Line #16 YMMV/ToLiveAndDieInLA


1	* AlternativeCharacterInterpretation:
2	** Chance '''is this trope.''' Is he really despondent and vengeful over Hart's death, or is he using it as an excuse to [[ItAmusedMe feed his adrenaline addiction]]?
3	** Masters as well. Some see him as a MagnificentBastard, a WoobieDestroyerOfWorlds with StrawNihilist tendencies, or just a straight bad guy.
4	* SugarWiki/AwesomeMusic: The score by Music/WangChung, especially [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bf4x36XKhsM the theme song]] and [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=upgCCAUI6TI "City of Angels"]], is pure 80s goodness.
5	* BrokenBase: The jury is still out whether or not this movie is ''better'' than ''Film/TheFrenchConnection'' or simply one of Creator/WilliamFriedkin's best. Or just an average movie from a director with his glory days behind him but a long way still to go before hitting rock bottom.
6	* CaptainObviousReveal: It's pretty obvious it's Feds on Chance and Vukovich backs by the time they hit DownLADrain during the car chase sequence, as nobody else would have that kind of manpower and resources. Especially not after two lousy thieves.
7	* FoeYayShipping: Masters and Chance; the former certainly enjoys patting down the latter shortly before he tells him "You're beautiful." Chance later returns the favor, presumably sarcastically, but it's hard to be sure.
8	-->'''Masters''': Is this my package?
9	* ItWasHisSled: It's difficult to find anyone who's heard of this movie without them knowing of [[spoiler:Chance's death roughly fifteen minutes before the end.]]
10	* LesYay: Serena and Bianca have a bit of an unspoken relationship throughout the movie, culminating in a ''Film/ThelmaAndLouise'' moment at the very end. But before that, [[spoiler:they actually have sex. And Masters knows]].
11	* MoralEventHorizon: In the second half of the movie, [[spoiler:Chance himself crosses this when he robs Thomas Ling, the FBI agent. And if that wasn't enough, he doesn't bat an eyelash about it after Ling was accidentally shot by the men who were trying to rescue him.]]
12	* NightmareFuel: The deaths of Jimmy Hart and [[spoiler:Chance himself at the end]]. Arguably the most accurate depictions of a shotgun blast to the head ever caught on film. [[NauseaFuel And it works.]]
13	* OlderThanTheyThink: To modern audiences, it can seem like a litany of every [[TheEighties '80s]] and [[TheNineties '90s]] cop movie trope/cliche eventually parodied in ''Film/LastActionHero'' and the [=McBain=] movies-within-the-show on ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'' - from [[{{Retirony}} the cop days from retirement who gets killed on the job]] to the [[HollywoodCalifornia totally tubular LA setting]] to the exact line (''[[BeamMeUpScotty not]]'' [[BeamMeUpScotty uttered in]] ''Film/LethalWeapon''), "I'm getting too old for this shit." Except when you look closer, it turns out this movie predates TropeCodifier ''Film/LethalWeapon1987'' by two years and would have been well into production around the same time ''Series/MiamiVice'' debuted. To make it even weirder, pretty much all the things it "check-lists" are in fact {{Unbuilt Trope}}s, as the film is a deconstruction of various ideas that later became genre staples played straight.
14	* RetroactiveRecognition: Creator/GaryCole makes his uncredited film debut as the man chased by Richard Chance.
15	* SignatureScene: The against-the-traffic freeway chase.
16	* SpiritualSuccessor: This very much feels like a ''Series/MiamiVice'' film. So much that there was a story that Creator/MichaelMann sued Creator/WilliamFriedkin for plagiarism.
17	* TooBleakStoppedCaring: Especially considering it was a throwback to grim and gritty 70s-era crime films during a decade when feel-good, BlackAndWhiteMorality action films were the order of the day.
18	* VindicatedByHistory: When first released, the film was treated with "[[SoOkayItsAverage meh]]" reviews and vanished at the box office. It has since been reevaluated, with some saying it is as good as, if not ''better'', than ''Film/TheFrenchConnection''.

Context YMMV / ToLiveAndDieInLA