History Film / TheAccountant2016

[[quoteright:259:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/the_accountant_2016_film.png]]
[[caption-width-right:259:''"Imagine the secrets this guy has."'']]

** Her only other major scene together is Dana relaying the story about growing up, trying & failing to win at blackjack to make money for her prom dress. This is enough to "make a connection" with Wolff, to the point that it [[DesignatedLoveInterest motivates Christian to be pissed enough]] to hunt down the BigBad instead of just abandoning her.

* {{Adorkable}}: Dana - cute, friendly, enthusiastic, and played by the petite Creator/AnnaKendrick. So much so, in fact, that she manages to bring out Christian's own {{Adorkable}} side when they geek out over [[ItMakesSenseInContext his work on Living Robotics' finances]].

** Dana [[{{Adorkable}} sleeping on a desk]] when she's supposed to be meeting Christian.

** They also contrast from each other in character and personality; Christian is a forensic accountant who works with several criminal enterprises and his autism makes him anti-social and he usually attempts to avoid small talk and any kind relationship with anyone. However, he is shown to betray his criminal employers with anonymous tips to the U.S. Treasury Department and cares when innocent people are in danger, going out of his way to protect them at risk of his own safety. [[spoiler: Lamar, on the other hand, is initially is a warm-hearted, charitable man who makes advanced prosthetics for disabled people]]. Then, it's revealed that [[spoiler: he's been committing fraud in his company in order to fudge up his numbers so he could go public and has his friend/business partner and then his own sister killed, along with Dana and Wolff to cover up his scheme, arrogantly saying that he's doing it for other people's benefit]].

Meet Christian Wolff (Affleck), an autistic boy turned accountant for various dangerous criminal organizations. A mathematics savant, Wolff gains a client in the form of a state-of-the-art robotics company and ends up caught in a web of conspiracy. Things especially turn for the worse when his protegée Dana Cummings (Kendrick) discovers things that would make her a [[HeKnowsTooMuch target]]. But Wolff is [[CrazyPrepared very much prepared]] to deal with such troubles... [[WallOfWeapons in most lethal ways]].

* BoomHeadshot: Christian's natural method of gunplay involves his, often even shooting mooks in the head twice to be sure. [[spoiler:Wolff kills Lamar like this after Braxton makes his HeelFaceTurn]].

* AssholeVictim: [[spoiler:Lamar, [[BoomHeadshot who gets shot in the head by Wolff]] after Braxton makes his HeelFaceTurn]].

* ConservationOfNinjutsu: Wolff initially goes through Braxton's pretty easily but the fewer remain the more difficulty he has fighting them to the point the last two nearly kill him. [[spoiler:And the last one had to be killed by Wolff's brother to save him.]]

* CainAndAbel: Wolff and his brother [[spoiler:are a subverted example. The only time Braxton actually tries to hurt his brother is before he realizes it's him. After that, he starts beating the shit out of him, but it's clear he's just upset at him for disappearing for ten years after their father was killed. The two of them seem to (mostly) work out their issues]].

** His handler has a habit of saying "Heavy sigh" to demonstrate frustration... [[spoiler:because she cannot actually sigh at all]].

* BluntYes: Lamar ends his MotiveRant at Christian about how he improves lives and heals broken people with "Do you know what that's like?" Christian answers bluntly, "Yes, I do." and then casually [[BoomHeadshot finishes his retaliation]] [[ItsPersonal for the hit on Dana]]. [[spoiler:He can say so truthfully because he donates a sizeable portion of his immense illicit income to an Autism treatment home]].

* ForensicAccounting: Wolff's specialty, towards both legitimate businesses and... otherwise; he's smart enough to do it quickly and cleanly, "clean" enough to be trusted over in-house accountants, and [[BadassBookworm tough enough to survive any attempt to kill him to cover up problems]]. There's an entire sequence that shows Wolff's method and manages to actually make it interesting.

** They also contrast from each other in character and personality; Christian is a forensic accountant who works with several criminal enterprises and his autism makes him anti-social and he usually attempts to avoid small talk and any kind relationship with anyone. However, he is shown to betray his criminal employers with anonymous tips to the U.S. Treasury Department and cares when innocent people are in danger, going out of his way to protect them at risk of his own safety. [[spoiler: Lamar, on the other hand, is initially is a warm-hearted, charitable man who makes advanced prosthetics for disabled people]]. Then, it's revealed that [[spoiler: he's been committing fraud in his company in order to fudge up his numbers so he could go public and has his friend/business partner and then his own sister killed, along with Dana and Wolff to cover up his scheme, arrogantly saying that he's doing it for other people's benifit]].
* ForensicAccounting: Wolff's speciality, towards both legitimate businesses and... otherwise; he's smart enough to do it quickly and cleanly, "clean" enough to be trusted over in-house accountants, and [[BadassBookworm tough enough to survive any attempt to kill him to cover up problems]]. There's an entire sequence that shows Wolff's method and manages to actually make it interesting.

* AcousticLicense: In a neat subversion, Christian uses a super sonic sniper rifle, as such mooks are killed before the people next to them hear the shot being fired.

* AffablyEvil: Braxton, as shown in his first scene and EstablishingCharacterMoment, when confronting a CorruptCorporateExecutive he has to bully into ceasing his white-collar crimes, he greets the man like they were friends and talks to him in a friendly tone, even as he is beating the man. [[spoiler:Lamarr Blackburn]] the Big Bad, is also rather friendly and personable in his day to day life, though it turns to be mostly a façade.

* ArtisticLicenseStatistics: In one flashback, Chris's father says of a group of boys that it's a ninety percent probability they're all right-handed. In reality it's more like there's a 90% probability that any given person is right-handed, and when looking at a group it's 90% to the power of the number of people in the group.

* BoomHeadshot: Christian's natural method of gunplay involves his, often even shooting mooks in the head twice to be sure. [[spoiler:Wolff kills Lamar like this, after Braxton makes his HeelFaceTurn]].

* BusmansHoliday: Christian only took the job with Living Robotics to take a break from his work for dangerous criminals. [[spoiler:He ends up stumbling upon a case where the guilty party is willing to send a small army of killers cover it up]].
* CainAndAbel: Wolff and his brother [[spoiler:are a subverted example. The only time Braxton actually tries to hurt his brother is before he realizes it's him. After that he starts beating the shit out of him, but it's clear he's just upset at him for disappearing for ten years after their father was killed. The two of them seem to (mostly) work out their issues]].

* CovertGroupWithMundaneFront: ZZZ Accounting, a hole-in-the wall firm in an out-of-the-way strip mall which contains Christian Wolff's office. It's actually chosen to be the absolute last business one finds in phone books and search engines(a reversal of the origins of AcmeProducts), and he owns every other business in the mall as fronts to launder his money. The only reason Medina found him is because she badgered a pliable IRS agent into investigating ''every'' man in the US named after a famous mathematician -- specifically a blatantly illegal audit of every other business in said strip mall.

* TheDulcineaEffect: Though his life is threatened as well Christian especially puts himself in harm's way for the sake of Dana, who he had brief moments of connection with, though their meetings can be counted on one hand. [[LampshadeHanging His handler even comments on this]].

** In his first scene as an adult, Christian is doing taxes for an older couple worried about losing their farm. Even though he's incapable of conversing with them normally (and even though his tax preparation service is just a front), he goes out of his way to reduce their tax bill and get their finances in order. He clearly doesn't really know how to deal with people, but does want to help them.
** Braxton is introduced bullying a CorruptCorporateExecutive into ceasing his current mishandling of his clients accounts, in a surprisingly friendly and upbeat tone.

** Wolff is this to the BigBad [[spoiler: Lamar Blackburn]]. Both are wealthy millionaires, however, [[spoiler: Lamar uses his wealth and flaunts it explicitly in investments like his robotic prosthetics company and his mansion. In contrast, Wolff is wealthy, but he chooses to [[SecretlyWealthly hide his wealth]], and live externally as a humble accountant with no crazy rich toys (except for the .50 sniper rifle Christian uses for [[MundaneUtility target practice]]); Wolff hides the possessions that would show how wealthy he is, along with other sentimental possessions, in an unassuming trailer in a storage unit to keep them safe and because the trailer's his second home in case he has to drop his current alias and leave]].

* ForensicAccounting: Wolff's specialty, towards both legitimate businesses and... otherwise; he's smart enough to do it quickly and cleanly, "clean" enough to be trusted over in-house accountants, and [[BadassBookworm tough enough to survive any attempt to kill him to cover up problems]]. There's an entire sequence that shows Wolff's method and manages to actually make it interesting.

* FriendOnTheForce: King becomes a receiver for hot tips to the Treasury Department from Wolff, should any of Wolff's clients end up offending his BlueAndOrangeMorality. King went from on the verge of retiring from a lackluster career as a Treasury Department agent to a meteoric late-blooming career as he knocked down every criminal enterprise that Wolff tipped him off about. The secondary story line of the movie involves King grooming Medina to succeed him in receiving Wolff's tip-offs since he's soon retiring for real.
* GoodParents: When Wolff catches King eavesdropping on his warpath on the Gambino hitmen who killed his friend, Wolff presses him at gunpoint, asking if he's a good agent, which King confesses he's really not. Wolff then asks if he's got family, if he's a good father. King's saying with conviction that he thinks he is convinces Wolff to let him live.
* GoryDiscretionShot: The merc that Christian shoots with his [[SniperRifle Bar]][[{{BFG}} rett]] when the farmer couple are taken hostage slumps in a manner that conceals his head... because it's all-but-ensured that his head was [[YourHeadASplode obliterated]] by being shot with a sniper rifle designed to [[TheresNoKillLikeOverkill disable car engine blocks]]. The director did not shy away from other instances of [[BoomHeadshot headshots]] or their aftermath being clearly shown when made by small-arms caliber weapons.

* HollywoodSilencer: Averted: the sounds of the suppressed guns in the movie are depicted realistically. The film also avoids showing the suppressors being screwed ''into'' the guns' barrel and instead shows the suppressors being screwed ''onto'' the barrel of the gun.
* HowWeGotHere: The opening scene shows a man with a gun making his way through a building where a shooter is methodically killing everyone inside. The scene gets revisited later, when Medina analyses an audio recording of the incident, and again when [[spoiler:Director King tells her the story of the day [[OnceMoreWithClarity when he entered that building and met The Accountant]]]].

* ItsAllAboutMe: [[spoiler:Lamarr Blackburn]], whose MotiveRant makes it seem like he's the only one that matters; that he's the only one who makes [[spoiler: other people whole]]. Nevermind all the other people who actually do the work of research and development, or the people who manage the money and keep the business afloat.

** [[spoiler:Lamarr Blackburn]] also has a point in saying Living Robotics could help a lot of people, [[spoiler:even if he does resort to fraud and hiring mercenaries to murder everyone in his way to get funds]].

** Businesses, even massive criminal operations like drug cartels, that make massive amounts of money need help keeping track of it and managing it. They obviously can't go to any legitimate help, so they get people like Christian.
** A common characteristic of people on the autism spectrum is a need to finish a job no matter what it is, and a dedication to routine. A disruption of either of these things will cause severe stress and anxiety, as shown when Christian could not complete his accounting job.

* {{Retirony}}: Director King is seven months from retirement, and determined to find out who The Accountant is before he retires, assigning Medina to be his pointman on the case. [[spoiler:Averted: He already did all he could to find out who The Accountant really is, and was actually grooming Medina to be The Accountant's contact inside the Treasury Department by making her walk that same path]].

** King talks to Medina to reveal that [[spoiler:Wolff is in fact both an AntiHero who informs on his worst clients, and that King's late blooming career is the result of such information]].

* TranquilFury: When the BigBad finally reveals himself to Wolff, the latter simply says "not happy" in a very quiet voice. Earlier, he ruthlessy, coldly, efficiently kills each and every member of the hit squad that went after Dana; the only one putting up any major fight being the last one.

* HollywoodSuppressor: Averted: the sounds of the suppressed guns in the movie are depicted realistically. The film also avoids showing the suppressors being screwed ''into'' the guns' barrel and instead shows the suppressors being screwed ''onto'' the barrel of the gun.

Meet Christian Wolff (Affleck), an autistic boy turned accountant for various dangerous criminal organizations. A mathematics savant, Wolff gains a client in the form of a state-of-the-art robotics company and ends up caught in a web of conspiracy. Things especially turn for the worse when his protege Dana Cummings (Kendrick) discovers things that would make her a [[HeKnowsTooMuch target]]. But Wolff is [[CrazyPrepared very much prepared]] to deal with such troubles... [[WallOfWeapons in most lethal ways]].

** Businesses, even massive criminal operations like drug cartels, that make massive amounts of money need help keeping track of it and managing it.

* {{BFG}}: Wolff likes to do target practice with a [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barrett_M82 Barrett M82]], an anti-materiel rifle that fires huge .50 BMG anti-materiel rounds. He gets to use it on mooks at one point.

* GenreSavvy: After a handful of {{Mooks}} take an elderly couple Wolff befriended hostage to lure him out while he was doing some target practice, instead of walking over to them like they wanted he simply kills one of them with the high caliber sniper rifle he was holding, before using said rifle to take out their get away car.

A sequel is currently in production with Ben Affleck attached as the leading character.