Genre: Drama/Thriller
Director: Nicolas Winding Refn
Writer: Roy Horne
Based on the anime
Cast: Mackenzie Foy, Russell Crowe, Justice Smith, Ron Perlman, Gretchen Mol, Noah Centineo
Plot: Sadie (Mackenzie Foy) leaves her Catholic high school and starts walking home in her uniform. When she enters her family's home, she finds both of her parents dead, evidently tortured then shot in the head. The detective who arrives on the scene, Detective Carlsbad (Russell Crowe), offers to take Sadie in to live with him and his wife Estella (Gretchen Mol) when he discovers that she has no living relatives to stay with. The first night in the Carlsbad home is awkward. Sadie, despite still being in shock, observes that Carlsbad and his wife have a cold, contemptuous relationship.
Sadie goes out on a date with her older boyfriend Josh (Noah Centineo). Josh is pretty unsympathetic toward Sadie's recent situation, and is more interested in trying to pressure her into having sex with him. At this point Sadie just wants to be held, and is about to give in to Josh's demands of sex when suddenly Josh's head explodes with a bang. Police officers arrive on the scene, and when Sadie gives them her name they immediately know to call Detective Carlsbad. When Carlsbad arrives on the scene, he dismisses the other officers. He asks Sadie what she was doing out, and she says that she just wanted to go out and feel normal and do what other girls her age are up to. Carlsbad gives Sadie a hug and tells her that he's just glad that she is okay. Sadie closes her eyes and sinks into Carlsbad's hug.
Carlsbad is driving Sadie home when he suddenly pulls over the car in front of a house. He tells her that the man who killed her parents is inside the house, and asks her if she wants him to arrest them or if she would like to get revenge. Sadie sheds a tear and Carlsbad hands her a gun. Sadie walks up to the door and knocks. An imposing man, Louis (Ron Perlman), answers the door. Sadie immediately shoots him in the shoulder. Louis goes flying backwards. Sadie steps into the house, closing the door behind her. She demands to know why he killed her parents. He claims to not know what she's talking about, so she shoots him in the leg. Louis tells her that he was simply paid to kill them. She asks who, but he doesn't say, so Sadie shoots him in the other leg. Louis begins pulling himself away from Sadie, only able to use his one arm that hasn't been affected by gunshot wounds. She demands to know who paid him to kill her parents once again, but he still won't say, simply telling her that they can do far worse to him than she ever could. Sadie shoots him in his good arm, before walking over to a phone and calling an ambulance. Sadie walks back outside and gets in Carlsbad's car. He asks if she killed him, but he knows his answer when he sees an ambulance pull up.
When they get back to Carlsbad's home, he asks Sadie for his gun back and she gives it to him. Sadie goes straight to her room. Carlsbad finds his wife passed out, wine glass in hand. He fixes himself a drink, which he quickly shotguns. He tries to wake Estella up, but she's out cold. Carlsbad then makes another drink and walks into Sadie's room. She was in the process of changing, and quickly ducks under the covers of her bed. Carlsbad is unphased by her lack of clothes and simply sits down on her bed and starts takes a sip of his drink. She asks what he wants, and he tells her he just wanted some company. He pulls away her blanket. Sadie is frozen, unsure how to react. Carlsbad lays back onto the bed and puts his arm around Sadie. At first she resists, but happy to finally be held like she wanted, she scoots her body in closer to Carlsbad and falls asleep naked in his arms.
The next day, Carlsbad gives Sadie a gift. A gun of her very own. He tells her that it's a dangerous world out there and that she should not hesitate to use it. He takes her to a gun range out in the country. Sadie clearly enjoys firing the gun, with a smile making its way across her face for the first time since before her parents' death. As they get in the car to leave, Sadie, clearly invigorated by the trip to gun range, asks Carlsbad if he wants to have sex with her. They proceed to have sex in the back of Carlsbad's car as the distant sounds of gunshots ring out from the gun range.
At school, a fellow student, Oscar (Justice Smith), approaches Sadie and asks her to go to a dance with him. She isn't interested and says that she's still getting over the death of Josh and isn't looking to date again anytime soon. He tells her that he understands, but gives her his number in case she changes her mind. The end bell rings, and Oscar watches as Sadie exits the building and gets into Carlsbad's car.
Sadie and Carlsbad take another trip out to the gun range. This time they are the only ones there. Carlsbad takes out an assault rifle and hands it to Sadie, pointing out the various features of the deadly weapon. She fires the rifle repeatedly, turning the range's paper target into shreds.
Sadie heads to the hospital to see Louis. He hasn't provided the police any information on the death of Sadie's parents nor his encounter with Sadie. She asks him if he's ready yet to tell her who paid him to kill her parents. Louis says that if she really wants to know that he'll tell her, but that she's not going to like the answer. Just then, the door to the hospital room is kicked open and a gun is fired at Louis' head, with the bullet exploding his head. Sadie turns and catches a fleeting glimpse of the shooter, who she recognizes as Oscar from school. Sadie escapes through the window in the hospital room, climbing down a drain pipe outside the building, down to the ground below.
That night, Sadie sends Oscar a text asking to meet up with him. He tells her to meet him at the playground of a local elementary school. Sadie arrives early and swings on a swing at the playground. When Oscar arrives, he sits down on the swing next to hers. She tells him that she knows that he killed Louis as well as Josh, and asks why. He replies that it's his job, he kills people for money. She wants to know who paid him to kill those two, but he says that he can't tell her. She jumps off her swing and pulls a gun on Oscar. She says that she will kill him if he doesn't tell her who hired him. He tells her to go ahead and kill him, he surely deserves it at this point, but that he cannot give her the client's identity. Sadie gets frustrated and walks away from the playground. Oscar goes after her. Once he catches up, Oscar tells her that his parents were killed a year earlier and that he was trained to kill by Louis. He isn't sure who hired him to kill Louis or Josh, and he prefers to keep it that way.
While laying naked together in Sadie's bed, Carlsbad asks Sadie if she would like to help him with something. She says yes, and they get dressed and head out to his car. They drive out to the warehouse district. He tells her that one of the warehouses houses a child pornography operation and that the leader recently escaped prosecution due to some botched paperwork. He tells her that they need to be killed and asks for Sadie to do it. Sadie enters the warehouse with Carlsbad's assault rifle. Inside the building, she encounters Oscar, who tells her that he was hired to kill the child pornographers and asks what she's doing there. She tells him that she's doing someone a favor. Together they kill all the child pornographers. Afterwards, Oscar tells Sadie that it was fun killing alongside her, before they both leave through different exits.
The next day, Carlsbad is sitting in a diner when Oscar sits down across from him. Carlsbad gives Oscar a bag of money and gets up to leave. Once he is outside of the diner, Carlsbad presses a button on his phone, and the diner explodes, killing everyone inside, including Oscar.
Sadie gets out of the shower and notices an envelope on her bed. Assuming it is a present from Carlsbad, she eagerly opens it. Inside is a USB drive. She plugs the drive into her computer and finds that it only contains one lone video file. She plays the video, which depicts Carlsbad hiring Louis to kill Sadie's parents, the video then cuts to Carlsbad hiring Oscar to kill Josh and Louis. A confused Sadie walks through the house to see if Carlsbad is home. Estella asks Sadie if she would like a glass of wine, since something is clearly on her mind, but Sadie says that she wants a clear head for what she's about to do.
Sadie waits at the gun range for Carlsbad. When he arrives she gives him a kiss before pulling a gun out on him. He asks what she thinks she's doing, and she says she isn't sure exactly but that it simply feels right. She pulls the trigger and Carlsbad's head explodes, clearly she used one of Oscar's bullets. Sadie gets in Carlsbad's car and drives away from the city and the gun range and toward the desert.
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