History Film / EasternPromises

* BathhouseBlitz: Nikolai is tricked into taking Kirill's place in a meeting at the local sauna with the Chechens following Kirill's unsanctioned murder of the Chechen mob boss' mentally handicapped nephew. Nikolai arrives, undresses, and waits in the sauna room as expected. The Chechens show up seeking vengeance and attack Nikolai with knives forcing him into a brutal fight to death.

* GrayEyes: Nikolai is a textbook case of the "cold, strong-willed and unapproachable" variety. [[spoiler: The discovery that he's undercover and has probably done a lot more IfYoureSoEvilEatThisKitten acts than we see on-screen also fits the "ideas above people" mentality aspect of the trope]].

* RuthlessForeignGangster: The Chechen brothers take this role; Azim says they only recently arrived from the mountains, and calls them animals. However, there is little to suggest they are actually worse than Semyon's established London Mafiya, since we only see them kill in revenge for the murder of their brother (during which they are not massively sadistic or gratuitous,) and they spare one of the murderers in exchange for the one who gave the order.

*** Earlier on (before she knows the full truth) she lets Nikolai drive her home. Getting into a car alone with a strange man is pretty stupid at the best of times, but this is after her suspicions have been raised enough for her to evade Semyon's questions about where she lives, only to then give the information to someone she knows to be Semyon's employee and whose intimidating demeanour made her wary from the first moment she saw him.

*** Earlier on (before she knows the full truth) she lets Nikolai drive her home. Now, getting into a car alone with a strange man is pretty stupid at the best of times, but this is after her suspicions have been raised enough for her to evade Semyon's questions about where she lives, only to then give the information to someone she knows to be Semyon's employee and whose intimidating demeanour made her wary from the first moment she saw him.

* YourMom: While inducting Nikolai into the "family" of the Mafiya, the various bosses make various insulting remarks about Nikolai's birth parents to check his reaction and make him disown them in favour of his new family.

* PoliticallyIncorrectVillain: The Mafiya treat the possibility of Kirill being gay as disastrous, and when the police give Semyon a blood test his first thought is that they tried to poison him by using the same needle as they used on "whores, junkies, blacks and queers. Now I probably have the fucking queer disease" he says while pouring vodka over the injection site.

* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: Uncle Stepan isn't really the friendliest guy, but he clearly cares about his family and wants to keep them out of trouble.

*** Earlier on (before she knows the full truth) she lets Nikolai drive her home. Normally, getting into a car alone with a strange man would be garden-variety stupid rather than this trope, but this is after her suspicions have been raised enough for her to evade Semyon's questions about where she lives, only to then give the information to someone whose intimidating demeanour made her wary from the moment she saw him, and she knows to be Semyon's employee.

* DidYouJustFlipOffCthulhu: Stepan at one point ''spits in Nikolai's face''. He's trying to protect Anna at the time, but given that his reaction to Tatiana's diary proves he is familiar with the ''Vory v Zakone'', it is a remarkably ''stupid'' thing to do.

* InVinoVeritas: The likely reason that Nikolai only drinks when ordered to, and sparingly at that, is because letting this trope come into play would likely get him killed.

* ReverseMole: [[spoiler:Nikolai. Not explicitly stated until late in the film, but there are [[{{Foreshadowing}} several hints]]: The prostitute he had sex with being snatched by the police, the letter the detective finds on Soyka's body and his interest in the diary.]]

** Semyon's plan to [[spoiler: give Nikolai the star tattoos and so the Chechens will kill him thinking he's Kirill]] is cunning in the short-term, but there's little long-term hope of them not realising that their actual target is still alive, with his main bodyguard now dead. As for what actually happens [[spoiler: Nikolai survives the fight, leaving Semyon with a proven badass wanting his head (or he would if he weren't an undercover cop,) and Kirill's fury with Semyon for setting Nikolai up being a major factor in his decision to let Semyon go to jail.]]

* TheVillainKnowsWhereYouLive: Seymon tells Anna as much when he pays her a surprise visit in the hospital to ask her for the diary.

* SlashedThroat: A [[{{Gorn}} particularly graphic example]] about two-minutes into the film, in which the assailant uses a razor to ''saw'' through the victim's neck. There is a somewhat cleaner example later, [[spoiler: used against the aforementioned assailant]].

* TooDumbToLive: Anna [[spoiler: in the scene where she, all alone, goes to the Russian mob HQ to broadcast the incriminating information she has on the boss, antagonizing the notoriously aggressive and unstable Kirill. Is it any shocker that he ended up attacking her?]] The police are also bloody idiots for [[spoiler: openly taking the blood of an experienced criminal like Semyon and not thinking that he might work out what they were hoping to do and strike against the baby first]].

* HumanTraffickers: The Vory y Zakone syndicate has been importing Russian girls into the west to be forced into prostitution. The plot is kicked off after a pregnant 14-year old girl runs away and dies in childbirth after she was raped by the chapter's boss.

* IHaveComeTooFar: Nikolai's attitude towards what he's done to get where he is now. [[spoiler: Though it's revealed that he's actually a good guy who's sacrificed too much to quit now, as opposed to a villain who can't go back.]]

* TheMobBossIsScarier: Ekrem's uncle tells the Chechens that he was ordered to kill their associate by Semyon's captain. He then immediately goes to Semyon and informs him what the Chechens are up too, unhesitatingly admitting that he's more afraid of Semyon than them.

* DidYouJustFlipOffCthulhu: Stepan at one point ''spits in Nikolai's face''. He's trying to protect Anna at the time, but given that his reaction to Tatiana's diary proves he is familiar with the ''vore v zkone'' it is a remarkably ''stupid'' thing to do.

* EvenEvilHasStandards: [[spoiler: Kirill can't kill Tatiana's baby, who is, to be fair, his half-sister. He also couldn't bring himself to rape the (possibly virgin) Tatiana months before, leading Semyon to do it instead.]]

* FakingTheDead: Semyon orders Nikolai to [[DeadlyEuphemism take care of]] Stepan. [[spoiler: When Nikolai follows him home and Stepan goes missing, everyone starts assuming Nikolai killed him. Nikolai -- being the ReverseMole -- really just told him to go to Edinburgh.]]

* WhamLine: [[spoiler: In the end his father came down. It was the father who raped me.]] And depending on exactly when it clicks that [[spoiler: Nikolai is undercover,]] any part of his conversation with the senior officer will count.

* IronicEcho: When Semyon sends Kirill to [[spoiler: kill Tatiana's baby, Kirill can't bring himself to do it, sobbing "She's just a little girl, papa!" Given that Semyon isn't around at the time and it's been established that Kirill couldn't rape Tatiana (with Semyon doing it instead), that's probably what he was thinking when it happened.

* EvenEvilHasStandards: [[spoiler: Kirill can't kill Tatiana's baby, who is, to be fair, his half-sister.]]

* FakingTheDead: Semyon orders Nikolai to [[DeadlyEuphemism take care of]] Stepan. [[spoiler: When Nikolai follows him home and Stepan goes missing, everyone starts assuming Nikolai killed him. Nikolai -- being the ReverseMole -- really just sent him to Edinburgh.]]

* HeKnowsTooMuch: [[spoiler: When Semyon finds out that Stepan read the diary, he orders Nikolai to kill him. Luckily, Nikolai's really an undercover FSB agent, and makes Stepan disappear... to a five-star hotel in Edinburgh where he'll be safe until everything blows over.]]

* IKnowWhereYouLive: Seymon tells Anna as much when he pays her a surprise visit in the hospital to ask her for the diary.

* TheAlcoholic: Kirill and Uncle Stepan.

* BadassInANiceSuit: Nikolai.

* DeathByChildbirth: Tatiana
* DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything?: Played rather disturbingly in the bathhouse scene

* EvilOldFolks: Semyon

* {{Fingore}}: Soyka's "processing".
* FootballHooligans: Averted. At one point Ekrem is surrounded by supporters of an opposing football club while he loudly chants his support for Arsenal, but all they do is call him a "wanker" good-naturedly. [[spoiler: The two Chechens who've blended into the crowd, however...]]

* HospitalHottie: Anna. She's nowhere near as in-your-face as many of the examples listed, but she is still played by ''[[http://kpitalrisk.free.fr/images/stars/s_naomi_watts.jpg Naomi Watts]]''.

* TooDumbToLive: Anna [[spoiler: in the scene where she, all alone, goes to the Russian mob HQ to broadcast the incriminating information she has on the boss, antagonizing the notoriously aggressive and unstable Kirill.]] The police are also bloody idiots for [[spoiler: openly taking the blood of an experienced criminal like Semyon and not thinking that he might work out what they were hoping to do and strike against the baby first]].

* VillainWithGoodPublicity: Semyon

* TattooedCrook: Operates as a ChekhovsGun for Nikolai. It says something that while taking a break from filming by kicking back at a bar, Viggo Mortensen accidentally scared several Russian immigrants into thinking he really was a member of the ''Vory V Zakone''.

* {{Badass}}: Nikolai. Notable badassery includes the bathhouse scene and [[spoiler:joining the ''vory v zakone'' as an infiltrator. By the end of the film he's become Kirill's second-in-command.]] The Chechen brother who pulled a knife out of his own chest to keep attacking also deserves a mention.

'''''Eastern Promises''''' is a 2007 crime drama by Creator/DavidCronenberg.

* TheCastShowOff: Armin Mueller-Stahl started playing the violin when he was a teenager, and he does for real when Semyon shows his granddaughters how it's done.

* GenreSavvy: Stepan knows a few things about the Russian Mafia from his days with the KGB. This is what ultimately [[spoiler:puts him in danger]].