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The Man
The Man/Tom Cooper
Portrayed By: Russell Crowe
The main antagonist of the film. A deeply unstable man whose recent events in life have left him feeling ignored and invisible. When Rachel honks at him at a green light and stubbornly refuses to apologize for it, he embarks on a brutal campaign of mutual respect.
- Ax-Crazy: As part of the Man's Establishing Character Moment — he calmly gets out of his vehicle, sets his jacket inside it, removes a hammer and a gas can from the backseat, breaks down the door, kills his ex-wife and her husband, then lights the house on fire before calmly walking out and getting back into his vehicle.
- Bait-and-Switch: After the Man swipes Rachel's smartphone, he more or less knows everything about her social circle and uses this knowledge to make her choose the next person he'll kill. When she picks Deborahnote , he instead pays her brother Fred a visit and ends up killing his fiancée and almost killing him.
- Beard of Evil: Has a grey beard and is as bad as they come.
- Berserk Button: Getting honked at during a green light is enough to send him into a murderous rage.
- Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: When he finds Andy, he initially presents himself as a humble and polite man, before gradually revealing his true colours when he smashes Andy in the face with a coffee mug, and then brutally murdering him by stabbing him in the neck with a knife.
- Bludgeoned to Death: The film starts with the Man brutally dispatching his ex-wife and her new husband with a hammer, right before he lights the house on fire.
- Car Fu: The Man uses his grey pickup truck to great effect at several points, pushing cars out of the way, hitting and killing bystanders and (at one point) causing a chain reaction crash that takes out multiple vehicles.
- Cop Killer: Causes more than one cop to be murdered during his rampage, including ramming one into the path of a cement mixer. When a cop corners him at Rachel's house, he lights Fred ablaze in an attempt to kill him too.
- Determinator: The Man displays almost Terminator-level determination in teaching Rachel a lesson, with not even being shot in the shoulder doing much to slow him down. He even tries to get up one last time with a freaking pair of scissors stuck halfway in his eye.
- Disproportionate Retribution:
- The film pretty much revolves around The Man enacting brutal retribution on a woman because she honked at him when he stalled at a green light and refused to apologise for it. Several people end up dead because of it.
- He runs down a guy at the gas station simply for stating he's got The Man's licence plate number, almost killing him in the process.
- Driven to Villainy: The Man may be a deranged psychopath, but his rampage is not without reason. Namely, losing most of his possessions in his divorce, and then getting laid off by his long-time employer shortly before his retirement with his pension rights canceled. It doesn't excuse what he does, but his level of frustration with the world is something a lot of people will be able to relate to.
- Domestic Abuse: Implied to be the reason behind The Man's ex-wife divorcing him. It's stated in the news that she had already gotten a restraining order against him when he murdered her and her boyfriend.
- Drives Like Crazy: That'd be putting it mildly: he speeds the wrong way down one-way streets, shoves cars of his way, and causes a lot of deadly crashes in his pursuit of Rachel.
- Evil Sounds Deep: He's a violently unstable killer with Russell Crowe's smoke burnished voice.
- Eye Scream: Finally dies when Rachel drives a pair of scissors through his left eye, then boots it all the way through his skull.
- Fat Bastard: Though not outright fat, the Man is certainly quite overweight. He's also an unrepentant psychotic murderer.
- Faux Affably Evil: He can be polite and calm, as shown in his first interaction with Rachel and his meeting with Andy, but his violent rage is still just below the surface.
- Freudian Excuse: The Man lost his job and recently got divorced from his wife. While him murdering her and her boyfriend is understandable, it's not excusable. And even if it was, nothing excuses terrorizing an innocent woman, threatening to murder her loved ones, and killing various bystanders all because said woman honked her horn at him and didn't apologize for it. And even then, it's implied his wife divorced him because he was abusive, a fact easily believable based om his actions. It's even possible he lost his job for the same reasons.
- Hate Sink: This guy's got nothing redeeming about him. Not only did he murder his ex-wife (who he was implied to be abusive towards) and her new boyfriend, he stalks and terrorizes a woman, goes after her loved ones (including her own son), and kills several innocent people over a minor infraction (getting honked at when he stalled at a green light). Even his Freudian Excuse fails to paint him in any sympathetic light since his violent reactions are disproportionate to the situation.
- He-Man Woman Hater: This guy truly hates women. While he is equally violent towards both men and women (and children), the entire plot of the film is set off by a woman honking her car-horn at him and not apologizing. He goes on quite a few rants about "women screwing over men in court" as a justification for his actions, and cruelly beats and murders Mary just because she happened to be at Rachel's house.
- It's All About Me: The Man has this attitude all throughout the film. He feels entitled to an apology from Rachel for honking at him (for good reason), and when she doesn't, decides to terrorize her, her loved ones and New Orleans as a whole. Even after committing multiple murders, he still blames Rachel for everything, and talks down to her like she's the one who needs to learn respect.
- Made of Iron: Takes a lot of physical damage and still keeps going, only taking some painkillers for a bullet wound.
- Never My Fault: He says his rampage was entirely caused by Rachel's "disrespect" of him. In truth, he used that as an excuse to go after her, her loved ones, and anyone who simply gets in his way, as he was already an unstable psychotic individual with two murders behind him already.
- No Name Given: He is never properly named at any point. He introduces himself as "Tom Cooper" to Andy, but since he was trying to dupe him into talking to Rachel before killing him it could very well be a false name.
- Psychopathic Manchild: How else can you describe someone willing to murder numerous innocent people because someone was rude to him over a petty traffic incident?
- Stout Strength: He's heavyset but also very strong, able to kick down a door and overpower just about anyone he fights with ease.
- Straw Nihilist: Believing he has nothing to lose anymore, he launches into a carnage after losing his job and his wife. Threatening the lives of Rachel and her loved ones and severely traumatizing or murdering all sorts of bystanders in the process.
- Would Hit a Girl: Has no qualms about giving Mary and Rachel vicious beatings, and murdering the former along with his ex-wife at the beginning. His rampage also includes giving Rachel and dozens, if not hundreds, of female bystanders mental scarring in the process.
- Would Hurt a Child: He spends a significant chunk of the climax chasing Rachel's son Kyle to kill him as part of giving Rachel a lesson, even leaving Rachel alone after bludgeoning her to near-unconsciousness and her being at his mercy, followed by prioritizing strangling Kyle with a power cord instead of taking out Rachel in the middle of the final struggle. Big mistake.
Rachel Hunter
Rachel Hunter
Portrayed By: Caren Pistorius
The main protagonist of the film. A single mother who is struggling to make ends meet for her son, as well as her brother and his fiancee. After an altercation at a traffic light, she finds herself, and her loved ones, the target of The Man.
- Absurdly Youthful Mother: Caren Pistorius was 30 at the time of filming and looks even younger, which makes Rachel having a 15-year old son feel a bit off. Probably a case of Teen Pregnancy or Underage Casting, but the topic isn't elaborated on.
- Foil: Rachel and The Man are actually both in the same personal situations as each other. The difference is that while Rachel remains compassionate, The Man takes his anger out by going on a murder spree.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Had she not left her phone in her unlocked car at the gas station (or at least had protection on it like a passcode or even a biometric like a fingerprint lock) Tom Cooper would not have had access to her phone and make it easier for him to harm her loved ones, and she would've been able to call the police the moment she saw that Tom was stalking her.
- Made of Iron: In the third act, Rachel suffers numerous hard blows to the head by The Man that should've left her with a concussion, skull trauma, or worse, yet gets back up every time with only minor bruising.
- Mama Bear: If you try to hurt her son, she will end you, as The Man found out the hard way.
- Too Dumb to Live: Averted and played straight in two situations.
- Antagonizing a complete stranger on the road without considering how he might react. But it's an aversion, as she had a good reason for doing what she did, and obviously had no way to know The Man would terrorize her and her loved ones. People have traffic conflicts all the time with no violent psychopaths wreaking havoc.
- Not only having no protection on her phone but leaving it in her unlocked car instead of taking it in with her. Rachel was practically begging to be robbed.
- The Unapologetic: She refuses to apologize to The Man, even after he's done the same, over the traffic light incident. BIG mistake.
- Unwitting Instigator of Doom: Had Rachel not chosen this particular day to sleep in, she wouldn't have run late for work and lost her client (who was her main if not sole source of income) and, most importantly, would not have crossed paths with The Man. This last part was purely incidental; would you expect to get chased by a madman just for sleeping in?
