When H shows up to work at Fortico Security, a company that specializes in transporting cash in armored vehicles, he doesn’t appear to be much of a threat.
Sure, he’s physically intimidating. And the foreign accent can take some getting used to. But he barely passed the qualification exam.
However, after he takes down multiple assailants with pinpoint accuracy during a robbery, his coworkers begin to suspect there’s something more going on. He claims adrenaline helped him to focus in the moment; but he was ruthless in chasing down every last criminal and unmasking them.
H’s colleagues are right. He’s definitely not someone you want to mess with, and he manages to stop one robbery just by revealing his face to the attackers. But that makes the other guards more nervous than relieved. Is H really on their side? Or is he secretly working for the bad guys?
When a Fortico guard is captured during a cash transport, one of his coworkers, Dave, wants to follow protocol and drive away, stating that the robbers will release the guard if they can’t get the money. However, H refuses to leave a man behind and goes in to rescue him.
Later, when Dave is once again reminded that the money is insured and he shouldn’t risk his life to protect it, he chooses to stand against the attackers anyways since other guards are in danger.
Fortico offers free therapy to any guards who have been involved in violent incidents to protect them against PTSD.
We hear that a group of criminals are involved in witchcraft. Someone asks H if his nickname is a reference to Christ.
We see two people wake up in bed together (covered by blankets, bare shoulders visible). We hear crude jokes about gender and sexual preferences. People talk about sex. A man licks his fingers suggestively. In the background of a scene, we see still images of porn. We see a picture of a man’s naked rear in someone’s locker. We see a man’s underwear beneath his bathrobe.
From the very beginning to the very end of the film, we witness people dying. Armed robbers attack armored vehicles, killing the guards who drive them and stealing the cash. In some instances, the guards fight back. But in all instances, we see a lot of bloodshed as gunfire is exchanged.
After witnessing a robbery, H’s son, Dougie, is shot multiple times. We later hear the details of his death from the coroner’s report. While searching for Dougie’s murderer, H has his goons torture and kill multiple criminals whom he suspects have information about the robbery. (One man is pulled from a car, hitting his head hard on the pavement before having a plastic bag shoved over his head and getting punched in the head even more. Those attackers also put a plastic bag over his wife’s head, temporarily suffocating her.)
A man, bleeding out from a gunshot wound to the neck, has his throat slit when he tries to resist his attacker. H chokes a man to death.
H and his men tie up and kill several human traffickers. (In the background, we see footage of the “dark porn” they were filming with underage sex slaves—whom H frees after dealing with their captors.)
Former soldiers talk about killing people in the Middle East while they were deployed. Several people are threatened and held at gunpoint. (H fires two warning shots at one woman.) When FBI agents play back security footage of people getting killed, one man exits the room because he “can’t watch that again.” We hear that H survived six bullet wounds.
The script includes more than 165 uses of the f-word (ten preceded by “mother” and one paired with Christ’s name). Characters also use more than10 uses of the s-word, four uses each of “a–,” “a–hole,” “c–k” and “d–k” and one use each of “b–ch,” “h—” and the c-word. We hear four misuses of God’s name (three of which are paired with “d–n”). And we hear three misuses of Christ’s name (one which is said in conjunction with the rest of the Holy Family’s names).
People drink at bars and have home bars. We see some people smoking cigars and cigarettes. We hear about a drunk driver. Someone says they had a hangover.
There’s an underlying message here about greed, and how it can lead to a man’s downfall. After committing the robbery where Dougie died, the same robbers decide to pull another job at Fortico. And this choice directly leads to their deaths not just at H’s hands, but at each other’s as they all fight to be the last man standing (and therefore, the man who keeps all the money).
We learn that H is the leader of an organized criminal gang. However, despite being a wanted man, an FBI agent allows H to go after Dougie’s murderers in a “lesser of two evils” type negotiation. Dougie’s mother blames H for his death, stating that it was his life of crime that killed their son.
People commit armed robbery. When H discovers that one of Fortico’s guards stole money one the job, he allows her to keep it since the money was unaccounted for anyway.
We hear a few derogative racial, sexist and ethnic comments. H uses a fake identity. Someone says that boredom is more dangerous than bullets to a hardened soldier.
There are people you don’t want to mess with: those who are associated with any sort of organized crime, the family of someone who you murdered … or any character played Jason Statham.
But that’s exactly what the main bad guy and his crew of ex-soldiers are up against in Wrath of Man.
In a way, this is a film full of self-fulfilling prophecies. If H hadn’t gone to the depot to give directions to the robbers, then Dougie wouldn’t have been there for the robbers to kill. If the robbers hadn’t included that aforementioned head honcho in their plans, then he wouldn’t have killed Dougie and H would never have come after them.
If, if, if …
If the filmmakers hadn’t cast Jason Statham in the lead role, then this might have been a family-friendly movie. But they did. And, alas, it is not.
As mentioned above, there’s a lot of violence. People kill each other ruthlessly, and we get to witness every gory detail on screen. Profanity penetrates the skull just as deeply as the myriad bullets that fly here with more than 150 f-words. There’s also some allusion to sexual content to be mindful of as well. (Though it’s worth noting that H frees some underage girls from a life of sexual slavery.)
In short, Jason Statham’s Wrath of Man might be about family—or, at least, about avenging them—but it’s certainly not for family.
Emily studied film and writing when she was in college. And when she isn’t being way too competitive while playing board games, she enjoys food, sleep, and geeking out with her husband indulging in their “nerdoms,” which is the collective fan cultures of everything they love, such as Star Wars, Star Trek, Stargate and Lord of the Rings.
