History Film / GranTorino

* BatmanGambit: Walt's plan to deal with Spider's gang is to [[spoiler:spook them into using their itchy trigger fingers, gunning him down. He turns up unarmed, and creates a ruckus so people will watch his murder. As a result, Spider's gang is arrested for murdering an unarmed old white war hero.]]

* CoolGun: Walt's M1 Garand rifle and [=M1911A1=] pistol. He carried both of them in combat. [[GeniusBonus In the 1940s and 50s, the US Army allowed combat veterans to buy their issued weapons and take them home with them]] (within reason; mortars, machine guns, etc were obviously not included in this policy).

* DrinkOrder: In the bar, Walt orders Pabst and a shot of Jack; the priest tries to order a diet Coke, but Walt makes him order "a drink" instead (he opts for a gin and tonic). Also, Walt is very fond of Pabst Blue Ribbon (not surprising given his generation, class, and location).

* PeerPressureMakesYouEvil: Averted since Walt isn't going to let that shit fly.

* {{RacistGrandma}}: Walt is a deconstruction of this trope. The whole point of the movie is that Walt realizes the people who he has being directing racial slurs all his life are NotSoDifferent, that his experience as a soldier [[ShellShockedVeteran only let him know much more about death than about life]], and that he is a KnowNothingKnowItAll.

* RevengeByProxy: [[spoiler:As above, Spider's gang rapes Sue to get back at Thao and Walt.]]

* [[SuicideByCop Suicide By Gang]]: [[spoiler:Walt pretends to have a gun. He was pulling out a lighter. He does this so they [[HeroicSacrifice will get arrested to end their reign of terror]] on the street. Also counts as RedemptionEqualsDeath]].

* ThanatosGambit: [[spoiler:Walt's plan to bring the gangsters to justice involves his death. See BatmanGambit above.]]

* UnusualEuphemism: "Christ All Friday". Possibly meant as a CurseOfTheAncients as well.

'''Sue Lor:''' [[SarcasmMode No worries, we only eat cats.]]
** This goes on to become a RunningGag between them.
* YourDaysAreNumbered: A longtime smoker, Walt suffers from coughing fits, [[BloodFromTheMouth occasionally coughing up blood]]. [[spoiler: When he finally goes to see a doctor about it, it's made clear he doesn't have long to live, making his HeroicSacrifice all the more understandable.]]

* StayInTheKitchen: The Hmong people traditionally believe that gardening, cooking and cleaning are women's work. Even Spider, who's less into the heritage than his cousins, invokes this trope, mostly to make fun of Thao for how often he's seen cleaning and gardening. Walt, on the other hand and in a surprising turn, doesn't invoke sexism of any kind, and at one point even invites Thao, Sue, their mother and Youa to a backyard BBQ where he himself personally cooks.

* BadassBoast
-->'''Walt''': Ever notice how you come across somebody once in a while that you shouldn't have fucked with? That's me.
** Or ...
--->'''Walt''': Yeah, I blow a hole in your face and then I go in the house and I sleep like a baby. You can count on that. We used to stack fucks like you five feet high in Korea ... used you for sandbags.
** But most memorably...
--->'''Walt''': Get off my lawn!

* BrattyTeenageDaughter: Ashley Kowalski, ''grand''daughter in this case. The mere thought of that girl getting Walt's Gran Torino is enough to make any car-lover shudder in horror.

* CrankyNeighbor: Walt, initially. The elderly Hmong lady next door is only too happy to return his affections.
* DeathGlare: Walt's son turns around and gives one to Thao when [[spoiler: Walt leaves his car to the young man instead of his grand daughter.]]

* FirstNameBasis: When Walt allows the priest to use his name it is a dramatic moment.

* TheFundamentalist: [[SubvertedTrope Subverted]] with the Father Janovich. Despite being the priest of the church Walt and his wife attended, he is actually really relaxed outside of church, [[TurnTheOtherCheek even when Walt hurls insults at him.]]

* GlassCannon: Tragically, Sue. She has a tough attitude and even manages to fight off one of Spider's men trying to kidnap Thao. [[spoiler:The gang later beats and rapes her.]]

* GrumpyOldMan: Walt Kowalski.

* HeroicBSOD: The final straw for Walt is when [[spoiler:Sue is gang raped]].

* IJustShotMarvinInTheFace: Hinted at with Thao inadvertently pointing a rifle at Walt while examining it, evoking an unspoken rebuke.

* OneLastSmoke: Once he's decided to face the gangsters, Walt treats himself to a wet shave, a tailor-fitted suit and a cigarette in the bathtub. [[spoiler:Averted when he's shot by Spider when he [[ShootHimHeHasAWallet pulls out his lighter]].]]
* PapaWolf: An unusual example in that it doesn't seem to apply to his own family; though, to be fair, they're selfish assholes. However, [[spoiler:he blames himself for not getting close to them.]]

* PetTheDog: Shockingly, Spider and his gang have one in the beginning [[spoiler:when they are introduced scaring off a rival gang harassing his cousin Thao. Of course he quickly devolves into the BigBad after that.]]

* [[{{RacistGrandma}} Racist Grandpa]]: Walt is a deconstruction of this trope. The whole point of the movie is that Walt realizes the people who he has being directing racial slurs all his life are NotSoDifferent, that his experience as a soldier [[ShellShockedVeteran only let him know much more about death than about life]], and that he is a KnowNothingKnowItAll.

* RealMenLoveJesus: Walt writes in his will that in the event of his death, his house passes to the ownership of the local church. Doesn't mean he respects the local GoodShepherd, though. [[spoiler:His last words were "Hail Mary, full of grace..."]]
* RedemptionEqualsDeath: [[spoiler:Walt's speech through the locked door indicating that he feels that he can face the gang because the bad things he has done mean that what he does to them won't make him any dirtier, then defeating them by dying, revealing that he actually meant that the bad things he has done mean that he is ready to die for a good cause. His confession earlier suggests that he actually doesn't need redemption in any eyes but his own.]]
** [[spoiler: Also invoked by the fact he reveals to Thao through the locked door, that he shot a young enemy soldier who was trying to surrender to him. His HeroicSacrifice to save Thao, another young man about the same age, represents his atonement for that old sin.]]
*** [[spoiler: Walt's confession to Thao mirrors his earlier, somewhat insincere confession to the priest, with the barred and screened basement door replacing the traditional confessional booth screen seen in the earlier scene.]]

* RiceBurner: [[spoiler:Walt's will gives the Gran Torino to Thao on the condition that "you don't chop-top the roof like one of those beaners, don't paint any idiotic flames on it like some white trash hillbilly, and don't put a big, gay spoiler on the rear end like you see on all the other zipperheads' cars."]]

** Walt's truck is missing its front license plate, which is fine since Michigan doesn't require one. But it looks like it's been removed recently whereas Walt bought the truck new.

Not to be confused with the series ''Videogame/GranTurismo'', or [[Characters/MyHeroAcademiaOtherHeroes the retired hero]].

* RealMenLoveJesus: Walt writes in his will that in the event of his death, his house passes to the ownership of the local church. Doesn't mean he respects the local GoodShepherd, though.

* BookEnds: A funeral.

* BrickJoke: The gifts Walt receives from the Hmong neighbors after saving Thao. He at first doesn't want them, but then relents as persuading them doesn't work. So he tells them where to place them. Later on when he's had enough and tried to persuade them again, one of them brings him a chicken dumpling meal, which he earlier enjoyed at the BBQ, which he accepts.
* ConvenientTerminalIllness: [[spoiler: Walt.]]

* ComingOfAgeStory: A delayed example -- Walter Kowalski, even when he is a senior who has raised a family, still lives emotionally as [[ShellShockedVeteran the young soldier that crossed]] the MoralEventHorizon during the UsefulNotes/KoreanWar. He must [[HeelRealization assume]] he is a {{grumpy|OldMan}}, {{jaded|Washout}}, {{cranky|Neighbor}}, RacistGrandpa who has alienated his own family and now that his wife has died is completely alone, so he can be a real BadassGrandpa PapaWolf.

* GlassCannon: Tragically, Sue. She has a tough attitude and even manages to fight off one of Spider's men trying to kidnap Thao. [[spoiler: The gang later beats and rapes her.]]

** Possibly with [[spoiler: Walt, even though he isn't technically a bad guy, given that his last words are ""Hail Mary, full of grace."]] It's a little ambiguous, though.

* HeroicBSOD: The final straw for Walt is when [[spoiler:Sue is gang raped]].
* HigherEducationIsForWomen:

* IJustShotMarvinInTheFace: Hinted at with Thao inadvertently pointing a rifle at Walt while examining it, evoking an unspoken rebuke.

* NoHoldsBarredBeatdown: [[spoiler:In retaliation for them assaulting Thao, Walt tracks down Spider and his gang to their house and proceeds to beat and kick the shit out of Smokie when he's alone, before threatening to kill him if he touched Thao again, without raising his voice above a [[TranquilFury venom-filled whisper]].]]

* ThePreciousPreciousCar: Walt's Gran Torino. Not only is it vintage, Walt has a personal attachment to its construction: he was on the line where it was built.

* ThanatosGambit: [[spoiler: Walt's plan to bring the gangsters to justice involves his death. See BatmanGambit above.]]

Not to be confused with the series ''Videogame/GranTurismo''.

* BloodFromTheMouth: Walt periodically [[IncurableCoughOfDeath coughs up blood]] throughout the movie, [[spoiler:{{foreshadowing}} his eventual death - though, interestingly, it's not whatever's causing that cough that does him in.]]

* ComingOfAgeStory: A delayed example - Walter Kowalski, even when he is a senior who has raised a family, still lives emotionally as [[ShellShockedVeteran the young soldier that crossed]] the MoralEventHorizon during the UsefulNotes/KoreanWar. He must [[HeelRealization assume]] he is a {{grumpy|OldMan}}, {{jaded|Washout}}, {{cranky|Neighbor}}, RacistGrandpa who has alienated his own family and now that his wife has died is completely alone, so he can be a real BadassGrandpa PapaWolf.

* GutturalGrowler: Walt.

** [[spoiler: His confession suggests that since the war he's been a curmudgeon, but actually a stand up truly good person with the worst sins he's confessing being either kissing a woman at a Christmas party 40 years prior, not paying the tax after selling an expensive possession or not being close to his two sons.]] [[spoiler: However, his ''second'' confession, to Thao in the basement, is what you'd expect from a veteran. It even is done through a grill similar to his first one.]]

* {{Hypocrite}} / SmallNameBigEgo: As a lot of [[{{RacistGrandma}} Racist Grandpas]], Walt regards himself as a man who knows plenty about life and death, and who is abused by those (other races) surrounding him. Everyone else thinks is just a GrumpyOldMan. The movie shows his CharacterDevelopment from this to [[BeYourself a realistic assessment of his qualities and weakness]].

* KnowNothingKnowItAll[=/=]HeelRealization: Invoked and played straight: Just after Walt accuses Father Janovich of being this, Father Janovitch asks him what Walt knows. Walt realises that he knows plenty about ''death'', but not a lot about ''life.''

* ShootHimHeHasAWallet: [[spoiler:Walt uses this in his [[SuicideByCop Suicide by Gang]], pointing a finger gun at all of the armed gangsters and then drawing a lighter in an aggressive-looking manner, so the gang gets arrested for murdering an unarmed man.]]

* SuicideByCop: Walt pretends to have a gun. He was pulling out a lighter. He does this so they [[HeroicSacrifice will get arrested to end their reign of terror]] on the street. Also counts as RedemptionEqualsDeath.

* WarIsHell
-->'''Walt''': You want to know what it's like to kill a man? Well it's goddamn awful, that's what it is. The only thing worse is [[MedalOfDishonor getting a medal of valour for killing some poor kid]] that wanted to 'just give up, that's all.' Yeah, some scared little gook just like you. I shot him right in the face with that rifle you were holding in there a while ago. There's [[MyGreatestFailure not a day goes by that I don't think about it]]. You don't want that on your soul. But I got blood on my hands. I'm soiled.

* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: Walt tries to hide his Heart of Gold with a JerkassFacade racist exterior, but Sue is indeed correct in saying that he's a good man.

''Gran Torino'' is a 2008 film, directed by and starring Creator/ClintEastwood, in what was once rumoured to be his final onscreen performance[[note]]It wasn't, he's had a lead role in ''Film/TroubleWithTheCurve'' and a cameo in ''Film/AmericanSniper'' since[[/note]]. He plays Walter "Walt" Kowalski, an elderly retired veteran of UsefulNotes/TheKoreanWar living in Highland Park, Michigan (a rundown suburb of UsefulNotes/{{Detroit}}), shortly after the death of his wife. He has difficulty relating to his two grown up sons, who are caught up in their own lives, and generally disapproves of the way the world is changing, such as the influx of the ''Hmong'' People, immigrants who fled Laos after UsefulNotes/TheVietnamWar. Next door is Thao Vang Lor, a quiet boy who is pressured into joining his cousin Spider's gang. As part of his "initiation", Thao is pressured to steal Walt's prized possession, a 1972 Ford Gran Torino, but fails, and is caught. For dishonoring his family, Thao's mother asks Walt to accept Thao's help in doing chores around his house, which leads to an OddFriendship. Spider, upset at Thao's rejection of his gang, begins to retaliate against the family, forcing Walt to intervene.

* TactfulTranslation: Sue attempts to provide one of these for her RacistGrandma's insults to Walt as "Welcome to our home", but given how angry the grandma is, even Walt who doesn't speak a word of Hmong .

-->'''Walt''': You want to know what it's like to kill a man? Well it's goddamn awful, that's what it is. The only thing worse is getting a medal of valour for killing some poor kid that wanted to 'just give up, that's all.' Yeah, some scared little gook just like you. I shot him right in the face with that rifle you were holding in there a while ago. There's [[MyGreatestFailure not a day goes by that I don't think about it]]. You don't want that on your soul. But I got blood on my hands. I'm soiled.

* BilingualBonus: Most of the Hmong dialogue is untranslated

-->'''Walt:''' [[MeaninglessMeaningfulWords "Death is bittersweet? Bitter in the pain, sweet in the salvation."]] [[TheReasonYouSuckSpeech That’s what you know of life and death? Good God, it’s pathetic.]]\\

'''Walt:''' Plenty. [[UsefulNotes/TheKoreanWar I lived with death for three years in Korea.]] [[WarIsHell We shot people, we stabbed them with bayonets,]] [[MoralEventHorizon we hacked seventeen-year-old kids to death with shovels, for Christ’s sake]]. [[ShellShockedVeteran I did things that won’t leave me till the day I die, horrible things, things I have to live with.]]\\

'''Walt''' ''([[{{Beat}} has to think for a second. He struggles with his answer:]])'' Well... I survived the war... got married... and raised a family.\\
'''Father Janovich:''' [[TheReasonYouSuckSpeech Sounds like you know more about death than you do living.]]\\
'''Walt''' ''([[INeedAFreakingDrink downs a shot.]])'' [[HeelRealization Maybe so.]]
* LastDisrespects: During the funeral of Walt Kowalski's wife, his granddaughter was dressed inappropriately and can be seen fiddling around on her cell phone during the service. Walt's sons start asking Walt if he wants to go to a "nice retirement place" so they could sell the house, and the same disrespectful granddaughter starts asking whether she could have some of the furniture and other possesions in the house.
* LullDestruction: Walt talks to himself a ''lot''. And to his dog. Some of this may help the story, but a lot of it could be communicated without words, or is information the audience already has. TruthInTelevision, as multiple studies have shown that a person who lives alone or is isolated tend to talk to themselves just to break the silence around them.

** Done non-verbally, when Walt learns [[spoiler:that his attempt to intimidate the Hmong gang ended up getting Sue beaten and raped. And this is on top of the drive-by at her house. Then he goes home and starts [[PunchAWall punching up his cabinets]]--even the glass ones--while verbally berating himself.]]

* NoHoldsBarredBeatdown: [[spoiler: In retaliation for them assaulting Thao, Walt tracks down Spider to his house and proceeds to beat and kick the shit out of him before threatening to kill him if he touched Thao again without raising his voice above a [[TranquilFury venom-filled whisper]].]]
* NWordPrivileges: The film examines the rules around this a lot; Walt assumes N-word privileges towards everyone.
** Walt never actually uses literal N-word privileges, when confronted by black thugs Eastwood opts for the common 1950's - 1970's racist terms "spook" and "spade" (the use of which terms seem to confuse the young men, or at least leaves them briefly nonplussed...)
* OneLastSmoke: Once he's decided to face the gangsters, Walt treats himself to a wet shave, a tailor-fitted suit and a cigarette in the bathtub. [[spoiler: Averted when he's shot by Spider when he [[ShootHimHeHasAWallet pulls out his lighter]].]]
* PapaWolf: An unusual example in that it doesn't seem to apply to his own family; though, to be fair, they're selfish assholes. However, [[spoiler: he blames himself for not getting close to them.]]
* PassedOverInheritance: His family are shocked to find that in his will Walt leaves them [[spoiler: absolutely nothing. His house is donated to the church and much to the horror of his bratty granddaughter whose face lit up at the mention of the car, his Gran Torino goes to Thao.]]

* PetTheDog: Shockingly, Spider and his gang have one in the beginning [[spoiler: when they scare off a rival gang harassing his cousin Thao. Of course he quickly devolves into the BigBad after that.]]

* PunchAWall

* ARealManIsAKiller: After [[spoiler:his sister get raped]], Thao eagerly asks Walt to tell him "what it's like to kill a man". Walt's response is a furious rebuttal (see WarIsHell below).

* RevengeByProxy: See RapeAsDrama.

* ShootHimHeHasAWallet: [[spoiler: Walt uses this in his [[SuicideByCop Suicide by Gang]] so the gang gets arrested for shooting an unarmed man]]
* StayInTheKitchen: The Hmong people traditionally believe that gardening, cooking and cleaning are women's work. Even Spider, who's less into the heritage than his cousins, invokes this trope. Walt, on the other hand and in a surprising turn, doesn't invoke sexism of any kind, and at one point even invites Thao, Sue, their mother and Youa to a backyard BBQ where he himself personally cooks.

* AmateurCast: Partially. The Hmong people in the film are played by actors with no previous credits, except for Doua Moua who plays Spider.

* BatmanGambit: Walt's plan to deal with Spider's gang is to [[spoiler: spook them into using their itchy trigger fingers, gunning him down. He turns up unarmed, and creates a ruckus so people will watch his murder. As a result, Spider's gang is arrested for murdering an unarmed old white war hero.]]

* BilingualBonus: most of the Hmong dialogue is untranslated
* BittersweetEnding: [[spoiler:Walt is dead, but he was terminally ill anyway and his sacrifice lets justice be done. Thao gets the Torino, and has a bright future ahead of him. Sue is traumatised after being gang-raped, and doesn't seem to be on the way to making any sort of recovery.]]

* BloodFromTheMouth: Walt periodically coughs up blood throughout the movie, [[spoiler:{{Foreshadowing}} his eventual death.]]

* CoolCar: Everyone wants Walt's Gran Torino.

* [[{{ComingOfAgeStory}} Delayed Coming Of Age Story]]: Walter Kowalski, even when he is a senior who has raised a family, still lives emotionally as [[ShellShockedVeteran the young soldier that crossed]] the MoralEventHorizon at the UsefulNotes/KoreanWar. He must [[HeelRealization assume]] he is a GrumpyOldMan JadedWashout CrankyNeighbor RacistGrandpa who has alienated his own family and now that his wife has died is completely alone, so he can be a real BadassGrandpa PapaWolf.
* {{Deconstruction}}: What ''Film/{{Unforgiven}}'' did for the Westerns that Creator/ClintEastwood starred in, this film does for Creator/ClintEastwood's other major genre, the urban vigilante film.
* DoItYourselfThemeTune: Creator/ClintEastwood co-wrote the song on the end credits.

* GangBangers: The Hmong boys are somewhere on the scale between this and...

* GenericEthnicCrimeGang
* GlassCannon: Tragically Sue. She has a tough attitude and even manages to fight off one of Spider's men trying to kidnap Thao. [[spoiler: The gang later beats and rapes her.]]

--> '''Walt:''' Goddamn Barbarians.

* HeroicBSOD: The final straw for him is when [[spoiler:Sue is gang raped]].

* {{Hypocrite}} / SmallNameBigEgo: As a lot of [[{{RacistGrandma}} Racist Grandpas]], Walt regards himself as a man who knows plenty about life and death, and who is abused by those (other races) surrounding him. Everyone else thinks is a GrumpyOldMan JadedWashout CrankyNeighbor. The movie shows his CharacterDevelopment from this to [[BeYourself a realistic assessment of his qualities and weakness]].

-->'''Walt:''' [[MeaninglessMeaningfulWords "Death is bittersweet? Bitter in the pain, sweet in the salvation."]] [[TheReasonYouSuckSpeech That’s what you know of life and death? Good God, it’s pathetic.]]
-->'''Father Janovich''': [[LetsSeeYOUDoBetter What do you know, Mr. Kowalski?]]
-->'''Walt:''' Plenty. [[UsefulNotes/TheKoreanWar I lived with death for three years in Korea.]] [[WarIsHell We shot people, we stabbed them with bayonets,]] [[MoralEventHorizon we hacked seventeen-year-old kids to death with shovels, for Christ’s sake]]. [[ShellShockedVeteran I did things that won’t leave me till the day I die, horrible things, things I have to live with.]]
-->'''Father Janovich''': [[ArmorPiercingQuestion And what about life?]]
-->'''Walt''' ''([[{{Beat}} has to think for a second. He struggles with his answer:]])'' Well... I survived the war... got married... and raised a family.
-->'''Father Janovich:''' [[TheReasonYouSuckSpeech Sounds like you know more about death than you do living.]]
-->'''Walt''' ''([[INeedAFreakingDrink downs a shot.]])'' [[HeelRealization Maybe so.]]

* LullDestruction: Walt talks to himself a ''lot''. And to his dog. Some of this may help the story, but a lot of it could be communicated without words, or is information the audience already has.
** TruthInTelevision as multiple studies have shown that a person who lives alone or is isolated tend to talk to themselves just to break the silence around them.
* MacGuffin: The Gran Torino.
** MacGuffinTitle

* MohsScaleOfViolenceHardness: It gets a 5, for [[spoiler:the rape]], otherwise the violence is on level 4, with the cigarette burning and [[spoiler:Walt Kowalski (Clint Eastwood) being riddled with bullets at the end (mostly bloodless)]].

* StayInTheKitchen: The Hmong people traditionally believe that gardening, cooking and cleaning are women's work. Even Spider who's less into the heritage than his cousin's invoke this trope. Walt on the other hand in a surprising turn, doesn't invoke sexism of any kind, even at one point invites Thao, Sue, their mother and Youa to a backyard BBQ where he himself personally cooks.

* SuicideByCop: Walt pretends to have a gun. He was pulling out a lighter. He does this so they [[HeroicSacrifice will get arrested to end their reign of terror]] on the street. Also counts as RedemptionEqualsDeath

* TactfulTranslation: Sue attempts to provide a TactfulTranslation of her RacistGrandma's insults to Walt as "Welcome to our home", but given how angry the grandma is, it's unconvincing. Walt calls her on it, and she admits it.

* VitriolicBestBuds: Walt's idea of male friendship is based around this setup, as shown with his barber and the construction foreman, and later Thao. Walt and Sue also have this going: she is the only Hmong he really respects at first because she refuses to take any crap from him

-->'''Walt''': You want to know what it's like to kill a man? Well it's goddamn awful, that's what it is. The only thing worse is getting a medal of valour for killing some poor kid that wanted to 'just give up, that's all.' Yeah, some scared little gook just like you. I shot him right in the face with that rifle you were holding in there a while ago. There's not a day goes by that I don't think about it. You don't want that on your soul. But I got blood on my hands. I'm soiled.

-->'''Sue Lor:''' There's a ton of food.
-->'''Walt Kowalski:''' Yeah, well, just keep your hands off my dog.
-->'''Sue Lor:''' [[SarcasmMode No worries, we only eat cats.]]

* BittersweetEnding: [[spoiler:Walt is dead, but he was terminally ill anyway and his sacrifice lets justice be done. Thao gets the Torino, and has a bright future ahead of him.]]

* StuffedIntoTheFridge: [[Sue spends most of the film as an engaging, intelligent, and interesting character. However, after she is beaten and gang-raped in order to motivate Walt's HeroicSacrifice, that's it for her agency, and even dialogue, for the rest of the film. We only see her again, still bruised and shell-shocked, in the congregation at Walt's funeral]].

''Gran Torino'' is a 2008 film, directed by and starring Creator/ClintEastwood, in what was rumoured to be his final onscreen performance[[note]]It wasn't[[/note]]. He plays Walter "Walt" Kowalski, an elderly retired veteran of UsefulNotes/TheKoreanWar living in Highland Park, Michigan (a rundown suburb of UsefulNotes/{{Detroit}}), shortly after the death of his wife. He has difficulty relating to his two grown up sons, who are caught up in their own lives, and generally disapproves of the way the world is changing, such as the influx of the ''Hmong'' People, immigrants who fled Laos after UsefulNotes/TheVietnamWar. Next door is Thao Vang Lor, a quiet boy who is pressured into joining his cousin Spider's gang. As part of his "initiation", Thao is pressured to steal Walt's prized possession, a 1972 Ford Gran Torino, but fails, and is caught. For dishonoring his family, Thao's mother asks Walt to accept Thao's help in doing chores around his house, which leads to an OddFriendship. Spider, upset at Thao's rejection of his gang, begins to retaliate against the family, forcing Walt to intervene.

* MohsScaleOfViolenceHardness: It gets a 5, for [[spoiler:the implied rape]], otherwise the violence is on level 4, with the cigarette burning and [[spoiler:Walt Kowalski (Clint Eastwood) being riddled with bullets at the end (mostly bloodless)]].

** Played straight when Walt witnesses a ceremony where his Hmong neighbors cut the head off of a chicken. The cut itself is never shown but it is heard when it shown Walt's reaction to it.

** [[spoiler: His confession suggests that since the war he's been a curmudgeon, but actually a stand up truly good person with the worst sin he's confessing being either kissing a woman at a Christmas party 30 years prior, or not paying tax after selling a personal item.]] [[spoiler: However, his ''second'' confession, to Thao in the basement, is what you'd expect from a veteran. It even is done through a grill similar to his first confession.]]

* LastDisrespects: During the funeral of Walt Kowalski's wife, one of the granddaughters was dressed inappropriately and can be seen fiddling around on her cell phone during the service. Walt's kids start asking Walt if he wants to go to a "nice retirement place" so they could sell the house, and the same disrespectful grandchild starts asking whether she could have some of the furniture and other items in the house.
* LullDestruction: Walt talks to himself a ''lot.'' And to his dog. Some of this may help the story, but a lot of it could be communicated without words, or is information the audience already has.