Accident Man (2018)

Accident Man is a 2018 action thriller film directed by Jesse V. Johnson, based on characters created by Pat Mills and Tony Skinner. The film stars Scott Adkins, Ashley Greene, Ray Stevenson, Michael Jai White and Ray Park. The film was released on 6 February 2018 in the United States and on 16 April 2018 in the United Kingdom. The film was released to positive reviews, with critics praising the action sequences and Adkins’ performance.

Plot.

Mike Fallon is an assassin who specializes in disguising his kills as accidents. He is a regular at an assassins’ pub called the Oasis, where a retired Big Ray is the bartender. Fellow regulars include Carnage Cliff, who kills his victims with an axe; Poison Pete; Mick and Mac, military veterans; Finnicky Fred, who invents and sells unorthodox weapons; and Jane the Ripper, an expert swordswoman. After killing an accountant named Archie Rudd, Mike gets a call from Milton, who assigns the assassins their missions. Milton asks Mike to pick up his payment for the kill in an alleyway, but there Mike is attacked by an amateur assassin, whom he kills easily. Mike accuses Milton of setting him up, but Milton denies this. Mike learns that his ex-girlfriend Beth has been murdered in a botched burglary, and that she was pregnant with his baby. Hearing that the alleged perpetrators had OD’d immediately afterwards, he becomes suspicious. He steals the police report and deduces that Mick and Mac were responsible, as they specialize in disguising assassinations as random street crimes.

Mike accuses Mick and Mac, and they confess to killing Beth but deny knowledge of their client’s identity. Enraged, Mike fights and defeats them both, and Big Ray reminds Mike never to get emotionally involved in his line of work. Mike goes to Beth’s apartment and asks her girlfriend Charlie whether Beth’s environmentalist activities made her enemies. They argue until Cliff breaks in and attacks Charlie. Mike inadvertently kills Cliff, tracks down Milton, and tortures him to reveal who ordered the hit on Beth: a man named Leonard Kent. Big Ray reluctantly orders a hit on Mike for killing Cliff. Years earlier, 15-year-old Mike worked as a paperboy and was bullied every day on his route. While hiding from his bullies, he noticed a man mysteriously walking away from a house that then explodes. After recording and spying on him for weeks, Mike confronts the man and blackmails him to teach him to be an assassin. Big Ray takes him on as an apprentice and has him kill the leader of the bullies as his first kill.

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Ray then has photographs incriminating Mike in the murder, and warns to never betray him. Ray teaches Mike what he needs to be a professional assassin and becomes a father figure to Mike. Charlie reveals that Beth had collected information on Pankot Petroleum, a corrupt Indian oil company, provided by Archie Rudd. Mike confronts Kent, but Kent turns over a recording of another man ordering him to have Beth killed. Mick and Mac suddenly break in, killing Kent. Mac is killed in friendly fire, and Mike bludgeons Mick with a fire extinguisher. Pete ambushes Mike outside the building, but Mike kills him easily. He spares Fred by knocking him out and goes to the house of Kent’s employer, oil tycoon Atal Zim. He kills Jane with her own katana, rejects Zim’s bribery attempts, and decapitates him.

Production, Reception.

The film went into production under Link Entertainment and Six Demon Films’ management. Scott Adkins produced, wrote the screenplay, and stars in this comic strip adaptation. Ashley Greene also joined the cast. The film was released on February 6, 2018. On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has a score of 83% based on 6 reviews with an average rating of 5.7/10. Fred Topel of We Live Entertainment wrote, “I certainly hope there are more Accident Man movies, but I always hope there are more Scott Adkins movies. This is certainly a fun universe for him to play in, and we could see Fallon cause more accidents and fight more rejects of the Oasis.” Sol Harris of Starburst wrote: “For all its flaws, Accident Man ultimately succeeds on the charms of its cast and by successfully landing jokes and punches in tandem.”

Sequel.

In March 2019, Jesse V. Johnson confirmed that Sony approved the development of Accident Man 2 and that Stu Smalls was writing a script. The directors of Accident Man 2 are George Kirby and Harry Kirby. The second part of this film will be directed by George Kirby and Harry Kirby.

Cast:

Scott Adkins as Mike Fallon, Accident Man
- Leon Finnan as young Fallon
Ashley Greene as Charlie Adams
Ray Stevenson as Big Ray
Michael Jai White as Mick
Ray Park as Mac
David Paymer as Milton
Perry Benson as Finicky Fred
Roger Yuan as Swordsmaster
Amy Johnston as Jane the Ripper
Ravi Aujla as Atal Zim
Nick Moran as Leonard Kent
Ross O’Hennessy as Carnage Cliff
Jamie Long as Spence the police officer