Payback: Straight Up
(Note: this is the original 'Director's Cut' of the crime film, originally filmed in 1997).A on-screen text come up with reads the definition of 'principle'; ones own rule or code of conduct or devotion to such code.Porter (Mel Gibson) is seen walking across the 59th Street Bridge into Manhattan, but he's not feeling groovy. He is crossing his own private Rubicon. Porter steals some cash from a beggar's hat. The beggar, who had been loudly describing himself as "a cripple", leaps up, only to be restrained by Porter. In a coffee shop, Porter uses his stolen cash to buy himself a cup of coffee and a small sandwich. He asks for a cigarette from the waitress at the counter, and then steals the packet of cigarettes from the waitress after paying the bill. On the street again, he picks a pocket of a wealthy businessman, taking a wallet. In a restroom, he examines the ID photo of the guy he robbed. The man in the photo is smiling. Porter tries to mimic the smile but it's a struggle; he hasn't had a lot to smile about lately. He withdraws a few hundred dollars in cash at a bank using the debit card, he buys a new suit for himself on credit using the stolen credit card. Next, Porter uses the credit card to purchase three gold wristwatches, which he pawns for a large .44 Magnum revolver and $500 in cash. That evening, he eats a meal in a fancy restaurant. When it comes time to pay the bill, a waiter tells Porter that the credit card has bounced; its been cancelled, but Porter bluffs his way through and leaves without paying the bill despite the large amount of cash he has on him in $100 notes.That night, Porter waits outside an apartment rowhouse. An inebriated woman arrives, a willowy blonde named Lynn Porter (Deborah Kara Unger). Porter follows her inside and kicks in her apartment door. After looking around and finding no one else in the apartment, Porter stands over the stoned Lynn. She looks up and recognizes him.Porter and Lynn have some coffee at the kitchen table when he sees her arm which shows obvious heroin injection marks. As she pulls her arm away he furiously gets up and hits her in the head really hard. He then pushes the table aside as she grabs a knife to attack him. He fends her off and pushes her against the fridge before he slams her to the ground, headlocks her and shows her a picture of Rosie and him before their marriage. As the situation calms down, Lynn asks him what he's gonna do now. He wants his money back but realizes she meant what is he gonna do with her. He then asks her about Val before they talk about Rosie and what relation Porter had with her.He picks her up and puts her on the bed. Porter spots her heroin stash. She grabs it. He takes it away from her. He locks the door to her bedroom, then takes a shower. Alone in her bedroom, Lynn goes to her walk-in closet where it's revealed that she has a secret dope stash.Porter sleeps on the couch in the living room. Next morning, he wakes up and checks up on her in the bedroom. Lynn is dead from a heroin overdose. He pulls the needle out of her arm and stabs the syringe into the wall. It has his wedding ring hanging on it. He lies down on the bed next to her dead body.In a flashback sequence five or six months earlier, Porter speaks to someone called Val (Gregg Henry) on the phone. They're planning something. On the street, Val explains the target. Some Chinese gangsters have a set routine, servicing a Chinese money laundry. "How much do you need, Val?" says Porter. How much does do you need to buy your way back into a crime organization called "the Outfit"? Val replies, "$130,000."
The Chinese gangsters drive past, up an alley. Porter observes them, then decides their program: "You notice anything about those guys? They weren't wearing their seat belts. We'll hit 'em on Friday."On Friday, Porter drives flat out, down the same alley, but in the opposite direction. There is a head-on smash. Porter spits out a gumshield and cuts free the bag of money. Val demonstrates that he is a sadist; he beats up an unconscious gangster for the fun of it. Porter's wife, Lynn, arrives in another car. The three depart together.Inside an empty warehouse, they count the money which adds up to $140,000 in cash, which means a 50-50 split to $70,000... not enough for Val. Porter says, "We got away clean. Always be grateful for what you get. Rule Number One, Val." There are signs of tension, mistrust. Val says, "This is funny. This'll kill ya. It's always $140 grand." Suddenly Porter's wife pulls a gun and shoots Porter twice in the back. Val explains to Porter: "Lynn did not understand." He shows him a photo of Porter and some other woman, very friendly. "Wives get funny when it comes to girlfriends." As a farewell, he kicks Porter in the head, then gets in the car and they drive away with all the money for himself.In the present day, Porter is lying on the bed next to his dead wife. There is a knock at the door. A punk delivery boy is outside. Porter drags him inside, searches him, and finds heroin. The kid has a smart mouth. Porter rips out a nose ring. He asks the punk where he got the drugs, but the kid worries about "them". Porter says, "Worry about me!" The kid provides a name: Arthur Stegman, and an address. Porter says, "Thanks." Porter lets the punk kid go.Porter climbs the steps to a rundown, upstairs office. A large black man is reading a newspaper behind the front counter. Porter asks for Arthur Stegman. The black guy says he's not there. Porter persists. "He at home?" The black guy suggests he go fuck himself.Meanwhile, Stegman (David Paymer) is playing craps with two plain clothes cops named Detective Hicks (Bill Duke) and Detective Leary (Jack Conley) in the back room. The door opens, and the large black guy enters, holding his head after apparently being punched by Porter. ("There's somebody here to see you.") Porter is behind him where he says: "I'm looking for Stegman. Your boy didn't make his delivery." Porter throws the heroin on the table. The cops are surprised, but not troubled, to discover Stegman is a drug dealer. Stegman and Porter go outside.On the street, Porter asks where Val Resnick is. Stegman claims: "He's in the city, that's all I know. He said he squared himself with the Syndicate. That he was back in the big time." Porter says: "Well you tell him Porter is back too, and he wants his money."An Asian woman dominatrix named Pearl (Lucy Liu), arrives at the Oakwood Arms Hotel. A phone rings in a room. Val Resnick answers and tells the desk clerk to send her up to his room. The woman is directed to a hotel room. Val's phone rings again. ("Send her up. What's the problem?") But it's someone else, with news about Stegman. Pearl arrives at the door. They have a sado-masochistic exchange with both of them punching each other in their faces. The voice on the phone tells Val about Stegman getting a visit from some heavy. Resnick arranges a meeting.Val Resnick arrives by taxi at a crappy looking restaurant to meet Stegman who tells him about his visit with Porter. Val asks about the guy. "What'd he say?" asks Val. "I just got the feeling he'd like to kill you, that's all", says Stegman. Resnick is rattled. He makes a threatening move against another customer. Stegman smoothes things over and they leave.Inside a bar at the Regal Hotel, Porter is looking for Michael, who turns out to be a young but smarmy bartender. Porter asks about a woman named Rosie and offers him bribe money by laying out a $100 bill on the counter. But the trashy Michael implies that he wants more money by saying: "Usually these matters are conducted with more discretion." Porter angrily slams a door on his fingers, injuring Michael's hand. "Be discreet now," says Porter. Michael rings Rosie. Porter snatches the phone from Michael and takes over the call. "Who's this?" Rosie asks. "Porter." "Try again, honey. Porter's dead," says Rosie. Porter replies: "I used to drive for you. Provide a safe work environment." "Porter?" says Rosie. Porter leaves, but neverless leaves behind the bribe money for the injured Michael who is tending to his wounded hand.Porter arrives at another hotel and knocks on a front door. Rosie (Maria Bello) opens the door. (She is the same woman in the photo that Val showed Porter after betraying him months earlier). In contrast to his wife's reaction, she runs to Porter; embraces him. ("Come on, come in. You look pretty good for a dead guy.") They talk. She learns his wife is dead. ("I'm sorry, Porter." "Why?" "Surly Porter. You're the same as ever.") She walks into the lounge, where there is a large guard dog. "What's his name?" Porter asks. "Porter. He took your job after you left. He's just as tough, but he won't leave me." says Rosie. Porter says he's looking for Val Resnick. She knows him. She tells Porter that he is a top lieutenant with The Outfit, a local crime syndicate. ("He beats up all the girls. He almost killed one.") "Even you?" asks Porter. "Does it matter? You quit looking after me" says Rosie. She gives him Val's address. Before Porter leaves Rosie's apartment, she tells him that he never even asked how she's been. He asks her if she needs money or something. She gets angry and throws a little statue at him but he easily catches it. As he turns around she tells him that he should go and get himself killed because she has to tell the Outfit that he's coming.It's night in Resnick's room. He is asleep in bed with Pearl. Resnick wakes to find Porter looking at him. "Hi, Val. Where's my money?" says Porter. Val reaches for his gun, but Porter's already got it. "My seventy grand. I want it." Resnick tells him that he gave it all to the Syndicate as a bribe to be let back into their organization. "Tomorrow. Noon. You and the money be at the corner of 7th and Franklin at the payphone," Porter says before leaving. Porter asks Val about the photo with him and Rosie and how Val acquired it. "Some hooker had it. I recognized you. I swiped it in case I could use it," says Resnick. "Did you hurt her?" asks Porter. "What does that have to do with anything?" asks Resnick. Porter knocks him unconscious, then goes to leave. Pearl seductively says: "I've got a few minutes." Porter replies, "So? Go boil an egg."The next morning, Val Resnick arrives at a large office building where he asks to see "Mr. Carter." Val is allowed to enter Carter's office only after one of the bodyguards frisks him. The man finds three guns. Val is pissed off and poses as more important than he actually is. The bodyguard knows that.Val is sitting in the spacious office in front of Carter (William Devane), a mob underboss of the Syndicate. The uneasy Val tells Carter about his ex-partner-in-crime Porter and Val wants him dead. "Phillip says you have a problem you need help with." Carter tells Val that they can help him, or he can help himself deal with Porter, or that Val can be replaced. Since Carter sees Val as a psychotic sadist and a valuable asset to the "Outfit" he will help him deal with Porter. However, Carter tells Val to move out of the Oakwood Arms Hotel until Porter is dealt with.Outside the office building, Val runs into two men (presumably bodyguards). He says Carter loves him and will never drop him from the Outfit. He pretends that this won't keep him awake at night. Unfortunately both bodyguards received a call from the outfit prior to Val's arrival. They both say goodbye, smiling. Val is on his own. Suddenly he yells at them "lone warrior" style, claiming they are both useless since Porter sneaked by them the night before and entered his room. Then he yells to the sky that if something needs to be done right you gotta do it yourself. "That's the American way" says Val.Val then walks to a payphone can calls Pearl. He asks her if her friends arrived already. He first tells her that the Outfit won't hep him. She puts the phone aside and walks to a guy in the background whose tongue is stuck in a mouse trap and who won't stop screaming because of that. She punches him several times, yelling that he should shut up because she's on the phone. Pearl who is apparently connected with the Chinese Triad gangsters that Val Resnick and Porter ripped off.It's 12:00 PM. Val Resnick is standing in the street. Porter starts walking toward him. A car comes hurtling around a corner and knocks Porter down. Pearl and four Chinese gangsters get out and slap him around. Then the two corrupt cops, Hicks and Leary arrive forcing Pearl and her posse of Chinese thugs to leave. The two dirty cops stand up Porter to his feet and one of them says, "Stegman says you've got a line on a load of cash, Porter. 250 grand to be exact." The cops push him around. ("We've got a dead girl full of heroin. Don't worry, Porter. We're going to give you immunity. All you gotta do is get the money. Oh, we can't help you, though. It'd be against the law.") They slap him around some more and leave him in the alley. Porter has one of the cop's badges; he picked his pocket while they were shoving him around.A wounded and bruised Porter arrives at Rosie's apartment building. Resnick pulls up in a taxi (he's been following Porter), and watches him go inside. Rosie applies first aid to Porter. She gets angry and starts to walk away, but when she spots the photo of her and Porter together, she returns and asks: "When did you decide to leave? Was it the night we slept together?" "No. It was the next day when I had to drive you to work." "You could've asked me to quit." "You could've asked me to drive you somewhere else," says Porter. Porter puts on a clean shirt. Rosie says, "I think all the stories about you being dead were true, You're just too thick-headed to admit it." Porter and Rosie kiss. He leaves. She doesn't want him to. He says he has to.There is a knock at the door. Rosie thinks it's Porter. Instead, it's Resnick. "Where is he? Porter?" asks Val. "He's in the bedroom." says Rosie. Resnick grabs her by the hair and forces her to walk in front of him. He walks into the darkened bedroom. As Val goes to shoot Porter in the bed, the dog leaps out. He shoots the dog dead. Rosie tries to hit Resnick, but. misses. He knocks her down. "Where is he?" Val asks. "He's gone." Rosie says. "I know you. You're that whore from the picture. I'm going to fuck you six ways from Sunday!" says Val. When Val asks Rosie how she knows Porter, she tells him that Porter used to work as a driver for a limo service and he used to drive her to various "jobs" while she worked as an escort and call girl for the Syndicate. Porter saved her from various johns that would rough up women.The door bursts open. Porter enters, gun in hand, and shoots Val in the shoulder. Val goes for his ankle holster, and Porter shoots him in the leg. Porter says to Rosie: "I forgot my cigarettes." "All right, Val. This Syndicate or Outfit or whatever you call it, it's got a head man, right?", ask Porter."They'll kill me if I tell you anything, Porter," Resnick says."Worry about me!" says Porter.Resnick caves in and replies: "Fairfax and Carter. They run the whole city.""Where do I find them?" asks Porter.Resnick gives the address to Carter's office, then tries his I'll-be-your-friend routine. Porter shoots him dead. Rosie is shocked. Porter lights a cigarette and says: "Rosie, gather up everything you need. Say goodbye to this place."Porter walks round a corner at night. Opens a newspaper dispensing box, hides his gun under some newspapers. The two corrupt cops, Hicks and Leary, arrive in a car. Porter thinks again, retrieves the gun, hides it behind a newspaper. "What's up, buddy?" asks Hicks. "Well the money's in there, if you're still interested." says Porter. Stegman is in the back seat. Porter says,"You guys do me a favor? They'll probably frisk me when I go in there." He pulls out the gun. "If you wouldn't mind holding onto this, just for a little while." One of the cops plays with the gun. Porter leaves, walks into an impressive looking office tower building.A hood walks into an outer office and asks Porter: "Can I help you?" "I want to see Mr. Carter." says Porter. "Turn around so I can frisk you." says the thug. He frisks. A door opens on an inside office. Porter walks in. Carter sits at a desk, a heavy stands on one side, the other hood follows him in. Porter drops the two hoods; two punches, one kick to the head. Picks up a gun. Looks around.Carter says, "Bravo, sit down." Porter sits. "There's something you want from me?" says Carter. Porter explains all about Val and about the $70,000 which he gave to them as a part of his $130,000 bribe to be let back into the Syndicate, and Porter now wants the Syndicate to compensate him for the money of his share that Val stole from their robbery job."No corporation in the world would agree to what you're asking," says Carter."What about Fairfax, will he give me my money?" asks Porter."We're not authorized to do things like this," says Carter."Who is?" Porter asks.Carter replies that his superior and the leader of the Outfit: Bronson. Carter then places a phone call where an tough-talking unseen woman known as Ms. Bronson (voice of Sally Kellerman) answers the phone. Carter says: "I have a problem. There's a man in my office with a gun, who says he's going to kill me if we don't pay him $130,000 that one of our lieutenants stole from him." Porter tries to explain that it's actually $70,000, half from a $140,000 job that he and Val Resnick pulled off. However, Ms. Bronson is clearly reluctant to negotiate with Porter.Porter becomes frustrated by her stalling tactic and yells: "Either I get my money or I kill Carter! My money. Yes or no?", asks Porter."No!" says Ms. Bronson. BANG.Carter falls from his chair... dead. In his final breath, Carter insults Porter, where Ms. Bronson voices, "I hope that insult wasn't for me." She is heard ordering unseen men to the building complex and calls out for Carter who is now dead. Porter yells over the phone: "Call Fairfax and tell him I just croaked Carter. And he's next, and then you unless I get my money!" After hanging up the phone, Porter picks up an address book off the desk, turns to Fairfax's address.Porter walks back out onto the street. The two dirty cops are waiting in the parked car. Porter is still carrying the newspaper. "I don't see any cash," one says. "They gave me the runaround. I have to go see another guy. Can I have my piece back?" asks Porter. Hicks empties the bullets from the gun and hands it back. Porter accepts it inside the newspaper. Porter walks away.Inside Rosie's apartment, Val Resnick lies dead on the floor. Porter walks in, opens his newspaper and slides the gun with the two cops fingerprints on it next to the body. Then he takes out the cop badge he lifted earlier, wipes off his prints and places it in the dead guy's hand.The next morning, a limo pulls up outside an expensive town house. The second mob underboss Fairfax (James Coburn) gets out. Two bodyguards carry Fairfax's suitcases inside. Stegman and the black guy sit in a taxi, watching. ("Porter and Fairfax. I bet that'll be a short conversation.") Stegman looks at a parked car in a side alley. ("Between us and our neighborhood cops, I'd say we got him pretty well covered.")Inside the house, a guy is slumped against the wall. Fairfax walks into a very expensively furnished room. Porter emerges from behind a pillar, gun in hand. ("I'm the reason you're home early, Mr Fairfax. I want you to do me a favor. Call Bronson.") Fairfax picks up the phone and rings. "Hello. Ms. Bronson... well it's like this. I'm standing in my living room. There's a man here named Porter. He says that he expects you to pay him, sooner or later," says Fairfax. To Porter: "He wants to talk to you." "Put it on the speaker."Ms. Bronson however says that she should have Porter kill Fairfax so Porter can run the the business in town all for over $130,000.Porter replies, "You people aren't listening. It's not 130..." But the angry Ms. Bronson cuts him off by saying, "No, you listen! You'll get your money, but you'll never live to enjoy it." Porter says: "You let me worry about that. When one of Fairfax's bodyguards lowers the suitcase he is carrying, Porter shoots at it. Ms. Bronson hears the gunshot and calls out for Fairfax. She apparently decides to give up and asks Porter where does he want his money. Porter tells her to send a single man to Kings Cross Station in two hours from now. Ms. Bronson tells Porter that the transfer will result in Porter's death.After Porter hangs up, Fairfax tells him, "You just signed your own death warrant for $130,000!" Porter leaves and tells Fairfax to tell Ms. Bronson that the money he wants is only $70,000. Fairfax is surprised and shouts as Porter exits: "Seventy? Only seventy thousand? Hell, all my suits together are worth more then that!"Meanwhile, the two crooked cops sit in a parked car in an alley. Leary is reading the paper and looking over an ad for a sailboat, while Hicks is discussing the latest horse racing form and of them putting more bets and hope to make up for their $150,000 losses of betting. Suddenly, two guys in black suits walk up. They are from the police department's Internal Affairs Bureau. "You wanna step out of the car, please?" one of the IAB agents asks.Stegman and the black guy, watching, as cops in uniform walk with the Internal Affairs agents up to the car."What the hell is going on?" Detective Hicks asks."Is this your badge, detective?" as the IAB agent shows them in an evidence bag."Where'd you find it?" asks Leary."Where exactly did you lose it?" asks the IAB agent who shows him Porter's gun in a plastic bag. "Does this belong to you?" asks the agent. The two dirty cops realize, way too late, that Porter has framed them.As Hicks and Leary are being led away by the police, Porter walks out of Fairfax's house. Stegman sees him and he tells the black guy, "Follow him."Porter is crossing the street. A taxi comes round the corner. Porter hails, opens the door and Stegman is in the back seat holding a gun. "Get in, Porter!" he says. Porter gets in and drops his gun on the floor. As Stegman gloats, Porter snatches Stegman's gun out of his hand. Porter bangs Stegman's head against the door. The black guy pulls out a shotgun. Suddenly, a van pulls up alongside containing four Chinese gangsters, plus Pearl, all of whom open fire with automatic weapons. In the wall of gunfire, Porter uses Stegman as a shield who gets killed as does the black guy. Porter crawls out of the car and opens fire on the Chinese gangsters, killing two of them. Pearl and her henchmen return fire. The driver puts the van in reverse, and slams Porter into a crate of boxes. Porter slides under the van and shoots through the floor, killing all of the surviving Chinese gangsters. When he climbs back up, Pearl appears outside the van and puts a gun against his head and immediately pulls the trigger... but she's out of bullets. Porter aims his gun at her and pulls the trigger... and he is also out of bullets. Porter then walks away and and gets into a refridgerated truck parked right next to the car and drive away, leaving Pearl behind.At Kings Cross Station, Porter arrives in the stolen truck and sees that all around the area are Ms. Bronson's henchmen. He first decides that all the henchmen of the Outfit must be disposed. Rosie, in the refridgerated truck, distracts two men in the car by the stair ramp to the station while Porter sneaks up on them and forces them at gunpoint to get in the back of the truck. They lock them in there. When one of the guys grins and tells Rosie that he believes he slept with her once, she takes the safety off her gun, aims at his crotch and asks him how his chances are on doing that ever again. The guy falls silent. After, Rosie leaves the truck, Porter shoots the guy in cold blood for the stupid remark. The other guy gets locked in the truck with the body and thanks Porter for allowing him to live.Porter enters the station, approaches another guy and asks who else is with Bronson before he knocks him out. On the men's restroom he takes the urinal between Bronson's men. As they draw their guns Porter shoots and kills them both.On the platform, two more men of Bronson wait for Porter. He takes them by surprise and forces them on-board of the arriving train.He then waits for the courier. He frisks a suspicious guy who turns out to be a regular businessman. He the spots the courier who's carrying a backpack with the money. The young man asks if he is Porter and tells him that the 130 grand is in the backpack. Porter angrily tells the young guy that it was 70 grand, NOT 130 grand and thus too much. He tells the courier to place the backpack on the ground. Porter wants him to open it. As he bends down, a woman wearing a business suit with white sneakers (another one of Ms. Bronson's henchpersons), suddenly appears behind the courier, draws a gun and shoots at Porter. She hits him in his waist and he goes down. The female gangster also shoots at the courier who is also hit. As the courier falls over to the side, Porter returns fire and shoots the hitwoman. She falls down on the platform, dead. Porter struggles himself up, kills the still breathing courier and leaves the platform, badly wounded and bleeding.Outside the station, three more men of the Outfit are waiting in a car and the same bodyguard Porter knocked out with the roll of coins earlier at Carter's office gets out and starts shooting at Porter. Porter takes another hit but manages to kill the guy. The two others flee in the car and Porter goes down. Porter staggers to the sidewalk, bends his knees and sits down at a parking meter.In a voice over we hear Rosie, Val and the others talk to him while he lights a cigarette and we see black and white flashbacks of earlier scenes of the movie flashing briefly. The flashbacks start to overlap with Rosie's arrival who tries to wake Porter up. He, however, seems to think about going into the white light. After she shakes him and hits him, he slowly wakes up. They drive off with the cash as Porter smiles.
neo noir, murder, violence, flashback, revenge, sadist