History Film / TwelveAngryMen

* TheUnreveal: Did the boy really kill his father? If he didn't, who did? Since the play and film only see the case from the jurors' perspective (not the police's), it is never discovered. All that is known is that there is reasonable doubt as to the boy's guilt -- which, under the laws of the United States, is enough to keep him from being convicted. TruthInTelevision, of course -- jurors not working on an obvious open and shut case rarely get "closure" as to whether or not they were right.

** Juror #7. Aside from constantly insulting the other jurors with his constant pithy remarks, he doesn't care what the decision of the jury is. He's only concerned with catching a baseball game. At least the most vicious jurors voted guilty because they believed in it. That said, when called out on this, he does say that he doesn't believe the accused is guilty. Fortunately, the game is rained out during the deliberation, so he can relax and pay attention for once.

** Who [[spoiler:killed the man if the defendant was not guilty?]] For that matter, [[spoiler:is the defendant not guilty in the first place? We never get an answer.]]

* ArtisticLicenseLaw: Juror #8 pulling out the second switchblade would have been ''immediate'' grounds for a mistrial, as the second switchblade was not presented in the courtroom. The discovery process of a criminal trial demands that both the defense ''and'' the prosecution be aware beforehand of every piece of evidence that is to be presented, and a jury is instructed to only consider evidence presented in the trial proceedings. In real life, if the defense attorney was worth his salt, buying the identical switchblade to show it's not unique would have been one of the first things he'd have done to poke holes in the prosecution's case.

* CoolOldGuy: Juror #9, the oldest member of the cast and the first to support #8.

* AdaptationalNiceGuy: Of all people, Juror #4. In the original 1954 TV movie, when Juror #10 goes on his racist rant towards the end, Juror #4 basically intimidates him into shutting up by telling him that if he open his mouth again, he (#4) will "split his skull". This makes it seem like #10 only relents because he's too terrified not to. But in the movie, when Juror #10 asks why they aren't listening to him, #4 merely says quietly "We have. Now, sit down and don't open your mouth again." This seems to make #10 release at last just how much the others despise him, and he shuts up not because he's frightened but because he's ashamed to realise that he doesn't speak for anyone else.

* AdaptationalNiceGuy: Of all people, Juror #4. In the original 1954 TV movie, when Juror #10 goes on his racist rant towards the end, Juror #4 basically intimidates him into shutting up by telling him that if he open his mouth again, he (#4) will "split his skull". This makes it seem like #10 only relents because he's too terrified not to. But in the movie, when Juror #10 asks why they aren't listening to him, #4 merely says quietly "We have. Now, sit down and don't open your mouth again." This seems to make #10 realise at last just how much the others despise him, and he shuts up not because he's frightened but because he's ashamed to realise that he doesn't speak for anyone else.

** Juror #9 also suggests that this trope could explain why the old man testified that he saw the defendant fleeing the murder scene, when his ability to have done so was severly in doubt. He was [[FifteenMinutesOfFame so eager for the chance to be part of a murder investigation and trial]] that it overrode his good sense.

* ExplainExplainOhCrap: Juror #3 is at first adamant that the old man's testimony is a vital part of the trial, but when it becomes clear that the old man may have been exaggerating what he saw, he says "Half the time he was confused. How can he be positive about anything?" and immediately realizes that he just discredited his own arguement.

The plot concerns a seemingly straightforward murder trial. An eyewitness, forensic evidence, and the accused himself all seem to clearly point toward an adolescent boy from the slums having murdered his father with a switchblade knife. In the deliberation room, most of the jury pushes for a quick "guilty" verdict -- but a single juror, known only as Juror #8, holds out and insists that they reexamine the evidence thoroughly to make damn sure the accused really deserves his punishment: a mandatory death sentence.

This work is best known for [[TropeCodifier popularizing]] the RogueJuror trope, and most of the other works on the Rogue Juror page reference it either directly or indirectly. There is even a redirect to the trope in reference to this film: OneAngryJuror.

Rose's original teleplay, which aired on Creator/{{CBS}} in 1954 as an episode of the live dramatic anthology series ''Westinghouse Studio One'', starred Robert Cummings as Juror #8. The broadcast earned UsefulNotes/{{Emmy Award}}s for Rose, Cummings, and director Franklin Schaffner.

The plot concerns a seemingly straightforward murder trial. An eyewitness, forensic evidence, and the accused himself all seem to clearly point toward an adolescent boy from the slums having murdered his father. In the deliberation room, most of the jury pushes for a quick guilty verdict, but a single juror, known only as Juror #8, holds out and insists that they examine the evidence thoroughly to make damn sure that the accused really deserves his punishment: a mandatory death sentence.

* AmbiguouslyBrown: The defendant has a slightly darker skin color than the rest of the cast, and is referred to as being part of an unnamed ethnicity that lives in a New York slum. The actor, John Savoca, is of southern Italian descent (his surname is a toponym that ties his family origin to [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Savoca Savoca]], Sicily) and this was released during a time when Italians ''were'' discriminated against.

* NonSpecificallyForeign: Several characters are noted for their ethnicity or nationality, but ''what'' ethnicity or nationality they are is never stated. Most notably, the defendant is of some sort of ethnic minority and lives in a low-income neighborhood, which has several of the jurors, particularly #10, predisposed into mistrusting him. Juror #5 is noted several times to have a similar economic background to the defendant and is implied to be an ethnic minority as well, while #11 is from an unspecified European country and is proud to be taking part in an American democratic process. The vagueness allows stagings of the play to get creative. The film's interpretation has the defendant appearing to be Latino; #5 is played by Jack Klugman, who is Jewish; and #11 is played by George Voskovec, who is Czech (born in what was then part of the Austro-Hungarian empire).

-->'''Juror #6:''' "What kind of a bum is [[the defense attorney]]?

* NiceHat: Juror #7 wears a straw fedora throughout the film. Some of the other jurors wear hats as well, but they remove them at the start of the story.

* LampshadeHanging: "You know, it's interesting he'd find a knife exactly like the one the boy bought!" [[UpToEleven Double lampshaded]] by #3's response asking what's so interesting about it.

*** Juror #3 is also the first to jump on Juror #6 for changing sides for no reason, and makes it clear that he respects the jury system throughout. He simply doesn't realize that his subconscious bias is the reason he's pushing for conviction. Once he figures it out, he changes his vote to Not Guilty.

-->'''Juror #7:;;; "That's exactly what I've been asking."

** What are the names of the 12 angry men in particular? The movie adaptations [[spoiler:add the names Davis and McCardle to Jurors #8 and #9 respectively, but the names of the remaining 10 jurors are left unrevealed.]]

** Who [[spoiler:killed the boy if the defendant was not guilty?]] For that matter, [[spoiler:is the defendant not guilty in the first place? We never get an answer.]]

* GoneHorriblyRight: Juror #3 set out to toughen his son up after seeing him run away from a fight. He succeeded; his son got into a fight with ''him'', punched him put, left, and they haven't spoken to one another for years.