Wanted (2008)

**tak sakaguchi** Qui Mar 12, 2009 11:10 am

A young man named Wesley Gibson works at a dead-end desk job with an overbearing boss, takes anti-anxiety medication for panic attacks, and has a live-in girlfriend who cheats on him with his best friend. During one of his trips to the pharmacy, Gibson is told by a mysterious woman named Fox that his father was a recently murdered assassin, and the killer, Cross, is behind him. Cross and Fox engage in a shoot-out followed by a car chase in the streets of Chicago. Fox brings Gibson to the headquarters of The Fraternity, a thousand-year-old secret society of assassins. The group's leader, Sloan, explains that Gibson's panic attacks are actually the untrained expression of a rare superhuman ability; when stressed he has drastically increased heart rate and adrenaline levels that result in bursts of superhuman strength, speed and reflexes. The Fraternity can teach him to control this ability, so Gibson can follow in his father's footsteps as an assassin, beginning by inheriting his fortune. Gibson is initially reluctant and returns to work, only to finally snap when discovering his online bank account balance is over 3 million dollars. He tells off his boss in front of the entire office and on his way out, hits his "friend" in the face with his keyboard. Fox is waiting outside to take him back to the Fraternity headquarters - an unassuming textile mill.

Gibson is then subjected to brutal training; among other forms of combat, he learns to curve bullets fired from smoothbore firearms around objects. Afterward, Gibson is shown the Loom of Fate, a loom that gives the names of the targets through binary code hidden in weaving errors of the fabric. Those the loom identifies are apparently destined to cause tragedy in the future; but only Sloan sees and interprets the names that "Fate" wants to kill. Gibson is initially reluctant about killing people. Then Fox reveals that in her childhood, a hired killer burned her father alive in front of her—and said hitman was supposed to be killed by the Fraternity. She considers that preventing such tragedy is now her mission.

After several routine missions and a chance meeting with Cross, in which Cross shoots him in the arm with a deliberately traceable bullet, Gibson becomes impatient and demands to be allowed to avenge his father. Sloan grants his wish, saying that Cross's name had come up on the loom, but then secretly gives Fox a mission to kill Gibson, saying that Gibson's name had come up as well. Analyzing the bullet that hit Gibson, it is discovered that the manufacturer was Pekwarsky, a bullet-maker that lives in eastern Moravia. Gibson and Fox travel there and capture Pekwarsky, who arranges a meeting with Cross. Gibson faces Cross alone on a moving train. Fox steals a car and crashes it into the train, eventually causing a derailment when the train reaches a bridge over a deep ravine. After Cross saves Gibson’s life by preventing him from falling into the ravine, he is shot by Gibson. Before dying, Cross reveals that he is Gibson's real father. Fox confirms the truth and explains that Gibson was recruited because he was the only person that Cross wouldn't kill. Fox then reveals the kill order on Gibson and raises her gun, but Gibson escapes by shooting out the glass underneath him and plunging into the river below.

Gibson is retrieved by Pekwarsky, who takes him to his father's apartment, located across the street from Gibson's old home—Cross was "only a camera-click away", as Pekwarsky states showing the photos Cross kept of Gibson since childhood. Pekwarsky explains that Sloan started manufacturing targets for profit after discovering that he was targeted by the Loom of Fate, and didn't tell the Fraternity members that they were now nothing more than paid killers. Cross discovered the truth and went rogue, and started killing Fraternity members to keep them away from his son. Pekwarsky departs stating that Gibson's father wished him a life free of violence. Gibson, however, decides to take out Sloan after discovering a secret room containing all of his father's weapons and maps. Upon entering Sloan's office after killing nearly every Fraternity member, he reveals Sloan's deception to the master assassins present in the room. Sloan then states that all of their names had come up in the weaving, and that he had merely acted to protect them. Were they to follow the code, every one of them should kill themselves on the spot. Otherwise, they should kill Gibson. Fox, who believes in the code more than anyone due to her own experience, turns on her fellow assassins, and "curves" a bullet that kills every Fraternity member in the room, including herself, but not Gibson. Sloan manages to escape.

Gibson, penniless once again, does not know what to do with himself. While Gibson provides a voice-over, the audience sees a man sitting in front of a computer much like Gibson did at the beginning of the film. Sloan appears and points a gun at back of the man's head. At that moment, the man turns around and is revealed to be a decoy. Sloan is then killed by Gibson using a long-distance untraceable bullet. Similar to the comic,[2] the film ends as Gibson turns to the camera and breaks the fourth wall, saying, "This is me taking back control of my life. What the fuck have you done lately?"

Cast
James McAvoy as Wesley Allan Gibson: A meek 24-year-old who works in a cubicle, but learns he is heir to a legacy of assassins.
Morgan Freeman as Sloan: Leader of the Fraternity, and assassin partner of Wesley Gibson's deceased father.
Angelina Jolie as Fox: One of the Fraternity assassins who mentors Gibson.
Thomas Kretschmann as Cross: A rogue assassin who has left the Fraternity.
Common as Earl Malcolm Spellman a.k.a. "The Gunsmith": A professional gunman who trains others to use weapons.
Konstantin Khabensky as The Exterminator: An expert in explosives who makes bombs and attached them to rats; secretly allied with Cross.
Marc Warren as The Repairman: An assassin who says he "breaks bad habits" by violently beating people.
Dato Bakhtadze as The Butcher: A master of knife work to the extent that he can block bullets.
Terence Stamp as Pekwarsky: A master in the science of killing. Pekwarsky operates as a rogue agent outside of The Fraternity. He is also a craftsman who is able to build bullets both untraceable and capable of traversing long distances.
David O'Hara as Mr. X: Said to be the greatest assassin and supposedly Wesley's father. His killing catalyzes Wesley's introduction to the Fraternity.
Chris Pratt as Barry: A co-worker of Gibson, who is also having an affair with his girlfriend.
Kristen Hager as Cathy: Gibson's unfaithful and bickering girlfriend.
Lorna Scott as Janice: Gibson's overbearing boss.