In the film Falling Down, a man sits in his car behind a line of stopped cars on the freeway while a broken car is towed out of the way. It is a very hot day. He becomes agitated and angry and finally leaves his car, just walking away. He determines to walk to his wife's home, from East Los Angeles to Venice. As he encounters different people along the way, their antagonism brings out his defenses and his anger. He becomes incensed at a grocer because the grocer is overcharging for soda, and the man reacts by smashing up the store. He is attacked by gang members and fights back, eventually taking several guns which he will use later. When denied service at a fast food restaurant, he shoots the place up with a machine gun. He meets a Nazi store owner and kills him out of anger. He leaves a path of destruction as he makes his way across town until he is finally killed himself.
There is a great deal of criminal behavior portrayed in the movie, not all of it related to the actions of the main character. When he first explodes in the small grocery store, he commits an act of vandalism and probably an act of assault in knocking down the store owner. When he meets the two gang members, they attack him, and his reaction is self defense and justified. When they come looking for him with an arsenal, they hurt themselves much more than they hurt him. He steals a bag of illegal arms from their car, and carrying these guns is another crime. He shoots up a phone booth and a fast-food restaurant, and he blows up a street construction project with a bazooka-type weapon. He commits a murder when he kills the Nazi. Other than these felonies, most of his crimes come under the heading of trespassing and the like.
The behavior of D-Fens, as the character in the movie is known, is explained in the film in terms of a mixture of urban angst brought about by overcrowded conditions, excessive crime, a social-welfare system out of control, ...