Repo Men

Credit card purchases for transplants of body organs result in some non-payment problems in the future when accounts fall into the arrears. When a customer falls behind in payment, Remy (Jude Law) and Jake (Forest Whitaker) are called in by creditors to repossess the heart, liver, or whatever has been purchased. Frank (Live Schreiber) thinks they are the best at their quick ambulance work, taking organs almost immediately after the delinquent customer is put under anesthesia. Though Remy is tops at cutting, he has lost his heart for the job and helps fugitive Beth (Alice Braga) go on the run to keep from being relieved of her transplant. His wife Carol (Carice van Houten) has also told him to lose the career or lose her.




In the future humans have extended and improved our lives through highly sophisticated and expensive mechanical organs created by a company called "The Union". The dark side of these medical breakthroughs is that if you don't pay your bill, "The Union" sends its highly skilled repo men to take back its property... with no concern for your comfort or survival. Former soldier Remy is one of the best organ repo men in the business. But when he suffers a cardiac failure on the job, he awakens to find himself fitted with the company's top-of-the-line heart-replacement... as well as a hefty debt. But a side effect of the procedure is that his heart's no longer in the job. When he can't make the payments, The Union sends its toughest enforcer, Remy's former partner Jake, to track him down. Written by Anonymous




In the near future, the company "The Union" provides expensive prosthesis to improve the lives of the clients. However, the company sends repo men to retrieve the artificial organs for those that do not pay the installments. The former soldiers Remy and his best friend Jake are among the best repo men of the company; however Remy's job cost his marriage and his wife Carol leaves him. When Remy is ready to request to be transferred to the sales department expecting to save his marriage, he has an accident with a defibrillator and he needs heart transplantation. The prosthesis is very expensive and Remy changes his behavior after the medical procedure, and he is no longer capable of chasing the debtors. Meanwhile Remy helps the singer Beth, who owes a large amount to The Union, and sooner they are chased by the repo men. Written by Claudio Carvalho, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil




SYNOPSIS

In 2025, a corporation called The Union has perfected the creation of artificial organs, which have replaced organ transplants. A potential customer can apply for an organ, which are sold on credit, at high interest. If a customer is unable to maintain payments, after three months, a repo-man is sent after the customer to 'reclaim' Union property. The process of the repossession is bloody & brutal, and often results in the death of the customer.

Remy is one of the Union's top repo-men, who partners with his childhood friend, Jake, to collect on past due accounts. Remy is highly regarded within The Union as their top performer, though his occupation causes problems with his wife, who sees it as unsavory. After she leaves Remy when Jake commits a repossession in front of their home, Remy decides to transfer to a sales job, much to Jake's chagrin.

As his final repossession job, Remy is sent to the residence of a music producer, whose work he happens to admire. After allowing the man enough time to complete a song, Remy prepares to repossess his heart. When he attempts to use a heart defibrillator to stop the unit, the defibrillator malfunctions, sending a large electrical shock through his body and knocking him into a coma. When Remy awakens from his coma, he is informed by Jake and Frank, his co-workers, that the shock severely damaged his heart. He can be fitted with an artificial heart, or die. After Remy attempts to flee the hospital, he reluctantly agrees to the procedure.

Remy goes back to work, but is unable to perform his job, because he is just like the people he is repossessing from. He attempts to transition into sales, but quickly finds himself behind in payments. Jake takes Remy to the outskirts of the city to a nest, which is a collection of people who have past due accounts with the Union, but are fleeing to avoid being repossessed. Remy is again unable to perform a repossession, after which he is abandoned by Jake until he can perform his job. Remy is attacked by a pair of men from whom he was expected to repossess artiforgs, and knocked out.

Remy, upon awakening, encounters Beth, whom he had met earlier in a bar where she was singing. He discovers that she has multiple body parts on which she is past due, and is currently suffering from a drug addiction. Remy takes her to a motel room, where he stays with her as she goes through withdrawal. After Jake interrupts his attempt to falsify artiforg returns on both of them back at the Union's headquarters, Remy leaves unassailed by Jake, returns to Beth, & the two leave to live in the outskirts.

The pair live, for a time, in relative harmony. Remy uses an old typewriter that Beth had found to type up a narrative of his life, and subsequent conversion. As he finishes, a repo-man arrives to repossess his heart, but as he approaches Remy, he falls through a hole Remy has covered in the damaged floor, crashing to the floor below, unconscious. Then Beth, who was hiding behind the door, also falls when the floor collapses under her, re-injuring her leg. From above, Remy sees the Repo man coming to, readying to tranquilize or taze Beth. Remy drops the heavy typewriter onto him thru the floor, crushing his head, to save himself and Beth. Using the repo-man's vehicle, Remy sneaks back into his former workplace to obtain a pair of devices that fool organ scanners used by repo-men. He attempts to force Frank to clear his account, only to discover that due to his previous aborted attempt, all accounts can now only be cleared back at the Union's central office.

Remy and Beth attempt to flee the country at the airport, but are taken by security when it is discovered that Beth's prosthetic knee was damaged due to their earlier encounter with the repo-man. Once inside, they are forced to fight against airport security and another pair of repo-men. They are able to kill or incapacitate all of them, and while escaping, come face to face thru impenetrable safety glass, with Jake, who has now been assigned Remy's account. The pair head to a black market doctor, where Beth's knee is replaced. After the procedure, the two are stopped by Jake, who has tracked the pair. A bitter fight ensues, during which Jake reveals that it was he who rigged the defibrillator unit to malfunction, necessitating Remy's heart replacement; he did this intending to ensure that Remy would have to keep his organ repossession job, so they could get promoted together. The two fight, but Jake gains the upper hand, and knocks Remy unconscious by hitting him in the head with a heavy steel chain & hook.

Remy is awakened by Beth, and as they escape a raid by the Union's repo-men, they are pulled into a safe house by an underground network of artiforg refugees. The two survive the night, but Remy is overcome with remorse after finding the corpses of the victims of the Union raid. He resolves to destroy the corporation and clear the accounts of Beth and himself. After passing his story to his son during a brief meeting on a train, the pair travel to The Union's headquarters, hoping to remove themselves from the system. Remy and Beth are pursued throughout the building, and after an intense battle against Remy's former colleagues, arrive at the Pink Door, the main database for the Union. Scanning Beth's prosthetic eye, they are able to seal themselves inside just as Jake and Frank arrive. Once inside, they discover that the server does not have any interface, except for a scanner. Remy realizes that the only way to remove themselves from the system is to repo their artiforgs. Remy and Beth cut themselves open in order to use the scanner internally, clearing their accounts.

Jake and Frank are able to enter through the use of an artificial organ removed from one of the guards killed by Remy, and see Remy trying desperately to resuscitate Beth, who has stopped breathing during the process. Jake asks Remy if she was worth all the hardship and pain that he has put himself through, which he confirms. Frank pulls a gun to kill Remy, but Jake turns on his employer, stabbing him with a knife. Jake then assists Remy in reviving Beth, after which he deposits two explosives inside the organ return unit. The explosion destroys the Union's mainframe, wiping all the client account records out of the system.

Later, Remy is on a tropical beach, enjoying his freedom with Beth and Jake. His text from earlier in the film has been published into a book, The Repossesion Mambo. Remy turns to look at Jake, but instead the background flickers and voices are heard. It is revealed that Remy, in fact, sustained brain injury when Jake hit him with the metal hook earlier in the film. Jake, out of guilt & remorse, has paid off Remy's account and has had him placed on a Neural Network machine, allowing him to live the rest of his life in a dream. Beth is still alive but unconscious, and when questioned as to what to do with her, Jake replies he'll "take care of her". This renders the second half of the film as simply a fantasy of Remy's. Jake finds Remy's manuscript, which he greets with a bitter chuckle, as his former partner is wheeled away, presumably to spend the rest of his days in his fantasy world. The film ends with Frank delivering his usual sales pitch in a commercial, then back to Remy's beach fantasy, where Jake is handing him a tropical drink, saying, "A little fruit, for the fruit?" (now, a 'vegetable'!) Remy leans back, looks down at Beth walking by the water, sips, smiles, and laughs.