Meet O-Dog. This is him being nice.
- The place where the film takes: Watts, Los Angeles. No, seriously. The representation of the ghetto in this film is quite realistic, and sometimes, reaching downright disturbing levels at least for the early to mid 90s. A place where life has no value and no one there is nice, including the protagonists. If Jaws put you off swimming, then you may not wanna go to the ghetto any time soon after seeing this movie.
- O-Dog himself is this in spades. He mercilessly kills a Korean cashier couple in a liquor store. It gets worse when he steals the videotape and uses it as a method of humorous entertainment for him and his homies.
- Several things that O-Dog and other gangsters do can qualify; to some extent they reach a disturbing point.
- Adding to the horror is that in the ghetto, there really are people like him on the streets.
- The scene where Caine and his cousin Harold are carjacked by a rival gang. One of them shoots Harold in the head, splattering his brains all over the windshield. The worst part is that it was solely done For the Evulz.
- Also, the scene where Caine is taken to the hospital afterwards, where he is bleeding graphically and in shock.
- The scene where the strung-out addict is begging O-Dog for drugs, desperately offering him anything (his lunch, sexual favors), and O-Dog not only callously kills him, he offers his friends the dead man's cheeseburgers. That's pretty heartless, even for a bloodthirsty maniac.
- The quietly intimidating detective that interrogates Caine in the middle of the film, played by Bill Duke. However, some viewers find him hilarious because of his sly delivery although it was never meant to be comedic.
- Caine's death at the end of the film. He saves Ronnie's son, but at the graphic cost of his own life. The unrated version of the film is worse, as it contains a bunch of gore as Caine is shot. Tyrin Turner doesn't pull any punches while depicting the dying Caine either; It looks absolutely painful watching the man try to gasp for air as he bleeds out in Stacy's arms, pouring his blood everywhere.
- Anthony's future is either uncertainly bleak, or horrifyingly clear. A point is made about just how similar his character arc is to Caine's at his age, with him having the exact same curiosities Caine did, such as wanting to learn how to use a gun. By the end of the film, he has now witnessed Caine horrifically shot to death trying to protect him. In a Missing Trailer Scene, he is soaked in Caine's blood, bawling his eyes out. Considering Caine also bore witness to countless murders growing up, it's very likely that Anthony will fully repeat Caine's story, and become a cold-hearted thug by his late teens.
