Wanted (2008)
Wanted is an action film based on the comic book miniseries of the same name by Mark Millar.
Plot Summary
A mysterious woman named Fox (Angelina Jolie) talks to Wesley Gibson (James McAvoy), a young man in a dead-end job who lives with his cheating girlfriend. She pickus up Gibson in her car to escape a deadly assassin, Cross (Thomas Kretschmann). Cross and Fox engage in a shoot-out followed by a car chase through the streets of Chicago.
Fox brings Gibson to the headquarters of The Fraternity, a thousand-year-old secret society of assassins. The group's leader, Sloan (Morgan Freeman), invites Gibson to follow in his father's footsteps as an assassin. To show him what he's capable of, Gunsmith (another assasin and member of The Fraternity) holds a gun to Gibson's head and has him shoot the wings off several flies. Gibson has a panic attack and does as asked. Sloan explains that his heart beats around 400 times a minute when he's stressed, sending massive amounts of adrenaline into his bloodstream, and that he can learn to control it. Gibson is initially reluctant and returns to work, only to finally snap after being shown a new possible life; his bank account now has millions of dollars in it. He tells off his boss in front of the entire office. Fox is outside, waiting to take him back to The Fraternity headquarters - an unassuming textile mill.
After much training, Gibson is shown the Loom of Fate, a loom that gives the names of the targets through binary code hidden in weaving errors of the fabric. Those the loom identifies are apparently destined to cause tragedy in the future; thus, killing them spares those the person would have harmed, so assassins are doing good. But only Sloan sees and interprets the names that "Fate" wants to kill, and after today, Gibson will never again be allowed in the room.
Alone with Fox, Gibson expresses doubt he can kill people. Fox shares a story about "a little girl" (herself) whose father, a judge handling a racketeering case, was burned alive by a hired killer (the target) as she was forced to watch. The man then burned his initials on her neck. If someone had killed the hired killer, her father wouldn't have died. Preventing such tragedy is now her mission.
After several routine missions and a chance meeting with Cross, in which Cross shoots him in the arm with a deliberately traceable bullet, Gibson becomes impatient and demands to be allowed to avenge his father. Sloan grants his wish, but then gives Fox a mission to kill Gibson.
Gibson and Fox travel to the Fraternity's original base of operations in Europe and capture the bullet-maker, Pekwarsky (Terence Stamp) who arranges a meeting with Cross. Gibson and Fox are tricked into separating, leaving Gibson to face Cross alone on a moving train. Fox steals a car and crashes it into the train, eventually causing the train to derail when it reaches a bridge over a deep ravine. Gibson is about to fall into the ravine before Cross catches his hand, saving his life. Gibson shoots him as Cross holds Gibson mid-air, and the train car they are in crashes to the ground. Before Cross dies, he tells Gibson that he is his real father and that The Fraternity had been lying to him. Fox confirms the truth and explains that Gibson was recruited because he was the only person that Cross wouldn't kill. Fox then tells Gibson about the kill order on him and raises her gun to shoot him, but Gibson escapes by shooting out the glass underneath him and plunging into the river below.
Gibson is retrieved by Pekwarsky, who takes him to his father's apartment, located across the street from Gibson's old home. Pekwarsky explains that Cross was always "only a camera-click away" and shows Gibson all the photos Cross had kept of him since childhood. Pekwarsky explains that Sloan discovered that he was targeted by the Loom of Fate, so - instead of killing himself - he started manufacturing his own targets for profit, and didn't tell the Fraternity members that they were now nothing more than paid killers. Cross discovered the truth and went rogue. Gibson realizes that Cross had actually been targeting Fraternity members to keep them away from him. Pekwarsky leaves after giving Gibson plane tickets, saying that his father wanted him to have a life free of violence. Gibson, however, decides to take out Sloan after discovering a secret room containing all of his father's weapons and maps, and instructions for using rats with explosives and detonators.
Cast
James McAvoy ... Wesley Gibson
Morgan Freeman ... Sloan
Angelina Jolie ... Fox
Thomas Kretschmann ... Cross
Common ... The Gunsmith
Konstantin Khabensky ... The Exterminator
Marc Warren ... The Repairman
Dato Bakhtadze ... The Butcher
Terence Stamp ... Pekwarsky