Get Carter

You're a big man, but you're in bad shape. With me it's a full time job. Now behave yourself.

1971 British gangster film, starring Michael Caine as the title character, Jack Carter, a prominent London Gangster who returns to his hometown of Newcastle, England to find out who killed his brother. A remake appeared in 2000 starring Sylvester Stallone and Caine in a minor role, but the less said about that the better (well, just watch the original first, ok?)

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This film provides examples of:

• Badass : Carter through and through. Accordingly attired.
  • Badass Longcoat
• Berserk Button : When Carter watches the porn flick...
• Black Humor / Gallows Humor: Any time that someone says "See you've still got your sense of humor, Jack..."
  • Jack's sense of humor is a bit ghoulish
• Britain Is Only London: An aversion. Set in Newcastle and Gateshead.
• Chekhov's Shotgun : Subverted. Despite it being a major part of the film's iconography, and having both Jack and Frank's initials carved upon it, the shotgun is never actually fired.
  • Although he DOES use it as a club to bash the final baddie's brains in.
• Cool Train: The opening title sequence.
• Determinator: Nothing on earth will get in the way of Jack's quest for vengeance.
• Downer Ending : At the end, Jack himself gets killed by an assassin. Well... it is the 70s after all...
• Enforced Method Acting: Ian Hendry who plays Eric was in line for the title role and never forgave Caine for taking it. The onscreen hatred you see is very real
• Force Feeding
• Make It Look Like an Accident
• Mysterious Mercenary Pursuer: The assassin.
• Naked People Are Funny: Carter brandishing a shotgun to clear his rented room of mobsters.
• Not Even Bothering with the Accent: Despite being from Northern England, Jack still speaks with Caine's trademark Cockney dialect
• Oop North: Newcastle in all it's grimy, pre The Iron Lady early 1970s glory.
• Reality Subtext: The tension between Carter and Eric Paice (Ian Hendry) was assisted by the fact that Carter was originally going to be played by Ian Hendry until Michael Caine was hired, much to Hendry's resentment.
• Roaring Rampage of Revenge: The plot in a nutshell.
• The Seventies: The horrible, horrible Seventies.
• The Stoic: Jack almost never panics even when caught in Gunfire
• Sociopathic Hero
• Villainous Breakdown: The formerly unemotional Carter breaks down in anger in the Coal cart climax. Subverted in that he is succeeding in his goals when it happens
• Villain Protagonist: Carter
• White Shirt of Death