An ordinary man frustrated with the various flaws he sees in society begins to psychotically and violently lash out against them.
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 before retirement, is following the wave of crimes and believes that the same man is responsible but the other detectives do not pay attention to him.—Claudio Carvalho, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
It is a sweltering summer day in Los Angeles and a man (known only by his car registration: D-Fens) is stuck in his car in an early-morning traffic jam. It is his daughter's birthday and his only aim is to see her on her special day. Abandoning his car in the traffic he sets out to get to the house of his ex-wife to see his daughter. Along the way he meets all manner of obstacles, causing his pent-up frustration at the hindrances and absurdities of life and cynicism and criminality of average people to boil over. What follows is a peaceful man's violent odyssey, an odyssey to see his daughter.—grantss
William (D-FENS) Foster (Michael Douglas) just wants to get home to see his daughter (Joey Singer) on her birthday. Unfortunately, nothing seems to be going right for him. First there's the traffic jam, then the unhelpful Korean shopkeeper named Mister Lee (Michael Paul Chan) who "doesn't give change". D-FENS begins to crack and starts to fight back against the every day "injustices" he encounters on his journey home. The film has a story running in parallel about Detective Prendergast (Robert Duvall); a desk-bound cop who is about to retire. He's retiring for his wife's (Tuesday Weld) sake, and obviously isn't happy about it. The cop tracks down D-FENS and in the final scene.....—Rob Hartill
William Foster, AKA D-FENS (Michael Douglas), is an unemployed, divorced engineer in the defense industry who's reached his boiling point. First he finds himself in gridlock, which he deals with by abandoning his car. He subsequently happens across an unhelpful convenience store clerk named Mister Lee whose prices D-FENS 'rolls back', by demolishing the store with a baseball bat after overpowering the clerk. Soon he finds himself in gangland, and deals with some tough-looking gang members ('Agustin Rodriguez' & Eddie Frias) by attacking them and running them off. When the gang members try to retaliate, it fails when they crash their car and D-FENS takes their bag full of guns. Unfortunately for him, Detective Predergrast (Robert Duvall) retiring cop is on his trail, and soon things will come to blows as D-FENS heads towards Venice for his young daughter's (Joey Singer) birthday party....—Derek O'Cain
A disturbed man (Michael Douglas) whose true identity is unknown. Stuck in LA traffic in summer, he abandons his vehicle. D-Fens, as he is credited in the film (based on his vanity license plate), begins walking west, trying to reach his estranged wife Beth (Barbara Hershey) and daughter Adele (Joey Hope Singer). It's the girl's birthday, and he wants to be with her.
Detective Prendergast (Robert Duvall) of the LAPD is on his last day before taking an early retirement. He comes upon D-Fens's abandoned car on his way to work and helps push it out of traffic. Few years back his pushy wife made him take a safe desk job.
D-Fens wants to call his wife, but short on coins, he enters a Korean convenience store. He respects the "no change without purchase" policy and tries to buy a can of Coke. He gets angry at the 85 cents asked for the coke can. He fights with the Korean owner and, after grabbing a sawed-off baseball bat from the owner, and begins wrecking the store.
Heading for Venice, California, D-Fens climbs a hill in "gangland,". Two young Mexican gang-members accost him. When D-Fens fails to hand over any money, they threaten him with a knife, and he counters with the bat. He injures one assailant's arm and drives the other off. he drops the bat & takes the knife.The Latino gang members vow revenge, and a carload hunting for D-Fens. D-Fens calls his ex-wife from a pay phone, threatening to show up at his daughter's birthday party.The gangsters attempt a drive-by shooting but miss D-Fens and crash their car. They open fire, hitting several surrounding bystanders, but not D-Fens. The driver crashes. D-Fens picks up a gun, shoots the one surviving gang member in the leg, and then leaves with their bag of weapons. D-Fens encounters a panhandler who harasses him for change. D-Fens finally gives him the briefcase, which only contains his lunch.
D-Fens stops by Whammy Burger, only to be told that breakfast stopped being served five minutes earlier. Not a wise thing to tell the psychotic D-Fens, and he soon pulls out a sub-machine gun, threatening everyone and deciding to have lunch instead. After berating the staff for serving him a hamburger that looks nothing like the advertising posters, he leaves.He leaves and tries to place a call from a phone booth, then shoots the booth to pieces after being hassled by someone who was waiting to use the phone.
Prendergast is starting to notice a pattern and believes that all incidents are tied to the same person. The Korean store owner came in to complain, and the detective heard about the bold daylight shooting attempt. He looks on an L.A. map and sees that the mysterious man in a white shirt and a tie is walking towards the ocean. Prendergast is not taken seriously.D-Fens's ex calls the police to gain protection from him, but they don't believe he's much of a threat and leave.
D-Fens passes a bank where an African American man is protesting after being rejected for a loan. The man exchanges a glance with D-Fens and says, "Don't forget me," as he is escorted away by police.The increasingly disturbed D-Fens goes into an Army-Navy surplus store run by a gay-bashing Nazi to buy more durable footwear for his trek, as his shoe sole is half rotten. While he's being fitted, police detective Torres (Rachel Ticotin) comes in asking about him. The Nazi owner distracts her and, after she leaves, tells D-Fens he knows all about his activities. The Nazi assumes D-Fens is a racist who is attacking non-whites. After being corrected about this, the irate skinhead attempts to handcuff D-Fens to turn him over to the police. He is instead knifed and ultimately killed. D-Fens clothes himself in military-style garb and sets out with a rocket launcher.
He cuts through a nearby golf course and is accosted by two elderly golfers. After berating them for wasting such lovely green space on a silly game, he shoots up their golf cart, causing one to have a heart attack.D-Fens encounters a road repair crew who are not working and accuses them of doing unnecessary repairs to justify their budget. He pulls out the rocket launcher but struggles to use it, until a boy explains how it works. D-Fens accidentally fires the launcher, blowing up the construction site.
D-Fens eventually reaches his former home, but his ex-wife leaves just in time. Prendergast, who has put the whole puzzle together by finally figuring out that the guy causing the mayhem is the one with the license plate D-FENS, he finds the address & reaches his mother. They find that D-Fens real name is William Foster & he was recently fired from the defense plant & is divorced from his wife who won't let him see his little girl as he has a bit of temper. Pendergast rushes to the wife's address with his friend, Detective Torres.
Having turned in his weapon (it's his last day before retirement), Prendergast is unarmed. D-Fens shoots Torres, wounding her slightly, and the older detective grabs her weapon and chases D-Fens onto a fishing pier.
Prendergast has a final confrontation with D-Fens where he correctly concludes that William planned to shoot his ex-wife & daughter & then turn the gun on himself and kill himself. Adele is happy to see him, but Beth wants him to leave. Prendergast arrives and distracts Foster long enough for Beth to throw his gun into the ocean. Prendergast holds Foster at gunpoint and urges him to surrender, acknowledging his complaints about social inequalities but not accepting them as an excuse for his rampage. With nothing left for him, Foster tricks Prendergast into shooting him dead. Having asserted himself, Prendergast decides to hold off retirement.
