Agent 47 (Timothy Olyphant) has no name because he was raised as an orphan from birth by a shadow organization named the Agency, which is “known to all governments” and performs assassinations for hire. He has been trained in all the killing skills and never killed humans , which is why the young woman Nika (Olga Kurylenko) is such a challenge for him. A prostitute held in slavery by the drug-dealing brother of the Russian president, she follows him, obeys him, offers herself to him and, although he remains distant, 47 cannot remain indifferent.
Agent 47 is in Russia on a job: Assassinate Belicoff (Ulrich Thomsen), the president. This he thinks he does. Yet Belicoff appears in public almost immediately after the hit, alive and speaking. How did this happen? An alternative agent named Mike (Dougray Scott) to agent 47 he is an enemy.
How it happens is that Agent 47 is betrayed by the Agency and finds himself being pursued by both Interpol and the Russian secret police. As he and Nika move from St. Petersburg to Moscow, there is one shoot-out after another, close escapes, high-tech booby traps, and so on.
What I found interesting about the movie was the lonely self-sufficiency of Agent 47, his life without a boyhood, his lack of a proper name, his single-purpose training. When Nika comes into his life, he is trained to guard against her, but he cannot, because she is helpless, needy, depends on him and is a victim like himself. So he takes her along (which only increases her danger) while not making love. You know what? I think they trained him to make war, not love.
There is also intrigue at the highest levels of Russian politics, as the moderate Belikoff is apparently targeted for death. All of that is well done. Other scenes, which involve Agent 47 strolling down corridors, an automatic weapon in each hand, shooting down opponents who come dressed as Jedi troopers in black. The troopers spring into sight, pop up and start shooting, and he has target practice. He also jumps out of windows without knowing where he’s going to land, and that feels like he too works alone, is a professional, cuts off his emotions, seems lonely and cold. But the movie is more about him.
February 1, 2015 at 10:43 pm
This is a good summary of the text – and it’s clearly a good choice for our theme – what it needs now is for you to explore how the style, content, language and character build your understanding of what an anti-hero is. How could you say this was an ‘antihero’ text? What features could you pick out of the setting, of what happens to the character you think may be an antihero to explain your thinking.