# Falling Down

Falling Down is a 1993 drama film about an unemployed defense worker frustrated with the various flaws he sees in society, who begins to psychotically and violently lash out against them.
    Directed by Joel Schumacher. Written by Ebbe Roe Smith.

## William Foster

* [Before destroying merchandise in a Korean drug store] I'm rolling prices back to 1965! What do you think of that?
* [ Foster approaches the gang after they crashed] You missed. [picks up the UZI and shoots, barely missing the only survivor] I missed too. [the survivor begs for mercy; Foster shoots him in the leg] You see, that's the concept. Take some shooting lessons, asshole.
* God bless the working stiff!
* I am not a vigilante. I am just trying to get home to my little girl's birthday. Now if everyone will just stay out of my way, then nobody will get hurt.
* Why have you put barbed wire on a fence? Is this how you rich people amuse yourselves? You put barbed wire on the fence so innocent people like me can hurt themselves lurking in? HUH?
* I lost my job. Actually I didn't lose it. It lost me. I'm overeducated, underskilled—Maybe it's the other way around. I forget—but I'm obsolete. I'm not economically viable. I can't even support my own kid.
* I've passed the point of no return, Beth. You know when that is? That's the point in a journey where it's longer to go back to the beginning than it is to continue to the end. It's like...Do you remember when those astronauts got in trouble when they were going to the moon and something went wrong? I don't know, somebody screwed up and they had to get them back to Earth, but they had passed the point of no return. So, they had to go all the way around the moon to get back, and They were out of contact for hours. Everybody waited breathlessly to see if a bunch of dead guys in a can would pop out the other side. And, that's me. I'm on the other side of the moon now and everybody will have to wait until I pop out. Did you know that in certain South American countries it's still legal to kill your wife if she insults you?

## Martin Prendergast

* Is that what this is about? You're angry because you got lied to? Is that why my chicken dinner is drying out in the oven? Hey, they lie to everybody. They lie to the fish! But that doesn't give you any special right to do what you did today.

## Dialogue

    Nick: We're the same, you and me. We're the same. Don't you see?
    Bill Foster: We are not the same. I'm an American. You're a sick asshole.
    Nick: Just what kind of vigilante are you?
    Bill Foster: I am not a vigilante. I am just trying to get home to my little girl's birthday party, and if you all just stay out of my way, nobody will get hurt.
    Nick: Fuck you! Who the fuck are you? Are you fucking with me?
    Bill Foster: I am just disagreeing with you! In America, we have the freedom of speech, the right to disagree!
    Nick: Fuck you and your freedom!
    Bill Foster: Hi. I'd like some breakfast.
    Rick: We stopped serving breakfast.
    Bill Foster: I know you stopped serving breakfast Rick, Sheila told me that you... why am I calling you by your first names? I don't even know you. I still call my boss 'Mister' even though I've been working with him for seven years, but all of a sudden I walk in here and I'm calling you Rick and Sheila like we're in some kind of AA meeting and... I don't want to be your buddy, Rick. I just want a little breakfast?
    Sheila: You can call me Miss Folsom if you want.
    Rick: Sheila. We stopped serving breakfast at 11:30.
    [Foster looks at his watch to find it's 3 minutes past the deadline. He places his gym bag full of guns on the counter.]
    Bill Foster: Rick, have you ever heard the expression "the customer is always right"?
    Rick: [sighs] Yeah.
    Bill Foster: Well, here I am. The customer.
    Rick: [still smiling] That's not our policy. You'll have to order something from the lunch menu.
    Bill Foster: I don't want lunch. I want breakfast.
    Rick: Yeah, well hey, I'm really sorry.
    Bill Foster: [smiles back] Yeah, well hey, I'm real sorry too. [pulls out a TEC-9]
    Bill Foster: What kind of doctor lives here?
    Man: Plastic surgeon.
    Bill Foster: Plastic surgery bought this? Guess I'm in the wrong racket. Are there correspondence courses in plastic surgery?
    Sergeant Prendergast: Now Let's go meet some nice policemen. They're good guys. Come on, let's go.
    Bill Foster: I'm the bad guy?
    Prendergast: Yeah.
    Bill Foster: How did that happen? I did everything they told me to.

## Taglines

* A Tale Of Urban Reality.
* The adventures of an ordinary man at war with the everyday world.

## Cast

* Michael Douglas - William Foster
* Robert Duvall - Sgt. Martin Prendergast
* Barbara Hershey - Elizabeth Tavino
* Rachel Ticotin - Det. Sandra Torres
* Tuesday Weld - Amanda Prendergast
* Frederic Forrest - Nick, the army surplus store owner
* Lois Smith - William Foster's mother
* Joey Hope Singer - Adele Foster-Tavino
* Michael Paul Chan - Mr. Lee, the convenience store owner
* Raymond J. Barry - Capt. William Yardley
* D. W. Moffett - Det. Lydecker
* Steve Park - Detective Brian
* Karina Arroyave - Angie
* Brent Hinkley - Rick
* Dedee Pfeiffer - Sheila Folsom

## External links

* Falling Down quotes at the Internet Movie Database
* Falling Down at Allmovie
* Falling Down at Rotten Tomatoes
* Falling Down at Metacritic