Monday, March 8, 2021

Now Showing: Green Arrow: SuperMax

Green Arrow: SuperMax
Genre: Action/Superhero
Director: Wes Ball
Writer: APJ
Based on DC Comics characters
Cast: Armie Hammer, Vanessa Kirby, Clive Owen, Halle Berry, Titus Welliver, Hannah Murray, Stephen Rea, Noel Clarke, Dianne Doan, Roland Kickinger

Plot: Oliver Queen (Armie Hammer) and his fiance Dinah Lance (Vanessa Kirby) attend a gala event for Queen Industries at a posh banquet all in Star City. Queen becomes noticeably annoyed when he notices that John King (Titus Welliver) is in attendance. Not only is he the third richest man in the world, after Lex Luthor and Bruce Wayne, but he's also had his sights set on acquiring Queen Industries even though Oliver refuses to sell. Dinah tells him to relax and ignore King's presence. During the gala event, Oliver Queen intercepts a call on his police-band earpiece regarding an attack at King Tower, the still under-construction new Star City headquarters of the King Corporation, John King's company. Queen and Dinah make an excuse to leave the event.

Queen and Dinah, now in their crime-fighting uniforms as Green Arrow and Black Canary, arrive at King Tower where they find a man dead with a green arrow in his chest. They then hear a SWAT team enter their floor. Queen, knowing it's a set-up, tells Dinah to make a run for it while he leads the police away. Dinah repels from the window, and makes it to a nearby rooftop. Queen leads the police on a chase through portions of the building that are still under construction. With police converging on him from multiple directions, Queen slides down an elevator cable, making it down to the ground level. Queen makes it out of the building, but finds himself surrounded by dozens of Star City PD officers, all with their guns aimed directly at him. Queen, feeling he has no other choice, surrenders. In the morning, Green Arrow is publicly unmasked as billionaire playboy Oliver Queen all over the press, spoiling his secret identity in the announcement that the controversial masked vigilante has been arrested and charged with murder.

John King meets with the federal judge assigned to preside over Queen's case and bribes him to have Queen sentenced to the new DEO SuperMax facility. The judge comments that since Queen is not a super-powered individual, that seems a bit steep, but agrees when King offers to add a zero to the end of the amount of money he's bribing him with.

In court, with Dinah and Queen's personal assistant Isabel Rochev (Hannah Murray) watching on, the judge sentences him to life imprisonment at the DEO SuperMax Prison. Everyone in the courtroom is stunned at the punishment, some because they don't believe the Green Arrow is a murderer, and some because no regular human has ever been sentenced to the prison. As Queen is being led out out of the courthouse in chains, Dinah promises him that she'll figure out who set him up. Queen then asks his assistant, Isabel, to look after Queen Industries while he is away. He signs the company over to her temporarily, but makes her promise not to conduct any business with John King or his company.

Queen is taken to the DEO SuperMax facility, located on a large platform in the ocean off the coast of Alaska, where he is greeted by DEO head Amanda Waller (Halle Berry). She tells Queen that she thought he was one of the good guys, but that he will be treated no differently than any other inmate of SuperMax during his incarceration. Queen is then implanted with a tracking chip in his neck. She explains that the chip will track his location within one square foot throughout any part of the facility. As Queen is escorted to his cell, Waller explains to him that they have already learned that it does no good to try to completely eliminate the powers of the prison population, but that the chip can emit an electric charge that can incapacitate any inmate at the sole discretion of prison staff. Once Queen is in his cell, Waller demonstrates the charge, shocking Queen unconscious.

When Queen wakes up, the inmates in the cells around his start inquiring who he is and what super hero busted him. Queen tries to brush off their questions, saying that he's there because of the Green Arrow. A man stands up in a cell across from him, Cameron Mahkent aka Icicle (Noel Clarke). He's sweating as the heat in his cell is cranked to suppress his powers. He says that he was busted by the Green Arrow as well, and tells Queen that he recognizes his voice - he'd recognize it anywhere as the voice of Green Arrow. Mahkent's skin briefly freezes over before the high heat of his cell quickly thaws it. The rest of the inmates around go completely silent upon the revelation.

Dinah investigates the crime scene at King Tower in her Black Canary guise. She surmises that the arrow was fired from a neighboring building. She knows the only one good enough to hit that shot other than Queen is his foe the Dark Archer. She wonders though, why the Dark Archer is going through the trouble of framing Queen for murder when he simply could have tried to kill him.

As he goes through the food line in the prison cafeteria, Queen is attacked by Neo Nazi strongman Iron Cross (Roland Kickinger). One of the guards is about to activate their electric charges, but they are called off and told that Waller wants to see how the new guy can handle himself. Iron Cross throws Queen halfway across the cafeteria. By the time Queen collects himself, Iron Cross is already about to hit him. Queen quickly grabs a food tray to block the punch, but Iron Cross punches right through the tray. The tray now has sharp edges that Queen uses to stab Iron Cross in the Achilles, taking him to the floor. Queen then punches Iron Cross repeatedly in the face until Iron Cross' face is bloodied. The guards finally step in and activate Queen's charge, incapacitating him.

Isabel Rochev meets with John King to discuss a company merger along with several lawyers for both corporations. However, they discover that the documents signed by Queen aren't enough to authorize the merger, even if he is in a top-secret prison for the rest of his life. The lawyer mentions that Queen would have to be declared dead or sign over the company permanently before his estate could be released for such a merger involving his company. King is furious. After the lawyers leave the board room, Isabel apologizes to King, calling him "father". King kisses Isabel on the forehead and tells her that it is merely a slight detour in their plan.

When Queen comes to, he finds himself in a cramped solitary confinement cell. As his eyes adjust to the darkness, he notices a large group of ants climbing along the wall. The ants then begin spelling out a greeting message to him. Down the corridor, Hartley Rathaway (Stephen Rea), the former villain known as the Pied Piper, is whistling at a barely perceivable tone, controlling the ants. Rathaway tells Queen that he knows a superhero doesn't belong in a place like this and offers to help him escape SuperMax. Queen assumes he's seeing things and decides to ignore the messages.

John King meets with the Dark Archer (Clive Owen). He tells him that merely framing Queen turned out to not be enough to acquire his assets. King tells the assassin that he will need him to enter the DEO SuperMax facility and kill Queen for good if he's going to be able to take over Queen Industries. The Dark Archer goes to a crowded pavilion and begins firing arrows at a group of nearby police officers, killing them. Dinah hears of the ongoing incident over the police radio and arrives on the scene as Black Canary. Once she arrives on the scene, the Dark Archer surrenders.

Now out of solitary, Queen is approached by Rathaway, making Queen realize that the ants weren't just a figment of his imagination. Queen and Rathaway begin planning their escape. Another inmate, Magenta (Dianne Doan), threatens to turn the two of them in if they don't include her in their plan to escape. Queen is annoyed by her intrusion on their plan, but asks her if she has powers that could be useful in their escape. Magenta slyly demonstrates her magnetic powers by pulling a metal tooth out of Iron Cross' mouth. Impressed, Queen agrees to include her. Rathaway suggests they could use someone who can freeze the water between the prison and the mainland to make their escape. Queen, dismayed, agrees to go talk to Icicle. When Queen goes to talk to Icicle, he sees the Dark Archer, whose name is revealed as Malcolm Merlyn, being escorted to his cell. Queen suspects something must be going on. In his cell, Merlyn vomits up a length of razor wire. Queen tells Rathaway that with the Dark Archer here as well, they're running out of time because surely he is there because of a grudge against him.

Dinah does some digging and discovers that Isabel and King have a prior relationship. She confronts Isabel with this information, but she denies everything. Dinah leaves Isabel's office. As soon as she's gone, Isabel calls King and tells him that Queen's fiance suspects something it up. He tells her not to worry as Queen will soon be declared dead and they will be able to finish the merger.

As the group of inmates prepares for their escape, Queen is attacked by Merlyn, who has made a makeshift bow out of scraps from around the prison. In the prison showers, Merlyn fires an arrow at Queen, who grabs it out of midair and snaps it in half. Merlyn says that framing him was fun, but getting the chance to kill him will be even better. He uses the sharp point to cut his chip out of the back of his neck. As they continue to fight through the steam of the showers, Queen demands to know how much John King paid Merlyn for all of this. Merlyn fires another arrow, but Queen uses a pipe to deflect the arrow back at Merlyn, hitting him in the shoulder. Merlyn grits his teeth and says he wasn't paid as much as one would expect. Merlyn pulls the arrow out of his shoulder and fires it back at Queen, but Queen grabs it out of the air and throws it back at Merlyn, hitting him in his other shoulder. Queen then kicks Merlyn in the face, knocking him unconscious. Queen takes Merlyn's bow and arrows and goes off to start the escape with the others. Queen rushes back to his cell block to help remove the chips from Rathaway, Icicle and Magenta. As they move down the corridors of the prison, Magenta uses her magnetic powers to disable security cameras along the way. Waller is alerted of the camera failures and orders a shutdown of the facility. She orders the guards to locate Oliver Queen. When the guards arrive at his cell, they find the bloody microchip on his pillow.

Queen, Rathaway, Magenta and Icicle reach the exterior of the prison, but guards are hot on their tail. Rathaway begins whistling, and a flock of birds descends down to attack the guards, buying the group some time. Icicle creates a chunk of ice atop of the water below the platform, and an ice slide for everyone to slide down on. The group begins to float away on the ice, being carried by a whale that controlled by Rathaway's whistling. Merlyn makes his way to the prison exterior. He dispatches the guards outside and grabs one of their rifles. He takes aim at Queen off in the distance, he fires the rifle. Rathaway gets in the way of the bullet, giving his life for Queen's. Icicle creates an ice wall behind them to block any more shots. Merlyn is furious and throws the rifle into the ocean.

Queen, Magenta and Icicle arrive back in Star City on board a Russian freighter ship they hitched a ride on. Magenta and Icicle are surprised that Queen is willing to let them go free, but he says that they helped him so he's giving them a chance to turn things around. He gives them both a stern look and says that he better not catch either of them in the act of crime or he'll make them regret it. Queen makes it to his hideout underneath the Queen Industries where he finds Dinah. She is ecstatic to see him. She hugs him with a tear in her eyes. He tells her that they need to prove that he was framed quickly before Waller and her DEO agents find him. He tells her that he knows for a fact that John King is the one who set him up, got him sent to SuperMax and even tried to have him assassinated there. Dinah asks why he would try to have him assassinated after already having him imprisoned for life. Queen says that it has to have something to do with acquiring his company. Dinah reminds Queen that he gave emergency control of Queen Industries to Isabel. He says that she wouldn't be able to do that much based on the emergency powers granted to her, but then Dinah brings up that those emergency powers could lead to her taking over the entire company if he had been declared dead.

Queen as Green Arrow confronts John King at King Tower while Dinah as Black Canary confronts Isabel at Queen Industries. King says that he's done hiring others to do his dirty work and attacks Queen with a sword. Isabel reveals to Dinah that King is her father and she has been feeding him information ever since she started working for Queen Industries. Isabel and Dinah fight, showing Isabel to be well-trained in martial arts. Dinah uses her Canary Cry, causing Isabel to collapse, covering her ears. Dinah then hits Isabel over the head with her staff, incapacitating her. As their fight continues, Queen baits King into admitting to framing him for murder and trying to have him killed at SuperMax. Queen reveals that their conversation is being recorded by several cameras. This rattles King, allowing Queen to knock him out with a series of brutal punches.

John King is loaded into a DEO transport plane. Amanda Waller apologizes to Queen, saying that it turns out he really was one of the good guys all along. Queen simply nods his head and walks away. Waller tells King that he's going to fit right in at SuperMax with the other wannabe supervillains.

Queen and Dinah get married on a yacht with Star City in the distance. Queen jokes that he hasn't had the best of luck on boats before. After they toast to their future together, Queen comments that he's going to have to find a new assistant at Queen Industries now. Dinah suggests he vet his next hire a little better to ensure that they aren't the child of a billionaire megalomaniac who wants to destroy Queen and his company.

Post-Credits: Merlyn is escorted to solitary confinement Waller and a group of guards. Waller tells Merlyn that she'll be seeing him soon as she has plans for him. The door slams shut. Merlyn stares at the wall, then pulls a small sliver of metal out from under his tongue.



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