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Title: Falling Down (1993)
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| Cast overview, first billed only: | |||
| Michael Douglas | ... | D-Fens | |
| Robert Duvall | ... | Prendergast | |
| Barbara Hershey | ... | Beth | |
| Rachel Ticotin | ... | Sandra | |
| Tuesday Weld | ... | Mrs. Prendergast | |
| Frederic Forrest | ... | Surplus Store Owner | |
| Lois Smith | ... | D-Fens' Mother | |
 |
Joey Singer | ... | Adele (Beth's Child) (as Joey Hope Singer) |
| Ebbe Roe Smith | ... | Guy on Freeway | |
| Michael Paul Chan | ... | Mr. Lee | |
| Raymond J. Barry | ... | Captain Yardley | |
| D.W. Moffett | ... | Detective Lydecker | |
| Steve Park | ... | Detective Brian | |
| Kimberly Scott | ... | Detective Jones | |
| James Keane | ... | Detective Keene | |
On the day of his daughter's (Joey Singer) birthday, William "D-Fens" Foster (Michael Douglas) is trying to get to his estranged ex-wife's (Barbara Hershey) house to see his daughter. He has a breakdown and leaves his car in a traffic jam in Los Angeles and decides to walk. Along the way he stops at a convenience store and tries to get some change for a phone call but the owner, Mister Lee (Michael Paul Chan), does not give him change. This destabilizes William who then breaks apart the shop with a baseball bat and goes to an isolated place to drink a coke. Two gangsters (Agustin Rodriguez & Eddie Frias) threaten him and he reacts by hitting them with the bat. D-FENS continues walking and stops at a phone booth. The gangsters hunt him down with their gang and shoot at him but crash their car. William goes nuts and takes their gym bag with weapons proceeding in his journey of rage against injustice. Meanwhile Sergeant Martin Prendergast (Robert Duvall), who is working on his last day ... Written by Claudio Carvalho, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Joel Schumacher's best film is a brilliantly realized urban nightmare that many people in the audience will identify with. On one of those typical LA dog-days, disgruntled motorist Michael Douglas, caught in what could be the traffic jam from hell, finally decides he can't take it any more, abandons his car on the freeway and decides to walk home and God help anyone who gets in his way.
I suppose "Falling Down" could best be described as a road movie in reverse. The car has been ditched and the journey is on foot. Perhaps the film's closest antecedent is "The Swimmer" in which a similarly deranged Burt Lancaster decides to 'swim' home through the pools of his neighbours. As the dangerously unstable D-Fens, (he is known by his car registration), Michael Douglas gives the performance of his career and Schumacher racks up the tension to breaking point and beyond.