History Film / JohanFalk

Unlike other crime-thrillers like ''{{Series/Wallander}}'' and ''{{Film/Beck}}'', the ''Johan Falk'' movies are less of a TV Show and more of a straight forward movie series, with recurring characters and almost no [[MonsterOfTheWeek one-shot villains]]. Instead, it focuses on Johan Falk... obviously, but also the criminals like Seth Rydell and the international mafia throughout the series. Some might even say the criminals are the real protagonists of the story.

** The Series: Seth Rydell, being a combo of the OverarchingVillain, TheHeavy as well as being most prominent villain in season 1 and 2. A murderous gangster who will do anything to find the police informant.

* TheHeavy: Seth Rydell in season one and two.
* OverarchingVillain: Seth Rydell who appears in most of the movies.

** [[spoiler: Ricky Morén]] was an inexperienced career criminal who owed money to an EvilDebtCollector. But when he finally gathers all the money and intends to pay him off, he is killed right after he collected them.

Unlike other crime-thrillers like ''{{Film/Wallander}}'' and ''{{Film/Beck}}'', the ''Johan Falk'' movies are less of a TV Show and more of a straight forward movie series, with recurring characters and almost no [[MonsterOfTheWeek one-shot villains]]. Instead, it focuses on Johan Falk... obviously, but also the criminals like Seth Rydell and the international mafia throughout the series. Some might even say the criminals are the real protagonists of the story.

** [[spoiler: Valdo in season 3. A corrupt Russian businessman who is secretely a crime kingpin, considered by the G.S.I. to be the leader of Europe's biggest criminal organization]].

** The Series: Seth Rydell, being a combo of the OverarchingVillain, TheHeavy as well as being most prominent villain in season 1 and 2. A murderous gangster who will do anything to find the police informant. [[spoiler: Valdo in season 3. A corrupt Russian businessman who is secretely a crime kingpin, considered by the G.S.I. to be the leader of Europe's biggest criminal organization]].

** The Series: Seth Rydell, the most prominent villain in season 1 and 2. A murderous gangster who will do anything to find the police informant. [[spoiler: Valdo in season 3. A corrupt Russian businessman who is secretely a crime kingpin, considered by the G.S.I. to be the leader of Europe's biggest criminal organization]].

** The Series: Seth Rydell in (most of) season 1 and 2. A murderous gangster who will do anything to find the police informant. [[spoiler: Valdo in season 3. A corrupt Russian businessman who is secretely a crime kingpin, considered by the G.S.I. to be the leader of Europe's biggest criminal organization]].

* BigBadWannabe: There are a lot of cocky gangsters who overestimate their power in the series.

* BumblingSidekick: Conny, Seth Rydell's right-hand man.

* AxCrazy: Alot if villains are clearly disturbed.

** Heikki Nieminen, the Finnish sadistic gangster who cuts peoples fingers off if they can’t pay him whatever he thinks they owe him.

* AxCrazy: Milo Mikhailov, the Swedish-Russian hitman who appears in the last episodes of season 3, is a domestic abuser and it is mentioned by police investigator Jan Ossian that he constantly gets into physical fights in the prison he's in.

** The Series: Seth Rydell in season 1 and 2. A murderous gangster who will do anything to find the police informant. [[spoiler: Valdo in season 3. A corrupt Russian businessman who is secretely a crime kingpin, considered by the G.S.I. to be the leader of Europe's biggest criminal organization]].

** Mikahel Stukalov from ''National Target'' constantly messes with Frank Wagner and knows that he can do whatever he wants with him, but is still outsmarted by Wagner in the end.

** Seth Rydell in season 1 and 2.
** In season 3, [[spoiler: Valdo, a Russian businessman who rules the European criminal underworld]].

** Milo Mikhailov [[spoiler: murders two police officers while freeing The Russian Woman]].

* AntiHero: Frank Wagner has murdered, robbed, and many other things, but he is a police infiltrator just doing what he has to do.

* BewareTheNiceOnes: Seth Rydell, in season 2 and 3, seems a lot nicer than in season 1, and he is, but he isn't afraid of murdering to get his own way.

** Season 1: Seth Rydell, the person who is preventing Frank Wagner from living a normal life as he's shown to be cruel to all who he dislikes, and if he found out that Wagner was a police infiltrator he'd murder him. After the first three episodes, Rydell is convicted and is replaced by one-shot villains. In ''Leo Gaut'' the main antagonist is Anton Montay, a gangster who will do anything to get a part of the titular Leo's restaurant. In ''Operation Näktergal'', it's Oleg, a human trafficker. And in ''Outlaws'', it's Maxim Morosov, an ex-military Russian hitman who is said to have countless victims.
** Season 2: Seth Rydell is out of prison again, and is the main antagonist. However, he's more careful now, so he's not quite as vicious anymore. In ''Rules of the Game'', Vijay Khan, a Pakistani drug lord, is dealing with Rydell and is more of an antagonist than Rydell, where he's more of a background character. The same goes for ''Organizatsija Karayan'' and ''Codename: Lisa''. In ''Organizatsija Karayan'', the ex of Falk's wife Helén is a slimy construction business owner who does business with the Russian mob, and eventually the mob snaps after he doesn't pay and decides to go after his family. In ''Codename: Lisa'', Rydell is doing business with Russian mobster Andrei Dudajev, who finds out that Frank Wagner is a police infiltrator by hacking into documents and wants Seth to kill him for it.
** Season 3: At first, Jack seems like the obvious main antagonist as he wants to usurp Seth, but it's revealed to be more complicated than that, [[spoiler: Ali Mahmoud Hansson and Vijay Khan of the Khan Clan are using Jack as a mere pawn to murder Seth and then rob a diamond shop]]. The Russian Woman also seems to at first be a key member of the criminal organization she's working for, but she's revealed to have a much smaller role, all she is supposed to do is blackmail Falk for someone else higher up. Seth's girlfriend Madeleine Wiik has an ex-boyfriend named Milo Mikhailov who also works for the criminal organization, and he turns out to be Sweden's leading member of the organization, so he's quite powerful. The man who leads the organization is named [[spoiler: Valdo, a corrupt businessman who covers the organization partially with a company where women whose significant other is criminal pays a monthly fee to, once their husband is dead, get insurance. It's also revealed that there are at least two police leaks in the organization; Lasse Karlsson and Jan Ossian, the former being a G.S.I. investigator on vacation and the latter an internal affairs investigator]].

** The robber and ex-military man Tomas Elooma in season 2 seem to think he's a complete badass. To put it shortly; in his very first scene, he pushes an old man incapable of defending himself down a balcony for fun, which leads to the man's death. However, this cruelty could be explained by Elooma being traumatized during his war experiences, but it doesn't justify it.

** Edgars in season 3, the corrupt businessman who is also a member of the Russian criminal organization. He's smug throughout the entire episode and is at the end killed by his own hitman because his organization is losing status.
* BlackComedy: Obviously the entire movies aren't this, but there is some darker humor in the movies.

* ButtMonkey: To a certain extent, Frank Wagner is this in Codename: Lisa. His wife, however, is this for the entire series. In ''National Target'', she is kicked in a sensitive area while pregnant, so hard that the process stops and the new child is never born. Most of the bad things that happen to Frank's wife can be blamed at him.

** Oleg and his human trafficking organization in season 1 become a vital plot point as [[spoiler: it's revealed that G.S.I. investigator Lasse Karlsson became TheMole to the Russian criminal organization because they were competing with Oleg's human trafficking organization which murdered Karlsson's girlfriend, so he joined to crush Oleg's organization as revenge for what they did to his girlfriend]].

** [[spoiler: Eric Davoda, the first criminal the G.S.I. are seen convicting, returns in the final episode when Fredrixon states that he knows things about the Russian criminal organization]].
* CopKiller: Frank Wagner seems like this in the first episode of the series, but he's just pretending to kill as he's a police infiltrator.

Unlike other crime-thrillers like ''{{Film/Wallander}}'' and ''{{Film/Beck}}'', the ''Johan Falk'' movies are less of a TV Show and more of a straight forward movie series, with recurring characters and almost no [[MonsterOfTheWeek one-shot villains]]. Instead, it focuses on Johan Falk... obviously, but also the criminals like Seth Rydell and the international mafia throughout the series. Some might say the criminals are the real protagonists of the story even.

** Seth Rydell, for all his viciousness, won't do anything unless you're his enemy. Otherwise he is genuenly nice towards his gang-members and enforcers.
** Martin Borhulth is more affable than evil. He helps Seth with blackmailing, torturing and outright murdering his rivals. Other than that, he is still a NiceGuy towards his friends.
** Mikahel Stukalov is almost always very cheerful and happy when he is with Frank Wagner. He's also a huge crime lord who is the main reason why Wagner won't get any new children.
* AlasPoorVillain:
** After Martin Borhulth starts realizing during the gangster's gunfight with the police that Wagner is a spy, he walks up to Wagner while he's near-dead during the gunfight, and wants Wagner's help. Wagner gets the idea that he can blame Borhulth for being a spy, so he kills Borhulth and puts the earphones in Borhulth's pocket, Seth Rydell then becomes furious after Borhulth's death and puts Borhulth in his car and burns his body down to ashes. [[TearJerker Ouch...]]
** Leo Gaut.
* AloneWithThePsycho:
** Whenever Leo Gaut comes close to one of his victims in his titular movie, it becomes this. Subverted, since his victims are mostly psycho's themselves. Played straight when he rather randomly enters Falk's house.
** Johan Falk's stepdaughter Nina is alone with Kaie Saar for a while, making matters worse is that she is also tied to a chair, with Saar ready to drown her at any time.
* AntiHero: Frank Wagner has murdered, robbed, and many other things, yet he is still a spy for the police who intends on doing good and bringing justice. He's also probably the most sympathetic of the gangsters despite being a spy, crying and feeling bad after he betrays and kills Martin Borhulth.
* TheAtoner: Happens with quite alot of the major characters. Frank Wagner, Leo Gaut, hell, even Seth Rydell is leaning towards this.
* AxCrazy: Seth Rydell is presented as absolutely sick in the first two seasons.
* TheBadGuyWins: Anton Montay, albeit indirectly, succeeds in killing Leo Gaut.
* BerserkButton: You do not, '''not''', betray Seth Rydell.
* BewareTheNiceOnes: Johan Falk. Looks like a nice cop, no? As long as you don't threaten his family, then he'll kill yours.

* BigBad: Seth Rydell is by far the most recurring threat in the series and appears in most of the films. He's simply always there, whether or not he's viciously beating down traitors or caring for his children.
* BigBadWannabe:

** Anton Montay sees himself as Leo Gaut's biggest threat ever, and he probably is.
* BlackComedy: Obviously the entire movies aren't this, but there is alot of comedy in the movies, with alot of it coming from DeadpanSnarker moments.
* BreakTheHaughty: Johan Falk does this with one of his blackmailers when he hides in her car and puts her at gunpoint while driving, causing her to panic.
** Seth Rydell does this multiple times by insulting and making jokes.
* BumblingSidekick: Conny, one of Rydell's henchmen.
* ButtMonkey: To a certain extent, Frank Wagner is this in Codename: Lisa. His wife, however, is this for the entire series. In ''National Target'', she is kicked in a sensitive area while pregnant, so hard that the process stops and the new child is never born.
* TheBusCameBack: Happens pretty frequently. Frank Wagner has episodes where he is a minor character, only to appear again and be the main protagonist. Seth Rydell is inactive for multiple episodes in season 1. Even Johan Falk himself isn't always super active, in one of the films Patrick is regarded as the main character.
* CopKiller: According to one of the cops, Frank Wagner is apparently this.
* DeadpanSnarker: Oh boy if Seth Rydell isn't this. He has so many different quotes displaying this as well. For example, after a finnish man calls him a fucking swede, he calls the finnish man [[Literature/TheMoomins a moomin]].
** Helén, sometimes.

** Seth Rydell, for all his viciousness, won't do anything unless you're his enemy.
** Martin Borhulth is more affable than evil.

* DeadpanSnarker: Oh boy if Seth Rydell isn't this. He has so many different quotes displaying this as well. For example, after a finnish man calls him a fucking swede, he calls the finnish man [[TheMoomins a moomin]].

Unlike other crime-thrillers like {{Wallander}} and {{Beck}}, the ''Johan Falk'' movies are less of a TV Show and more of a straight forward movie series, with recurring characters and almost no [[MonsterOfTheWeek one-shot villains]]. Instead, it focuses on Johan Falk... obviously, but also the criminals like Seth Rydell and the international mafia throughout the series. Some might say the criminals are the real protagonists of the story even.

Six years later, and Falk returned in a new movie series, this time around with new characters, but with the same actor still playing Falk. New additions include [[Creator/JoelKinnaman Joel Kinnaman]]'s character Frank Wagner, an extremely charismatic infiltrator-spy who hangs out with gangsters for a living with a family to protect. To date, there have been 20 movies made.

* ButtMonkey: To a certain extent, Frank Wagner is this in Codename: Lisa. His wife, however, is this for the entire series. In ''National Target'', she is kicked in a sensitive area while pregnant, so hard that the process stops and the new child is never born.