"You know why you're not in their little jail right now? Because you're in mine."
— Cale Erendreich
Bad Samaritan is a 2018 Psychological Thriller film, directed by Dean Devlin and written by Brandon Boyce.
Sean Falco (Robert Sheehan), a struggling artist, runs a criminal business with his friend Derek Sandoval (Carlito Olivero). They use their jobs as car valets as a front to case the homes of their wealthy clients with a view to burgling them. The scam is working out well for them, until one day they target the home of Cale Erendreich (David Tennant) and stumble across a young woman (Kerry Condon) being held captive inside the house.
When a police search of the house yields nothing, Sean tries moving on with his life, but quickly finds that Erendreich isn't someone who lets those who know too much get away so easily...
It was released May 4th, 2018. Watch the trailer here
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Not to be confused with the Netflix series Bad Samaritans, or the trope.
Tropes:
- Animal Motif: Horses. Cale is obsessed with horses. A complex from his billionaire father caring more about his prized horses than him, and the horse trainer he had a kiddie crush on turning him down.
- Believing Their Own Lies: Sean and Derek spend the first part of the movie judging, criticizing and running down everyone around them when no one's listening. Meanwhile, they act like it's OK to be conniving, manipulative, dishonest petty thieves who hate others for having nice things and steal what they want because they're not happy with their jobs.
- Black-and-Gray Morality: Yes, sadistic psychopathic murderers are evil people. What about thieves and burglars who invade homes and prey on the unsuspecting public at large?
- But for Me, It Was Tuesday: Lampshaded.Cale: And now, see, what for you has been the most extraordinary adventure, was just for me an ordinary day.
- The Cavalry Arrives Late:The FBI arrive after Sean and Katie have handled Cale. Sean even cracks wise about it.
- Chekhov's Gun: Subverted twice. The bolt cutters and lesson on proper ax handling don't come around to benefit Sean in any way.
- Cool Car: Cale's Maserati.
- Complaining About Rescues They Don't Like: Katie is understandably peeved that Sean abandoned her, took days to find her and winds up needing her to save him.Katie: That's how you fucking save somebody!
- Damsel in Distress: Katie.
- Disappeared Dad: Sean lives with his mother, brother and stepfather in the US. Where his father is isn't mentioned (perhaps back in Ireland?).
- Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: Cale can't wrap his head around why Sean would go to such lengths to save a woman he doesn't even know.
- Faux Affably Evil The policeman easily buys Cale's "I'm just a guy".
- Heel–Face Turn: After discovering the girl held captive in Cale's house and having a close brush with real evil, Sean is scared shitless and declares his intention to give up thievery.
- I Have Many Names: Cale Erendreich is one of many aliases Cale makes use of. When Katie yells his name, he responds with "Who the fuck is Cale?"
- Laser-Guided Karma: Cale is left for the FBI in the same chair he tied Katie in. Becoming a crazed, snarling animal.
- Last-Name Basis: By the end of the film Cale's true surname is revealed to be 'Valkenberg' but his actual first name is never mentioned.
- Made of Iron: Katie survives a grazing headshot, falling into a pit at least 10 feet deep and lye burns, and still has enough energy to climb out of said pit and bean Cale with a shovel.
- Never Going Back to Prison: Not back, because he hasn't been. But Derek makes it clear that he can't go to prison because of a family/neighbourhood/gang beef with other inmates who will surely kill him once he's in the slammer with them.
- Obsessively Organized: Cale shows signs of it. He can't even keep on pretending to be a "normal guy" in front of a police officer when he sees one tool in the set hanging tilted.
- Please Put Some Clothes On: After taking a shower and using every soap and lotion in the order Cale told her and telling that to Cale, who wasn't watching, Katie takes a deep breath and drops the towel. Cale seems disgusted and throws her some clean clothes. He doesn't seem asexual, though. More like considering his victim an animal.
- Police Are Useless: Subverted. Though the local police and FBI don't provide much help to Sean at first, it isn't because they're corrupt, incompetent or just apathetic. Rather, Cale just covers things up very well, and they only have his word for it. Later, they're hamstrung by needing to wait for a search warrant at Cale's land in the country before hearing gunshots, which lets them enter. However, by the time Sean and Katie are found by the FBI they've already overpowered Cale by themselves.
- The Sociopath: Cale, under his suave appearance, is a petty and murderous psychopath obsessed with brutally "correcting" people. While this may at first may be portraying him as well-intentioned, we discover that he does it more like for his own depraved amusement.
- Screw the Rules, I Have Money!: Lampshaded.Sean: The police won't believe that.Cale: (smirking) You have no idea how rich I am.
- Spanner in the Works: Cale has been getting away with his craziness for years. Until Sean stumbles onto his game.
- Stalker without a Crush: Cale Erendreich stalks Sean because he knows too much.
- Tally Marks on the Prison Wall: Katie finds some on the wall of her second cell.
- Would Hit a Girl: Cale always targets women. He also beats up Riley to get at Sean, her boyfriend.
