History Film / ThePlaceBeyondThePines

[[spoiler:Unfortunately for him, a rookie police named Avery Cross (played by Bradley Cooper) shoots and kills Luke after Luke makes one last heist without his partner/mentor. The film then switches protagonists, as we follow Avery Cross as he struggles with the guilt of killing a fellow young father and the wholesale corruption of his local police department. Avery ultimately decides to burn his bridges with the department, exposing his corrupt colleagues and launching a new career for himself, as he becomes a prosecutor for the local DA's office.]]

* HalfwayPlotSwitch: More like Thirdway Plot Switch, and another at the 2/3rds mark.

* KarmaHoudini: [[spoiler: Avery,who mostly gets away with shooting (and killing) Luke first.]]

'''''The Place Beyond the Pines''''' is a 2013 crime drama directed by Creator/DerekCianfrance. RyanGosling plays Luke Glanton, a motorcycle stunt driver in Upstate New York who gives up his carefree life on the state fair circuit after finding out that he fathered a child with a one-night-stand (EvaMendes). Unfortunately, the child's mother has moved on and started a new relationship, and Luke's desire to become a part of his child's life, and provide financially for him, leads to him embarking on a life of crime, robbing banks and escaping via his motorcycle.

* {{Retirony}}: [[spoiler: Completely averted. Robin retires from bank robbing and gets away clean, while Luke decides to go solo, with no intention of stopping, and ends up dead.]]

[[spoiler:It's at this point that the film AGAIN switches protagonists as move ahead about 16 years, as the film now focuses upon Avery Cross and Luke Glanton's children. Avery has divorced his wife and shunned his son, in order to focus on his career, campaigning for Attorney General of New York. Unfortunately, his son AJ has begun to rebel and do drugs, forcing Avery's dad to take him in hopes that he can keep his son out of trouble. AJ befriends Jason, Luke's son who like his dad is a motorcyclist and his deeply resentful of his mom and stepdad, who have kept Jason utterly clueless about his biological father's identity. When the truth about their fathers is revealed to Jason, Avery must save his son and stop Jason from self-destructing like his dad did.]]

* AmbiguousSituation: It's left unclear what exactly [[spoiler: [=DeLuca=] planned to do when he drove Avery out to the woods.]]
* BilingualBonus: The film's setting, Schenectady, NY, takes its name from the Mohawk word that means "beyond the pine plains".

* EvilParentsWantGoodKids

* GreyAndGrayMorality

* KickTheDog: Luke striking Romina's husband Kofi with a wrench, and later putting a gun in Robin's mouth and subjecting him to some fairly sadistic psychological torture. Also, Avery's introduction [[spoiler: in which he shoots Luke dead]] certainly casts him in a bit of a negative light for the audience.
* KnuckleTattoos: Luke has H-A-N-D tattooed onto the knuckles of his right hand.

* NeverTrustATrailer: The film's trailer hides the fact that [[spoiler:Gosling dies at the end of the first act, that Bradley Cooper does not show up until 30 minutes into the film, and the whole "three-act, three connected storylines" arc of the film]].

* ByronicHero: Luke Glanton, in many ways.

* VillainousBreakdown: [[spoiler:Luke, after he is rejected by Romina and his final bank robbery goes awry.]]

* DecoyProtagonist: [[spoiler:Luke dies an hour into the film]].

* AmbiguouslyGay: Robin.

* DoubleMeaningTitle: The title refers to the translated meaning of Schenectady, the setting as well as to a secluded spot in the forest of relevence to all three storylines.

'''''The Place Beyond the Pines''''' is a 2013 crime drama directed by Creator/DerekCianfrance. RyanGosling plays Luke Glanton, a Motorcycle Stunt Driver in Upstate New York who gives up his carefree life on the state fair circuit after finding out that he fathered a child with a one night stand (EvaMendes). Unfortunately, the child's mother has moved on and started a new relationship and Luke's desire to become a part of his child's life and provide financially for him, leads to him embarking on a life of crime, robbing banks and escaping via his motorcycle.

* ClusterFBomb: It's an R-Rated film. So expect a lot of swearing.

* DeadStarWalking: [[spoiler:RyanGosling]]

* DirtyCop: Everyone on the force but Avery, who isn't exactly perfect either. Embodied most in Peter De Luca.

* NeverTrustATrailer: The film's trailer hides the fact that [[spoiler:Gosling dies at the end of the first act, that Bradley Cooper does not show up until 30 minutes into the film, and the whole "three-act, three connected storylines" arc of the film. The trailer also implies that Luke and Romina are a loving couple, when in truth Luke is just a one-night stand she got pregnant by and that she's pretty much moved on with another man, who she actually has a meaningful relationship with.]]

* TattooedCrook: Luke is covered in tattooes, most notably a creepy dagger dripping blood in the corner of his eye. His bank-robbing outfit is designed to cover up all of his distinguising tattoos.

* NeverTrustATrailer: The film's trailer hides the fact that [[spoiler:Gosling dies at the end of the first act, that Bradley Cooper does not show up until 30 minutes into the film, and the whole "three-act, three connected storylines" arc of the film. The trailer also implies that Luke and Romina are a loving couple, when in truth Luke is just a one-night stand she got pregnant by and that she's pretty much moved on with another man, who she actually has a meaningful relationship with.]]

** [[spoiler: Also, near-death equals redemption for Avery at the end. In his mind, at least; YMMV on how much Avery really needed to be "redeemed".]]

* TheDogShotFirst: [[spoiler: Averted. Avery fired the first shot, sealing Luke's fate, and Luke only returned fire on his way out the window. This was discussed by Avery and the Internal Affairs agent, with Avery ultimately lying and claiming that Luke shot him first. It's also implied to be a major source of Avery's guilt over the shooting.]]
* DawsonCasting: Emory Cohen (22) and Dane [=DeHaan=] (25) played 16 year old highschoolers.

[[spoiler:Unfortunately for him, a rookie police named Avery Cross (played by BradleyCooper shoots and kills Luke after Luke makes one last heist without his partner/mentor. The film then switches protagonists, as we follow Avery Cross as he struggles with the guilt of killing a fellow young father and the wholesale corruption of his local police department. Avery ultimately decides to burn his bridges with the department, exposing his corrupt colleagues and launching a new career for himself, as he becomes a prosecutor for the local DA's office.]]

[[spoiler:Unfortunately for him, a rookie police named Avery Cross (played by Creator/BradleyCooper shoots and kills Luke after Luke makes one last heist without his partner/mentor. The film then switches protagonists, as we follow Avery Cross as he struggles with the guilt of killing a fellow young father and the wholesale corruption of his local police department. Avery ultimately decides to burn his bridges with the department, exposing his corrupt colleagues and launching a new career for himself, as he becomes a prosecutor for the local DA's office.]]

* NeverTrustATrailer: The film's trailer hides the fact that [[spoiler:Gosling dies at the end of the first act, that Bradley Cooper does not show up until 30 minutes into the film, and the whole "three-act, three connected storylines" arc of the film.
* VillainousBreakdown: [[spoiler:Luke, after he is rejected by Romina and his final bank robbery goes awry.]] The trailer also implies that Luke and Romina are a loving couple, when in truth Luke is just a one-night stand she got pregnant by and that she's pretty much moved on with another man, who she actually has a meaningful relationship with.

[[spoiler:Unfortunately for him, a rookie police named Avery Cross (played by Creator/BradleyCooper shoots and kills Luke after Luke makes one last heist without his partner/mentor. The film then switches protagonists, as we follow Avery Cross as he struggles with the guilt of killing a fellow young father and the wholesale corruption of his local police department. Avery ultimately decides to burn his bridges with the department, exposing his corrupt colleagues and launching a new career for himself, as he becomes a prosecutor for the local DA's office.

It's at this point that the film AGAIN switches protagonists as move ahead about 16 years, as the film now focuses upon Avery Cross and Luke Glanton's children. Avery has divorced his wife and shunned his son, in order to focus on his career, campaigning for Attorney General of New York. Unfortunately, his son AJ has begun to rebel and do drugs, forcing Avery's dad to take him in hopes that he can keep his son out of trouble. AJ befriends Jason, Luke's son who like his dad is a motorcyclist and his deeply resentful of his mom and stepdad, who have kept Jason utterly clueless about his biological father's identity. When the truth about their fathers is revealed to Jason, Avery must save his son and stop Jason from self-destructing like his dad did.]]

* NeverTrustATrailer: The film's trailer hides the fact that [[spoiler: Gosling dies at the end of the first act, that Bradley Cooper does not show up until 30 minutes into the film, and the whole "three-act, three connected storylines" arc of the film.

[[spoiler: Unfortunately for him, a rookie police named Avery Cross (played by Creator/BradleyCooper shoots and kills Luke after Luke makes one last heist without his partner/mentor. The film then switches protagonists, as we follow Avery Cross as he struggles with the guilt of killing a fellow young father and the wholesale corruption of his local police department. Avery ultimately decides to burn his bridges with the department, exposing his corrupt colleagues and launching a new career for himself, as he becomes a prosecutor for the local DA's office.

'''''The Place Beyond the Pines''''' is a 2013 crime drama directed by Creator/DerekCianfrance. RyanGosling plays Luke Glanton, a Motorcycle Stunt Driver in Upstate New York who, due to his own financial situation and that of a previously unknown son, decides to rob a bank to provide for his newfound family. Creator/BradleyCooper plays Avery Cross, a police officer on his trail and EvaMendes is the mother of his child.

* NeverTrustATrailer: The trailer implied that it was a touching story of a troubled young man (Gosling) just trying to do what's right: support his son financially. So, in order for this to happen, he must go around robbing banks. Then, it showed Cooper being the police officer. It implied that he was the cop who was trying to investigate the bank robberies, and catch Gosling's character. Then it showed Ray Liotta, who seemed to be Cooper's boss in the trailer. It also implied that Gosling and Mendes come together as a happy family and she accepted his bank robbing ways and they were to live happily ever after until Gosling was arrested. Not even remotely close to the actual plot.
* VillainousBreakdown: [[spoiler:Luke, after he is rejected by Romina and his final bank robbery goes awry.]]

** To ''Film/{{Drive}}'': Both characters were stuntmen who used vehicles as part of their employment, both were taken in and given a job in a low paying mechanic job where they found them selves doing a crooked sideline to make extra cash, they were also pretty soft spoken but had an air of understated charisma, they both ended up in a precarious predicament due to their criminal activity as well as getting angry with their boss/friend.
** In some ways Film/{{Narc}}.

* KnuckleTattoos: Luke has H-A-N-D tattooed on his right hand knuckles.

* TrailerAlwaysLie: The trailer implied that it was a touching story of a troubled young man (Gosling) just trying to do what's right: support his son financially. So, in order for this to happen, he must go around robbing banks. Then, it showed Cooper being the police officer. It implied that he was the cop who was trying to investigate the bank robberies, and catch Gosling's character. Then it showed Ray Liotta, who seemed to be Cooper's boss in the trailer. It also implied that Gosling and Mendes come together as a happy family and she accepted his bank robbing ways and they were to live happily ever after until Gosling was arrested. Not even remotely close to the actual plot.