Falling Down is a 1993 action/crime film directed by Joel Schumacher. The film stars Michael Douglas in the lead role as William Foster, a social outcast, divorcee, and former defense worker with what his ex-wife (Barbara Hershey) calls "a propensity for violence." The film centers on Foster as he goes on a violent rampage across the city of Los Angeles, trying to get home in time for his daughter's birthday party. Along the way, a series of encounters—some quite trivial—cause him to react with violence and make sardonic observations on life, poverty, the economy, and commercialism. Meanwhile, on the day of his retirement, police detective Martin Prendergast (Robert Duvall) faces his own frustrations with maturity and empathy, even as he tracks down Foster. The title of the film, referring to Foster's mental collapse, is taken from the title of the nursery rhyme London Bridge is Falling Down, which appears several times during the film.
Coincidentally, the Los Angeles riots of 1992 broke out as the film was being filmed.
Plot
The film traces the stories of two men: out-of-work engineer William Foster, credited as D-Fens (Michael Douglas) and over-the-hill LAPD Sergeant Martin Prendergast (Robert Duvall) on an especially hot day in Los Angeles.
Foster is recently divorced, and his ex-wife Beth (Barbara Hershey) has obtained a restraining order to keep him away from her and their daughter Adele. In addition, he has been laid off by the defense contractor for which he worked. His frustration grows as he finds himself stuck in a traffic jam and his car's air conditioning fails. Abandoning the vehicle, he begins walking across Los Angeles toward the home of Beth and Adele so he can attend Adele’s birthday party.
Foster stops at a convenience store to get change for a telephone call, but, when the store owner refuses to give Foster change for his dollar unless he buys something, Foster winds up harassing the owner (Michael Paul Chan) for charging what he believes are unreasonably high prices. When the owner tries to defend himself with a baseball bat, Foster takes it from him and destroys much of the merchandise, and pays only 50 cents for an 85-cent can of Coca-Cola before leaving. Soon afterward, Foster is accosted by two Hispanic gang members who threaten him with a butterfly knife; he drives them off with the bat, which he leaves behind in favor of the knife, and continues his journey across the city.
The gang members and some of their friends later attempt to kill Foster in a drive-by shooting. The shots hit several bystanders instead, leaving Foster unscathed. The car crashes, killing some of the gang members inside. Taking a bag filled with their weapons for himself, Foster shoots one surviving gang member in the leg and walks off. In a nearby park, he encounters a panhandler who keeps asking for money even as Foster picks his hard-luck story apart; Foster finally hands over his briefcase, which contains only his lunch. He then enters a fast food restaurant called Whammy Burger and attempts to order breakfast, but he cannot get it since the switch from the breakfast menu to the lunch menu occurred three minutes prior to his arrival. After a tense argument with the manager, Foster draws a weapon from his bag and accidentally fires into the ceiling, frightening the employees and customers. After trying to reassure them, he decides to order lunch, but he is outraged when the burger he receives looks nothing like the thick, juicy one shown on the menu board. He leaves, tries to call Beth from a telephone booth, and then shoots the telephone to pieces when a man complains that Foster is taking too long.
This string of events draws the attention of Prendergast, an LAPD sergeant, whose domineering wife and mocking co-workers constantly frustrate all aspects of his life. This day is supposed to be his last on the job before he retires, but he insists on investigating the crimes, much to the dismay of his supervisor and the squad, as well as his high-strung wife. Interviews with the witnesses at each scene lead him to realize that the same man may be responsible; Foster’s “D-FENS” vanity license plate proves to be an important lead in tracking him down. Prendergast and his partner, Detective Sandra Torres (Rachel Ticotin) rush out to intercept him.
During the walk toward Beth’s house, Foster buys a snowglobe as a birthday present for Adele and stops at a military surplus store to find a new pair of shoes. The owner (Frederic Forrest), a homophobic neo-Nazi, diverts Torres’ attention when she comes in to ask a few questions. After she leaves, he locks the door, shows Foster his collection of Nazi paraphernalia (including a used can of Zyklon B) and an anti-tank weapon he has in his hoard. He reveals the police scanner he has been using to follow the day’s events. When Foster expresses his distaste for the store owner's Nazi philosophy, the proprietor pulls a gun on Foster, shouts obscenities at him, smashes the snowglobe, and attempts to handcuff him and turn him in. Foster manages to stab the store owner with the butterfly knife and then shoots and kills him. Foster changes into army fatigues and boots, takes the anti-tank weapon along with his bag of guns, and starts walking again.
Foster encounters a road repair crew, whose members are not doing much actual work as traffic backs up around them. Accusing them of doing unnecessary repairs in order to justify their budget, he uses the anti-tank weapon to blow up the street and the construction site so that they will have some real work to do. His travels bring him to a golf course, where a golfer angrily hits a ball in his direction. Foster retaliates by shooting the man’s golf cart with a shotgun, causing it to roll into a nearby water hazard; the man suffers a heart attack, triggered by the stress of the situation, and begs, in vain, for his medication, which is in the sinking cart.
Climbing over a wall, Foster cuts his hand on barbed wire and finds himself on the grounds of an enormous mansion whose owner, a plastic surgeon, is out of town. He rages about this display of wealth to the first man he sees, one of the owner’s employees, then hides on the grounds with the man and his family as the police are heard at the golf course. Foster tells them about his having been laid off by his defense-contractor employer when the Cold War ended, and shares his perception of his having been discarded as obsolete (not economically viable) after so many years of study and work. His dialogue suggests that he might be planning to kill his family and then himself. The man offers to let Foster take him as a hostage if Foster will let his family go free; infuriated at the assumption that he means them any harm, Foster departs.
By the time he reaches Beth’s house, she has already called the police several times to warn them about him and has fled with Adele in town. As he watches home movies recorded during their marriage, he realizes that his emotional outbursts had been putting stress on his family. He also comes to believe that they may have gone to a nearby pier, but Prendergast and Torres arrive before he can go after them. Torres tries to enter at the rear of the house, but Foster wounds her with a shot from a pistol (the last weapon he has kept with him) and flees with Prendergast in pursuit.
The two men come face to face on the Manhattan Beach pier, where Prendergast dismisses Foster’s complaints about being ill-treated by society as an excuse for his violent rampage across the city. It is implied in their dialog, and in earlier moments of the plot, that Prendergast has just as many reasons to delve into violence and despair as Foster does, yet Prendergast has a higher degree of empathy, which, perhaps, makes a crucial difference between the two.
Prendergast positions himself to protect Beth and Adele. While distracting Foster, Beth kicks away the gun while Prendergast draws his (Torres') revolver, insisting that Foster give himself up to the police officers who are arriving in force. Foster tells Prendergast that he has another gun... "lots of guns", proposing an Old West-style showdown with Prendergast. He illuminates the poetry of the situation: "Showdown between the Sheriff and the bad guy? It's beautiful." Prendergast asserts that Foster has a choice as to the outcome of the situation, encouraging Foster to allow the police to arrest him without trouble. Foster responds by telling Prendergast that he has the choice of either being killed, or killing Foster and allowing his family to collect his life insurance. Prendergast again attempts to reason with Foster, who refuses to give himself up, saying he wouldn't want to see his daughter growing up while he's in prison. Foster counts down, forcing Prendergast into shooting Foster fatally before realising that the gun Foster pulled was his daughter's water pistol. As Foster dies he says, "I would've gotcha," before falling off the pier, into the ocean.
Over the course of the film, Prendergast gradually develops a high level of assertiveness toward his wife and co-workers. In the aftermath of the shooting, he publicly curses at his overbearing supervisor ("fuck you Captain Yardley, fuck you very much") (who had mockingly used Prendergast's low profanity rate as an example of his presumed sheepishness or lack of manhood) in front of the news media, and then decides to stay on the job and postpone his retirement.
Reception
Reviews for the film tended towards the positive.[1][2] Roger Ebert, who gave the film a positive review at the time of its release, stated of William "D-Fens" Foster:
"What is fascinating about the Douglas character, as written and played, is the core of sadness in his soul. Yes, by the time we meet him, he has gone over the edge. But there is no exhilaration in his rampage, no release. He seems weary and confused, and in his actions he unconsciously follows scripts that he may have learned from the movies, or on the news, where other frustrated misfits vent their rage on innocent bystanders."
Primary cast
Awards and nominations
Box office
According to Boxofficemojo.com, the film grossed over $40 million domestically. It was the number one weekend movie during its first two weeks of release (2/26-28, 3/5-7/93)
References
External links
