Kick-Ass (2010)

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Kick-Ass is a 2010 action comedy film starring Aaron Johnson as the titular character, whose real name Dave Lizewski. It is an adaptation of the comic book series by Mark Millar and tells the story of a real-world teenager inspired by fictional superheroes to try and actually become a costumed vigilante and clean crime off the streets. During the process, he inspires other would-be heroes, including the enigmatic Red Mist ( Christopher Mintz Plasse) to don a cape and fight crime. He also causes two pre-existing vigilantes to turn into superheroes, Big Daddy ( Nicolas Cage) and his 11-year old daughter Hit Girl ( Chloe Mortez) whose methods are far more brutal than the naive Kick-Ass.

Plot

Dave Lizewski, a high school nobody and "natural-born geek" spends most of his time at the local comic book shop. Sick of the drug-lords and high rate of crime in his neighborhood, he wonders why nobody stands up to them. Ultimately, Dave takes matters into his own hands and begins his journey as the first real-life superhero, and begins patrolling in a modified wetsuit and carrying twin batons that he straps to his back. His first attempt at heroics is nothing short of a miserable failure and, following a vicious beating from two local thugs and a collision with a speeding car, he spends six months in the hospital. He emerges almost good as new, with a few metal plates and destroyed nerve endings that cause him to feel less pain and absorb more punishment. Undeterred, Dave picks up the act again and becomes Kick-Ass.

Back on patrol, Dave encounters a man being brutally attacked by a gang of men outside a local restaurant. Knowing little about the situation, other than that one man is being attacked by several others, Dave attacks the gang and, after a violent showdown, successfully sends off the gang and saves the man's life. Meanwhile, people in the nearby restaurant have been recording the entire incident on cell phones and video cameras. Asked who he is, Dave responds with his new name, "Kick-Ass." The recording is uploaded to YouTube and becomes an enormous viral sensation.

Thanks to the internet, Kick-Ass's popularity increases exponentially and soon there isn't a person in town who hasn't heard of him. He creates a MySpace page where people can send him messages and requests for help. Meanwhile, a girl he has a crush on, Katie Deauxma, begins paying attention to him, and a friendship blooms, but not for the reasons that Dave wants: Katie thinks that Dave is homosexual, and sees him as her sweet, funny gay friend. While this is disappointing to Dave, he decides to play to the charade, as it's the only way he has of being close with her.

Despite this setback, things seem to be going well until he runs into the wrong crowd while trying to help Katie with a problem, as she had told Dave that she needed some help with an ex-boyfriend, who just happens to be a powerful and violent drug dealer. Kick-Ass confronts the drug dealer with poor results; fortunately, a feisty and well-trained girl comes to his aid, far out-shining Kick-Ass' capabilities, but also brutally murdering everyone in the drug dealer's apartment. This is Mindy Macready, aka Hit Girl ( Chloe Moretz), the 11 year old daughter of Damon Macready aka Big Daddy ( Nicholas Cage), a former police officer on a quest for revenge against the drug lord Frank D'Amico.

This first encounter between Kick-Ass and the other superheroes jolts Dave into reality again, making him question his own capabilities. Meanwhile, D'Amico realizes his organization is in peril from the emergence of superheroes, and allows his son Chris to play along with the vigilante's game, as he will masquerade as the superhero Red Mist in order to draw out Kick-Ass, who D'Amico mistakenly believes to be the source of his problems.

Chris, gaining some local popularity as Red Mist, gains Kick-Ass' trust, and the two go looking for citizens in need, as Red Mist drives them toward a trap D'Amico set up for Kick-Ass. However, when they arrive, the entire set-up has already been destroyed by Big Daddy, who is caught in a video recording (carefully set by Red Mist ahead of time) single-handedly killing all of D'Amico's men and setting fire to the building. It isn't until after the whole ordeal that D'Amico discovers that Big Daddy and Hit Girl are his primary targets, while Kick-Ass is only a distraction. However, Red Mist assures his father that Kick-Ass can lead them to their true enemies.

Deciding that the field of superheroics is simply too dangerous for him, Dave decides to reveal his true identity to Katie, climbing in to her window, to which she responds by attacking the strange man in a wetsuit who came in to her room through a window uninvited. However, Dave unmasks, revealing both his double identity as Kick-Ass, as well as his sexual orientation and true feelings for her. While she at first seems upset and disgusted by his behavior and his apparent deceit, she soon concedes her feelings for him, and the two of them begin a relationship.

Soon after this, Dave is contacted by Red Mist, who expresses a need to find Big Daddy and Hit Girl. Dave dons the Kick-Ass uniform once more, and, after contacting Big Daddy, arranges to meet he and Hit Girl at one of their many safe houses. Upon entering, Red Mist shoots Hit Girl in the chest, and she falls out of a window to the street below. D'Amico's men storm the room, attacking and incapacitating Kick-Ass and Big Daddy.

To the horror of New York (including Katie, who is watching television at work), D'Amico hosts an "unmasking," broadcasting the brutal torture and ensuing murder of Kick-Ass and Big Daddy. The two are beaten with fists, pipes and crowbars, and the thugs plan to burn the two of them alive. Hit Girl, saved by the kevlar worn beneath her suit, arrives in the nick of time, killing all of D'Amico's men with a combination of martial arts and gunplay, but is too late to save her father, who burns to death after a flame is set beneath the chair to which he is bound. In an act of retaliation, Kick-Ass and Hit Girl join together for one final battle to take out D'Amico and his crew.

Hit Girl sneaks her way into D'Amico's fortress-like tower by dressing as a lost school girl, then killing the guards in the lobby. Changing in to her Hit Girl costume in the elevator, she then emerges and runs down D'Amico's well-guarded hallway, slaughtering the small army of men tasked with stopping her. However, taking cover behind a kitchen counter, she runs out of ammunition, and as one of D'Amico's henchman is going to fire a rocket launcher stolen from her father's safe house, Kick-Ass appears outside the window, strapped to a jet pack with twin Gatling guns, an item purchased by Big Daddy shortly before his death. Kick-Ass kills the remaining henchman, allowing Hit Girl to deal with D'Amico personally while Kick-Ass goes after Red Mist. Kick-Ass and Red Mist fight inside D'Amico's dojo, eventually knocking one another unconscious. Hit Girl and D'Amico brutally beat on each other, but D'Amico eventually gets the upper hand. However, before D'Amico can deliver the finishing blow, Kick-Ass awakens and, retrieving the aforementioned rocket launcher, shoots D'Amico with a missile that knocks him out of the window of the high-rise, the drug lord falling to his death.

Picking up the fallen Hit Girl, Kick-Ass flies the two of them to safety. Afterwards, Kick-Ass retires, content to let the new wave of superheroes pick up where he left off. Hit Girl goes back to being simply Mindy Macready, and lives with her father's old police partner, Marcus. Finally, the film cuts back to Chris, donning a new, more villainous mask, and looking at the camera, delivering Jack Nicholson's classic line as the Joker: "Wait'll they get a load of me."