History Film / AssaultOnPrecinct131976

* DiabolusExMachina: Lawson kicks off the plot and a lot of deaths by running into the police station, he himself running from the gangsters who casually shoots up the ice cream truck and [[spoiler:Lawson's daughter]]. Both serve no purpose but to kick off the siege. Lampshaded by secretary Julie, who notes he was just some random somebody who brought Hell on the station.

%%* GangBangers: The Street Thunder gang.

%%* TheHero: Ethan Bishop.

%%* ItsQuietTooQuiet

* KickTheDog: The bad guys not only shoot an ice cream truck driver, but also shoot a little girl in the chest after she comes back to complain that he gave her the wrong ice cream, marking this lot as even worse than the other gangs of the city. Worse, the shooter does it as an afterthought.

* NeverFoundTheBody: After the first shoot-out, gang members retrieve all the bodies of everyone they shot outside the station, so even if someone manages to report the gunfire, there's nothing there for anyone to see from far away.

** [[spoiler:The confiscated magnesium flares in the police station, which Wilson and Bishop use to blow up a gas tank.]]

** Another literal example with the ice cream man's revolver. Lawson takes it and uses it to gun down the gang member [[spoiler: who killed his daughter.]]

* DaylightHorror: The ice cream truck scene.

* DeathOfAChild: Poor Kathy.
* DecoyProtagonist: Lawson is clearly set up as a major character after [[spoiler:losing his daughter]] and shooting the man responsible, but once he gets to the police station he experiences a ''severe'' HeroicBSOD after going into shock and completely shuts down emotionally, basically ceasing to exist as a character.

* RunningGag: "Got a smoke?"

* WouldHurtAChild: The infamous ice cream truck is a perfect example for this trope.

* HystericalWoman: A downplayed example, but Julie spends most of the movie panicking, compared to the cool-headed Leigh. Guess which one of them dies?

* EqualOpportunityEvil: A radio announcer comments on the racial diversity of the gang, which would (then and now) be unusual in Los Angeles. This is lampshaded in-universe by the same announcer. Shots of the gang members are even composed to emphasize this fact further.

* DiscOneFinalBoss: The menacing ice-blond gang leader who [[spoiler:shoots Kathy]] and kicks off the entire initial round of violence is shortly thereafter [[spoiler:shot dead by her grieving father, in a deliberately anticlimactic manner.]] From this point onwards, the gang members have no leader, they [[ZergRush think and move as one.]]

* EnemyMine: Bishop is forced to rely on the assistance of two prisoners (one of them a ''convicted murderer of six people'') in defending the precinct.

* DisapprovingLook: Bishop and Leigh both give a very disapproving one to Julie after she suggests they hand Lawson over to the gang, since he's the one they want.

* EvenEvilHasStandards: Napoleon Wilson, despite being on his way to death row, lives by a code and will not abandon the defenders of the police station to their fate. Wells also shows shades of this as he is genuinely appalled by the lack of respect that the gang have for innocent lives.

** Having chased the car full of killers until after sunset, he finally confronts them and manages to kill one. Instead of driving off in his car (which is not shown to have been damaged), he runs away.

* ExtremelyShortTimespan: All the action takes place over the course of a single night. Lampshaded by Ethan; after the initial hail of bullets, he comments that Lawson only came in about thirty minutes ago.

* %% TheHero: Ethan Bishop.

* AmbiguouslyHuman: The gang members are intentionally depicted as being devoid of ''any'' recognizably human qualities. They barely speak and never emote, move with eerily slow fluidity, and seem to choose their targets completely at random. They're essentially an entire street gang full of [[Film/Halloween1978 Michael Myers]] clones.

* BittersweetEnding: [[spoiler:Most of the cast are dead and Wilson is still facing the death penalty, but considering other John Carpenter films that's practically a parade with balloons and circus animals.]]

** The police chief conspicuously loading a shotgun and placing it in a locked box, which he then leaves in his office. Gee, can't imagine how THAT might come in handy later...

** The phone booth in which Lawson takes cover in at first, and which [[spoiler:Wells later tries to run to before getting blown away.]]

** When Lawson and his daughter are lost and Kathy suggests they ask some nearby cops. When her father baulks and continues driving, she tells him that her teacher said you can always go to the police when you're in trouble. Lawson remembers this in his panic-induced state after he shoots [[spoiler: her killer]], thus bringing the conflict to the precinct.

* DiabolusExMachina: Some weird inversion or whateversion of it -- Lawson kicks off the plot and a lot of deaths by running into the police station, he himself sent there by the white gang member who casually shoots up the ice cream truck and [[spoiler:Lawson's daughter]]. Both serve no purpose but to kick off the siege. Lampshaded by secretary Julie, who notes he was just some random somebody who brought Hell on the station.

* EqualOpportunityEvil: A radio announcer comments on the racial diversity of the gang, which would (then and now) be unusual in Los Angeles. This is lampshaded in-universe by the same announcer.
** Shots of the gang members are even composed to emphasize this fact further.

* ForTheEvulz: There doesn't seem to be any other reason for murdering an ice cream truck driver in broad daylight. Just to drive the point home, one of the gangbangers nabs the truck driver's money, waves it in his face...and ''throws it away,'' meaning that it's not even about money.
** It's the gang's revenge on the city (for the successful police ambush at the beginning). They're murdering at random based on the first "Cholo" they swear.

* GangBangers: The Street Thunder gang.

* HarbingerOfImpendingDoom: Lawson.
* TheHero: Ethan Bishop.
* HeroicBSOD: Lawson, after arriving at the precinct.

* {{Retirony}}: The story takes place during the eponymous precinct's final night of operations.
** Conversely, it's Bishop's [[FirstDayFromHell first night on the job]] as a newly-promoted CHP lieutenant.

* WhiteGangbangers: Actually noted in-universe, as a news report on Street Thunder notes their unusual interracial status.
** Notably, each of the gang's four "warlords" represents a different ethnicity: one white guy, one black, one Latino, one Asian.

* JustForFun/XMeetsY: As admitted by Carpenter himself, the movie is ''Film/RioBravo'' meets ''Film/NightOfTheLivingDead1968''.

* DisapprovingLook: Bishop and Leigh both give a very disapproving one when Julie suggests they hand over Lawson to the gang, since he's the one they want.

The story is essentially ''Film/RioBravo'' transported to TheSeventies (Carpenter being a massive fan of classic movie [[TheWestern Westerns]] and having always wanted to make a film reminiscent of the genre). Or, alternatively, it's ''Film/NightOfTheLivingDead1968'' with a street gang instead of a zombie horde. When a decommissioned police station in a UsefulNotes/LosAngeles ghetto finds itself under siege from a violent [[GangBangers street gang]], a rookie cop must enlist the aid of a secretary and two convicts to hold off the attackers until help arrives.

The story is essentially ''Film/RioBravo'' transported to TheSeventies (Carpenter being a massive fan of classic movie [[TheWestern Westerns]] and having always wanted to make a film reminiscent of the genre) -- or, alternatively, it's ''Film/NightOfTheLivingDead1968'' with a street gang instead of a zombie horde. When a decommissioned police station in a UsefulNotes/LosAngeles ghetto finds itself under siege from a violent [[GangBangers street gang]], a cop must enlist the aid of a secretary and two convicts to hold off the attackers until help arrives.

* XMeetsY: As admitted by Carpenter himself, the movie is ''Film/RioBravo'' meets ''Film/NightOfTheLivingDead1968''.

The story is essentially ''Film/RioBravo'' transported to TheSeventies (Carpenter being a massive fan of classic movie [[TheWestern Westerns]] and having always wanted to make a film reminiscent of the genre) -- or, alternatively, it's ''Film/NightOfTheLivingDead'' with a street gang instead of a zombie horde. When a decommissioned police station in a UsefulNotes/LosAngeles ghetto finds itself under siege from a violent [[GangBangers street gang]], a cop must enlist the aid of a secretary and two convicts to hold off the attackers until help arrives.

The story is essentially ''Film/RioBravo'' transported to TheSeventies (Carpenter being a massive fan of classic movie [[TheWestern Westerns]] and having always wanted to make a film reminiscent of the genre) -- or, alternatively, it's ''Film/TheNightOfTheLivingDead'' with a street gang instead of a zombie horde. When a decommissioned police station in a UsefulNotes/LosAngeles ghetto finds itself under siege from a violent [[GangBangers street gang]], a cop must enlist the aid of a secretary and two convicts to hold off the attackers until help arrives.

The story is essentially ''Film/RioBravo'' transported to TheSeventies (Carpenter being a massive fan of classic movie [[TheWestern Westerns]] and having always wanted to make a film reminiscent of the genre) -- or, alternatively, it's ''Film/TheNightOfTheLivingDead1968'' with a street gang instead of a zombie horde. When a decommissioned police station in a UsefulNotes/LosAngeles ghetto finds itself under siege from a violent [[GangBangers street gang]], a cop must enlist the aid of a secretary and two convicts to hold off the attackers until help arrives.

The story is essentially ''Film/RioBravo'' transported to TheSeventies (Carpenter being a massive fan of classic movie [[TheWestern Westerns]] and having always wanted to make a film reminiscent of the genre). When a decommissioned police station in a UsefulNotes/LosAngeles ghetto finds itself under siege from a violent [[GangBangers street gang]], a cop must enlist the aid of a secretary and two convicts to hold off the attackers until help arrives.

* BottomlessMagazines: Subverted. After all the buildup, the first proper shootout with the gangbangers is both awesome and cathartic. [[RealityEnsues It also leaves our heroes with eight bullets between them.]]

* AmbiguouslyHuman: The gang members are intentionally depicted as being devoid of ''any'' recognizably human qualities. They barely speak and never emote,