And then, when your defenses are down, he pulls the rug out from under your feet. While Porter might have a reputation as a slow thinker, he knows how to survive, and when he's pushed, he knows how to respond. Likewise, Helgeland sets up scenes with seemingly insignificant details, and then later, those details crack back at you when you least expect it. For the first hour, Payback is an efficient crime thriller that deals out vicious violence with glib shrugs and snappy one-liners. People are kicked in the head, punched in the stomach, and shot in the back.
Sledgehammers crush toes.
A dog gets shot. One guy even gets his nose ring ripped out. We've seen plenty of movies treading this territory before, movies that riff on Pulp Fiction while glamorizing violence and splattering enough blood to make you think Jackson Pollack served as their art director. He's a man on a quest and nothing will stop him until he has what he wants. That's the running joke in the movie.