Genre: Action/Superhero/Romance
Director: Alma Har'el
Writer: Chad Taylor
Based on Marvel Comics characters
Cast: Garrett Hedlund, Diana Silvers, Rebecca Ferguson, Jodie Comer, W. Earl Brown, Cameron Britton, Toby Huss, Cody Fern, Rachel Griffiths, Thomasin McKenzie
Plot: Anna (Diana Silvers) sits nervously in the waiting room of a clinic. Another girl her age sitting next to her asks if she came here by choice or if her parents made her come. Anna says she came here on her own choice but her eyes tell a different story. The girl (Thomasin McKenzie) then comments on the pop song playing on the radio, saying that she’s heard rumors that the singer is a mutant. Anna looks bemused but she is really focusing on a poster on the wall advertising Dr. Kavita Rao’s “Hope Serum”. As the girl continues talking, Anna is zoning out with doubt seeping into her eyes.
She starts to become increasingly worried with her heartbeat increasing and palm sweating. The girl next to her realizes that Anna isn’t paying attention and nudges her for forearm to see if she is alright. Upon touching Anna’s bare skin, the girl loses her breath falls to the ground in convulsions. Anna briefly sees a vision of a blue-skinned woman with red hair but quickly comes back to reality. With the girl on the ground, she freaks out and is unsure what to do as nurses rush to the girl’s side.
Anna scurries outside to her car. However, before even gets in, she begins crying uncontrollably and sits down next to her car. A passerby (Rebecca Ferguson) notices Anna on the ground and sits next to her, checking if she is OK. Anna opens up about her insecurities and asks that the lady not judge her for judging the clinic. She talks about how she never wanted to come here and doesn’t want to feel ashamed for who she is. But now she feels guilt over both being a mutant AND attempting to rid herself of mutant gene.
Surprisingly, the lady is empathetic to Anna’s concerns and says that she has always felt wrong about the Hope Serum and the work they do at this clinic. Anna says that she can’t go back home without taking it or else her foster parents will kick her out. The woman says that she has heard about a place where mutants are accepted for who they are. Where they are the normal. Anna is cautiously optimistic from hearing this. The woman says that she can take her there, if she wants. Anna, still crying, shakes her head yes. The woman introduces herself as Raven. Anna wants to go back in and check on the girl before they leave but the woman tells her not to as this will only increase her guilt and they will try to get her to take the serum.
Inside the clinic, the girl is nowhere to be found while the two nurses lay tied up on the ground.
At a ritzy dinner party in New Orleans, Remy LeBeau (Garrett Hedlund) navigates his way through conversations with the masses of well-dressed aristocrats. But it isn’t until he meets Patricia Kelly (Rachel Griffiths), the hostess of the party, that he is ready to sink his teeth in. He turns up his charm and Patricia becomes enchanted with him and his youthful, somewhat rough persona (at least compared to the other people there). Despite her husband being elsewhere at the house, Remy suggests they go to her room for a quick rendezvous. She asks why it has to be quick?
Cut to Remy, half-naked, in Patricia’s bed, as she is getting dressed. She tells him to take his time a bit so people don’t see them leaving together. He says no problem. She gives him a departing kiss. As soon as she leaves, he comments to himself “take my time, huh? Don’t mind if I do.” He starts rummaging through the master bedroom. As he looks for something in particular, he finds some of Patricia’s diamonds. He debates with himself in his head before deciding “why not?” and stashes them in his pocket. Finally, he finds the documents he was looking for and stores it in his tuxedo jacket.
As he leaves the room, a guard spots him and asks what he is doing in there. Before he can get an answer out, Remy finds the guard approaching and tosses him the diamonds before grabbing a standing lamp and using it as a staff, taking out the guard. He quickly exits the mansion as guards try to hunt him down. As he runs away, he pulls a deck of cards from his jacket and throws kinetically-charged cards at the guards to fend them off.
When he reaches the front drive, he finds a yellow Porsche parked in the driveway waiting for him. In the driver’s seat is Bella Donna Boudreaux (Jodie Comer), his fiancée. She asks “How's my Gambit doin' this fine evenin'?” He gives her a kiss and instructs her to get out of there as fast as she can.
She drops him off at the secret headquarters of the Thieves Guild of New Orleans, where he calls home. She tells him to call her later and he promises her will. He is greeted by Jean-Luc LeBeau (W. Earl Brown), his “father”. Remy was adopted by Jean-Luc after an accident sent him into foster care (along with memory loss). Jean-Luc says that he heard Remy caused some commotion but Remy says that he completed the task. Jean-Luc looks over the documents and says this will be exactly what they wanted.
He sits Remy down and says that his next job is just as important. In the coming days, there will be a meeting between the Thieves Guild, their rival Assassins Guild and the Brotherhood of Mutants. Remy’s eyes grow with concern and says he’s not so sure these papers should be in the hands of a group like the Brotherhood. Jean-Luc says that a deal needs to be brokered between the three - the Brotherhood needs the documents, the Assassins need the Brotherhood's arms, and the Thieves need the cash from both. And Remy is the only man for the job - he’s a thief, he’s a mutant, and he’s engaged to an assassin. Remy is not so sure but Jean-Luc promises that the Brotherhood will pay good and this will help with fixing the relationship between the thieves and assassins, which can heal decades-old animosity. Remy reluctantly accepts.
Later that night, he is in Bella Donna’s home. They start to make out but before they can do more, Remy pulls back because the chemistry doesn’t feel quite right. Bella Donna notices this too, despite being very attracted to him. She asks what she is doing wrong and he says it is nothing she is doing. He admits that he just gets in his own head sometimes and goes back to charming her and they start to kiss again.
At a Brotherhood facility, Mystique watches Anna - given the codename Rogue - train. She joins the training and trains Rogue one-on-one. Afterwards, she tells her she is ready for her first assignment. On the road, Mystique can sense that Rogue is nervous and tries to calm her. She says that there is no turning back now and reminds her how she killed the girl at the clinic. You can’t go back into civilian life after that. Rogue is defeated to hear this but Mystique says to look on the bright side and that she is now with a group of people who accept her for who she is.
The meeting takes place at an abandoned casino on the outskirts of New Orleans. Each side is well represented with multiples guards as well as a right-hand ally by each representative. Jean-Luc and Remy from the Thieves. Marius Bordreaux (Toby Huss) and son Julien (Cody Fern) for the Assassins. And for the Brotherhood, Mystique and Rogue. Rogue catches Remy’s eye almost immediately as he is attracted to her but also because she seems out of place here. As the three sides talk, it becomes clear that she is not entirely here on her own volition.
As the meeting progresses, Remy starts gain a sense of uneasiness with giving government documents to the brotherhood. Since things typically go his way, he calls an audible and decides to pull the rug out from under the opposing sides. Once the Brotherhood’s arms have been transferred into the Assassins’ trucks, the Assassins make their payment to the Thieves. With the final transaction yet to take place, Remy hesitates before deciding to give them the documents. Mystique hands them over to Rogue and thanks them all for conducting business.
As the parties exit, Remy starts sweet-talking Rogue and getting to know her. She seems a little flirtatious back but is also very coy with what she says, which Remy finds frustrating as his charm is part of his mutant abilities. As he tells her goodbye, she grabs his arm and yells for Mystique that he has stolen the documents from her. Remy apologizes and pushes her away before hurrying off.
This sets off a big battle between the different sides in the casino. The Assassins mostly sit out but the Thieves and Brotherhood battle it out while Remy looks for an escape route. The Brotherhood capture Jean-Luc and Mystique tells Rogue that now is the time. Rogue is extremely hesitant but Mystique tells her it is ok. She removes her gloves and places her hands on Jean-Luc’s face, starting to drain the energy from him. Rogue starts to cry as she does this while Remy decides to turn around to save his father.
However, he is blindsided by Julien, who knocks him down and takes the documents. Remy regains his composure and engages in a fight with his future brother-in-law, throwing his energized cards at him - one of which goes into Julien’s throat, killing him instantly. Remy picks up the documents and rushes towards the Brotherhood’s men. As he battles them, he gets to Rogue and tackles her, saving her from getting killed by the Thieves guards. However, it is a bit too late as Jean-Luc lays lifeless on the ground while Rogue and Remy are both in shock. Seconds before a henchman thief can shoot Rogue, Gambit picks her up and tells her to follow his lead as they exit the casino.
When they get outside, Rogue is unsure if she wants to go with him. He says they are both wanted for murder at this point so they might as well go on the run together. She is still hesitant until people start emerging from the casino and she makes a quick decision to jump in his car. A car chase ensues through New Orleans that eventually leads to their escape given Remy’s knowledge of the city.
The relationship between Rogue and Remy is stilted at first as she asks why he didn’t just let her go back to the Brotherhood, especially after she killed his father. He says that she wouldn’t have made it out of there alive and she says he’s underestimating her. He tells her she’s underestimating his intuition as he could tell she was not comfortable going through with Mystique’s commands. When he asks if that was her first kill, she stays silent - not willing to share about the incident at the clinic. He tells her not to tell anyone but the incident with Julien at the casino was his first. When he asks her her name, she says it is Rogue, a name the Brotherhood gave her. Remy laughs at this and starts to tease her for it, which does cause her break her withheld demeanor.
As they are on the road, he tries to get into how she joined the Brotherhood but she continues to be coy. So Remy starts to tell her about himself: an accident when he was a child that erased his memory, adopted by Jean-Luc and the Thieves Guild, engaged to the First Daughter of the Assassins Guild to heal the animosity between the two. He jokes to himself that he’s already went and messed that up. Rogue finally starts to converse and asks where they are going. He says there is a place in New York where her and these documents would be in good hands. She asks if he is talking about the X-Men but he won’t say.
When they stop at a motel, Remy books them separate rooms, which she appreciates. Later that night, the hotel manager is watching the news and sees Rogue’s face on a terrorist watchlist segment on a 60 Minutes re-run. Remy becomes awake from the manager walking towards Rogue’s room and sees him knock. Meanwhile, in her room, Rogue looks through the government documents and finds that it is discussing the possible mandatory implementation of Dr. Rao’s Hope Serum to vaccinate - and potentially bring an end to - mutants. As she reads this, the loud knock comes to her door.
Before she answers, Remy comes out to defuse the situation. However, the man is having none of it and says he will not be known for harboring a criminal. The man says he has already called the authorities and that they are on their way. Remy pulls out a playing card, which obviously seems harmless to the man. Remy gives him one last warning while charging the card. As this happens, Rogue opens her door and Remy uses this moment to throw the card at the man’s knee, prompting his legs to sweep from under him and fall face first. Remy tells Rogue “here we go again” and they sprint to his car as police cars are seen in the distance.
She thanks him for looking out for her but promises that she doesn’t need a protector. He says he wasn’t trying to be, although his awareness obviously saved their asses. They are more open with each other at this point. The romantic tension between them is starting to become obvious. She asks him about his engagement to Bella Donna. He says he is not a big fan of the whole arranged marriage thing. He likes her enough but nothing feels right when you’re forced to do it. He asks about if she’s dating any Brotherhood hunks but she laughs it off, saying it’s hard to be intimate with the whole “no human contact” thing.
When they reach the Appalachian Mountains, Remy says that he knows an old friend - a mutant, actually - who lives out here, who they seek safe shelter from. They arrive and are greeted by a behemoth of a man who introduces himself as Poly (Cameron Britton). Rogue tells him she assumes his mutant power is super strength but he tells her that is not true. Remy notices a bo-staff in the hotel lobby and Polly says it’s 400 years old and he got it while in Japan.
At dinner, Poly watches the way Rogue looks at Remy and points out that Rogue likes him. She becomes defensive and says not in that way but Poly tells him that’s not true. He tells her it is. Remy cracks a smile and says there’s a reason his nickname is Poly - his mutant power is that he can tell when someone is telling the truth or lying. A living, breathing polygraph test. Rogue blushes and says he’s joking, right? Poly confirms that what Remy said is the truth.
As Remy has trouble falling asleep, he gets a knock on his door. It’s Rogue. He invites her in and she says she doesn’t feel as safe after what happened the other night. She’s one of the most wanted criminals in America. He talks her down from the ledge, pointing out that she’s someone who got taken advantage of because of the power she possesses. He asks how she get involved with the Brotherhood anyhow. She starts to talk about the clinic but, as she does, she gets a brief flashback from that day and remembers when she first touched the girl. She realizes that she had a vision of Mystique and that the girl she thought she killed was actually Mystique all along. She starts to cry, realizing the bad decisions she has made since then and her willingness to go along with it.
As she is crying, she tells Remy that she has something to tell him. When she was touching Jean-Luc, she inherited his memories and saw vision of Jean-Luc using a device to erase a teenage Remy’s memories. Remy is taken aback by this, always having heard that he was in an accident. After a moment of reflection and tenderness with Rogue, he tells he wants her to touch him. She warns against this as he’s seen what she can do when she touches people. He says he doesn’t mind, she can give insight into his true self.
She begins to take her gloves off but tells her she doesn’t have to do that. He leans in to kiss her but she pulls back initially, asking if he is sure he wants to do this. He says he’s been sure since the moment he first laid eyes on her. As they start to kiss, Rogue has to continually pull back, so much as to not drain Remy too much. As this rhythmic pattern progresses, she sees more and more of his life and finally gets to before the memory erasure. He picks her up and into his arms and lays her down on the bed.
As he does this, she sees a man with a red diamond on his forehead talking to Remy. We then see Remy in the sewers of New York with a group of people, including younger versions of Brotherhood members that Rogue recognizes. From Remy’s POV, Rogue starts to look shell-shocked and permanently pulls away from him. She is at a loss for words and runs out crying.
Remy is unsure what to do. He finds himself in defeat in his room, a position he is not used to. He hears a car pull up and quickly gets up. When he looks out the window, he finds that it is a yellow Porsche. Out steps Bella Donna and Jean-Luc. He says that if they are going to kill him for retribution then so be it. She says she didn’t come all this way to do that. Now that her brother is dead, she is the Heiress Assassin and still wants to uphold their engagement. Remy tells his father that he thought he was dead and that he knows about the memory erasure.
Bella Donna explains that when Remy was 19, Jean-Luc sent him on excursion to let the rebellious teen find himself. Instead he found Nathaniel Essex, who implanted him with a gene that he claimed would strengthen his powers. In exchange, Essex teamed Remy up with his group of Marauders with a goal of targeting lesser mutants to ensure that only the powerful survive. Remy stops her there as he can already tell where this is going. She says that they’ve always assumed that the gene implant caused him to do it. Jean-Luc says that now he understands why he needed to erase those memories, as well as remove that implant.
Knowing why Rogue was mad, Remy is eager to tell her the truth. When he opens the door, he finds Poly there ready to knock. He says that he didn’t know he was expecting guests and sees Jean-Luc and Bella Donna, both of whom he knows. He waves to them and they greet him back. He stops in his track and says “That’s not you father.” Gambit is confused and turns around to find Jean-Luc turn into Mystique, who orders Bella Donna to find the documents. Bella Donna shoots Poly while Mystique leg sweeps Gambit and holds him down. Bella Donna finds the documents and throws them over to Mystique, who thanks her.
In her room, Rogue hears the gunshot and peeks out to see Mystique leaving. Meanwhile, in Remy’s room, he tries to go after Mystique but Bella Donna holds him back and tells him to run back to New Orleans with her. An escort car arrives for Mystique and she gets in. Before she can get in, Rogue comes screeching and begs Mystique for help. She says that she has been kidnapped and would like to go back. Mystique is skeptical but has a soft spot for Rogue so lets her in. Remy sees this from his room and hurries to his car to chase after them.
As they drive through the winding mountain roads, Remy catches up to them and says he’s not giving up that easy. Not long after, Bella Donna’s Porsche drives up to Remy and hits his back wheel, causing him to spin out. Mystique orders the car to stop and they get out. Bella Donna gets out of her car and says “I wish you would’ve just came with me, Gambit. You know not to turn on an assassin.”
Mystique orders Rogue to do to Remy like she did his father. Rogue approaches an injured Remy and removes her gloves. Before she can do it, she asks Mystique if she remembers the girl at the clinic. Mystique isn’t sure what to say and Rogue turns to her, saying “that wasn’t my first kill.” Mystique realizes that Rogue knows the truth and goes to fight her but Rogue fights back and they engage in an intense fist fight - gloves off. Mystique calls for Bella Donna’s help and she joins in.
Rogue bravely fights them off but they gain the upper hand and Mystique holds her over the mountain side. Rogue pleads for them to not kill her but before they can make that decision, Mystique gets hit by a flying object and Bella Donna the same shortly after. From his car, an injured Remy reminded them that he wasn’t giving up. Bella Donna, angry at being out-maneuvered, charges towards Rogue, who avoids her and sends her tumbling down over the edge. It comes down to Rogue versus Mystique as sirens are heard in the background.
Rogue actually turns out to be a better fighter than Mystique and breaks her mentor’s arm. With her gloves off, she has the chance to finish her off but she sees Remy limping from Mystique’s car with documents in hand, saying it’s time to go. From the ground, Mystique compliments Rogue on her fighting skill and Rogue says she learned from the best. Mystique yells to her driver that they have to evacuate immediately, with authorities on the way.
In Remy’s car, he promises to her that the memory she saw wasn’t him. She says she is just glad they’re safe now. She puts her arm around him and says “So, Gambit, huh?”. He rolls his eyes and says it’s Bella Donna’s pet name for him. Rogue smiles and says she kinda likes it, prompting him to laugh in defeat.
The next day, Remy’s car pulls up at the X-Mansion in New York. As she is collecting her things, Rogue notices an ancient Japanese bo-staff in the backseat. She asks if it is Poly’s. “Well, I’m a thief, ain’t I?”, with a smirk. When she gets out of the car, she is expecting him to follow but he stays in the driver’s seat. She runs over to his window and tells him she can’t just leave him here. He promises that this is the place for her and those secret documents. He’s got some unfinished business to attend to. Plus, if there’s one thing he’s learned over time, he’s not exactly a team player.
She realizes she is not going to change his mind so gives him one last kiss, which drains some of his energy but he kinda likes it. He tells her he’ll see her again as he drives off, her biting her lip as she holds back a smile.
No comments:
Post a Comment