Repo Men (2010)

Set in the near future when artificial organs can be bought on credit, it revolves around a man who struggles to make the payments on a heart he has purchased. He must therefore go on the run before said ticker is repossessed.

Director:

Miguel Sapochnik

Writers:

Eric Garcia (screenplay), Garrett Lerner (screenplay),

Stars:

Jude Law, Forest Whitaker, Alice Braga

2 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Jude Law	...	Remy
Forest Whitaker	...	Jake
Alice Braga	...	Beth
Liev Schreiber	...	Frank
Carice van Houten	...	Carol
Chandler Canterbury	...	Peter
Joe Pingue	...	Ray
Liza Lapira	...	Alva
Tiffany Espensen	...	Little Alva
Yvette Nicole Brown	...	Rhodesia
RZA	...	T-Bone
Wayne Ward	...	John
Tanya Clarke	...	Hooker
Max Turnbull	...	Larry the Lung
Howard Hoover	...	Salesman

Storyline

In the future humans have extended and improved our lives through highly sophisticated and expensive mechanical organs created by a company called "The Union". The dark side of these medical breakthroughs is that if you don't pay your bill, "The Union" sends its highly skilled repo men to take back its property... with no concern for your comfort or survival. Former soldier Remy is one of the best organ repo men in the business. But when he suffers a cardiac failure on the job, he awakens to find himself fitted with the company's top-of-the-line heart-replacement... as well as a hefty debt. But a side effect of the procedure is that his heart's no longer in the job. When he can't make the payments, The Union sends its toughest enforcer, Remy's former partner Jake, to track him down.

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Plot Keywords:

future | near future | artificial organ | enforcer | best friend | 

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Taglines:

New Eye: $345.000

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Genres:

Action | Crime | Sci-Fi | Thriller

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Certificate:

18A

Details

Official Sites:

Official site Official site [Spain]

Country:

USA Canada

Language:

English Spanish

Release Date:

19 March 2010 (Canada)

Also Known As:

Repreneurs

Filming Locations:

Bay subway station, Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Box Office

Budget:

$32,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend:

£182,798 (UK) (16 April 2010)

Gross:

£182,798 (UK) (16 April 2010)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Universal Pictures, Relativity Media, Stuber Productions

Technical Specs

Runtime:

111 min 119 min (unrated)

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital DTS SDDS

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

There's a scene showing a sign for Jarvik St. It's actually Jarvis St. in Toronto. Jarvik is the name of the man who created the first artificial heart.

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Goofs

Jake and Frank are denied access to the reclamation room because they lack an Artiforg to scan and are forced to scavenge one from a dead guard, despite being surrounded by dead Repo men who presumably had numerous reclaimed Artiforgs already in their possession.

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Quotes

Mr. Smythe's Date: [Remy is about to reclaim Mr. Smythe's liver] Hey. Hey!
[hits hard Remy]
Remy: Ouch!
Mr. Smythe's Date: Don't you fucking touch me!
Remy: No need for violence, Miss!
[she tries to hit him again, but Remy shoots her]

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Crazy Credits

An advertisement screen for The Union appears at the end of the closing credits.

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Connections

Features The Meaning of Life (1983)

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Soundtracks

5446 Was My Number
Written by Toots Hibbert (as Frederick Hibbert)
Performed by Toots & The Maytals (as The Maytals)
Courtesy of Sanctuary Records Group
Under license from Universal Music Enterprises

User Reviews

A nonsensical world and a botched attempt at social commentary.

Repo Men could have been a really cool cyberpunk type movie, but it wasn't. Think Bladerunner but not as gritty, intelligent, or good. Jude Law and Forrest Whittaker play a pair of repo men that work for an evil corporation that manufactures and distributes artificial human organs. When people fall behind on their payments the repo men come to take the organs back. I don't really understand the business model being used in this movie. The organs cost in the neighborhood of $600,000 and the interest rate on the loan of the organ is 19.95%. The salesman have a variety of payment plans available for a variety of lifestyles should you not be able to afford to buy the organ up front. Throughout the movie organs are repossessed from alcoholics, drug addicts, criminals, the homeless, and just about everyone else you wouldn't give a loan or an organ to. Sure the corporation just hunts them down and takes back their organs, but why did they give them out in the first place? It turns out that they do that because if they didn't Jude Law and Forrest Whittaker wouldn't have anything to do and the movie would resemble the Maytag repairman commercials. Anyway, things are going poorly for Jude Law because his wife has problems with her husband going out an effectively murdering people. Law decides to give up the repo business after one last job. Unfortunately for Law he suffers an accident that damages his heart and he has to get an artificial one. After recovering he no longer looks at things the same and can no longer carve people up for a living. As a result Law falls behind on his payments and his heart is ordered to be reclaimed.

The movie doesn't do a very good job establishing why the company can just go out and hack people up, or why nobody seems interested in stopping them when they are. I guess the audience is just supposed to assume the corporation controls everything. With the high body count that Law and Whittaker rack up, just in the first half hour, it's a wonder that anyone is left alive at all, nobody seems to be paying for their organs. The public at large seems to be oblivious to this fact because all it takes is a few soothing words from the sales rep and they all sign on the dotted line. The big problem with Repo Men is that it simply isn't very believable and the movie makes very little effort to make it so.