Paul Hackett

**Paul Hackett** is the titular main protagonist of Martin Scorsese's 1985 comedy film, *After Hours*. He is a humble office worker, who after travelling to SoHo, Manhattan, he goes on various misadventures while trying to go back to his apartment.

He was portrayed by Griffin Dunne.

## Biography

### 1985

After a boring day working in his office, Paul Hackett meets a girl at a cafe named, Marcy Franklin. After hearing that she has plaster-of-Paris paperweights resembling cream cheese bagels, he gets her number and leaves. On the way to her apartment, Paul takes a ride from a cab, however, his only cash, a $20 bill is blown out of the window. Paul goes to Marcy's SoHo apartment, that she shares with her sculptor roommate, named Kiki Bridges, who he encounters and helps her with her sculpture of a screaming man. After talking to Marcy, he is worn off by her strange behavior and abruptly leaves.

Paul attempts to go home on the subway, but is turned off due to the increased cost after midnight. Paul then goes to a bar where the bartender named Tom tells him that he will give him the money to leave on the subway. However, the cash register is locked so Paul and Tom exchange keys so Paul can retrieve Tom's registers in his apartment. On the way, Paul encounters two burglars named, Neil and Pepe who are taking Kiki's sculpture. Paul retrieves the sculpture and brings it to Kiki, who asks him to apologize to Marcy. However, when Paul enters the room, he finds Marcy, dead due to her taking pills, which Paul begins to blame himself for. Paul tries to tell Kiki about Marcy's death, but is too late as Kiki as left to go to Club Berlin.

Paul returns to Tom's bar, but fails to go inside after seeing that the bar is closed for half an hour. Paul is then brought to the apartment of the bar's former waitress, Julie, who he also abandons due to her strange behavior. Paul returns to Tom's bar and just before he can get his money, Tom gets a call informing him that his girlfriend, Marcy, has killed herself. This worries Paul as he returns to Julie's apartment but soon leaves. Feeling bad, Paul attempts to tell Kiki about Marcy's death but leaves urgently when a group of punks try to give him a mohawk. Afterwards, Paul meets an ice cream truck driver named, Gail, who mistakes Paul for a local burglar and brings out a mob who begin chasing him. Paul finds Tom at a diner and tells him about the mob chasing him, in which Tom then helps the mob track Paul down. Feeling tired, Paul finds shelter at Club Berlin, where he meets a woman named June, who he dances with.

Paul and June go down to June's apartment beneath the club, where Paul tells her about him being chased by a mob. June helps Paul by applying swaths of papier-mâché all over his head and body in order to disguise him as a sculpture after he is accidentally doused in plaster stored in her studio. This helps Paul as the mob ignore the sculpture and soon leave. June soon leaves to make sure the mob as left, to which Neil and Pepe soon arrive to rob the apartment, where they confuse Paul for the sculpture Kiki made. While the two are driving away, the van's back door opens, where Paul falls out, breaks free of the plaster where he realizes he is right next to office building. Paul goes inside, where he is then greeted by his computer, that reads, "Good morning, Paul".