Line #12 Film/PacificHeights


1	[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Pacific_Heights_02(1990).jpg]]
2	[[caption-width-right:300:''"[[{{Tagline}} It seemed like the perfect house. He seemed like the perfect tenant. Until they asked him to leave.]]"'']]
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4	''Pacific Heights'' (1990) is a {{thriller}} film directed by Creator/JohnSchlesinger, starring Creator/MelanieGriffith, Creator/MatthewModine, and Creator/MichaelKeaton.
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6	Patty Palmer (Griffith) and Drake Goodman (Modine) have just bought a large $750,000+ house in the UsefulNotes/SanFrancisco neighborhood of Pacific Heights, where they renovate it and plan to rent the two apartments on the ground floor in order to help cover the mortgage. When they meet Carter Hayes (Keaton), everything seems perfect, as he appears to be the ideal tenant... until they discover that he is a shady [[ConMan con artist]] who refuses to pay either the rent or the security deposit and changes the locks on all the doors.
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8	In short order, he inflicts a campaign of terror on his hapless landlords through scare tactics, verbal baiting and turning his own apartment into a dark cockroach-infested den. It is all part of Hayes' elaborate scheme to use the California tenant laws against the Goodmans to obtain the property cheaply.
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10	Ultimately, though, he goes too far, inspiring Patty to seek revenge.
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13	!! ''Pacific Heights'' contains examples of:
14	* AxCrazy: Hayes eventually becomes this after being at the receving end of having his own life ruined.
15	* CatScare: Involving a cat ''and'' a bird.
16	* DepravedBisexual: In the original script, Hayes was supposed to be bisexual and sexually menace both Patty and Drake. In the final version, it is merely suggested.
17	* FloorboardFailure: Damaged, rather than totally collapsed, floorboards play a key role in the climax. [[spoiler:Carter Hayes is impaled on gas pipes protruding from the floor because he himself had stolen the appliance they were attached to]].
18	* HoistByHisOwnPetard:
19	** Carter Hayes is [[spoiler:impaled on gas pipes protruding from the floor—protruding because he himself stole the appliance they were attached to]].
20	** Also, his own tactics are used against him by Patty; his habit of assuming the identity of his last victim [[spoiler:is what allows Patty to send him into financial meltdown and get him arrested]].
21	* HollywoodLaw: Hayes engages in various outrageous illegal acts against his landlords, who become legal victims as they are thwarted from any recourse by a system of indifferent police, judges and attorneys, as well as Hayes using [[OffOnATechnicality the loophole]]. This movie was a nonstop sequence of Hollywood Law and legal victim, as well as vigilante justice as the victims were driven to take the law into their own hands, which the police even stated would be the only real recourse.
22	* {{Hypocrite}}: Hayes [[spoiler:rants about how Patty's actions ruined his life by destroying his credit and poking around in his private life, proclaiming that she "crossed the line" even though he did everything he's accusing her of in the first place]].
23	* ImpaledWithExtremePrejudice: [[spoiler:Carter]], on a pipe, that he exposed himself. ''Irony...''
24	* LaserGuidedKarma: In the climax, Carter [[spoiler:is impaled on gas pipes which were exposed during his own theft of the appliance they were connected to.]]
25	* NeverMyFault: Hayes constantly flouts the law and habitually ruins people lives but, when Patty finally turns the tables on him and he experiences some consequences, he blames her for "crossing the line".

Context Film / PacificHeights