Rikard Boberg (Christian Andrén) is an autistic and deformed man whose life revolves around pétanque. He is determined to win the Scandinavian Championship, despite his health problems and other people's attempts at stopping him from competing.
The Giant contains examples of:
- The Benchwarmer: Attempted by Rikard's team. After he wanders in front of someone during a game and gets hit in the head with a boule, causing a head injury that lands him in the hospital, the team bans him from playing in games, although he can still participate in club activities. Instead, he and his friend Roland (Johan Kylén) found their own two-man team, called Zughi BK.
- Copycat Mockery: One man harasses Rikard by mimicking his jerky walk.
- Cry into Chest: Rikard cries into Roland's chest after Roland rescues him from bullies.
- Daddy Didn't Show: Rikard delivers a letter to his mother's apartment, inviting him to his thirtieth birthday party. When she doesn't show up, he's Too Unhappy to Be Hungry, despite the cake made to look like his favorite cap.
- Imagine Spot: Rikard often imagines himself as a giant hundreds of feet tall, walking past mountains and over forests and trampling everything in his path.
- Impairment Shot: Rikard's right eye is covered with flesh, and his left eye has poor vision. In shots from his perspective, the image is round and blurry.
- Keep Away: At a bus stop late at night, some hoodlums take Rikard's hat and start playing keep away with it. Roland chases them away by throwing boules at them.
- Missing Mom: Rikard's mother had a psychotic break when he was very young, and he was taken from her. Now she's well enough to live in her own apartment, but she still hasn't seen him in years. He lives in an institution.
- Opposing Sports Team: Members of the Danish pétanque team make fun of Rikard and call him Jabba the Hutt.
- Sleeping Dummy: When Rikard goes out to visit his mother's apartment, he leaves bunched-up sheets under his blankets.
- The Unintelligible: Rikard can occasionally articulate a word or two, but he mostly just grunts and groans.
