[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/l_14204_0430105_d6ba4f41_4253.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:300:''[[TagLine They came home to bury mom...]] [[RoaringRampageOfRevenge and her killer.]]'']]

A 2005 crime thriller directed by Creator/JohnSingleton and loosely adapted from the 1965 Western ''Film/TheSonsOfKatieElder'', ''Four Brothers'' is a 2005 movie about what happens when beloved UsefulNotes/{{Detroit}} citizen Evelyn Mercer is murdered in a store heist.

Her four dangerous adoptive sons come to her funeral: Bobby Mercer (Creator/MarkWahlberg), Angel Mercer (Creator/TyreseGibson), and Jack Mercer (Creator/GarrettHedlund) join the regenerated ex-union leader, Jeremiah Mercer ([[Music/OutKast André 3000]]). They decide to investigate the murder, discover that her execution was intentional, and resolve to find the criminals by themselves.
----
!!This film provides examples of:

* AbusiveParents: At least two of the brothers, Bobby and Jack, are alluded to having these (either biological or foster) before Evelyn adopted them.
* AloofBigBrother: Bobby could be considered this prior to his mother's murder, although he becomes much more [[BigBrotherMentor involved]] after returning to Detroit.
* AnnoyingYoungerSibling: Jack is often treated like this, especially when he tries to act as the OnlySaneMan by telling his brothers to stop doing something dangerous or stupid. Unfortunately, he's often promptly told to shut up.
* AntiHero: Bobby. For starters, he's willing to walk into a high school basketball game with a gun and assault a player just to find a paid off witness to his mother's shooting.
* AsianStoreOwner: The owner of the store where Evelyn was killed is Middle Eastern. The clerk who was killed was likely one of his relatives as well.
* BadBoss: Victor Sweet. [[spoiler:This gets deconstructed as his abuse of his henchmen is what causes them to side with the Mercers against him.]]
* BatmanGambit: The brothers pull one off at the end, [[spoiler:exploiting Victor Sweet's BadBoss tendencies to turn his men against him while playing on the paranoia of DirtyCop Fowler to manipulate him into getting himself killed.]]
* BerserkButton: Don't ever hurt a member of Bobby Mercer's family or talk bad about Evelyn around Jack. Period.
* BigBad: Victor Sweet is the man behind Evelyn's death and is willing to kill the brothers to.
* BigBrotherBully: Bobby is this to his brothers, mainly to Jack.
* BigBrotherInstinct: The three oldest brothers all have this, but it's ''especially'' clear in Bobby.
* BigLittleBrother: The youngest of the four brothers, Jack, is by far the tallest. Coincidentally, Bobby is the shortest.
* BitchInSheepsClothing: Detective Flower seems like a hardworking and dedicated Police Officer but it’s revealed that he’s on Sweet's payroll and pretty much handed Evelyn to Sweet to be murdered. Bonus points for “Smiling Faces” being played in the background when Green sees through his innocent facade at the bar.
* BittersweetEnding: Victor Sweet is defeated in a fistfight, his empire turns against him, and [[spoiler:Dt. Fowler]] is shot dead, the brothers successfully avenging their mother. However, their journey came with more than a handful of deaths, including [[spoiler:Lt. Green]]. Most damning of all; out of the titular four brothers, [[spoiler:one of them doesn't make it to the end of the film.]]
* BoisterousBruiser: Bobby and Angel.
* ButtMonkey: Jack is the most unlucky of the brothers, and gets little respect form them while being dragged into the revenge game. Might also double as a CosmicPlaything. [[spoiler:He is also the only one who dies]].
* CarChase: Bobby, Angel, and Jack chase down the men who were [[spoiler:hired to kill their mother]] through Detroit during a blizzard.
** On rims when their front tires get shot.
* TheCasanova: Angel certainly acts like one, although the results can be questionable at times.
* ClusterFBomb: All over the place, especially if Bobby's in the scene.
* CoolAndUnusualPunishment: When the brothers find that Evelyn had been corresponding with a local attorney, they force him to tell them what he knows by giving him a pink-belly in the snow. (For the uninitiated, this is a tactic more suited to elementary school bullies than professional torturers). As it turns out, he and Evelyn had been dating in secret, and he had nothing to do with why she was killed.
* ColdBloodedTorture: Bobby is not at all above this if it gets him the information that he wants or the person killed a member of his family.
--> "Now I gotta light your ass on fire! All I wanted was a name, but you're gonna make me turn your ass into the black gingerbread man now!"
* CorruptPolitician: Councilman Douglas! Even Jeremiah [[LampshadeHanging lampshades]] this to Jack, who thought the city shut his project down.
-->'''Jeremiah:''' "Sweet owns Douglas! He ain't nothing but a gangster in a suit!"
* CrapsackWorld: Detroit is definitely portrayed as this.
* CreatorCameo: Jon Singleton is the goalie of the opposing hockey team during the [[UsefulNotes/IceHockey Turkey Cup]] scene.
* TheCutie: Jack is the most shy and least ruthless of the brothers.
* DarkAndTroubledPast: All of the brothers have this in spades.
* DidntThinkThisThrough:
** [[spoiler: Green finds Fowler at a bar, reveals he knows what he's up to, gets violent on him and therefore establishes himself as a threat...and then turns his back to him and walks out, as if expecting Fowler won't follow and retaliate. Sure enough, Green ends up getting shot]].
** [[spoiler: Fowler himself isn't very good at keeping his head during his EngineeredPublicConfession. Once he realised Angel had him on a wire, he would surely know that such a thing is hardly an admission of guilt and given Angel broke into his house and assaulted him could easily have covered up by saying he was threatened into confessing]].
* DirtyCop: [[spoiler:Detective Fowler]].
* TheDogBitesBack: Victor Sweet's abused underlings probably would have turned on him for free, but [[spoiler:the $400,000 Bobby bribes them with is enough for them to happily bury Sweet under a frozen lake once Bobby's done knocking the shit out of him]].
* DontTellMama: Implied to have happened quite often, both in the past and present. Of course, it's also stated that Evelyn always found out what they did anyways.
* TheDragon: [[spoiler:Detective Fowler]] is working for Sweet and carrying out a lot of his dirty work.
* EmbarrassingNickname: Jack has plenty including "Cracker Jack", "Jackie Poo" and "Little Fairy".
* EngineeredPublicConfession
* EstablishingCharacterMoment: Victor Sweet's first scene not only establishes his villain cred, but also his BadBoss tendencies; when an underling, Evan, goes to take a bite of food while Victor's dressing down his crew for hiring in-town shooters, Victor forces him to eat his whole meal off the floor. When Evan's girlfriend calls Victor out on it, he forces her to join Evan on the floor.
-->'''Victor''': ''[smugly as Evan eats]'' That's a good boy.
* EvenBadMenLoveTheirMamas: And how. Might as well be the film's tag line.
* EvenEvilHasLovedOnes: Several of Sweet's men, like Evan and Charlies, have wives, girlfriends and kids.
* FanDisservice: In the same scene in which we get FanService, Bobby is sitting on the toilet reading the newspaper. Angel tells him to light a match.
* FanService: Every brother but Bobby gets a shirtless scene and as a bonus Jack is completely naked in the shower. Also Sofi in her lacy bra and panties.
* FlawExploitation: The brothers brutally exploit Victor Sweet's [[spoiler:mistreatment of his workers, turning them against Sweet with the right incentive.]]
* FlippingTheBird: Numerous times, both by the brothers and the hired guns. The latter usage has [[TearJerker tragic results]].
* FoolishSiblingResponsibleSibling: Jeremiah and Jack are far more responsible and rational than their more impulsive and hot-headed brothers, Bobby and Angel. Making [[spoiler: Jack's death]] all the more surprising.
* FourTemperamentEnsemble: The brothers seem to fit this — Bobby is Choleric, Jeremiah is Melancholic, Angel is Sanguine, and Jack is Phlegmatic.
* FourIsDeath: Enforced then subverted.
* GoneHorriblyWrong: The brothers successfully track down and finish off their mother's killer, but they never anticipated losing [[spoiler:their youngest brother]] in the process.
* GoodIsNotNice: All four brothers, especially Bobby.
* GunsAkimbo: Angel dual wields two pistols in the shootout at the Mercer house.
* HappilyAdopted: Jack states in a deleted scene that they never went in search of their biological parents because Evelyn was enough.
* HappilyMarried: Jeremiah's wife is incredibly loving and understanding, Jeremiah thinks of her and the kids as he's stabbing a man to death.
* HairTriggerTemper: Bobby and Victor are both hot-heads. Bobby beats up people or holds them at gunpoint on a whim and Victor has some quite nasty BadBoss moments when disappointed by his men.
* HeroInsurance: The Mercer brothers commit numerous felonies throughout the movie, including home invasion, breaking and entering, and assault. They also murder several villains in cold blood after said villains have been disarmed and can't fight back.
* HighAltitudeInterrogation: PlayedForLaughs but [[spoiler:they drop him anyway.]]
* IdiotBall: Jack leaves the house to chase someone who cursed out his dead mom and assaulted him with a snowball; [[spoiler: it's bait to draw him out into the open and shoot him.]]
* ImpliedDeathThreat: Bobby and Angel love this trope, as does Victor Sweet and his cronies. However, by the climax, full-out [[IllKillYou death threats]] become more the norm.
* ImperialStormtrooperMarksmanshipAcademy: Despite having a huge numerical advantage, Sweed's assassins get slaughtered by the Mercers during the home shootout, mainly because most of them just stand out in the open and mindlessly "spray and pray" all their shots.
* InSeriesNickname: Bobby was known as the Michigan Mauler during his minor league ice hockey days.
* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: All of the brothers, but especially Bobby. He has a quick, violent temper and is prone to solving problems either with threats or guns. He's not above saying a Thanksgiving prayer, though, and cares very much about his mom and brothers. He's also seen crying no fewer than three times throughout the movie.
* KickTheDog: [[BadBoss Victor Sweet's]] usual way of punishment even going so far as forcing [[{{Mook}} Evan]] and his wife to eat food off of the floor for "sitting in his seat". He also demands that one of his mooks let him have sex with his fiancee. [[spoiler:Luckily, he never gets to.]]
* KillTheCutie: In classic Jon Singleton Style.
* KnightTemplarBigBrother: Bobby. He turns into this when any of his brothers are hurt, but especially Jack.
* LetsGetDangerous: Jeremiah is the most passive and level headed of the group. His wrestling match with Angel and confrontation shows that when he's pushed, he can even make Bobby Backdown.
* LyingToThePerp: [[spoiler:Fowler's ultimate demise.]]
* MachiavelliWasWrong: [[spoiler:Sweet's BadBoss tendencies are the source of his downfall.]]
* MamaBear: Evelyn in general, [[spoiler: but especially evident when she goes to the police after finding out that Victor Sweet was trying to illegally shut down Jeremiah's development project.]]
* ManlyTears : Many tears are shed, but especially Bobby.
* MistreatmentInducedBetrayal: [[spoiler:All of Victor Sweet's men turn against him after all the abuse he's heaped onto them.]]
* ModestyBedsheet: Sofi is introduced in her underwear, partially wrapped in a blanket running away with Angel from her previous boyfriend, who did not take them getting back together well.
* MommasBoy: Jerimiah was this to Evelyn and when he was accused by his brothers for playing a part in their mother's death to secure the $400,000 from their mother's life insurance, [[TheReasonYouSuckSpeech he reminded them why he is said trope.]]
* MookFaceTurn: [[spoiler:Victor Sweet's men turn against him, thanks to the brothers paying them money Sweet has been withholding. Sweet forgot the Union history with his men - Union guys stand up for their own rights.]]
* MoralityChain: Evelyn was this to the title characters. The film starts with her grisly murder, and then the boys find out that [[spoiler: this wasn't a random mugging, but she was ''executed'' per orders of the BigBad]].
* TheNapoleon: Victor is a shorter, hot-tempered and violent guy, albeit more in a SoftSpokenSadist way at times..
* NeverTrustATrailer: Many of the TV spots for the film made it seem like a comedy, with a scene leading to the death of a major character being taken out of context and PlayedForLaughs.
* NewOldWest: As mentioned, this is basically ''Film/TheSonsOfKatieElder'' transported to modern-day Detroit.
* NiceGuy: Jack and Jeremiah are far more approachable and friendly than Bobby and Angel .
* NoHoldsBarredBeatdown: During the shooting [[spoiler: when Jack is shot and killed]] Bobby is so enraged that Angel has to pull him off of the guy in mid-gunfight. [[spoiler:The next victim of his rage turns out to be Victor Sweet himself, and naturally, no one even tries to stop Bobby this time.]]
* NWordPrivileges: All of the characters do this, but Bobby is definitely the worse offender, especially since he's white and tends to drops N-bombs like candy whenever he's pissed off. This is likely a result of Bobby growing up with two black brothers and living in one of the roughest neighborhoods of Detroit.
* OnlySaneMan: Jack and Jeremiah often share this role.
* PapaWolf: Jeremiah slowly gets to this in the end.
* ParentalAbandonment: Angel and Bobby don't even have adoption papers.
* PlotAllergy: PlayedForLaughs briefly. Sofi is apparently allergic to latex and is mad when she finds Angel with a bag of latex condoms (althoguh he claims they were for his last girlfriend).
* PoliceAreUseless: The Detroit Police Department is depicted as being hopelessly corrupt and inept. The Mercer brothers are easily able to find clues to Evelyn's murder that the Detroit detectives somehow miss.
* PoliticallyIncorrectHero: Bobby says the N-word a lot and usually mocks Sofi with spanish idiomes.
* PreMortemOneLiner: "You killed my mother and [[spoiler:my little brother]], you motherfucker. Thank Victor Sweet!" [[BlackScreenOfDeath BANG!]]
* PyroManiac: Bobby seems to love playing with fire, to the point where Jerry is fearful for his house's safety. He also likes to threaten people with it.
-->'''Jeremiah:''' Do you remember when I built that tree house and you burnt that shit down? Boy, I wanted to kick your ass!\\
'''Bobby:''' Don't worry, your house is brick, I ain't gonna burn it down.
* TheReasonYouSuckSpeech: Jeremiah gives one to Bobby, Angel and Jack [[spoiler: when they accuse him of playing a part in their mother's death]].
-->'''Jeremiah:''' Y'all tripping because I made insurance payments? What? I paid all her bills! Where the fuck were y'all? Y'all were around doing nothing! Bullshitting!
* RedOniBlueOni: Bobby and Angel are as red as you can get, Jeremiah and Jack are quite clearly in the blue.
%%* {{Revenge}}
* RoaringRampageOfRevenge: The man plot of the movie [[spoiler: Doubly over when Jack dies to]].
* ScaryBlackMan: Angel likes to use this stereotype to intimidate people during interrogations.
* SceneryGorn: The depressingly colorless scenes of a rundown, desolate, and snowy UsefulNotes/{{Detroit}} are eerily haunting.
* SensitiveGuyAndManlyMan: Jack and Jeremiah are the Sensitive Guys to Bobby and Angel’s Manly Man.
* SiblingTeam: And probably [[MrFanservice one of the sexiest.]]
* TheSiege: Happens when Sweet's men goes to attack the Mercers at their home.
* TheSmartGuy: Jeremiah is the only brother whose really established himself in business and tries to stay out of the revenge scheme, but adds some smarts to it when he's brought in.
* SnowMeansDeath: Bobby and Angel [[spoiler: shoot their mother's killers]] in the middle of thick snow fall.
* SpicyLatina: Angel's on again-off again girlfriend, Sofi.
* SuspiciouslyAproposMusic: When Lt. Green goes to confront [[spoiler:Fowler]] at the bar, The Undisputed Truth's "Smiling Faces Sometimes" is playing on the jukebox.
* TeamMom: Sofi fills a bit of this role, living at the house, cooking for the brothers, helping bandage a cut on Bobby's arm, and showing concern for their safety [[spoiler:Such as when Jack has been shot.]]
* ATragedyOfImpulsiveness: [[spoiler: Jack's death from running outside after a snowballed.]]
* TokenGoodCop: [[spoiler:Lieutenant Green is a fair and diligent cop while his partner Fowler is corrupt, and most of the other detectives who appear are fine with brutalizing suspects to try and close a big case]].
* TooDumbToLive: [[spoiler: At first, Lt. Green appears to be the only competent cop in the DPD. This illusion is shattered near the end of the movie, when Green finds proof that Fowler is corrupt. He doesn't turn the evidence of Fowler's corruption over to his superiors on the force, nor does he tell any of his fellow cops, nor does he tell anyone else. Instead he goes to confront Fowler alone just to beat him up and then walk away, giving Fowler the perfect opportunity to murder him. Fowler then has no trouble covering up the murder since Green never told anyone he was dirty]]
* TragicKeepsake: Evelyn's rosary, which Bobby wears around his neck during the movie.
* TranquilFury: Bobby's final fight with [[spoiler: Sweet]].
* UnspokenPlanGuarantee: How the brothers [[spoiler: expose and take down Fowler, complete with a red herring of Sofi going to the cops.]]
* VigilanteExecution: The Mercer brothers take out many of Sweet's cronies and [[spoiler: eventually Sweet himself]] without any permanent legal repercussions.
* TroubledButCute: All the brothers seem to fit this.
* VillainProtagonist: Bobby is this or NominalHero.
* ViolenceDiscretionShot: Played straight with Evelyn's murder, but later subverted when Bobby watches the security footage and we see her being gunned down.
* ViolenceReallyIsTheAnswer: Jeremiah is depicted as being peaceful and lawful in contrast to his brothers. He tends to avoid participating in their violent acts for most of the movie, but the battle at the Mercer household pushes him to killing for the defense of his family.
* VitriolicBestBuds: Sofi and Bobby seem to be this, they argue and insult each other constantly but she seems to be the only person other than his brothers that he trusts to get stuff done.
* WeNeedADistraction: The kid pretending to sell Baby Ruth bars.[[spoiler: Angel uses him to ambush [[DirtyCop Detective Fowler]].]]
----