Insomnia

 SPOILER ALERT! The plot will be discussed.

This film (2002) is a remake of the movie done in 1997 which was a Norwegian story set inside the Artic Circle. The setting is here is Nightmute, Alaska, which fits the constant daylight experienced by the residents. The opening shot shows someone applying blood to a fabric, presumably to frame an individual. Then there are shots of the white Alaskan environment as Detective Will Dormer (Al Pacino) rides in a plane over the frozen land with his partner Detective Happy Eckhart (Martin Donovan). His first name will become ironic as the story plays out. As IMDb points out Dormer’s last name in Romance languages implies sleep, which is also ironic here because that is something he will get little of.

They are met by the enthusiastic Ellie Burr (Hillary Swank), a fan of Dormer. (Could her last name refer to the cold exterior?). They meet Chief Nyback (Paul Dooley), an old acquaintance of the visiting detectives. The Chief requested their help although he notes that there is an Internal Affairs investigation going on that may involve Dormer. We quickly realize that there may be a dark side to the protagonist here. Director Christopher Nolan uses doubles in his films to show the negative aspects of his protagonists, such as in the Batman movies, Memento, and The Prestige.

Dormer insists upon seeing the body of seventeen-year-old Kay Connell despite being told all the evidence is in the report. It points to Dormer’s insight and experience. Dormer realizes that the killer took his time to wash the victim’s hair and cut the nails, not applying any makeup. He and Burr conclude the murderer must have known the victim and wanted to erase any traces of her that might connect them. The process was patient and methodical revealing a calculating killer. Dormer observes that the perpetrator “crossed the line and didn’t even blink. You don’t come back from that.” The idea of stepping over the line of legality and morality and the resultant fall from salvation is something that the film addresses.

After examining Kay’s room, Dormer sees that she cut out the picture of her best friend, Tanya (Katharine Isabelle). It is proof that animosity developed between the girls. He also observes gifts that her boyfriend, Randy (Jonathan Jackson) could not afford to give her. Dormer concludes there must be an admirer of some means involved. When Dormer says he wants to visit the school, the local police inform him that it’s ten o’clock at night. It’s the time of year there that has only daylight. Ian Nathan, in Christopher Nolan: The Iconic Filmmaker and his Work. says Nolan liked how the original movie “reversed the poles on film noir.” I assume that means that film noir movies take place mostly in the dark to mirror the dark deeds characters do. Here the light exposes those wrongful actions.

Even though Dormer doesn’t want to discuss his department investigation, Eckhart drops a bomb saying he has cut a deal which means he will testify concerning evidence used in arresting drug dealers. Dormer sees the Internal Affairs action as a means for others to get promotions, indication that selfish, not admirable, behavior is the motive. Dormer leaves upset. This fact makes what happens later question Dormer’s motives.

Dormer presses boyfriend Randy for information and realizes he doesn’t know the mystery person Kay was seeing even after Randy beat her, showing his brutal side. The police find Kay’s backpack which contains a mystery by A. J. Brody. Dormer is trying to discover connections to the victim since he believes it will lead him to her secret admirer who he believes is the killer.

Dormer sets up a trap, saying they are still looking for Kay’s backpack at a certain location. They stake out the area. The scene takes place in a fog on rugged terrain, which is symbolic of mystery and perhaps the inability for Dormer to see what is morally correct. The suspect shows up and wounds a police officer. In pursuit, Dormer fires at a shadowy figure which turns out to be Eckhart. Dormer goes along with the story that it was the suspect who killed Eckhart. Dormer tells the dead detective’s wife about the death, and it is ironic when she tells Dormer not to arrest the person who killed her husband. She doesn’t realize that she is actually telling Dormer to kill himself.

Burr is now investigating Eckhart’s death. Again, ironically, she doesn’t realize that it is Dormer she is after. He hides his gun just as he hides his criminality. The lawful here becomes the unlawful, as morality is turned upside down. Dormer cannot sleep. The brightness of the day will not allow him the luxury of escaping from his deeds into the relaxed darkness of dreams. He thinks he sees Eckhart among other policeman, as if the man is haunting him. Dormer is suffering from guilt, which is a major element in Nolan’s films: the leaving of the family in Interstellar; the drowning death at the beginning of The Prestige; the possibility that Leonard is the cause of the death of his wife in Memento; the torment the main character feels in creating a weapon of mass destruction in Oppenheimer.

Warfield, the IA investigator, calls Dormer at the restaurant where Rachel Clement (Maura Tierney) works. (Does her name imply that she is the opposite of the inclement weather in the area, and can bestow individual clemency?). Dormer is nasty to Warfield, which may rise out of his guilt that his past wrongful actions will surface.

The police found a .38 caliber bullet at the foggy area and Dormer doesn’t let it be known that he also picked up the .38 caliber weapon left by the suspect. He shoots a bullet from the .38 caliber gun into the body of a dead dog and exchanges the casing for the .9 caliber bullet that killed Eckhart. The lack of sleep causes sounds in the police office to appear loud and disturbing. However, it could also mean that his world has become distorted by his upending the moral order in his life. Burr gives him a report to sign to close out Eckhart’s death investigation. Possibly due to a guilty conscience, he doesn’t sign it. He tells Burr to be thorough in her investigation. We may have here the compulsion found in Edgar Allan Poe perpetrators to confess their crimes.

As Burr takes another look at the evidence and finds inconsistencies, Dormer gets a call from the killer, Walter Finch (Robin Williams). He says he saw Dormer shoot Eckart and pick up Finch’s gun. He knows that Dormer is experiencing insomnia, and that he hides his clock to not remind him of how much sleep he is losing. At the end of the conversation he says, “We’re partners in this.” It shows how he is the demonic replacement for Eckhart. Finch may be a manifestation of Dormer’s darker self, his evil double, another element of Poe’s writing appearing here.

By bringing the victim’s best friend, Tanya, to the dump where her body was found and intimidating her by saying he will reveal that she cheated on her best friend with Kay’s boyfriend, Dormer gets Tanya to reveal that Kay’s secret admirer was Brody, the crime novel writer, who is really Finch.  

Finch calls Dormer again, and again, shows how well he knows him by telling Dormer his state of insomnia. He says that no one would believe him if he says that the shooting was an accident because of the scrutiny on Dormer in the IA investigation. Finch says that he’s not who Dormer thinks he is. It is an ironic statement because it suggests that the surface an individual projects is not the reality beneath. That point can be applied to Dormer also. Finch says he is not a murderer, just like Dormer thinks he isn’t. But then Finch raises the question that maybe the shooting of Eckhart wasn’t an accident. Nolan likes to insert enigmatic possibilities in his stories.

Dormer finds out where Finch lives and breaks into his apartment. Dormer sees pictures of Finch so he can now recognize him. Finch left a piece of paper at the top of the door so when he returns and finds it has fallen, he knows someone is there. He runs off and Dormer chases after him across a river filled with floating lumber. Dormer falls in and almost drowns. Does this scene imply that Dormer is unable to reach steady moral ground?

Dormer returns to Finch’s apartment and receives a call from Finch telling him to feel at home by taking a shower and resting there. Maybe he can even feed Finch’s dogs. His words are another indication that Dormer and Finch could be doppelgangers. Finch is intelligent because he says Dormer should know he’s not going to return to his place. And the only way he knows that Finch is the killer is because he told him so (although we know that Tanya’s statements point to him as a person of interest). Finch sets up a meeting between him and Dormer. Dormer plants the .38 caliber gun in Finch’s apartment. Dormer is trying to frame a man for a killing he himself committed.

Burr has been following Dormer’s advice about checking out the little details surrounding a crime. She realizes that the shot that killed Eckhart came from a different location and now she discovers, as did Dormer, that Finch, a local writer, is the author of all the books in Kay’s position, one of which was autographed, which means she knew him. Later Burr finds a newspaper that features the LA investigation. She repeats what Dormer once said, “A good cop can't sleep because he's missing a piece of the puzzle. And a bad cop can't sleep because his conscience won't let him.” More irony here that Dormer’s protégé is on the trail that leads to himself.

Maybe the best scenes in the film occur between Pacino and Williams. Here they meet on the ferry. Dormer tries to diminish what Finch says about them being in the same situation, not meaning to kill their victims. But Finch is persuasive, saying if it comes out that Dormer shot Eckhart, even if he says it was an accident, it meant that all his IA problems disappeared, which would seem suspicious. It would also ruin his legacy of being an effective cop. It might cause many of those he put away to have grounds to be released, if Dormer is shown to be a cop who alters evidence. Finch says when he was young, he was impressed by the police, and that is why he writes about them. He even wanted to be once, he says, but couldn’t pass the tests. All his statements show how similar he and Dormer are. They speak with their faces close to each other, which suggests they are two sides of the same coin. Finch says that they should steer the investigation toward the boyfriend, Randy. Dormer coaches Finch since he will be brought in for questioning because of the signed copy of the book in Kay’s possession. Dormer tells him not to elaborate, and that the investigation will lead to Randy. Dormer, however, does not reveal that he planted the gun at Finch’s place. After he leaves the ferry, Finch reveals that he taped their conversation, insurance that he has the goods on Dormer.

Finch calls Dormer again and the latter asks if Finch still has Kay’s dress. He feeds that line to Finch who now says that is evidence they can plant on Randy. Dormer really wanted to discover if he could find evidence in Finch’s possession to pin the killing on him. Since Dormer says he can steer the investigation he needs more facts about Kay’s death. Finch says he wanted to comfort Kay when she came to him distraught about how Randy hit her and was fooling around with Tanya. But Kay laughed at him when he held her and kissed her. He says that he hit her to stop her from laughing and his humiliation was the force that led to his beating her. Here we see that Finch’s pathology is deeper than that of Dormer’s. His telling Dormer about what happened is like a confession, an attempt to relieve the feeling of guilt. He says he thinks he will be able to sleep now. The theme of insomnia not allowing one to escape guilt is stressed here. It is telling that when Finch gives Dormer the opportunity to unburden, Dormer hangs up. He can’t so readily expel his guilt.

Finch, during his interrogation, diverges from Dormer’s advice, telling how Kay was afraid of Randy, how he abused her. Then he reveals that Kay said Randy had a .38 revolver that he hid in a heating vent, which is where Dormer hid the gun at Finch’s place. Here Finch is communicating that he knows Dormer was trying to manipulate him and the reason Dormer didn’t want Finch to say anything about Randy was because he wanted Finch to be the prime suspect. Dormer then takes over the questioning once he realizes what Finch is doing. He says that Finch gave the young girl gifts, implying Finch was grooming her, like a pedophile. After Dormer goes into a rage, he leaves the room.

Dormer can’t find the gun in the air vent at Randy’s place. It was a ruse by Finch. The police come and find the weapon where Finch relocated it. They then arrest Randy ironically on evidence that Dormer manipulated to prevent himself from being implicated. Now, instead, an innocent person is targeted for something he didn’t do. Dormer has done the opposite of what a cop is supposed to do.

Dormer and Finch meet again, and Finch says that it’s over because he now can go on with his life, scumbag Randy is in jail, and Dormer’s reputation is intact. He gives the tape to Dormer who disposes of it and points his gun at Finch. But Finch reminds him that his outburst at the police headquarters shows he would be a prime suspect in Finch’s death. Dormer then says he will tell the cops about everything. Finch reminds Dormer he destroyed any evidence of the two ever having a previous conversation that implicated Finch.

Finch is very smart and has thought it all out, except that Burr finds more about what happened. She uncovers a .9 mm shell at the site of Eckhart’s death, which undermines the .38 caliber gun being the weapon that killed Eckhart. She notes in some case files involving Dormer that a .9 mm was used. She encounters Dormer who looks wasted due to insomnia. Burr gives him a hug and can feel the .9 mm gun, and since none of the local cops carry that firearm, she is very suspicious.

Back as his hotel room, Rachel asks Dormer why he is moving furniture around to block the window. Even though it is dark in there, he still says it’s bright. Metaphorically he can’t hide his guilt anymore. He now does confess to Rachel about the case under investigation back home. He describes how a pedophile kidnapped, tortured, raped, and finally killed a boy. Dormer says he knew the man was guilty. Tellingly, he says his job is to “assign guilt.” Now he is placing that guilt on himself. The shot at the beginning of the film that showed blood being absorbed onto fabric involved Dormer taking blood from the victim and planting it in the perpetrator’s home. He admits he knew it “would catch up” to him, and mentions the investigation. He says the “end justifies the means.” He doesn’t sound convinced, probably realizing it is a rationalization. He asks Rachel, who he has put in the position of a clergyperson, what she thinks. She says it might be that it seemed like the right thing to do at the time. But can he live with his actions? And that is the vital question this film asks.

There is an interesting cut to Burr who holds the .9 mm casing and now she must decide what to do, and can she live with her decision? Dormer picks up his badge and gun and decides to go after Finch, no matter the means or the consequences. Burr promised to meet Finch at his cabin where she does not know he killed Kay. He said he had letters from Kay that told of Randy’s abuse. He has no such letters that he could create in time for this visit. Dormer can’t find any evidence at Finch’s empty apartment so he too heads to the cabin. Burr notices Kay’s dress and Finch knocks her out. What follows is Finch getting the drop on the disoriented Dormer. He disarms him and beats him. Burr shows up and Finch escapes to get more firepower. Burr realizes that Finch is Kay’s killer, and he witnessed Dormer shooting Eckhart. Dormer admits these facts and adds that he just isn’t sure if killing Eckhart was an accident. Dormer sneaks up on Finch and they fight. They eventually exchange gunfire. Both receive fatal wounds. The shot of Finch falling dead and disappearing gradually in the water symbolizes the death of Dormer’s darker self.

As Dormer is dying, Burr is ready to throw away the .9 mm casing saying nobody has to know. He stops her and says, “Don’t lose your way,” as he had, forgetting to abide by the law. He says to just let him “sleep.” He can now have the ultimate escape from his guilt in the comfort of an eternal rest.

Falling Down

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.