Sabotage is a 2014 American crime action film, directed by David Ayer, written by Skip Woods and Ayer and starring Arnold Schwarzenegger.
Plot
John "Breacher" Wharton (Arnold Schwarzenegger) is the leader of an elite team of DEA agents from the Special Ops Division, which includes James "Monster" Murray (Sam Worthington) and his wife Lizzy Murray (Mireille Enos), Joe "Grinder" Philips (Joe Manganiello), Julius "Sugar" Edmonds (Terrence Howard), Eddie "Neck" Jordan (Josh Holloway), Tom "Pyro" Roberts (Max Martini), Bryce "Tripod" McNeely (Kevin Vance), and "Smoke" Jennings (Mark Schlegel).
During a raid on a cartel warehouse, in which Smoke is killed, the team steals $10 million of the cartel's money, hides it down in sewer pipes for later collection and splitting amongst themselves, and blows up the rest of the cartel's cash to cover their tracks. However, the money disappears, and their superior Floyd Demel (Martin Donovan) finds out about it and suspends them for several months, during which they are investigated for the theft. With no concrete evidence of their participation, however, Demel reinstates them.
Breacher later finds out that Lizzy has become addicted to drugs and that her marriage to Monster is failing.
Pyro is killed when his trailer is rammed by a train, after someone drives it onto the tracks while he's unconscious. Atlanta Police homicide detective Caroline Brentwood (Olivia Williams) and her partner Darius Jackson (Harold Perrineau) are assigned to the case and interrogate Pyro's teammates.
Brentwood notes Neck is aggressively avoiding interrogation, and Breacher accompanies her to his house in the hopes of getting him to cooperate. When they arrive, they find him nailed to the ceiling and disembowelled. Brentwood recognizes the execution as the modus operandi of the cartels, leading Breacher to assume the cartel is hunting them down over the stolen money.
Breacher and Brentwood visit Tripod, who left the DEA after being suspended, and find him dead after a shootout in which he killed an assailant Breacher identified as a cartel enforcer. Monster later visits Brentwood, who is suspicious of Breacher, and tells her that Breacher's family was kidnapped by the cartels, who videotaped their murders and later sent the tape to Breacher along with the severed body parts of his wife and son. Breacher spent months searching for his family's killers before the team convinced him to move on. Brentwood apologizes to Breacher, and they wind up having sex.
Jackson traces the dead enforcer's cellphone to a cartel safe-house, which is raided by Breacher and his team. However, the enforcers are not there. They are later found dead at the bottom of a river near Tripod's house, and Brentwood realizes that they were killed before Pyro and Neck, meaning someone is framing the cartel for targeting the team.
Breacher reunites the team to tell them what happened, and Lizzy lashes out and reveals she's been having an affair with Sugar. Grinder later confesses to Brentwood that they stole the money. Breacher and Brentwood meet with Grinder in a public setting to discuss what should happen next when Grinder is shot dead by Lizzy, who is behind the murders along with Sugar. Lizzy then meets with Monster to discuss her escape. Monster destroys her passport to prevent her escape, and Lizzy slashes him with a knife, killing him.
Breacher and Brentwood go to Lizzy's house and find Monster's body stuffed in a refrigerator. Lizzy calls Breacher, pretending to be alone, and arranges a meeting at a parking garage. Breacher goes there with Brentwood hidden, and they engage in a shootout with Lizzy and Sugar, who attempt to escape. Following a car chase through the Atlanta's streets, Sugar & Lizzy's truck ends up crashing into a tow truck, decapitating Sugar.
Breacher and Brentwood confront a dying Lizzy, who accuses the team of stealing the money behind their backs, motivating her to seek revenge. Brentwood is puzzled, assuming Lizzy had stolen the money. Breacher tells the dying Lizzy that he took the money. Lizzy tries to reach for her weapon and Breacher kills her. Breacher tells Brentwood to be "a good girl and walk away." The local cops arrive and Breacher disappears.
Weeks later, Breacher is in Mexico, where he uses the stolen money to bribe a corrupt police official into helping him identify Brujo, the man who murdered his family. Breacher finds him in a Mexican bar and kills him and others loyal to him in a violent shootout, during which he is shot in the chest. Having avenged his family, a seriously-wounded Breacher sits at a table, takes a shot of whiskey, lights up one last cigar and smiles as he hears the approaching sirens.
Cast
- Arnold Schwarzenegger as John “Breacher†Wharton, the commander of an elite squad of DEA operatives.
- Sam Worthington as James "Monster" Murray
- Mireille Enos as Lizzy Murray
- Olivia Williams as Investigator Caroline Brentwood
- Terrence Howard as Julius "Sugar" Edmonds
- Joe Manganiello as Joe "Grinder" Phillips
- Harold Perrineau as Investigator Darius Jackson
- Martin Donovan as Floyd Demel
- Max Martini as Tom "Pyro" Roberts
- Josh Holloway as Eddie "Neck" Jordan
- Troy Garity as Agent Spolcheck
- Kevin Vance as Bryce "Tripod" McNeely
- Mark Schlegel as "Smoke" Jennings
- Gary Grubbs as Lou Cantrell
- Paul Anthony Barreras as Brujo
Production
Filming started on October 12, 2012 and was completed by December 13, 2012. While the initially released poster for the film gave a release date of April 11, it was released on March 28, 2014.
An unrated red band trailer for the film was released on February 7, 2014. The film was previously titled Ten and Breacher.
Marketing
To promote the film, Schwarzenegger and Joe Manganiello guested on the March 24, 2014 episode of WWE Raw, where they joined Hulk Hogan in the ring before confronting The Miz.
Reception
Sabotage received negative reviews from critics who criticized the film for its gratuitous violence and unlikable characters. On Rotten Tomatoes the film holds a rating of 19%, based on 103 reviews, with an average score of 4.3/10. The site's consensus reads, "Sabotage boasts one of Arnold Schwarzenegger's finer post-political performances, but it's wasted in a movie driven by grueling violence that punishes seemingly without purpose." On Metacritic, the film holds a score of 41 out of 100, based on 31 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".
However, IGN gave the movie a rating of 7/10 with the following verdict: "Sabotage is far more effective than its action-centric trailers have suggested, with the film more a mystery-thriller that actually offers Arnold Schwarzenegger and the cool ensemble a chance to act and not just shoot guns."
Box office
The film, budgeted at $35 million, grossed $5.3 million in its opening weekend, finishing in seventh place. The opening was the worst for a Schwarzenegger film in over thirty years. The worldwide gross as of July 6, 2014 is $17.5 million, with $10.5 million of the total gross coming from America.
References
External links
- Official website
- Sabotage at the Internet Movie Database
- Sabotage at Box Office Mojo
- Sabotage at Rotten Tomatoes