History Film / Sicario

The film stars Creator/EmilyBlunt, Creator/BenicioDelToro, Creator/JoshBrolin, and Creator/VictorGarber. It tells the story of Kate Macer (Blunt), an idealistic FBI Special Weapons and Tactics Teams agent, who is enlisted by government official Matt Graver (Brolin) to aid in a joint task force - which includes his mysterious partner, Alejandro Gillick (del Toro) - in tracking down an anonymous drug lord.

** Both [[BigBad Fausto Alarcon]] and [[TheDragon Manuel Diaz]] are shown to have families that they care about. [[spoiler:Fausto in particular is clearly disturbed when Alejandro murders his family before his eyes.]]

* RapeIsASpecialKindOfEvil: [[spoiler:Alejandro obtains Manuel Diaz's collaboration by threatening to have his daughters raped by 20 men.]]

** [[spoiler:Alarcon]], faced with [[spoiler:Alejandro]] pointing a gun at both him and his family, tries to (in a very high-handed way) use the logic he uses to justify his lifestyle to himself on a man whose life he ruined and family he had murdered. Guess what happens.

** When Kate [[spoiler:[[OhCrap sees the pink-and-blue armband on Ted's keychain]].]]
** When [[spoiler:Alejandro lets off three shots at the dinner table, then in one zoomed out shot, we see he's killed Fausto's family.]]

** [[spoiler:Alejandro shoots and kills Fausto Alarcon's wife and 2 children at the dinner table before killing him. He also threatens to have Manuel Diaz's daughters [[RapeIsASpecialKindOfEvil raped by 20 men]] if he doesn't comply to his demands.]]

* SlidingScaleOfIdealismVsCynicism: Far on the cynicism side. Life across the border is depicted as dangerous and grim due to the cartels' violent actions, kids aren't spared from this violence, law enforcers are either on the cartels' payroll or are fighting them with more violence, and the few idealistic law enforcers are constantly belittled or eventually corrupted with violence. [[spoiler:The ending scene even shows that Mexicans have come to accept violence as their reality and just turn a blind eye to it all, and that nothing at all has changed, even though one Cartel has been taken down.]]

** [[spoiler:Ted]] has a daughter from a previous marriage, an information that Matt and Alejandro use when [[JackBauerInterrogationTechnique interrogating]] him.

* EnemyCivilWar: Once a Cartel leader, Diaz is extradited, the various cartel factions in Juarez descend into vicious street fighting, which Kate grimly observes from the safety of El Paso.

** [[spoiler: Silvio]] is revealed to be a mule for the Sonora cartel, transporting drugs in his police car

* DictionaryOpening: The film opens with a black screen explaining in text what "sicario" means (it comes from a fanatical sect of Jews who knifed Roman occupiers and their collaborators in Judea, and it has come mean "hitman" in Mexico).

* BoobyTrap: [[spoiler:The Chandler, Arizona raid leads to the team finding corpses in the walls inside the house. Normally, the team becomes curious to what horrors the shed outside the house contains, but such investigation leads to triggering an explosion that blows up two police officers.]]
* BrokenPedestal: Reggie considered [[spoiler:Ted]] as a friend. He is understandably not happy when he learns that [[spoiler:he is a DirtyCop and that he was sent to murder Kate]]
* BulletproofVest: All of the Delta operators sport them in the field, as do Kate and Reggie. The latter two are even shown loading ceramic plates into their vests. [[spoiler: Alejandro later shoots Kate in the vest to knock her down without heavily injuring her, and it's shown realistically - Kate is left desperately gasping for air and injured enough to have to stay out of the fight]]
* TheCartel: The Mexican cartel is the main antagonists.

* WhamShot: When Kate [[spoiler:[[OhCrap sees the pink-and-blue armband on Ted's keychain]].]]

A sequel, ''Sicario: Day of the Soldado'', is scheduled for a premiere on June 29, 2018 with some members of the cast (Benicio del Toro as Alejandro Gillick, Josh Brolin as Matt Graver and Jeffrey Donovan as Steve Forsing) being brought back.

A sequel, ''[[Film/SicarioDayOfTheSoldado Sicario: Day of the Soldado]]'', is scheduled for a premiere on June 29, 2018 with some members of the cast (Benicio del Toro as Alejandro Gillick, Josh Brolin as Matt Graver and Jeffrey Donovan as Steve Forsing) being brought back.

A sequel, ''Sicario: Day of the Soldado'', is scheduled for a premiere on June 29, 2018 with some members of the cast (Benicio del Toro as Alejandro Gillick, Josh Brolin as Matt Graver and Jeffrey Donovan as Steve Forsing) being brought back.

The film stars Creator/EmilyBlunt, Creator/BenicioDelToro, Creator/JoshBrolin, and Creator/VictorGarber. It tells the story of Kate Macer (played by Blunt), an idealistic FBI Special Weapons and Tactics Teams agent, who is enlisted by Matt Graver, a government official (played by Brolin) to aid in a joint task force - which includes his mysterious partner, Alejandro Gillick (del Toro) - in tracking down an anonymous drug lord.

* BlackAndGrayMorality: It is shown that drug lords, such as Fausto Alarcon, kidnap, kill and mutilate people on both sides of the border to inspire fear and maintain control, but Matt and his team are not above shooting cartel sicarios in public or using torture to bring down the Sonora cartel. [[spoiler:Then it crosses into BlackAndBlackMorality when Matt tells Kate that his actions are going to help restore power to the Medellin cartel and that the goal never was to stop the cartels, but to control them.]]

* BrokenPedestal: Reggie considered [[spoiler:Ted]] as a friend. He is understandably not happy when he learns that [[spoiler:he is a DirtyCop and that he attacked Kate.]]
* BulletproofVest: All of the Delta operators sport them in the field, as do Kate and Reggie. The latter two are even shown loading ceramic plates into their vests. [[spoiler: Alejandro later shoots Kate in the vest to knock her down without heavily injuring her.]]

* HannibalLecture: [[spoiler:Fausto Alarcon tries one on Alejandro, giving him a NotSoDifferent speech about some of the tactics employed by the authorities that the cartels later adopted for themselves. Alejandro is having none of it and shoots his wife and kids, then him.]]

* HannibalLecture: [[spoiler:Fausto Alarcon tries one on Alejandro. Alejandro's having none of it and shoots his wife and kids, then him.]]

* VillainHasApoint: Alarcon is probably absolutely correct that Alejandro's wife would never be proud of what he's become.

** Fausto Alarcon asks Alejandro to spare his family. He doesn't, because Alejandro is a sicario, not a cop.

** Alarcon, faced with Alejandro pointing a gun at both him and his family, tries to (in a very high-handed way) use the logic he uses to justify his lifestyle to himself on a man whose life he ruined and family he had murdered. Guess what happens.

A sequel, ''Sicario 2: Soldado'', is scheduled for a premiere on June 29, 2018 with some members of the cast (Benicio del Toro as Alejandro Gillick, Josh Brolin as Matt Graver and Jeffrey Donovan as Steve Forsing) being brought back.

A sequel, ''[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soldado_(film) Soldado]]'', is currently in production with some members of the cast (Benicio del Toro as Alejandro Gillick, Josh Brolin as Matt Graver and Jeffrey Donovan as Steve Forsing) being brought back.

** Alarcon, faced with Alejandro pointing a gun at both him and his family, tries to (in a very high-handed way) use the logic he uses to justify his lifestyle to himself on a man whose life he ruined and family he murdered. Guess what happens.