The Killer

Plot

Zee is a professional hitwoman living in Paris who is regularly employed by Finn, an Irishman working for crime lord Jules Gobert, to eliminate Gobert's rivals in the drug business. Her violent lifestyle has left her with few things to enjoy, including the friendship of an old tailor named Tessier, who provides her with disguises, keeping a goldfish, and solving crossword puzzles. In the underworld, she is infamous as the Queen of the Dead.

Finn contracts Zee to kill a drug gang from Marseille partying in a local nightclub where an American singer named Jenn Clark is performing. At the same time, police inspector Sey and his partner Jax try to arrest Jenn's drug-dealing boyfriend "Coco", but Coco escapes, injures Jax and takes a hostage, forcing Sey to kill him. At his death, Coco was listening to a demo of one of Jenn's songs, leading Sey onto Jenn's trail. In spite of the gangsters receiving texts that Coco has been killed, Zee eliminates them all, but Jenn hits her head in a fall, causing her to go blind. Although obliged to kill all present, Zee spares Jenn as an uninvolved civilian. Finn then sends her to the hospital where Jenn is staying to finish the job.

Posing as a vice-consul from the US embassy, Zee gains access to Jenn's room. Before Jenn can be killed by the IV drip Zee has poisoned, Sey enters to take her statement, but due to traumatic shock, Jenn remembers little. Zee pretends to accidentally knock over the IV before it can kill Jenn in front of Sey, raising Sey's suspicions.

Sey connects Gobert to a recent heroin theft from Arabian prince Majeb Bin Faheem. However, his investigations are stymied by his superiors, who fear the impact on their careers since some gangsters involved were dirty cops working for Gobert. Additionally, it is revealed that Finn is responsible for the theft since he intends to corner the Paris drug market.

Before Finn's thugs can assassinate Jenn at the hospital where Sey is visiting Jax, Zee arrives to take her to safety. During the shootout, Zee and Sey briefly meet face-to-face before Zee escapes with Jenn. After Jenn identifies Zee as the killer, she reveals that she and Coco stole Bin Faheem's heroin shipment from its original thieves, setting off the subsequent murders. Zee lies to Finn that she eliminated Jenn, but Finn later learns the truth. Sey tracks Zee down and arrests her. While questioning her, he learns she was involved in an earlier case of his, saving his life. Zee escapes custody, only to find Jenn has been kidnapped by Finn's men, and learns from Tessier that he was coerced by a cop to inform on her.

Production

In 1992, American filmmaker Walter Hill and David Giler wrote a screenplay for Tri-Star Pictures titled The Killer that was dated 6 April 1992. The press release for this remake stated the script was written for actors Richard Gere and Denzel Washington. In June 1992, it was announced Walter Hill and Giler were writing a script titled Hong Kong based on The Killer with Hill directing. The producers had difficulty with the relationship between the two main characters in the script as they felt that American audiences would interpret it as a homoerotic one. Producer Terence Chang, who worked with Woo on several productions, suggested to the American producers to have Hong Kong actress Michelle Yeoh play the role of the police officer to resolve any homoerotic reading of the film. A year later, screenwriters Jim Cash and Jack Epps, Jr. were hired by producers Charles Roven and Robert Cavallo to write a screenplay based on The Killer for Tristar, writing a third draft of the script dated on 23 August 1993 which featured a story of a Caucasian hitman living in Hong Kong. This screenplay moved the focus from the pairing of the hitman and the police detective characters to the characters of a blinded nightclub singer and the hitman.

In October 2007, The Hollywood Reporter announced that a remake of The Killer was announced with Korean-American director John H. Lee directing. The remake would take place in Los Angeles's Koreatown, Chinatown, and South Central. Lee named The Killer as one of his favorite films and said he was excited to make his own version of the film. Lee's version was set to be produced by Woo, and star Jung Woo-sung and shot in 3D. Seven Stars Film Studios was slated to finance the production with a screenplay by Josh Campbell. Sarah Li was initially cast to play the role of the blind singer. Woo spoke about the remake in October 2015, stating that Lee's film was in development for some time and Lee eventually took on other projects. Woo commented in 2015 that he would return to Hollywood after filming Manhunt (2017) in order to make an American adaptation of The Killer. Universal Pictures was announced to be developing the film with a script written by Eran Creevy based on drafts by Josh Campbell and Matt Stuecken, with additional contributions by Brian Helgeland. Actress Lupita Nyong'o had been cast for the lead role. Woo said that filming would begin in January 2019. About the decision to flip both the gender and race of the lead, Nyong'o remarked that she "did not see it coming, either", stating that she had received, read and liked the script without having seen the original film. However, Woo told Deadline in November 2019 that Nyong'o had left the film due to scheduling conflicts as a result of a script rewrite. In May 2022, it was announced that the film would be directed by Woo, produced by Universal, and released exclusively on Peacock. In August 2022, Universal announced that Omar Sy would lead the film as the cop character. In March 2023, Nathalie Emmanuel was cast in the lead role. Principal photography commenced two months later in Paris, but was halted due to 2023 SAG-AFTRA strike. Filming resumed in November after the strike ended and continued till February 2024.

Release

The film was released on Peacock on August 23, 2024.

Reception

On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 59% of 59 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 5.8/10. The website's consensus reads: "John Woo recaptures some of his legendary action bravura in this gallic [sic] reimagining of his very own The Killer, although the kinetic set pieces don't quite compensate for the overall lack of personality." Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 60 out of 100, based on 18 critics, indicating "mixed or average" reviews.

Jesse Hassenger of The Guardian wrote "There’s nothing urgently necessary about a new version of The Killer. It humbly presents the optional but delightful spectacle of watching John Woo have fun again." Bilge Ebiri of Vulture wrote "This new Killer is loaded with action scenes, and they never feel phoned in or generic". David Ehrlich of IndieWire wrote "The Killer doesn’t stray too broadly from the general structure of the original, but it applies such different pressure to each beat that it feels like a very different film." Alton Barnhart of SLUG stated that "The Killer runs a bit long, and it’s certainly nothing particularly new, but it’s a fun guilty pleasure movie" while further adding "If you can turn off your brain and view the movie as what it is, rather than holding it to the same standards as an original than was quite groundbreaking for its time, it’s a lively and diverting ride." Pete Volk of Polygon said that despite the remake did not match the standards set by Woo's 1989 original, he added "Woo uses the bare bones of the narrative and characters to make a new experience, one that feels like a throwback to his dual-wielding, dove-flapping days of yore — but with a fresh new spin on the action". Volk further complimented Emmanuel's performance, particularly in the action sequences, calling that it provided her the chance to become a full-fledged action hero.

Julian Roman of MovieWeb stated that "The Killer will disappoint if compared line by line to one of the greatest action films ever made [...] It's difficult to do, but this film has to be viewed through an objective and dispassionate lens". Jacob Oller of The A.V. Club wrote "The Killer is evidence that action movies are fighting back, wrestling Woo into standardized submission. And yet, you still admire the romantic dedication the director has to filming acts of principled violence. Woo seems to embody his killer’s notion that, though it’s easy to pick up a gun, it’s hard to put it back down." Tara Bennett of Paste added that the remake "certainly scratches a very particular action itch but doesn’t come near besting the original." Brian Tallerico of RogerEbert.com wrote "John Woo movies used to strap you into your seat, making the rest of the world fall away as you appreciated their action artistry. That’s just not the case here."