The Question - Writer Commentary
Genre: Action/Superhero
Director: Nicolas Winding Refn
Writer: D.R. Cobb
Based on DC Comics characters
Cast: Ryan Gosling, Christina Hendricks, Ray Winstone, John Malkovich, Mads Mikkelsen, Hong Chau
Plot: Charles Victor Szasz (Ryan Gosling), stands in the rain outside a shack on the wharf in a blue fedora and matching trenchcoat. Inside, three men huddle around a card game. A voice on the TV inside announces a special report from KBEL's Vic Sage, and as if it were his cue, Szasz puts a foot through the door of the shack, and tells the men inside that they possess a tape he wants. The men stand and challenge him. Szasz responds by elbowing the biggest of them, sending him crashing into the TV. A second man advances, swinging wildly. His punches miss, but Szasz's counter-punches all connect. A woman looks on silently. Szasz swings a chair at the third man, knocking him to the ground. The biggest man, recovered from the earlier hit grabs at Szasz's face, but whatever covers his face won't come off. Szasz kicks him in the face. It is now clear that Szasz has no face. He demands the tape from the one thug that isn't out cold. The thug goes over to a safe and pulls out a tape. The thug asks who he is. In response, Szasz hands him a white card with a question mark written on it.[1]
[1] It's been a long time since I've truly taken a look at this film, but hopefully I can remember enough of my head space at that time to keep things interesting. I feel that the biggest challenge about bringing a character such as The Question to the big screen was probably the lack of character recognition. He isn't one of the big characters and he's never been featured in live-action film or television. This opening sequence was to help the audience know what kind of movie they got themselves in to.
Szasz climbs into his car and speeds away. He pulls away the featureless mask, revealing himself to be Vic Sage. [2] Szasz arrives outside KBEL studios. Szasz/Sage enters the production room and hands the tape to the news director. The tape contains footage of the Hub City Commissioner of Schools snorting cocaine with a woman Sage ties to a man who he believes blackmailed his way into a lucrative building contract with the school district.
[2] In hindsight, I wish I had skipped using The Question's full name of Charles Victor Szasz and just called him Vic Sage without the mask. Introducing multiple names for a character so early into a film was probably a mistake. As you may have noticed, in the sequels he is just referred to as Vic Sage when not in his Question costume.
Mayor Wesley Fermin (John Malkovich) watches the report with Reverend Hatch (Ray Winstone) and one of the thugs from the wharf. [3] The thug asks what they should do about Sage. Hatch suggests getting him fired, but the thug cites Sage's ratings a reason the station would keep him on. The Reverend then suggests that Lady Shiva (Hong Chau) could teach him a lesson. Shiva, the woman who watched the earlier fight, agrees to do what they wish.
[3] John Malkovich was always my first choice for the role of Mayor Fermin when I was writing the film. The role of Reverend Hatch however came down to two actors: Ray Winstone and Ian McShane. I flip-flopped on the decision a lot, but once production was approaching we simply had to make a decision and went with Winstone. That said, I love what Winstone brought to do role with the menace he can provide. I knew there wouldn't be a wrong choice with how talented both Winstone and McShane are.
Lady Shiva attacks Szasz/Sage as he gets home from the TV station. Shiva has Szasz heavily overmatched, but during the course of the fight realizes that Sage is the man from the wharf. She decides to spare his life and just make it look like he's dead.
Mayor Fermin admires Vic's co-worker Myra Connelly (Christina Hendricks) [4] on television as she reports the disappearance of Vic Sage.
[4] I like to think that her performance in this film is what helped catapult the wonderful and beautiful Christina Hendricks to leading roles with the studio.
Shiva sends Sage on a helicopter that drops him off in the middle of nowhere, where he meets a wheelchair-bound man in a small cabin. The man, Richard (Mads Mikkelsen), offers to teach Sage the ways of the warrior, but first Sage must chop wood. [5]
[5] Given that this is The Question's first appearance anywhere, I felt it was important to give a bit of his origin, but it was certainly necessary to give some sort of background information.
Sage spends the next year under Richard's tutelage, training his mind, his body and his soul, until one day while tilling the garden, Richard announces that school is out. Richard tells him that he must make his own way. He tells him that his passion isn't fighting, it's curiosity. Lady Shiva emerges from the shadows and disagrees with Richard. Shiva gives Sage a key to a locker containing his suit, fedora and mask.
Sage hitchhikes back to civilization, where he finds his suit, fedora and mask right where Shiva said they'd be. He refamiliarizes himself with the featureless mask, and breaks into the Mayor's mansion. [6]
[6] In the comics, The Question used a binary gas that would bind his mask to his face and change the color of his hair and clothing. This was one of the biggest aspects of the comics that was left out of the films, as well as the presence of Dr. Aristotle Rodor, who created the mask substance.
Meanwhile, Rev. Hatch tells Myra stories of his time as a chaplain in the Army, but is interrupted by someone singing "Danny Boy." The Question appears before Hatch.
The Question stands before the grovelling figure of Rev. Hatch, demanding that he pray. Myra appears in the doorway and asks who he is. The Question does not answer, but only speak her name. Then Hatch swings a steel fire poker at The Question's head. The Question ducks it, and kicks Hatch into the fireplace. Hatch's clothing catches fire, and he crashes through the window.
Myra takes the Question by the arm, leading him to her room before guards arrive. He asks her why she's helping him. She says that she hopes he can help her. The guards arrive and demand to check Myra's room, but she calls their bluff by stepping out into the hallway in a skimpy bustier. The sheepish guards retreat. [7]
[7] I really wanted to make sure that Myra didn't seem like too much of a damsel in distress even in circumstances she finds herself in. She knows the situation and is simply doing what she has to do for the greater good, even if it means having to share a bed with a weasel like Fermin. Having an actress who can play strong, confident women as well as Hendricks can really helped get that point across.
The Question asks why they called her Mrs. Fermin. She tells him that it's a forced marriage, that Hatch threatened to hurt her daughter otherwise. She tells him that Hatch plans to blow up a schoolbus full of white children to frame a local black leader. She leads the Question to the back door and asks him to hit her. She shows the guards her bruise and misdirects their attention while the Question leaps over a fence.
The Question goes to the school district bus garage, where the watchman informs him that he's the second nutjob to show up. Sage asks for the schedule and the watchman tells him there isn't one - it's Martin Luther King Day. But a bus recently left to take a group of kids from the suburbs to see the black leader make a speech. Sage adds up the facts and realizes that someone must have been sen to distract the watchmen while the other planted the bomb.
The Question races his car down the snowy streets. Hatch's thug questions Myra about her helping the Question escape the previous night. He holds a picture of her daughter in his hands, threatens her and rips up the picture.
Sage catches up to the bus, and notices a green van following it. He rams his car into the side of the van, he leaps from his car onto the van. He shoves one guy out the door and struggles with the driver, until he knocks him out of the van too. He pulls the van up alongside the bus and gets the driver to pull over. He searches the bus for the bomb, finding it in the back. The timer is down to 30 seconds. Sage grabs the bomb and throws it away from the bus before it explodes. [8]
[8] Given that The Question doesn't have any powers and he lacks the gadgetry of a Batman or Blue Beetle, I thought it was important to keep the action incredibly grounded. That said, being an action movie we still needed some set piece scenes, with the bus sequence being one of the big ones. I wanted it to feel more along the lines of something like Dirty Harry, rather than a big Marvel movie or even a Batman movie.
Later, the police arrive, but only get reports of a guy with no face from the kids. The two men from the van are tied up next to a white card with a question mark written on it.
Sage drives his heavily damaged car to the orphanage. He asks to see Jackie. A nun directs him to a little girl building a snowman. He introduces himself. Jackie and her friends ask him to build a snowman with them. Two cops watch through binoculars, planning a kidnapping. They're waiting for a nun and a man (Sage) to leave. The nun recognizes Sage from TV and asks if he once lived at St. Catherine's. He says yes. The nun confides in Sage, that the orphanage faces financial problems and may be shut down. The two policemen interrupt the conversation to say they're taking Jackie to her mother. Sage intervenes and one of the cops shoves him. Sage knocks him to the ground. The other cop puts his gun to the nun's head, and they take Jackie.
Sage figures out they're taking Jackie to control her mother Myra. He climbs into his car and gives chase, but the damage is too much and the car won't start.
Mayor Fermin wakes up ad finds his way downstairs to his car, drives it through the front of the garage, and into a tree across the road from the estate. The Question watches as the guards rush to help him. Hatch meets Myra upstairs and orders her to dress Jackie in a new suit of clothes. He tells her to have the girl ready by midnight. She asks why, and Hatch replies with Genesis 22.
Outside the Spot Bar and Grill, two policemen find an empty place where their car once was. Vic Sage drives through the front gates of the Mayor's estate, claiming he's been sent for to take Mayor Fermin to the hospital. Myra walks to the Mayor's library, grabs a copy of the Bible to find Genesis 22, the chapter where God calls for Abraham to sacrifice Isaac. [9]
[9] Originally I considered simply having Hatch explain the verse to Myra (and the audience), but Myra having to seek out what Hatch meant in the library kept her character more active.
Sage parks his car behind the Mayor's house and transforms into the Question. Hatch has Myra bound and shows her a long, sharp knife. The Question's gloved fist sends a thug flying into a wall. The Question asks where Myra is. One thug grabs a flamethrower, but the Question knocks it away from him. A pair of drapes catch flame. The fire is quickly too large to contain.
Myra continues trying to talk Hatch out of whatever he's planning. He reveals that he's not a real minister: he was kicked out of seminary for mental instability. He fooled his way into the army, where he realized his true lot in life -- bringing about corruption until God has no choice but to rain down fire and brimstone. The master demands a sacrifice, Hatch says, and it's to be Jackie. He prepares to stab the girl, when the Question appears in the doorway speaking his name. Hatch falls to his knees and asks who sent the Question.
[10] I almost set all of this at the top of a church bell tower as a sort of homage to Tim Burton's Batman. Instead I chose to use the setting from the comic storyline this film is based on, which is the first 7 or so issues of the great Denny O'Neill's run of "The Question".
The Question frees Jackie and turns to Hatch as the house fills with smoke. He knocks the knife out of Hatch's hand. Myra scrambles on the floor, finds the knife, and plunges it through Hatch's back. The Question hands Jackie over to a pair of firemen and tells them she's been drugged.
He then returns to the TV station, sans mask, and announces the return of Vic Sage and outs Rev. Hatch as a crazed criminal, and Mayor Fermin as his booze-riddled pawn. [11]
[11] I'm not going to lie, I knew I would always want to make a sequel, even before this one was released. One of these days, maybe I'll get around to doing commentaries for the second and third Question film. And who knows, maybe we'll see The Question back on the big screen sooner rather than later...
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