From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Payback
Payback movie poster
Directed by	Brian Helgeland
Produced by	Bruce Davey
Written by	Brian Helgeland Terry Hayes based on The Hunter by Richard Stark
Starring	Mel Gibson Gregg Henry Maria Bello Kris Kristofferson James Coburn Lucy Liu David Paymer
Music by	Chris Boardman Moe Jaffe
Cinematography	Ericson Core
Editing by	Kevin Stitt
Distributed by	Paramount Pictures (USA) Warner Bros. (non-USA)
Release date(s)	February 5, 1999
Running time	100 min.
Language	English
Budget	$50,000,000
IMDb profile

Payback is a 1999 action film starring Mel Gibson and directed by Brian Helgeland. The film is a remake of the 1967 noir-classic Point Blank, directed by John Boorman and starring Lee Marvin, which was based on the book The Hunter, written by Donald E. Westlake under the pseudonym of Richard Stark. The film was Brian Helgeland's directorial debut after a career as a screenwriter.

Although credited as director, Helgeland's cut of the film isn't the final version released to audiences. Helgeland's version was deemed too dark for the mainstream public and he was replaced by production designer John Myhre, who reshot 30% of the movie. The intent was to make Gibson's character funnier and more accessible, as in Lethal Weapon. After 10 days of reshoots, a new third act was tacked on, voiceover track added and Kris Kristofferson walked on as a new villain.^[1] Helgeland's version, Straight Up: The Director's Cut, was released on DVD, Blu-Ray, and HD DVD on April 10, 2007.

In a seedy basement, a man pours a glass of whiskey and sterilizes his crude surgical tools. He turns to the table, where Porter (Mel Gibson) lies unconscious with two gunshot wounds in his back. After the removal of the rounds and several months of healing, Porter returns and begins tracking down Val, his former partner and Lynn, his ex-wife, both of whom betrayed Porter and left him for dead following a $140,000 heist from the Chinese mafia. Porter, healed and armed, is intent on reclaiming his $70,000 cut of the heist.

Following his betrayal of Porter, Val rejoined the Outfit, a powerful criminal organization, using $130,000 of the heist money to repay his outstanding debt. To get his share of the money back, Porter is forced to deal with his former partner, the Outfit, the Chinese mafia and corrupt police officers (Duke and Conley). He enlists the help of a call girl, Rosie (Maria Bello), who is affiliated with the Outfit. Previous to the events depicted at the beginning of the film, Porter served as a driver for Rosie, during which time they developed a close, romantic friendship, which ultimately was the reason behind Porter's wife shooting him.

After unsuccessful attempts to reclaim his $70,000 share of the original heist from the Outfit, he kidnaps the son of the head of the crime syndicate. After which, Porter himself is kidnapped and tortured into revealing the location where the syndicate boss' son is being held. Porter leads them to an apartment that was rigged earlier by the Outfit with a telephone-activated bomb.

• Mel Gibson as Porter
• Gregg Henry as Val Resnick
• Maria Bello as Rosie
• Lucy Alexis Liu as Pearl
• Deborah Kara Unger as Mrs. Lynn Porter
• David Paymer as Arthur Stegman
• Bill Duke as Detective Hicks
• Jack Conley as Detective Leary
• John Glover as Phil
• William Devane as Carter
• James Coburn as Justin Fairfax
• Kris Kristofferson as Bronson

In 2005, Paramount allowed Helgeland to re-edit the movie. However, the tapes from the original production are missing and he was limited to material available on film. The final result is a much darker film.^[2]

Some changes to the director's cut include:

• Removal of Porter's voice-over
• Rosie's dog (also named Porter) does not survive after being shot by Val Resnick
• Majority of blue tint was removed and replaced with hyper-saturation
• Director's commentary
• Interview of Donald E. Westlake
• Documentary of the film's history
• A new score was written and recorded by Scott Stambler
• An alternate ending

• Payback at the Internet Movie Database
• Payback: Straight Up - The Director's Cut at the Internet Movie Database