Man on Fire (2004)

Man on Fire is a 2004 American action thriller film starring Denzel Washington.
==Plot==
In 2003, former Force Recon Marine and CIA SAD/SOG officer John Creasy visits his old friend Paul Rayburn in Mexico. Rayburn convinces him to take a bodyguard position with Samuel Ramos, a Mexico City automaker whose young daughter Lupita (Pita) requires a bodyguard for her kidnapping insurance policy to take effect.
Struggling with alcoholism, burnout and guilt over his actions with the CIA, Creasy tries to commit suicide but his gun misfires. He is reminded by Rayburn of their saying "a bullet always tells the truth" and begins to consider that he was not meant to die. Seemingly revitalized, Creasy commits to his newfound purpose as Pita's protector, reducing his drinking and finding comfort in the pages of his Bible. He begins coaching Pita to become a more confident swimmer, bonding with her through the process.
One afternoon, while waiting outside Pita's piano lesson, Creasy recognizes a car that followed them earlier, as two federal policemen block the street. Realizing that Pita is about to be abducted, he kills four of the attackers including the officers but is critically wounded and Pita is taken. Creasy is declared a suspect, but reporter Mariana Garcia Guerrero questions the story. AFI agent Miguel Manzano relocates a recovering Creasy to a veterinary clinic to protect him from corrupt police.
"The Voice," the unseen leader of the kidnapping ring, demands a $10 million ransom and Samuel complies, with the help of police lieutenant Victor Fuentes. However, the kidnappers are ambushed at the ransom drop and the Voice’s nephew is killed. Holding the Ramos family responsible, the Voice informs them that Pita will be lost to them forever as retribution. Manzano warns Creasy that the kidnappers belong to a powerful "brotherhood" called La Hermandad that consists of corrupt officials, police and criminals. Creasy makes a promise to Pita's mother, Lisa, to kill everyone involved in the kidnapping.
With Rayburn’s help, Creasy obtains a small arsenal of weapons and equipment. He brutally interrogates and kills the getaway driver, who points him to a club where he confronts three of the kidnappers. Killing two criminal middlemen, Creasy recovers an incriminating ATM card and another kidnapped girl. He turns both over to Guerrero, who reveals that Fuentes is part of the brotherhood. Manzano interviews Rayburn, who describes Creasy as an “artist of death”, about to "paint his masterpiece."
Guerrero convinces Manzano to help Creasy wage war against the kidnappers. Waylaying Fuentes’s motorcade with a rocket-propelled grenade, Creasy abducts the officer, who admits that he had his officers ambush the ransom drop, but discovered afterward most of the ransom money had already been stolen by Jordan Kalfus, Samuel's lawyer. After killing Fuentes with a bomb in his rectum, Creasy searches Kalfus’s home and finds his decapitated corpse and a fax with bank account information leading to Samuel.
Creasy confronts Samuel and Lisa and Samuel confesses that Kalfus suggested they arrange the kidnapping to claim the insurance payout to settle his father's debts, though they were promised Pita would be returned unharmed. When Fuentes interfered with the drop, Samuel blamed Kalfus for Pita's death and murdered him. Lisa, now aware of Samuel's involvement, angrily tells Creasy to kill her husband or she will. He leaves Samuel a gun and the same bullet he attempted suicide with and a guilt-ridden Samuel commits suicide.
Guerrero and Manzano trace the ATM card to the Voice’s wife and find her address, allowing Manzano's officers to infiltrate her home and obtain a photo of the Voice. Despite the brotherhood’s threats, Guerrero publishes the photo and passes the address on to Creasy. Taking the Voice’s wife and his brother Aurelio prisoner, Creasy is shot in the chest but learns the ringleader’s real name is Daniel Sanchez. He calls him and threatens his family, but Daniel reveals that Pita is alive, offering to trade her for his brother and for Creasy, which he accepts.
Instructing Lisa to join him at the exchange, Creasy reunites with Pita in the middle of an overpass, assuring her that he loves her before sending her to her mother. He and Aurelio are taken by Daniel’s men, but Creasy succumbs to his wounds. Manzano tracks Daniel down later that day and shoots him dead “during the course of arrest.”
===Alternate ending===
In an alternate ending, Creasy does not succumb to his bullet wounds, but lives to confront The Voice (who is otherwise unseen in the film) in his office. After a verbal confrontation, Creasy kills himself and The Voice via suicide bombing using explosives planted in his rectum, a call-back to Fuentes' earlier death.
==Cast==
* Denzel Washington as John W. Creasy, a former CIA operative and U.S. Marine Force Recon Captain, turned mercenary and bodyguard.
* Dakota Fanning as Guadalupe "Lupita" (Pita) Ramos, Creasy's charge.
* Radha Mitchell as Lisa Ramos, Pita's mother, an American expatriate from Texas.
* Christopher Walken as Paul Rayburn, Creasy's former colleague, who runs a security firm in Mexico.
* Marc Anthony as Samuel Ramos, a wealthy auto manufacturer and Pita's father.
* Giancarlo Giannini as Miguel Manzano, a special agent of the Federal Ministerial Police (AFI). Tony Scott stated "Giancarlo loves women, as did this character."
* Mickey Rourke as Jordan Kalfus, Samuel Ramos' lawyer. Kalfus and Samuel Ramos's father were best friends, and therefore Kalfus has a close relationship with Samuel. Mickey Rourke stated that Kalfus has "a responsibility to his father, to him, to look out for his well-being." Therefore, Kalfus "[wants] to be there for him" when Ramos "gets his head underwater a little bit".
* Rachel Ticotin as Mariana Garcia Guerrero, a reporter for the Diario Reforma
* Roberto Sosa as Daniel Sánchez, the unseen mastermind of the kidnapping plot, known as "La Voz" ("The Voice").
* Jesús Ochoa as Victor Fuentes, a lieutenant in the Anti-Kidnapping Division of the Federal Judicial Police and the head of the criminal "La Hermandad" syndicate
* Gero Camilo as Aurelio Sánchez; The Voice's brother and accomplice.
Other actors in the film include Rosa María Hernández as Maria Rosas Sanchez; The Voice's wife, Charles Paraventi as Jersey Boy, one of The Voice's accomplices; Mario Zaragoza as Jorge Gonzalez; a corrupt policeman and member of the "La Hermandad" syndicate, Carmen Salinas as the guardian, Gerardo Taracena as Colon, Eduardo Yáñez as Fox, and Itatí Cantoral as Evelyn.
Category:2000s films
Category:Films
Category:Action films
Category:Thriller films
Category:2004 films
Category:2000s action thriller films
Category:2000s crime drama films
Category:2000s crime thriller films
Category:20th Century Fox films
Category:2000s action drama films
Category:American action films
Category:American action thriller films
Category:American crime drama films
Category:American crime thriller films
Category:Crime films
Category:American films
Category:English-language films
Category:Estudios Churubusco films
Category:Films about child abduction
Category:Films about children
Category:Films about families
Category:Films about murderers
Category:Films about revenge
Category:Films based on British novels
Category:Films based on crime novels
Category:Films directed by Tony Scott
Category:Films with screenplays by Brian Helgeland
Category:Films set in 2003
Category:Films set in Mexico
Category:Films set in Mexico City
Category:Regency Enterprises films
Category:Scott Free Productions films
Category:Vigilante films
Category:Films scored by Harry Gregson-Williams