Headshot is a 2016 action movie starring
Iko Uwais as a young man who washes ashore with amnesia after suffering a
head shot. Cared for by an attractive doctor, who names him "Ishmael", he finds himself targeted by violent criminals who seem to know who he is.
This movie features the following tropes:
- Abusive Parents: Lee is described as "The Father From Hell" and not without reason. He adopted Ishmael after abducting him, forcing him and a group of children into a well in sweltering heat to cook for days, and then throwing down a water bottle, causing the children to fight to the death for survival.
- Amnesiac Hero: Ishmael.
- Assassin Outclassin': While Ishmael is in the police station, thugs come to kill him. Although they slaughter everyone else in the station, Ishmael manages to take them all out.
- Big Bad: Lee, the enigmatic and ruthless leader of the gang hunting Ishmael.
- Blofeld Ploy: Lee pulls this to one of the survivors of a rival gang after said gangs assassination attempt against him backfires.
- Book Ends: In their first and final scenes, Ailin talks to an unconscious Ishmael.
- Character Name Alias: Ailin gives the unidentified person in her care the temporary name Ishmael, after the character in the Moby-Dick novel she's reading. He takes it as his new name in the end.
- Combat Pragmatist: Ishmael uses everything he can find to fight off his attackers, from guns to knives to a table he's handcuffed to.
- Concealment Equals Cover: Ishmael survives an exploding grenade by using a wooden table as a shield.
- Bulletproof Human Shield: Used by Lee in a shootout with a rival gang.
- Dark Action Girl: Rika, one of the last people Ishmael faces before fighting the Big Bad, is also one of the deadliest.
- Expy: Ishmael is pretty much an Indonesian Jason Bourne.
- Eye Scream: One thug gets a bullet casing to the brain in the bus brawl with Ishmael
- Femme Fatale: Rika.
- Gratuitous English: Pretty much all of the villains speak English for some reason.
- Groin Attack: Lee implicitly threatens a gang member with this as an impromptu form of lie detection.
- Hidden Weapons: A knife hidden in a wash bucket is used to kill a guard.
- Hoist by His Own Petard: The thug mentioned below gets impaled through the throat with his own machete.
- Hospital Hottie: Ailin, the doctor who operates on Ishmael, and befriends him, is very attractive.
- Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: How the big bad of the movie is defeated. He tries to return the favor.
- Line-of-Sight Name: Variant; when he wakes up, Ishmael identifies himself to Ailin with the temporary name she wrote on his bed tag, which she of course already knows is a pseudonym.
- Machete Mayhem: In the fight at the police station, the first thug that attacks Ishmael wields a machete.
- Made of Iron:
- The main character spends most of the movie with a bullet in his head, and never lets it slow him down.
- Downplayed for the two guards and the mook who frees Sunny Pang in the opening, who all die but not before each taking multiple point blank shots to their chests.
- Meaningful Name:
- Ishmael is found unconscious on the beach, while his Moby Dick namesake is the sole survivor of his ship's crew. Like the Biblical Ishmael, he is also banished by his father figure.note The second meaning might be lost in Muslim-majority Indonesia, since Ishmael's story in Islamic tradition is quite different.
- Subverted with his former name Abdi, which means "to serve" and was given by Lee to inspire loyalty, as he eventually defeats Lee in the Final Battle.
- Besi ("iron") fights with a collapsible iron baton.
- Never-Forgotten Skill: Just like Jason Bourne, Ishmael retains his combat prowess despite having amnesia.
- Prison Riot: Lee instigates one of these as part of his escape plan.
- Red Baron: Lee's nicknames are "The Sea Devil" and "The Father From Hell".
- Suicide by Cop: Rika repeatedly shoots her gun at Ishmael's direction while deliberately missing him, which triggers his ingrained instinct and makes him stab her in self-defense.
- Taking You with Me: After being impaled against a jagged tree branch, Lee attempts to pull Ishmael into it as well. He might have succeeded if it weren't for Ailin coming to the rescue.
- 'Tis Only a Bullet in the Brain: Subverted, as getting shot in the head (the eponymous headshot) leaves the main character with total amnesia.
- We Used to Be Friends: Besi and Rika were close to Abdi when they were all still in Lee's group. They choose to fight against him to the end.
- With My Hands Tied: Ishmael is chained to a table when the first thug attacks him in the station. It ends badly for the thug.
- Would Hurt a Child:
- X Meets Y: The Raid meets The Bourne Identity.
