Adaptation Displacement: The movie is both better known and better liked than the 1978 novel which inspired it, due to its screenplay having more quotable dialogue and better plot twists for The Caper.
Anticlimax Boss: Played intentionally as part of The Con. Palmer is barely able to stand after defeating his old nemesis in the final fight, only to learn that he must face another badass boxer, Minoso Torres. Unbeknownst to him, however, Torres and Caine have already arranged a fix, and Torres lays down after one punch.
Hambone Busby only has about ten minutes of screen time, but he's probably the best-liked of the boxers Honey Roy fights due to his decent skills in the ring and his Rooting for the Empire moment fighting in an effort to save his brother's life (who is facing being murdered for taking a dive during his fight).
She may be a Designated Love Interest who doesn't appear until about halfway through the movie, but Emily still brings a lot of charm to the movie for her sympathetic reasons for helping Caine and her Awesome by Analysis deduction of how he, Wolf, and Fitz are working together to con Gillon. It helps that a young Heather Graham plays her.
Magnificent Bastard: Gabriel Caine is a cheeky con artist introduced helping other prisoners escape despite the scrutiny of the warden for a hefty sum. After being released, Caine deliberately gets into a rivalry with Gillon, and then, seemingly on a whim, decides to back up a drunken "stranger" who wagers Caine's friend, retired boxer "Honey" Roy Palmer, can beat ten local men in one day. Caine deliberately gets into debt with a loan shark so that Roy will feel obligated to come out of retirement and help him. Starting with a small bet, Caine repeatedly ups the ante to bankrupt Gillon, and takes great advantage of the Exact Words of the tournament's rules. While he suffers some genuine setbacks, Caine has been manipulating Gillon into selecting a Super Ringer who barely even qualifies as a legal resident of Diggstown, since long before the initial wager Just when Gillon thinks he's won, Caine signals for the ringer to take a dive, deliberately mimicking how Gillon did so earlier.Caine shows a deal of shock and sympathy for Gillon's various victims, is friendly to his allies, and is prepared to throw in the towel if Palmer can't take any more punishment in the ring.
Moral Event Horizon: Boss Gillon is corrupt, but his intelligence, cordial demeanor, good relationship with his son, and treating Honey Roy as a Worthy Opponent initially make him seem Affably Evil at worst. Then it turns out that he drugged his own fighter, hometown hero Charles Macon Diggs, and bet against him, robbing his neighbors who bet on Diggs of their land and causing Diggs permanent brain damage. This might be excusable by the fact that Caine implies that no one expected the drugged Diggs to last so long and take so much punishment. But any remaining sympathy Gillon has is thrown out the window when he threatens to murder Slim Busby unless his brother defeats Honey Roy after catching the two Throwing the Fight. He remorselessly carries out that promise when Hambone loses, even though Hambone tried his hardest to win.
Caine: Do you know the difference between a hustler and a good con-man? ... A hustler has to get out of town as quick as he can, but a good con-man - he doesn't have to leave until he wants to.
