History Film / Pusher

* EstablishingCharacterMoment: Kusse Kurt demonstrates exactly [[HateSink what kind of person he is]] in his first scene when he tells Tonny a horrible joke about raping a prepubescent girl.

* EstablishingCharacterMoment: Kusse Kurt demonstrates exactly [[HateSink what kind of person he is]] in his first scene when he tells Tonny a crass joke about raping a prepubescent girl.

* BadassDecay: A mayor theme in ''Pusher III''. Milo has gotten older and fatter and is losing his game. After leaving crime [[spoiler: and opening his dream restaurant, Radovan has stopped working out and gained some weight, though he still knows what to do with a corpse]].

* TheMillstone: Beyond being a repulsive scumbag, Kurt proves to be an even more incompetent crook than [[ButtMonkey Tonny]]. After he destroys the drugs he was supposed to sell to Milo, he keeps making the situation worse by screwing up and lying (poorly) to [[spoiler: the Duke]], who he owes the money to. Had it not been for [spoiler: Tonny killing the Duke,]] Kurt's treachery would have been discovered and he'd have paid for it with his life.

* BittersweetEnding: [[spoiler:The ending of ''Pusher 2'', in which Tonny has killed his evil father and left Copenhagen with his son. Although Tonny has almost no resources and little money, [[CharacterDevelopment he's taken responsibility for his son]] and [[BeingEvilSucks rejected the miserable criminal lifestyle]] he previously sought after.]]

* DeathByIrony: [[spoiler: In the climax of the second film, Tonny is reluctant to carry out a murder on the behalf of his father, the Duke. When he reveals that he didn't go through with the deed, the Duke [[ARealManIsAKiller berates him for not being man enough to commit murder]] and [[IHaveNoSon admits he doesn't love him]]. After sustaining this kind of abuse for the entire film, [[TheDogBitesBack Tonny snaps and kills his father in a fit of patricidal rage]]. It also counts as a KarmicDeath, as the Duke was a violent, amoral criminal on top of being an abusive father to Tonny.]]

* AbusiveParents: In the second film, we have two examples: Tonny's dad, the Duke, and Tonny's baby mama, Charlotte. The former is a cold, uncaring crimelord who continues to be openly abusive towards his son. The latter is negligent towards her infant son, who remains unnamed despite being nine months old. A depressing sequence later in the film shows her abandoning the poor kid in a crowded bar so she can do lines of coke with her girlfriends, which is implied to be standard operating procedure for her.

* TheDogBitesBack: [[spoiler: After a lifetime of mistreatment from his father, Tonny lashes out and kills him. Tonny also stands up to his baby mama Charlotte by rescuing their infant son from her.]]

* OhCrap: "Frank, are you fucking me?"

* DeathByIrony: [[spoiler: In the climax of the second film, Tonny is reluctant to carry out a murder on the behalf of his father, the Duke. When he reveals that he didn't go through with the deed, the Duke [[ARealManIsAKiller he berates him for not being man enough to commit murder]] and [[IHaveNoSon admits he doesn't love him]]. After sustaining this kind of abuse for the entire film, [[TheDogBitesBack Tonny snaps and kills his father in a fit of patricidal rage]]. It also counts as a KarmicDeath, as the Duke was a violent, amoral criminal on top of being an abusive father to Tonny.]]

* CerebusCallback: [[spoiler: Milo's bad cooking causes the food poisioning that causes the problematic situation to escalate into a crisis. The fate of the Albanian mobsters illustrates what might have been Frank's fate]].

* DeathByIrony: [[spoiler: In the climax of the second film, Tonny is reluctant to carry out a murder on the behalf of his father, the Duke. When he reveals that he didn't go through with the deed, the Duke [[TheReasonYouSuckSpeech berates him for being useless]] and [[IHaveNoSon declares that he doesn't love him]]. After sustaining this kind of abuse for the entire film, [[TheDogBitesBack Tonny snaps and kills his father in a fit of patricidal rage]]. It also counts as a KarmicDeath, as the Duke was a violent, amoral criminal on top of being an abusive father to Tonny.]]

* DisposableSexWorker: In ''Pusher 2'', Kurt[[spoiler:kills a hooker in his home, tricking Tonny into being an accomplice. However, Tonny later refuses to kill his father's new wife, who is a brothel madam. Milo also treats a sex slave as a human being, which leads to a war with the Albanian gangsters.]]

* AbusiveParents: In the second film, we have two examples: Tonny's dad, the Duke, and Tonny's baby mama, Charlotte. The former is a cold, uncaring crimelord who continues to be openly abusive towards his son. The latter is negligent towards her infant son, who remains unnamed despite being nine months old. A depressing sequence later in the film shows her abandoning the poor kid in a crowded bar so she and her girlfriends can do hard drugs and drink heavily, which is implied to be standard operating procedure for her.

* {{Patricide}}: [[spoiler:Tonny kills his father in the last minutes of the film after having been pushed too far and belittled for too long.]]

* TheDogBitesBack: [[spoiler: After a lifetime of mistreatment from his father, Tonny lashes out and kills him. Tonny also stands up to his baby mama [[AbusiveParents Charlotte]] by rescuing their infant son from her.]]

* TheDogBitesBack: [[spoiler: After a lifetime of mistreatment from his father, Tonny lashes out and kills him. Tonny also stands up to his baby mama[[AbusiveParents Charlotte]] by taking their infant son from her.]]

* CountryMatters: A particularly worthless pimp is called Kurt the Cunt (Kusse-Kurt in Danish). TruthInTelevision, as this was the actor's real nickname. The director met him while researching a 12 step program.

* DeathByIrony: [[spoiler: The Duke is [[TheDogBitesBack stabbed to death by]] [[{{Patricide}} an enraged Tonny]], who he was angry at just moments before because he was reluctant to commit murder on his behalf. Also counts as a KarmicDeath.]]

* DisposableSexWorker: In ''Pusher 2'', Kurt [[spoiler:kills a hooker in his home, tricking Tonny into being an accomplice. However, Tonny later refuses to kill his father's new wife, who is a brothel madam. Milo also treats a sex slave as a human being, which leads to a war with the Albanian gangsters.]]

'''Pusher''' is a Danish crime film written and directed by Creator/NicolasWindingRefn. In 1996, a Danish crime film was quite novel, and its popularity had a great influence on Danish films to follow. In this respect, it was something akin to the ''Film/PulpFiction'' of Denmark. Two sequels, filmed back-to-back, followed almost ten years later to rescue Refn's ailing film company from bankruptcy. Each sequel follows a different character introduced in the first film.

* BittersweetEnding: [[spoiler:The ending of ''Pusher 2'', in which Tonny has killed his evil father and left Copenhagen with his son. Although Tonny has almost no resources and little money, [[CharacterDevelopment he's taken responsibility for his son]] and [[BeingEvilSucks rejected the glamourless criminal lifestyle]] he previously sought after.]]

* BittersweetEnding:[[spoiler:The ending of ''Pusher 2'', in which Tonny has killed his evil father and left Copenhagen with his son. Although Tonny has almost no resources and little money, [[CharacterDevelopment he's taken responsibility for his son]] and [[BeingEvilSucks rejected the glamourless criminal lifestyle]] he previously sought after.]]

* BittersweetEnding:[[spoiler:The ending of ''Pusher 2'', in which Tonny has killed his evil father and left Copenhagen with his son. Although Tonny has almost no resources and little money, [[CharacterDevelopment he's taken responsibility for his son]] and[[BeingEvilSucks rejected the glamourless criminal lifestyle]].]]

* DeathByIrony: [[spoiler: The Duke is [[TheDogBitesBack stabbed to death by an enraged Tonny]], who he was angry at just moments before because he was too reluctant to go through with committing murder on his behalf. Also counts as a KarmicDeath.]]

* DeathByIrony: [[spoiler: The Duke is [[TheDogBitesBack stabbed to death by an enraged Tonny]], who he was angry at just moments before because he was reluctant to commit murder. Also counts as a KarmicDeath.]]

** In ''2'', Tonny is treated with varying degrees of contempt by everyone he knows. His estranged father, the Duke, especially dislikes him.

* BittersweetEnding:[[spoiler:The ending of ''Pusher 2'', in which Tonny has killed his evil father and fled the city with his son. Although Tonny has almost no resources and little money, he at least seems to have embraced fatherhood and might escape his criminal upbringing.]]

** In Pusher III, when Milo replies his inoffcial catchphrase, you know shit is about to go down.

** Tonny in ''2'', is treated with varying degrees of contempt by everyone he knows, but ''especially'' his father, the Duke.

* OhCrap: ''Franke, are you f*cking me''?

** Tonny in ''2'', is shat on by virtually everyone, but ''especially'' his father, the Duke.

* HumiliationConga: Essentially the whole of ''Pusher 2'' is this for Tonny.

The third film follows a day in the life of Milo, who struggles with preparations for his overbearing daughter's birthday while fighting off Albanian drug dealers and his own lurking addiction.

* ArchnemesisDad: the Duke to Tonny in ''2''. Despite this, he loves his younger son, Valdemar, enough to [[spoiler: ask Tonny to kill Valdemar's mother, who wants full custody of him]]

* BadassDecay: A mayor theme in Pusher III. Milo has gotten older and fatter and is losing his game. After leaving crime [[spoiler: and opening his dream restaurant Radovan has stopped working out and gained some weight]].

* CallBack: ''Pusher 3'' contains a lot of call backs to ''Pusher'' and ''Pusher 2'': Milo using his CatchPhrase "You're f**king me" before torturing a victim, the bodybuilder Frank robs returns as Milena's boyfriend, Milo's bad cooking, [[spoiler: Radovan]] has his own restaurant after quitting the gangster life just like he told Frank he wanted too, Valdemar's mother has upgraded to a madame and some of the Duke's cronies now work for Milo.

* BaldOfEvil: It seems like this with Tonny, but is ultimately averted, especially with ''Pusher 2''.

* CallBack: ''Pusher 3'' contains a lot of call backs to ''Pusher'' and ''Pusher 2'': Milo using his CatchPhrase "You're f**king me" before torturing a victim, the bodybuilder Frank robs returns as Milena's boyfriend, Milo's bad cooking, [[spoiler: Radovan]] has his own restaurant after quitting the gangster life just like he told Frank he wanted too.

* GreyAndGreyMorality: There are no true heroes in the trilogy.

* EmpathicEnvironment: The films start in relatively innocent and bright-looking (if not pretty) settings, usually set in the daylight. The climax of the films--and consequently the grimmest parts of the films--take place in dark places and in the dark of night.

* GreyAndGreyMorality: there are no true heroes in the trilogy.

'''Pusher''' is a Danish crime film written and directed by NicolasWindingRefn. In 1996, a Danish crime film was quite novel, and its popularity had a great influence on Danish films to follow. In this respect, it was something akin to the ''Film/PulpFiction'' of Denmark. Two sequels, filmed back-to-back, followed almost ten years later to rescue Refn's ailing film company from bankruptcy. Each sequel follows a different character introduced in the first film.