Society dictates the way we act, but William Foster refuses to act accordingly with society and go his own route. We have all experienced frustrations in which we want to retaliate to the injustices of society. Falling Down has many situations where we have experienced: going into a store; asking for change, and they tell you they don't have any; also going into a fast food restaurant and you just miss breakfast by three minutes, and they refuse to serve it to you; and getting stuck in traffic in the heat. At first the viewer perceives William Foster as a man who is just having a bad day, trying to go home to see his daughter for her birthday. As the movie goes on it is easy to see that he has psychological problems with his ex-wife. .
Everyone gets stuck in traffic, but not everyone handles it the same way. Some people sit there and blow there horn the entire time. While others don't let their emotions get the best of them and wait patiently for traffic to move. In the beginning of the movie, William is stuck in traffic in ninety degree weather. William has had enough of sitting in traffic and just gets out of his car and leaves it in the road. When he was asked by the driver behind him where is he going he simply replied "I"m going home". William took the unconventional way out of the situation; he took everyone by surprise how calmly he left the car there. The majority of people would have waited for traffic to move. William .
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acted abnormally and did what he wanted to do. He shocked viewers by his actions, which started off the continuous of rash actions committed by William. The director shows right away that there is something mentally wrong with William.
William is a man of circumstances; all he wanted was to get in touch with his ex-wife. Every where he goes trouble seems to follow him. He reacts according to what he thinks is correct. A Korean store owner refuses to give him change of a dollar and tells him to buy something.