History Film / TheBoondockSaints

* BadassGrandpa: Il Duce. [[spoiler:Turns out to be the Saints' daddy. Technically, he isn't a grandpa, though.]]

* ArtisticLicenseGunSafety: When he decides to kill [[spoiler:Rocco]], Pappa Yakaveta dramatically snaps his revolver cylinder shut by flipping his wrist. With swing-out cylinder revolvers, doing this can bend the cylinder arm, misaligning the cylinder, and leading to a [[CriticalFailure misfire]], [[StuffBlowingUp potentially blowing the gun apart.]]

* ArtisticLicenseGunSafety: When he decides to kill [[spoiler:Rocco]], Papa Yakaveta dramatically snaps his revolver cylinder shut by flipping his wrist. With swing-out cylinder revolvers, doing this can bend the cylinder arm, misaligning the cylinder, and leading to a [[CriticalFailure misfire]], [[StuffBlowingUp potentially blowing the gun apart.]]

* AssholeVictim: Just about every one of the Saints' victims, but Vincenzo, the Sick Mob Man, and Papa Joe himself in particular.

* BigBad: Giuseppi "Papa Joe" Yakavetta, TheMafia boss running Boston.

* BondVillainStupidity: Papa Joe shoots [[spoiler:Rocco]], but leaves [[spoiler:the [=McManuses=]]] bound. May be justified by him wanting to question [[spoiler:the brothers]] some more and thinking of [[spoiler:Rocco]] as dead weight.
* {{Bookends}}: The movie opens with a priest telling the story of Kitty Genovese, while in the trial at the end of the movie, Papa Joe's alibi to an unspecified charge is that he was at the ''genovese'' (the butcher shop) with his mother.

* {{Fingore}}: In the shootout with Il Duce, Rocco loses a finger, which Smecker uses to identify him by means of his fingerprint. [[spoiler:When the Saints get captured by Yakavetta's men, Papa Joe shoots off another one of Rocco's fingers before ultimately deciding to kill him.]]

* PayEvilUntoEvil: Played with. Sometimes, the Saints don't really discriminate between {{mooks}}, and sometimes they can come across as too soft on certain bad guys, like Papa Joe.
* PoliticallyIncorrectVillain: In Papa Joe's first scene, he asks Rocco to tell him a joke. When Rocco is telling the joke, Papa Joe and his [[TheDragon Dragon]] Vincenzo insist Rocco refer to black people as "niggers".

* ManBehindTheMan: [[spoiler:The mysterious "Roman" who masterminded the hit on the priest is revealed to be Il Duce's childhood friend Louie. Louie reveals that he was only interested in rising up the ranks of the mafia and was using Noah/Il Duce to eliminate the competition, [[YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness afterward giving him up to the police when he was done.]] The mafia cast him out as well, but he helped rebuild the Yakavetta family after Papa Joe's demise, and let the Saints take out the rest of the Mafia so Louie can take control.]]

The brothers kill the mobsters and then turn themselves in to the police, though they are quickly released on their self-defense plea. They learn the location of the syndicate's leaders, then kill them all. They are quickly joined by their best friend David Della Rocco (played by an actor who [[TheDanza shares the name]]), a package boy for the local Italian mafia, who enlists their help in taking down his former syndicate after he is sold out by his bosses Papa Joe and Vincenzo.

FBI Agent Paul Smecker (played by Creator/WillemDafoe) is on the case of the vigilantes, and as the bad guy body count continues to rise and the brothers become local heroes, Smecker has to decide whether he wants to catch the killers or join them.

* ArtisticLicenseGunSafety: [[GunsAkimbo Dual wielding desert eagles]] is far more dangerous for the shooter than the target. Especially considering the high powered cartridges desert eagles use.

** [[GunsAkimbo Dual wielding desert eagles]] is far more dangerous for the shooter than the target. Especially considering the high powered cartridges desert eagles use.

* HealItWithFire: After their first encounter with Il Duce, Connor, Murphy and Rocco all take turns healing their injuries using a Cloth Iron left over a stove, complete with [[SoundtrackDissonance operatic accompaniment]].

* YouWouldntShootMe: Flashbacks to Noah McManus/Il Duce's youth show that two of the mafia goons who helped bludgeon his father to death were quite appropriately nervous to see him show up for revenge with a knife and pistol in his hands and cold-blooded murder in his eyes, but the one to actually kill his Pop was very blasé about it and arrogantly insisted that the kid didn't have the balls to shoot them. [[BullyingADragon Guess who dies choking on his own blood a few seconds later?]]

* YouWouldn'tShootMe: Flashbacks to Noah McManus/Il Duce's youth show that two of the mafia goons who helped bludgeon his father to death were quite appropriately nervous to see him show up for revenge with a knife and pistol in his hands and cold-blooded murder in his eyes, but the one to actually kill his Pop was very blasé about it and arrogantly insisted that the kid didn't have the balls to shoot them. [[BullyingADragon Guess who dies choking on his own blood a few seconds later?]]

** The scene with the cat, where Rocco slams his fists against the table to make a point after deciding to join them, and the Beretta that the brothers just gave him suffers a negligent discharge and splatters his girlfriend's cat against the near wall. It doesn't truly become hilarious until Rocco's dumb-assed question, "Is it dead?"

** The scene with the cat, where Rocco slams his fists against the table to make a point after deciding to join them, and the Beretta that the brothers just gave him goes off and splatters his girlfriend's cat against the near wall. It doesn't truly become hilarious until Rocco's dumb-assed question, "Is it dead?"

* BlingBlingBang: In the sequel, the brothers get Desert Eagles with modified suppressors while Romeo gets a pair of Colt M1911s with golden silencers and grips that look like the Mexican flag.

** This counts as a CrowningMomentOfFunny if you think it's going to turn out to be Agent Smecker, who was also introduced foot-first [[spoiler:while in drag]].

* CoinsForTheDead: The MacManus brothers place coins over the eyes of their execution victims.

* RealityEnsues: In the first film, the AirVentPassageway the brothers attempt to do during their first official hit goes to shit because, well, the vent isn't built for two grown men with rope, who have a tenacity to argue, to pass through.

* StrawFeminist: The brothers are set to train a new, very [[ButchLesbian butch]], employee at their meat-packing job who goes ballistic when she hears the phrase "rule of thumb" (citing the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rule_of_thumb#Reference_to_spousal_abuse apocryphal story]] about it being based on wife beating). When the brothers needle her about it she [[GroinAttack kicks Connor in the balls]] [[WouldHitAGirland Murphy knocks her out with a punch in the face]], getting everyone involved fired.

* {{Confessional}}: Smecker winds up in one of these after getting rip-roaring drunk, and it soon becomes a very tense scene as Rocco wants to kill him for being a "lia-fucking-bility", but neither of the brothers want him dead, considering him a good man.

* MotivationOnAStick: Detective Greenley humorously suggests that the only way they're going to catch the [=McManus=] brothers is by "...dangling a potato on a string" — of course, they walk in just as he's saying this.

* StrawFeminist: The brothers are set to train a new, very [[ButchLesbian butch]], employee at their meat-packing job who goes ballistic when she hears the phrase "rule of thumb" (citing the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rule_of_thumb#Reference_to_spousal_abuse apocryphal story]] about it being based on wife beating). When the brothers needle her about it she [[GroinAttack kicks Connor in the balls]] and Murphy punches her out, getting everyone involved fired.

* VigilanteExecution: Inside a courtroom no less.

* UnreliableNarrator: Special Agent Eunice Bloom's re-enactment of the bar shootout subtly [[LampshadeHanging lampshades]] this during the slow-mo shot of the guys shooting each other. When she walks past the last pair of guys, she mimes shooting the guy on the right twice as he takes two bullets... ''before'' the guy opposite him raises his weapon and fires off the third shot that goes into the him. She even [[AsideGlance smirks at the camera]] when this happens.

* BadassGrandpa: Il Duce. [[spoiler:Turns out to be the Saints' daddy. Technically, he isn't a grandpa though.]]

** Subverted in the first film - [=McManus=] brothers say something to the Russian mobster before starting a bar fight in what is supposed to be Russian. What they really say however is utter gibberish, [[GeniusBonus which could be why Chekhov gives them a perplexed "Huh?"]]

* FastRoping: Lampshaded by Connor and ends up being accidentally invoked by the Saints. In the sequel they play it straight... in an over-the-top way.
* FauxAffablyEvil: The Saints, concerning their actual targets. When dealing with innocents they fall under AffablyEvil or AntiVillain.

** Then, after Smecker's done with their interview, Smecker asks if they know any other languages apart from Russian, since part of their story included taunting a [[TheMafiya Mafiya]] thug in his native tongue. They proceed to show off by speaking French, Italian, German, and Spanish in front of Smecker, by having a quick conversation wondering how he figured most of their story without having to talk to them. To Smecker's credit, he seems to pick up on the conversation by the time it finishes up.

* HitmanWithAHeart: The brothers and Il Duce have a very Leon-esque code about "no women, no kids." [[spoiler:Fitting, seeing that Il Duce is the brothers' father]].

* IconicItem: The pennies that the Saints [[DueToTheDead place on their victim's eyes]], as well as Il Duce's [[MoreDakka vest full of guns.]] Romeo is able to figure out who they are quickly in the sequel, since not only do they ''talk'' about [[ExactEavesdropping matching their police sketches and dying their hair to reduce the risk of being recognized]], but they are a pair of Irish guys carrying a bunch of pennies. The brothers' wooden rosaries also count.

* KnightOfCerebus: Whenever Il Duce gets called in around the halfway mark, things get serious. Which is ''very'' odd seeing as Il Duce is played by ''Creator/BillyConnolly''.

* LukeIAmYourFather: [[spoiler:Il Duce is the brothers' father]].

* ManChild: When they're not shooting people in the head, Connor and Murphy bicker and tussle like ten year old boys. The fact that, when hunting down and executing bad guys, their "tactics" almost always stem from some badass scene they saw in a TV show or movie reinforces this trope even more.

* MoralDissonance: The brothers' moral compass is a bit loose. They give Rocco a free pass, despite him having a career in the Mafia which failed only because of his own incompetence, because he's a good drinking buddy. And they are perfectly willing to buy all their guns from a man ''heavily'' implied to be [[UsefulNotes/TheTroubles IRA]]. Not to mention they seem to have no qualms about stealing from the mobsters they kill even before they receive their MissionFromGod. Also Connor [[spoiler:somehow seems to know what heroin tastes like, to which Murphy responds, "How the fuck would ''you'' know?"]] in the sequel. Lampshaded by Rocco:

* NoNameGiven: One is more likely to survive in this film ''without'' a name. The brothers' names are Connor and Murphy -- which is rarely mentioned in either film while every other character gets a pause and a brief caption that literally spells out their identity. Il Duce [[spoiler:their father]] gets a caption that reveals absolutely nothing and is only addressed by his real name, [[spoiler:Noah]], in the second film. The Roman as well only gets a proper name during the last third of the second film. The only aversion to the survival rate was the "Sick Fuck!" He is credited as "Sick Mob Man".

* {{Omniglot}}: The brothers speak several languages including English, Irish, Russian, Spanish, Italian, German, and French.

* RealityEnsues: In the first film, the AirVentPassageway the brothers attempt to do during their first official hit goes to shit because-- the vent isn't built for two grown men with rope, who have a tenacity to argue, to pass through.
** Also, by the end of the film, [[spoiler:after the brothers and their dad kill the BigBad]], the public view on the brothers is mixed because, despite cleaning up the streets, some just see them as psychopaths probably for actions such as [[spoiler:killing a mob boss in a public courtroom]].

** In the first movie, Rocco emphasizes a point by slamming his hands down on a table, causing the Beretta 92 pistol sitting on the table -- which, mind you, is standard issue for U.S. soldiers and designed specifically to avert this trope[[note]] It's often said that the safety is the ''only'' part of a Beretta that's actually reliable[[/note]] -- to fire, killing [[spoiler:the [[ThatPoorCat poor pussycat]] that was laying next to it]]. Particularly jarring compared to the courthouse climax when the baliffs drop their guns from a mezzanine fifteen or twenty feet up without any mishap. In the DVD commentary, it's stated that this scene exists due to a combination of RuleOfFunny and [[spoiler:a hatred of cats]].
** The sequel averts this, however, when the brothers [[spoiler:drop their Desert Eagles when surrounded by police and SWAT after the last shoot-out.]]

* TeamTitle: Though the brothers are occasionally called saints the "boondock" part is never mentioned.

* AirVentPassageway: Subverted and Lampshaded - the brothers use an air vent to get into the Russian Mobster's meeting, but get lost. They only end up in the right place because they start fighting each other and cause the vent to break through the ceiling, dumping them right into the correct room. Later, Smecker lampshades this, noting that they're amateurs because air vent escapes only happen on TV and no pro would try it.

* ApatheticCitizens: "Now, we must all fear evil men. But there is another kind of evil which we must fear most, and that is the indifference of good men."

* {{Fingore}}: In the shootout with Il Duce, Rocco loses a finger, which Smecker uses to identify him by means of his fingerprint. [[spoiler:When the Saints get captured by Yakavetta's men, Papa Joe shoots off another one of Rocco's fingers before ultimately deciding to kill him]].
* {{Flashback}}: All the hits except the last are shown like this, usually involving Agent Smecker working out what happened. Eventually Smecker and the Saints are shown in the same scene, showing how Smecker now identifies with them.

* GoryDiscretionShot: As soon as the [=McManus=] brothers [[spoiler:and their father Il Duce]] have finished with their prayer during the last scene of the movie, they [[spoiler:blow off Don Yakavetta's head with two silenced Beretta 92's [[YourHeadAsplode AND a Franchi PA3/215 shotgun]] ]]. Obviously, we don't see the carnage, as it cuts to a shot showing Smecker's horrified expression before he closes his eyes and turns away. Note that he only shuts his eyes a split second AFTER the shotgun fired, meaning that he saw what we didn't in that scene.

* JurisdictionFriction: Averted. When Smecker is introduced, DaChief gives the cops outright orders to co-operate fully. The police hate Smecker's arrogance at first, but quickly come to respect his skills.
* MaybeMagicMaybeMundane: The shootout between the Saints and II Duce. The mundane explanation is three self-confessed amateurs against a hit man who hasn't been able to practice his skills in twenty five years. The magical explanation is that they were chosen by God to carry out a specific mission, and wouldn't be allowed to kill each other so long as they were needed.
** The Twins in general. Did they really recieve a mission from God to punish evildoers and from that moment on are under His protection, or are they just two extremely lucky goofs who took some random idea way too seriously? The movie is ambiguous enough to make both explanations equaly possible.

* MotivationOnAStick: Detective Greenley humorously suggests that the only way they're going to catch the [=McManus=] brothers is by "...dangling a potato on a string" -- of course, they walk in just as he's saying this.

** Earlier in the same film, after Yakavetta's men have [[spoiler:captured the Saints, and realized that Il Duce, whom they hired to kill the Saints and loves killing Mafiosos ''isn't going to stop until he's killed somebody'']].

* StoutStrength: Referenced. When Greenly sees the state of the two mobsters in the alley (who have been physically crushed), his theory is that they were beaten to death by a 500 pound mugger.

* BigBadWannabe: [[spoiler:Concezio is killed, but it's revealed there's a ManBehindTheMan: the Roman aka Louie.]]

* FaceDeathWithDignity: Once cornered, [[spoiler:Concezio]] merely crosses himself and says ''[[FamousLastWords "Vaffanculo"]]'' which is [[BilingualBonus Italian for "Fuck you"]]. Not to mention a call-back to [[spoiler:his father, who did the same thing before being executed by the Saints]].

* UnwittingPawn: Concezio Yakavetta religiously followed the orders of [[spoiler:the Roman]], completely unaware that [[spoiler:Louie was actually trying to bring the Saints and their father back so they could eliminate the Yakavetta family in revenge for casting him out.]]

* ChristianityIsCatholic: Justified, in that almost all of the characters who are shown to be religious are Irish, Italian, or Mexican.