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, Limited Release

Gross USA:

$3,569,083

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$3,750,080

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

Miller talks about the cosmic unconsciousness: "You'll be thinking about a plate of shrimp, and all of a sudden someone will say plate, or shrimp, or plate of shrimp." Later, the two Latinos who've stolen the "Asimov" car park outside a diner which features a huge sign in one of its windows reading: PLATE O' SHRIMP $2.95.

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Goofs

When Otto first enters the Helping Hands building, Marlene is on the phone. The camera then cuts to her and she is holding a pen instead of the phone.

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Quotes

Miller: The more you drive, the less intelligent you are.

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Crazy Credits

Credits scroll down instead of up

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Alternate Versions

The UK video version (both Universal and CIC) misses out a section where 'Asimov' speaks to Kevin at the gas station. Instead it just cuts from him getting out of the car, to him making a rather odd sighing noise and wandering off.

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Connections

Referenced in The King of Queens: Depo Man (2001)

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Soundtracks

Repo Man Theme Song
Written and Performed by Iggy Pop

User Reviews

What an empty life we live!

Watching "Repo Man", one gets a sense of just how empty our modern world is. The movie has disaffected punk Otto Maddox (Emilio Estevez) becoming a repo man, meaning that he repossesses cars of people who missed payments. Through this, he gets to know the wacky punk world even further. But there's one car that may be harder to repossess: not only do various other people want this car, but there's something in the car...

"Repo Man" may be known as a cult movie, but it deserves more recognition than that. Aside from being a window into the early-'80s punk culture, it shows the disintegration of American society. Alex Cox created a real gem here. Estevez is perfect in his role, as are Harry Dean Stanton as a detective, and Tracey Walter as the strange car's driver.