Line #49 Film/CollateralDamage


1	[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/cdamage_1060.jpg]]
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3	->'''El Lobo''': The fireman, huh?
4	->'''Gordon Brewer''': The coward who kills women and children.
5	->'''El Lobo''': You Americans are so naive. You see a peasant with a gun on the news, you change channels. But you never ask, "Why does a peasant need a gun?" Why? You think you're the only ones who can fight for independence?
6	->'''Gordon Brewer''': Independence to do what? Kill my wife and son?
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8	''Collateral Damage'' is an action thriller from 2002, directed by Creator/AndrewDavis and starring Creator/ArnoldSchwarzenegger.
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10	After his family is killed in an explosion caused by Colombian terrorist El Lobo (Creator/CliffCurtis), Los Angeles fireman Gordon Brewer sets out to get him.
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12	Originally set to be released in October of 2001, the film had to pushed to early 2002 [[DistancedFromCurrentEvents due to the 9/11 attacks]].
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14	----
15	!!This film has the examples of:
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17	* AlasPoorVillain: Brewer seems to have this reaction silently when seeing Felix is executed because of him, as despite having been working with the guerrillas and producing drugs he had been quite friendly to him.
18	* ArcWords [=/=] CatchPhrase: El Lobo's "Sangre o Libertad" (meaning "blood or liberty").
19	* ArchEnemy: Gordon Brewer has Claudio "El Lobo" Perrini, the terrorist leader who killed his family.
20	* BatterUp: Gordon, in his anguish, thrashes the Colombian group's office with a baseball bat when he hears his family referred to as "[[TitleDrop collateral damage]]".
21	%%* BattleAmongstTheFlames: The final showdown.
22	%%* BigBad: Claudio Perrini, a.k.a. El Lobo (The Wolf).
23	* BigNever: A variant occurs in the final showdown:
24	-->'''Gordon:''' It's over!
25	-->'''[[spoiler:Selena]]:''' It's ''never'' over!
26	* BigNo: Gordon lets one out when he sees his family getting killed by the terrorist bomb at the beginning.
27	%%* BoomHeadshot: [[spoiler: How Brandt dies]]
28	* CharacterTic: The ALC spokesperson has a habit of ending their video by smacking their hands. [[spoiler: Gordon noticed Selena doing it at her son.]]
29	%%* ChekhovsGun: The video claiming the authority of the bombing.
30	* ChekhovsSkill: Gordon is a fireman. This comes in handily when he wants to get access to a bombing place (he can help), escaping a building on fire (he remains calm and knows how to avoid the flames), vividly describing Armstrong what the effects of being burned alive are in order to frighten him, and using a fireman's ax as a weapon in the movie's climax.
31	* CIAEvilFBIGood: Averted. The CIA are depicted as protagonists, particularly Brandt, although a bit shady.
32	%%* DarkActionGirl: [[spoiler:Selena.]]
33	* RetroactiveRecognition: Bill Hader has a cameo as a helicopter pilot in a deleted scene. He worked as Schwarzenegger's production assistant in the movie,
34	* DarkerAndEdgier: Along with ''Film/EndOfDays'', when compared to other Arnold films.
35	* DeathByCameo: Arnold's buddy Sven-Ole Thorsen appears briefly as a man smoking a cigarette right before the fateful explosion happens.
36	%%* TheDragon: [[spoiler: Selena.]]
37	* EvenEvilHasLovedOnes: [[spoiler: After Gordon kills Selena in self-defense, Claudio's reaction is of similar anguish as Gordon had about him killing his own family.]]
38	%%* EvilVersusEvil: How the Colombian Conflict is portrayed.
39	%%* GenderIsNoObject: For the ALC.
40	* GuileHero: Despite it being an action movie Gordon does almost no fighting and instead relies on outsmarting the bad guys.
41	%%* HappilyAdopted: [[spoiler: Implied to be the case with Selena and El Lobo's son.]]
42	* HighVoltageDeath: [[spoiler: How Selena is killed when Gordon throws her onto the exposed circuitry of the control panel.]]
43	* LatinoIsBrown: Chocó, Colombia, where Gordon travels to is in real life almost completely inhabited by black people. However, not a single black person appears in the film; all its inhabitants are brownish.
44	* ManBitesMan: Gordon bites one of the terrorist during an escape attempt, [[EarAche tearing off his ear]].
45	* {{Mangst}}: The first ten minutes or so are Gordon wallowing in angst (while occasionally beating things up); the rest of the movie is him beating things up (while occasionally wallowing in angst).
46	* MeleeATrois: Once Gordon arrives in Colombia, it's between him versus the guerrilla versus the paramilitaries.
47	* NeckSnap: How [[spoiler: Selena kills the FBI agent watching her]].
48	* NoHoldsBarredBeatdown: Claudio delivers a brief but brutal one to Gordon after [[spoiler:Gordon kills Selena]] in the climax.
49	* NotSoDifferentRemark:
50	** The Colombian spokesman points that the Los Angeles bombing is par for the course in Colombia, both by the guerrillas and paramilitary factions supported by the United States.
51	** Claudio tries to invoke this with Gordon, citing his own PapaWolf-related StartOfDarkness. However Gordon invokes ShutUpHannibal by stating that he has no intention of likewise becoming a full-blown terrorist, instead focusing his {{revenge}} on just Claudio himself.
52	* OccupiersOutOfOurCountry: The Americans, of course. Pretty much the reason why they launched the attack that killed Gordon's family.
53	-->'''El Lobo![[spoiler:Selena]]:''' We'll continue to strike until the American public finally realizes this war's price is one they cannot afford. Get out of Colombia, ''now.''
54	* OutrunTheFireball: In the climax, Gordon runs away from a massive explosion as El Lobo and [[spoiler: Selena]] take aim at him while chasing him on a motorcycle.
55	* AMillionIsAStatistic: The TitleDrop dismissal of the casualties of the bomb (including Gordon's family) as "collateral damage", less important overall next to the ALC's political statement.
56	* PapaWolf: Gordon. With his own son, he is out to kill the guy who killed him (with a side of CrusadingWidow, as well). With Selena's kid, he is willing to risk himself so the kid will not become collateral damage to his own RoaringRampageOfRevenge.
57	* Post911TerrorismMovie: This movie was actually affected by the 9/11 attacks.
58	* TheReveal: [[spoiler:Selena is the ALC spokesman.]]
59	* RoaringRampageOfRevenge: Gordon is just a fireman. He decides to take on a Colombian cartel/terrorist organization in revenge for his dead family.
60	* SlidingScaleOfSillinessVsSeriousness: Again, very serious when compared to other Arnold films.
61	* SmallReferencePools: Averted to some degree. While obviously a Hollywood action flick, the movie cares to differentiate between the Colombian government, the ''guerrillas'' (ALC), the paramilitaries and the US government[=/=]CIA[=/=]DEA.
62	* SomethingOnlyTheyWouldSay: A variation as Brewer is hit by how the Wolf's video has him using [[spoiler: the same hand gestures Selena uses]] and realizes they're the same person.
63	* SpottingTheThread: late in the film right before the third act, [[spoiler:Gordon suddenly deduces Selena to be the ''actual'' terrorist leader, "The Wolf", after seeing her made a hand gesture similar to one used in the Wolf's ransom video]].
64	* TechnicalPacifist: Unlike other action movies dealing with terrorists, Gordon never uses a firearm at all to kill anyone. Even in the scene when escaping from a police roadblock in Colombia and disarming an officer's AR-15, [[DoesntLikeGuns he just throws it away the instant he gets shot at]].
65	* TitleDrop: A man from the Colombian embassy that is interviewed dismisses the deaths of Gordon's wife and son (and the other people who died on the bombing) as "collateral damage" to El Lobo's political statement. [[RageBreakingPoint This makes Gordon snap]] [[BatterUp and wrecks the man's offices with a baseball bat]] [[PreAssKickingOneLiner while]] [[MadnessMantra yelling]] "Here's your damn collateral damage!!".
66	* ThrowingYourSwordAlwaysWorks: Gordon throws an ax to kill [[spoiler: El Lobo]]
67	* TooMuchInformation: Gordon tells Armstrong in vivid detail what will happen to him if he burns alive, while being caged in a burning jail, in order to convince him to give his safe-conduct.
68	* WellIntentionedExtremist: What the Colombian diaspora in Los Angeles thinks of the FARC. The CIA is willing to do (covert) total war on the ALC as well, risking hurting innocents with carpet bombing, because they think killing a bunch of determined terrorists is better than the alternative.
69	-->'''Brandt''': I fight terrorists with terror!
70	* WesternTerrorists: The ALC. Based out of Colombia, get funding from drugs, destroy American lives.
71	* WorkingClassHero: Gordon. He is not the typical OneManArmy Arnold plays, he is "just" a fireman.
72	* WouldHitAGirl: [[spoiler: A self defense example. After she starts inflicting a NoHoldsBarredBeatdown on him, Gordon elbows Selena and throws her headfirst into an electrical panel during the climax]]
73	* WouldHurtAChild: [[spoiler: Selena left her son behind to die in the explosion because he doesn't support his parents' cause. Fortunately, Gordon gets rid of the bomb after realizing Selena was the FARC spokesperson. El Lobo doesn't seem to mind that she left their son behind.]]
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Context Film / CollateralDamage