Basic Trope: A story arc that depicts a gangster rising to, and then falling from, power.
- Straight: At the start of the film Tropefellas, Bob is a low-level gangster in the Romano family. Over the course of the first half of the film, he works his way up to becoming a capo of the family, becoming fabulously wealthy and powerful in the process. In the second half of the film, everything starts to go wrong for Bob, his friends get murdered left and right, rival gangs begin muscling in on his territory, and he winds up getting shot dead by a close confidant.
- Exaggerated: At the start of the film Tropefellas, Bob is a broke nobody, struggling to survive on the streets. Over the course of the first half of the film, he joins the Romano family and rapidly works his way up to becoming a capo of the family. Soon, he shrewdly takes over, co-opts, or eliminates all the rival gangs in the nearby region, leading to the Romano family dominating organized crime in the region and Bob to become incredibly wealthy, prestigious, powerful, and feared throughout the world as the capo di tutti capi. In the second half of the film, everything starts to go horribly wrong for Bob - the rival gangs that he had supposedly taken over were actually biding their time and gathering their strength in secret, and eventually launch a rebellion against the Romano family. The resulting gang war ruins Bob's business and kills over half of the Romano family, including many of Bob's closest friends and confidants. The Romano family decisively loses the gang war, its territory is quickly carved up by the resurgent rival gangs, and its remaining members soon get hunted down one by one or flee into exile, causing the complete destruction of the Romano family. And Bob? Bob ends up dead in a ditch, shot by assassins sent by rival gangs to tie up loose ends.
- Downplayed: At the start of Tropefellas, Bob is a low-level gangster in the Romano family. Over the course of the first half of the film, he works his way up within the family to the point where he can afford a comfortable, but hardly decadent, lifestyle. In the second half of the film, things start to go wrong for Bob, some members of the Romano family are sent to prison, others drift away from the lifestyle, and the police begin to cause significant (but not fatal) disruption to the gang's activities. By the end of the film, Bob is still in a position of relative comfort, his relationship with his wife is intact (albeit strained), and he often finds himself looking over his shoulder or getting startled by loud noises.
- Justified:
- Bob lives in an authoritarian state which takes a zero-tolerance policy towards drug peddling, prostitution and racketeering. His downfall was only a matter of time.
- Bob quickly becomes cocky and complacent after becoming a capo, leading to him making poor decisions and treating his subordinates badly.
- The film Tropefellas takes place over a long period of several decades, and the rise and fall of Bob and the Romano family coincides with historical periods of gang activity and crackdowns.
- Inverted: At the start of Tropefellas, Bob is a successful capo in the Romano family. Over the course of the first half of the film, everything starts to go wrong for him until he is alone and friendless, without a penny to his name, and hunted by the police and rival gangs. The second half of the film chronicles him clawing his way back up the ladder, and he ends the film in a similar position to how he started.
- Subverted: At the start of Tropefellas, Bob is a low-level gangster in the Romano family. Over the course of the first half of the film, he works his way up to becoming a capo of the family, becoming fabulously wealthy in the process. In the second half of the film, it looks like things are going to start going wrong for Bob - but the DEA agents are paid off, disputes with rival gangs are resolved quickly and painlessly, and the money never stops pouring in.
- Double Subverted: ...then Bob gets shot dead by a random nobody looking to make a name for himself.
- Parodied: At the start of Tropefellas, Bob is a low-level gangster in the Romano family. Over the course of the first half of the film, he takes over all criminal gangs on Earth and soon becomes the Commissioner of Galactic Mafias in charge of every single criminal gang in the galaxy when aliens come knocking. In the second half of the film, everything starts to go wrong for Bob, he is dethroned as Commissioner of Galactic Mafias and loses control of all gangs on Earth. When Bob is eventually shot by the alien mafia, he ends up in Hell at the end of the film.
- Zig Zagged: At the start of Tropefellas, Bob is a low-level gangster in the Romano family. His power and wealth rapidly fluctuate as the family goes from good times to bad to good to bad to good to bad to good... The family is also in the throes of a power struggle and Bob is rapidly promoted and demoted based on which boss is in power and whether they like him or not. In the final act of the film, Bob finally becomes a capo of the family after staging a coup... and Bob is soon betrayed and shot by his right hand man who had a similar idea.
- Averted:
- At the start of Tropefellas, Bob is a low-level gangster in the Romano family. Over the course of the first half of the film, he works his way up to becoming a capo of the family, becoming fabulously wealthy in the process. His position of power, wealth and influence is never seriously threatened for the rest of the film.
- At the start of Tropefellas, Bob is a low-level gangster in the Romano family. Despite his best efforts, he never succeeds in advancing within the family, and ends the film in much the same circumstances as he started.
- At the start of Tropefellas, Bob is a successful capo in the Romano family. Over the course of the first half of the film, everything starts to go wrong for Bob, his friends get murdered left and right, rival gangs begin muscling in on his territory, and he winds up getting kicked out of the family after a vote of no confidence. Bob never tries to claw his way back to power and instead the rest of the film is about Bob trying to find a purpose in life outside of the criminal underworld.
- Enforced: The Hollywood production code forbids films from depicting criminals getting away with their crimes, so the producers of Tropefellas are obliged to tack on an ending depicting Bob getting his comeuppance. (Truth in Television: see The Hays Code.)
- Lampshaded: "Bob, you own three houses, a dozen flash cars, and you've got the south side tied in a knot. This Is the Part Where... everything starts going wrong for you."
- Invoked: Bob works his way up to becoming a capo of the family. His right hand man, Adam, decides that Bob doesn't deserve to be capo, HE does. Adam does everything in his power to make Bob look bad, eventually causing Bob's downfall and paving the way for Adam to becoming capo instead.
- Exploited: Police Chief Alice notes that Bob, previously a low-level gangster in the Romano family, has recently worked his way up to becoming a capo of the family. Alice knows that things can only go downhill for newly-promoted gangsters, and prepares new raids targeting the Romano family.
- Defied:
- At the start of Tropefellas, Bob is a low-level gangster in the Romano family. Over the course of the first half of the film, he works his way up to becoming a capo of the family, becoming fabulously wealthy and powerful in the process. As a fan of gangster movies, he is well aware of the various ways that gangsters have met their downfall in the past, so he takes care not to use his own product or allow his men to, keeps his temper in check, and maintains cordial reciprocal relationships with rival gangs.
- Bob decides to remain a low-down faceless soldier in the Romano family, thinking it will prevent people placing targets on his back, that his salary is already good enough, and most importantly that it has a higher chance of letting him fall through the cracks in the event the family falls and all higher-ups are slain, arrested, or slain while being arrested.
- Bob absolutely refuses to be part of the Romano family. He may still end up doing business with them as a "customer" (most probably not by his choice) and be dragged down with them as collateral damage of their fall, but it definitely will be less painful (and more survivable) that would have happened if he was one of their soldiers.
- Discussed: "Why does the gangster always meet his downfall at the end of gangster movies? If I ever make a gangster movie, I want the gangster to get away with it at the end."
- Conversed: "I'm starting to feel a little nervous about how good times are rolling right now. I just know that any moment now someone — hopefully not me, but someone — is going to do something stupid or is gonna have their luck act bizarre somehow and I'm going to end up in jail."
- Played For Laughs: The story shows the rise and fall of Bob, the stupidest man who ever chose to live a life of crime, from illegal Pokemon card seller to capo di tutti capi of the Pittsburgh Mafia to running into Inspector Jacques Clouseau (an equally incompetent but even more incredibly lucky man of the law) and getting his billion-dollar Pokemon card business explode and blow him up literally straight to jail thanks to a weird climax involving potato cannons, drunken dogs, joy buzzers and orange slices.
- Played For Drama: At the start of the film Tropefellas, Bob is a low-level gangster in the Romano family. Over the course of the first half of the film, he works his way up to becoming a capo of the family, becoming fabulously wealthy and powerful in the process. This success comes at a cost: Bob's relationship with his wife is heavily strained after she finds out the dirty work he does. Bob himself is heavily conflicted about whether his riches are worth the dozens of rival gangsters he has had to murder. Over time, Bob's physical and mental health worsens as he suffers both stress from the daily burdens of being a criminal boss as well as constant assassination attempts by rival gangs. This turns him into a paranoid wreck, and in the second half of the film, we see Bob snapping at his subordinates and making paranoid, irrational decisions. Bob soon suffers a mental breakdown after one of his best friends is killed in a drive-by shooting, causing him to launch an ill-advised gang war out of a desire for revenge. The gang war bankrupts the Romano family, and Bob can only painstakingly watch as the Romano family slowly collapses day after day until eventually, it's down to just Bob and a few of his most loyal subordinates. He tries to escape to a different country, but fails and is caught by the police. By the end of the film, we see Bob spending his days in a maximum security prison having constant nightmares about his friends being gunned down in the streets.
- Played for Horror: Tropefellas plays almost exactly like the "Played for Drama" example above except for the up-to-nine-thousand uptick in gory violence, the subplot about Bob's top enforcer being a Serial Killer on the side, the direct (and well-founded) comparison between the Romano family and terrorist cells and the climactic Torture Porn massacre of everything Bob holds dear… followed by Bob.
Back to "Rise and Fall" Gangster Arc.
