Wanted is a 2008 action film which is very loosely based on the comic book miniseries of the same name by Mark Millar. The film is directed by Timur Bekmambetov and stars James McAvoy, Angelina Jolie, Morgan Freeman, Thomas Kretschmann, Terence Stamp, and Konstantin Khabensky. The storyline follows Wesley Gibson, a frustrated office worker who discovers that he is the son of a professional assassin and decides to join the entity in which his father used to work, a secret guild called The Fraternity.
Production began in April 2007, with filming in the Czech Republic to later superimpose the sets on images of Chicago. Wanted was released on June 25, 2008 in the United Kingdom and June 27, 2008 in the United States, to both critical and commercial success. On January 22, 2009, it was nominated for two Academy Awards: Best Sound Editing and Best Sound Mixing.
Plot
Wesley Gibson works at a dead-end desk job with an overbearing boss, takes anti-anxiety medication for panic attacks, and has a live-in girlfriend who cheats on him with his best friend. One night in the pharmacy, Wesley is told by a mysterious woman named Fox that his father was a recently murdered assassin, and the killer, Cross, is behind him. Cross and Fox engage in a shoot-out followed by a car chase in the streets of Chicago. Gibson is brought to the headquarters of The Fraternity, a thousand-year-old secret society of assassins. The group's leader, Sloan, explains that Wesley's panic attacks are actually the untrained expression of a rare superhuman ability; when stressed, the drastically increased heart rate and adrenaline levels result in bursts of superhuman strength, speed and reflexes. The Fraternity can teach him to control this ability, so Wesley can follow in his father's footsteps as an assassin, beginning by inheriting his fortune. Wesley is initially reluctant and returns to work, only to finally snap when discovering more than 3 million dollars in his bank account. He tells off his boss in front of the entire office and on his way out, hits his "friend" Barry in the face with a keyboard. Fox is waiting outside to take him back to the Fraternity headquarters - an unassuming textile mill.
Wesley is then subjected to brutal training; among other forms of combat, he learns to curve bullets fired from smoothbore firearms around objects. Afterward, Wesley 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 apparently will cause tragedy in the future; but only Sloan sees and interprets the names "Fate" wants to kill. Wesley is initially reluctant about killing people. Then Fox reveals that in her childhood, a hired killer burned her father alive in front of her—and said hitman was supposed to be killed by the Fraternity. She now considers preventing such tragedy her mission.
After several routine missions and a chance meeting with Cross, in which Wesley is shot in the arm with a deliberately traceable bullet, Sloan grants Wesley's wish to avenge his father and sends him after Cross - but then secretly gives Fox a mission to kill Wesley, saying that his name had come up in the Loom as well. Analyzing the bullet that hit Wesley, it is discovered that the manufacturer was Pekwarsky, a bullet-maker living in eastern Moravia. Wesley and Fox travel there and capture Pekwarsky, who arranges a meeting with Cross. Wesley faces Cross alone on a moving train. Fox steals a car and crashes it into the train, eventually causing a derailment. After Cross saves Wesley’s life by preventing him from falling into the ravine, he is shot by Wesley. Before dying, Cross reveals that he is Wesley's real father. Fox confirms the truth and explains that Wesley was recruited because he was the only person that Cross would not kill. Fox then reveals the kill order on Wesley and raises her gun, but Wesley escapes by shooting out the glass underneath him and plunging into the river below.
Wesley is retrieved by Pekwarsky, who takes him to his father's apartment, located across the street from Wesley's old home. Pekwarsky explains that Sloan started manufacturing targets for profit after discovering that he was targeted by the Loom of Fate, and did not tell the Fraternity members that they were now nothing more than paid killers. Cross discovered the truth and went rogue, and started killing Fraternity members to keep them away from his son. Pekwarsky departs stating that Wesley's father wished him a life free of violence. Wesley, however, decides to take out Sloan after discovering a secret room containing all of his father's weapons and maps.
Upon entering Sloan's office after killing nearly every Fraternity member, he reveals Sloan's deception to the master assassins present in the room. Sloan then states that all of their names had come up in the weaving, and that he had merely acted to protect them. Were they to follow the code, every one of them should kill themselves on the spot. Otherwise, they should kill Wesley. Fox, who believes in the code more than anyone due to her own experience, turns on her fellow assassins, and "curves" a bullet that kills every Fraternity member in the room, including herself, and saves Wesley. Sloan manages to escape.
Wesley, penniless once again, does not know what to do with himself. While Wesley provides a voice-over, the audience sees a man sitting in front of a computer much like Wesley did at the beginning of the film. Sloan appears and points a gun at back of the man's head. At that moment, the man turns around and is revealed to be a decoy. Sloan is then killed by Wesley using a long-distance untraceable bullet. Similar to the comic, the film ends with Wesley turning to the camera and breaking the fourth wall, saying, "This is me taking back control of my life. What the fuck have you done lately?"
Cast
- James McAvoy as Wesley Gibson: A meek 24-year-old who works in a cubicle, but learns he is heir to a legacy of assassins.
- Morgan Freeman as Sloan: Leader of the Fraternity, and assassin partner of Wesley Gibson's deceased "father".
- Angelina Jolie as Fox: One of the Fraternity assassins who mentors Gibson.
- Thomas Kretschmann as Cross: A rogue assassin who has left the Fraternity; revealed to be Wesley's true father.
- Common as Earl Malcolm Spellman a.k.a. "The Gunsmith": A professional gunman who trains others to use weapons.
- Konstantin Khabensky as The Exterminator: An expert in explosives who makes bombs and attached them to rats; secretly allied with Cross, and one of Wesley's only friends in the Fraternity.
- Marc Warren as The Repairman: An assassin who says he "breaks bad habits" by violently beating people. Trained Wesley in hand-to-hand combat and endurance by beating him every time he incorrectly answered the question "Why are you here?" One of the first members of the Fraternity Wesley kills during his attack.
- Dato Bakhtadze as The Butcher: A master of knife work to the extent that he can block bullets. Trains Wesley in knife fighting. Wesley kills him during his attack on the Fraternity using a butcher's steel jammed into one of his guns.
- Terence Stamp as Pekwarsky: A master in the science of killing. Pekwarsky operates as a rogue agent outside of The Fraternity. He is also a craftsman who is able to build bullets both untraceable and capable of traversing long distances. One of Cross's compatriots.
- David O'Hara as Mr. X: Said to be the greatest assassin, and initially believed to be Wesley's father. His murder is the catalyst for Wesley's introduction into the Fraternity.
- Chris Pratt as Barry: A co-worker of Gibson and also his best friend, who is also having an affair with his girlfriend.
- Kristen Hager as Cathy: Gibson's unfaithful and bickering girl friend.
- Lorna Scott as Janice: Gibson's overbearing boss.
Production
Writing
The comic book miniseries Wanted by Mark Millar first attracted the attention of Universal Pictures executive Jeff Kirschenbaum, a comic book fan who sought a film adaptation that would be considered a "hard-R" and encouraged the studio to pick up the rights to the miniseries. By 2004, producer Marc Platt set up development of the film adaptation. In December 2005, Russian-Kazakh director Timur Bekmambetov was attached to helm the project as his first English-language film, with the script being written by Derek Haas and Michael Brandt. Millar did not like the first draft of the script. He explained:
Director Timur Bekmambetov said that the film would keep the same characters from the miniseries (which ultimately, did not happen) though the director would take liberty in adapting the comic book's world. In July 2006, screenwriter Chris Morgan was hired to revise the third act of the Wanted script written by Haas and Brandt. Haas and Brandt returned to polish the character of Wesley Gibson, which they had established in their first draft.
Wanted creator Mark Millar saw previsualized footage for the film and said the footage had raised his expectations for the film adaptation. Millar described the first half of the film as being close to the graphic novel, and also said that the film's ending was similar, though it was relocated elsewhere from the setting in the graphic novel. The superhero costumes in the series were also removed, with the exception of the leather attire worn by Wesley Gibson and Fox. Ironically, this had been Millar's intent when writing the graphic novel, although he and artist J. G. Jones had forgotten to. "I
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