Faster

Faster is a 2010 movie starring Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson and Billy Bob Thornton. Johnson plays "Driver", a getaway driver just released after ten years in prison, who immediately goes on a Roaring Rampage of Revenge against the gang of thugs who killed his gang (including his older brother) and stole their bank heist money. Thornton plays "Cop", a burn-out junkie of a detective looking to close out his career on a high note by bringing Driver in. Thrown into the mix is "Killer", a Blood Knight hit man looking to complete One Last Job before retiring to marry his girlfriend.

The film marked a return to the action movies that were Johnson's bread-and-butter before switching to more family-friendly fare. It did not do well at the box office, due to a combination of a sparse plot that kept going on random tangents into Driver's backstory, the "action" consisting of a couple of car chases and Johnson strolling into a building, shooting his target in the head and leaving, and strong box office competition including Tangled, Deathly Hallows Part I, and Unstoppable.

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Faster contains examples of the following tropes:

• Abusive Parents: Implied to have happened to Driver, but it's all vaguely mentioned by his mother.
• Arc Words: "Forgiveness" and "Finishing what I started" are mentioned throughout.
• Badass Decay: Killer starts out relatively cool and intimidating but by the end confrontation, he's nothing more than a whining Adult Child who wants Driver to acknowledge his "skills."
• Best Served Cold: Driver takes out his targets with the same vaguely annoyed expression on his face.
• Billing Displacement: Tom Berringer is listed in the credits before Oliver Jackson-Cohen (Killer) or Carla Gugino (Cicero). He's in the movie for maybe three minutes as Driver's prison warden.
• Blood Knight: Killer.
• Bottomless Magazines: Averted, Driver is seen reloading his Hand Cannon several times using a speedloader.
  • In the Alternate Ending Killer is able to get off the first shot at Driver, only for his slide to lock back on an empty magazine. He reaches for another magazine and gets shot by Driver.
• Car Fu: In the Alternate Ending Driver and Killer play a game of chicken with their Cool Cars.
• Chekhov's Gun: The metal plate in Driver's head. Which saves him from Cop's bullet.
  • On a couple of occasions Driver listens to someone on his car radio preaching about not letting violence and revenge control his life. The preacher turns out to be his last target and yes, the sermons were aimed at Driver.
• Cool Car: Driver's 1970 Chevy Chevelle Super-Sport. Killer has a garage full of them.
• Cradling Your Kill: Happens in the Alternate Ending.
• Cycle of Revenge: One of the targets Driver kills had a son and when he found out that the person calling him on the phone was Driver, he swears to kill him. Only for Driver to respond if he's prepared for that road.
  • Also shown with Lily in the Alternate Ending in which Killer dies, and a red-eyed Lily is shown practising her shooting with a determined look on her face.
• Dirty Cop: Cop. The fax Cicero looks at shows he was in the Rampart division, whose CRASH unit was involved in a notorious corruption scandal. See The Other Wiki for details.
• Downer Ending: Amazingly, almost impossibily subverted.
  • Not originally. In the Alternate Ending Killer sees Driver's car and can't resist turning back to take him on. He dies and Lily is shown planning her own revenge on Driver. And Cop's ex-wife has gone back on drugs.
• Drives Like Crazy: Driver during the bank robbery flashback.
• Even Evil Has Standards: Shown with several characters who are trying to turn their lives around or who have people who love them.
• Fridge Brilliance: A few times throughout the movie, Cicero would make a revelation about the unraveling plot, to which Cop would reply with a lukewarm "Yeah, maybe." After seeing the entire movie, you realize that he knew those things and was discouraging her from looking further into it and discovering him.
• Gotta Kill Them All
• Hitman with a Heart: Killer
• In Harm's Way: Killer is a millionaire adrenaline junkie who is compensating for being a sick little boy when he was younger. He is always looking to "master" the next thing so much that he only charges one dollar as a hitman.
• Karma Houdini: Everybody still alive at the end of the movie. Except Cicero, who didn't have any karma to face up to.
  • Not everybody, just Driver and Killer. Cop is dead.
  • Also Cop's wife who was responsible for everything that went wrong in the first place.
• Kick the Son of a Bitch: All of Driver's targets save for the one he doesn't kill deserve what's coming.
• Never Hurt an Innocent: Driver, even to the extent of not shooting Killer when he has the chance because he's not one of his targets. Killer too doesn't shoot Driver In the Back because a child is in the way.
• Never Trust a Trailer: The trailer showed scenes from the Alternate Ending (the Car Fu confrontation between Driver and Killer) making the film look like an action movie as opposed to a revenge drama, and audiences to expect a final confrontation that never actually happens.
• Ms. Fanservice: Killer's girlfriend, and later, wife, doesn't mind spending an entire scene in her underwear with her robe open.
• My Name Is Inigo Montoya: Played with, though Driver isn't very chatty or polite about confronting the killers.
• No Name Given: No one ever says Driver or Killer's real names. Cop's name Slade Humphries doesn't come up until the end (and then only on a computer printout).
• Pet the Dog: Driver letting the last on his list - now a preacher who'd turned his life around - live.
• Pyrrhic Victory: Driver clears his list and ends the movie wanted for multiple murders, including a cop.
• Retirony: Played straight with Cop while Averted with Killer.
• Revolvers Are Just Better: Driver's Weapon of Choice is a Ruger Super Redhawk Alaskan snubnosed revolver in the .454 Casull.
• Riding Into the Sunset
• Roaring Rampage of Revenge
• Suspiciously Specific Sermon: Driver is listening to a radio pastor preach about forgiveness and letting go of vengeance as he drives around murdering the people who have wronged him. Then he goes up to the last guy on his list, and lo and behold, it turns out that it's the pastor, who knew that Driver escaped from the news reports, and has been preaching directly towards him in hopes that he might change his ways. He does. Sort of.
• This Is Wrong on So Many Levels: Cicero says this word to word when Cop tells her that he married his informant.
• Throwing Off the Disability: The Snuff Film guy pretends to need a cane to lure a teenaged girl back to his home.
• Treachery Cover-Up: Thinking he isn't up to taking on Driver, Cop phones Cicero and asks her to tell his son he died bravely. After she finds Cop's body, Detective Cicero hides the evidence that Cop was involved in the murders.
• Unskilled but Strong: Killer says that Driver has no skill or technique, at least when it comes to gunplay. What he does have is pure, raw fury, talent, and a complete lack of fear.
• What Happened to the Mouse?: Driver's "ghost" tattoo. Brought up early as a virtual "Do Not Fuck With Me" sign. Never seen again after the first half-hour.
  • It does get an explanation, just a very brief one; it's his score board from the fights he had in prison. And by "fights", we mean "Curb Stomp Battle / No-Holds-Barred Beatdown " that he handed out.
• Women Are Wiser: Played irritatingly straight - all three main male characters have more moral, emotionally mature female counterparts. In fact Cop even has two such counterparts! While we eventually find out Cop's wife was the one who setup Driver and his brother she seems to feel more guilt about the whole thing.
• Worthy Opponent: Killer sees Driver as one to him.
• X Marks the Hero: Not really shown except in the Alternate Ending, but Driver has an X scar on the back of his head from his surgery.