Law Abiding Citizen: Difference between revisions

Clyde Shelton ([[Gerard Butler]]) is a talented engineer and family man whose life is ruined when two thugs break into his house, which results in the death of his wife and child in front of his very eyes.

 

The prosecutor who made the agreement with the thug is the main target of Shelton, so he has to find a way to stop him before it is too late.

 

* [[Asshole Victim]]: No one feels sorry for Darby when [[Pay Evil Unto Evil|Shelton kills him]].

** {{spoiler|The Judge}} kinda counts, but they're nowhere near as bad as Darby.

* [[Gory Discretion Shot]]: the camera cuts away as Clyde begins his work on Darby, at least, in the theatrical version. The Director's Cut doesn't cut away...

* [[Groin Attack]]: Offscreen, but...

* [[He Who Fights Monsters]]: Clyde.

* [[Hollywood Law]]: Ames must have had one bad defence attorney if he's put to death purely on the say-so of his partner, on the question of which one of them was a child rapist-murderer, a partner who is implied to have a much longer and nastier criminal record to boot. Apparently he never thought to call the husband as a witness either. And the prosecution are the only ones who even remotely care about his opinion as well, and still dismiss it.

* [[Hypocritical Humor]]: Nick keeps leaving his cell phone on while in court with a certain judge. While in a meeting with her later, her cell rings, and he calls her on it. {{spoiler|Turns out there's a bomb in the phone.}}

** One judge scolds Nick repeatedly for not turning off his cell phone. {{spoiler|She was killed by a bomb in her cell phone, which she hypocritically answered during a meeting with Nick.}}

* [[Laser-Guided Karma]]: Less than 10 seconds after displaying flagrant contempt for duty, the rules and even the Constitution itself {{spoiler|a bomb goes off directly in the judge's ear.}}

** Ironically, this contempt for the Constitutional rights of the accused, putting stopping them ahead of the rules, is similar to what Clyde appeared to be trying to encourage.

* [[The Lost Lenore]]: Clyde's wife, who is raped and stabbed to death, possibly not in that order, for whose killer Clyde plots a particularly [[Karmic Death]]. For an added bonus his [[Adult Fear|child is murdered too.]]

* [[The Man Behind the Man]]: Who's Clyde's partner? {{spoiler|Turns out it's Clyde.}}

* [[Oh Crap]]: Clyde's reaction to {{spoiler|the revelation that the bomb had been moved to his cell.}}

** Averted seconds later, {{spoiler|when he resigns himself to his fate, and utterly keeps his calm even with super napalm filling his cell.}}

* [[Ooh, Me Accent's Slipping]]: A couple times, [[Gerard Butler]] falls into a little of his native Scottish.

'''Clyde:''' {{spoiler|[removing his disguise] Cuz yew kelled them.}} }}

* [[Product Placement]]: Nick's understudy uses a Mac (apparently running Windows), and in one scene the staff prominently rolls in large amounts of Pepsi and Dunkin' Donuts.

* [[Rube Goldberg Hates Your Guts]]: The movie runs on this trope.

* {{spoiler|[[Secret Underground Passage]]}}

* [[Strawman Political]]: Although it shows up the dark side of vigilantism, the movie strongly suggests that the justice system is incapable of dealing with violent criminals, and "proves" this with some questionable logic;

** "Plea bargains are bad, because here are some arbitrarily bad plea bargains for no adequately explained reason."

** "The exclusionary rule is bad, because it got DNA evidence deemed inadmissible when there was no explanation as to what was illegal about how it was obtained."

** "The ''presumption of innocence'' is bad, because this guy who we, the audience, know committed a crime is being granted bail before his trial."

'''Clyde:''' ''Finally''. }}

* [[Time Skip]]: after the sentencing of Darby, cue to 10 years later.

* [[Title Drop]]: Clyde in court, arguing to be granted bail.

* [[To the Pain]]: Clyde goes into great detail about everything he is doing and is about to do to Darby.

* [[Trailers Always Spoil]]: Clyde's past as a {{spoiler|government weapon designer and "executive action" mastermind}} isn't revealed for over half the movie. The reveal itself is in the trailer, along with {{spoiler|the Judge's execution, the mass car bombing, the drone attack in the cemetery and Clyde's napalm-induced end.}}

[[Category:Films of the 2000s]]

[[Category:Law Abiding Citizen]]