After his daughter is raped and murdered, Mark Collins hunts down and kills the men responsible. His actions put him on the radar of a mysterious businessman named Bill, who kidnaps Mark's wife to use him as his personal assassin.
The movie is perhaps best known for the ending
, in which the story ends the moment the Big Bad is killed and briefly tells us about the protagonist's fate.
The movie contains examples of:
- all lowercase letters: The ending text is written this way.
- Answer Cut: Mark asks where he can find the blackmailer Bill wants him to kill, at which point the scene cuts to the site of the mission.
- Big Bad: Bill, a corrupt businessman who wants to eliminate his rivals and take control of the drug trade.
- Bittersweet Ending: Mark gets his revenge and kills Bill and his men, but his wife and daughter are dead and he turns himself in, getting a life sentence in prison (which is arguably preferable to how the police were confident that he'd go to the gas chamber for his killings).
- Blackmail: Bill not only uses Mark's wife as a hostage, but reveals that he has enough evidence to ensure Mark's conviction should he not cooperate.
- Designated Girl Fight: When Mark and his partner Lisa track down a man for information on their latest target, Mark fights the man while Lisa fights the man's girlfriend.
- Disposable Woman: Mark's daughter Sarah is only introduced to be killed off and provide Mark with a motive to seek revenge.
- Disproportionate Retribution: Mark executes an unnarmed man begging for his life for stealing $200.
- Downer Beginning: At the beginning, Mark's daughter Sarah and her boyfriend are killed by a gang, with the former being raped beforehand, and Mark is injured.
- Driven to Suicide: One of the blackmailer's victims is a young mother who committed suicide.
- I Have Your Wife: Bill kidnaps Mark's wife to force him to do his bidding.
- I Will Punish Your Friend for Your Failure: Bill tells Mark that if any harm comes to Lisa, Mark's wife will suffer the same as Lisa.
- Non-Indicative Title: The movie's German title translates to "Ninja Warrior" despite there being zero ninjas in the movie.
- Nothing Up My Sleeve: Mark has a grenade launcher hidden up his sleeve, which he uses to kill Bill after being shot in the shoulder and dropping his rocket launcher.
- Not-So-Well-Intentioned Extremist: Bill claims to be a man devoted to seeing criminals get what they deserve, but he's actually a criminal who's having his opposition killed.
- Police Are Useless: The police completely fail to solve any of the crimes, and at least one of the officers expresses how he prefers to let Mark do all their work.
- Pretty Little Headshots: One of the men who robbed an old man in the bar ends up getting a bullet to the head.
- Recycled Soundtrack: The tension cue that plays in many scene is a track ("On The Trail") borrowed from The Stone Killer.
- Roaring Rampage of Revenge: Mark tracks down the gang members and kills them in revenge for his daughter's death.
- Signature Line: The ending narration is easily the most iconic part of the film.
- So Much for Stealth: An attempted infiltration from protagonist Mark and his partner Liza into a mobster's hideout in a construction site is botched when Liza steps on a plank. They end up shooting their way out.
- Soundtrack Dissonance: A big part of the ending's meme value is the sheer dissonance between the blaring, triumphant-sounding music track and the caption bluntly informing viewers that the protagonist surrendered and is serving a life sentence for his crimes.
- Unwitting Pawn: While Mark is forced into killing for Bill for the entire movie, he remains unaware of Bill's real agenda for much of the film.
- Vigilante Man: After killing the men who raped and murdered his daughter, Mark goes after other criminals.
- What the Hell, Hero?: Yvette calls out Mark on killing people in the name of vigilante justice and convinces him to stop.
- You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: Mark is well aware that he'll be killed once his employer doesn't need him anymore.
mark collins, age 45, gave himself up to the authorities after the incident. he is now serving a life sentence.
