Dead Man Down (2013)

Plot Synopsis

Victor

The film opens with the protagonist, Victor, in a car with his friend Darcy and Darcy's infant son, of whom Victor is the godfather. Darcy says he never planned on a family but now he loves his wife and kid so much he knows it was what he was meant for. He tells Victor that connecting with people is what "we're in life for."

Victor and Darcy are in a crime syndicate of dozen or so people, which makes most of its profits off racketeering. The crime syndicate's boss, Alfonse Hoyt, calls an emergency meeting. In the basement of his house, he shows the gang a freezer in which one of their members (Paul) is stuck (dead). He shows that little pieces of a picture that were put on Paul's corpse. The pieces are not part of the whole picture: They are just the edges. In Paul's hand is half a hand-written-note which reads "719, now you know--" Everyone in the syndicate says they have gotten the threatening pictures. Alfonse tells them he knows who did it.

The syndicate goes to a drug-dealer named Roland and his gang, who live in and operate from an apartment on Alfonse's turf. Alfonse confronts Roland, and alludes to a dispute they had when Alfonse demanded 30% of Roland's profits so long as he lived in his apartment. Alfonse than shows Roland the note and points out that the "7" in it has a dash across the middle, as used outside North America. Looking through Roland's papers (Roland is a Jamaican immigrant), he sees Roland dashes his sevens in the same manner. This is proof enough for him. Alfonse kills Roland.

Roland and Alfonse's gangs start fighting. In the battle, Alfonse is cornered, but Victor saves him. Alfonse's gang wins, though they suffered a few casualties and Victor received a minor wound to the torso.

The movie switches to Beatrice Louzan, a French immigrant who's face has several scars. She is hopelessly depressed and has moved in with her partially-deaf mother.

Beatrice

Victor goes back to his apartment, which is in a seedy ghetto of New York City. On the balcony across the complex from him he sees Beatrice, who's face is somewhat obscured by shadows (thus hiding her scars). The two wave and exchange a flirtatious glance.

Beatrice's mother, Maman, encourages Beatrice to contact Victor. She leaves his number in her mailbox. Victor calls it and the two agree to meet.

The two go out on a date. They have a pleasant dinner in a restaurant, though Beatrice gets distracted when a child keeps staring at her scars.

After the dinner, Beatrice tells Victor (who is driving), where they should go next. They drive to a residential neighborhood. Once the car stops, Beatrice tells Victor that they should stop pretending. She knows he only wants to know if she saw what he was doing. She then shows him a video on her phone that she took from her apartment showing Victor in his apartment murdering Paul!

Beatrice then says that the man in the house they are in front of was drunk driving when he crashed into Beatrice's car and hurt her face. He only got three weeks in jail. He has never shown any remorse to Beatrice despite the fact that he ruined her life (she was a beautician and quit her job because she felt it was too weird for a beautician to look like she does now. Beatrice then tells Victor to kill the man or she will tell his secret to the police.

Victor draws his gun and threatens to kill Beatrice. She grabs his hand and dares him to do it. In the struggle, the gun fires (breaking the car window) and Victor tries to drive off, but nearly crashes. No one is injured, though, so he drives himself and Beatrice back to the apartment.

Alfonse Hoyte

Darcy goes to a fire escape following clues to where Paul was when he died. A man in the building admits that Paul was there last week. Darcy eagerly calls up Victor and says that he has been following clues to Paul's murderer and he thinks Paul was killed because he knew too much. Darcy tells Victor that he doesn't think the killer was Roland. Victor asks why he cares so much, and Darcy replies that even though he is knew to the crime syndicate (he joined around the same time as Victor) he has aspirations to take Alfonse's place should Alfonse decide to retire, move somewhere else, or die.

Victor hangs up. He is on a rooftop with a sniper rifle looking into a restaurant where Alfonse is talking to a crimelord.

Alfonse is in the restaurant to seal an important deal with the crimelord that would bring him to the big leagues. However, instead of talking about that, the crimelord asks Alfonse what happened to Roland. Alfonse says that he suspected Roland had killed Paul over the dispute he had had with Alfonse. He went to talk to Roland and Roland flipped out and Alfonse killed him in defense.

The crimelord shows Alfonse the other half of the paper that Paul had been holding (Paul's side read "719, now you know--"). The other half reads "--it wasn't the 7s." The crimelord then tells Alfonse he killed the wrong person and that he is breaking off the deal, leaving Alfonse a small time crook for life.

Just then, one of Alfonse's men runs in. He just got a call from Darcy warning that the murderer wasn't Roland and is still looking for Alfonse. Alfonse and the men he brought with him run to the car, where Victor opens fire from the roof. He successfully kills the driver of Alfonse's car, but then has too flee.

Darcy & Victor

Alfonse and his men run into the building that Victor was on top of looking for him. They split up to find him and Victor tricks two of the men into thinking he fell out a window and then kills them. He is able to escape the building, but Alfonse and his men are right on his tail (even though they don't know who the killer is).

Beatrice drives up to where Victor is. She had followed him to the rooftop and had been watching him. She manages to park the car, kisses Victor so Alfonse won't see his face, and makes Alfonse and his gang run past. Darcy shows up and sees Victor, who pretends that he had been on a date with Beatrice but drove to the restaurant once he heard Darcy's call. Darcy believes him.

Beatrice and Victor go to Beatrice's apartment. Victor explains that he was a Hungarian immigrant named Lazlo Khuric with a wife and kid. Alfonse took over the neighborhood Lazlo and his family lived in. Alfonse wanted everyone to leave the apartment Lazlo lived in so he could convert it into a safe haven for drug dealers under his control. Lazlo refused to move out. One night, Alfonse's men fired a few random shots into the building in the hopes of scaring off anyone who lived there. Unfortunately, a stray bullet hit Lazlo's young daughter, killing her. Lazlo an his wife planned to testify in court and ignored threats from Alfonse's men. In order to silence them, Alfonse hired some Albanian gangsters to kill Lazlo and his wife. They left them both for dead, but Lazlo survived. With the help of his dead wife's uncle, Lazlo learned to speak with an American accent and went undercover into Alfonse's gang as Victor with the hope of avenging his family (though he doesn't say it here, it is clear that since Darcy joined the gang at the same time as Victor he was not involved in that murder and Victor has no intention of killing him). Paul--who was involved in the murder--discovered Victor's secret, so Victor killed him.

Beatrice then apologizes to Victor for being unsympathetic to him and says that she now realizes he isn't afraid of going to jail, just of not completing his revenge mission. As Victor leaves the house, Maman runs up to him and gives him cookies.

Beatrice & Victor

Victor goes to the sewer underneath the docks run by Hungarian gangsters, a place where no one visits very often. Chained to a char there (with a water bottle like a hamster to drink from) is one of the Albanian gangsters who murdered Victor's wife. Victor takes the gangster's picture and leaves. He prints out the picture and mails it to the head of the small gang of Albanians. The head of the gang cries because the man is his brother.

Victor goes into the dilapidated warehouse where Alfonse and his syndicate often reside. No one is there at the moment. Victor sets up some bombs in the attic. Unfortunately, they aren't working properly. Alfonse and the rest of the gang (including Darcy) arrive, but Victor manages to slip into the bathroom through the ceiling and pretend he has been there the whole time.

Beatrice visits Victor in his house. Victor has set up speakers that play for him any conversation Alfonse has in his various offices, because Victor has bugged them all. Victor is on the phone with his uncle. He tells his uncle the problem with the bomb and the uncle explains the bombs can only be remotely triggered from a close distance. Victor implies that he will just trigger them from inside the building, killing himself and his wife's murderers. His uncle begs him not to do that. After Victor hangs up, Beatrice tells him she doesn't think he should commit suicide either. She gives him more cookies she said her mother baked, even though he had said he hadn't eaten the last.

Victor returns the tupperwear container that the cookies were in. On the door he sees that some cruel neighborhood kids scrawled the word "Monster" across Beatrice's door to mock her because of her scars. Victor recalls a home video he frequently watches where his daughter (as part of her game) told Victor to "protect the monster." Beatrice takes the tupperwear and Victor tells her he liked the cookies.

Victor

Alfonse and his two closest friends look through his office to see if it has been bugged. They see that it is. They leave a fake message saying that Alfonse will be meeting another gangster alone in an empty office complex.

Darcy calls Victor and asks him to meet him at the cemetery. He tells Victor that he has tracked down Paul's murderer to hear by finding the different cab drivers he used. Victor is concerned and leaves. Darcy tells Victor to tell Alfonse his progress.

Victor goes to the office where Alfonse is supposedly alone. Alfonse is sitting in the dark smoking a cigar. Victor realizes it is a trap but it is too late. Alfonse's two friends walk out from the shadows. Alfonse says that he knew that whoever would come through the door would be the man who was plotting to kill him. Victor says that he was only going to relay Darcy's news (Alfonse had gotten a call from Darcy, so this story is semi-plausible). Alfonse says in a round-about, vague way that he always thought it was impossible Victor could be the killer because Victor had saved his life in the fight with Roland's men. Alfonse then says (vaguely) that it has now occurred to him that Victor had only done it so his murder plot would be so much sweeter. Alfonse then tells Victor that if there is anything left in the world that the person who is threatening him (and spoiled his plot to become a major crimelord) loves, he will "burn it down." Victor thinks it is the end, but Alfonse is not entirely certain Victor is the killer and recalls that he had made a mistake once before (with Roland). He then pulls up a chair and tells Victor to wait with him to see if the killer arrives. Obviously, they are up all night because no one else arrives.

Victor goes to the Albanian gangster in the sewer. The man has always had a blindfold and has never seen his captor's face. Victor tells him he is in Alfonse's gang and that Alfonse organized the man's capture. He says he has gotten on Alfonse's bad side and wants protection from the Albanian's gang. He says he will untie the gangster and contact his brother if he records a video for his brother to see. In the video, Victor has the gangster tell his brother that he has been captured by Alfonse Hoyte and Hoyte wants to kill him. Victor then turns off the camera and takes off the man's blindfold. The man recognizes Victor as the man he thought he killed (Alfonse and his gang had never seen Victor directly, but the Albanians sure had). Victor then kills the gangster and leaves his body for the rats.

Beatrice

Victor and Beatrice arrange a date. While walking from her apartment to Victor's, Beatrice cuts across the complex's courtyard. There, the neighborhood children throw a rock at her and call her a monster. Her head is begins to bleed, ruining the pretty, expensive white dress that he had very shyly put on.

Victor takes Beatrice back to her apartment to get cleaned up. As Beatrice changes, Maman tells Victor that Beatrice baked some more cookies for him. Victor realizes the cookies were always from Beatrice and that she loves him. He sets up a new date with her. Beatrice tells him that she thinks she knows why Victor hasn't killed Alfonse yet: He is afraid that once his revenge is over, his life will have no meaning and he will kill himself.

Victor is sitting on a park bench with a gift waiting to meet Beatrice. He gets a call from Darcy, who says he is very close to discovering who is threatening the gang. Victor then realizes the game is up. He leaves the present and goes to Beatrice's apartment. He picks her up, but instead of taking her on a date, he brings her to a bar where the man who crashed into her car is getting drunk (before driving home). He says he will kill her and then they will never talk again. Beatrice says that she was thinking of suicide and began to hope that he would save her. She asks if she was wrong to believe he loved her. He says yes, even though he is lying.

Victor goes to the drunk driver, who is in a deserted parking lot trying to get in his car. He jumps out of the shadows, and the scene cuts to black.

Victor returns to his car and gives Beatrice the hood ornament from the drunk's car. The ornament is coated in blood. He then drives her home.

Alfonse & his gang

Darcy calls the whole gang to come to the cemetery as he has discovered something. Victor doesn't show, but everyone else (including Alfonse) does. He says he found a tombstone in the cemetery for a Lazlo Khuric, his wife, and his daughter and the dates of the deaths match up with when Aflonse started getting threats (Darcy joined the gang around the same time as Victor and doesn't know about the killings). One of Alfonse's men points out that the anniversary of the daughter's death is the next day.

Alfonse calls the head Albanian gangster and arranges a meeting. Alfonse shows the gangster the pieces of the picture he is missing and that he has been getting threats. The gangster reveals he has too. Alfonse asks the gangster if he is sure Lazlo Kuric is dead. The gangster admits that though he thought he was, he isn't sure.

Alfonse looks through the pieces of the photo and compares them to the information he has on Lazlo. As the sun rises, he realizes that the killer is Victor.

Meanwhile, Victor puts the SIM card with for the video of the Albanian gangster telling his brother than Alfonse Hoyte had kidnapped him in an envelope.

Victor & Beatrice

Beatrice goes back to work at the beauty parlor, but is so distracted and stressed that while tweezing a woman's eyebrows she accidentally pulls most of the lady's hair out of one brow. When she realizes what she did, she apologizes and runs away sobbing. In her car, she sees a note from Victor. It says "I didn't kill him. There is still hope." She drives to the drunk's house and sees that even though the man has been beaten up, he is very much alive.

Darcy calls Victor and says that Alfonse and all his men are meeting at the warehouse. Victor says his truck broke down and he needs a ride. Darcy goes to pick him up, but Victor is already on his way to the warehouse where he will be waiting for Alfonse with bombs and guns.

The Albanian gangster gets a FedEx delivery with the envelope. It is clear that Victor plans for the Albanian gangsters to go to the warehouse as well with the intention of killing Alfonse and his gang. There he hopes a three way battle will break out and he can set off the bombs killing everyone.

Darcy arrives at Victor's apartment. When no one answers, he breaks down the door as he believes Victor is in danger. Instead, he finds proof that Victor is the killer.

Victor is sitting on a chair waiting for the gangsters and Alfonse when he gets a call from Beatrice. Beatrice tells him she sneaked into his apartment and replaced the SIM card in the envelope with her rabbit's foot lucky charm. She says that she knows he has been planning his revenge for month and she thinks even a tiny change could screw up his entire plans. She tells him she is doing this because she loves him and she doesn't want him to die.

Victor realizes that she is right. He gets up to leave and go to Beatrice.

Aflonse

As Beatrice is saying this, she walks towards Victor's door. Seeing it broken, she turns to flee, but Darcy walks out. Darcy knocks her to the ground and picks up the phone.

Darcy demands to know why Victor would betray him like this, as he made him the godfather of his child. Victor says he didn't want Darcy to be involved and had sent him to his apartment to keep him from dying. Victor begs Darcy to not tell Alfonse, but instead Darcy tells Victor he is taking Beatrice to Alfonse.

Victor gets in his car and speeds towards Alfonse's apartment, which is a building that was deserted after Alfonse's gang scared everyone off and currently the only resident is Alfonse. Darcy tells Alfonse to meet him there. Darcy, Alfonse, and all the gangsters in Alfonse and the Albanian gang arrive at roughly the same time.

Victor calls Alfonse. Alfonse tells Victor that he promised to burn down everything he loved and tells him he is going to kill Beatrice.

Victor crashes his car into the apartment. He begins firing at the gangsters and triggers and throwing grenades. Since Alfonse and his gang had only just arrived, they are unprepared. In the battle, most of the gangsters (of both gangs) die. Victor has a chance to kill Darcy, but doesn't. Beatrice runs off and hides in a closet. In there, she sees the head Albanian gangster has set up his laptop. She puts in the SIM card as the Albanian gangster storms in and captures her.

Victor

Alfonse walks into the room. As Victor runs up the stairs, he shouts that he is going to kill Beatrice. He walks into the room and points his gun at Beatrice, but the Albanian gangster leaps from the shadows. Having seen the video, he believes Alfonse killed his brother. The Albanian gangster attacks Alfonse and the two kill each other.

Victor and Beatrice start to leave, but Darcy blocks the exit. Darcy asks Victor "Did you let me live because I have a wife and kid." Victor replies "No, I let you live because I have you." Darcy lets Victor and Beatrice go.

Critical Reception

Dead Man Down received mixed reviews from critics. On RottenTomatoes, 24 of the 63 reviews were positive. This gave the film a 38%, which is considered ROTTEN. On Metacritic, the film recieved 3 positive reviews, 11 mixed reviews, and 7 negative ones. The overall score for the movie was a 41, which is in the color YELLOW and category "Mixed Reviews."