Line #38 Film/ThePunisher1989


1	[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/punisher_1989_8545.jpg]]
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3	->''"Come on God, answer me. For years I'm asking why, why are the innocent dead and the guilty alive? Where is justice? Where is punishment? Or have you already answered, have you already said to the world: here is justice, here is punishment, here... in me."''
4	-->-- '''Frank Castle'''
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6	The first film adaptation of ''Comicbook/ThePunisher'', released in 1989.
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8	After Frank Castle's (Creator/DolphLundgren) family was killed by organized crime, he started a war on them as [[VigilanteMan the vigilante]] known as The Punisher. His work causes the [[TheMafia New York crime families]] to appear weak, and a MobWar between them and the {{Yakuza}} breaks out, who try to muscle in on their turf. Caught between the crossfire, Frank has to shoot a whole lot of bad guys to make things right.
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10	----
11	!!This film has the examples of:
12	* AbsurdlySpaciousSewer: Where Frank's hideout resides.
13	* AdaptationalBackstoryChange: Unlike the comics, where his family were killed due to them stumbling upon a gangland execution in Central Park, here, they're killed by a car bomb to stop Frank from investigating the Franco crime family.
14	* AddedAlliterativeAppeal: When one goon is frustrated waiting for his European counterparts to show up for a meet, he mutters "Fucking faggot Frenchmen!"
15	* TheAlcoholic: Jake is used to be one before he met Frank, who brought him back from the brink.
16	* ArmedLegs: Tanaka's daughter [[SlashedThroat slices a man's throat]] with blades on her boot in her introductory scene. Frank offs one of Moretti's henchman in the same fashion.
17	* AteHisGun: Holding a dagger to Tommy's throat, Lady Tanaka promises to spare him if Gianni puts his gun in his mouth and pulls the trigger. Frank intervenes before he can go through with it.
18	* BadassBiker: How Frank is depicted, even having a CoolBike.
19	* {{BFG}}: The M-60/GrenadeLauncher combo that Frank uses to demolish a Yakuza illegal casino.
20	* BigBad: Lady Tanaka, the DragonLady {{Yakuza}} boss trying to take over New York's crime.
21	* BladeEnthusiast:
22	** Tanaka's daughter. In the final battle she's ''covered'' in them.
23	** Unusually, this version of Frank uses knives as well as guns.
24	* BookedFullOfMooks: Everyone else in the restaurant where the Yakuza and the Mafia meet is revealed to be a Yakuza hired gun.
25	* CallingCard: Frank leaves knives with skulls on them in his victims to let everyone know who killed them.
26	* ChainPain: One mook tries to attack Frank with a chain, but is stopped on his tracks with a shotgun shell to his gut.
27	* ChairmanOfTheBrawl: Franco's son attacks his captors with a chair, and in an archetypical fashion, it breaks apart on impact.
28	* ChildrenAreInnocent: A predominant theme in the movie: When Frank learns that Tanaka has been targeting the mob bosses' children, he goes out of his way to save them, and even gets brought in as a result. In the end, Franco's son sees his father die in the struggle with Frank for a gun, and gets the idea to take up that gun and pull it on Frank, [[DeathSeeker who ain't even mad.]]
29	--> '''Frank''': "You're a good boy. Grow up. Be a good man. If you don't... ''I'll be waiting.''"
30	* ComicbookAdaptation: It notably features the scenes of Frank being a cop and a family man before becoming the Punisher that were left out of the film.
31	* ConservationOfNinjutsu: Averted. Frank only manages to take on large groups of targets when he has the element of surprise. His initial plan to take advantage of the Mafia and Yakuza's feud was to stay out of it and mop up the survivors as getting caught in the initial crossover unaware had him barely managing to fight his way out. Later on, after gunning down dozens of Tanaka's men with an ambush, just two of them give him immense trouble once his gun is knocked out of his hands.
32	* CulturalPosturing:
33	-->'''Lady Tanaka:''' We are Yakuza. When your ancestors were shepherds still screwing sheep on the Mediterranean coast, ours were the crime lords of Asia.
34	** Which [[ArtisticLicenceHistory really doesn't hold water]], given that the Japanese expansion to China came hundreds of years after Roman Empire.
35	* DeadpanSnarker. Frank has a few of these moments when he is captured by the Yakuza and put on a torture rack.
36	-->'''Lady Tanaka:''' Do you know how much pain $10,000 can buy?
37	-->'''Frank:''' Is this question true or false, or multiple choice?
38	** And when Frank meets [[SympatheticInspectorAntagonist his friend Jake again]] after so many years...
39	--->'''Jake''': Five years, dozens of men dead... what do you call that?
40	--->'''Frank''': "[[GottaKillEmAll Work in progress]]".
41	* TheDragon: Tanaka's adoptive daughter is her protector and top enforcer.
42	* DragonLady: Lady Tanaka, the Yakuza leader attacking the local crime bosses and the BigBad of the film.
43	* EnemyMine: Mob boss Franco teams up with Castle [[EvenEvilHasLovedOnes to rescue his son Tommy]] from the Yakuza.
44	* EveryCarIsAPinto: One truck completely vaporizes on impact with another vehicle.
45	* EveryoneIsArmed: The meeting between the Mafia leaders and Lady Tanaka in a restaurant turns out to be a trap when every other patron pulls out a gun on the former.
46	* EvilLaugh: Thinking that she has won, Lady Tanaka laughs evilly before Punisher busts through a wall and kills her.
47	* EvilPlan: Lady Tanaka abducts the children of New York's mob bosses to make them sell their territory to the Yakuza.
48	* ExternalCombustion: Frank Castle's family died when their rigged car exploded.
49	* FauxAffablyEvil: More like "faux polite", but Lady Tanaka keeps on being polite even as she does such ruthlessly horrible things as take the sons of the Mafia dons as hostages (and when the Dons pay up, decide to sell them as slaves anyway) and [[DisproportionateRetribution put a gun in a man's mouth and blow his brains out for spitting on her]] (because he decided to be DefiantToTheEnd after being lucky not to drink some poisoned wine at the same time as all the other crime lords). The only time she drops the polite act is when she forces Franco to kill himself to prevent her from killing his son (with no guarantee that she won't do it anyway) and [[EvilLaugh starts to laugh at the situation]].
50	* GunStruggle: Gianni Franco dies after he struggles with Frank for his gun, and it goes off.
51	* HealItWithFire: Frank Castle cauterizes a wound and can be [[TheScream heard expressing his agony]] from afar.
52	* HeroicSacrifice: A non-lethal example when Frank knowingly drives a bus full of kidnapped children to the police to protect them from the Yakuza in spite of the fact that he's a wanted man who has no exit strategy once he gets to them.
53	* InexplicableCorneredEscape: Frank manages to vanish somewhere while having nowhere to go really, being on the roof of a high-rise.
54	* IWorkAlone: When Sam offers to work with Jake, he initially insists on working alone.
55	* TheInformant: Shakes, an alcoholic former actor who relays information on criminal activities to Frank for booze.
56	* KickTheDog: Lady Tanaka reveals that she's lying about returning the mob bosses' kids if they cede territory to her, instead plotting to sell them into slavery. [[spoiler:Later, she holds one boss's kid hostage and ordering him to kill himself, flat admitting she might just kill the lad anyways.]]
57	* ALadyOnEachArm: One patron in the illegal gambling hole is shown walking around with two women in this fashion.
58	* MythologyGag: Frank's children are shown wearing ''ComicBook/SpiderMan'' pajamas in a flashback. This is a reference to the fact that The Punisher first appeared in the pages of ''The Amazing Spider-Man''.
59	* NeckSnap: Frank kills Tanaka's daughter by twisting her neck.
60	* NoNameGiven: No name is given to Tanaka's adoptive daughter.
61	* NobodyHereButUsStatues: Two Yakuza mooks pretend to be armor racks to surprise Frank.
62	* NotWearingTights: Frank never wears [[ClothesMakeTheLegend the iconic skull on his chest]]. This wound up being one of the main points of criticism from fans.[[note]]More than fidelity to the comics, the skull shirt worn by the Punisher is a tactical decision as it draws criminals' attention there more than to his unprotected head - the comics' hero suit is often made of kevlar, and when it's a simple shirt, there's often a bulletproof vest underneath. So ditching the skull, in the end, would be even more dangerous to Frank.[[/note]]
63	* PinnedToTheWall: Tanaka's daughter uses her earrings to pin mob boss [=DeLeo=] to the wall.
64	* ProtagonistTitle
65	* RailingKill: Happens to one mook in the amusement park shootout.
66	* RhymesOnADime: There's a perpetually drunk former stage actor who serves as Frank's informant, and he's got an entire rant in this trope's fashion [[MoralityPet just to talk Frank out of facing certain death.]]
67	* RuthlessForeignGangsters: The Yakuza, who even resort to kidnapping children to gain upper hand.
68	* SelfSurgery: After his first run-in with the Yakuza, Frank is shown cauterizing his wounds with a red-hot blade.
69	* ShakyPOVCam: When Dino Moretti gets attacked by someone he recognizes.
70	* TheSociopath: Lady Tanaka, a crime boss who holds all her rivals' kids hostage to take power, and freely admits that she might not let them go.
71	* SourOutsideSadInside: Frank has his heady, wrathful internal monologues and is a brutal executioner who is exacting and cold to his associates at the best of times, but reuniting with Jake has him completely deflate, sorrowfully resigned to being given the electric chair for his vigilantism and ever-haunted by seeing his family die in front of him.
72	* TheSpeechless: Tanaka's daughter is a mute.
73	* SpitefulSpit: [=DeLeo=] spits on Lady Tanaka's face when she offers him a poisoned drink.
74	* StabTheScorpion: Gianni aims his gun at Frank's direction, but only to shoot a mook who is behind him.
75	* TamperingWithFoodAndDrink: Lady Tanaka poisons the drinks of the mob bosses who agreed to have a meeting with her.
76	* ThatManIsDead: In true ''Punisher'' fashion, he tells Jake that "Frank is dead" when they finally meet face to face.
77	* ThereAreTwoKindsOfPeopleInTheWorld: The philosophy of the Punisher is encapsulated in a simple dichotomy of Frank's. "If you're guilty...you're dead."
78	* ThrownFromTheZeppelin: When Lady Tanaka first demands that TheMafia become her junior partners, not one of the five mob bosses agrees to her demands, and she stabs the most belligerent of them through the hand rather than killing them. She then [[IHaveYourWife kidnaps their children to use as hostages]], [[spoiler:only to murder everyone who surrenders to save their kids' lives.]]
79	* WeirdnessCensor: Nobody believed that Punisher actually existed before he exploded a building in front of the press.
80	* WroteTheBook: Frank referred to Jake as "the man who wrote the book on busting bad guys" when they met the first time.
81	* YouExclamation: Dino Moretti's last words when he finds his bodyguards dead and comes face to face with Punisher.
82	* YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness:
83	-->'''Gianni Franco:''' You've wiped out the competition. Thanks to you, there's only me. In five years' time, my new organization will be the most powerful crime syndicate on earth, And that boy whose life you saved will inherit all of it. And the only thing he will have to fear, I'm about to eliminate.
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Context Film / ThePunisher1989