Line #24 Film/TheIceman


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6	[[caption-width-right:350:''[[{{Tagline}} Loving husband. Devoted father. Ruthless killer.]]'']]
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8	A 2012 docudrama detailing the life and crimes of Richard Kuklinski (Creator/MichaelShannon), a New Jersey family man with a secret life as a [[ProfessionalKiller hitman for the Mob]] in TheSeventies. His nickname came from both his nerves of steel and one of his kill techniques: freezing corpses for several months to disguise the time of death. Creator/WinonaRyder plays his unsuspecting wife Deborah, Creator/RayLiotta is Roy [=DeMeo=], the mid-level boss who recruits Kuklinski, and Creator/ChrisEvans is rival shooter and occasional partner Robert "Mr. Freezy" Pronge.
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10	----
11	!! This film provides examples of:
12
13	* AdaptationNameChange:
14	** Kuklinski's wife Barbara is renamed Deborah.
15	** Robert Pronge is nicknamed "Mr. Freezy" instead of "Mr. Softee."
16	* AffablyEvil: Kuklinski and Roy, who wants his driver to respect his heritage and gives quarters to homeless men before ordering them killed.
17	* UsefulNotes/AmericanAccents: Joisey subdivision.
18	* TheAtoner: [[spoiler:At the end, Kuklinski only expresses remorse for the fact that he let down his wife and daughters.]]
19	* BadassInANiceSuit: Kuklinski once he starts becoming successful as a hitman, especially in comparison to Pronge.
20	* BadHumorTruck: Pronge works out of one, hence his nickname "Mr. Freezy."
21	* BasedOnAGreatBigLie: The film is based on Kuklinksi's prison confessions made after he was already serving a life sentence. There is little actual evidence that verifies any of Kuklinski's tall tales; he was accused of Film/ForrestGump syndrome - inserting himself into famous mob hits that actually had nothing to do with him.[[note]]Such as his claim that he killed Jimmy Hoffa[[/note]] It is much more likely that he was a simple psychopath who liked attention rather than the legendary assassin he claimed to have been.
22	* BewareTheQuietOnes: Kuklinski seems like a nice, quiet, overall sober man at first. Then we quickly discover that he's a cold-blooded killer prone to homicidal fits of anger.
23	* BerserkButton: Do ''not'' insult Kuklinski's family. Threatening them is an even worse idea.
24	* BigBad: Roy Demeo, the mob boss who initially hired Kuklinski [[spoiler:and ends up opposing him by film's end]].
25	* {{Bookends}}: [[spoiler:The film begins and ends with Kuklinski in his jail cell.]]
26	* BunnyEarsLawyer: Pronge.
27	* CorpseTemperatureTampering: Kuklinski's nickname came from both his nerves of steel and one of his kill techniques: freezing corpses for several months to disguise the time of death.
28	* DeathGlare: Deborah shoots her husband one [[spoiler: during his trial]].
29	* DisproportionateRetribution: Kuklinski kills a man for insulting him in a pool hall argument, and another Mafia boss hires Kuklinski to kill one of Roy's men just for manhandling him.
30	* DissonantSerenity: What first attracts Roy's attention to Kuklinski is his calm response to being threatened, so he dubs him "The Iceman".
31	* DownerEnding: [[spoiler:After being arrested for his crimes, Kuklinski is abandoned by his family and sentenced to two life sentences, wracked with guilt. He decides to turn state witness on a Gambino family underboss, but dies in prison days before he can, with foul play being suspected.]]
32	* EvenEvilHasLovedOnes:
33	** Both Kuklinski and Pronge have families that love them.
34	** Roy is apparently AFatherToHisMen and is deeply upset when his CoDragons end up dead, [[spoiler: especially since he's forced to shoot the one he considered to be like family to him.]]
35	* EvenEvilHasStandards: Kuklinski refuses to kill a 17 year old girl who saw him commit a murder. He co-conspirators are not so hampered.
36	** Comes up again later [[spoiler: when Pronge tries to make a deal with Kuklinski to murder each other's families so that the mob and the authorities can't use them against them. Needless to say, Kuklinski doesn't take the deal and kills Pronge not a minute after he suggests it.]]
37	* FauxAffablyEvil:
38	** Pronge is generally casual, sells ice cream to kids, and doesn't mind using a job at a club as a chance to cut up the dance floor. He's also the single most ruthless and murderous character in the film.
39	** Kuklinski's brother Joseph is pretty jovial and seems happy to be an uncle, but is in jail for raping and killing a little girl.
40	* GracefulLoser: Kuklinski manages to say "Good job" when he realizes that [[spoiler:Dominick set him up on a sting]].
41	* HeKnowsTooMuch: Kuklinski starts killing his friends for this reason. [[spoiler:Except the one friend who sets him up with an undercover police officer.]]
42	* HistoricalBeautyUpgrade: Played with. Creator/ChrisEvans has an edge over the real life Robert Pronge, but spends all but his last scene poorly dressed and groomed.
43	* HistoricalVillainUpgrade: The movie portrays Kuklinski as a ruthless Mafia hitman who kills dozens of people. In reality, he was a relatively obscure criminal who killed a few drug and porn dealers (his usual modus operandi was to set up a phony business deal, then kill the guy and take his cash) and later killed two members of his burglary gang when the law started to close in. His fanciful jailhouse confessions, such as his claim to have kidnapped and murdered Teamsters boss Jimmy Hoffa, are not taken seriously by law enforcement or mob experts.
44	* HistoricalHeroUpgrade: That said, the movie gives him a much more sympathetic relationship with his family. While he put them through a lot of grief, they are portrayed to be the thing he cared most about in his life. In real life, though he did go through periods of being a loving father and husband, he was also prone to fits of anger that led to both physical and mental abuse towards his wife and children respectively.
45	* HollywoodSilencer: [[spoiler:Kuklinski shooting Pronge in a public park.]]
46	* HorribleJudgeOfCharacter: Deborah, in hindsight, although there are plenty of clues along the way that Kuklinski is no angel.
47	* IfYoureSoEvilEatThisKitten: Roy tests Kuklinski's ability to be a ProfessionalKiller by having him [[TestedOnHumans kill a random street bum]].
48	* INeverToldYouMyName: Pronge mentions that he knows where Kuklinski lives, even though Richard never told him. It virtually seals his fate.
49	* LeaveNoWitnesses:
50	** After Kuklinski kills a pornographer, he finds a seventeen-year old girl hiding in his closet. He hauls her out onto the street and it's at that point he meets fellow hitman "Mr Freezy" Pronge for the first time, who tries to run her down with his [[BadHumorTruck ice cream truck]]. Kuklinski makes Pronge cease his pursuit at gunpoint, but when the two hitmen team up later on, the first thing Pronge shows him is the girl's body, which he has kept frozen for later disposal.
51	** Ironically, Kuklinski himself is implied to have been a victim of this. A paragraph in the credits suggests he was killed to prevent him testifying against a Mafia underboss.
52	* TheMafia
53	* MakeItLookLikeAnAccident: Kuklinski and Pronge use pure cyanide to simulate the effects of a heart attack.
54	* MurderIsTheBestSolution: Kuklinski and a lot of the people he deals with typically take this attitude.
55	* NightmareFuelStationAttendant: Kuklinski. Compounded by the fact that he's played by Creator/MichaelShannon.
56	* NoSocialSkills: Kuklinski's first date with future wife Deborah is full of this.
57	* {{Overcrank}}: Kuklinski's arrest in front of his wife. He's subdued by a dozen cops as she's bundled into a squad car. Includes a LongLastLook between them.
58	* ProtagonistTitle
59	* PsychoForHire: Kuklinski and Pronge.
60	* SerialKiller: Again, Kuklinski and Pronge. Neither man has qualms about killing, dismembering and freezing countless people. The film suggests that, if they weren't doing it for the mob, both men would be killing people for some other reason.
61	* TheSociopath: Kuklinski, but even more so with Pronge, [[spoiler: who goes out of his way to murder a 17-year old girl and casually offers to kill his partner's wife and children on the condition that he kills his family in return.]]
62	* SoftspokenSadist: Kuklinski notices that the pornographer he's about to kill looks like he's praying. So he decides to delay killing him for a minute to mock his belief that God will save him, even giving him time to pray to God for help. When nothing happens, Kuklinski coldly shoots him.
63	-->'''Richard Kuklinski''': Looks like God's busy.
64	* StrangersOnATrainPlotMurder: [[spoiler:Pronge suggests this to Kuklinski, proposing that they kill each others families to avoid suspicion and tie up loose ends. Kuklinski just kills him instead.]]
65	* TitleDrop: Kuklinski gets his nickname when [=DeMeo=] sticks a gun in his face - and he doesn't flinch.
66	-->"Man, you're cold as ice..."
67	** Doubles as a StealthPun when you consider that Kuklinski "ices" his targets.
68	* UnstoppableRage: Kuklinski. Frequently.
69	* VeryLooselyBasedOnATrueStory: The movie is very loosely based on Anthony Bruno's book ''Iceman: The True Story of a Cold-Blooded Killer''. But that book was itself based on Kuklinski's own recollections, and he was a notoriously UnreliableNarrator. Even Bruno said he didn't believe a lot of the things Kuklinski told him. So it's debatable how much of the movie has any basis in fact.
70	* TheVillainKnowsWhereYouLive: Pronge lets slip that he knows where Kuklinski lives. Big mistake.
71	* VillainProtagonist: Richard Kuklinski, a hitman who killed over 100 people over the course of his career.
72	* VitriolicBestBuds: Kuklinski and Pronge. They begin as rivals, then become partners, then...well, see FinalSolution.
73	** Pronge argues that, since he's German/Irish and Kuklinski is Polish, they'll never be accepted by the Italian mob and might as well partner up.
74	* YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness: Halfway through the film, [=DeMeo=] orders Kuklinski to halt his contract work - and Kuklinski panics at the idea of losing his main source of income.

Context Film / TheIceman