[[quoteright:236:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/haywire_poster_small_529.jpg]]

''Haywire'' is a film directed by Creator/StevenSoderbergh.

Mallory Kane (Creator/GinaCarano), the lead operative of a PrivateMilitaryContractor that does work for the CIA, is betrayed by her employer after a hostage rescue mission in Barcelona. She must then set out to find out why she was betrayed and take revenge on everyone involved.

Carano is a former MMA fighter, and [[CastTheExpert her background makes her a natural choice for the ass-kicking, hardcase Mallory]]. Her star-studded supporting cast includes Creator/EwanMcGregor, Creator/MichaelFassbender, Creator/MichaelDouglas, Creator/AntonioBanderas, and Creator/BillPaxton as her father.

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!!This film provides examples of:

* AccentRelapse: Despite masquerading as an Englishman, [[spoiler:Paul's]] voice slips back into an Irish brogue towards the end of his fight with Mallory because he is too beaten to keep up the facade.
* ActionGirl: Mallory, of course. The movie is notable for being a relatively mainstream gritty action flick with a female lead in the style of [[Film/TheBourneSeries Bourne]] (as opposed to SheFu or BulletTime-style action girls).
* AmazonianBeauty: Mallory cleans up nicely at certain points in the film, but there is no mistaking she is physically very powerful.
* AnachronicOrder: After the opening scene, the next hour or so is her telling the story of HowWeGotHere, with additional time jumps within the story.
* BadassBystander: In the diner fight, a male bystander wrestles Aaron away from Mallory, and seconds later the waitress smashes a coffee pot over Aaron's head.
* BadassBoast
--> "...or you can tell me in ten minutes when I have my hands around your throat."
* BeautyIsNeverTarnished: {{Deconstructed}}. Mallory remains beautiful and well-kept throughout the movie, but to achieve that she is shown applying full-face makeup (to cover bruises) and tidying her hair in order to maintain that look and avoid suspicion in public.
* BrutalBrawl: Paul attacks Mallory in their hotel room. Neither party holds back, resulting in stiff kicks, bodies being smashed through furniture and doors, and her delivering a devastating knee strike to his face. The calmest part of the fight is when she strangles him unconscious with her thighs.
* CIAEvilFBIGood: Inverted, somewhat. Michael Douglas' CIA character is portrayed as helpful towards Mallory if not outright fixing things. On the other hand, Kenneth's PMC goons impersonate FBI agents at one point.
* CombatPragmatist: ''Everyone''. Aaron opens the diner fight by throwing hot coffee in Mallory's face and instantly follows that with a ketchup bottle to the head, and the rest of the fights are similar. The hotel-room fight begins when [[spoiler: Paul hits Mallory from the back of the head, knocking her down.]]
* CombatStilettos: Averted, (along with ActionDressRip, {{Stripperific}} and other similar tropes) Mallory takes off her high heels right before going into the hotel room, knowing that [[spoiler:Paul was going to attempt to kill her]].
* CoupDeGrace: [[spoiler: After thoroughly defeating Paul and beating him senseless, Mallory executes him with a gunshot to the head.]]
* CruelAndUnusualDeath: [[spoiler: Kenneth's leg gets accidentally jammed between two rocks on a deserted beach. Mallory leaves him there with the incoming tide]].
* DiabolusExMachina: Don't worry, she's escaped the cops with clever drivi[[spoiler:--'''DEER!''']]
* UsefulNotes/{{Dublin}}: The setting for much of the film, where Kenneth set up a job with Paul and Mallory.
* {{Fauxreigner}}: [[spoiler: Paul]] pretends to be [[spoiler: a British secret agent but is revealed to actually be an Irish hitman]].
* FoodSlap: Aaron opens the diner fight by throwing his coffee in Mallory's face. The waitress promptly one-ups him by bashing him with the coffee pot.
* FramingDevice: Much of the film is framed as Mallory telling the story to a guy she picked up after the opening diner fight.
* GasMaskMooks[=/=]SWATTeam: The Garda Síochána Emergency Response Unit. They aren't actually villains ''per se'' - just police officers who have been wrongly informed Mallory is a murderer - but they perform this role and the FacelessGoons rule is definitely in effect.
* GenreDeconstruction: More or less the whole film runs on playing spy thriller as close to the ground as possible.
* HollywoodSilencer: Averted. Mallory uses a pillow in front of the muzzle when she shoots [[spoiler: Paul]] but it doesn't make the shot any quieter. Presumably it was to avoid blood/brain splatters.
* HowWeGotHere: The film starts a little bit more than halfway through the story for the opening diner fight, then spells out what led to this encounter.
* ImprovisedWeapon: Hot coffee, a ketchup bottle, a fork, the coffee pot...and that's in the first fight. It's about what you'd expect, given the entire cast being {{Combat Pragmatist}}s.
* ImpressivePyrotechnics: Averted. The few explosions in the film are all small amounts of C4 that detonate with the true-to-life dull boom and a cloud of concrete dust.
* JitterCam: Averted with ''extreme'' prejudice; the chase and fight scenes are filmed in long, steady takes that let you see ''exactly'' what's going on.
* KarmaHoudini: [[spoiler: Studer]]. He is the only one of the villains to not ''betray'' Mallory, as they were never allies or co-workers to begin with, so he is not on her list for personal vengeance.
* KickingAssInAllHerFinery: The hotel room fight scene.
* MetaCasting: It's been said that Gina was the inspiration behind the movie in the first place.
* MookHorrorShow: The fight in Mallory's house. The lights are off, she grew up here, and the villains split up. (As it happens, [[spoiler: only two mooks die. One Mallory shoots dead in a garage, and the other gets his neck snapped. The third mook does a HeelFaceTurn but ends up dead by other hands.]]
* MurderousThighs: Mallory ends her fight with [[spoiler:Paul]] by choking him unconscious with her thighs before shooting him in the head.
* NeckSnap: As part of the MookHorrorShow when Mallory [[spoiler: snaps a mook's neck over the edge of a table or drawer]].
* NeverTrustATrailer: Both of them mismarketed the film as yet another action flick with spectacular set pieces and bombastic, gritty soundtrack, while it's a medium-paced spy thriller with soft, retro track straight from the 70's. Plus they showed Mallory as some sort of super spy going rogue, where she's "just" a former-Marine-turned-merc.
* [[OhCrap Oh Shit]]: BookEnds the movie, starting with Mallory being upset that Aaron is the one that shows up to the diner. Then [[spoiler: Rodrigo's line at the end of the film when Mallory drops in on him.]]
* PaperThinDisguise: A simple green hoodie and acting casually was enough to get pass the police blockade. Granted, Mallory looks like a guy in it, but still.
* ParentsInDistress: Flirted with when Kenneth, Aaron, and a couple of other men arrive at the house of Mallory's father and start interrogating him in a threatening manner.
* PillowSilencer: Mallory executes [[spoiler: Paul]] by putting a pillow over his head an then shooting through it. It doesn't actually silence the shot, but other aspects of the trope (protecting against blood splatter) applies.
* PrettyLittleHeadshots: [[spoiler: Jiang]].
* PrivateMilitaryContractors: An important part of Mallory's characterisation is that she works in the private sector. This allows her to toy with [[spoiler: Kenneth during the setup in the Kane's family house]] and force him to admit he's not a federal agent.
* ProperlyParanoid: Mal doesn't trust Paul from the very beginning, starting with bugging his phone and ending with [[spoiler: taking her high heels off right when she was sure of incoming attack]].
* QuieterThanSilence: You will become ''painfully'' aware of what footsteps and clinking cups sound like watching this film.
* RoofHopping: Mallory does some of this to escape an [=ERU=] team in Dublin. Played with a little, as she ends up taking a hard fall.
* SameLanguageDub: There was a lot of post-production work done for Gina Carano's performance due to her own admitted shortcomings as an actor. In addition to a lot of LoopingLines, there was some out-and-out dubbing of Mallory's dialogue in some instances.
* SequelHook: Mallory is offered to work directly for the US Government in exchange for information from Michael Douglas' character.
* SheCleansUpNicely: Despite tomboy Mallory's protests to Kenneth that "I don't wear the dress," her cocktail-party outfit makes her quite the looker.
* SurpriseCarCrash: Mallory escapes from the trap at the beginning of the film in a car, but a deer suddenly strays across her path causing her to swerve and hit a tree.
* TemptingFate: "Jesus! You're a really good driver!"
* TrailersAlwaysSpoil: We know that [[spoiler: Paul will be shot before we ever learn who he is and that Kenneth is the bad guy]]. Oh, and the very final scene is in it too, with obvious context of what is going on.
* TrashTheSet: The hotel-room fight manages to break just about everything in the room except the sofa. Which still gets knocked over.
* TuxedoAndMartini: Subverted. [[spoiler:Paul pretends to be a suave and flirtatious English spy working with Mallory, when he's actually a thuggish Irish hitman hired to frame her for murder and kill her.]]
* UnwittingPawn: [[spoiler: Everyone from Barcelona's "hostage rescue", where the "hostage" was actually secured in a safe house with guards. Aaron gets really pissed upon learning this]]. Too bad he is shot at the very same moment he learns the truth.
* WhyDontYouJustShootHim: Rare justified case. Mallory wants to get information from [[spoiler: Kenneth]], so shooting him InTheBack would gain her nothing.
* WildCard: Once Coblenz realises that Mallory's being framed by Kenneth, his actions are transparently motivated by making sure that he can still work with whichever one of them survives.
* WouldHitAGirl: Everyone. Justified, since she's completely capable of beating them up in return.
* YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness: [[spoiler: Aaron, once he started connecting the dots on Mallory's "rogue" status and Kenneth's insistence on finding her]].
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