Genre: Western/Action
Director: Chan-wook Park
Writer: Jimmy Ellis
Based on DC Comics characters
Cast: Brad Pitt, Elijah Wood, Alexander Ludwig, Paul Anderson, Bonnie Wright, Cary Elwes, AJ Cook
Plot: Plot: We open with old fashioned Western narration, detailing the past Jonah Hex film. The camera travels over the grassy plains until it reaches a cliff, where we see 3 silhouttes standing at the edge. As the camera settles we find ourselves behind Jonah Hex (Brad Pitt) and looking toward 2 angry men on horseback. For a moment they seem frozen in rage, eyes locked on Jonah Hex. Eventually they speak, and accuse him of killing their sister. There’s a moment of silence, then the camera turns to show a battered and bloodied Jonah Hex. His hands tied to the horses, and his already scarred face is dirtier than usual. Without a flinch he replies that she tried to ambush him. As he is speaking, he snaps the rope like a whip, causing one of the horses to buck its rider off the canyon. His other captor charges at him with rage, however Hex dodges, using the rope to trip the horse and send it to the floor. The rider’s weapon clatters to the floor and before he can reach it, Hex grabs him by the neck and hoists him up. For a moment Hex basks in the glory that is the fear on the captors face, we see a skull tattoo at the base of his neck as he throws the former captor off the canyon. The camera leads to the knife, as Hex picks it up and frees himself from his bonds. He then begins to walk off to a town in the distance.
A bustling saloon, the door swings open and immediately there is silence as Jonah Hex walks up to the bar. Without a single word he slams a wanted poster upon the wood, upon which we see the duo from before (along with their sister) labelled “The Charlotte Gang”. The bartender seems shocked, and before he can pay the bounty hunter, a voice calls Hex’s name from the back of the room. With his hand on his gun, Hex turns to see a delivery man with a letter in his hand. He scans over the letter, then turns back to the barkeep. Cut to the coins as they fall on the counter, and back to Jonah but this time he is on horseback entering a city.
In stark contrast from the town he just left, this city is overflowing with life and leaves, Hex is uncomfortable. He bows his head as he rides past women and children, jaws gaping. Meanwhile as he rides through town a much more professional looking man arrives at a decrepit old house. The police chief (Paul Anderson) greets him as Doctor Amadeus Arkham (Elijah Wood), and it’s clear that they are friends. The chief however speaks with extreme delicacy as he leads the doctor up to a second floor room. Nothing can prepare the doctor for the horrors he is about to see. A dead corpse of a woman with blood staining the walls in the mark of Cain. After a moment of silence Arkham delves into his medical analysis, he adopts a more fascinated tone with each sentence he utters. He identifies the symbol as a religious one, and recognises that the crime was not tied to sex or a marital disagreement. At that moment Hex begins to speak, correcting him from the back of the room from which he just appeared. As the pair stand shocked, Hex details a series of murders that have been happening around town, all dealing with prostitutes. He then hypothesises that the root of the murders might be a by-product of sexual inadequacy. Arkham stunned, agrees with his logic, before asking who Hex is. The chief answers describing Hex’s bounty hunter position and adding that they have hired his skills for this case at hand. Hex nods, then begins to leave, before the police chief nervously asks his destination. He explains a connection that he aims to look into. With curiosity Arkham asks to join him. Hex doesn’t respond instead he leaves silent.
Cut to a saloon, Hex approaches the bar closely followed by Arkham, he singles out a young woman. Before they reach her, however, a monster of a man, two times Hex’s height and build slaps her across her face. Hex turns stone-faced, and in seconds whips around the giant and lays a punch right in his face. The fight that ensues last only moments, as a fiery Hex beats the giant bloody. Surveying the area Hex acknowledges, Belle (Bonnie Wright), the woman, who acts as if nothing happened, even though the mark grows crimson on her cheek. He continues to maintain the charade however and asks only for her fellow nightwalkers. She seems to know very little, but she mentions a man with a skull ring that each woman had mentioned before they died. They finish talking and Hex turns and runs into Arkham, looking down upon him, as if he didn’t notice his presence. His gaze, questioning and intimidating. The scene cuts.
We see nightfall over 1800s Gotham City. We are reintroduced to Arkham in his home pacing the floor and talking wildly to his wife about the uncivilised stranger, ranting about the curiosity about him, how much raged seemed supressed below, only to show a strict moral code and law when faced with perceived injustice. All the legends he’s heard about the boy sold to redskins, the confederate deserter. His questions cascade, leading to one unanswerable question, who is Jonah Hex?
Its early morning, Hex sits in the corner of a bar. He looks sleepless and world-weary. As a waitress (AJ Cook) passes, he grabs her arm, requesting a drink. She snaps her arm away and refuses, gesturing to his confederate coat as the reason for her rejection. He fires back a response, turning his head to look at her with his disfigured eye saying “And he fought for his land, same as me.” With fear in her eyes, she hurries away to the back of the bar. As she leaves, Hex notices the police chief enter the building, and he calls him over. The chief approaches, nervous, more than usual, and avoids Hex’s glare. The chief tries to avoid the topic of murder, but to no avail, as Hex intimidates him into divulging the information he was here to bring. Belle had been killed. The beer arrives, and Hex takes a long drink, before wordlessly storming out of the building with the chief at his heels. Hex seemed to have a real connection with the young woman, and as they reach the location of the murder, his anger and resentment is almost palpable. He pushes past Arkham, who is there to greet them, and stands over Belle’s distorted figure. Arkham begins to explain the connection between the murders but Hex silences him, asking only if there was a skull mark on her body. Arkham says no, but reveals an invitation to a local high-brow ballroom was found clutched in her hands. After mulling it over, Hex pressures Arkham into revealing that he is also an invited guest to the event. A hint of a smile, albeit that of resentment creeps over Hex’s face.
The ball. Strictly upper-class, outdoing the saloon in style and numbers. The party is roaring, with the elite of Gotham all parading through. It is clear as soon as Hex walks through the door how out of form he is, drawing glances from everyone present. Arkham seems embarrassed, though far too uncertain of his role with Jonah Hex to speak up. Soon, the host (Cary Elwes) walks up to greet Arkham and introductions are made. They begin talking, Hex as distant from the conversation as he can get, before he begins to push through the crowd. He singles out one man and grabs him, pushing him through the crowd and into a closet of some sort. Pressing a revolver to his neck, Hex snaps the man’s finger to remove and hold the skull ring in front of the man’s seething face. Hex demands answers, demands to know the motive for killing the women, as anger courses through his veins. The man seems insane, laughing as his breath grows laboured, before reciting: “We are not our brother’s keeper.” With that he grabs Hex’s hand and pulls the guns trigger, sending his blood splattering against the wall. Breathing heavily Hex leaves the small room and enters the large crowd. As he heads for the front door, he bumps into the host, sending his hat flying to the floor. The host gracious as possible, reaches down for the hat, and on his hand Hex sees a skeleton ring. In shock, Hex begins to sweep the room, seeing the same skeleton ring appear again and again on the attendees. Snapping back to the conversation, the host seems to have been rambling about the police chief, who was meant to be in attendance that evening. Although he were possessed, Hex looks down to the blood on his hands, and pushes past the host. Before he can exit, however, Arkham accosts him “There you are.” And once more demands that he be allowed to go with Hex on his mission. Hex accepts, leaving Arkham surpised and in his dust. Arkham hurries to catch up.
As they hurriedly thunder through a Gotham alley on horseback, Arkham persistently requests their destination and purpose. Hex first ignores him, before silencing the doctor and turning his attention to the figures standing darkly before him. As the camera focuses, we see a bulky man with a skull tattoo upon his exposed bicep, and two corrupt police officers with the same brand on their necks. Under Jonah’s command, both Hex and Arkham charge at their opposition. In the ensuing fight, both are knocked off their rides and are forced to use pistol, knife, and fist to fight. Hex manages to kill the two officers but is pinned down by the brute. In a climactic moment, Arkham is forced to build up his courage and fire a bullet into the brute’s skull, killing for the first time in his life. He is amazed at himself and as Hex dusts himself off, Arkham takes his time to stare in curiosity at the corpse before him. The scene fades out.
We fade into a massive painting of Cain killing his brother, standing beneath the painting is Montrose (Alexander Ludwig), somehow managing to stand at the head of a round table. Gotham’s elite stand around the circumference, and in the middle of the table lies a single candle, stained with blood. They appear to be engaged in a ritual, praying to Cain and asking his intercession in their control of Gotham. Montrose acts as the cult leader, leading a rally to encourage their control of Gotham under the values of Cain, patron of organized crime. We cut back to Arkham and Hex, now in the empty office of the police chief. Arkham begins to go slightly insane recounting the feeling of killing, and Hex feels cold on the subject, emphasizing the distinction in justice between killing and murder. It quickly becomes clear that sins of the past have taught him this distinction, as he finishes his monologue, the room goes quiet. The fireplace flickers, and as Hex stares at it, a cinder falls upon a letter. A letter with a skull mark, and his name scrawled upon it. He slams his hand down to grab it, and concealed inside is an invitation to witness the “ascension of Cain’s sons.” Grabbing Arkham, hex leaves the letter to burn and heads for the door.
We follow Montrose as he walks the darkened corridors, candlelight flickering in his periphery. He enters through a set of doors to see the police chief, tied and bound to a large cross. As he approaches, the camera sweeps to reveal several of his upper class cohorts are following close behind. Montrose proceeds to breakdown the police chief piece by piece, threatening his family with the pain of Hell if he chooses not to work with the sons of Cain. Before they can break him fully, Hex appears with Arkham. Montrose turns to cast a smile of familiarity upon Hex. Hex is thrown off balance. Montrose, the leader of the sons of Cain, is a union soldier who tortured Hex and other Confederate members. Montrose taunts him about the torture, calling him a traitor and breaking down his isolation to the world bit by bit. He draws the comparison to Cain, the great betrayer, and attempts to get in Hex’s mind, demanding that the rules and moral code that he lives by would be better off left behind, in pursuit of revenge and revenge alone. No betrayer was held in higher esteem then Cain. Suddenly, Arkham shoots grazing Montrose’s side. A gunfight begins, as Arkham frees the chief and they stand against the elite community, leaving Hex to take his revenge against the one who tortured him. As bodies fall around him, Hex is stripped of his gun and uses his knife to slit the throat of his opponent, ridding the world of Montrose’s control. The movie ends as the sons of Cain are hauled away, and the police chief calls Hex in to discuss one final detail. Echoed on the lips of every patron put to prison was one name, the new reincarnation of Cain in their destructive cult: Quentin Turnbull. Hex parts ways with Arkham, who is bound to his city, and leaves with a new purpose, Turnbull in his sights.
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