Cynthia Sax

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The Killer And Strong Motivation For Change

April 4, 2025

Spoiler Alert – This post will talk about The Killer and it WILL contain spoilers. If you haven’t yet watched this 2024 John Woo film, you might wish to skip this post.

The Dear Wonderful Hubby and I recently watched The Killer, a remake of the 1989 film with the same English title, directed by the same director – John Woo.

I usually love John Woo movies. And I watched the original movie many years ago.

So I knew what to expect.

I should have loved this remake, especially as it stars Nathalie Emmanuel as the lead character Zee. She’s a gifted actress and always gives a great performance. The Killer was no exception to that.

My issue with The Killer is…

Motivation.

We are expected to believe Zee, a cynical, highly trained assassin, would face off against her boss and her fellow assassins, risking her life and her career, to protect a stranger who…isn’t a good person.

At all.

Jenn is a drug dealer and doesn’t seem to have any redeeming qualities other than she’s a great singer and she’s beautiful.

(I know what you’re thinking but no, there’s no indication Zee is interested in Jenn romantically.)

The only reason we receive for Zee taking that risk is Jenn reminds Zee of a younger her.

Except the two women appear to be roughly the same age. Jenn is definitely no naïve teenager or innocent.

For a viewer or a reader to believe a character can change significantly, there has to be a strong motivation for that character to change.

Maybe his dog is killed on the anniversary of his beloved wife’s death (John Wick). Or a child he has befriended comes to him, a killer, begging for help (The Professional). Or he is double crossed and targeted for death (The Accountant).

Those are all strong motivations for change.

Saving a beautiful singing stranger is, in contrast, NOT a strong motivation for change.

Unfortunately.

The action scenes and the actors make this movie worth watching…once.

This isn’t a keeper movie for me.

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