Repo Man (1984)

Young punk Otto becomes a repo man after helping to steal a car, and stumbles into a world of wackiness as a result.

Director:

Alex Cox

Writer:

Alex Cox

Stars:

Harry Dean Stanton, Emilio Estevez, Tracey Walter

2 wins & 3 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Harry Dean Stanton	...	Bud
Emilio Estevez	...	Otto
Tracey Walter	...	Miller
Olivia Barash	...	Leila
Sy Richardson	...	Lite
Susan Barnes	...	Agent Rogersz
Fox Harris	...	J. Frank Parnell
Tom Finnegan	...	Oly
Del Zamora	...	Lagarto
Eddie Velez	...	Napo
Zander Schloss	...	Kevin
Jennifer Balgobin	...	Debbi
Dick Rude	...	Duke
Miguel Sandoval	...	Archie (as Michael Sandoval)
Vonetta McGee	...	Marlene

Storyline

Frustrated punk rocker Otto quits his supermarket job after slugging a co-worker, and is later dumped by his girlfriend at a party. Wandering the streets in frustration, he is recruited in the repossession of a car by a repo agent. After discovering his parents have donated his college fund to a televangelist, he joins the repossession agency (Helping Hand Acceptance Corporation) as an apprentice "repo man". During his training, he is introduced into the mercenary and paranoid world of the drivers, befriended by a UFO conspiracy theorist, confronted by rival repo agents, discovers some of his one-time friends have turned to a life of crime, is lectured to near cosmic unconsciousness by the repo agency grounds worker, and finds himself entangled in a web of intrigue concerning a huge repossession bounty on a 1964 Chevy Malibu driven by a lunatic government scientist, with Top Secret cargo in the trunk.

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Plot Keywords:

car trunk | radioactivity | punk rocker | black comedy | los angeles california | 

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Taglines:

A repo man is always intense... but only a fool gets killed for a car.

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Genres:

Comedy | Crime | Sci-Fi | Thriller

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Certificate:

R

Details

Official Sites:

Alex Cox

Country:

USA

Language:

English Spanish

Release Date:

2 March 1984 (USA)

Also Known As:

El reclamador

Filming Locations:

Los Alamos, California, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$1,500,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend USA:

$95,300, 4 March 1984

Gross USA:

$129,000

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$129,000

Company Credits

Production Co:

Edge City

Technical Specs

Runtime:

92 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Filming a scene in which Bud brandishes a bat at the Rodriguez brothers, Harry Dean Stanton wanted a real bat and did actually use it in one take, swinging it around recklessly. The other cast members were (relatively) OK with it, but Robby Müller took Alex Cox aside and said: "Just now I felt the wind of a wooden baseball bat pass over my face. I will not shoot this scene unless all the actors use plastic bats." Unsurprisingly, Stanton was furious when asked to use a plastic bat, screaming out that "Harry Dean Stanton only uses REAL baseball bats." A literal tug of war ensued over the bat, much to the amusement of the crew. Fortunately, a quick-witted production assistant was able to swap the wooden bat out for a plastic one.

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Goofs

Reflected in the glass above the door before Otto leaves the market for the second time.

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Quotes

Duke: You say our names, we're going to have to kill all these people, Archie.

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Crazy Credits

Credits scroll down instead of up

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Alternate Versions

The 'current' UK video version (released by Universal) has masked the camera tracks visible in the scene leading up to the store robbery. These tracks WERE visible in the CIC video version (released in the mid-80s).

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Connections

Referenced in Forty Years of Fuck (2005)

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Soundtracks

TV Party
Written by Greg Ginn
Performed by Black Flag
Courtesy of Unicorn Records

User Reviews

Best punk movie ever

Today most part of culture is based in consume: we are what we dress, what we drink, what we eat. The punk scene started more that twenty years ago because the young and bold realized this, unfurtunately, we still are what we consume. Repo-man is the best picture I´ve seen that resembles the punk sesibilities of "no future" and "anarchy" and its no wonder Alex Cox later directed Sid and Nancy. In this movie you can find that ugly stetic, nihilistic breath and the wasted youth of the young people who crashes to the capitalistic jaws of a system understood by few. This is one hell of a movie, and 18 years later after being being made, it ended being profetic. In fact,1999`s Figth Club seems to me like Repo Man updated, and the X-files and MIB are previewed here. Repo Man is a brave masterpiece on the "no future"