Unstoppable Hero: Man on Fire

July 25th, 2010 | By Rono | 2,280 views | 4 Comments »

How do you give a protagonist a reason to be a juggernaut that can steamroll all enemies without fail and still give him a flawed human side? You start him up as a suicidal, drunk, out-of-shape ex-mercenary repent and looking for salvation, up against an entire corrupt organization merchandising perversion and death. In Man on Fire, John Creasy, played by Oscar winner Denzel Washington, comes to Mexico to visit his old friend Rayburn (Christopher Walken) and stays to try a new life as a bodyguard for an adorable Lupita Ramos (Dakota Fanning).

Big fish Victor Fuentes (Jesús Ochoa) provides information to Creasy (Denzel Washington) before his punishment.

Mexico is painted as the capital of kidnapping with 70% of the victims losing their lives. A city with a deeply corrupt police force and an far-reaching and powerful criminal institution that looks as established as branches of the local government.

Creasy, the beginning

Creasy and Pita get along well after a rocky start. She thinks he is her new toy, her Creasy Bear. He is uncomfortable around her at first. But they win each other over and deep trust starts to bloom. They become friends.

Creasy, before becoming a man on fire, is a man with demons, fighting bottle and nightmares.

Creasy is struggling with the bottle, a fight that he seems to be losing in the beginning, until he finally turns the gun he keeps fidgeting with toward his temple. It misfires. He then wakes up. Not a minute too soon. Despite of everything, he does play a likable character and we want to see him succeed. he is competent, he used to be good in his days, he is humble, he reads his bible; he describes himself as “the sheep that got lost.”

Creasy's and Pita's relationship takes a positive turn symbolized by her victory at the swim competition. They both trained hard for it.

Creasy turns himself around

His relationship with his young client improves; they become closer as they spend a lot of time together. He helps her homework, he coaches her until she wins the swim competition and they celebrate with Rayburn and his wife. The symbol of their friendship is a necklace of St Jude that she offers him for his birthday.

Pita's (played by Dakota Fanning) birthday present to her friend, mentor and bodyguard Creasy: "Saint Jude, patron saint of lost causes."

Pita is kidnapped

The serious problems start when he notices a car following them one day. Then it happens; upon exiting her piano lesson, and despite a tough gunfight where Creasy is hit few times in the torso, Pita is taken. Creasy is left alone, bleeding on the sidewalk. He took out two of the kidnappers: corrupt cops.

While not in perfect shape, Creasy can do some damage. He is still a good shot.

It is all about to get worse. The ransom money drop is ambushed. The boss’s nephew dies in the brawl. So Pita is presumed dead. Creasy’s life is in danger, Rayburn and Manzano (Giancarlo Giannini) decide to move him to a vet clinic instead. There we learn of the Brotherhood that protects the criminal establishment.

Man on fire

As soon as he can get back to his feet, while not completely healed (he is still bleeding), Creasy gets to work; his new mission is to severely punish anyone who hurt his Pita. First things first: he supplies himself in weapons and ammo. Enough firepower for a small army. He finds a valuable ally in Mariana a journalist who thinks he is a scoop. And so the hunt begins.

Creasy becomes a predator violently working his way to the truth. He has no choice.

CREASY

Revenge is a mean best served
cold.

The bodyguard starts working his way up the hierarchy looking for whoever had a hand in Pita’s loss. He uses his paramilitary skills to extract information from one of the cops involved. The thug is executed. Then he dispatches members of the gang in a night club; he comes out with more information and another kidnapped young girl. He now knows who he is looking for.

One-man-army Creasy goes after Victor Fuentes who is, in Mariana’s words, “better protected than the president of Mexico.” The police official travels by motorcade, but Creasy is properly equipped for a motorcade. The job is quick and painless. Fuentes ends up tied up with a bomb expertly inserted in his body (we will not tell where). He drops the name Jordan Kalfus before vanishing in a flash of C4, begging for his life.

Victor Fuentes is erased in a big flash of C4. Creasy's next target: Jordan Kalfus (Mickey Rourke).

He finds Jordan Kalfus floating face down, a dead leaf, in his own pool. The trails leads back to the Ramos family. An angry Creasy questions the Ramos about the money that seemed to have been split between the lawyer and unknowns. Samuel Ramos (Marc Anthony) concedes he had agreed to the kidnapping to pay off his father’s debt. Creasy leaves him his gun and lucky bullet so he can find salvation.

Creasy’s investigation finally leads to The Voice, the gang leader. Manzano asks Mariana to risk it and they publish his picture in the local paper despite death threats.

The showdown

Finally, Creasy has reached the higher echelon of the organization. He breaks in the family’s house. After a quick fight where he is shot once more, he rounds up the brother and the ex-wife. For the first time he can talk to Daniel Sanchez the kidnapper in chief. And there is the bombshell: Pita is alive. Now the mission is a rescue. Creasy accepts to give himself up and the kidnapper’s injured brother in exchange for her freedom.

The final stretch lands a bombshell: Pita (Dakota Fanning) is still alive.

Finale

Shot several times, and slowly bleeding for half the story, John W. Creasy, bulldozes a gang of kidnappers to avenge the loss of the little angel who was in his care. He patched himself just enough to stay alive and accomplish his mission. His concern was never to survive. He was only interested in succeeding and erasing criminal and their accomplices off the face of the earth.

Mission accomplished.

Man on Fire depicts a story of sacrifice and redemption. A mercenary looking for forgiveness makes up for a failure by systematically hunting down all those who hurt his protégée. He does so with expert dexterity; by the end, he regains his former skills and uses them to finish his mission.

RAYBURN

Creasy's art is death. He's about
to paint his masterpiece.

He meets Lisa Ramos (Radha Mitchell) at the final exchange location. The reunion between Creasy and Pita is a rewarding moment. John W. Creasy then courageously walk into harm’s way and bleeds to death in the gang’s car on his way to Lord-Knows-Where. It does not matter: the hero dies in the end, but his mission is accomplished. Lisa gets her daughter back intact; mother and child can drive home safely.