Line #29 Film/Goldstone


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4	''Goldstone'' is a 2016 Australian crime thriller film directed by Ivan Sen. It is a sequel to ''Film/MysteryRoad'' and stars Creator/AaronPedersen, Alex Russell, Jacki Weaver, Creator/DavidWenham and David Gulpilil.
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6	Indigenous Detective Jay Swan arrives in the frontier town of Goldstone on a missing persons inquiry. What seems like a simple light duty investigation opens a web of crime and corruption. Jay must pull his life together and bury his differences with young local cop Josh, so together they can bring justice to Goldstone.
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8	!!''Goldstone'' contains examples of:
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10	* AllBikersAreHellsAngels: The Furnace Creek Mining Group employs an outlaw motorcycle gang called the Howlers as enforcers, using them to deal with troublemakers while maintaining plausible deniability.
11	* ArmorPiercingQuestion
12	** When Josh tells Jay he doesn't want to be [[ReassignedToAntarctica reassigned to the middle of nowhere]], Josh says, "I thought you were already there." Josh has brushed off Jay's other barbs, including an accusation of corruption, but that one pisses him off.
13	** Mei also asks several to Josh, admitting they're actually to divert Josh from asking his own questions.
14	* AsianHookerStereotype: The Chinese girls brought in to work at the mine's brothel are instructed to act this way as it is what the men expect.
15	* TheAtoner: Tommy ultimately chooses to turn himself in and confess to everything. Josh himself feels a little of this by the end.
16	* BeardOfSorrow: Jay's grown out his hair and beard quite a bit since the previous film. It's revealed that his daughter Crystal died between movies, so it's quite likely he's depressed.
17	* BystanderSyndrome: Several Furnace Creek miners show little to no emotion when they see Jay and Josh barging into the place with their guns.
18	* CallBack: The way Jay saves Josh is very similar to the way Johnno saved Jay in ''Film/MysteryRoad''.
19	* CompanyTown: Johnny claims that Goldstone will live or die based on the expansion and prosperity of Furnace Creek. From what we see, this is fairly accurate, which leaves the town's fate at the end of the movie questionable.
20	* ContrastingSequelAntagonist: Johnny is this to [[spoiler: Sam Bailey]] from ''Film/MysteryRoad''. [[spoiler: Sam]] was a fairly blue-collar rancher, Johnny is a CorruptCorporateExecutive. [[spoiler: Sam]] came across as somewhat AxCrazy, believing that MurderIsTheBestSolution and often committing the murders himself, Johnny prefers to bribe people to leave him alone or delegate his killing to others. [[spoiler: Sam]] controlled sex workers through drugs, Johnny controls them through legal chicanery. [[spoiler: Sam]] had a low-ranking DirtyCop in his organization, while the influential local Mayor is in Johnny's pocket. [[spoiler: Sam]] is an outspoken racist, as are his men, while any racism Johnny displays is more subtle an he's at least willing to employ Aboriginal and Asian henchmen. [[spoiler: Sam]] goes to the final battle with the rest of his gang (albeit lingering in the back), while Johnny is a NonActionGuy who cuts and runs the first chance he gets. [[spoiler: Sam is shot dead, while Johnny escapes town]].
21	* ContrastingSequelMainCharacter: Josh serves as this to Johnno, although neither was ''the'' main character in either movie. Johnno is a bearded, older policeman while Josh is a clean-shaven younger one. Johnno is a CreepyGood CowboyCop while Josh is an earnest ByTheBookCop for the most part. Johnno's WorkingTheSameCase investigation is largely off-screen, while Josh's gets a larger amount of screen-time. Johnno keeps his cards close to his chest rather than confiding in other local authorities, while Josh perhaps trusts the local bigwigs a little too much (at least initially) even after Johnny outright offers him a bribe. Johnno's interactions with Jay are filled with ambiguity, potential threats and feeling each other out while Josh's are more straightforward and a bit frustrated at times. Johnno is an excellent sniper, while Josh is better with a pistol and shotgun. Johnno came to the outback to get away from some kind of trouble (it's hinted he killed someone by accident) before the beginning of ''Film/MysteryRoad'', while Josh leaves the outback at the end of ''Goldstone'' to get away from the trouble and corruption. [[spoiler: Johnno is gunned down during his SniperDuel with Pete, while Josh survives]].
22	* CoolOldGuy: Jimmy, who befriends Jay, telling him stories about his family, and is the first local of note to stand up to Furnace Creek. There's also the old white hermit who finds the lost girl's passport and makes sure it gets to Josh, despite not wanting to get involved.
23	* CorruptCorporateExecutive: Johnny is the local manager for the Furnace Creek Mining Group. He is lying to his superiors in order to push through a crooked land deal; bribing local officials; turning a blind eye when one of his partners sanctions a murder; is importing {{Sex Slave}}s to work in a quasi-legal brothel; etc.
24	* CowboyCop: Once again Jay finds himself on the outs with everyone in his relentless quest to uncover the truth.
25	* DecoyProtagonist: If you're unaware of this film being a sequel, you would be forgiven for thinking that Josh is the main character, thanks to the opening scenes.
26	* DigYourOwnGrave: The bikers make Josh do this after his attempt to infiltrate the conspiracy fails. However, the time it takes him to dig allows Jay to stage a BigDamnHeroes moment.
27	* DisposableSexWorker: The missing person Jay originally arrives to investigate turns out to be one of the prostitutes from the mine who tried to escape. No one from the mine reported her missing, and Jay eventually finds her body in the desert, having died a few feet away from water.
28	* DrowningMySorrows: The movie opens with Jay getting pulled over for drunk driving by Josh. We later find out that his daughter died since the events of the last movie.
29	* TheDulcineaEffect: Josh prefers to sit on the fence--not getting involved in the corruption but turning a blind eye to it--until he gets involved with Mei, one of the indentured workers at the brothel. Later he forgoes the opportunity to arrest Maureen in exchange for helping him find Mei after she and the other girls go missing. Instead Josh is set up to be killed and only escapes because Jay followed him.
30	* EyepatchOfPower: Patch, the leader of the Howlers, gets his name from the distinctive eyepatch he wears, which makes him look really badass.
31	* FauxAffablyEvil: Maureen paints herself as a harmless old lady who likes baking pies. However, she is actually a heartless bitch who cares for nobody but herself and even admits as much to Jay.
32	* FreudianExcuse: Maureen claims this, describing her father as an unloving, hard-working farmer who ran her pretty hard (and in turn had been run hard by his father) to the point where she became just like him.
33	* HatDamage: Presumably by accident, Jay shoots the hat off the Howler who was about to execute Josh, startling him and letting Josh gain the upper hand.
34	* HeadInTheSandManagement: Booze is being smuggled into a 'dry' Aboriginal community, the town mayor and local Land Council are in the pocket of the mining company, the rowdy mine workers keep getting into brawls, women are being flown in to work as indentured prostitutes--Josh turns a blind eye to it all, figuring he can't change anything.
35	* HeritageDisconnect: Jay is surprised when Jimmy recognises him, having known his father. Turns out Jay's father was one of the Stolen Generation and originally came from Goldstone before being moved elsewhere by the government. Jimmy takes him to a sacred site, and Jay visits it again by himself at the end of the movie.
36	* HookerWithAHeartOfGold: Pinky runs a one-woman travelling brothel, and she is the first person to steer Jay towards what is going on in Goldstone. Her happy-go-lucky attitude stands in contrast to the indentured {{Sex Slave}}s at the mine. Jay ends up having SexForSolace with her.
37	* HumanTraffickers: The mining company is flying in indentured sex workers to work at a brothel located just off the mine's property, allowing PlausibleDeniability. Mrs Lao handles this side of the business, allowing Johnny to keep his hands clean.
38	* KarmaHoudini: While the operation is brought down, and Federal authorities become involved in the follow-up, Maureen and Johnny both escape the town and are still at large when they're last heard of.
39	* LadyMacBeth: After Jimmy refuses to support the land deal, although frustrated, Johnny is willing to accept the loss and simply stick with what they already have, but Maureen refuses to take this lying down and bribes corrupt Land Councilor Tommy to murder him.
40	* MaybeMagicMaybeMundane: It is unclear if the two appearances of Jimmy's 'ghost' were supernatural or not. The two witnesses both had good reason to hallucinate the vision, with Jay being drunk and Tommy suffering from a guilty conscience.
41	* NamedAfterTheInjury: Patch, the leader of [[AllBikersAreHellsAngels the Howlers motorcycle gang]], gets his nickname from his distinctive eyepatch.
42	* NeverSuicide: Jimmy's killers try to make it look like he hanged himself. Jay doesn't believe it and, after a little digging, neither does Josh.
43	* NewOldWest: Possibly even more so that ''Film/MysteryRoad'', with a corrupt mining company, crooked land deals taking advantage of the Natives, Chinese {{Soiled Dove}}s, an outlaw (biker) gang, and a final shootout out of ''Film/HighNoon''.
44	* NoMrBondIExpectYouToDine: Johnny offers Jay a beer when he drops by, while Maureen bakes a pie for him, but both are deceptive and somewhat threatening during their meetings.
45	* NothingPersonal
46	** The Howler given the job of killing Josh says this when making him dig his grave. Josh is not inclined to agree.
47	** The Aboriginal security officer opens fire on Jay, causing his vehicle to crash and enabling Johnny to escape, but when he has Jay in his sights while Josh can barely stand, he just walks away rather than kill him. Of course up to that point he could legitimately claim he was doing his job, given that Jay was trespassing.
48	* OldCopYoungCop: Jay isn't ''that'' old, but he and local cop Josh form this throughout the story, although they take a while to trust each other and start working together.
49	* OneWordTitle
50	* OnlyKnownByTheirNickname: Patch, the leader of the Howlers motorcycle gang.
51	* PersonWithTheClothing: Patch, the leader of the Howlers, gets his nickname from his EyepatchOfPower.
52	* ThePlace: Goldstone is a flyspeck mining town in the middle of nowhere.
53	* TheQuietOne: Jay was by no means talkative in ''Film/MysteryRoad'', but he's downright taciturn in this film, rarely saying more than he has too, or speaking without being spoken too.
54	* ReassignedToAntarctica: Following the hornet's nest he stirred up in ''Film/MysteryRoad'', Jay is assigned to investigate a six month old missing person case in the middle of nowhere. Unsurprising given that he was involved in shooting five people, one of them a police officer. His drinking problem can't have helped either.
55	* SexForSolace: Both protagonists have sex with prostitutes despite being police officers; Jay with Pinky (because he's depressed after losing his daughter) and Josh with Mei (because he's been avoiding any proper relationship).
56	* SexSlave: The Furnace Creek Mining Group flies in [[IndenturedServitude indebted sex workers from China to work off their debt]] providing sexual services to the miners. Mrs. Lao holds their passports so they cannot flee, and threatens to tell their families what they've been doing if they cause trouble. Before the events of the movie, one girl was apparently able to find her passport and escape, only to die of thirst in the desert.
57	* SceneryPorn: Desolate as the Australian outback is, there's several airborne shots showing its beauty.
58	* ScrewThisImOuttaHere:
59	** Jimmy walks out (literally, as he doesn't have a car) on the ceremony to sign over the Aboriginal land to Furnace Creek Mining Group. This throws a SpannerInTheWorks because up till then things have been going smoothly.
60	** After Tommy walks into the police station and confesses to murdering Jimmy, Maureen and Johnny both make haste to get out of town.
61	* SinisterSurveillance: Despite the brothel not being officially connected with the mine, there's a security vehicle parked near the place to keep an eye on things.
62	* SmallTownTyrant: Maureen is the mayor of Goldstone, and is in bed with the local mining corporation as they try to push through a crooked land deal. She will do anything, including murder, to make sure she gets her piece of the pie.
63	* SourOutsideSadInside: Hinted at with Mrs. Lao, who runs the brothel, but [[DidYouThinkICantFeel has an emotional speech asking if Mei thinks she is a bad person]], and saying that they have no choice or options. And then there's Jay himself....
64	* ThereWasADoor: Jay and Josh drive through the gate to the Furnace Creek compound at the end, causing the security guard to dive aside rather than get run over.
65	* VillainousBreakdown: For all her talk about how tough she is, Josh finds Maureen collapsed on the floor in a distraught state while shredding papers prior to doing a runner.
66	* VillainousValor: Johnny's escape is allowed by a relatively minor henchman remaining to provide covering fire for him as he flees to a waiting plane, preventing Jay from stopping him, then remaining behind and, after a brief MexicanStandoff, sparing Jay's life.
67	* VehicularAssault: The Howlers attempt to ram Jay's car off the road. He manages to turn the tables and runs their car into a solid metal fence post.
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Context Film / Goldstone