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Lock Up

 Lock Up
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TVTItem
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Lock Up
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Lock Up is a 1989 prison film directed by John Flynn, starring Sylvester Stallone and Donald Sutherland.Frank Leone (Stallone) is a convicted criminal who is nearing the end of his sentence for model behavior. One day he is sent to the maximum security Gateway Prison on trumped-up grounds by the vindictive, brutal Warden Drumgoole (Sutherland). Drumgoole still has a bone to pick with Leone over humiliating him by escaping one of his prisons years ago, and wants nothing more than to see Leone rot in prison for the rest of his life. As Leone tries to sit out the remainder of his sentence, Drumgoole resorts to increasingly evil means to make sure Leone's stay will be a living hell.
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2024-04-11T15:30:16Z
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2024-04-11T15:30:16Z
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Dropped link to Bowdlerize: Not a Feature - UNKNOWN
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 Lock Up / int_140883ec
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I Will Show You X!
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I Will Show You X!: In the climax:
 Lock Up / int_140883ec
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 Lock Up / int_1592e954
type
Man Bites Man
 Lock Up / int_1592e954
comment
Man Bites Man: During Frank's fight in the yard with Chink Weber (the thuggish convict played by Sonny Landham), he bites the man's arm when he nearly drives his shiv through Frank's neck.
 Lock Up / int_1592e954
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1.0
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Lock Up / int_1592e954
 Lock Up / int_17471e26
type
Sinister Shiv
 Lock Up / int_17471e26
comment
Sinister Shiv: The gang that is trying to hassle Frank can usually be seen with these; after defeating their leader, Chink Weber in a fight, Leone is suddenly stabbed by another prisoner and spends several weeks in the infirmary.
 Lock Up / int_17471e26
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1.0
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 Lock Up / int_1fbee9cb
type
Tricked into Escaping
 Lock Up / int_1fbee9cb
comment
Tricked into Escaping: Frank is told that his girlfriend is in danger and he accepts help in escaping prison so that he can save her; however, it's all a trick by the Warden Drumgoole, who has a grudge against Frank and knows that the escape attempt will cause Frank's prison term (which is nearly up) to be extended.
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 Lock Up / int_24008c2c
type
Sword over Head
 Lock Up / int_24008c2c
comment
Sword over Head: A variation is used, since swords aren't exactly common in prison: after winning a football game against gang leader Chink Weber, who made it personal by killing First Base, Frank places him on a bench press and holds the weights over his head, ready to drop it. Despite much prompting from the prisoners and even a distant Warden who's looking on from his office window, Frank realizes that killing the man will put him away for life and relents. He gets shivved for his troubles.
 Lock Up / int_24008c2c
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 Lock Up / int_2b75f9b3
type
Token Good Cop
 Lock Up / int_2b75f9b3
comment
Token Good Cops: Most of the prison guards are sadistic authoritarians who will follow Warden Drumgoole's orders to turn peaceful prisoners' lives into nightmares over an old vendetta, but Captain Messner is tough but fair and Ernie is surprisingly soft-hearted.
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 Lock Up / int_3184dfaa
type
Revenge Myopia
 Lock Up / int_3184dfaa
comment
Revenge Myopia: Drumgoole wants to destroy Frank's life for humiliating him at Treadmore and getting the Warden transferred to the hellish Gateway Prison. When Frank points out that he partly did it to expose the Warden's corruption and brutality at Treadmore, Drumgoole dismisses it.
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 Lock Up / int_4de1a4f7
type
Improvised Weapon
 Lock Up / int_4de1a4f7
comment
Improvised Weapon: To kill First Base, Chink's gang uses a stacked barbell to break his neck by dropping it on him; almost happens to Chink himself as a result.
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 Lock Up / int_50b05d30
type
Disproportionate Retribution
 Lock Up / int_50b05d30
comment
Disproportionate Retribution: Prisoner escapes in his last two weeks at Treadmore to visit his dying friend and exposes your misconduct? And he gets another five years? If you're Warden Drumgoole, that's obviously not enough; the answer is to get the prisoner randomly transferred to a Hellhole Prison, repeatedly attacked, stabbed, hassled, and tortured, murder his best friend to provoke him into lashing out, and lure him into a trap to extend his sentence by threatening to have his wife raped.
 Lock Up / int_50b05d30
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 Lock Up / int_53f5119f
type
The Dragon
 Lock Up / int_53f5119f
comment
The Dragon: Chink Weber serves as one for Warden Drumgoole in place of Meissner, the chief guard, who is simply not willing to go along with outright illegal orders. As a result, Drumgoole has to hire out to the leader of the local prison gang to be his hitman.
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1.0
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Lock Up / int_53f5119f
 Lock Up / int_55f4dd10
type
What Are You in For?
 Lock Up / int_55f4dd10
comment
What Are You in For?: Leone inflicted a Restrained Revenge on the men who beat up his mentor Galetti; First Base's cohort died in a botched robbery, leaving him with a double life sentence, eligible for parole in 400 years.
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1.0
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 Lock Up / int_5798bfbf
type
Reassigned to Antarctica
 Lock Up / int_5798bfbf
comment
Reassigned to Antarctica: Being made the Warden of Gateway Prison is this for Drumgoole; he absolutely hates the prison for its bad reputation.
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1.0
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Lock Up / int_5798bfbf
 Lock Up / int_59907e4f
type
Police Are Useless
 Lock Up / int_59907e4f
comment
Police Are Useless: Leone inflicted a Restrained Revenge on the men who beat up his mentor because the cops wouldn't do anything about it, which landed him in prison.
 Lock Up / int_59907e4f
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Lock Up / int_59907e4f
 Lock Up / int_5af55436
type
Forced to Watch
 Lock Up / int_5af55436
comment
Forced to Watch: After convincing First Base to stop the escape attempt, Drumgoole orders the car to be destroyed by Chink's gang in front of many inmates, including Frank.
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Lock Up / int_5af55436
 Lock Up / int_6116ca8d
type
Hellhole Prison
 Lock Up / int_6116ca8d
comment
Hellhole Prison: Gateway Prison. It already had a reputation as this before Drumgoole came along.
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 Lock Up / int_64536542
type
[Verb] This!
 Lock Up / int_64536542
comment
[Verb] This!: "Rape this..."
 Lock Up / int_64536542
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 Lock Up / int_6635b91e
type
Restrained Revenge
 Lock Up / int_6635b91e
comment
Restrained Revenge: Frank Leone's style. He refuses to kill a murderer, settling for beating him up in front of the whole yard. Frank is aware that Drumgoole will see to it that his sentence is extended if he murders another convict. Even Drumgoole himself, despite everything awful he did, is simply humiliated and forced to incriminate himself instead of actually getting electrocuted by Frank.
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 Lock Up / int_6d332aea
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Driven to Suicide
 Lock Up / int_6d332aea
comment
Driven to Suicide: At least Dallas took Manly with him via an Electrified Water Pit
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 Lock Up / int_744e3311
type
Police Brutality
 Lock Up / int_744e3311
comment
Police Brutality: Only Meissner and Braden draw the line into averting this at Gateway.
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 Lock Up / int_7870735b
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From Bad to Worse
 Lock Up / int_7870735b
comment
From Bad to Worse: The Mustang's destruction was the tip of the iceberg.
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1.0
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 Lock Up / int_8a295a46
type
Cool Car
 Lock Up / int_8a295a46
comment
Cool Car: A newly rebuilt 1965 Ford Mustang repainted from white to red christened Maybelline, courtesy of Eclipse; too bad it gets destroyed.
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 Lock Up / int_8a817c2a
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Rape Is a Special Kind of Evil
 Lock Up / int_8a817c2a
comment
Rape Is a Special Kind of Evil: The threat of his girlfriend being raped is what sets off Frank to escape; see Tricked into Escaping
 Lock Up / int_8a817c2a
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1.0
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Lock Up / int_8a817c2a
 Lock Up / int_8d0785d5
type
Didn't Think This Through
 Lock Up / int_8d0785d5
comment
Didn't Think This Through: Drumgoole never seems to realize that his revenge scheme would lead to his own downfall not one bit throughout the film.
 Lock Up / int_8d0785d5
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1.0
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Lock Up / int_8d0785d5
 Lock Up / int_90d44f44
type
Karmic Death
 Lock Up / int_90d44f44
comment
Karmic Death: Defied not just because Chink doesn't die but because doing so would increase Frank's sentence.
 Lock Up / int_90d44f44
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1.0
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 Lock Up / int_90e31482
type
Laser-Guided Karma
 Lock Up / int_90e31482
comment
Laser-Guided Karma: At least Drumgoole gets his and may apply to Chink's gang and some guards after the movie ends.
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1.0
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 Lock Up / int_970c790a
type
Big Bad
 Lock Up / int_970c790a
comment
Big Bad: Warden Drumgoole causes the conflict by endlessly hounding Frank for the purposes of petty revenge.
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 Lock Up / int_98f22e5f
type
Wardens Are Evil
 Lock Up / int_98f22e5f
comment
Wardens Are Evil: Warden Drumgoole (played with gleeful smugness by Donald Sutherland) has a grudge against Stallone's character Frank Leone for getting him demoted by successfully escaping a previous prison he was responsible for (because he refused Leone the chance to see his dying friend, even with armed escort). Frank just wants to sit out his remaining time and reunite with his girlfriend after his release, but the warden would like nothing better than to see him in prison for life or on the electric chair. He tries to provoke Frank throughout the entire film so that he'll lash out and turn himself into a lifer, even murdering Frank's best friend, First Base and pulling a Batman Gambit on Leone to make him try to escape, involving threatening his girlfriend with rape.
 Lock Up / int_98f22e5f
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 Lock Up / int_99298c71
type
Better to Die than Be Killed
 Lock Up / int_99298c71
comment
Better to Die than Be Killed: Something that Dallas decides to do upon learning he will be Rewarded as a Traitor Deserves, he takes the first opportunity to save Frank from Manly but at the cost of his own life.
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 Lock Up / int_9d12bbc1
type
Foreshadowing
 Lock Up / int_9d12bbc1
comment
Foreshadowing: Frank, after bemusedly listening to Dallas' escape plan, points out all the things that are wrong with it, leaving a frustrated Dallas to dispose of the copy of the prison blueprints that he had swiped down the cistern pipe leading to the prison's sewer works... Frank gives said pipe a long, meaningful look before leaving the area. Subverted when Frank doesn't even bother escaping the prison at all, but leaves hints that that's how he went out.
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 Lock Up / int_a3eae597
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Award-Bait Song
 Lock Up / int_a3eae597
comment
Award-Bait Song: "Ever Since the World Began", by the late Survivor vocalist Jimi Jamison.
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 Lock Up / int_ad1db87c
type
Oh, Crap!
 Lock Up / int_ad1db87c
comment
Oh, Crap!: Frank has one when he realizes that Dallas lured him into a trap with several guards lead by Drumgoole in an attempt to increase the former's sentence.
 Lock Up / int_ad1db87c
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 Lock Up / int_b8198b96
type
Dead Man's Switch
 Lock Up / int_b8198b96
comment
Dead Man's Switch: In the climax, Frank takes Drumgoole hostage and throws him into the reactivated electric chair in the prison's defunct death row section. Then he ties his hands to the switch, so he can make his speech about all the bad things the Warden did to the guards while they're unable to shoot him. Frank was bluffing. The chair was never active.
 Lock Up / int_b8198b96
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 Lock Up / int_c20f49de
type
Tautological Templar
 Lock Up / int_c20f49de
comment
Tautological Templar: The Warden is determined to destroy Frank's life. He'll go to any means to assure this, because he seems to think that as the Warden, he's always the hero and as the prisoner, Frank is always the bad guy. This goes to the point of justifying murder of Frank's friend First Base as another means to provoke Frank into getting himself "the punishment he deserves".
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 Lock Up / int_c3245c20
type
I Lied
 Lock Up / int_c3245c20
comment
I Lied: Drumgoole promises one of Frank's friends, Dallas a reduced sentence if he'll betray him at the right moment. When he does, he declares that they "don't make deals with prisoners", and has him thrown back into genpop.
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 Lock Up / int_cec8b87a
type
This Is for Emphasis, Bitch!
 Lock Up / int_cec8b87a
comment
This Is for Emphasis, Bitch!: The line that gets Frank to play the football game.
 Lock Up / int_cec8b87a
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 Lock Up / int_dca70c44
type
Reasonable Authority Figure
 Lock Up / int_dca70c44
comment
Reasonable Authority Figure: The Captain of the Guard, Meissner is a much more reasonable figure than the sadistic Warden, willing to follow orders and treat the prisoners as roughly as he thinks is necessary but doesn't believe in punishing someone beyond their sentence. When Frank ultimately takes Drumgoole hostage and exposes his corruption, he orders his men to arrest the Warden and makes sure Frank will be able to sit out the rest of his sentence in peace.
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 Lock Up / int_dda99fa8
type
Despair Event Horizon
 Lock Up / int_dda99fa8
comment
Despair Event Horizon: Frank Leone gets this when Chink's goons bust up the car; at least, the former was more brave than them.
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1.0
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 Lock Up / int_f935efbf
type
Unnecessary Roughness
 Lock Up / int_f935efbf
comment
Unnecessary Roughness: The muddy football game Frank gets coerced into.
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Lock Up

The following is a list of statements referring to the current page from other pages.

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Barbell Beating / int_8d670920
 Lock Up
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Dead Man's Switch / int_8d670920
 Lock Up
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Hard-Work Montage / int_8d670920
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I Lied / int_8d670920
 Lock Up
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I Will Show You X! / int_8d670920
 Lock Up
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It Works Better with Bullets / int_8d670920
 Lockup
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Man Bites Man / int_8d670920
 Lock Up
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Prison Films / int_8d670920
 Lock Up
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Sword over Head / int_8d670920
 Lock Up
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Tautological Templar / int_8d670920
 Lock Up
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Token Good Cop / int_8d670920
 Lock Up
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Tricked into Escaping / int_8d670920
 Lock Up
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When She Smiles / int_8d670920
 Lock Up (Music)
seeAlso
Lock Up