.45 is an independent 2006 thriller film written and directed by Gary Lennon, starring Milla Jovovich, Angus Macfadyen, Aisha Tyler, Stephen Dorff, and Sarah Strange.
Kat (Jovovich) and her brutish boyfriend Big Al (Macfadyen) sell handguns on the streets of New York City. Kat is smart, stylish, and self-confident, but all that leaves her when Al, in a jealous and self-indulgent rage, beats her. Three friends encourage her recovery: Vic (Strange), a woman who would like to be Kat's lover; Reilly (Dorff), who runs with Al but also is attracted to Kat and repulsed by Al's violence; and, Liz (Tyler), the counselor assigned to Kat from a battered-women's program. Vic and Reilly talk about killing Al, Liz gives pep talks; Kat remains frightened. Will Al's menace and Kat's dependency hold sway?
Tropes:
- The Alcoholic: Big Al carries a hip flask and is constantly swigging from it, and seems half in the bag most of the time. Vic tells Kat that alcoholics don't have loved ones, they have hostages.
- Am I Just a Toy to You?: Liz is seduced by Kat and assumes the two of them will become a couple she murders Clancy and frames Big Al for the crime in order to free Kat from his influence. However, Kat then causally blows her off: claiming that she had done no more that what Liz had taught, and even throwing her own words back in her face. Kat then leaves as Liz breaks down.
- Anger Montage: After being beaten up by her boyfriend Big Al, Kat trashes the living room in the apartment: starting with all of her treasured souvenirs of the seaside.
- Arms Dealer: Big Al's major source on income is supplying illegal firearms to the New York underworld.
- Bigger Is Better in Bed: The film opens with Kat delivering a piece to camera about how massive Big Al's cock was and how amazing the sex with him was.
- Crazy Jealous Guy: Big Al cuts off Jose's fingers because he thinks Kat touched his arm in the bar, and then beats the crap out of Kat for the same reason.
- Depraved Bisexual: Kat uses her "natural weapons" to seduce everyone who has evinced an interest in her—male and female—until she finds one who is willing to murder Big Al for her.
- Domestic Abuse: Big Al keeps his girlfriend in line with physical intimidation, and when he thinks she is planning to leave him, he delivers a physical beating bad enough to land her in hospital. And when she tries to take out a restraining order, he threatens her until she backs down.
- Fingore: Big Al cuts Jose's fingers off with a meat cleaver after he sees Jose coming on to his girlfriend Kat.
- Frame-Up: A hooded figure takes Big Al's special jacket with his name on it, his registered .45 handgun, and shoots Clancy.
- Gun Struggle: Big Al comes home and finds Reilly comforting Kat and pulls a gun. Reilly and Big Al fight over the gun which eventually goes off and wounds Kat.
- Incompatible Orientation: Reilly's indefatigable attempts to pick up Vic, who is a lesbian. She constantly shoots him down and he keeps coming back.
- In the Hood: The figure who steals Big Al's jacket and .45 and murders Clancy disguises their identity with a hooded sweatshirt.
- Mama Didn't Raise No Criminal: Averted. Even Big Al's mother has written him off, saying he has been nothing but trouble his entire life. She complains that he can't even get being a criminal right: saying that if you're a jailbird you should at least go to jail for robbing a bank or a gas station—something you can be proud of—rather than the penny ante crimes he gets locked up for.
- Mugging the Monster: Big Al comes home to find someone attempting to steal his television, and proceeds to beat the shit out of him.
- Pants-Positive Safety: Big Al makes Kat carry a pair of automatics thrust into the waistband of her miniskirt so he is not caught carrying by the police. Later, the hooded figure who steals Big Al's .45 stuffs it into the front of their jeans.
- Politically Incorrect Villain: Aside from being a violent alcoholic gun dealer, Big Al is sexist, racist and homophobic.
- Quick Nip: Big Al is an alcoholic who carries a hip flask that he is constantly pulling from.
- Rage Against the Reflection: When Big Al is holding Kat in front of the dresser mirror and is demanding that she declare herself a whore, Kat reaches out and smashes the mirror instead.
- Shower of Love: Kat is shown having sex in the shower with both Vic and Jose (separately) as part of her manipulations.
- Spiteful Spit: When the priest admits his own sexual desires to Big Al, Al says that he abhors weakness and spits at the priest's feet.
- The Stool Pigeon: Clancy is a snitch working for Big Al. He informs Al that Kat as been doing business with his rival Jose, and later implies that Kat and Jose are having sex.
- Traumatic Haircut: When Big Al beats up Kat, he bends her over the couch and hacks her hair off with a pair of kitchen shears. This actual upsets her more than the physical damage she sustains.
- The Vamp: Kat uses what Liz describes as her natural weapons ("tits, hips and lips") to seduce Vic, Reilly, Jose and Liz and drop hints until one of them decides to take out Big Al for her.
- Weapon Title: .45 refers to the calibre of handgun used to murder Clancy and frame Big Al.
- Would Hit a Girl: Al comes home after the scene in the bar, and based on comments from Clancy, accuses Kat of having sex with the 'spic'. He forces her to confess to lying to him and then beats her up, leaving her with a black eye and bleeding lip and even cuts off chunks of her hair.
