Law Abiding Citizen: Difference between revisions

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.

*** {{spoiler|Clyde himself could easily be construed as this.}}

* [[Anyone Can Die]]: {{spoiler|About half the cast are dead by the ending, including Shelton}}.

* [[Badass Boast]]: "I'm gonna pull the whole thing down. I'm gonna bring the whole fuckin' diseased, corrupt temple down on your head. It's gonna be biblical."

** Earlier, "And if we don't?" "Then I kill ''everyone''."

* [[Batman Gambit]]: Very successful one. {{spoiler|It still fails in the end.}}

* [[Beware the Nice Ones]]: Clyde.

* [[Blatant Lies]]: Despite the [[Title Drop]] by Clyde, the only citizens never shown violating the law are the somewhat minor characters {{spoiler|who get killed for making a crappy bargain that Clyde understandably feels is a mockery of justice}}.

* [[Crazy Prepared]]: Clyde Shelton

* [[Instant Sedation]]: Instant paralysis, but close enough.

* [[Ironic Echo]]: Clyde deliberately repeats Darby's catch phrase just before dismembering him alive.

* [[Jerkass]]: Nick Rice starts out as this.

* [[Joker Immunity]]: A major point of the movie - the legal system is tied up in tons of red tape and thus no matter what they do they can't get rid of Shelton or even move him somewhere secure, so he is continually able to commit murders with relative impunity.

* [[Karmic Death]]: Darby gets dismembered alive by Shelton, who recites the same line that Darby did before he committed the murders.

** 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.}}

** {{spoiler|Shelton himself}} gets a dose of this, as his termination of {{spoiler|the understudy in the car bomb spree}} leads directly to {{spoiler|the understudy's boyfriend risking his job to give Nick vital information, and Nick being willing to [[Hoist By His Own Petard|rig Clyde's super-napalm bomb to the underside of the prison cot.]]}}

** 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.

* [[Villain Protagonist]]: Clyde is briefly alluded to be this in the trailer and the movie when the camera follows him up to the murder of Darby. {{spoiler|The movie's actual protagonist turns out to be Anti-Hero Nick.}}

* [[Villains Never Lie]]: Clyde usually upholds his end of bargains (as long as the other side complies down to the minute), gives hints as to what he's going to do, and confesses when he's ready to. It's averted when he tells the judge he's a [[Title Drop|law-abiding citizen]], though. He also falsely tells Darby that he tased a male cop.

* [[What Could Have Been]]: Originally Gerard Butler was supposed to be Nick while Jamie Foxx was signed to play Clyde. At the last minute, though, Gerard thought it would be interesting to play Clyde, and asked Jamie if he minded switching roles. Jamie loved Gerard's performance in ''300'', and thought that as a viewer he would love seeing Gerard "beating people and blowing stuff up". Butler said that having Foxx and himself switch roles would be "awesome".

** "Fuck [my] Civil Rights." Everyone in the courtroom is looking at Clyde like he's crazy.

* [[Word Salad Title]]: The dash is missing from "Law-Abiding" to show that it's the law abiding the citizen, not the other way around.