SABOTAGE
US, 2014, 109 minutes, Colour.
Arnold Schwarzenegger, Sam Worthington, Joe Manganiello, Josh Holloway, Terrence Howard, Max Martini, Kevin Vance, Mireille Enos, Martin Donovan.
Directed by David Ayer.
What is a governor of California do when he finishes his terms? Return to his original profession? Yes, and that is what Arnold Schwarzenegger has done after his time as Governor. He immediately started to make movies again including The Expendables, Escape Plan, Last Man Standing and Sabotage – and then moving back into Terminator territory.
This is a fairly grim film, very much in the vein of other films by the director, David Ayer, Harsh Times, Street Kings, End of Watch, Fury. Much of it is quite brutal and visually ugly, not afraid to present blood and gore and brutal killings. Arnold is Breacher.
At the beginning, we see a sting set-up on a cartel leader, one of Breacher’s picked squad of DEA agents, Lizzie (Mireille Enos) blowing the whistle in the middle of a sexual encounter. The squad has been waiting, in they come, looking for the stash of money, siphoning off $7 million down the toilet bowl into the drain, making their escape but finding that someone had taken the money. The powers-that-be interrogate each of the members of the squad about the money and what they did in the raid. There are no accusations of guilt and, finally, the squad is allowed to go back to work.
They are really hard-living, hard-drinking, some hard drug-taking and an extraordinarily macho attitude, even with Lizzie. She is married to Monster, played by Sam Worthington, a kind of second in charge to Arnold, Breach. She is emotionally entangled with Sugar, played by Terence Howard. Things become much more complicated when members of the group are murdered in spectacular ways – one killed in his caravan dragged onto an oncoming train, another nailed to the roof, another attacked at his farm, another killed by sniper shot. There is obviously sabotage and Lizzie and Sugar are after the money, which leads to one of those spectacular chases expected in this kind of film.
One of the main interests in the film is the arrival of the local police chief, played in a very tough way by British Olivia Williams, who asserts authority, tangles with Breacher, finds that she is used to get more information from clues brought in, that the initial assassins are holed-up in an apartment block have been killed – and that Breacher has a mind of his own about the use of the money, to be paid to informants who will give information about the abduction and torture and death of his wife and son (which is seen on a video at various times throughout the film).
A lot of audiences with some fine sensibilities might find the story, the characters and some of the violent action too much.
1. A tough thriller? Action drama? The work of the director and his action style and intensity?
2. Arnold Schwarzenegger, his image, his career, after his governorship? Law and deception? DEA?
3. Georgia, the squad, their bases, police officers, the cartels and their mansions and wealth? Musical score?
4. Action, groom, blood and guts, direct?
5. The title, the squad, the mystery within the squad?
6. The opening, the cartels and their decadence, Lizzie and her behaviour, drugs, the sexual encounter? Her earpiece, giving the word? The squad, waiting, the contact, the signal, the attack, the shootouts, the deaths? The title, finding the money? Removing the toilet bowl, putting the cash down? Burning the vast amount of money? The escape, finding the money gone?
7. The introduction with Bleacher and his watching the video, his wife, the torture, the explanation, watching it again and again, his revenge? The motivation, the deception in taking the money, and using it to buy information for vengeance for his wife?
8. The squad, as a team, their being interviewed by the authorities, their stories? Their personalities, nicknames, the lifestyle, hard, drinking, drugs, the capacity for violence? No real personal life? Monster and his friendship with John, his marriage to Lizzie, the betrayal by Sugar? Grinder and the others?
9. The authorities, investigations, the video of the interrogations and it being given to Caroline?
10. The deaths of the members of the squad? The man in his trailer, put on the train line, his death? The member nailed to the roof? The assassins coming to the man and his house in the woods? The shooting of Grinder through the window? The mystery?
11. Going back to work, their being reinstated, wanting the money? Lizzie and motives, drugs, with Sugar, the betrayal of Monster? Monster and his confidential talks with Bleacher?
12. The reactions to the deaths?
13. Caroline, tough, her appearance, business-like, her partner from the office, the murders happening on her watch? Her appearance, style? The train
death and putting down the markers? Interviewing John? The man nailed? Wanting information from the authorities, the resistance, urging her to write? Their concealing the information? Going to the mortuary, the surveillance, the fingerprints?
14. The relationship with John, the night with him, breaking her tough attitude? Her being used? To flush out the criminals?
15. The fingerprints, the identification, the group living in the apartment block? The police going for arrests, John and the squad, the attack, the deaths, sparing the children and women? Caroline and her disillusionment?
16. The shooting of the thugs who did the assassination, employed by the cartels?
17. Lizzie and Sugar, the escape, the chase throughout the city, the dangers, the shootings? The deaths?
18. John, taking the money, going to Mexico, going to informants, offering the money for information?
19. A harsh action film, the presentation of the hard agents and lives and pressures, government officials?
