in front of her classmates. Sadly, unlike most examples, he actually loves his daughter, he's just incapable of providing for her.
18	* DownerEnding: [[spoiler: Andy and Hank's mother is dead, Andy murders three people, Charles smothers Andy to death with a pillow, and [[SlidingScaleOfIdealismVersusCynicism everybody who's still alive is facing a bleak, meaningless existence for the rest of their lives]].]]
19	* ExtremeDoormat: To say that Hank's a pushover would be an understatement.
20	* FaceDeathWithDignity: At one point during their disastrous escape attempt, [[spoiler:Hank]] is about to let [[spoiler:Andy]] shoot him dead. [[spoiler:But then Chris shoots Andy from behind.]]
21	* GoneHorriblyWrong: Andy's plan [[spoiler:to rob his parent's jewellery store, trusting them to collect insurance afterwards so that, essentially, they lose nothing]] falters[[spoiler: because, firstly, he doesn't consider the possibility of Hank (the one he tasks to perform the crime) requesting help from a fourth party; secondly, he doesn't expect Hank to involve a gun (neither does Hank - it's introduced by the fourth party); and, thirdly, he doesn't anticipate his mother to retaliate]].
22	** Actually, [[spoiler: he doesn't expect his mother to even be there. His parents' elderly employee Doris was supposed to be working that day.]]
23	* IdiosyncraticWipes: The events transition via strobing and accelerating back-and-forth cuts of the current scene with the upcoming one.
24	* IdiotBall: Andy trusting Hank to handle the robbery, given what a screw-up he clearly is, and Hank bringing in someone else kicks off the downfall of the plot.
25	* InformedAbility: Bobby is supposedly an experienced thief, but he does a crappy job during the robbery and gets shot by Nanette.
26	* IronicEcho: [[spoiler: Andy being shot by Bobby's widow while threatening to shoot Hank is similar to the beginning where Bobby is shot by Nanette during the robbery.]]
27	* {{Jerkass}}: [[{{Deconstruction}} Deconstructed]]: all the main cast (excluding Nanette) qualify, but each is given a scene in which their despicability is explained as stemming from very natural, existential concerns.
28	* JerkassHasAPoint: Andy kills Dex after truthfully deducing that he would have never stopped harassing him and Hank for money. And as cited above, nearly everyone, as bad as they are, says something completely valid at some point
29	* OohMeAccentsSlipping: Occasionally, Creator/AlbertFinney's British accent shines.
30	* ParentalFavoritism: [[spoiler: At Nanette's (Hank and Andy's mother's) funeral, Charles tries to apologize to Andy for preferring Hank because he didn't want the former to end up like him.]]
31	* PetTheDog: After all the chaos at Chris' place, Hank hands her a wad of money.
32	* PlethoraOfMistakes: It's all contained within the first event portrayed[[spoiler: - the robbery that completely, utterly, and spitefully misfired]].
33	* RunForTheBorder: Andy plans to go to Brazil to escape prosecution for stealing from his business.
34	* RRatedOpening: The opening shot is a sex scene between [[FanService Marisa Tomei]] and Philip Seymour Hoffman.
35	* ShoutOut: "Did you touch anything?" "I don't think so." "You don't THINK SO?" very closely echoes a similar conversation in Lumet's ''Film/FamilyBusiness''.
36	* SiblingsInCrime: Andy schemes the crime, but Hank performs it, as Andy fears he might be recognized.
37	* SickbedSlaying: [[spoiler: Andy dies this way at [[OffingTheOffspring Charles']] hands.]]
38	* ASimplePlan: Robbing your parent's store, attended by a harmless elderly woman. A victim-less crime because insurance will fully compensate their parents for the stolen items.
39	* SlidingScaleOfIdealismVersusCynicism: It's about as far from idealism as you can get and still be considered realist.
40	* StealingFromTheTill: Andy sets everything in motion because he faces an upcoming audit that will reveal his having embezzled from his employer [[HarsherInHindsight to fund a heroin addiction]].
41	* {{Tragedy}}: [[spoiler:With Andy as the [[TheProtagonist protagonist]] and Hank as the [[{{Deuteragonist}} deuteragonist]], their tragedies unfold accordingly: Andy - who plotted and instigated the robbery and coerced Hank - is murdered for the [[{{Patricide}} death of Nanette]] by [[OffingTheOffspring Charles]], while Hank - who, while attempting to cope with his guilt, [[DefiedTrope contemplated]] [[DrivenToSuicide over-dosing]] - escapes the final crime scene with most of the money to an unknown future.]]
42	* ATragedyOfImpulsiveness: Man, if Hank had only stuck to the plan....
43	* TragicMistake: In the overall scheme of things, it's the robbery and, within that, bringing in Bobby Lasorda to do the actual robbery.
44	* UglyGuyHotWife: Andy and Gina. Strangely, ''she's'' the InsecureLoveInterest in need of his assurance that he loves her. And with good reason, as he's so pre-occupied with his problems that he's completely oblivious to how unhappy she is[[spoiler:, and that she's having an affair with Hank]].
45	* VillainousBreakdown: Andy performs this within his car next to Gina, [[FreudianExcuse openly, angrily, and tumultuously declaring his animosity, bitterness, pain, and grief towards Charles]] [[ChewingTheScenery in a heated display]]. Gina initially attempts to calm him, then she scolds him.
46	* TheVillainKnowsWhereYouLive: Dex subtly demonstrates this when he takes Hank's driver's license.
47	* VillainProtagonist: Andy and Hank qualify[[spoiler:, with Andy as the instigator and Hank as the executor of the robbery]].
48	* VorpalPillow: [[spoiler: Charles performs this on Andy.]]

Context Film / BeforeTheDevilKnowsYoureDead