Wrath of Man Recommendation and Discussion. I’m in this really weird moment in my life right now. I’m technically unemployed… long story… with an even longer explanation… but soon I’ll be working again. Regardless. This week is my kid’s last week of school. My wife is extraordinarily busy. And I’m finding myself, having found a job, but waiting for background checks, and drug tests (literally peed into a cup today – is there a more humiliating self-accusation of modern society than that?) to come through, so I just literally drove over to the movie theater, and looked at what was on the board. (Oh, also, I’m vaccinated. But it didn’t matter, because I was the only soul in the theater.) And I randomly chose Wrath of Man with a cast of lots. (I enjoyed the experience so much, that later today I’m going to see Profile, can’t wait. $6 Tuesdays!!)
I mean, it was sort of a no-brainer. Guy Ritchie is a dialog demi-god. Snatch anyone? The Gentlemen? Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels. You know, mob movies with really really fast dialog, with molasses-thick Cockneys going at 400 miles an hour. Apparently I need to do more reviews of his movies… Anyway, it was a fun little ride, and I highly recommend it. I think it’s only available in the theaters right now… it’s not streaming yet. (Remember when that used to be normal?)
The magic of this movie is in its glorious editing. The acting is good. The screenplay is brilliant. But it’s the editing that really makes this movie a modern marvel. I think they surreptitiously loop back over the same event three distinctly different times. And it is so smooth you don’t find yourself going – what is this, groundhog day? You just learn so much more with each loop that you are thankful for the added information. It was really, really, well done.
Anyway – I’m now going to dive into the walkthrough. Don’t continue on unless you’ve watched the film yet. I do this here at THiNC. solely to help those of us that don’t really get what happened, or what is going on. And then after I finish the walkthrough I’ll talk about the deeper meaning of it all. The insights and the epiphanies. You know. Or maybe you don’t. Who knows.
Wrath of Man Walkthrough
First, a question about the title. Wrath of Man is so similar to the title that Jesus referred to himself as, which was, Son of Man. Is there something there? Hrrrmmmm. It’s an interesting question. I’m betting we’ll probably get an answer to that before this conversation is over. Just keep it in the back of your mind for a few minutes until we get there.
Ritchie does a really, really, interesting thing with his opening shot. The camera is located in the back of an armored truck. And as the truck moves, and then is blocked, and then attacked, we don’t know anything really. We sort of get a sense that several people are killed… the two guys driving the truck maybe? And possibly someone else? The camera never turns. The vantage is just fixed in one direction. We literally know very little. And it was such a curious directorial decision, I was confused by it at first. But it is the single most important artistic decision in this entire movie.
Soon after the opening attack and pillaging of the armored truck, we meet a man (Jason Statham) applying for a job with the Armored Car company we saw get attacked earlier. We never learn his real name because of the company’s policy to give nicknames to all their drivers… at the company, he goes by the name H. And as the movie begins to unfold, we learn that H was a bit of a sandbagger on his evaluation information. He just slid in with a 70% pass rate. But when the truck he is driving is attacked, he single-handedly takes out 6 attackers, solely with a pistol. Several months later when his truck is attacked again, it is strange that the attackers see his face and abandon the assault. The owner of the truck company just attributes it to H’s fame from the previous attack. There is a lot more going on here than what we were originally led to believe. To that end, there was a pretty significant dialog detail that happened as everyone was trying to make sense of how the armored truck attackers just walked away:
‘They just walked away?’
‘Why are you so cynical?’
‘It’s like they saw a dark spirit.’
‘He’s not a cop.’
‘He’s a dark f#$@ing spirit.’
H investigates the gal that works there (as what? sort of a head nod to his investigative intentionality?) and asks her about money that he found in her house. Apparently she stole it? And that is when we first get our first idea that H is looking for an inside man at the armored truck company. Which is when we go backwards again to see the original attack all over again, from a different perspective entirely.
And this time through, we learn that H was asked by his gang – whoever they are – for help watching a particular armored truck, to grab information about which direction it would go on a particular day. But H was supposed to be with his son that day. So H takes his son with him, and watches as the truck makes the turn, and he let’s his team know which direction it went. Problem was, that at that exact moment, this other gang hits the truck. And in the chaos of it, we watch as the two armored truck employees are executed, and then H’s son as well. H is also badly shot up as well. We then continue following this timeline, back in time, as H recovers, and then begins hunting anyone and everyone, in a hope for retribution for his son’s death. H becomes the grim reaper… killing anyone that even smells like they might possibly have been involved in his son’s death. It seems like he is also making arbitrary decisions based on the evil that they are involved with as to whether they will live or die. Is H an avenging angel? A dark spirit after all?
Eventually, after a particularly horrible hit on a group of child traffickers, H decides that it has to be an inside job within the armored truck company…. and he decides he will apply to become a driver and guard at the company to learn more. Which, brings us back to the beginning, back to right after the attack… but this time with all our questions answered. Well, most of them anyway. We still don’t know who exactly killed H’s son. And we don’t know who helped them from the inside. Now… cut to the crew that did the original hit.
Did you catch that? We start the movie watching the original armored truck hit from the back of the truck. Ground zero. We then watch as H gets a job at the armored truck company. We then go BACKWARDS and learn about H, and his time with his son. And we watch the hit again. Then we watch as H tries to find the crew that hit the truck. Then we go backwards again… why? So that we can watch the guys who hit the truck, and see it from their perspective. Afterwards, we follow this crew from the beginning of their establishment, to deciding to go their own way, and droping the middle man for fencing their stolen goods. And then all the way forward to the day that they decide they should hit the armored truck warehouse on black Friday. And this is the day that H has been waiting for. His only reason for joining the firm in the first place.
Ending of Wrath of Man Explained
Liver – Lung – Spleen – Heart.
We now know, that H was here solely to get revenge. He doesn’t care if he lived or died. But he wanted to exact revenge before he died. But to do that, he needed to learn who the inside man was, and through them, find out the crew that had killed Dougie. And, surprisingly, he got his wish fairly undramatically. While riding with Bullet (the individual that trained him, and hired him), H was shocked to find out that Bullet was the connection to the crew that killed his son. Obviously, Bullet didn’t know about H’s son… only that he and his crew needed to control the unholy demon, the hero. To do that Bullet made it clear to H what was happening, and if he didn’t cooperate, he would be killed. And as one extra bonus, they took the bullets from H’s gun.
When the chaos starts, Bullet and crew seem to have most everything well in hand. But soon it starts to spiral on them and they begin loosing crew. Eventually Bullet steps in and starts killing the various people at the armored car company that trust him. Soon enough, only Bullet and the man who killed H’s son, Jan (played by Scott Eastwood) remain. As Jan and Bullet get away through the underground tunnels of L.A. (I’m sorry, I have to comment here… knowing L.A. really well… this movie jumps ALL OVER L.A. County, and snippets of Orange(?) without any accounting for the 2 hours between each location. But whatever.) Jan gets the jump on Bullet and kills him.
Now, I found myself sort of thinking as Jan was getting away… um. H? Buddy? But don’t worry, intrepid viewer, H had this all along. Apparently he slipped a phone into one of the money bags, which allowed him to track Jan back to his home. And there H had Jan read Dougie’s autopsy report. “Liver – Lung – Spleen – Heart.” But Jan just wants to know what he wants. How much money. But H wants Jan’s liver, lung, spleen, and heart. So he shoots him once in each location in order to match the death that Dougie suffered.
Wrath of Man Recommendation and Discussion
This is a pretty cool little action flick. At the root of it, it’s actually just a revenge flick. But, if you consider it for a second, it actually is more apt a technicolor reproduction of the destroying angel (or angel of death) that was most famously seen in Egypt when all the first-born children were killed. Or, 2 Samuel 24:15–17, or in 2 Kings 19:32–35 when 185,000 were killed. I’ve gotten ahead of myself.
We all have this innate idea of justice hard-coded into our DNA. It’s really, quite, silly. If we are all accidents, and evolved out of swamp gas, why would we have such a strikingly desperate need for justice and fairness. It’s so deeply rooted in all of us that it could very well ruin us. Highway arguments? Family will skirmishes? You know what I’m talking about. Your best friend hits on your boyfriend? Right? Didn’t your hackles just go straight to eleven? JUSTICE!!!! The scythe of revenge baby! We are cutting them down. This is a very, very, old school, OG idea. Biblical even.
And when you are on the right side of the wrong – IE. you have been wronged… it is cathartic to consider the fact that you can get revenge on the offending party. But when you find yourself on the wrong side of this moral-debt equation, it’s actually quite a scary prospect. To be haunted by the thought of Old Testament levels of revenge for your sin and screw-ups? And we’ve all been there. (Which is why Christ’s coming was so mind-blowing… release from the debt of the scythe? Dude.)
But I love this idea. Justice. Fairness. Revenge. Especially for a lost son? It’s the story of Abraham and Isaac if only just a little differently. hahaha. H. Jesus H. Christ. Walks on water. There were a lot of Christ references throughout this film… I’m not so out of my depth here as you would like me to seem.
Edited by: CY