History Film / Unhinged2020

* DropTheHammer: The film starts with the Man brutally dispatching his ex-wife and her new husband with one, right before he [[IncendiaryExponent lights the house on fire]].

* SpiritualSuccessor: To ''Film/FallingDown''. Both revolve around a working-class, middle-aged man who has been left by his wife and fired from his job and is now taking his wrath out on anyone who provokes him and are set over the course of a single day. The difference being that Bill Foster, bad as he was, mostly stuck to petty yet extreme displays of aggression and only directly killed one person in self-defense while The Man has already killed two at the start and does so with many others without a second thought, just to go after Rachel. While Bill was portrayed sympathetically, as an extremely troubled man who was as much a victim of his own serious anger issues as everyone else was and who just wanted to go back to a time when things were happy, The Man is portrayed as an absolute monster with no redeeming traits of any kind.

* WouldHurtAChild: [[spoiler: The Man threatens to kill Rachel's teenage son Kyle, and actively pursues this through the second half of the film, even managing to nearly strangle the kid to death with a power cable before Rachel kills him.]]

* ApatheticCitizens: Averted, even in a situation with BystanderSyndrome. The first time, a couple of people in a gas station, the cashier and customer NiceGuy, both notice that Rachel is clearly worried about something and offer to help her. In another case, [[spoiler: the customers of the diner all suffer BystanderSyndrome witnessing Andy's murder, but it's clear that they're horrified with what they're seeing and are not apathetic to it, and worry that The Man will kill them next in a LeaveNoWitnesses situation. He doesn't follow throug; but knows full well they can't do anything about it beyond react in horror.]]

* FakeAmerican: The Australian Russell Crowe, playing a New Orleans local.

* ApatheticCitizens: Averted, even in a situation with BystanderSyndrome. The first time, a couple of people in a gas station, the cashier and customer NiceGuy, both notice that Rachel is clearly worried about something and offer to help her. In another case, [[spoiler: the customers of the diner all suffer BystanderSyndrome witnessing Andy's murder, but it's clear that they're horrified with what they're seeing and are not apathetic to it.]]

* BystanderSyndrome: The Man successfully exploits this in the diner as he kills Andy. Knowing full well that no one will dare be a hero given his notoriety. He also kills several of them during his rampage against Rachel with no remorse.

* TheCavalryArrivesLate: [[spoiler: The police show up too late to save Fred's wife from being murdered and barely in time to drive The Man away so Fred can be transported to the ER after having been set on fire. During the final showdown, the cops don't even show up on site until after Rachel has dealt with the Man on her own. The second instance is both justified and a plot point, as they were responding to a massive pileup that the Man intentionally caused while pursuing Rachel not long before.]]

* ProductPlacement: Rachel's white, low cut Converse sneakers, featured repeatedly in several close-up shots of her working the gas and brake pedals.

* SpiritualSuccessor: To ''Film/FallingDown''. Both revolve around a working class, middle-aged man who has been left by his wife and fired from his job and is now taking his wrath out on anyone who provokes him and are set over the course of a single day. The difference being that Bill Foster, bad as he was, mostly stuck to petty yet extreme displays of aggression and only directly killed one person in self-defense while The Man has already killed two at the start and does so with many others without a second thought, just to go after Rachel. While Bill was portrayed sympathetically, as an extremely troubled man who was as much a victim of his own serious anger issues as everyone else was and who just wanted to go back to a time when things were happy, The Man is portrayed as an absolute monster with no redeeming traits of any kind.

* WouldHitAGirl: The Man has absolutely no qualms about giving Rachel vicious beatdowns when he gets his hands on her.