History Film / HardBoiled

''Hard Boiled'' (''Lat Sau San Taam'' (辣手神探), or "God of Guns") is a critically-acclaimed action film by Creator/JohnWoo, starring Creator/ChowYunFat in his slightly younger years. This 1992 [[ActionGenre action]] classic has aged very gracefully, and boasts action very few contemporary films can match up to. Has a sequel in the form of a game called ''VideoGame/{{Stranglehold}}'', also produced by Woo.

** The implication seems to be that Pang just flat-out doesn't care so long as bad guys get theirs. Which might explain why [[FridgeBrilliance Tequila still has a job]] despite his MO being [[CowboyCop shooting first and asking questions never]].

* TreacheryIsASpecialKindOfEvil: Mad Dog said that he hates creeps who betray their bosses as much as cops. He said this to Alan, who's been revealed as an undercover cop during the climax.

* AmbiguousEnding: [[spoiler: Alan's fate. Did he die after shooting himself in the gut, during the final confrontation? The last scene with Alan shows him sailing away on his boat; it could be interpreted as his survival, or it could be Tequila's ImagineSpot, that with Alan's death, he is now symbolically "free".]] Unfortunately the movie doesn't explain beyond that point.

--> There are two kinds of men I will never befriend; Cops and garbage who murder their own bosses. ''You have no sense of honor!''

** [[spoiler: Johnny Wong's death at the end of Tequila's gun. The climax of a series of SerialEscalation.]]

* FaceDeathWithDignity: [[spoiler: Uncle Hoi in the warehouse shootout. Also, Mad Dog]].

** While at the hospital, [[spoiler: Mad Dog uses a scalpel to kill Foxy. Just as we're treated to a close up shot of the scalpel being pressed against the informant's neck, we cut to a shot of his blood spraying across the window.]]

* GunPorn: Wong's arsenal [[spoiler: hidden in a hospital]] is [[{{Pun}} loaded]] with more guns than the Army.

-->'''Johnny''': So it's you, the hard-boiled cop.

-->'''Alan''': Was the guy I shot really a cop?\\
'''Tequila''': Yes.\\
'''Alan''': ''Fuck!'' [unloads on the mook coming at them]

* IdiotBall: [[spoiler: Foxy's death]] could have been avoided altogether if [[spoiler: Tequilla didn't have a brainfart and take him to a hospital owned by Johnny Wong.]] All the more jarring because everyone seems to treat it as a tragic happenstance, and the heroes are pretty sensible otherwise.

* MexicanStandoff: Between Tequila and Alan at the warehouse. [[spoiler: The latter's refusal to shoot Tequila is his first clue that he's actually an undercover cop. Also, his name is Tony.]]

-->'''[[NobleDemon Mad Dog:]]''' Boss, let's set the patients free.
-->'''Johnny:''' Oh, why do you care about what happens to them.
-->'''Mad Dog:''' [[EvenEvilHasStandards It's the decent and honorable thing to do.]]
-->'''Johnny:''' [[ScrewTheRulesIHaveMoney I'll run this show MY FUCKING WAY, thank you!]]
** When Mad Dog's fight with Tony takes them into an emergency ward full of innocent hospital patients, they both hold off on the fight long enough to shoo out the bystanders so they won't get hurt. [[spoiler: Then Johnny comes in and shoots the patients anyway, triggering Mad Dog's short-lived HeelFaceTurn.]]
* NobleDemon: Johnny Wong's right hand man, Mad Dog, who wants to let the hostages at the hospital go and [[spoiler: eventually turns on Johnny when he kills some crippled patients just to get at Alan]].

* NonIndicativeName: ZigZagged with Mad Dog; on one hand, he's very discerning about [[NeverHurtAnInnocent his targets]] and has a very strict set of standards. On the other hand, when he's doing his job, he's absolutely ''vicious''.

--> Johnny: Got to risk it, Frankie needs replacing and life's about taking chances

* RedShirtArmy: Played straight with the cops at the teahouse, but refreshingly averted with the [=SDU=] team at the hospital. Once our heroes are able to create enough of a disturbance inside for these guys to be able to break through, they're ''very'' effective.

* RuleOfCool

* ShootTheHostage: A rare instance where it was invoked by the hostage. [[spoiler: Alan pulled Johnny's gun to his stomach, which made Johnny shoot him. This gave Tequila the opportunity the gun down Johnny.]]

* StrawNihilist: Johnny Wong makes no secret of how he views human life to be completely meaningless [[spoiler: he has no problem killing a group of innocent doctors and patients, something [[TheDragon Mad Dog]] [[EvenEvilHasStandards finds disgusting.]]]]

* AxCrazy: Johnny Wong during the finale, as he kills both cops and hospital patients indiscriminately. Ironically, his {{Dragon}}, nicknamed '''Mad Dog''', is instead a NobleDemon.

* CoolGuns: Pick a modern automatic weapon on the list from before 1992. It ''will'' appear in this movie.

* CoversAlwaysLie: The film's iconic poster (and most of it's DVD covers) depicts Tequila holding a baby while clad in SWAT gear, but for the entirety of the climatic shootout, right up to the baby scene, Tequila is in a casual long coat. The hero ''does'' don a set of SWAT armor halfway into a film, but that's during a warehouse raid with nary a baby in sight.

* AuthorAppeal: Creator/JohnWoo's finally gets to show his love for jazz, after ExecutiveMeddling forced him to abort his attempts to show it in his [[Film/TheKiller earlier films]].

* SerialEscalation: If ''Film/TheKiller'' took Creator/JohnWoo's trademark action tropes up to 11, then ''Hard Boiled'' took them [[MemeticMutation Over 9000.]]

* UnfriendlyFire: At the end of the first teahouse shootout, Tequila guns down his friend's killer, who unbeknownst to him, was an undercover cop. Alan also unintentionally kills a cop in the hospital shootout, causing a brief HeroicBSOD.

* SpoonyBard: Definitely averted. When he's not mowing down countless bad guys, Tequila relaxes by playing jazz clarinet, with Benny on the drums. It turns out Tequila wanted to be in a band, not be a cop.

* WrongfullyAttackedMole: Inspector Yuen nearly kills Alan before learning he was actually an undercover spy himself. Good thing his gun ran out of bullets.

* DestroyTheSecurityCamera: Right before breaking out of Johnny's weapons vault, the first thing Tequila Yuen did to intimidate Johnny is to blast the security camera in the vault with his shotgun. In a later scene, the infamous [[TheOne long take]] shootout against Johnny's men, Tequila shoots another security camera after shooting a mook, this time via silenced pistol.

[[quoteright:212:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/hard-boiled_445.jpg]]

* ArtisticLicenseLaw: While undercover cops have some leeway to commit crimes in order to maintain their crimes, major felonies are generally not permitted. No real undercover cop would ever be permitted to rack up a double digit body count the way Alan does.