Now Showing: The Shadow

 

The Shadow

Genre: Action/Thriller/Superhero

Director: Francis Lawrence

Writer: Diane Esposito

Based on the novel by James Patterson & Brian Sitts and the character created by Walter B. Gibson

Cast: Henry Cavill, Nico Parker, Bella Heathcote, Joe Taslim, Barbara Hershey, Jackie Earle Haley, Christopher McDonald, Boris Kodjoe, James Frain

Plot: New York City, 1943

A group of bank robbers speed away from a heist, shooting at the police pursuing them with tommy guns. They manage to lose the police, but the getaway driver slams on the brakes when he sees a shadowy figure standing in the road in front of them. The robbers all get out of the vehicle and aim their guns at The Shadow (Henry Cavill), clad in a long overcoat, fedora and a red scarf covering his face. Once they see that the Shadow has a gun, the robbers open fire, but the Shadow vanishes as soon as they pull their triggers. He suddenly emerges behind them, laughing from the shadows. The Shadow makes himself invisible to them by clouding their minds and knocks them all unconscious. He ties them all up next to the pile of money they stole. A taxi cab speeds to a stop next to the Shadow. He removes his scarf, returning to his identity as millionaire playboy Lamont Cranston. He gets into the back of the cab, which is driven by one of the Shadow’s agents, cabbie Moe Shrevnitz (Jackie Earle Haley). Lamont tells Moe that he is late for a date with Margo at the Cobalt Club. Moe floors the gas pedal, speeding away from the crime scene just as police sirens can be heard approaching the area.

Lamont Cranston gets out of the cab and rushes into the Cobalt Club, the city's latest and greatest jazz club, to meet his girlfriend Margo Lane (Bella Heathcote). He tucks his red scarf into his pocket and puts on a tie before sitting down with her. Lamont is about to propose marriage to her when she starts to feel sick. She collapses to the ground calling out his name. Lamont looks around and finds that the club is now empty. Lamont hears laughter coming from the stage. He sees his arch-enemy Shiwan Khan (Joe Taslim). Khan taunts Lamont, telling him that he will have to make a choice to either save his woman or fight him, but he won’t have time to do both. Lamont carries Margo out of the club and to the street outside where his driver, Moe is waiting, admiring the posters for a burlesque club. Moe asks if they need to go to the hospital. Lamont thinks for a moment before telling Moe to drive them to the lab of Margo’s father, scientist Dr. Reinhart Lane. Moe speeds through the streets of New York City in his yellow taxi cab, expertly maneuvering through the congested roadways. Margo begins to lose consciousness. Lamont frantically tries to keep her awake and alive.

Moe’s cab pulls up to a nondescript warehouse near the river. Moe helps Lamont carry Margo inside. They take a hidden elevator down to a secret lab under the warehouse where they find Dr. Reinhart Lane (Christopher McDonald) working on a cryogenic experiment. Lamont tells Reinhart that Margo was poisoned by Shiwan Khan. Not knowing what poison was used and seeing that his daughter is quickly dying, Reinhart proposes freezing Margo using one of the cryogenic chambers he has built to keep her alive until they can identify the poison and find an antidote. Lamont is nervous about the idea but agrees. Reinhart takes a sample of his daughter’s blood and is about to close the chamber door when Lamont stops him. Lamont takes an engagement ring out of his pocket and puts it on Margo’s finger before Reinhart closes the cryogenic chamber door.

Moe tells Lamont that they have company outside. They all go upstairs to see Shiwan Khan and an army of barbarians have surrounded the warehouse. Moe takes a shotgun out of the trunk of his cab. Lamont pulls out his two silver plated pistols. The two open fire on Khan’s barbarians. Lamont is hit in the shoulder by an arrow fired by one of Khan’s barbarians. Moe urges Lamont to go back to the basement while he holds them off. Khan’s men begin firing flaming arrows at the building, eventually setting fire to the warehouse. Lamont goes down to the basement. Reinhart pushes him into a cryogenic chamber. He tells Lamont that he needs to stay alive to make sure that Margo is able to be alive as well. Before Lamont can break free the cryogenic freezing takes over and freezes him mid-movement. Reinhart goes back to the warehouse, covering the secret entrance to his lab. Shiwan Khan and his men enter the building and are disappointed to only find Reinhart and Moe. Moe insists to Khan that the Shadow has fled the area, clearly scared off by Khan’s forces. Khan doesn’t believe Moe and executes him. He then asks Reinhart if he has the same story. Reinhart nods his head. Khan doesn’t order his execution, but does order his men to burn the building to the ground in case he’s lying.

Once the building has burned to the ground, Shiwan Khan assumes that the Shadow is nothing but ashes now if he was still inside and leaves with his barbarians. Reinhart Lane hires a crew to rebuild the warehouse above his underground lab. Reinhart goes down to the lab to look over Lamont and Margo but is worried that Khan would simply finish the job if he were to unfreeze them now. He begins working on an antidote for the poison. He is stunned to find out from the sample of Margo’s blood that she is pregnant.

80 Years Later

New York City, 2023

Maddy Gomes (Nico Parker) is at school where her class is working on a family tree project, but Maddy knows way less about her family history than everyone else in her class. Maddy is called out of class in her high school and handed a letter from a lawyer informing her that she has inherited a warehouse near the river. She rides her bike down to the river to find the warehouse. She is a bit disappointed that the warehouse is empty until she finds a heavily reinforced locked door. She tries with no success to open it. She finally gives up for the day and goes home, determined to come back the next day with a locksmith. Maddy returns home to the apartment in a crime-ridden neighborhood she lives in with her grandmother Jessica (Barbara Hershey). Maddy doesn’t tell her grandmother about the inheritance or warehouse, but Jessica can tell something is going on. Maddy puts on headphones to drown out the sounds of gunshots and police sirens in order to fall asleep. In the morning, Maddy asks Jessica if she knows anything about this supposed inheritance she received. Jessica says she doesn’t. Maddy then asks about their family. Jessica says that Maddy’s parents died when she was little, a result of how dangerous the city had become, while her own parents died a long time ago.

A group of politicians arrive at the top floor of a penthouse overlooking New York City. Shiwan Khan sits on a throne above them. He tells them that he was disappointed to hear that the military wouldn’t be building any more nuclear weapons and it was their votes that kept it from happening. He then hypnotizes them, compelling them to all leap to their deaths from his balcony. He turns to his assistant Breece (Boris Kodjoe), telling him to find him a new batch of feeble-minded politicians to do his bidding at the capital.

Maddy finds a locksmith named Fletcher (James Frain) to help her break through the locked door in the warehouse. As soon as they manage to break through, Fletcher turns on Maddy. He tells her that he’s going to take whatever he wants from the other side of the door and there’s nothing she can do about it and once he’s done she can have what he doesn’t want. Maddy says that wasn’t the deal, but Fletcher pushes her aside. Maddy throws a hammer from Fletcher’s lockpicking kit at him. Fletcher gets angry and attacks Maddy, but she is able to fight him off. Fletcher storms off, warning her that he’ll be back really soon with some friends to help carry out the loot and she better not be there when he is. 

Maddy goes down a staircase and finds herself in Dr. Reinhart Lane’s old lab. A video begins playing of Reinhart Lane instructing her how to wake up Lamont Cranston’s body. Margo Lane’s cryogenic chamber is no longer in the lab. Maddy wakes Lamont up. Lamont gasps for air. He slowly begins to remember how he got there. He demands to know where Margo Lane is. Maddy tells him that she doesn’t know what he’s talking about. Lamont sees a vial labeled as an antidote for the poison Margo was afflicted by. Fletcher returns to the warehouse with a handful of thugs to do his dirty work. Lamont tries to use his powers to cloud their minds, but his powers are a little rusty. Maddy uses some chemicals in the lab to make homemade smoke bombs to fill the warehouse, giving Lamont cover to take out all the thugs the old-fashioned way. Fletcher tries to run away, but Maddy trips him, sending him flying into a wall, knocking him out. Lamont suggests they call the authorities to take them downtown. Maddy informs Lamont that these days the police don’t even bother bringing criminals to the police station unless it’s something super serious, otherwise the criminals all just walk free. Lamont steps outside of the warehouse and is stunned by the different look of the city’s skyline. Maddy informs him that it is the year 2023. Lamont becomes distraught when he realizes he has been asleep for 80 years. 

Lamont begins running toward his house, but once he arrives he finds that it has been torn down and replaced with a highrise condominium building. Maddy finally catches up. Lamont then goes down into the sewers, telling Maddy that he built a secret entrance to his lair from the sewers in case his house were ever compromised, like it clearly has been. Once in the dark and dusty lair, Lamont begins asking questions about what has happened the last 80 years. Not being much of a history buff, Maddy only gives a few broad strokes, mostly about what TV shows and movies are popular now. Lamont asks Maddy to bring him a phonebook so he can try to find anyone with connections to his surely-dead-by-now Shadow agents. Maddy looks at him confused, telling him that she’s never even seen a phone book before. Lamont asks how to find people in 2023. Maddy pulls out her phone and explains the internet to Lamont. Lamont has her search for Moe Shrevnitz and they find an article about Moe being killed in a warehouse fire back in 1943. Lamont tells her that Moe was killed by Shiwan Khan, not by fire. Lamont then has her search for Shiwan Khan. This brings up a page for the Xanadu Foundation, an organization that purportedly seeks to help stabilize third-world governments by overseeing the installation of new elections. The website lists the address of their headquarters in New York City. Lamont puts on a fresh suit and reloads his guns. He then demands that Maddy take him there.

Along the way, they pass by the National September 11 Memorial. Lamont asks about it, and Maddy tells her about terrorists attacking the city by crashing planes into buildings there over 20 years earlier. Lamont tells Maddy that Shiwan Khan, who he believes must still be alive, is a terrorist that needs to be stopped just like the ones from 9/11. When they make it to the Xanadu Foundation, security stops them at the door and asks if they have clearance passes. Lamont is able to use his powers to make himself and Maddy invisible to the guards (but not to the cameras). Breece informs Khan that the facial recognition cameras have a match for someone who just entered the building - Lamont Cranston. Khan becomes deviously excited that his old nemesis is seemingly back from the grave. Khan tells Breece to allow them to come up the elevator to see him. Breece is confused that Khan would want to see his nemesis, but Khan tells Breece that he misses his old fights with the Shadow. On the elevator ride up, Lamont covers his face with his red scarf.

Lamont and Maddy arrive on the top level where Shiwan Khan is waiting for them. Lamont tells Maddy to wait by the elevator while he inspects things. Lamont uses his powers to go invisible to have a look around, but is quickly found out by Khan, whose mind cannot be clouded by the Shadow’s power. Breece then drags a kicking and screaming Maddy into the room. Khan explains that he has figured out how to prolong his own life indefinitely and even stop aging by using technology he forced Dr. Reinhart Lane to develop. This statement makes Lamont believe that Khan knows where Margo is and pulls out his guns and opens fire on Khan. But Khan uses telekinetic powers to send the bullets firing into the wall away from him. Khan laughs, saying that if he wants to see Margo again then he can’t kill him. Lamont begrudgingly listens as Khan explains that Reinhart unfroze Margo just long enough to give birth to a baby she had inside of her a few years after their last encounter - a baby girl named Jessica. Maddy suddenly realizes that her grandmother Jessica is the daughter of Lamont and Margo. Khan continues explaining that Reinhart then froze Margo again, but kept her at his house, which is where he found her when he had his barbarians kill him. 

Khan then leads Lamont into another room where Margo’s cryogenic chamber is. Khan then points to a screen with a clock counting down. He tells the Shadow that two things will happen when the timer runs out: Margo’s chamber will self-destruct and kill her, and a missile will be fired from the roof of the building which will trigger a new world war. As usual, Khan says, he will only have time to stop one of them from happening. Lamont asks why Khan wants to start another World War, and Khan explains that the leaders of the world will look to his Xanadu Foundation to rebuild, giving him dominion over every nation. Khan then disappears in a cloud of smoke, cackling. Maddy stomps on Breece’s foot, breaking free from his grasp. Lamont shoots Breece, killing him. Lamont looks at the timer, unsure of which choice to make. Maddy tells him to go save Margo while she tries to stop the missile - she’s better with technology anyways. Lamont nods. Maddy rushes up to the roof of the building where she finds the computer console on the missile launcher is locked. Sick of locks, Maddy finds a nearby fire ax and begins hacking away at the lock until the console busts open. She then looks carefully at all the various multicolored wires. Lamont goes to Margo’s cryogenic chamber and turns it off. He then quickly injects Margo’s body with the poison antidote. She doesn’t respond right away, which worries Lamont. He begins shaking her body until her eyes finally slowly open. Lamont gives her a kiss. She asks what is going on. He tells her that’s a bit of a complicated question right now. Maddy closes her eyes and hears a voice telling her to pull out the yellow wire. Once she does, the timer for the missile stops. Lamont realizes that the cryogenic chamber is still set to self-destruct though. He tells Margo that they need to help Maddy get off the roof. Maddy hears Margo’s voice in her head telling her to get off the roof and away from the building as soon as possible. Maddy begins running down the stairs of the building, sliding down the railing to speed things up. Lamont tells Margo to hold onto him, and they slide down the elevator cables all the way to the ground floor. Lamont, Margo and Maddy all meet up outside of the building as the entire top level of the building explodes. Lamont knows that Shiwan Khan is still out there somewhere up to no good.

The group all go to Maddy’s apartment where Lamont and Margo meet their daughter, Jessica, for the first time. Margo is still playing a bit more catch-up than the others, but can instantly tell that Jessica, despite her age, is her family and gives her a hug. Margo finally notices the engagement ring on her finger and tells Lamont “yes”. Maddy comments that they have one complicated family tree now.