! Film
* AlternativeCharacterInterpretation: Are Russell's collaborators OnlyInItForTheMoney or are they also partially motivated with exposing Case's crimes?
* {{Anvilicious}}: As usual, Spike Lee doesn't leaves the audience scratching their heads about what they should be taking away from his film.
** Vikram's rant about how he is constantly held in suspicion because he looks like he might be an Arab (he is actually a Sikh) in the post-9/11 world is anything but subtle.
** The brief clip of the young boy's game is a thinly-veiled BrandX version of ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAuto'', which is portrayed as reprehensible and treated with disgust by our main character. WordOfGod confirmed exactly what you were supposed to take away from this.
* SugarWiki/AwesomeMusic: "Chal chaiyya chaiyya chaiyya chaiyya..." (Keep in mind, the man responsible for this ear worm is A.R. Rahman, who won two Oscars and a Golden Globe for his work on ''Film/SlumdogMillionaire''.)
* MagnificentBastard: Dalton Russell is a bank robber who meticulously plans out a heist in a certain bank, taking hostages and dressing them all the same as himself and his team so the police cannot act against them, before releasing them all. Secretly building a wall in the bank vault, Dalton hides there for days while having only robbed the bank owner's safe deposit vault, leaving clues to expose him as a war criminal who collaborated with the Nazis. Once the time is up, Dalton walks out of the bank completely free and clear, even leaving police negotiator Keith a diamond to propose to his girlfriend with. Freely acknowledging he did everything for the money, Dalton still admits there'd be no point to getting rich if he couldn't look at himself in the mirror.
* NightmareFuel: While the robbers ultimately never kill anyone, they are more than willing to threaten and even beat up the hostages, and it's all played deadly serious.
* TheWoobie: The hostages in general, who are just ordinary people who get taken hostage in a robbery, forced to strip to their underwear and even physically beaten. But most notably Vikram Walia, the Sikh guy.
** He was the only hostage actually in danger of being killed (by the police). He's singled out by the robbers--even though he was cooperative with them--to be pushed outside blindfolded and with his hands tied--''and'' gagged, so he can't audibly say "My hands are tied" when the police demand that he put his hands up; this leads to the police almost shooting him, in the confusion. They also mistake him for an Arab (this is a recurrent annoyance for Vikram), which makes them immediately assume he is booby-trapped.
** To add insult to injury, the police Captain later [[BlatantLies flatly denies]] the Arab comment was ever said, and that Vikram just heard it wrong.
** His face is beaten up; he was the only one of the hostages (besides Peter Hammond and some other guy, who irked the robbers) physically harmed.
** The police rip off his turban (head covering), which is understandable, but then refuse to give it back to him during his interrogation for unexplained reasons, even though he keeps asking for it and explains it is of religious value to him.
** All of this leads to him going into a rant about being constantly discriminated against by "random" searches (remember, this is just post 9-11). Even Frazier, who is strict with the other hostages, apparently feels for Vikram, as he calmly and amicably says "Just put the ice on your face".
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! TV Series
* KarmicOverkill: Harry, who was only trying to protect his son from a false accusation and is willing to even label himself a pedophile to protect him, ends up [[spoiler:arrested and widowed.]]
* UnintentionallyUnsympathetic: The whole series revolves around the concept that anyone could commit murder under the right circumstances, and Harry's descent into villainy is supposed to show how a good person could be pushed down a dark path for sympathetic reasons. And yet Harry's staunch refusal to admit Edgar's identity in the face of Janice believing that Ben is a pedophile comes across as ludicrous. He's putting his son's future at risk to prevent a sex criminal from being brought to justice. Even if Harry had felt responsible for Edgar's well-being in light of his suicidal tendencies, Edgar needs to be arrested for the sake of public safety. Harry's only rational and moral choice was to tell Janice, "Let's both go down to the police station and sort all of this out." Once he passes that opportunity by, he's lost all the sympathy the series seems to feel he's earned.