An action/neo-noir/crime drama film franchise based on the the 1972 novel by Brian Garfield and starring Charles Bronson as vigilante Paul Kersey. It spawned five films, plus a remake of the first film.
For a character with a death wish, see Death Seeker.
The Death Wish Pentalogy:
- Death Wish (1974)
- Death Wish II (1982)
- Death Wish 3 (1985)
- Death Wish 4: The Crackdown (1987)
- Death Wish V: The Face of Death (1994)
These movies provide examples of:
- Adaptation Name Change: Paul's last name in the book was "Benjamin". This extends to Carol and doubly so as she was married in the book and had taken her husband's last name "Tobey".
- Adaptational Job Change: Paul was an accountant in the book. In the film, he's an architect, because it was felt that no-one would buy Charles Bronson as a meek accountant.
- Anti-Hero: Paul. When you're a vigilante, you kinda fall under this category.
- Berserk Button: Paul is an equal-opportunity vigilante crook-killer, but he is a lot more vicious when dealing with rapists, muggers and drug addicts, all of whom were responsible for his greatest tragedies.
- Best Friends-in-Law: Jack and Paul get along well (a couple debates about what's best for Carol notwithstanding) and Jack calls his in-laws "Mom" and "Dad".
- Beware the Nice Ones: Paul is a pacifist, but he learned to use guns during his younger years despite later serving as a combat medic in The Korean War. And it shows.
- The Big Rotten Apple: Both the original film and its New York-set sequels depict a city where violent crime is so out of control that citizens are forced to take vigilante action.
- Bland-Name Product: Time magazine gets reworked as "Tempo".
- Boisterous Weakling: One of Paul's more conservative coworkers who is a supporter of the vigilantism doesn't take him up on a dare to walk though a bad part of town and see if crime really is down.
- Cartwright Curse:
- One of the series' most notorious traits—his wife in the first film, his daughter in the second, girlfriends in the third, fourth, and fifth films, numerous non-Kersey women—basically, if you're female and hang around Paul Kersey, you're pretty much screwed. The only major woman who managed to escape this was Kersey's love interest in the second film, who dumped him upon learning that he was a vigilante, and she was originally going to be brought Back for the Dead in the third or fourth film.
- Men occasionally fall prey to this curse too—Paul's friend beaten to death by street scum in the opening of Death Wish 3, for example.
- Crapsack World: New York City and Los Angeles as depicted in these movies.
- In the Back: Paul doesn't hesitate to shoot fleeing muggers.
- Know When to Fold 'Em: A largely unsympathetic version, as many muggers try to run as soon as Paul fights back. Aside from the first man, who Paul just hits with a bag of quarters, he doesn't let them.
- The Lopsided Arm of the Law: The movies showcase repeatedly that the police are incapable of doing anything about the immense crime waves assaulting the cities and have all but called it quits, but pull out all the stops to hound anybody who tries to fight back (even out of their jurisdiction). In the first movie they are afraid that the vigilante may escalate or that people fighting back may force the crooks to become even worse, but in the rest of the films this is shown as them not wanting to be shown up, thinking It's Personal, or wanting to get rid of a problem because they are Dirty Cops.
- Mugging the Monster: When Paul Kersey becomes a mysterious vigilante, anybody who approaches him armed will get shot.
- Never Bring a Knife to a Gun Fight: Downplayed; on a couple of occasions Paul fatally surprises criminals armed with knives, but that doesn't stop him from getting injured himself, especially as his preferred tactic is acting as Schmuck Bait for a mugging, which means letting them get close and brandishing their weapons before firing.
- Never Mess with Granny: One of the people on the news inspired by Paul is an old woman who held a pair of muggers with a hatpin.
- No-Holds-Barred Beatdown: Downplayed; Paul fatally surprises criminals armed with Sinister Switchblades, but that doesn't stop him from getting injured himself, especially as his preferred tactic is acting as Schmuck Bait for a mugging, which means letting them get close and brandishing their weapons before firing.
- Older Hero vs. Younger Villain: The entire series, Kersey was always the old man and often faces punks barely out of their teens.
- Part-Time Hero: Paul maintained his work as an architect up through and including the fourth film. Unusually for a plain clothes adventurer of 1970s and 1980s film, Paul Kersey did in fact maintain a dual identity/alter ego, since the general public did not know that Paul Kersey acted as the vigilante and Kersey continued his work as an architect while acting as a vigilante. In fact, his nightly prowls to find muggers to slay caused him to miss calls from business associates, who civilly asked him about this situation.
- Rape as Drama: The first three films featured some gruesome rape scenes, usually meant to motivate the Roaring Rampage of Revenge that would follow. The other two films did away with the convention, with the fourth film having an Attempted Rape in a dream sequence that is stopped by Kersey.
- Rated M for Manly: The original film follows the transformation of Paul Kersey from pacifist to killer who deals his own brand of justice. And the entire series depicts the tough guy vigilante as a manly hero.
- Roaring Rampage of Revenge: When the first movie starts, Kersey is essentially a pacifist until his wife is murdered and his daughter raped into catatonia, then turns violent against criminals. While all five of the films have Kersey seeking vengeance, Death Wish II is perhaps the one that most resembles this particular trope.
- Secret Identity:
- In the novel and its sequel Death Sentence, Paul went to elaborate lengths to maintain his dual identity as the vigilante. He knew quite well that the police would object to his sudden justice. In the second novel, Benjamin buys goggles, a fake mustache, and a fur cap to disguise himself.
- The film series somewhat muddies this, since movie producers often demand that expensive name actors make their face completely visible, since they pay so much for them. However, the makers of the films did not completely ignore that Kersey had a dual identity. In the second film Paul Kersey buys an old pea coat, gloves, a longshoreman's cap, and a beat up pair of pants while prowling around as a vigilante. He rents a room in a flophouse to do first aid for his injuries. In the fourth film, the LAPD did not know the vigilante's identity. Also in that film, a man blackmails Paul Kersey into a meeting by announcing to him that he knew of his activities as the vigilante and would expose him.
- Unbuilt Trope: The Death Wish saga pioneered the urban Vigilante Man concept, but it also showed how dangerous it would be. The Violence Is Disturbing and graphic but infrequent, and the men who kill and rape Paul's wife and daughter are not sadistic arch-villains, they're a couple of random, violent mugs who just disappear into the night and are never seen again, as Paul has no idea how to find them. Basically, the first film avoided all of the cliches that its many sequels and imitators would go on to play unabashedly straight.
- Urban Hellscape: The series falls into this trope, particularly the third film, which portrays the criminal gang as brutish and savage to the point that when protagonist Vigilante Man Paul Kersey kills them with military-grade weaponry, there is little dissension by the public (in fact, some other people fight back too, with him as their inspiration).
- Vigilante Man: Paul Kersey is probably the Trope Codifier for this character type in media. Also an Unbuilt Trope as the film pioneered the urban vigilante concept, but it also showed how dangerous it would be.
- Villainous Valor: While most muggers run if they have time as soon as Paul starts putting up a fight, the mugger in the park with a gun races after Paul in an effort to keep him from gunning down one of his fleeing partners (managing to wound Paul in the process).
- Well-Intentioned Extremist: Kersey becomes this, killing any thugs who menace others... granted, they have a terminal case of Too Dumb to Live going after him, but still.
- Wretched Hive: A New York City where gangs and solitary muggers roam the streets and the subways. Citizens live in fear and the police seem to offer no safety.