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[[quoteright:260:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/gran_torino_poster.jpg]] [[caption-width-right:260: "Get off my lawn..."]]

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->''"This year, you have to make a choice between two life paths. Second chances comes your way. Extraordinary events culminate in what might seem to be an anticlimax. Your lucky numbers are 84, 23, 11, 78, and 99. What a load of shit."''
-->-- '''Walt Kowalski''', reading a newspaper

''Gran Torino'' is a 2008 film, directed by and starring Creator/ClintEastwood, in what was once rumoured to be his final onscreen performance[[note]]It wasn't; he later had lead roles in ''Film/TroubleWithTheCurve'', ''Film/TheMule'', and ''Film/CryMacho'' as well as a cameo in ''Film/AmericanSniper'' since[[/note]].

He plays Walter "Walt" Kowalski, an elderly retired veteran of UsefulNotes/TheKoreanWar living in Highland Park, Michigan (a rundown suburb of UsefulNotes/{{Detroit}}), shortly after the death of his wife. He has difficulty relating to his two grown-up sons, who are caught up in their own lives, and generally disapproves of the way the world is changing, such as the influx of the ''Hmong'' People, immigrants who fled Laos after UsefulNotes/TheVietnamWar.

Next door is Thao Vang Lor, a quiet boy who is pressured into joining his cousin Spider's gang. As part of his "initiation", Thao is pressured to steal Walt's prized possession, a 1972 Ford Gran Torino, but fails, and is caught. For dishonoring his family, Thao's mother asks Walt to accept Thao's help in doing chores around his house, which leads to an OddFriendship. Spider, upset at Thao's rejection of his gang, begins to retaliate against the family, forcing Walt to intervene.

Not to be confused with the series ''Videogame/GranTurismo''. Or the ''Manga/MyHeroAcademia'' character.
----
!!This film provides examples of:
* ActorAllusion: Walt's pictures of the Korean War are stills from ''Film/KellysHeroes''.
* AffectionateGestureToTheHead: Walt pats the head of a child in a Hmong household as a gesture of kindness; the family of the child is shocked by this due to their cultural differences.
* AntiClimax: [[spoiler:Walt's confrontation with the gang members at their house is framed like a massive gunfight is going to happen, like the one from the finale of ''Film/{{Unforgiven}}''. Then Walt reaches into his jacket... and is promptly riddled with bullets, and falls over dead. [[HeroicSacrifice Exactly as Walt planned]]: an entire neighborhood that had been scared into silence by the gang or were unwilling to snitch because of cultural ties was now motivated to talk to the police, and no judge would side with a gang of known hooligans over a white, decorated and more importantly ''[[ShootHimHeHasAWallet unarmed]]'' war veteran who they murdered in cold blood in the street.]]
* ArtisticLicenseCars:
** Walt claims to have installed the steering wheel in his Gran Torino. All Gran Torinos were assembled in Lorain, Ohio, not the Metro Detroit area Ford Plant.
** Walt's Torino's license plate has three letters, followed by three numbers followed by one letter on a white background with a blue top band. Michigan license plates have three letters followed by four numbers. However, since he's owned it and the truck since new (and Walt being a GrumpyOldMan is unlikely to turn in still valid plates for new ones), they should both have the early 70s pattern license plate with three letters followed by three numbers on a red background.
* AsiansEatPets: The grumpy old man protagonist pesters his Hmong neighbors with dog-eating remarks. In turn Sue, the young neighbor, snarks they only do cats. He seems to be confused about whether or not to believe in the stereotype, but is willing to give them some trust over the matter. [[spoiler:In the end, when his last will is read, it turns out he wished to leave his dog in their care on the condition they won't eat him.]]
* AwesomeMcCoolname: It’s implied that Spider gave himself the nickname because he thought it sounded cooler than his actual name, Fong. Sue apparently disagrees with this notion as she mocks him for what she sees as an AtrociousAlias.
* BadassBoast: Walt has a few:
** "Ever notice how you come across somebody once in a while that you shouldn't have fucked with? That's me."
** "Yeah, I blow a hole in your face and then I go in the house and I sleep like a baby. You can count on that. We used to stack fucks like you five feet high in Korea ... used you for sandbags."
* BaitTheDog: When Thao is being harassed by a gang of Mexican thugs, Spider and his gang come over to scare them off. At first, it seems like they're protecting Thao. However, as the film progresses, it becomes more or less clear that their first act of kindness was not at all genuine.
* BatmanGambit: Walt's plan to deal with Spider's gang is to [[spoiler:spook them into using their itchy trigger fingers, gunning him down. He turns up unarmed, and creates a ruckus so people will watch his murder. As a result, Spider's gang is arrested for murdering an unarmed old white war hero. He's lucky that the whole gang opens fire on him and not just one or two of them]].
* BerserkButton: It's [[HairTriggerTemper hard not to press Walt's]]: it is best not to steal his Gran Torino, get him to move into a retirement home, or, in a more heartwarming example, hurt Thao and Sue.
* BigBrotherInstinct: Played straight with Sue when she [[WrestlerInAllOfUs bulldogs]] one of Spider's boys trying to kidnap Thao.
* BilingualBonus: Most of the Hmong dialogue is untranslated, and that which does get translated is by interpreters in the scene rather than for the audience's benefit.
* BittersweetEnding: [[spoiler:Walt is dead, but he was terminally ill anyway and his sacrifice lets justice be done. Thao gets the Torino, and has a bright future ahead of him, but Sue is traumatised after being gang-raped, and doesn't seem to be on the way to making any sort of recovery.]]
* BleakAbyssRetirementHome: If Walt had let his son force him into a nursing home, odds are it would have been one of these. Walt certainly expects this trope to be in effect.
* BloodFromTheMouth: Walt periodically [[IncurableCoughOfDeath coughs up blood]] throughout the movie, [[spoiler:{{foreshadowing}} his eventual death -- though, interestingly, it's not whatever's causing that cough that does him in.]]
* BookEnds: A funeral.
* BoomerangBigot: Walt is a white Pole who throws derogatory slurs at everyone, including Poles and whites.
* BrattyTeenageDaughter: Ashley Kowalski, ''grand''daughter in this case. She smokes in Walt's garage and starts tactlessly asking for his possessions after he dies.
* BrickJoke: The gifts Walt receives from the Hmong neighbors after saving Thao. He at first doesn't want them, but then relents as persuading them doesn't work. So he tells them where to place them. Later on, when he's had enough and tried to persuade them again, one of them brings him a chicken dumpling meal, which he earlier enjoyed at the BBQ, which he accepts.
* CollateralAngst: [[spoiler: Sue spends most of the film as an engaging, intelligent, and interesting character. However, after she is beaten and gang-raped in order to motivate Walt's HeroicSacrifice, that's it for her agency, and even dialogue, for the rest of the film. We only see her again, still bruised and shell-shocked, in the congregation at Walt's funeral]].
* ComingOfAgeStory: A delayed example -- Walter Kowalski, even when he is a senior who has raised a family, still lives emotionally as [[ShellShockedVeteran the young soldier that crossed]] the MoralEventHorizon during the UsefulNotes/KoreanWar. He must [[HeelRealization assume]] he is a {{grumpy|OldMan}}, {{jaded|Washout}}, {{cranky|Neighbor}}, RacistGrandpa who has alienated his own family and now that his wife has died is completely alone, so he can be a real PapaWolf.
* ConvenientTerminalIllness: [[spoiler:It's implied Walt has lung cancer, as he coughs up blood several times during the movie.]]
* CoolCar: [[RunningGag Everyone wants]] Walt's 1972 Gran Torino.
* CrankyNeighbor: Walt, initially. The elderly Hmong lady next door is only too happy to return his sentiments.
* CrucifiedHeroShot: [[spoiler: Walt, after he gets shot to death by the Hmong gang at the end of the movie.]]
* DeathGlare:
** Walt levels quite a few over the course of the film. The film starts out with him glaring at virtually the whole cast.
** Walt's son turns around and gives one to Thao when [[spoiler: Walt leaves his car to the young man instead of his grand daughter.]]
* {{Deconstruction}}: What ''Film/{{Unforgiven}}'' did for the Westerns that Creator/ClintEastwood starred in, this film does for Clint Eastwood's other major genre, the urban vigilante film.
* DeconstructedCharacterArchetype: As mentioned in the above, this film deconstructs the usual Creator/ClintEastwood character in his crime films like Unforgiven did for his western character. Walt in this movie has the usual grouchy standoffish behavior that Eastwood characters usally have. This also means his own family can't deal with him because of how difficult he is and likewise he has very few friends. When (like in the usual Eastwood movie) he tries to intervene in-between the conflict with Thao's family and the gang, he only makes the situation worse. [[spoiler: Walt in the end also defeats the gang members in the end not by shooting them like what you expect in a Eastwood movie, but instead out smarting them into killing him in front of a whole bunch of witnesses that will in turn get them sent to prison for the rest of their life.]]
* DoItYourselfThemeTune: Clint Eastwood co-wrote the song on the end credits.
* DramaticDrop: Walt drops his glass when [[spoiler: Sue returns from being gang-raped.]]
* DuctTapeForEverything: Or to be exact, duct tape, vise-grips and [=WD40=] for half of everything.
* DysfunctionalFamily: Both Walt's and Thao's families. Walt's sons and their families hate him and just want his inheritance for their own selfish gains, while Thao is the cousin of Spider, who is a leader of the gang and the BigBad.
* EmbarrassingNickname: Walt dislikes being called "Wally" by Sue. He eventually gets used to it.
* FirstNameBasis: When Walt allows the priest to use his name, it is a dramatic moment.
* {{Foreshadowing}}: The newspaper article (see the quote at the top of the page) foreshadows events at the end of the film.
* GangBangers: The Hmong boys are somewhere on the scale between this and a GenericEthnicCrimeGang.
* GanglandDriveBy: The gang shoots at Walt's windows in a drive-by.
* GenreDeconstruction: In defiance of the common VigilanteMan trope Eastwood himself helped popularize, [[spoiler:Walt's attempt to drive off the gang alone goes horribly wrong and just results in them being emboldened by their humiliation and brutally retaliating, beating and raping Sue and eventually killing Walt himself. What solves the issue is when Walt gets the police involved and ''plenty'' of witnesses to the gang's crimes.]]
* GoodShepherd: The rookie priest Father Janovich tries his best to be this, and Walt's wife clearly liked him; Walt's not nearly as impressed, but then, he's a curmudgeon. In the end, Janovich admits to having learned a bit from Walt.
* GoryDiscretionShot: Averted when Spider [[KickTheDog burns Thao's cheek with a cigarette.]]
** Played straight when Walt witnesses a ceremony where his Hmong neighbors cut the head off of a chicken. The cut itself is never shown but it's heard when it shown Walt's reaction to it.
--> '''Walt:''' Goddamn barbarians.
* GrumpyOldMan: Walt Kowalski, complete with the classic "Get off my lawn!" line.
* HardWorkMontage: Thao trying to make amends for trying to steal from Walt.
* HateSink: Before we are introduced to Spider and his gang, we have Walt's sons and their selfish families at the beginning of the movie planning to swindle Walt out of his possessions and their IrrationalHatred of their father.
* HeelFaithTurn:
** Possibly with [[spoiler:Walt, even though he isn't technically a bad guy, given that his last words are ""Hail Mary, full of grace."]] It's a little ambiguous, though.
** [[spoiler: His confession suggests that since the war he's been a curmudgeon, but actually a stand up truly good person with the worst sins he's confessing being either kissing a woman at a Christmas party 40 years prior, not paying the tax after selling an expensive possession, or not being close to his two sons. However, his ''second'' confession, to Thao in the basement, is what you'd expect from a veteran. It even is done through a grill similar to his first one.]]
** [[spoiler: On the other hand, it's not clear that he had a well-formed conscience, at least from a Catholic perspective. e.g. You would think that his (relatively recent) history of using frequent racial slurs against minority groups would merit at least some mention in the confessional, and he also should have confessed that he hadn't been to Confession for X number of years, since Catholics who have attained the age of reason are required (under penalty of grave sin) to go to Confession at least once per year.]]
* TheHeroDies: [[spoiler:Walt himself at the end.]]
* HeroicBSOD: The final straw for Walt is when [[spoiler:Sue is gang raped]]. He drops his shot glass in reaction.
* HeroicSacrifice: [[spoiler:Walt provokes the gang into killing him in public so the members will be put away for his murder.]]
* HigherEducationIsForWomen:
-->'''Sue''': It's really common. Hmong girls over here fit in better, we adjust. The girls go to college, the boys go to jail.
* HumiliationConga: Trey, in his one scene. He and Sue are accosted by three black youths who treat him with only contempt, tell him to go away, and start coming on strongly to an uninterested Sue. After he completely fails to defend Sue, Walt shows up and rescues her at gunpoint. When Trey tries to make nice with Walt, Walt treats him with even ''more'' contempt. We never see him again.
--> '''Trey''': Way to go, old man!
--> '''Walt''': [turns his gun on him] Shut up, pussy. What is all this "bro" shit, anyway? Want to be Super Spade or something? These guys don't want to be your bro, and I don't blame 'em. Now get your ofay Paddy ass on down the road.
* {{Hypocrite}}[=/=]SmallNameBigEgo: As a lot of [[{{RacistGrandma}} Racist Grandpas]], Walt regards himself as a man who knows plenty about life and death, and who is abused by those (other races) surrounding him. Everyone else thinks is just a GrumpyOldMan. The movie shows his CharacterDevelopment from this to [[BeYourself a realistic assessment of his qualities and weakness]].
* IHaveNoSon: If Walt [[spoiler:cutting off his sons and their families out of his will after his HeroicSacrifice is any indication, likely for their IrrationalHatred of Walt and despicable YoureNotMyFather nature towards him in life]].
* IncurableCoughOfDeath: [[spoiler:Complete with [[BloodFromTheMouth coughing up blood]] for Walt. [[JustifiedTrope Justified]], considering his age and heavy smoking; it's strongly implied to be lung cancer.]]
* INeedAFreakingDrink: Walt offers Father Janovich a beer the day after [[spoiler: Sue gets raped]]. Janovich exhaustedly says, "I'd love one."
* InsultOfEndearment: Walt's incessant use of racial slurs more or less matches this. He and his old friends at the barber shop call each other all kinds of names.
* IntergenerationalFriendship: Walt is (based on the fact that he's a UsefulNotes/KoreanWar vet) in his late seventies or early eighties. He befriends siblings Thao and Sue, who are teenagers. Youa (also a teenager), the siblings' mother (in her thirties or forties), and Father Janovich, who is 27. Before them, he is VitriolicBestBuds with Martin the barber, who's in his forties.
* InvulnerableKnuckles: Averted. When Walt gives Smokie a beatdown to intimidate him and his fellow gang members into leaving Thao alone, Sue notices his bruised knuckles the next day. He further messes them up [[PunchAWall against his kitchen cabinets]] [[spoiler:after Sue's rape]].
* JadedWashout: PlayedWith. Walt gets no respect from his family or - at first - the neighbors (and he's not really giving any excuse to doubt him), but he ''does'' eventually get respect from the neighbors, and has no trouble with money.
* JerkassHasAPoint: [[spoiler:After Sue was raped, Thao vowed revenge on Spider with the intention of killing him. Walt then had a ''very'' good reason to lock Thao in the basement, knowing the horrors of killing a person and that Thao giving into revenge could be a slippery slope that would make him end up just like Spider.]]
* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: Walt tries to hide his nice side with a racist exterior, but Sue is indeed correct in saying that he's a good man.
* KickTheDog: See how Walt's family treat his wife's death and his granddaughter's greed and cruelty.
* KnightInSourArmor: Walt again. He's a sour, cynical bastard, but Sue correctly has him pegged as a good man.
* KnowNothingKnowItAll[=/=]HeelRealization: Invoked and played straight: Just after Walt accuses Father Janovich of being this, Father Janovitch asks him what Walt knows. Walt realizes that he knows plenty about ''death'', but not a lot about ''life.''
-->'''Walt:''' [[MeaninglessMeaningfulWords "Death is bittersweet? Bitter in the pain, sweet in the salvation."]] [[TheReasonYouSuckSpeech That's what you know of life and death? Good God, it's pathetic.]]\\
'''Father Janovich''': [[LetsSeeYOUDoBetter What do you know, Mr. Kowalski?]]\\
'''Walt:''' Plenty. I lived with death [[UsefulNotes/TheKoreanWar for three years in Korea.]] [[WarIsHell We shot people, we stabbed them with bayonets,]] we [[MoralEventHorizon hacked seventeen-year-old kids to death with shovels]], for Christ's sake. [[ShellShockedVeteran I did things that won't leave me till the day I die, horrible things, things I have to live with.]]\\
'''Father Janovich''': [[ArmorPiercingQuestion And what about life?]]\\
'''Walt''' ''([[{{Beat}} has to think for a second]], and struggles with his answer)'' Well... I survived the war... got married... and raised a family.\\
'''Father Janovich:''' Sounds like you know more about death than you do living.\\
'''Walt''' ''([[INeedAFreakingDrink downs a shot]])'' [[HeelRealization Maybe so.]]
* LaserGuidedKarma: [[spoiler:After Walt's wife dies, his sons and their families disrespectfully tried to get their hands on Walt's possessions. By the end of the film, Walt leaves them with nothing.]]
* LastDisrespects: During the funeral of Walt Kowalski's wife, his granddaughter was dressed inappropriately and can be seen fiddling around on her cell phone during the service. Walt's sons start asking Walt if he wants to go to a "nice retirement place" so they could sell the house, and the same disrespectful granddaughter starts asking whether she could have some of the furniture and other possessions in the house.
* LoopholeAbuse: Thao's family forces him to do work for Walt to make up for trying to steal his Gran Torino; Walt, however, doesn't want this, and only accepts when the family insists declining would be a grave insult. However, nobody specifies ''what'' sort of jobs he should do, so Walt's first job for him is something simple and meaningless: counting the number of birds in the trees around his house.
* MacGuffin: The [[MacGuffinTitle Gran Torino]].
* MightyWhitey: Walter. It apparently takes one elderly auto-worker to figure out how to fix everything that his Hmong neighbors can't, whether that's teaching Theo how to "be a man" or stopping the local gang. [[spoiler: At the cost of his life, mind you, but still.]]
* MinorMajorCharacter: [[spoiler:Officer Chang, the Hmong policeman who arrests Spider at the end of the film. Thematically as well as in-universe, since in the context of the film he shows that Thao falling into the same life as his cousins was never a foregone conclusion.]]
* MisanthropeSupreme: Walt, at first.
* MyGodWhatHaveIDone:
** Done non-verbally, when Walt learns [[spoiler:that his attempt to intimidate the Hmong gang ended up getting Sue beaten and raped. And this is on top of the drive-by at her house. Then he goes home and starts [[PunchAWall punching up his cabinets]] -- even the glass ones -- while verbally berating himself.]]
** [[spoiler:Played comically by the priest when Walt finally comes to his church for confession.]]
* NoHoldsBarredBeatdown: [[spoiler:In retaliation for them assaulting Thao, Walt tracks down Spider and his gang to their house and proceeds to beat and kick the shit out of Smokie when he's alone, before threatening to kill him if he touched Thao again, without raising his voice above a [[TranquilFury venom-filled whisper]].]]
* NotSoDifferentRemark: Walt basically says this to himself when he's in the bathroom at the neighbor's house. He looks in the mirror says that, "God, I've got more in common with [[PretendPrejudice these gooks]] than I have with my own spoiled-rotten family."
* NotTheIllnessThatKilledThem: While Walt does have some type of lung disease, he ends up getting [[spoiler: murdered by Hmong gang in a ThanatosGambit that gets them arrested]].
* NWordPrivileges: The film examines the rules around this a lot; Walt assumes N-word privileges towards everyone. Interestingly, Walt never actually uses ''literal'' N-word privileges, and when confronted by black thugs he opts for the common 1950's - 1970's racist terms "spook" and "spade" (the use of such seem to confuse the young men, or at least leaves them briefly nonplussed).
* OneLastSmoke: Once he's decided to face the gangsters, Walt treats himself to a wet shave, a tailor-fitted suit and a cigarette in the bathtub.
* OOCIsSeriousBusiness: Father Janovich goes OhCrap when Walt finally decides to confess.
* PapaWolf: Walt turns into one for Thao and Sue after becoming a grandfather figure to them.
* PassedOverInheritance: His family are shocked to find that in his will Walt leaves them [[spoiler:absolutely nothing. His house is donated to the church and, much to the horror of his bratty granddaughter, whose face lit up at the mention of the car, his Gran Torino goes to Thao.]]
* PeerPressureMakesYouEvil: Sue notes that the women in Hmong society go to college while the men go to prison. We see Thao heavily pressured to join his cousin's gang.
* PerpWalk: Spider has one as he's being led out in cuffs.
* PhoneaholicTeenager: Ashley, Walt's granddaughter, whines about not getting any coverage...during her grandmother's funeral.
* PosthumousCharacter: Walt's wife. She was apparently a very religious woman and active in her local Catholic church. Walt loved her deeply.
* ThePreciousPreciousCar: Walt's Gran Torino. Not only is it vintage, Walt has a personal attachment to its construction: he was on the line where it was built.
* PretendPrejudice: Walt.
* PrettyFlyForAWhiteGuy: Trey, Sue's friend, acts and behaves like a ghetto rapper. None of this impresses the gangbangers who harass Sue, nor Walt, who finds him pathetic and annoying.
* PunchAWall: [[spoiler:Walt ends up doing this after Sue's rape, breaking several of his cabinet doors - even the glass ones - in his rage.]]
* RacistGrandma: Walt is a deconstruction of this trope. The whole point of the movie is that Walt realizes the people who he has being directing racial slurs all his life aren't so different, that his experience as a soldier [[ShellShockedVeteran only let him know much more about death than about life]], and that he is a KnowNothingKnowItAll.
* RapeAsDrama: [[spoiler:Spider's gang rapes Sue to get back at Thao and Walt. This drives Walt over the edge, and into his sacrifice.]]
* ARealManIsAKiller: Invoked and ultimately defied. After [[spoiler:his sister get raped]], Thao eagerly asks Walt to tell him "what it's like to kill a man". Walt's response is a furious rebuttal, telling him that no matter what the reason, he ''does not'' want to know what it's like, much less actually do so and have to live with it.
* RealMenLoveJesus: Walt disparages his local GoodShepherd but develops a respect for him. He reveals himself to be a believer in the end, [[spoiler:when he says a Hail Mary before his death and ultimately donates his house to the church]].
* RecklessGunUsage: Hinted at when Thao inadvertently points a rifle at Walt while examining it, evoking an unspoken rebuke.
* RedemptionEqualsDeath: [[spoiler:Walt sacrifices himself to save Thao and Sue after a life of guilt for the things he did in war, most specifically killing a young man about Thao's age when he was trying to surrender. Walt's last scene with Thao, spoken through a screen door, acts like a final confession before death]].
* RetiredBadass: Walt Kowalski embodies a realistic version of this trope, as well as being a {{Deconstruction}} of the trope. Walt's fighting skills don't help him in his life in the city. His recently deceased wife was all too aware that their two grown sons cannot empathize with Walt, so she asks the local GoodShepherd to keep an eye on him after her death. Walt’s antics and {{Badass Boast}}s give him a reputation of a CrankyNeighbor and only make things worse (see MyGodWhatHaveIDone). His real act of bravery is realizing he is a TroubledSympatheticBigot, and the conflict is not solved by his acts of violence [[spoiler:but with a BatmanGambit that invokes ShootHimHeHasAWallet. The only people who really felt protected by him were his neighbors.]]
* RevengeByProxy: [[spoiler:Spider's gang rapes Sue to get back at Thao and Walt.]]
* RevengeIsNotJustice: [[spoiler: In a deconstruction of vigilante justice, Walt's attempt to help the Vang Lor family by assaulting a gang member leads to a drive-by shooting, the injuring of Thao, and the kidnapping and raping Sue. While Thao desires revenge, Walt imprisons him so he can't act on his revenge since Walt knows from experience that killing others isn't as glorious as Thao thinks. Walt instead orchestrates his own death so Spider and the gang can be arrested.]]
* RiceBurner:
** [[spoiler:Walt's will gives the Gran Torino to Thao on the condition that "you don't chop-top the roof like one of those beaners, don't paint any idiotic flames on it like some white trash hillbilly, and don't put a big, gay spoiler on the rear end like you see on all the other zipperheads' cars."]]
** Spider's car is a straight example.
* RuleOfThree: Several examples include: Walt using a gun as a means to threaten 3 times, Thao and his attempt to steal the Gran Torino is mentioned three times including him actually trying to steal it and Walt visiting the Barber 3 times.
* SayYourPrayers: [[spoiler:Walt whispers the first words of Hail Mary, when he's about to be killed]].
* ScrewPolitenessImASenior: The reason Walt gets away with universal NWordPrivileges.
* ShellShockedVeteran: Walt is kind of one. "The thing that haunts a man the most, are the orders he ''doesn't'' want to follow."
* ShootHimHeHasAWallet: [[spoiler:Walt uses this in his sacrifice, pointing a finger gun at all of the armed gangsters and then drawing a lighter in an aggressive-looking manner, so the gang gets arrested for murdering an unarmed man.]]
* StayInTheKitchen: The Hmong people traditionally believe that gardening, cooking and cleaning are women's work. Even Spider, who's less into the heritage than his cousins, invokes this trope, mostly to make fun of Thao for how often he's seen cleaning and gardening. Walt, on the other hand and in a surprising turn, doesn't invoke sexism of any kind.
* SuicideByCop: [[spoiler:Walt pretends to have a gun so the gang will kill him and get locked up for murder]].
* SurrogateSoliloquy: Walt talks to his dog, when he gets really stressed he talks to himself. While he is talking to his dog about the woman next door, the woman next door is talking to herself saying the exact same things about him in another language.
* TactfulTranslation: Sue attempts to provide one of these for her RacistGrandma's insults to Walt as "Welcome to our home", but given how angry the grandma is, even Walt who doesn't speak a word of Hmong gets the gist of what she's telling him.
* ThanatosGambit: [[spoiler:Walt's plan to bring the gangsters to justice involves his death]].
* ThatCameOutWrong: Thoa's attempt at speaking like a guy:
-->'''Thao:''' Boy, does my ass hurt from all the guys on my construction job.
-->'''Walt:''' ''(Over Martin laughing his ass off)'' Well, fuck me.
* TookALevelInKindness: Initially a grumpy old man, Walt slowly starts to bond with Sue and Thao, especially Thao. He helps set Thao on the right path, protects them from gangs and thugs, [[spoiler: and makes the HeroicSacrifice of baiting Spider and his gang into gunning him down with plenty of witnesses in order to lock them up and leave Thao and Sue alone for good.]]
* TranquilFury: Walt finally calms down [[spoiler: in the moments before his death.]] "Oh, I ''am'' at peace."
* {{Troll}}: Walt's executor [[spoiler:intentionally drags out his reading of Walt's will so he can get the maximum possible effect when Walt's family realizes that he left them nothing.]]
* TroubledSympatheticBigot: Due to a combination of factors, Walt is a Grade A Grumpy Old Man, and holds certain views about his Hmong neighbors that are continually challenged during the course of the movie. In the end he befriends Thao and gives him the prized Gran Torino.
* {{Tsundere}}: Walt becomes a platonic example toward his Hmong neighbors. He says racist things to them and acts bothered by their help, but even ''they'' don't seem to buy it.
* UnusualEuphemism: "Christ All Friday." Possibly meant as a CurseOfTheAncients as well.
* VigilanteInjustice: [[spoiler: Walt's attempt to help the Vang Lor family by assaulting a gang member leads to a drive-by shooting, the injury of Thao, and the kidnapping and rape of Sue. While Thao desires revenge, Walt imprisons him so he can't take revenge since Walt knows from experience that killing others isn't as glorious as Thao thinks. Walt instead orchestrates his own death, sacrificing himself so that Spider and the gang can be arrested.]]
* VitriolicBestBuds: Walt's idea of male friendship is based around this setup, as shown with his barber and the construction foreman, and later Thao. Walt and Sue also have this going: she is the only Hmong he really respects at first because she refuses to take any crap from him.
* WarIsHell: Walt's monologue to Thao near the end of the movie [[spoiler:in a way of persuading him to not get involved in killing someone]]:
-->'''Walt''': You want to know what it's like to kill a man? Well it's goddamn awful, that's what it is. The only thing worse is [[MedalOfDishonor getting a medal of valor for killing some poor kid]] that wanted to 'just give up, that's all.' Yeah, some scared little gook just like you. I shot him right in the face with that rifle you were holding in there a while ago. There's [[MyGreatestFailure not a day goes by that I don't think about it]]. You don't want that on your soul. But I got blood on my hands. I'm soiled. [[spoiler:That's why I'm going in alone tonight.]]
* WhatDoesSheSeeInHim: Lampshaded when Walt is talking to Thao about attracting women, when he mentions that he, an unpleasant man, managed to marry a wonderful woman like his late wife.
* WhiteMansBurden: Although Walt is bigoted in the beginning, he starts to take compassion to the Hmongs, eventually takes Thao under his wing and saves him from Spider's gang, and eventually [[spoiler:manages to put away the gang for good by giving their neighbors a chance to speak out against them when he's murdered.]]
* WrestlerInAllOfUs: A blink if you miss moment, but before Walt steps out with his gun to stop the gang from dragging Thao, Sue bulldogs one of the members grabbing him.
* WrongInsultOffence: This exchange occurs between Walt and Sue, a spunky teenaged member of the Hmong family who'd moved in next door, concerning an old stereotype about Asians eating dogs:
-->'''Sue Lor:''' There's a ton of food.\\
'''Walt Kowalski:''' Yeah, well, just keep your hands off my dog.\\
'''Sue Lor:''' No worries, we only eat cats.
* YoureNotMyFather: While they don't actually say this, it's clear Walt's two sons have irreconcilably denounced[=/=]disowned him as their father long before the film's events due to their established distant relationship, only caring to hope for his impeding death out of IrrationalHatred behind his back to relieve them of his existence to completely inherit his precious belongings for their own ends. However, they do express [[spoiler: some grief at his funeral, one of them noticeably having tears in his eyes.]]
* YourDaysAreNumbered: A longtime smoker, Walt suffers from coughing fits, [[BloodFromTheMouth occasionally coughing up blood]]. [[spoiler: When he finally goes to see a doctor about it, it's made clear he doesn't have long to live, making his HeroicSacrifice all the more understandable.]]
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