Repo Men
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
|
Related e |
|
Featured: |
Repo Men is a 2010 science fiction action-thriller film directed by Miguel Sapochnik, and starring Jude Law and Forest Whitaker. It is based on the novel Repossession Mambo by Eric Garcia.
Plot
In 2025, a corporation called "The Union" has perfected the creation of bio-mechanical organs, which are available to those with money or "good credit". If a customer falls three months behind on payments, a "repo-man" is sent to reclaim the artificial organ. The process of the repossession almost always results in the death of the customer. Remy (Jude Law) and his partner Jake Freivald (Forest Whitaker) are considered the best of the Union's repo men, though this causes personal issues between Remy and his wife, Carol (Carice van Houten), causing Remy to request a transfer to sales. At his final repossession job, Remy is wounded and forced to receive an artificial heart, which his sales job can not hope to pay for, forcing him back into repo. But due to his own artificial organ he develops a psychological block which leaves him unable to perform his job, and his personal life quickly falls to pieces. He also begins to lag behind in payments on his new ticker. After botching an attack on a hideout of people who are marked for repossession he is attacked by same and beaten unconscious.
Upon awakening Remy encounters Beth (Alice Braga), who is past due on multiple organ transplants. After a failed attempt to clear her account back at the Union's headquarters, Remy destroys all evidence of his life and Beth's before the two leave to live in the outskirts, and Beth convinces Remy to document his life and experiences. As he finishes, a repo-man arrives to repossess his heart, and Remy overpowers him. Using the repo-man's vehicle, Remy sneaks back into his former workplace to obtain a pair of jamming devices that fool organ scanners used by repo men. He attempts to force Frank to clear his account, only to discover that due to his prior attempt all accounts can only be cleared back at the Union's central office. Remy and Beth attempt to flee the country at the airport, but are taken by security when it is discovered that Beth's prosthetic knee was damaged due to their earlier fight with the repo-man. After a major fight, Remy runs back into Jake, and escapes from him. The pair head to a black market doctor, where Beth's knee is replaced.
After the procedure, the two are stopped by Jake, who has tracked the pair. A bitter fight ensues, during which it is revealed that it was Jake that rigged the defibrillator unit to fail, causing Remy's heart replacement — he did this to ensure that Remy keeps his organ repossession job, so they could get promoted. The two fight, but Jake gains the upper hand, and knocks Remy unconscious with a heavy steel hook. Remy awakens and is hurried to a safe house by Beth, the occupants of which have been slain by the Union's repo-men. He resolves to destroy the corporation and clear the accounts of Beth and himself. After passing his story to his son during a brief meeting on a train, the pair travel to The Union's headquarters, hoping to remove themselves from the system. Remy and Beth are pursued throughout the building, and after an intense battle, arrive at the Pink Door, the main database for the Union. Using Beth's prosthetic eye, they are able to seal themselves inside just as Jake and Frank arrive. Once inside, they discover that the server does not have any interface, except for a scanner. Remy realizes that the only way to remove himself from the system is to repo himself. Remy and Beth cut themselves open in order to use the scanner internally, clearing their accounts.
Jake and Frank are able to enter through the use of an organ, seeing Remy trying desperately to resuscitate Beth, who has stopped breathing during the process. Jake asks Remy if she was worth all the hardship and pain that he has put himself through, which he confirms. Frank pulls a gun to kill Remy, but Jake turns on his employer, killing him with a knife. Jake then assists Remy in reviving Beth, after which he deposits two explosives inside the organ retrieval unit. The explosion destroys the Union's mainframe, wiping everyone who has an account with the corporation out of the system.
Later, Remy is on a tropical beach, enjoying his freedom with Beth and Jake. His text from earlier in the film has been published into a book, The Repossession Mambo. Remy turns to look at Jake, but sees instead the background flickering and incoherent voices. It is discovered that Remy, in fact, sustained severe brain damage when Jake hit him with the heavy hook earlier in the film. This plot twist was alluded to earlier in the film as Remy explicitly stated that he had been knocked out four times in his life. Jake, out of remorse, has paid off Remy's account and has had him placed in a neural network, allowing him to live the rest of his life in a dream. Beth is still alive but unconscious, and when questioned as to what to do with her, Jake says he will take care of her. This renders the second half of the film as simply a fantasy of Remy's. Jake finds Remy's manuscript, which he greets with a sad, stifled sigh, as his former partner is wheeled away, presumably to spend the rest of his life in his fantasy world. The film ends with Frank delivering his sales pitch.
Cast
- Jude Law as Remy, a repo man.
- Forest Whitaker as Jake Freivald, Remy's former partner.
- Carice van Houten as Carol, Remy's wife.
- Alice Braga as Beth, a singer who has multiple artificial organs.
- Liev Schreiber as Frank Mercer, Remy's boss.
- Chandler Canterbury as Peter, Remy's son.
- RZA as T-Bone, a soul musician in debt.
- John Leguizamo as Asbury, a black-market organs dealer.
- Liza Lapira as Alva, a black-market surgeon.
