Man On Fire - "Denzel Gets Medieval"

“There is one kidnapping every 60 seconds in Latin America.  70% of the victims do not survive.”  And so begins Man on Fire.

Man on Fire is really two movies for the price of one.  The first hour is about a man named John Creasy, a former CIA agent, and Marine veteran of countless counterinsurgency and anti-terrorist actions.  Creasy is retired and in the midst of a crisis of conscience.  When he visits his former colleague Paul Rayburn in Mexico, he asks Rayburn if God will forgive them for all of the things they’ve done in their past life.   The second half of the movie is a classic revenge tale that is especially vicious.  That’s what got my attention - how violent the movie is.  It’s exceptionally violent, so my first reaction after I saw it was to rename it “Denzel Gets Medieval.”  Denzel’s character goes from one unfortunate goon to the next, killing them as he goes, but not before gathering important information that leads him on his trail toward finding the little girl he was charged with protecting.

Plot synopsis:  John Creasy [Denzel Washington] is an ex-CIA assassin.  He’s an alcoholic, depressed and suicidal.  He’s looking for something to do.  Paul Rayburn [Christopher Walken] is a friend of Creasy from the CIA.  He’s retired and has his own security firm in Mexico City.  He hires Creasy to come work for him.  His job?  To protect a nine-year old girl named Pita Ramos [Dakota Fanning].  Her parents [played by Marc Anthony and Radha Mitchell] hired him because of a rash of kidnappings in Mexico City.

Creasy is at the end of his proverbial rope.  Once while on a drunken binge he tried to kill himself, but the bullet misfired.  He takes that as a sign that it wasn’t his time to go yet.  At first Creasy is very stand-offish with Pita.  He says he was hired to protect her, not to be her friend.  But as time goes on, the two grow closer.  While Creasy was at Pita’s school watching her swim, he noticed she is a fast swimmer but a slow starter.  So he works with Pita on her starting technique.  During this time they become great friends.  Creasy would do anything to protect Pita.  He’s become more of a parent to her than her real parents.  But one day, Ramos told Pita that she should concentrate on the piano instead of swimming.  Creasy took Pita to piano practice.  While he waits for her, off-duty city cops in uniform and riding in a police car block off the street.  Creasy knows Pita’s kidnapping is on and starts a gunfight with the cops.  He kills two cops and two others, but he is seriously wounded himself.  After the kidnapping, the Ramoses agree to a $10 million dollar ransom from a guy called ‘The Voice.’  Ramos’ lawyer Jordan Kalfus arranges a ransom drop.  He puts the $10 million dollars in the trunk of a car to be parked somewhere The Voice’s minions could collect the money.  But before The Voice could get the money, his minions are ambushed and they don’t get the ransom.  The Voice calls Ramos and tells him Pita is dead because he didn’t get the money.

The Mexico City police are going to charge Creasy with the murder of the two cops.   Miguel Monzano [Giancarlo Giannini] and Mariana Garcia Guerrero [Rachel Ticotin] are present when the police chief holds a press conference saying he will charge Creasy with murder.  Monzano runs the Agency of Federal Investigation [AFI].  He knows the Mexico City police department is corrupt, so he aims to help Creasy.  He and Rayburn spirited Creasy out of the hospital so the Mexico City cops don’t kill Creasy for the murder of the two crooked cops.  Meanwhile Guerrero, who is a reporter for a newspaper called La Reforma, also tells Creasy she wants to help him. She provides much aid to Creasy with great effect.

Before he could heal completely, Creasy is up and about trying to find out who “kidnapped and “killed” Pita.  He asks Rayburn to provide him with lots of weapons to do what he needs to do.  Rayburn gives him what he wants.  Creasy went back to the Ramos’ house to pick up his things.  Pita’s mom finds him and asks him what he’s going to do.  He tells her he’s going to kill everyone who was involved, everyone who profited from Pita’s kidnapping.  She tells Creasy to “kill them all.”  Here is where “Denzel gets medieval.”

Medieval Moment #1 – Creasy asked the Guerrero to find the address of ten license plate numbers.  She got them from Manzano.  When he found the car he was looking for he waited for the owner to come out.  The owner did, and then Creasy got in the car with the guy and pointed a gun at him.  His name is Jorge Gonzalez.  He tells Creasy he’s a Judicial Policeman.  Creasy points the gun at his head and tells him to drive.  They end up at a hill overlooking one of Mexico City’s crowded slums.  After he knocks out Gonzalez he strips Gonzalez down to his underwear and he duct-tapes his hands to the steering wheel.  He tells Gonzalez he’s going to ask him some questions, and for every wrong answer, he’s going to cut off a finger.  Then he shows him the car’s cigarette lighter, which he explains will stop the bleeding after he takes a finger.  Gonzalez tells Creasy he’s “a member of La Hermanadad” [a group of crooked cops and gangsters], then Creasy cuts off the first finger.  And like he said, he used the lighter to cauterize the wound.  Creasy’s interrogation cost Gonzalez two fingers and [I think] a part of his right ear.  But Gonzalez told Creasy a few details – who ordered the kidnapping [The Voice], to whom they deliver their victims [‘the Guardians’], and about a guy named ‘the Butcher.’  ‘The Butcher’ works at a rave in Neza.  Creasy gives Gonzalez a cigarette and lights it up, then kills Gonzalez. 

Medieval Moment #2 –After dispensing with Gonzalez, Creasy goes to the rave in Neza.  There he finds the Butcher, hands him a wad of cash to get in the door.  After he enters, Creasy flashes him a picture of Pita and asked the Butcher what he knew about her.  The Butcher claims ignorance, upon which time Creasy puts a gun in his stomach.  So they take a little walk through the ravers and go upstairs to the office.  The Butcher knocks, a guy on the other side answers and opens the door after the Butcher said it was ok.  Creasy breaks in and fires one shot with a shotgun.  Creasy asks the three people present about the girl.  When they all claim ignorance Creasy shoots the Butcher and re-loads.  He duct-tapes the other two, then starts asking the guy who answered the door some questions.  The guy who answered the door told him about being contacted by cell phone and being paid with ATM cards. He knows that the Boss was yelling at Pita because his nephew got killed when the ransom money was stolen in the drop ambush.  He tells Creasy a crooked cop named Fuentes stole the ransom money.  Fuentes is a police lieutenant for the anti-kidnapping squad.  After that tidbit, Creasy kills the guy.  The only one who is left, an older lady, starts telling Creasy about the kidnappers knocking Pita around.  She recognized the voice of the Boss’s brother.  Creasy tells her if she can tell him where the Boss is he’ll let her live.  She says she doesn’t know, but she’ll give him “the girl.” When she shows Creasy “the girl,” it turns out this girl was a victim of a different kidnapping.    Creasy starts to open a bunch of gas canisters [of what I don’t know] and then sets the office on fire.  He leads the old lady and ‘the girl’ out of the rave, all the while firing shotgun blasts in the air to get the ravers to leave the building.  Shortly thereafter, the building explodes, causing all the ravers to cheer.  Creasy calls Guerrero and tells her about ‘the girl’ he just liberated.  After Guerrero shows up on the scene, Creasy asks Guerrero about banking connections.  He wants to know who the ATM cards are attached to.

Medieval Moment #3 – Creasy finds Fuentes, kidnaps him with the help of an RPG, takes him to an underpass and booby-traps him.  He took a bunch of C4, put a timer on it that’s activated by a pager, and shoved it up Fuentes’ ass.  He tells Fuentes what’s inside of him.  Then he starts to ask Fuentes some questions.  Fuentes tells Creasy he’s the “President of La Hermanadad.”  Unimpressed, Creasy informs Fuentes he doesn’t have a lot of time to talk [five minutes – he’d already sent a page to the bomb inside Fuentes], so Fuentes tells Creasy about the ransom drop, and how not all $10 million of the ransom was there.  Ramos' layer Jordan Kalfus loaded the bags of money in the car used for the ransom drop and kept most of the money for himself.  When time was up Creasy tells Fuentes that he wished he had more time, then walks away as Fuentes and his car blow up.

Creasy went to Kalfus' house to find him bled to death face down in his pool.  He finds a fax of bank codes from a bank in the Cayman Islands in the fax machine.  He calls Guerrero to find out about deposits and withdrawals for both Kalfus and Ramos.  Creasy went to the Ramos house to ask them about the money.  Lisa knows nothing.  Samuel confesses he arranged the kidnapping to get insurance money to pay off his debts.  He says he didn't inherit a business kingdom from his father - he inherited gambling debts that had to be paid.  Kalfus told Ramos that Pita would be back in 2 days - he lied.  Ramos killed Kalfus. "I did it for us - for the 3 of us."  Lisa tells Creasy to kill Ramos.  He doesn't.  What he does is take out the bullet that misfired when he tried to kill himself earlier.  He tells Ramos 'a bullet always tells the truth - it bullet never lies.  It didn't work for me - maybe it'll work for you."  So he hands Ramos the misfired bullet and a gun and walks away.  While he's walking away you hear Ramos killing himself.

Medieval Moment #4 – This is a brief medieval moment.  Guerrero had given Creasy an address for the ATM card he got at the rave.  Here he ran into The Voice’s brother.  After a brief shootout [during which Creasy was wounded], Creasy blew all the fingers off one of the brother’s hands.

AFI planted a camera in the house while they were pretending to go around the barrio giving 'cholera shots.'  They bugged the house and stole a picture of 'The Voice,' so now they know what he looks like.  Guerrero publishes his picture in La Reforma.  Creasy gets a copy of the picture and the address of Reina Rosas Sanchez from Guerrero.  Creasy goes to the address.  He finds the identity of The Voice - Daniel.  Creasy is wounded again [mortally this time].    Creasy makes contact with The Voice.  He tells The Voice he will kill his family if he doesn’t deliver himself to Creasy.  But The Voice has an ace-in-the-hole.  Pita is still alive and he tells Creasy.  Creasy wants “proof of life” and The Voice gives it to him – the name of Pita’s teddy bear [it’s ‘Creasy’].  Creasy and The Voice make a deal – Creasy and The Voice’s brother in exchange for Pita.  Creasy tells Lisa Ramos that Pita is still alive, tells her the location of the exchange, and that she should be there when it happens. 

Creasy and Pita meet halfway on an overpass.  Pita tells Creasy she loves him, and Creasy does likewise, but it’s time for him to go.  Pita is reunited with her mom.  Creasy gets in the car with The Voice's henchmen and dies from his wounds shortly thereafter.  AFI went to arrest The Voice on the same day, but The Voice was “killed during the arrest.” 

He knew he was going to die so he had no problem in giving himself up for Pita.  So perhaps not only is this a tale of revenge, it’s also a tale of redemption.  Creasy got the little girl back and killed a lot of bad guys along the way.  So maybe, just maybe because of this selfless act, God will forgive John Creasy of the sins of his past life.