Payback (film)

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Payback
Payback movie poster
Directed by	Brian Helgeland
Produced by	Bruce Davey
Written by	Brian Helgeland Terry Hayes based on The Hunter by Richard Stark
Starring	Mel Gibson Gregg Henry Maria Bello Kris Kristofferson James Coburn Lucy Liu David Paymer
Music by	Chris Boardman Moe Jaffe
Cinematography	Ericson Core
Editing by	Kevin Stitt
Distributed by	Paramount Pictures (USA) Warner Bros. (non-USA)
Release date(s)	February 5, 1999
Running time	100 min.
Language	English
Budget	$50,000,000
IMDb profile

Payback is a 1999 action film starring Mel Gibson and directed by Brian Helgeland. The film is a remake of the 1967 noir-classic Point Blank, directed by John Boorman and starring Lee Marvin, which in turn was based on the book The Hunter by Donald E. Westlake (published as Richard Stark, one of his pseudonyms). Originally, the main character was called Parker, but was renamed to Porter in this movie, and Walker in Point Blank.

[edit] Plot

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

Porter is a smart career criminal who is betrayed by his own wife, and his criminal partner, after they steal $140,000 from the Chinese mafia. They shoot Porter, and his partner takes the entirety of the heist money. The two leave Porter to die, but he survives without them knowing. After a long recovery he returns to get "payback," mainly revolving around the return of his share of the money stolen from the Chinese mafia.

During Porter's recovery, his partner Val has joined a powerful criminal organization called the Outfit, using $130,000 of the heist to pay off a debt to them. To get his share of the money back, Porter is forced to deal with the Outfit (who refuse to return the money that Val owes them), the Chinese mafia (who have been tipped off by Val that Porter was the one responsible for robbing them, ostensibly in the hope that they will kill Porter and inadvertently get him off the hook), and corrupt police officers (who demand a cut of whatever money Porter is attempting to take from the Outfit). He enlists the help of a call girl, Rosie, who is affiliated with the crime syndicate. Previous to the events depicted at the beginning of the film, Porter served as a driver for Rosie, during which time they developed a close, romantic friendship, which ultimately was the reason behind Porter's wife shooting him.

After unsuccessful attempts to win the return of Porter's $70,000 share of the original heist from lower level managers of the Outfit (and leaving a trail of dead criminals in his wake), he decides to kidnap the son of the head of the crime syndicate (who personally rejected Porter's demands to return the money) and hold him for ransom. While attempting to pick up the money, Porter himself is kidnapped and tortured into revealing the location where the syndicate boss's son is being held. He gives the wrong information to the now angry mafia head and his number two man however. Porter leads them to the apartment that was originally intended by the Outfit's men to eliminate Porter with the use of a telephone-activated bomb. The mafia head is the one who answers the call and is obliterated along with the rest of his crew. Porter manages to escape with the money. At the end of the film, Porter and Rosie flee the country with the money.

Spoilers end here.

[edit] Trivia

This film marks Brian Helgeland's direction debut on big screen films, after a career as screenplay writer.
Although he is credited as director, Brian Helgeland's cut of the film isn't the final version released to audiences. Helgeland's version was deemed too dark for the mainstream public and he was quickly replaced by production designer John Myhre, who reshot 30% of the movie. Helgeland's "Straight Up: The Director's Cut" version is going to be released on DVD on April 10, 2007.
The film is distinguished by the blue tint in the photography, used to give the film a noir feel. This was accomplished through what is called the bleach process, where the print is bleached in order to remove some of the emulsion and thus giving a pale look to the picture.
Porter drives from the telephone-activated bomb explosion scene in a black limo owned by the “Outfit”. He arrives at the hotel in which Rosie is hiding in a similar black vehicle. When Rosie takes the wheel and the two of them drive away, the car has changed to a two door sports model.
The two corrupt detectives were named Hicks and Leary, after the famous comedians Bill Hicks and Denis Leary.