History Film / MidnightRun

* GoodIsNotNice: Jack Walsh and [[Creator/YaphetKotto Alonzo Mosely]].

* HeroInsurance: Yes, Jack helps the FBI nail Jimmy Serrano. But he also steals a car, impersonates an FBI agent, impersonates a Secret Serviceman, robs a bar, interferes with an FBI investigation, and lets a wanted fugitive go free. He ends the movie at liberty, free to open his coffee shop.

DeadpanSnarker: Jack is definitely this.

'''Jack Walsh:''' You're goddamn right I am. Now here come two words for you: [[TwoWordsICantCount shut the fuck up]].

De Niro is Jack Walsh, an unfairly disgraced ex-cop turned bounty hunter charged with finding fugitive mob accountant Jonathan Mardukas (Grodin) and returning him to Los Angeles before the deadline expires on his bond. Walsh must travel cross-country while contending with: a rival bounty hunter; the FBI, who are trying to catch Mardukas; the Mafia, who are trying to kill him; and Mardukas, whose eccentricities make him a difficult prisoner.

->'''Jonathan Mardukas:''' Jack, you're a grown man. You're in control of your own words.\\

* NotSoDifferent:

De Niro is Jack Walsh, an unfairly disgraced ex-cop turned bounty hunter charged with finding fugitive mob accountant Jonathan Mardukas (Grodin) and returning him to Los Angeles before the deadline expires on his bond. Walsh must travel cross-country while contending with: a rival bounty hunter; the FBI, which is trying to catch Mardukas; the Mafia, which is trying to kill him; and Mardukas, whose eccentricities make him a difficult prisoner.

* ChainedHeat: Jack handcuffs the Duke to him on purpose, but this becomes a straighter example when they're running from the mob while being handcuffed together.

** Mardukas mentions to Jack early on that he tried to copy Serrano's computer files of his financial records as insurance but he didn't had enough time with the cops almost on him. [[spoiler:Jack is able to guess that Serrano doesn't knows this and [[BatmanGambit attracts him into a police sting at the climax]] by bluffing that he has the disks and wants to exchange Mardukas for them.]]
** While discussing the reward Jack will get for delivering Mardukas on the train, Jack mentions the amount ($100,000) and Mardukas asks if [[EveryManHasHisPrice that is the amount it would take to bribe Jack into letting him go]]. [[spoiler:Turns out that Mardukas spent the whole film secretly carrying $300,000 on his person in a money belt, which [[KarmicJackpot he gives to Jack as a thank you]].]]
* ChronicBackstabbingDisorder: Nearly everyone in the movie. Jack is highly honorable but not above doing a LookBehindYou on Marvin constantly, [[spoiler:Eddie swindles Marvin into bringing back Mardukas at a cheaper price than Jack's bargained bounty, Marvin tries to sell the Duke to the Mafia and Eddie's secretary Jerry is actually TheMole for Serrano.]]

* DeathGlare: Mosley to Jack, after this exchange:
--> '''Moseley:''' (gloating) "What should be of paramount importance to you right now is that you're going to spend ten years for impersonating a federal agent."

--> '''Moseley:''' "Ten years!"

* EnemyMine: Jack Walsh, Marvin Dorfler and [[Creator/YaphetKotto Alonzo Moseley]] at various points in the movie.

* EvilCounterpart: Marvin to Jack. Jack does bounty hunting both for money, and so he can bring in criminals his own way, and actually treats them like human beings. Marvin is a brutish, selfish man who doesn't give a damn about his bounties, even planning to hand Mardukas to the mob because he assumes EvilPaysBetter, instead of bringing him into jail.

** Before you feel too bad for him, however, Mardukas is plenty guilty of this himself: [[spoiler: While he repeatedly claims to "have money", it's in a way that suggests he's got it stashed away in inaccessible accounts, which is a bit of a problem as Jack and Mardukas keep finding themselves short of cash in trying situations. Then, at the end, Mardukas reveals that he's had a money belt stuffed with $1000 bills on his person all along. Jack snarkily notes that "I knew you had money, but I didn't know you ''had'' money."]]
* FailedASpotCheck: [[spoiler:Jack misses the big money belt Mardukas has strapped around his waist through the whole film even when he actually frisks the latter for some money to pay a car rental.]]

** Mardukas reveals he planned to make copies of his files for Serrano's accounts and use them to protect himself, but the FBI closed in on him before he could do so. [[spoiler: Pretending that he has these files forms part of Jack's plan to rescue Mardukas and deliver Serrano to the feds.]]

* GoodIsNotNice: Jack Walsh and [[Creator/YaphetKotto Alonzo Moseley]].
* GuileHero: Mardukas. Pretending to have acrophobia so he can slow down his time to Los Angeles (it turns out he is a ''trained pilot''), and using Moseley's badge to pretend to be an FBI Agent looking for a counterfeiter so he can get money from store clerks. If he weren't so concerned about Jack's safety, he could have slipped away a lot sooner.

'''Eddie:''' YOU GOT HIM?! Oh -- YOU GOT HIM JACK! I love you!\\

-->'''Mardukas:''' But it's not good for you...Why would you do something that you know is not good for you?
-->'''Jack:''' Cause I don't think about it.

* IShallTauntYou: At least 50% of Mardukas's actions are a calculated ploy to throw Jack off balance by provoking, needling and annoying him at every possible opportunity. The other 50% are just him being naturally annoying.

* {{Irony}}: The movie literally ends with a nice little example. [[spoiler: Jack walks away from the events of the film with a sufficiently huge amount of cash to open a coffee shop... but it's in large denominations, meaning he doesn't have enough small change to pay for a cab ride home. "Looks like I'm walkin'."]]

** Jack commits a lot of crimes over the course of the movie, including impersonating an FBI agent, stealing a car and robbing a bar, yet gets away scot free. It's implied that his deal with the FBI involved the charges against him being dropped, but even that's unusually generous of them.

* LaserGuidedKarma: This is a movie in which everyone ultimately gets what they deserve one way or another:
** Jack [[spoiler: who remained true to his code of honour throughout the movie succeeds in bringing Mardukas back to Los Angeles, and then after doing the decent thing and releasing Mardukas knowing full well he would lose his lucrative fee in doing so, receives a far greater reward than he expected.]]
** Mardukas [[spoiler: who's only real victim was a ruthless gangster and who used the money he stole to help the needy, gains his freedom.]]
** Jimmy Serrano [[spoiler: is ultimately brought down by Jack Walsh, the honest cop he framed and had run out of Chicago ten years before.]]
** [[Creator/YaphetKotto Alonzo Moseley]] [[spoiler: an honest fed, gets to arrest the mobster he's been trying to bring down the whole movie.]]
** Marvin [[spoiler: who is less ethical and intelligent than Jack gets arrested for interfering with an FBI operation.]]
** Eddie [[spoiler: who has double-crossed Jack repeatedly throughout the movie by playing him and Marvin off each other, loses his bond for Mardukas and, in all likelihood, his business.]]
* LookBehindYou: Walsh gets Marvin with this [[RunningGag repeatedly]]. Until [[CryingWolf the one time it's for real]].

** Jack is forced to resort to this [[spoiler:at the climax, when Marvin tussels with Jack during the sting operation, causing Jack's wire to malfunction, and allowing Cerrano to sneak away with the computer disks. Jack sees Cerrano's thugs moving in for the kill, and in desperation, yells out, "Cerrano's got the disks! ''Cerrano's got the disks! CERRANO'S GOT THE DISKS!''" Mosely moves his agents in immediately for the save.]]

-->'''Jonathan Mardukas:''' You're OK, Jack. I think . . . under different circumstances you and I probably still would have hated each other.

* OneLastJob: Walsh hopes to collect the large bounty from apprehending Mardukas and open a coffee shop. He succeeds [[RecycledTheSeries but the follow-up made-for-TV films]] have him still working as a bounty hunter.

* PokeInTheThirdEye: Walsh realizes Eddie's phone is tapped and starts giving false information over it to mock the agents listening in.

* RecycledTrailerMusic: Ironically, the [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D6tU2uKzRWM theme]] is so un-Music/DannyElfman-like, people are shocked it's his. And every BuddyPicture and BuddyCopShow trailer will use it, as well as WunzaPlot films too.

** Jack keeps forgetting his watch is broken and checking it.
** [[Creator/YaphetKotto Alonzo Moseley]] has a habit of taking things off the people he's interrogating/intimidating and “forgetting” to return them. He confiscates Jack's sunglasses at one point and makes a habit of stealing Marvin's cigarettes.

** Jack having stolen Moseley's FBI ID early on, he keeps using it to (mis)identify himself and get away with stuff, and Moseley keeps running into people who think that Jack's real name is [[Creator/YaphetKotto Alonzo Moseley]].

** Jack and Moseley, and the sunglasses. "Gee, I've been looking all over for these! Thanks, Alonzo!"

*** With a CallBack to Moseley's kleptomania at the end. "Yeah, watch your cigarettes with this guy, Jack."

* TapOnTheHead: Jack, Marvin and Serrano's goons seem to have a gift with knocking people unconscious with a single punch to the face.

* TwoWordsICantCount: Walsh is grows aggravated by Mardukas' nagging, finally telling him to "shut up", but using more than two words:

* WhatTheHellHero: Jack gives one to his ex-wife for marrying a cop on the take. Later on, Mardukas gives Jack one when he realizes [[spoiler: Jack is about to deliver him into the hands of the same mobster that ruined Jack's life.]]

* ApparentlyPowerlessPuppetmaster: Mardukas, to the point that he deserves to be a TropeCodifier. Firstly, he convinces Jack that he has a fear of flying by having an extravagant freak-out on an airliner, thereby obliging them to travel from New York to LA over land. He then makes the most of the time he's gained by making Jack drop his guard, firstly by behaving like an apparently hapless dweeb, but at the same time asking Jack [[ArmorPiercingQuestion Armor Piercing Questions]], offering him genuinely useful advice, and otherwise befriending him, to the point that when they finally arrive at their destination, [[spoiler: Jack has become so fond of Mardukas that he lets him go.]]

** Jack commits a lot of crimes over the course of the movie, including impersonating an FBI agent, stealing a car and robbing a bar, yet gets away scot free.

* ObfuscatingDisability: Mardukas claims to suffer from aviophobia and acrophobia, which forces Walsh to take him off their flight to L.A. [[spoiler:Though he doesn't really, and is actually a qualified pilot]].
* OddCouple: A persnickety accountant and a hardened, cynical bounty hunter.

* PoliceAreUseless: Let's hope the FBI isn't as incompetent as it comes off in this movie.

* WorkingTheSameCase: Walsh and the FBI.

* ThoseTwoBadGuys: Tony and Joey, the two {{Mooks}} who work for Serrano. Serrano himself refers to them as "Moron Number One" and "Moron Number Two".

* ExactWords: In one scene, Mardukas makes Jack promise that he will let him go in exchange for [[TakeMyHand helping him get out of a river they both fell in]], while Jack is barely hanging on to a rock and is about to be pulled into some rapids. Jack agrees and Mardukas saves him... and Jack immediately handcuffs him: he ''will'' let him go, sure, once he delivers him to the police at L.A.

--> Moseley: (gloating) "What should be of paramount importance to you right now is that you're going to spend ten years for impersonating a federal agent."

* ImpersonatingAnOfficer: Walsh impersonates an FBI agent.

-->Jonathan Mardukas: You're OK, Jack. I think . . . under different circumstances you and I probably still would have hated each other.

-->Jack Walsh: Where am I? I'm in Boise, Idaho; no, no, no, wait a minute: I'm in Anchorage, Alaska. No, no, wait: I'm in Casper, Wyoming; I'm in the lobby of a Howard Johnson's and I'm wearing a pink carnation.

--> Mardukas: "I'm in your way? I'm in your way? What you mean is you want the money for turning me in because that's all you're about. You're just about the fucking money!"

** [[Creator/YaphetKotto Alonzo Moseley]] has a habit of taking things off the people he's interrogating / intimidating and 'forgetting' to return them. He confiscates Jack's sunglasses at one point and makes a habit of stealing Marvin's cigarettes.

* CerebusCallBack: A RunningGag about Jack is that he constantly forgets that his watch is broken and he checks it. [[spoiler:He eventually explains to the Duke that the watch is one of the last things his wife gifted him before he was disgraced by Serrano and kicked out of Chicago, hence why he's still carrying it around.]]

--> Walsh: "Ten years for impersonating a fed?"
--> Moseley: "Ten years!"
--> Walsh: "How come no one's after you?"

* IronicEcho: Jack is delivering Mardukas into custody for a huge fee, which he hopes to use to finance a coffee shop, despite the fact that Jimmy Serrano will likely have Mardukas murdered in prison. Mardukas bitterly remarks "Hope it's a nice coffee shop." [[spoiler: At the end, when Jack sacrifices his fee and releases Mardukas, he wistfully remarks: "Would have been a nice coffee shop."]]

* OneLastJob: Walsh hopes to collect the large bounty from apprehending Mardukas and open a coffee shop.

* ChronicBackstabbingDisorder: Nearly everyone in the movie.

* CutHisHeartOutWithASpoon: The above f bomb example. Also, practically all of Jimmy Serrano's threats to his henchmen are like this.

** Madrukas stole an awful lot of money and worked as an associate of the Mafia, as well as skipped bail. He ends the film walking away a free man, with Jack letting him go for the sake of getting even with Eddie's backstabbing (the Serrano affair having been dealt with through means other than him testifying).

* NoIndoorVoice: Jack is forced to resort to this [[spoiler:at the climax, when Marvin tussels with Jack during the sting operation, causing Jack's wire to malfunction, and allowing Cerrano to sneak away with the computer disks. Jack sees Cerrano's thugs moving in for the kill, and in desperation, yells out, "Cerrano's got the disks! ''Cerrano's got the disks! CERRANO'S GOT THE DISKS!''" Mosely moves his agents in immediately for the save.]]