History Film / Pusher

** In the third film, Milo gets fed up with Rexho and his polish pimp friend treating him like shit and literally [[DropTheHammer drops the hammer on them]].

* DropTheHammer: [[spoiler:Milo drops the hammer in ''Pusher 3'' after getting pushed too far by the pimp and Rexho.]]

* EstablishingCharacterMoment: Kusse Kurt demonstrates exactly [[HateSink what kind of person he is]] in his first scene when he tells Tonny a horrible joke about him raping an underaged girl, which [[EvenEvilHasStandards Tonny is visibly put off by.]]

* TheDogBitesBack: [[spoiler: After a lifetime of abuse from his father, Tonny lashes out and kills him. Tonny also stands up to his baby mama [[AbusiveParents Charlotte]] by rescuing their infant son from her.]]

* TheBigGuy: Radovan. Although his height is 190 cm (6'3" feet for the Americans), his build more than makes up for this.
** Most of Milo's gang are indeed tall; even Milo himself is 197 cm (6'5" feet).

* HateSink: As his nickname would suggest, Kurt is a nasty and unpleasant man who acts abhorrent to everyone around him.

* RiddleForTheAges: In the first film, we never find out whether Tonny intentionally twisted his ankle to avoid accompanying Frank on the drug deal and whether he really did inform on Frank, as the police claim. The second film implies it genuinely was an accident, as he's never shown interacting with any cops even at times when it'd make sense for an informant to do so (such as when his life is in danger).

[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/pusher_5568.jpg]]

* RiddleForTheAges: In the first film, we never find out whether Tonny intentionally twisted his ankle to avoid accompanying Frank on the drug deal and whether he really did inform on Frank, as the police claim. The second film vaguely implies that it genuinely was an accident and that Tonny had nothing to do with the police sting, but it's never clarified one way or the other.

* AbusiveParents: In the second film, we have two examples: Tonny's dad, the Duke, and Tonny's baby mama, Charlotte. The former is a cold, uncaring crimelord who continues to be openly abusive towards Tonny. Charlotte meanwhile is negligent towards her infant son, who remains unnamed despite being nine months old. She doesn't seem to feel any affection for the boy and openly speaks about him being an inconvenience. A depressing sequence later in the film shows her abandoning the poor kid in a crowded bar so she can do lines of coke in the backroom with her girlfriends.

* DropTheHammer: [[spoiler:Milo drops the hamer in ''Pusher 3'' after getting pushed too far by the pimp and Rexho.]]

* EvenEvilHasStandards: Tonny, but to what degree he could be considered actually "evil" is up to debate. Milo is not above torture and murder [[spoiler: but when the pimp tortures the young prostitute, he finally snaps and kills the pimp. When it happens it's clearly a mix between parental insticts (as Milo is a father to a daughter) and a drugfueled rage that drives him over the edge]].

* ArchnemesisDad: the Duke to Tonny in ''2''. Despite this, the Duke loves his younger son, Valdemar, enough to [[spoiler: ask Tonny to kill Valdemar's mother, who wants full custody of him]]

* CerebusCallback: [[spoiler: Milo's bad cooking causes the food poisoning that causes the problematic situation to escalate into a crisis. The fate of the Albanian mobsters illustrates what might have been Frank's fate]].

* HateSink: As his nickname would suggest, Kurt is a gross and unpleasant man who acts abhorrent to everyone around him.

The second film picks up with Tonny after he completes a prison sentence and returns to his estranged father's chop shop. Tonny struggles to earn his father's respect in the underworld and be there for his own son.

The third film follows a day in the life of Milo, who struggles with preparations for his overbearing daughter's birthday while fending off Albanian drug dealers and his own lurking addiction.

''Pusher'' is a Danish crime film written and directed by Creator/NicolasWindingRefn. In 1996, a Danish crime film was quite novel, and its popularity had a great influence on Danish films to follow. In this respect, it was something akin to the ''Film/PulpFiction'' of Denmark. Two sequels, filmed back-to-back, followed almost ten years later to rescue Refn's ailing film company from bankruptcy. Each sequel follows a different character introduced in the first film.

The first film follows Frank, a mid-level Copenhagen drug dealer. After a drug deal gone bad, Frank finds himself deeply in debt to Milo, a local Serbian drug lord. As Frank struggles to find the money, he must also grapple with complications from his would-be girlfriend and the dubious loyalty of his partner, Tonny.

* DisposableSexWorker: In ''Pusher 2'', Kurt[[spoiler:kills a hooker in his home, tricking Tonny into being an accomplice. However, Tonny later refuses to kill his father's new wife, who is a brothel madam.]]

* DisposableSexWorker: In ''Pusher 2'', Kurt[[spoiler:kills a hooker in his home, tricking Tonny into being an accomplice. However, Tonny later refuses to kill his father's new wife, who is a brothel madam.

* DisposableSexWorker: In ''Pusher 2'', Kurt[[spoiler:kills a hooker in his home, tricking Tonny into being an accomplice. However, Tonny later refuses to kill his father's new wife, who is a brothel madam. Milo also decides to free a young girl who was sold to him as a prostitute, which ignites a war with the Albanian gangsters.]]

* KarmicHoudini: Kurt ultimately gets away with all the awful behavior he engages in in both the second and third movies.

* DeathByIrony: [[spoiler: In the climax of the second film, Tonny is reluctant to carry out a murder on the behalf of his father, the Duke. When he reveals that he didn't go through with the deed, the Duke [[ARealManIsAKiller viciously berates him for not being man enough for the task]]. After sustaining this kind of abuse for the entire film, [[TheDogBitesBack Tonny snaps and kills his father in a fit of patricidal rage]]. Also counts as a KarmicDeath, given that the Duke wanted his ex-wife dead so he could have full custody of Valdemar, which ultimately results in ''her'' being the boy's sole guardian.]]

* EstablishingCharacterMoment: Kusse Kurt demonstrates exactly [[HateSink what kind of person he is]] in his first scene when he tells Tonny a horrible joke about raping a prepubescent girl. [[EvenEvilHasStandards Tonny is subtly put off by this.]]

* GreyAndGreyMorality: There are no true heroes in the trilogy. Tonny is the lightest shade of all the protagonists in his film. His friend Ø is a criminal but one of the few people who is nice to Tonny and allows him to live in his apartment.

* ImagineSpot: [[spoiler:At the end of Pusher we see visions of the possibile options Frank is considering.]]

* TheMillstone: Beyond being a repulsive scumbag, Kurt proves to be an even more incompetent crook than [[ButtMonkey Tonny]]. After he destroys the drugs he was supposed to sell to Milo, he keeps making the situation worse by screwing up and lying (poorly) to [[spoiler: the Duke]], who he owes the money to. Had it not been for [[spoiler: Tonny killing the Duke,]] Kurt's treachery would have been discovered and he'd have paid for it with his life.
* OffingTheOffspring: [[spoiler: Kurt's threat that the Duke would kill both him ''and'' Tonny is what makes Tonny realize that the person Kurt owes money to is the Duke--and that the Duke probably knew what kind of business Tonny was getting into by associating with Kurt, and just didn't care.]]

* RiddleForTheAges: In the first film, we never find out whether Tonny intentionally twisted his ankle to avoid accompanying Frank on the drug deal and whether he really did inform on Frank, as the police claim.