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Payback
Or: how to lift the corporate veil
A petty criminal, betrayed by his partner and his wife, sets out to recover a sum of money stolen from him. Sounds simple? Not when the criminal is Porter (Mel Gibson, from before the meltdown), a simple soldier, working as a driver of a prostitute with a heart of gold (and a killer dog), for a criminal organization run just like a legitimate corporation in every respect, including employee records, dental insurance and medical insurance. Porter believes that like in any large corporation, if you go high enough up the ladder, you end up finding a single person, and he embarks on a bloody quest to lift the corporate veil, followed on the one hand by the corporation's soldiers and on the other hand by two corrupt cops who also want to get their hands on the money.
On the first step of the ladder we find Porter's treacherous partner (Gregg Henry, "Rich Man, Poor man"). Porter gets his address from the prostitute he used to drive around, and finds him in the company of an extremely violent dominatrix. The partner promises to contact his boss and try to get the money back.
On the second step of the ladder we find the partner's boss, who considers returning the money a clearly non-Corporate concept, and sends the partner packing. Porter is caught between the dominatrix and her gang who come to the partner's aid and the two corrupt cops, getting beaten by both sides, but he manages to steal a badge from one of the cops (why? Hint: This gun will fire in the fifth act), to catch the cheating partner, to get the name of his boss and kill him (the partner), but not before he discovers that a bomb was set under his bed (what will he do with the bomb? Hint: this gun will also fire in the fifth act, just like gun Porter uses to kill his treacherous partner). He reaches the partner's boss (actor William Devane, last seen on "24") and repeats his claim to get his money back. After a lecture on committees and decision-making processes, he refers Porter to the third step of the ladder (actor and country singer Kris Kristofferson), and is unceremoniously eliminated. The information Porter collects from the phone call between the two – beware of using a speaker during important business conversations! - he keeps for future use, and with the help of the prostitute he organizes the kidnapping of the third step's darling son. Along the way he manages to frame the two corrupt cops with the murder of his partner (the badge and the gun, remember?) and eliminate the members of the dominatrix's gang one by one.
On the fourth step of ladder we find a caricature of a senior executive (very veteran actor James Coburn), who is more concerned about the state of his alligator skin luggage and his expensive suits (worth more than the money that the corporation owes Porter) than about his own welfare. Porter makes him call the third step of the ladder and order him to deliver the money himself. He shows up with his goons, and demands to know where his son is. Porter sends them to the apartment he rigged with the bomb (remember?) and kills them just the way they tried to kill him, how poetic.
In the end, Porter, along with the prostitute, her faithful dog and the money (not necessarily in that order...) drive off into the sunset, and if they are still alive, they live happily ever after… |