History Film / DeathWish4TheCrackdown

* TooDumbToLive: Similar to {{Tempting Fate}}, the fake Nathan White at the end proves to be this when he kills Kersey's girlfriend, and then fails to do a good job at not getting killed by taunting Kersey by saying that he had [[IWarnedYou warned him]]. Rubbing it in after killing Kersey's girlfriend definitely was not going to make him put the gun down, and it was even dumber to say this while not at least firing at Kersey with the machine gun that's clearly aimed at him.
** He really should have known better; this is the guy who said perhaps the most intelligent thing in regards to Kersey that any ''Death Wish'' antagonist ever did:
** And had the fake Nathan White not tried to depose of Kersey (poorly) after using him to kill his rivals, it's likely Kersey would have never found out about his real identity.
--> '''Nathan White:''' As long as Kersey's ''breathing,'' he's dangerous.

* AFistfulOfRehashes: Variation -- Kersey makes raids on both drug gangs to drive their leaders into meeting to try to discuss who is responsible (and thus prevent a gang war), whereupon he kills all of them.

* AFistfulOfRehashes: Variant: Kersey's plan of attack is to kill top members of both gangs in order to make the surviving leadership meet and discuss what to do... and so Kersey has a better shot at killing them all on one fell swoop. As mentioned in Trivia, this movie had a more straight use of this trope on an early draft.

* RecycledSoundtrack: Some of the tracks used in the film were taken from ''Film/MissingInAction'' and ''Film/InvasionUSA1985''.

* PlayingGertrude: Kay Lenz is only 13 years older than Dana Barron, who plays her character's daughter.

* AmbiguousSituation: Zacharias's lieutenant, Nick Franco, [[spoiler: manages to survive the shootout Kersey engineers and later shows up working for the fake Nathan, but it is unrevealed if he was working with Nathan to take out his competitors from the start or was merely decided to KneelBeforeZod when Nathan took over the remnants of the organization]].

* MohsScaleOfViolenceHardness: It rates a 6, featuring a fair amount of non-spurting blood squibs and [[spoiler:"Nathan White" (John P. Ryan) being bloodlessly incinerated by an M203 grenade]].

* FamousLastWords:
** "Who the fuck are you?" Rapist in the dream sequence
** "Read my lips! Cops! Policeman! And you gonna die like she died!" Randy Viscovich
** "All right." Vince Montono
** "Hey, I got a brother in Idaho! What city? Danny Moreno
** "I know you, I never forget a face." Art Sanella
** "What the hell?" Jack Stein
** "How many what?" Max Green
** "Now, you're gonna tell me what the fuck you're doing here!" Frank Bauggs
** "Hey, you!" Factory Guard
** "I can be very very nasty if I want to be." Phil Nozaki
** "Tony!" Jack Romero
** "Jack, it's a setup!" Tony Romero
** "I don't even know the girl!" Ed Zacharias
** "Fuck this." Jesse
** "I told you...! I warned you I'd kill her! I warned you I'd kil--!" "Nathan White"

** Erica's boyfriend telling the guy who sold her tinted drugs that he's calling the cops, rather than just calling the cops and then telling him, doesn't end out so well.

* AmbiguousSituation: Zacharias's lieutenant, Nick Franco, [[spoiler: manages to survive the shootout Kersey engineers and later shows up working for the fake Nathan, but it is unrevealed if he was working with Nathan to take out his competitors form the start or was merely decided to KneelBeforeZod when Nathan took over the remnants of the organization]].

* DirtyCop: Phil Nozaki. He is introduced as a police detective who is investigating the vigilante case, but is later revealed to be in the pocket of drug lord Ed Zacharias.

* DreamIntro: The film opens on its vigilante protagonist dispatching three rapists, only to discover that one of them has his face. Then he wakes up, and the implications of this dream are never brought up again.

* StopOrIWillShoot: The ending has this. After Kersey obliterates the fake Nathan White, a police detective named Reiner (who had been on the trail of Kersey the whole movie, especially after Kersey killed his partner, [[DirtyCop the corrupt]] Phil Nozaki) shows up and tells Kersey to [[PutDownYourGunAndStepAway surrender his weapon]]. However, the detective changes his mind and decides to let Paul go after hearing this response:

* DreamIntro: The film starts with the vigilante protagonist offing two three guys, only to discover that one of them has his face. Then he wakes up, and the implications of his dream are never brought up again.

** "Who the fuck are you?" Mugger in the dream sequence

** "Hey I got a brother in Idaho, what city? Danny Moreno

** "I told you...I warned you I'd kill her, I warned you I'd kil-" "Nathan White"

-->'''White''': I told you...I warned you I'd kill her! I warned you! I'd kill her... [Paul fires a grenade which obliterates him]

* NothingPersonal: Variation: Paul Zacharias is one of the drug gangs making the stuff that killed Kersey's girlfriend's daughter (because she overdosed). He never met her, he probably never even met the kid that peddled the drugs to her. It doesn't matters to Kersey -- he's one of the ''many'' that deserve to die, any case.

* RecycledSoundtrack: Some music in the film was taken from ''Film/MissingInAction'' and ''Film/InvasionUSA1985''.

* SequelEscalation: Zigg-Zagged. The previous film had Kersey facing a single street gang while this one has him facing three different factions of organized crime. That said, it never escalates into the urban warfare slaughter that climaxes the third film.
* SiblingYinYang: Jack and Tony Romero. Tony is a violent, impulsive hothead while Jack is more reserved and prone to thought.

** At the end, Kersey's [[CartwrightCurse girlfriend gets killed]], and all the fake [[BigBad Nathan White]] can say is that [[IWarnedYou he warned him that he would do it]]. It was not a smart thing to kill Kersey's girlfriend and then [[TooDumbToLive rub it in his face by saying that he had warned him he would kill her]]. [[LudicrousGibs You can guess what Kersey does next]].

** He really should have known better; this is the guy who said perhaps the most intelligent thing about Kersey that any ''Death Wish'' antagonist ever did:

* UsingYouAllAlong: Kersey finds out that Nathan White wasn't a corporate executive, the person he impersonated was out of the country for several months, the man he dealt with was really the rival of the other dealers, and was basically using Kersey to eliminate the competition (and in fact probably deliberately poisoned Erica in order to get him started doing so in the first place). Please note that this plot twist appeared earlier in ''The Saint in New York'' and ''The Saint Meets a Phantom''.

* WretchedHive: The film has a version of Los Angeles where organized crime controls the drug trade, relatively innocent youth die of overdoses, and the police features a mix of corruption and ineffectuality.

* DisneyVillainDeath: Frank Bauggs, a high-ranking gang member, faces Kerney and ends up falling from a building to his death.

* BittersweetEnding: Probably the most bittersweet of the series. The movie ends with Paul having killed the bastard who manipulated him into doing his dirty work, wiping out most of the Los Angeles mob and drug trade, but having lost both his girlfriend--again--and her daughter in the bargain. What's especially bad is that despite the dangerous situation, [[BaitTheDog it looks as though his girlfriend might make it]], only to be killed off at literally the last minute. This could apply to ''all'' the films, as Paul emerges victorious, but inevitability loses someone he loves in the course of the story. Paul then walks away into the night dejectedly, not caring if Detective Reiner kills him or not.

* BittersweetEnding: Probably the most bittersweet of the series. The movie ends with Paul having killed the bastard who manipulated him into doing his dirty work and wiping out most of the Las Angeles mob and drug trade, but having lost both his girlfriend--again--and her daughter in the bargain. What's especially bad is that despite the dangerous situation, [[BaitTheDog it looks as though his girlfriend might make it]], only to be killed off at literally the last minute. This could apply to ''all'' the films, as Paul emerges victorious, but inevitability loses someone he loves in the course of the story. Paul then walks away into the night dejectedly, not caring if Detective Reiner kills him or not.

* BittersweetEnding: The movie ends with Paul having killed the bastard who manipulated him into doing his dirty work, but having lost both his girlfriend--again--and her daughter in the bargain. What's especially bad is that despite the dangerous situation, it looks as though his girlfriend might make it, only to be killed off at literally the last minute. This could apply to ''all'' the films, as Paul emerges victorious, but inevitability loses someone he loves in the course of the story.

-->'''Paul Kersey:''' Do whatever you have to.

* TemptingFate: At the end, Kersey's [[CartwrightCurse girlfriend gets killed]], and all the fake [[BigBad Nathan White]] can say is that [[IWarnedYou he warned him that he would do it]]. It was not a smart thing to kill Kersey's girlfriend and then [[TooDumbToLive rub it in his face by saying that he had warned him he would kill her]]. [[LudicrousGibs You can guess what Kersey does next]].

* UsingYouAllAlong: Kersey finds out that Nathan White wasn't a corporate executive, the person he impersonated was out of the country for several months, the man he dealt with was really the rival of the other dealers, and was basically using Kersey to eliminate the competition. Please note that this plot twist appeared earlier in ''The Saint in New York'' and ''The Saint Meets a Phantom''.

* HopeSpot: It appears Kersey's girlfriend might for once survive the movie... Only for her to be gunned down at literally the last minute by the fake Nathan White. This ''is'' a ''Death Wish'' movie, after all.

** ** "I don't even know the girl!" Ed Zacharias

Kersey returns to Los Angeles. The vigilante is unleashed again after the daughter of Paul Kersey's current girlfriend dies of a cocaine overdose, and her boyfriend is brutally stabbed by the pusher who sold her the coke. After gunning down the pusher, Kersey is approached by a newspaper tycoon who knows of the guy's death and wants to hire him to wipe out the drug trade by taking down two drug gangs. Kersey does what he does best and blasts both gangs to hell, but is betrayed by the tycoon, who it turns out is actually an ambitious drug dealer under a false identity who is seeking a monopoly over the local drug business and has tricked him into doing the dirty work for him. After Kersey's girlfriend is kidnapped by the BigBad's men, and the stage is set for a final showdown.

* SequelEscalation: The previous film had Kersey facing a single street gang. This one has him facing three different factions of organized crime.