Falling Down (1993) First Time Watching | Movie Reaction 

Michael Douglas has stated in interview after interview that 'Falling Down' is his personal favorite movie to have worked on. He considers it his best work and I gotta agree.

This is one of my favourite movies of all time Michael Douglas deserved an oscar for this

One of the most overlooked films of the 1990's. It's a shame this movie wasn't a huge hit.

"Don't forget me" for some reason that line always hit me really hard.

Michael Douglas has said im interviews that this is favorite movie in his filmography.

This movie is so underrated.

An underrated gem. Douglas is really great as a man spiraling down.

People remember Joel Schumacher for Batman and Robin. It's sad because this is really good

This is so good. You start the movie empathizing with the poor guy stuck in traffic. Going to a job he probably hates. He’s actually kinda funny and some of the things he does you kinda root for. Then you get more backstory on the wife and daughter. And then the briefcase reveal where there are no work papers or anything. It’s chilling as you realize this isn’t just some guy who snapped at being in traffic on the way to work. He wasn’t going to work. As the mom later questions “Then where’s he been going?” He snapped long before this. So good.

Every man has a breaking point.

Michael Douglas in Falling Down, one of the best and most underrated performances, imo.

Douglas' best ever performance in my opinion. He just really needed some genuine help at the end of the day. This movie has even more relevance today more than ever about how society is breaking down and how it affects people. For me D-Fens is not the "bad guy", he's actually a victim.

Just another day in the life of a broken man, who, after so many years of disappointment and zero self-worth, found life to be utterly meaningless. Nowhere to go but down.

I`ve always said that this is a very underrated movie...For me this is an awesome movie.

This movie is just great on many different levels. I especially like the social commentary that is peppered throughout the movie such as territorial gangs, the construction budgeting, inflation and that scene in the Korean corner store, during the struggle you see a glimpse of the American flag falling down and in my opinion, that is what Douglass' character is feeling the effects of; the Falling Down of America. It's the deterioration of this social melting pot experiment. You hear the one person who is shouting out the truth about not being economically viable being arrested while no one is paying attention except for Douglass' character who at least acknowledges the man.

The army surplus store owner Not See was played by Frederic Forrest, R.I.P., who also played 'Chef' in Apocalypse Now.

One of my favorite movies.

Now you 're gonna die wearing that stupid little hat LOLOLOL one of the funniest lines in a movie like this LOL

That "give us the briefcase" moment (great scene on its own) becomes 10 times more badass when you know it's just his lunch in there lol!

It’s so believable, and so real!! Just imagine a man cracking under the pressure of his life and job. Then finds out that his wife hates him.

Good reaction, guys! Alienation, despair, anger; this movie is so bleak, yet you can't look away. A fantastic movie.

Don’t mess with an angry/frustrated man 😂 hey guys there is an 1989 movie called “Black Rain” M. Douglas and Andy Garcia. Excellent!

This movie is really well done and has a lot to say.. I'll give it 97.1 out of 100 points

Favorite Michael Douglas film

This movie is in my top 3 favorites. I even have it downloaded in my phone. D-fens is definitely the definition of f*** around and find out.

One of the most underrated movies ever. A lot of social commentary woven into the story too.

Looks like D-Fense went home, very prophetic of him. Reminds me of an old poem I heard in my English Literature Class about a homeboy going home. I forgot it's name but yeah.

This is one of my favorite movies. I don't have a top 5, but it's in there.

This is always tricky territory for me. Until The Sixth Sense came along, this was my all time favourite movie. I always loved how it starts as a satire on modern living, but then gets more sinister as the film goes on and we discover what is really going on with D-Fens. I think this movie should have won an oscar. It is definitely for me, the best movie that Michael Douglas ever did. Thing is, I saw this after my mum had a third major mental breakdown, so it kind of hit a nerve.

ahah OMg You two get exactly what the guy was doing , and Your wife gave me the best laugh all week in that Bazooka scene, after he shot it and she said dryly " now you guys have something to fix" lol

Great storyline for Robert Duvall also. Perfect acting. The whack job in the surplus store was Frederick Forrest , who played the bad guy Blue Duck in "Lonesome Dove" also co-starring Robert Duvall.

great "game over!" movie

This is a wonderful film. It is a film that shows what can really happen to someone highly skilled and educated who suddenly finds himself fired, and who has become psychologically unhinged due to the pressure of that, his past life, loss of stability, and everything else in the world that he considers wrong. I agree with Michael Douglas, excellent work, really excellent.

Great reaction. I really enjoyed the thoughts and commentary from them both after the movie. I think this movie is a lot like "The Joker" movie. They show us the journey of an average person that we all can relate to, hit a point in their life of rock bottom. To understand how a person that could be your or me would cross that line of appropriate sane behavior often influenced and fueled by the over whelming circumstances of poor societal behavior and oppression.

This was a great reaction guys

Heat can make people more aggressive

The real inspiration for Grand Theft Auto.

i always felt sorry for D-fense... All the people on his way tried to cheat him, rob him or kill him...

My dad had this movie on VHS for my entire childhood in the 90s and i never watched it. Saw it on HBO later on in life and i loved it. Never thought it was a movie that could be so good. Loved watching this with you guys.

This movie always makes me cry.

Great movie guys !🇺🇸🇮🇹🇲🇽

In 1993 the price of a can of soda was .50 cents from a machine and .35 cents off the shelf. .85 cents was a ripoff. For .85 cents you could buy a 64oz from Seven Eleven or a 2 liter and still have change.

The title never *hit* me until recently... 🎶 London Bridge is falling down, falling down, falling down... 🎶

One of my all time favourite movies, so relatable, we just don't do it.

GREAT choice!

Hank Pym had a real bad day once.

This was the first R rated movie my mother let me rent for some reason. We were watching it and she walked in right when the Nazi goes on his rant, and she had instant regret.

9:16 - Joy's comment about changing his mind about lunch was pretty damn funny. 🤣

Awesome movie

In storytelling, flies represent death, and bridges represent passage to the afterlife. The movie starts out with both.

"Falling Down," while obviously having a few points of connection with the plot, is primarily a reference to the song "London Bridge is Falling Down," which is the song played by the music box/snow globe he got for his daughter and I think the song comes up in other places like the home video.

5:00 *"Maybe later a gun"* Oh yes he does alot of damage with guns lol

Great storytelling masterpiece

I totally agree on your point about ghosting toxic people. Some people will just never change, and you have to cut off contact for your own safety.

D-FENS 💪🏻 I’m the bad guy?

I always looked at this movie from two angles. The first one being the one the movie shows as a guy that just snaps from a small thing because of all the big things of his past. The straw that broke the camel's back scenario. The second angle is the one we relate more towards and that is actually speaking out and reacting to situations we normally walk away from. Being overcharged for goods, doing something about gang violence, standing up for the little guy and the one everyone remembers this movie for, and that is the fast food part. I think we needed to see that video of his daughter and the horse to push us to thinking he is the bad guy because his actions are relatable, if only in our own minds. Cheers.

I saw this when it came out back in 1993. Classic!

My favourite scene is where he bends over the gangster, smirks and says "you missed" 😁

The most underrated movie of the 90’s. While the scenes he watches of himself on the video do not make him look good, you can see the shame and regret on his face. I think this movie does a good job of pointing out how unnecessarily dehumanizing regular society is. All the confrontation about serving breakfast and the food was already prepared and wrapped right be hind the manager. I think the grinding this film depicts is the root cause of many crimes including domestic abuse and homicide.

It's the most honest social commentary movie ever made. Anyone can be a Bill Foster. Bill is every working class guy that's ever lived and didn't know it. You think you live in a "Free" country? Name something that's free? I'll give you "Air". Go for 2? You understand some of the pieces, but you're missing the picture. Welcome to Amerika.

Terminator 2 and Falling Down was the first movies I watched multiple times at the cinema. Such a great performance by Douglas.

Rachel Ticotin: Total Recall, Falling Down, Con Air

Good pick!

Awesome reaction guys.

I saw this movie in the theater when it was out. But you made an observartion I hadn't thought of until now, 30 years ;ater. You said "Man, he wants everybody to just do as he says". I never thought of it like that before. But it's true. He's filled with anxieties about his losses in life, including his family, and so he is trying to control everthing. I just subscribed to your channel. You both made a lot of insightful comments here and I enjoyed this.

Anyone notice D-Fens and Not Economically Viable Man wore the same shirt and tie ?

During the early 90's there was a recession and a lot of government employees and private sector defense manufacturing company workers companies had their jobs dissolved, especially in California. Also because of the fall of the Soviet union. So D-Fens most likely lost his job before he got divorced.

This movie reminds me of "War of the Roses" where Michael Douglas and Kathleen Turner are 'falling down' but as a couple that split up but could not separate well. Iron Maiden wrote a good song about this movie also called 'Falling Down". Thanx guys. Peace.

This is Michael Douglas' favorite movie role.

I watched when i was a kid and my parents was saying that the movie are showing the truth of the society even it sound exaggerated and i realized quick that they was right and this movie, even i just watched one or 2 time in '90 it was stuck in my head and when i becomed an adult more i saw and more i realized how this movie was right, a person could lose his self-control. Also at the end, that detective was giving me various nerves because its easy to say "everything will be ok" or what, but he was not watching from the side of William: he will spend his life in the prison and he will never could watch his family again, not even having an normal life anymore, so unfortunately for him there was not other way to do.

This movie is sort of brilliant in that it holds a mirror up to all of us. We all feel like him, we just don't act on it. This movie more or less shows what the world would be like if we let our frustrations guide us. How we would do more harm than good. He lies dormant in all of us, but our ability to control those urges makes us human, and decent. As silly as this movie is at points, it is a skillful dissection of our shared condition. I love this movie for that. Also, it's Michael Douglas. He's literally credited as "D-FENS" in this movie, because of his license plate. His character deliberately doesn't have a name.

The Bazooka was a LAW (Light Anti Tank) weapon, I fired a couple in Basic Training. They were surprisingly accurate and are obsolete now.

YES!!! Fantastic movie!!!! LETS GOOOOO!!!! 🤘😎🤘

The best part of this movie is the ending, when D-Fens has his showdown with the detective. If you notice, he rubs at his face where water splashed him before he shoots him... D-Fens really WOULD'VE won that if he had a real gun

One of my all time favorite movies I'm glad you guys got to see it. I'm definitely one of those people that sides with the main character instead of treating him as a crazy psychopath. Kinda like how the Joker is evil but he speaks facts and just goes off how society treats him.

1:10 into the film "What is with him? He is not okay." Sweet he already understands the entire premise ROFL

3:22 - "This guy's tired of his life". That was a very prescient observation at the outset, as was the comment near the end that "he has a problem being a grown-up". The whole trajectory of Michael Douglas' character is the breakdown of a man who has been on the edge for sometime and doesn't seem to know how to get out. When I first saw this, I thought it was a great film that captured the spirit of the times (and is still very apt for these days, except that now the violence would probably be even worse). For me, "D-FENS" is never a sympathetic character - I could never defend what he does, and he is clearly too self-absorbed and self-pitying - but the steady unravelling of his life down to a fatal, irreversible choice at the end captures the sad reality for a lot of people. The bad choices he makes and his extremes of rage and coldness are contrasted with the hope offered by Robert Duvall's put-upon character: that no matter how much pressure you're under and how much crap you get from people around you, you can (and should) still hold on to your humanity.

Finally, someone reviews a real gem of a film! 👏👏😌

Michael Douglas stars in "The Game" also . I highly recommend reacting to "The Game".

Great movie,saw it opening night when I was 13. That was the same day as the first WTC attack,I always associate the 2 which is weird but that’s what happened

He never hurt his family but he was accused of it and forced away from his child. Who wouldn't that drive nuts?

Howdy from north Texas guys! Another great reaction video! Keep up the great work! See y’all in the next

Classic movie. Great reaction.

great analysis at the end! new sub. keep well, j from nj/usa

The restaurant scene always pops to mind whe. I go to McDonald's or Burger King lol. "Does THIS look like THAT?" lol

nice reaction. este unul din filmele mele preferate

The Trailer I first saw when this movie came out was the "Road Construction" scene and I thought this was a comedy..

Another good role for Michael Douglas is ROMANCING THE STONE. Action-Romance.

I seem to recall, this movie disturbed a lotta people.

Anyone can have a bad day! haven't seen Barbara Hershey for a while I remember her from Boxcar Bertha!

This isn't a movie its a documentary about America.

Welcome to America.

$0.85 for a can of soda when this came out is insane. That's like charging $5 now (not based on inflation of dollae,jusr overpricing of everything)

As Joker put it: "All it takes is one bad day." At first, you wonder why "D-Fens" (Michael Douglas' character) is going so far to the extreme in certain situations on first watch. But after a few more viewings and some pondering, looking at situations like where we are now (especially with Inflation), you realize that you can relate to all his pent-up frustration that eventually exploded.

My two fav’s Of M.Douglas are...The Game..and..Falling Down.

A lot in this movie is much more understandable and relatable to people at the time it ame out, which was 1993, my senior year in high school. At that time, standard 12oz cans of soda had been 50c for a very long time. 65c had been common in some places for a couple of years but was already considered a.. "healthy" markup and you could find 80c in very high traffic places where vending machine owners and sellers knew they could get away with it. A phone call at a payphone cost 20c for a local call then. So 85c was not only a 70% premium over what a lot of people felt was still the "standard" 50c price (or believed should have been), but not enough in change to make a basic local call. And weird other rules, like McDonald's saying they stopped serving their breakfast menu items exactly at 10:30am, seeing street workers sitting around appearing to do nothing but blocking off streets and creating what drivers felt like was unnecessary traffic/congestion just to inflate their government budgets, were all very real frustrations and aggravations many people understood and felt during these years. So part of the intended appeal of this movie was the feeling that all these things were small "injustices" in the world, abuses of power or leverage that hurt the ordinary everyday person. But, because of the nature of the story in the film, the protagonist who finally loses it and fights back against all these things that were considered gross irritations in everyday life, ironically is still "the Bad Guy", hence Michael Douglas's character's surprise at the end.

I thought he was going to say...I'm ANT-MAN in theat one scene. LOL

I loved this movie and really enjoyed your reaction. My favorite scenes were at the burger joint and when he told the guy on the golf course “now your gonna die in that silly little cap” lmao 😂

This movie got me through 4 years of office tech support, lmao.

This movie is hella relatable.