The Doorman is an action film released in 2020. When disgraced ex-marine Alexandra “Ali” Gorski (Ruby Rose) receives a job as a doorman for the building where her deceased sister’s family live, she becomes caught up in a search for stolen art dating back to the fall of the Berlin Wall. Jean Reno and Rupert Evans also star.
The Doorman contains examples of:
- Bulletproof Human Shield: In the final stand-off, Ali uses one of the other thieves to try and make Borz stand down, but Borz shoots his former accomplice without injuring Ali even though she was right behind the other man.
- Didn't Think This Through: In the final confrontation, Borz shoots Dubois with the intention of selling the paintings himself, even though Dubois had previously made the valid point that Borz didn’t know how to fence art on this scale.
- "Die Hard" on an X: Ex-marine Ali Gorski has to defend her in-laws when they’re caught in the middle of an attempt to retrieve a fortune in stolen paintings. The paintings were hidden in the family’s apartment by the former residents, and the building is currently undergoing a renovation so that only a few people are present.
- Even Evil Has Standards: Dubois, the man responsible for the heist, is willing to threaten an elderly man who has suffered a stroke to find the paintings the other man stole years ago. However, he objects to the idea of actually hurting the Stanton family when they become caught up in events as he recognises that they're innocent of anything but being in the wrong apartment, even stopping one of his henchmen threatening them and having a relatively friendly conversation with Jon Stanton.
- The Mole: One of Dubois’s group of thieves is a police officer who is stationed outside the building in case anyone tried to get out.
- My Greatest Failure: Ali is still tormented by her failure to save the daughter of an ambassador during an attack when she was acting as security, even though she took down most of the attackers and they only killed the family because they had a rocket launcher.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: The thieves were about to leave when Jon mentions just how much the paintings are worth, prompting Borz to raise the stakes and threaten Dubois with a live grenade.
- Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: Borz helped Dubois find Bernard Hersch, but didn’t take into account that in the years Dubois has spent looking for Hersch, the old man has had a serious stroke and moved to a different apartment in the Carrington. As a result, Borz told the other thieves that the Hersch family would be the only ones in the building during a current renovation even when he knew that the Stanton family would also be present. Borz assumed that the Stantons wouldn’t be an issue as they were ten stories up, but this results in Ali Gorski, a decorated marine, acting to protect her family when she visits for Thanksgiving (her deceased sister was the Stantons’ wife and mother).
- Pet the Dog: Dubois compliments Lily’s painting of Ali, observing that he knows art and Lily has genuine talent despite her young age.
- Pineapple Surprise: In the final confrontation, Ali pulls the pin off a grenade Borz had earlier used to threaten the Stantons and leaves it at Borz’s feet.
- Stupid Crooks: Borz is a particular example of this. While his connections helped Dubois find the man he was looked for, Borz repeatedly failed to follow other instructions that would have made the heist easier, ranging from not disabling the fire alarm during the theft to not making sure the building was empty (in defence of the last, Borz believed Dubois just needed to access the first floor while the only other family present were dining on the tenth).
- Wicked Cultured: Dubois considers himself a man of culture who acted to preserve important paintings after the fall of the Berlin Wall, and is only in the Carrington to retrieve the paintings stolen by a former business partner.
