Analyzing Evil: William "D-FENS" Foster From Falling Down 

"I'm the bad guy?" at the end of the movie is heartbreaking. Such a fantastic performance by Michael Douglas.

I watched this movie as a kid. My dad told me always be nice to people you never know what kind of day they are having. Good advice.

The system used him until he was no longer of any use.. " One who has been denied the embrace of his village will burn it down to feel its warmth. "

i like how this character's gear levels up with every interaction he has, like a video game. He gets the bat from the shopkeeper, uses the bat to get the knife from the thugs, and so on

One of the most fascinating characters I’ve ever seen in any media. He simultaneously has down-to-earth frustrations, but takes out his anger about them in such an extreme way. The straw broke the camel’s back in his psyche.

This film was The Joker long before that film gained praise. This movie deserves more credit and praise since it still resonates today as it did then.

When your work steals so much time from you that it affects your family life and then they toss you aside like nothing, leaving you jobless, without your child or wife, it's bound to make anyone snap

It’s extremely disorienting when future scenes are randomly jumbled in while your retelling the story

Most poignant moment: the black man being arrested outside that bank. Just like Bill, worked hard all his life and is rewarded by being shit on. He was even dressed like Bill. "Don't forget me." I still haven't

The scene where a kid on a bike, explains to Foster how to operate a rocket-launcher is the funniest thing I’ve seen this year.

I mean... a ton of people seriously had it coming in this movie.

A man who played by the rules and then realizes that the rules changed and he feels betrayed. If you were around in the 90s, a lot of people felt like this. Jobs went overseas thanks to Nafta. Defense employees were let go in the thousands after the cold war.

“Don’t you feel sorry for not letting me pass through your golf course? Now you’re gonna die wearing that stupid little hat. How does it feel?” That part of the movie puts me in stitches every time

The small details of this movie often go easily missed, how the traffic jam clears shortly after he storms off is one of them but there are many more that just show how his day would of gone if only he could of held steady for just a few more minutes and this could of been an indicator for everything else in his life, it provides much food for thought and has always been one of my favourite movies for that reason

Here is a what if? What if one person on that day showed compassion for just a moment to William? Or even seem an act of compassion. Like if he was on the bus and a pregnant woman was standing with a bag of groceries on the bus and young man gave up his seat for her, that could’ve changed his whole day by witnessing that one simple act of compassion and not feeling like the world is totally lost.

I feel this character so much. In highschool I got bullied so badly, abused by my family and everyone around me, it made my anger grow and grow and grow. No one cared, or even noticed how badly I was being treated. One day in highschool I got attacked and no one would help me even though I was surrounded by people watching. I hit the person that attacked me once, and he fell backwards and cracked his skull open. I was kicked out of school, everyone in my family treated me like I was the attacker, and a horrible monster, my friends families told them to not hang out or deal with me, and everyone just assumed I was a violent monster that no one should talk to, deal with, or interact with. When I asked people why everyone hates me I was told "Because you arethe bad guy" and I too was like "I am the bad guy? I did everything people told me my whole life. I never meant to hurt or upset anyone." No one cares about details of a story. If the story ends with someone getting their skull broken, who ever did it is a bad guy.

My favorite thing about Falling Down is something I didn't realize during my first watch--it's an understated dark comedy. The way the gangsters botch their driveby so absurdly badly, the way the female cashier at the burger place gets googoo eyes for him but only after he pulls a gun and rants about service, the way he can't figure out how to use his bazooka till a little boy on a bike shows him how. It's the perfect touch for such a misanthropic movie, and it's never so overt as to detract from the tragedy or drama.

"I'm the bad guy? How did that happen? I did everything they told me to." One sentence that perfectly sums up the tragedy of the society that produced D-FENS and also his own naivety.

The scariest thing is how relatable he is. He wasn't wrong about society, but he was mistaken in what role he himself played in all of this.

He wasn't evil, he was broken.

I like how throughout Dfens day, he levels up from mediocrity to an extremist. Started with a tie, t shirt and a briefcase, ends up with a jumpsuit, duffle bag of bullets and weapons and a launcher.

Falling down is such a gem to me, the whole concept "I did everything I was supposed to" it's so relatable

I think you missed one of the more important callbacks, foster got his “not economically viable” line from a similarly disillusioned man who is arrested for protesting outside a bank and tells foster to remember him. This shows that he did remember and connect with the man, and adds another layer to the class conflict (like with the golf course and the mansion) to d-fens’s story

Out of all the villains in media, William is the one I feel the deepest connection to. No matter the mood I'm in, the things I've accomplished, or the future that's ahead of me, I can't shake the sense that some bullshit down the line would strip away everything I've loved, cherished, and worked so hard for. And the worst part is that I have no one and nothing to pin it on. Just a cruel twist of fate that I have to swallow while the rest of the world carries on indifferently. Lives are ruined, systems break down, communities fall apart, and we're just told to stand there and take it? Hell no. I want things to get better, I want things to improve, well after I'm gone. And I'm willing to work my way to do it, but the world just keeps getting worse. I'm not interested on if D-FENS was some misunderstood martyr or a psychotic monster. He needed to be stopped either way. My main query after all the events of the film is what lead us to this point, and what can we do to get out of it.

This episode left me in tears. William's story is so upsetting and self-destructive. It's awful and sad. I remember seeing this film in the theater and it never hit me as hard as it did today.

The saddest thing is that there are millions of people like him suffering this way.

Michael Douglas deserved a Oscar for this performance of a very relatable character. Well done!

This isn’t even an analysis you just summarized the movie

The beginning scene, being stuck in traffic is perfect. The culmination of small irritations driving you crazy.

I watched Falling Down again for the first time in almost 20 years recently. I was certain that the weapons progression the GTA games was based on this movie.

This film shows that even modern life has its dangers and faults. You can have the "American Dream". The best job and the best family and then, one day you wake up and your boss is firing you and your wife is divorcing you. What's left is Michael Douglas' character in this film. As George Carlin said, "Its called the American Dream because you'd have to be asleep to believe it."

This movie had a very interesting “realistic” villain, in Bill. Contrary to popular belief, he was NOT a perfect man who simply had his mind broken by everyday life. He was a broken man who had severe mental issues. He may not have been a hardened criminal or a neo-nazi, but he was not a saint either. He spent his last day giving into all of his impulsive thoughts and engaging in violent and anti-social behavior. His actions have some semblance of understanding to them, but they are never justified. In the end, he was man who loved his family and worked hard everyday to protect the U.S. always doing what he was told. However, he was also a man who had severe anger issues, assaulted and robbed a store clerk, shot a man in the leg, held a fast food restaurant hostage, blew up a road, murdered a man, shot a golf cart and killed another man by manslaughter, and shot a police officer. The fact he even asks “I’m the bad guy?” at the end of the movie really reveals his sociopathic and anti-social mindset throughout the course of the day. No one should ever act like Bill. It is okay to think like him though, and use that knowledge to tackle problems in the real world today.

I think an important aspect not in this analysis is the scene when DFens comes across an African-American man (Vondie Curtis-Hall) who is dressed identically like DFens, picketing across the street because he too has lost his job, and is as he says "no longer economically viable". The man is then arrested and taken away by police but before the squad car pulls away, and the 2 lock eyes and Hall says "don't forget me", to which DFens then answers, "I won't." This short little vignette illustrations a number of things: DFens is not in any way racist, he instead sees people for what they are instead of race; there are many others out there exactly like him who are going through identical struggles; people like him who are being plowed over by progress who society then disregards and makes "not economically viable" any longer; and the fear that these workers who've given their lives to a job or society and 'played by the rules' feel they are not rewarded, and instead are forgotten about (fired, etc).... and many more little things in that little exchange. This seems like a crucial theme amd allegory in the back half of the film as the madness ensues.

"A man who is used to acting in one way never changes; He must come to ruin when the times, in changing, are no longer in harmony with his ways." Niccolò Machiavelli

I think the message is also how small irritating things in life, especially people not making the effort to just be polite, respectful, courteous and just pleasing, can just slowly erode a man to his breaking point and, sometimes, all it takes is someone being nice to help these people believe in the world again.

I always thought he was always supposed to be a cautionary tale. The way his wife was scared of him and how he talked to his daughter in that home video. His wife got a restraining order against him and when he found her, he brought a gun with him. He lost his job. He talked down to wage workers. He might have voiced everyone's "inner thoughts" and frustrations but, his reactions weren't justified. He was going to be set off by something.

In his defense...the burgers at McDonald's never look like on TV or as advertised but want the full price

Falling down is an underrated film

The one thing I vehemently disagree with is the idea that Foster is upset with the minorities and homeless on his streets. While his casual racism to the one store clerk is pretty bad, he deeply sympathizes with the “Not Economically Viable” black homeless man, and he’s disgusted by the neo-Nazi’s racism. He’s a product of his time but his real hatred is towards how society has treated him specifically

“All it takes is one bad day.” -The Joker

One thing that you missed is the scene with the black man picketing outside the bank and how Douglass’ character and he immediately identify with each other. It blunts the notion that he was a racist and reveals a more fundamental truth, namely that of the working man being thrown away in the name of “progress”. The movie reveals that society is not in a good way, and that while he responded to change in the wrong way, change in itself is not always for the better. Indeed, progress can and often does go in the wrong direction.

Let’s be honest. D-fens is great because he is doing things we’ve all thought about doing at one time or another. Basically he’s just sick of the system he cooperated with even building weapons for a country which treated him like another tool for the machine. Everything was his “I’ve had enough of this shit!”

Scariest thing is we could all be William Foster

I'm surprised more people don't snap in real life like Foster.

Quite possibly the scariest aspect of this movie is that it could happen to anyone. Even when we conform to societal expectations and do what everyone else thinks is right, any one of us could wind up just like this guy and we may not even realize it until it's too late. Because he wasn't some gangbanger, he wasn't a con-artist, he wasn't a criminal. He was a law-abiding citizen, college educated, white-collar worker and despite all of that, in his view, he was still a victim of society. _"I'm the bad guy? How did that happen? I did everything they told me to."_

What i find interesting about the movie, is that the sargeant following him is also a middle aged man with relationship problems and at a moment in life that he is not at his prime anymore, with things not going his way, and with internal frustrations about his condition. He, on the other hand, faces his problems and solve them without exploding and hurting himself and everyone around him in the process. I guess it's the movie saying there is a way out of this situation, but the main character ends up being the example of what you should avoid.

He wasn't evil he was just trying to go home 😭

Everyone is just one bad day away from being William and that's what's so great about his character

I seriously disagree that it's remotely his fault people died in the shoot out. I agree it wasn't good he took a gun from them, but it's totally on those thugs for threatening his life twice. It's all on them that they literally shot everything but him.

Im not sure I would categorize D-Fens as an evil character. He's destructive, and violent but without malice. Don't get me wrong his actions weren't justified, he is sympathetic to a point. He strikes me as someone who is used to backing down and was pushed around until he reached his breaking point. He is more of a poster child for adult mental health issues.

about 6 years ago I was at that point. I was married. Had a good job and my son is about 4 years old. I loved my family. Worked my ass off and thought everything was good. My wife didn’t work and that was fine. We decided she should stay home until my son is old enough for school. Well, I’d come home, house would be a mess, no dinner cooked, and my son neglected. I’d do it all when I got home. Sure my son was fed, but he was ignored for the most part and not bathed. She would sit around and stare at Instagram all day.Still I wouldn’t complain. I had no problem doing for my son. Well, then I found out she was cheating. Even had taken my son out with this guy,. Like he’s playing his fucking daddy. I kicked her out. One day she came to my house. Came in and attacked me, because she wanted my son even though we agreed this was my day with him. Which she didn’t really even give a shit about him. Still doesn’t to this day. I called the cops to have her removed and even had witnesses she attacked me. I have cuts and bruises and she had nothing but still some how the police believed her and arrested me. Even lied in the report and said there were no witnesses. I worked in the medical field and lost my job. And I loved working in medical. Lost my license for it as well. Stamped for life as a wife beater. And the cops took my son away and she had total control. I lost it. I didn’t care anymore. I wasn’t violent but i became violent then. Later I ended up punching her out. And I’m not sorry for it even still. I went to the guys house she cheated on me with and smashed his arm with a bat. On the way there someone was being a total dick on the road. Tail gating me and then brake checking me. At a red light I tried to drag them out of their car but they sped of. I didn’t give a fuck anymore. I did a hell of a lot more than that as well. I would fight anyone that looked at me wrong. But somehow I made it through and life is great today. I ended up getting full custody of my son as well. Not gonna lie though. It was a dark time in my life but sometimes I miss it. The anger gave me a feeling of almost like being invincible. Nothing scared me. Nothing could stop me. I was just a full speed ahead hurricane of rage. But it definitely taught me that life will eventually get better. But I’m sure it’ll go to shit again and maybe better again. It’s just the way it is. Just let go and enjoy life. I feel so embarrassed and dumb now though, for trying to hold onto such a shitty woman. Everything that I have been through I am thankful for. It all has made me a stronger and kinder person. I’m a tough mother fucker. I know I can survive anything life throws at me. And I’m always at peace now. To gain inner peace you usually have to pass through a very violent passage. I have a lot of compassion for people now. All I want to do in life is to help others.

"Hey guys let's analyze this movie" *Plot summary*

This is such a relevant character to today’s world.

I love the character of D-fens, he is the most human and also inhuman character at the same time. He is one of us put on a screen with exaggerated reactions to all of our frustrations. He is indeed a bad guy but for a good reason.

Honestly, I don't think D-fens is evil. He's just a guy who's been screwed over by everyone on all levels of society. His employers, his wife (she lied about him being physically abusive, it's later revealed to be a lie and may have been the catalyst to begin his downfall), the police, even those poorer than him try to screw him. He was broken before the movie started, the traffic jam was just the final straw. I see him as the victim, not the villain. William isn't the bad guy, society is the true villain. He's angry, but not evil. To be completely honest, I found myself rooting for him most of the time.

Everything he trusted betrayed him. It's a great portrayal of how many small burdens also break a person.

"And now you are going to die wearing that stupid hat. How does that feel?" Best line in the film

Falling Down has to be one of those rare gem movies that really drives home the ills of society. I understand D-Fens. I get him. Not EVERY aspect of him, but the majority. D-Fens is not an evil man. An angry man, but not evil. He represents all of us who are sick and tired of the world's apathy, greed, fraud, crime, disrespect, etc, and all it could take is ONE BAD DAY. The Asian store scene- the owner did not deserve to be berated for his nationality, but he was part of a problem that was bigger than the way he affected D-Fens in the film. I didn't learn about this until years later. Small corner stores in inner cities take advantage of the people in the neighborhood. Many of the residents are too poor to have cars which relinquish them to what's available within a couple blocks. And guess what? Big corporate grocery and retail stores rarely put their stores in economically depressed areas (not saying big corporations aren't exploitive in their own ways). This leaves a black hole referred to as a food desert. Small corner store owners take advantage of this and jack up the prices to their small selection of items because their customers are pretty much stuck there. So, perhaps D-Fens went haywire on the store owner for how he affected him alone, but as the movie shows many ills of society, I'm almost certain this larger problem (represented by one man's personal circumstance) was incorporated as a factor.

Hot take: D FENS isn't evil. The world is.

The funniest part of this movie is how he had exponentially more in common with the Neo-Nazi than he thought. That is why he lashed out, not because of the insult but because it was true.

Michael said this was his favorite character that he's portrayed on film. It's in my top 100 favorite films....well cast, written, filmed and scored. William wasn't evil. He became psychotic due to cumulative environmental stresses over many years. He probably had a screw loose from childhood.

William is a man who has become frustrated by every small thing in life, from the price of a can of soda to living in fear of violent gangs to being replaced at his job with few prospects beyond that due to his age, and adding insult to injury, watching his family fall apart due to him bottling up all of his frustrations… he’s a relatable man, at least, his frustrations are relatable to many of us in the working-class.

All it takes for a deeply broken man to snap into a violent rampage is one minuscule inconvenience. That’s what made him one of my favourite villains; almost anyone has the capacity to become their own William Foster.

He’s not psychotic. Throughout the movie, he forces all of his victims to face their own truth. And in true human fashion, none of them like what they see. He exposes bullies to their own behavior. And bravo to D-Fens for that! In the real world, there are many people secretly thanking him for his vigilantism. We just don’t want to admit it to ourselves. Sadly however, in the end he becomes the very thing he hates.

I may not agree with this character's actions. However, I do fully understand him.

Honestly the most relatable villain.Society can make anyone lose his mind.

You missed the fact Foster didn't deserve the restraining order. There's a little scene where the action pauses as a cop tries to take his wife's statement and the poor cop asks like six questions to figure out what exactly this guy did to deserve a restraining order, and eventually he stops pressing her for an answer, but what comes out of the scene is that there was no reason. William wasn't a perfect man, but he didn't deserve to get a restraining order on him so he couldn't see his daughter. He didn't deserve to lose his job either, it didn't come up in the movie because it would have been obvious to your average person in the nineties, but he was a defense contractor at the end of the cold war. He was surplus to requirements. He didn't deserve to lose his job, it just happened that way. Because of all that, the movie is about injustice. Foster deals with the injustices of his situation, the people around him, how people see him because of what he's done, and only by the end, when he gives the famous 'I'm the bad guy?' line, he realizes that in his violent retribution for all the injustices he finds in the world he has commited his own set of injustices, perpetrating the cycle, and so he's disgusted with himself. He became the very agent of chaos and capricious destruction he set out to correct at every turn, and he recognizes what he does to injustices. The movie ends with him goading the old cop into shooting him, ending the injustice once and for all, and the old cop Prendergast has been his mirror this whole time. Where Foster's journey through the movie and the city is all about ending injustice wherever he sees it, Prendergast is on his last day, he's doing his best not to rock the boat, people insult him and berate him and humiliate him over nothing, he sits there and takes it. His wife, who he adores, screeches at him constantly and does not give him the respect he deserves. When he gets on the trail of this rampaging psychopath, he gains hope, whereas Foster setting out on the rampage in the first place is the end of his hope. At about the midpoint of the movie, finally Prendergast stops taking the shit thrown his way and he starts dealing with the injustices he faces in his life proactively, he comes back into his own as Foster spirals out of control. Finally, as Foster finally makes it home, Prendergast is back on the trail and he's completely in his element, he's gotten the respect he deserves from his coworkers, he's stood up to his wife's incessant nagging and he's back on a case with his partner in tow. When the two men meet, they're like the yin and yang, Foster is at the end of his tether. He's had his day, but the moment he started all this he knew it would all end this way, facing down a cop, and the avenging hero we have followed is all gone. All that's left is the broken man beneath. Prendergast started out at the bottom, about to hang up his hat and move out, on the worst day of his life, suffering humiliation at work from every corner, but by the time he comes face to face with Foster, he's been doing what he loves, he's forced people to give him the respect he's owed, and he finally has confidence and hope back in himself. Both men started their day at the lowest low. One strayed outside the law, one stayed inside it. One destroyed his life, the other renewed himself. More than Falling Down is a movie about bloodlust and trying to irrationally turning back the clock, Falling Down is to do with the worst day in a man's life, and the methods of clawing it all back. Foster snaps. We follow him throughout the movie, but we also see as he becomes the monster. Prendergast keeps his cool and keeps his head down, he just stops taking shit from people. He suceeds, and he comes out with a new lease on life. Falling Down is a movie about the worst day in a man's life, it just manages to tell Foster's story of the ultimate downfall alongside Prendergast's story of an unlikely resurgence. Neither man is the villian from the off, their circumstances are, but Foster becomes the evil in the story for his reaction to circumstances, while Prendergast survives ad thrives.

Falling Down is one of my favourite movies of all time. Michael Douglas played this role perfectly.

The saddest thing is that the more the movie tries to make him look bad he ends up getting more relatable and sympathetic. Like when he launched the rocket he shielded the kid as an example. He was always human, just had a really bad day.

29 years ago, I rooted for him in 1993. Now, in 2022 I mourn for him.

Literally one of the characters that has made me think the most about life

Ok, nice point about him being indirectly responsible, but the gang member's could've also just let him go by listening to their girlfriend. William defended himself

When I first watched this, my reaction was "oh wow they are glorifying this guy's rampage." By the end when he asks, confused, "I'm the bad guy?" I actually teared up.

This is the most underrated movie I've ever seen. It's still relevant even today 30 years after. I heard this is Michael Douglas's favorite role. The reason the movie works so well is we've all been in Williams shoes and can self identify with his situations. Hell the McDonald's scene never gets old and the construction workers on the road is something we are had to deal with.

This movie came out when I was a kid. It hits a lot harder now that I'm in my 40s.

"but his inherent flaws slowly drove them away from him" He's not the one who changed the world for the worse. Don't look at the early life section of this movie's director btw. Or the main character's.

"I think we have a critic." I love this movie.

I have to stop you. I agree that the protagonist caused his morning to begin badly but blaming him for thugs committing murder in retaliation for trying to rob and then stab an innocent person is just nonsense.

I remember this period, it was a metaphor for the whole Country -Falling Down . It obviously never really got up again… here we are .

I miss films like this. Films with characters with depth. Characters that are so realist they draw you in the film.

Something that wasn’t mentioned, it’s implied in some scenes that Willam Foster was a Vietnam War Veteran. Foster himself might be suffering from PTSD.

oh man the end where he realizes he's the bad guy is pretty heart breaking.

Came here to see a review of D-FENS, not some 679K selling out to Amazon.

The detective is way worse in my opinion. He basically tells D-fense "Yeah, society lied to all of us, but if you don't roll over and take it like a good little boy, YOU are the bad guy for standing up for yourself. If you want to be a good member of society, just bend over and take it." What?!

William "D-FENS" Foster is one of the most truly relatable characters in a film. When you view this movie as if it were a tragicomedy, rather than as a thriller or action movie, it makes a lot more sense and is a lot more enjoyable. The viewer can live vicariously through Foster. It's a power fantasy. Everyone at some point in their life wishes they could do what Foster did, either out of anger, disillusionment, or boredom.

He is a questionable character but one thing I love is how the film shows the difference between him and the skinhead. He's not a completely evil person

The 1990s was a time when middle aged, middle class Americans who had lost their jobs then looked at their country and thought: "This place is horrible". It is also a study of how many middle aged, passed their prime people realize their hard work and sacrifice got them nowhere even though they followed all the rules ~ went to college, got a job, bought a house, got a car, and a dog.... and then it's gone. Then there is the realization that we are not important and the world dont give a damn about us. People see Michael Douglas's character as evil. I just see him as bewildered and lost. I feel sorry for him. Look at how many scenes where he is in large outdoor spaces. There are people all around him but he is still alone. Losing his job and his family has brought into contact with a world he doesn't recognize and certainly does not like

One of the best films I’ve ever watched. You never know who is on their last straw, be kind to everyone 💜

Great pick. More people need to watch this movie. Also Johan Liebert from Monster would make for an awesome video me thinks

A summary of this guy would be that saying that goes "Sometimes one bad day is all it takes to make a murderer."

A really good “literally me“ movie would definitely recommend watching the whole thing not just a summary. Good analysis.

No one ever seems to talk about how the black dude at the bank and Bill are dressed identically.

The real Postal Dude. But seriously though, I always feel like this guy whenever I'm at work.

"Wait... you think im the bad guy? IM THE BAD GUY!?" "But I did everything I was supposed to do." Every man alive can absolutely relate to this character. We are all one step away from insanity in this modern world.

I like how the system allows mother to alienate fathers from their kids and then turn around and act like the men are “dangerous” or “unhinged” for no reason but if it was was reversed against women there would be marches in the street

He certainly isnt Evil, certainly has issues and has done bad, but he isnt 100% evil.

When the store clerk pulls out the bat, William reacts with a sharp militaristic instinct to protect himself. Only after being wrongly threatened is the destructive violence in him triggered. Same thing as when another guy flipped a knife in his face.

*watching this movie as a kid* Me: what’s this dude’s problem?! *Watching it as adult* Me: “Oh I get it now.”

People miss the point of Foster's character. He's not really evil in the traditional sense, but he is not really supposed to be some kind of hero that everyone justifies him to be. What he completely fails to realize until the very end is that he himself is a part of the sick society. He expects to be respected for his own well-being while thinking little for the well-being of others, expecting to get a free pass, and believes that he is doing the right thing when he is clearly doing the wrong thing. Even before the peak of his breakdown, he does simple immoral things such as picking up weapons that clearly belong to someone else. It is still not appropriate to pick up things that belongs to others while they aren't around. The guy is an emotionally unstable sociopath and that's why the wife was so concerned. She was able to pick up on it.

You are not responsible for someone else's actions