The Killer And Strong Motivation For Change
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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The Quiet Place Part II And Saving The Cat
Please Note: I’ve tried very hard not to share any spoilers for this movie. The scene that I mention happens right at the beginning of the movie and doesn’t give major plot points away. But you still might wish to read this post AFTER you’ve seen the movie.
I also recommend you rewatch the first movie (The Quiet Place) before watching the second movie. The Quiet Place Part II assumes you remember everything about that movie. The Dear Wonderful Hubby and I had watched the first movie when it first came out, hadn’t rewatched it and we were a bit lost at the beginning.
Creating sympathy for major characters is key to crafting stories readers love, especially in romance. Readers continue reading about characters they care about.
There’s a technique we often use to accomplish this, especially for more challenging to like characters.
The name of this technique is Save The Cat.
We show the harder-to-like character doing something heroic or nice at the beginning of the story. The gruff assassin saves the cat (or, in the case of Léon: The Professional, fusses over his beloved plant). The seemingly hard-hearted businesswoman buys a bagel and coffee and stealthily gives those treats to the homeless woman in the alleyway.
These actions hint that the otherwise unlikable character is secretly nice. She or he is worth saving, worth caring about.
The Quiet Place Part II does this simply and brilliantly. Emmett (played by Cillian Murphy) is a curt-talking, tough-looking male. He has seen sh*t, been through some battles, and he would be hard for viewers to like.
Except he takes a moment at the beginning of the movie to learn how to relay a word in sign language to his friend’s deaf daughter.
This is a generous act. It is done solely to make Regan (played by Millicent Simmonds), the daughter, feel loved and accepted…though Emmett would likely never say that.
I went from not trusting this character to adoring him in that one moment.
This moment is magical in other ways. It ensures we all know Regan is deaf, which is key to the movie working. It hints at a future (don’t worry it isn’t romantic) bond between Regan and Emmett. The word Emmett learns is important to the plot. And it adds a touch of humor.
It does all this with three or four sentences of dialogue. That’s great writing.
***
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Baring Grudge
No one in the universe is more determined than a cyborg warrior tracking his female.
***
Grudge, a C Model cyborg, has been assigned a mission – safeguard a Humanoid Alliance space station for his kind. Honor was once all he had, and he is determined to fulfill his duty.
That resolve is tested when a tiny human female enters the space station and sets the prettiest little explosives the warrior has ever seen. She is Grudge’s genetic match, the one being manufactured for him. He wants to touch her, kiss her, claim her in all ways, but first he has to stop her from blasting him into the next galaxy.
Taelyn has a self-appointed mission—to destroy every battle robot the Humanoid Alliance has ever manufactured. A huge gray-skinned, blue-eyed cyborg warrior with mismatched arms won’t prevent her from achieving her goal. She’ll escape him, leaving destruction in her wake.
Before she departs, she’ll experience one toe-curling moment of hatred-edged passion with her handsome foe. She’ll show him how skilled with detonations she truly is. He will have his universe rocked.
Then she’ll disappear.
Her cyborg, however, has no intention of ever letting her go.
***
Baring Grudge is a STANDALONE Cyborg SciFi Romance set in a dark, gritty, sometimes-violent universe.
It features a determined, damaged warrior, an equally resolute human female, and an explosive game of predator and prey played across galaxies.
Baring Grudge is the third of five core stories in the Rebel Cyborgs Series.
Book 1: Containing Malice
Book 2: Under Strain
Book 3: Baring Grudge
Book 4: B Free
Book 5: Seizing Power
Pre-order Now:
Amazon US:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08ZL2D986
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https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B08ZL2D986
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Apple Books:
https://books.apple.com/us/book/baring-grudge/id1559566673
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https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/baring-grudge
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