SPOILER
ALERT! The plot will be discussed.
There
are far too many incidents where a male goes off the deep end and becomes
violent, sometimes killing his family before committing suicide. Falling Down tells a story about one
such individual, but the character is complex, and there is an attempt here to
explore why these individuals who feel broken by the hopelessness of their
lives are ticking time bombs. The movie starts out with a close-up of the face
of Michael Douglas who plays D-Fens, (the name used in the film’s credits), his
mouth and then his eyes, which stresses how he views things. It’s a hot day and
it is claustrophobic in his car, adding to the pressure cooker sensation
experienced by the main character. He and others are caught in a massive
traffic jam in Los Angeles. While they are waiting, a woman is doing her
make-up and children are playing catch in a bus, trying to deal with the
situation. The camera presents an American Flag, implying what America has
become, a vision of life going nowhere.
D-Fens
looks nerdy with his eyeglasses, white shirt and tie. He has a crew cut which
makes him, contradictorily, look like a military man, maybe suggesting he wants
to get out and attack. He is observing his surroundings, appearing tense, as
the Garfield window doll and people honking and yelling on their cellphones are
adding to his frustration. Bumper stickers say, “Financial Freedom,” which we
discover the main character does not have, and “Christ Died for Our Sins,”
although D-Fens does not feel redeemed. One sticker indicates a lack of caring
about others with the words, “How am I driving? Dial 1-800- Eat Shit.” D-Fens’s
A/C isn’t working and flies pester him. Even his window handle won’t work. He
starts to swat insects all over the car, as he appears unhinged. He gets out of
his car with his briefcase, looking like a man at the end of his workday, but
appearances are deceiving. He upsets the man in the vehicle behind him since
the abandoned car will add to the traffic problem. De-Fens tells the man he’s
“going home,” which we all want to do, but with this man we learn he really
doesn’t have a place he can escape to.
He
starts to walk between the stopped vehicles toward an underpass embankment as
he begins his urban odyssey. Detective Prendergast (Robert Duvall) happens to
be behind D-Fens’s car. He sees a billboard that depicts a woman’s blouse that
is low cut, and there is a superimposed drawing of a fellow on her upper chest
who appears to be climbing out of the piece of clothing. Prendergast laughs,
showing he can keep his sense of humor despite the situation. Prendergast exits
his car and notices that the abandoned car’s license plate says, “D-Fens.” A
motorcycle cop comes by and tells Prendergast that he is calling for a towing
vehicle, which Prendergast realizes is overkill and takes too long, despite it
being the proper procedure. The detective says they should just push the
abandoned over to the side. The motorcycle cop says there are high speed
vehicles that make that move dangerous, which shows how the cop’s rigid
bureaucratic adherence is blind to the fact that nobody is moving. The civilian
says D-Fens said he was going home. As the two policemen push the car aside,
the civilian driver, despite the inappropriateness of the situation, makes a
sales pitch for linoleum and ceramics to the cops, showing how capitalism
dominates no matter what is going on. The motorcycle cop is sarcastic, saying
“lucky me,” when Prendergast informs the officer he caught him on his last day
as a policeman, and he becomes angry when Prendergast grabs his bike so it
won’t fall. Not the best attitude to bond with others.
Beth
(Barbara Hershey), the ex-wife of D-Fens, is returning home to her house at the
beach with her daughter, Adele (Joey Singer). D-Fens calls on a public phone,
but can’t get himself to say hello. He walks through a seedy graffiti-covered
section of the city. He goes to a food market store and becomes more frustrated
because he can’t get more change for a phone call unless he buys something. The
owner, Mr. Lee (Michael Paul Chan), behind the counter speaks broken English,
which makes it difficult for D-Fens to understand, fueling his anger. He
announces that the soda he picked up is too expensive to get change for the
call. He wants to bargain for a lower price. His American xenophobia surfaces,
telling Mr. Lee the owner wants to take his money but won’t, “even learn my
language,” arguing that is a prerequisite to be a worthwhile citizen. He lumps
all Asian cultures together, so even though the man is Korean, he assumes he is
from China. D-Fens says his country has given a great deal of money to Korea,
and gets into a physical altercation with the man. A collection of souvenir
flags spills to the ground, symbolic of the sullied image of America being
presented by D-Fens’s actions to the audience, but also indicating how D-Fens
internally feels that his country has declined by letting in unworthy
immigrants. He grabs the baseball bat (a very American symbol) the shopkeeper
reached for and begins smashing items in the store. The frightened Korean man
tells D-Fens to take his money. Outraged, D-Fens says he’s not a thief, that
the Korean is a crook for charging so much for the soda. D-Fens does not see
himself as a criminal, but a man who feels he has been disenfranchised from the
American Dream. He says he is rolling back prices to 1965 as he stands up for
his rights as an “American consumer.” He channels the anger of many working-class
people who feel they are being exploited. He asks the price of different
products, and then smashes the displays as the owner announces the high
numbers. He stops only when Mr. Lee agrees to the fifty cents D-Fens is willing
to pay for his soft drink. De-Fens pays that amount, and walks out with his
first acquired weapon, the stumpy wooden bat. However, D-Fens’s violence shows
he has a pathology which goes deeper than just feeling disillusioned with the
direction of the country.
Prendergast
finds sand in a drawer of his desk, as his fellow cops play a prank on him
about retiring to Arizona. They joke about how one man was run down two minutes
after leaving the office on his last day by an impounded vehicle. It turns out
that their joke foreshadows the serious situation that Prendergast will
encounter. Sandy (Rachel Ticotin), who is Prendergast’s ex-partner, asks if he will
be leaving early since it’s his last day. His conscientiousness and reluctance show
when he doesn’t see why he shouldn’t put in a full day of work, even though he
has been lately relegated to a desk. He looks at a photo of a young girl, and
his look is sad, suggesting that his daughter died.
There
is then a good segue scene showing D-Fens’s girl, Adele, as she plays with a
water pistol (more foreshadowing), linking the main characters’ lives
concerning children and Prendergast’s profession. It is the daughter’s
birthday, and the mother is on the phone talking about a party, causing D-Fens
to become even more frustrated by a busy signal as he tries again to call his
family. He walks past an ominous set of large block-printed graffiti which
repeats the word “KILL” several times (additional foreshadowing).
Prendergast
gets a phone call from his needy wife, Amanda (Tuesday Weld) who is worried
that he was making the move to Arizona because of her. He dodges the issue by
saying that the main thing is that they are together. She is so insecure that
she wants him home right away. So, he has marital problems, as does D-Fens. He
has a snow globe in his hand and he sings, “London Bridge is falling down,”
referring to the British bridge that was moved to Arizona, and where they will
be going. But, we now get the reference for the title of the film, although in
this story it is America, from the point of view of D-Fens, that is “falling
down.” Prendergast cheers her up by getting her to sing along, and calls her “my
fair lady,” the line from the song, which shows his affection for Amanda.
D-Fens
looks at the city through a hole in his shoe, another image of how his view of
America is from the perspective of a person on a low rung of the social ladder.
He picks up an abandoned classified ads section which has circles around the
previous owner’s job prospects that probably didn’t pan out. He uses the paper
to cover the hole in the shoe, which is all the ads are good for, employment
prospects not being plentiful for people in this poor section of town. Two
Latino men approach D-Fens, harassing him, saying he is trespassing on private
property and loitering. White people might sympathize with the Caucasian guy
here, feeling that all he is doing is walking through an area that is different
racially from where he comes from. Even though the action of the men is not
justified, it suggests the many times a person of a different skin color was
targeted for walking through a white neighborhood and charged with the same
offenses. Also, for many impoverished people, their neighborhood is all they
have left. D-Fens says there were no signs telling him to not sit there. One of
the Latino men says the graffiti is a sign that warns to stay away. D-Fens
sounds reasonable when he says that this is a territorial dispute and he
respects that this area is their home. He says he understands their argument
because he wouldn’t want them on his property. His remarks sound bigoted, but
as we see later his anger is not just ethnically driven. But, they won’t just
let him move on, saying he must pay a toll. They want his briefcase, which he
refuses to turn over. One of the men flashes a knife. D-Fens, again erupting in
frustrated rage, grabs the bat hidden behind the briefcase, and clubs the men,
who flee, as he throws the bat at one of them. He tells them to “clear a path”
since he declares again that he is going home. He picks up the knife of one of
the young men, replacing the bat with a weapon dedicated solely to harm.
In
contrast, the retiring Prendergast turns in his weapon as he looks at a
newspaper article about a policeman getting shot, possibly indicating his
reluctance to retire and give up the fight against lawbreakers. Mr. Lee shows
up to report how his market was trashed. He is brought to Prendergast, but
after explaining there was no robbery (Prendergast’s assigned department),
since the man took no money and actually paid for his soda, the crime is
reclassified as an assault. Lee says the man took his bat which he used for
“defense.” It doesn’t click just yet with Prendergast about the license plate
that said “D-Fens.”
Members
of the Latino gang go searching for D-Fens, along with a young woman, Angie
(Karina Arroyave), who urges them to let go of their desire for revenge and get
treated at the hospital. De-Fens calls his wife again and says he is coming
home for his daughter’s birthday. Beth says he can’t come home, she has custody
of the child now and he doesn't even have the means to pay support, so he has
no paternal privileges. She says it is not his home anymore and Adele is doing
fine without him. These words hit at his failure as a parent. We now realize
that he is not just some frustrated worker who was caught in traffic trying to
get home. He has had severe financial and marital problems, and she is his
ex-wife, who is afraid of his unstable behavior which pre-existed today’s
events. Beth threatens to call the police.
The
gang of youths find De-Fens talking on the pay phone. They kick Angie out of
the car, probably because they believe they are doing men’s work, which amounts
to acts of revenge. These guys have quite an arsenal of guns. They begin
shooting automatic weapons, missing De-Fens who is behind some cars and instead
they wound innocent bystanders. The gang members drive their car erratically as
they try to wound De-Fens, and get into a terrible accident. Only one member is
conscious. De-Fens is unfeeling about the bystanders who were shot as he
approaches the car and simply says, “You missed.” He picks up one of the weapons
and shoots the awake youth in the leg, acting like he is giving him a lesson on
how awful it is to get shot. De-Fens takes their bag of armaments and tells the
conscious car victim he needs to take shooting lessons. There are complicated
emotions at work here in the presentation of the story. On the one hand we may
be outraged by these violent youths who have no respect or decency for the
welfare of others. But De-Fens, who acts like a vigilante who is demonstrating
the anger due to wrongs inflicted on law-abiding citizens, is also unfeeling in
his actions toward others, and also breaks laws because he feels he has a
higher purpose to right wrongs.
Prendergast
has an exit meeting with his captain, Yardley (Raymond J. Barry), a white
self-absorbed macho guy who is seen punching a boxing bag in his office,
turning the room into a gym. Yardley is condescending, acting like Prendergast
is going out on early retirement with a reduced pension because he couldn’t cut
it anymore. He implies that it may be due to Prendergast getting wounded, so he
is safe now at a desk job. Prendergast is very deferential, and says no, it has
nothing to do with his injury. The captain then asks about Prendergast’s kids,
but he has none, since he lost his daughter, which shows how little Yardley
knows about his own men.
De-Fens
watches poor people on the street, with one man trying to sell stuff and
another holding up a sign that reads he will work for food, which most likely
adds more proof of his country’s decline. De-Fens tries to walk through an area
but he meets another obstacle because there is a closed section where
construction is being done. Meanwhile, Beth has called the police and talks
with a cop. The film continues to add details about De-Fens’s personality. She
confirms that she has a restraining order because of her ex-husband’s bad
temper. She says that he never hit the child but there were times when she ran
away before he could harm his wife. Beth says he has the potential for hurting
others, which has been borne out by this day’s actions.
A
man in the park (John Fleck) tells De-Fens that he drove from Santa Barbara and
needs money and asks to lend him some cash that he will send back to De-Fens.
The suspicious De-Fens wants to see his driver’s license. The man says he
doesn’t have a license. De-Fens than questions how he drove a long way with no
license. The guy says he hasn’t eaten in days, but he is munching on a
sandwich. The beggar then has the audacity to demand money, which De-Fens
refuses to give, and tells him to get a job. The man wants one of D-Fens’s bags
that he can sell. De-Fens makes a decision here when he says he no longer needs
the briefcase and gives it to him. This action shows he has quit attempting to
be a working man who fits into society and instead embraces the bag of guns
because he is bent on destroying whatever obstacles that stand in his way. The
briefcase only contains lunch food, which confirms that De-Fens’s appearance of
being a working man is a fake. We have here the depiction of the marginalized
American white male’s anger being directed toward those he considers to be
unproductive members of society who want to siphon off the hard-earned wages of
the working class. This perspective however does not take into account the dire
plight of the working man which may be due to exploitative employers, and does
not consider how poverty-stricken members of society have been penalized by
punitive aspects of a profit-driven economy.
Prendergast
sees the young Latino woman, Angie, who was in the gang’s car that went after
De-Fens, being interrogated. Prendergast does not yet know that Mr. Lee’s
market and the drive-by shooting are connected. When the woman mentions a white
guy with a baseball bat he barges in and confirms that the man had on a white
shirt and tie. The detective kicks Prendergast out, not valuing the retiring
veteran policeman’s help. But Prendergast looks at a city map and can see how
the two altercations fit together geographically and chronologically.
De-Fens
tries to order breakfast at a fast food restaurant just three minutes after the
time that service ends. The employee is smug in her denial of him being able to
order what he wants. De-Fens is similar to Jack Nicholson’s character in The Last Detail and Paul Newman’s Cool Hand Luke in that he is rebelling
against the constricting rules closing in around him. De-Fens then asks for the
manager, who is just as insensitive, not agreeing with De-Fens’s reminder that
the “customer is always right,” a public relations line that isn’t even aspired
to at this point. De-Fens pulls out an automatic weapon, which accidentally
goes off, firing shots into the ceiling. De-Fens is amusing as he still tries
to be normal in the midst of his antisocial behavior. He tries to placate the customers,
saying he means them no harm and wants them to continue enjoying their food, as
if that’s possible at this point. De-Fens almost sounds shaken as he asks again
quietly for his breakfast, which they immediately give him. The implication is
that an average person must resort to extreme means just to be treated fairly.
De-Fens then changes his mind and wants lunch. He walks around the restaurant
asking if everybody is doing okay, not in touch with the emotional trauma he
has inflicted on them. When he asks one woman if she is enjoying her lunch the
lady vomits out of fear, and De-Fens quips she must not like the special sauce.
De-Fens is then critical of the squashed hamburger he receives which contrasts
with the photograph on the wall of a large beef patty. In a way he is
articulating the public’s feelings about being treated badly. But, he refuses,
although dangerously, to submit to the mistreatment, unlike most submissive
people.
Prendergast
has lunch with Sandy. She questions his move to Arizona, noting that the
decision is his wife’s idea. Prendergast says his wife only had her looks to
fall back on when she was younger, and she is not handling getting older well,
so he is accommodating her wishes. And he adds that the main reason he is being
unselfish is because, “I love her,” which is the most important redemptive
characteristic of human beings. Prendergast stands in contrast to De-Fens
because the policeman can deal with the traffic jam, his family issues, and his
job situation, in a civilized manner, at least up to this point, whereas
De-Fens has snapped because he cannot deal with these conflicts.
Another
detective interrupts their lunch, reporting the incident at the fast food
restaurant. The cop says that it was odd that the man paid for his lunch.
Prendergast, showing he still has game when it comes to being an investigator,
remembers that the man who busted up Mr. Lee’s market also paid for his soda.
He tells Sandy to find out if the man at the fast food place wore a white shirt
and tie. She later calls him back and confirms the clothes, but informs
Prendergast that he doesn’t have a baseball bat but was instead carrying a bag
full of guns, which demonstrates how the lethal potential of his choice of
weapons is escalating.
As
De-Fens walks through the city’s depressed area, he encounters an African
American man (Vondie Curtis-Hall) picketing in front of a savings and loan
building, carrying a sign which reads, “Not Economically Viable.” He shouts out
that is why the bank denied his application for a loan. He is arrested and says
that is what happens to people who are “not economically viable.” The thrust
here is that once a person falls on hard times the rules are rigged against him
to try to recover. As the police car stops next to De-Fens, the black man says
to De-Fens, “Don’t forget me.” As IMDb notes, the man and De-Fens are wearing
the same type of clothes, even duplicating the tie pattern, which shows how
De-Fens feels connected to this black man. De-Fens nods his head, as if
promising that he, for one, knows what can happen to the unsuccessful in
society. As the man is taken away, De-Fens buys a child’s snow globe (echoing
Prendergast’s London Bridge globe) as a birthday gift for his daughter. He
places this innocent child’s object, ironically, in the same bag next to the
weapons. Later, when a man complains that De-Fens is hogging the public phone
booth, De-Fens destroys the booth with gunfire. He again shows his dark humor
by saying, “it’s out of order.” De-Fens has progressed to the point that he is
beyond accommodating anything that gets in his way or questions his actions,
which shows the danger of unrestrained individuality.
The
hole in De-Fens’s shoe is getting worse. He goes into an Army surplus store.
The owner is a neo-Nazi named Nick (Frederick Forrest) who listens to a police
scanner. As he shows De-Fens some hiking shoes he shouts derogatory comments at
a couple of presumably gay men in the store. De-Fens shows here, as he did with
the protesting African American, that he is not prejudicial toward any one type
of group. He doesn’t like anybody who acts badly, which includes the white
workers at the restaurant or this fellow as he pulls out a handgun when one of
the gay men confronts him.
Prendergast
tells Angie he knows she is telling the truth about the white man who attacked
her gang friends. But, he also correctly concludes that De-Fens took a gym bag
full of guns off of her friends and asks Angie to confirm the number of
weapons. She says there were “lots of guns,” not exactly a positive argument
endorsing the proliferation of firearms.
Meanwhile,
De-Fens sees a police car park near the store, and Sandy and her partner
approach the establishment. Sandy questions Nick, asking if he saw a man in his
late thirties, who was wearing a white shirt and a tie, and carrying a gym bag.
De-Fens is in a fitting room trying on shoes. Nick pushes the gym bag out of
sight and lies by saying he hasn’t seen De-Fens. He then closes the store. Nick
brings De-Fens in the back which has all kinds of weapons and military gear,
including Nazi books and war souvenirs. He says he heard about De-Fens’s
activities during the day on the scanner, and starts to use anti-Semitic and
black racial slurs. He keeps saying he is backing De-Fens because, “we’re the
same, you and me.” De-Fens says they are not the same, distancing himself from
this man by saying, “I’m an American,” which to De-Fens means all of those
qualities that he feels are worthy, including, “freedom of speech, the right to
disagree!” He calls Nick, “a sick asshole.” Nick is outraged and tries to
handcuff De-Fens while spouting his racist language. De-Fens tells Nick he
can’t spread his legs, lean forward, and also have his hands cuffed behind him
because of “gravity,” explaining “I’ll fall down.” This is another reference to
the title of the movie, suggesting that he and the rest of the country’s people
are all in this precarious position. (As IMDb notes, Nick’s extreme disgust
about homosexuals mingled with his preoccupation with male rape in prison,
along with him standing in a position that implies he may sexually assault the
bent over and bound D-Fens, suggests that Nick may be gay, and is in deep
denial). When Nick takes the snow globe out of the gym bag and throws it,
smashing it, De-Fens stabs him with the knife he took from the Latino man,
meting out some ironic justice that takes down the bigot with a person of
color’s weapon. This irony is suggested by Nick’s statement, “This isn’t one of
mine.” Nick looks at his wound and says, “Oh my God,” to which De-Fens again
mixes in dark humor by saying that Nick gets it, because he’s exercising
“freedom of religion.” Instead of leaving, De-Fens again goes too far and
shoots Nick.
Prendergast
tries to do his job on his last day by trying to convince Captain Yardley and
the other cops working the case involving De-Fens that he has evidence that the
incidents are tied together, and the perpetrator is heading west. The captain
dismisses Prendergast’s argument, and tells him he doesn’t like Prendergast
because he never heard him curse, claiming that is the sign of “real men.” He
also claims that Prendergast was afraid to go back into the streets.
Prendergast assures him he wasn’t afraid, not saying that he took the desk job
to soothe his wife’s fears. The captain here reveals his macho prejudice,
showing that there are nasty people on both sides of the law. Sandy decides to
help him on his quest which is in counterpoint to De-Fens’s law-breaking
journey.
De-Fens
calls his wife and sounds menacing, saying he is on his way home, and he
realizes that he can’t turn around because his actions have put him, “past the
point of no return.” He compares himself to the Apollo 13 astronauts who had to
go around the dark side of the moon before reemerging and heading back to
earth. He seems to know that he has gone to the “dark side” of his soul and now
has reappeared as someone who can’t go back to trying to fit in with the rest
of society. Even though the police who had stayed a while at her house after
Beth called have now left, she lies to her ex-husband, saying they are there.
De-Fens is now frightening in his single-mindedness, intimidating Beth by
saying there are countries that say it’s okay, “to kill your wife if she
insults you.” His argument in favor of free speech seems not to extend to one’s
spouse.
Prendergast
and Sandy arrive near Mr. Lee’s store to question him. After getting out of the
car, Prendergast looks up and sees the billboard that a graffiti artist painted
on. He is at the same spot where he was earlier in the day in the traffic jam.
He now remembers the guy who left his car close to where the crimes took place.
He recalls the personalized license plate read “D-Fens.” He sees Mr. Lee and
calls out “Defense,” which is what the shopkeeper said he kept his bat for.
Prendergast tells Sandy to find out the address associated with the plate,
since a witness said the man said he was going home.
We
are in another traffic snarl as people sink to their baser natures, calling
each other ugly names while stuck in a sea of cars. (Too bad they don’t sing
and dance as they do in La La Land,
but that was a fantasy). De-Fens punches one driver who is yelling ugly
epithets at a woman, shutting down the bad behavior he has been ranting
against. He has traded in his white-collar outfit for what he found in the
surplus store, and he now looks like a soldier, wearing what GI’s put on when
going on a mission in a jungle, which is how De-Fens perceives this urban
sprawl. The traffic is a mess because the street is closed off for repairs. A
worker tells De-Fens he can’t pass there (not a good day to tell De-Fens he
can’t do something), and that he is there to stop people from “falling in” due
to the underground construction (another reference to the film’s title).
De-Fens tells the worker that the street was fine two days ago and believes
there’s nothing wrong, that they are just keeping inflated budgets by acting as
if work has to be completed. He again voices complaints that one can hear from
any average person who has suffered because of forces beyond one’s control. The
worker sees a gun tucked in De-Fens’s pants. De-fens keeps demanding that the
worker say what he wants to hear, that there is nothing that needs repair.
Afraid, the worker tells him that there’s nothing wrong, which satisfies
De-Fens, who is so self-righteous in his crusade, he won’t allow anything to
contradict him. De-Fens then says that he will give him something to fix. He
took a rocket launcher from the surplus store. A boy on a bike tells him how to
use it because he saw how to do it on TV, satirizing the questionable skills
exposed to children through the media. But the boy here innocently thinks that
they are filming a show, which De-Fens, joking ironically, calls “Under
Construction.” The phallic-shaped launcher and the guns could represent De-Fens
trying to regain his masculinity. De-Fens prematurely (another sexual
reference?), triggers the weapon, releasing his anger, firing the device under
the street causing a large explosion.
Prendergast
and Sandy arrive at the home of De-Fens’s mother (Lois Smith), which is where
the license plate led them. De-Fens’s real name is William Foster. One of the
walls in the house has pictures of a man in a military uniform, presumably
De-Fens’s father. There are small American flags in a vase. The impression is
that this was a patriotic family, which points to the feeling that his country
has now failed De-Fens. The mother is herself defensive, and Sandy alienates
her by acting official. But, Prendergast wins her over by praising her display
of little crystal figurines. The woman shows them her son’s room which is very
neat. She thinks he is still working at a defense plant. Prendergast senses the
mother’s wariness about talking about her son. He believes she knows something
is wrong with him. He gets her to reveal that her son sometimes won’t even
speak at dinner. The mother says De-Fens eats like a machine and she is so
nervous she chews the same piece of food. When she spits it out she says he
looks at her like he will kill her. We get a picture of a disturbed control
freak who can’t handle things not going the way he wants. Prendergast finds
De-Fens’s wedding ring in a drawer and a picture of his ex-wife and child.
Prendergast finds out the ex-wife’s maiden name is Trevino and Sandy discovers
that De-Fens was fired from his job a month ago, suggesting that his mental
instability was already becoming manifest for a while.
De-Fens,
not following any restrictions on freedom, climbs a fence that says “No
Trespassing” onto a private golf course. He tells some senior men that he is
passing through. One of the men is an elitist who yells about how he doesn’t
want someone from the outside interrupting his game. He hits a ball at De-Fens,
who pulls out a shotgun, and calls back that he is trying to kill him with a
golf ball because of his silly game. He says that the land should be used for
children and families to have picnics and enjoy a petting zoo, implying the
area has been cut off for those who can afford the expensive fees. He shoots
their electric golf cart which then rolls off toward a water hazard. The man
who hit the golf ball falls down (referring to the title again), appearing to
have a heart attack. He gasps that his pills are in the cart. De-Fens has no
sympathy for the damage he is causing, as if the man has received justice for
trying to prevent De-Fens from passing through the fairway. He tells the
suffering man he’ll die wearing his silly little hat. For De-Fens, his will
supersedes the lives of others at this point.
De-Fens
scales another fence as he has moved from the poor side of town to the rich
one, and he sees wrongdoing no matter the economic area. He complains to a man
who is having a cookout with his wife and little daughter that his barbed wire
caused him to cut his hand, as if he has the right to go wherever he pleases.
The man is actually the caretaker and he is barbecuing there while the owner is
away. Once De-Fens realizes that these people are not part of the exclusive
upper class, his anger subsides. The people at the golf course have called the
police, and De-Fens moves the family under cover. He finds out that a plastic
surgeon owns the property. De-Fens jokes and says he is in the wrong field, and
wonders if there are “correspondence courses” for that medical specialty. But,
while he is trying to be funny, he holds onto the child’s hand, as if
substituting her for his daughter. De-Fens confesses that he was fired, and is
“obsolete,” (which hints that part of the reason, which happens to many people,
may be he was replaced by automation) and can’t even support his daughter. He
echoes the situation of the African American man who was arrested, and most
likely many others, saying he’s “not economically viable.” De-Fens is astounded
again for being viewed as a bad person when the man asks to be a hostage, but
to leave his family alone. De-Fens says that he has no desire to harm the man’s
family. He then reminisces about how ideal things were with his family and
mentally escapes into a daydream fantasy about how everything will be the way
it was.
At
the police station, Prendergast and Sandy check out Beth’s single name,
Trevino, linked with Foster, De-Fens’s name. Prendergast learns about the
murder of the surplus store owner. Sandy reveals that she visited the store
earlier. Then they get word about the man dressed in military clothes who
terrorized the men at the golf course and the family at the doctor’s home.
Prendergast looks at De-Fens’s progress on the map and deduces that the ex-wife
lives in Venice even before Sandy provides the address.
Beth
called the police after De-Fens’s threatening phone call, but the policewoman
who arrives at her house shows no compassion, acting like it’s just a prank.
Only Prendergast and Sandy seem to really care about following through on the
case. De-Fens calls Beth from Santa Monica Pier, which is right next to Venice,
and talks about how the ice cream shop they frequented no longer is there. She
immediately hangs up as she realizes he is very close and takes her daughter out
of the house. He quickly understands that she may try to escape, but when he
arrives at her home, they are gone. De-Fens looks at home videos of his family
when he lived there. He now has the daughter’s water pistol replacing the real
gun he held before, showing how torn this man is between his affection for his
family and his pathological violent impulses to have things his way. But the
home movies dispel his idealized version of the past. They reveal how
domineering he was, yelling at his family, and scaring his daughter who cried
as he tried to force her onto a toy horse he bought.
The
Venice cops tell Sandy in a phone call that they can’t justify a visit three
times in one day to satisfy the complaints of a “hysterical” woman. This is a
flaw in the plot because it is difficult to believe that they would not
investigate when other cops call them verifying the danger Beth is in. So, we
have the main characters move to a confrontation on the Santa Monica Pier
(which shows up in several Hollywood films). Before that happens, Prendergast
takes on some of De-Fens’s aggression, finally setting his wife straight. She
calls him and is jealous that Sandy answered the phone and yells at him to come
home. He tells her to “shut up” and have dinner waiting for him when he gets to
his house, as Sandy stifles laughter on the side. And, when Sandy’s partner
makes a negative remark about Prendergast’s wife, the retiring cop responds to
the insult to Amanda by punching the guy. (This event occurs at an office
goodbye party for Prendergast, where, as IMDb points out, there is a retirement
cake decorated with the London Bridge, another reminder of the film’s title).
By
watching one of the videos De-Fens realizes that Beth may again want to bring
their child on her birthday to the pier, and maybe Beth would not think that he
would go back there after going to her house. Prendergast and Sandy arrive at
Beth’s house. Sandy goes in and De-Fens shoots her and escapes. Prendergast
gets the neighbors to call 911 and he goes after De-Fens. Beth and her daughter
are at the pier and the girl is thrilled to see her father running toward them.
He hugs and kisses Beth who says she wants him to leave them alone. He reminds
her that they made vows that said “‘till death do us part,” which is
frightening considering the circumstances, and he then pulls out a
handgun.
She
says he is sick, and De-Fens says that walking through the city is what’s
really sick. Prendergast shows up and acts folksy, not confrontational, eating
a snack, and saying he used to fish off the pier, but the fish are now
poisonous, and the water can infect a swimmer. He says he is retiring to a
place that some would call paradise, and others would say there is nothing but
a muddy lake there. Prendergast says everyone has their own idea of paradise,
which connects to De-Fens’s concept of perfection for himself and America.
While Prendergast talks he flashes his revolver at Beth to show he’s a cop.
Prendergast says that paradise for him was having babies. He said his wife had
a child for him which tells us why he is now willing to sacrifice for her. He
says that his daughter was two years old, went to sleep, and didn’t wake up,
which connects with De-Fens’s feelings of loss. Prendergast hands popcorn to
Adele who shares it with her father, as he puts his gun down. De-Fens is
distracted as he hears police sirens, and Prendergast intervenes, getting Beth
and the girl to run away. Prendergast says he knows that De-Fens was going
there to kill his family and then himself. De-Fens is surprised to realize he
is now “the bad guy.” He says he helped build missiles to protect America, and
should be rewarded, not punished. De-Fens says they lied to him about who gets
rewarded. Prendergast says they lie to everybody, so that doesn’t make De-Fens
special, only his little girl does. Prendergast wants him to give up. De-Fens
says he has a gun and they should have a showdown, as if they are in a
Hollywood Western. He says if he gets killed at least his daughter will get the
life insurance, and he doesn’t want to see his girl grow up while he’s in
prison. He counts to three and draws, but he only has his daughter’s water
pistol, so he knows he’s going to die. Prendergast doesn’t know the gun is a
fake, fires, and after being shot, De-Fens falls into the Pacific Ocean, an
affront to its peaceful name.
Captain
Yardley, now in front of the press and trying to grab positive publicity,
hypocritically now praises Prendergast. Prendergast passes by the cameras and
as the captain thanks him, Prendergast now finds the right time to curse and
tells him “Fuck you very much.” He sees Sandy off to the hospital and tells
Beth to let her daughter enjoy her birthday party without mentioning her father
to keep her in an innocent state for another day. In answer to Adele’s question
about his name, he says it’s “Mud,” which he says it will be when his wife
finds out he decided to still be a cop. The movie seems to be saying that there
is a need for him and other decent individuals to try to keep the country from “falling
down.”
The
next film is Get Out.
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