"Another long night of crime and violence. Some say it's only a matter of time before the city implodes."
Sam: How strong are you?
Smith: Not as strong as I once was. Things start to fall apart when you stop caring. And I stopped caring a long time ago.
Smith: Not as strong as I once was. Things start to fall apart when you stop caring. And I stopped caring a long time ago.
Samaritan is a 2022 superhero action drama film directed by Julius Avery (Overlord (2018)), starring and produced by Sylvester Stallone. It is based upon a lesser known indie comic of the same name by Bragi F. Schut, Marc Olivent, and Renzo Podesta. Schut provides the screenplay for the film.
The film follows Sam Cleary (Javon Walton), a young boy who suspects that a local garbage man, Joe Smith (Sylvester Stallone), is secretly Samaritan, a superhero who had disappeared after an epic battle twenty five years prior. Also starring is Martin Starr, Natacha Karam, Dascha Polanco, Pilou Asbæk, and Shameik Moore. The film released on Prime Video on August 26, 2022. A sequel is in development
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Previews: Trailer 1
Tropes featured in Samaritan include:
- Ambiguous Situation: It's not entirely clear how good a superhero Samaritan was, or even, how bad a villain Nemesis was. Sam sees Samaritan as a hero for saving his father, while Cyrus identifies with Nemesis, to the point of taking over his mantle. Both are incredibly biased in their perspectives, but Cyrus does seem to indicate Samaritan ignored the plight of the city's poorer inhabitants. It seems most likely that Nemesis was, at the very least, an Anti-Villain or Noble Demon or some sort. For what it's worth, when Cyrus tries to claim Nemesis was trying to start a revolution at the power plant that he intends to finish, Joe flatly denies he had any motive beyond luring his brother into a trap, indicating that Cyrus is just seeing what he wants to in Nemesis's actions.
- Achilles in His Tent: Sam expressed disappointment in Joe not coming out of his retirement to help fight back against the increasing chaos in Granite City. In actuality, Joe doesn't feel like he deserves to take up his brother's heroic role after indirectly being responsible for his death.
- Anti-Hero: Joe Smith isn't Samaritan but is actually his twin brother Nemesis, inspired to do good (or at least not evil) after Samaritan's death. He doesn't follow his heroic brother's footsteps, but mostly stays out of trouble and minding his own business. He only came to stop Cyrus when he learnt that the latter kidnapped Sam, who Joe had befriended earlier on, and kills both Cyrus and his mooks rather violently.
- Arbitrary Skepticism: Justified. The journalist who had been researching on Samaritan's uncertain fate repeatedly dismissed Sam's claims that he found the legendary hero's whereabouts. A professional adult doesn't make his decisions based on hearsay from the words of a young teen, especially one who had gotten it wrong a few times before. Even after Sam showed him a knife that had been by Joe's bare hands, the journalist remained skeptical and theorized an alternative possibility for how that could have happened.
- The Atoner: Hinted by Joe Smith. Joe explains his current hobby of fixing things: casually crushing a toaster with his hands, pointing out that destroying is easy and fixing is a bigger challenge, and he likes giving old broken things a second chance. Like Samaritan gave him at the climax of their fight.
- Battle Amongst the Flames: The final battle has the entire field covered in flames.
- Big Bad: Cyrus wants to blow up Granite City's power plant and plunge it into chaos, where supposedly in the ensuing power vacuum he can pick it up as its new leader.
- Big Blackout: In the climax, Cyrus knocks out power to the city so he can seize control in the resulting chaos.
- Character Title: The film is titled Samaritan, after Stallone’s character’s super hero alter ego. Of course the main character of the film is Samaritan’s twin brother Nemesis, also played by Stallone.
- Digital De-Aging: A flashback to Samaritan and Nemesis' final battle shows a brief shot of Stallone unmasked, looking convincingly much younger.
- Disney Villain Death: Nemesis restrained Cyrus with the handle of his own hammer and threw him off a burning, collapsing building to his own unseen doom. A flashback Joe has prior shows that his twin Samaritan apparently perished this way at their climatic duel at the power plant, with the fire-damaged building collapsing underneath him in much the same way that Joe's current duel with Cyrus echoes.
- EMP: Cyrus steals a shipment of blackout grenades, which knock out power to everything nearby in addition to their explosive charge.
- Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Despite being bitter rivals, Samaritan and Nemesis are twin brothers. Nemesis tried but failed to rescue Samaritan, who fell to his death...
- Fire/Water Juxtaposition: Nemesis and Samaritan have this somewhat, though Samaritan is more depicted with calming strong blue light rather than actual water, whereas Nemesis is more clearly associated with scorching chaotic fires. In the climax, Joe's own issues with overheating thanks to the side-effects of his Healing Factor proves as much a hazard to his health as Cyrus, and he only gains the upper hand once more when Sam cools him down with a broken water pipe.
- Foreshadowing: If one watches enough movies, he or she might be able to pick up several glaringly obvious clues that Joe Smith being Samaritan was a deliberate misdirection to set up what's intended to be a shocking late reveal that Joe is in fact Nemesis, Samaritan himself apparently having perished in their final fight.
- The narration explicitly pointed out that Samaritan and Nemesis were twin brothers, which provides the background accommodating the next few points.
- Joe with a matter of fact tone, told Sam that Samaritan is dead.
- Joe told Sam that it's easy to destroy things and fixing them is the real challenge.
- Joe was visibly upset about a journalist's badmouthing Nemesis' intent.
- Joe never, ever admitted to Sam that he was Samaritan himself.
- The film's title sequence has Samaritan's name showing up in small letters on the handle of Nemesis' hammer, hinting that Nemesis is actually the bigger focus between the two. Similarly, the intro sequence Sam gives explaining the Twin's history together actually has a subtler focus on Nemesis more than Samaritan himself.
- The film's poster above has Joe and his heroic identity of Samaritan separated by a stylised 'S' marking. Said marking is in the orange colour the film associates with Nemesis instead of Samaritan, and when compared to Samaritan's Chest Insignia, it becomes clear that it's actually a 'N' turned sideways, hinting at Joe's true identity as well as symbolising how Joe's crusade as the super villain Nemesis ended up coming between Joe and his brother.
- Generic Doomsday Villain: Cyrus wants Granite City to plunge into chaos because he can take over as its leader in its aftermath. And... what does he or his gang gain from that? His motivations were largely unexplored. Given that Cyrus and his gang worshipped Nemesis (or, more precisely, the ideal image of him), it's safe to assume that their desire to plunge Granite City into darkness and chaos stemmed from fanaticism and madness, possessing zero endgame and waiting for whatever opportunity rises from the ashes.
- Healing Factor: Joe is hit by a car a full speed. We then have several shots of his body healing himself. Painfully.
- Heroic RRoD: Joe's Healing Factor lets him regenerate from pretty much any injury, but if overtaxed can cause his heart to explode unless he cools himself down.
- Homage: In some scenes, Cyrus' lair features the RoboCop arcade cabinet, as a way to evoke that film's atmospheres of urban decay and the theme of a lone vigilante against hordes of gangbangers, without actually lifting scenes from the movie.
- I Hate Past Me: Keeping in mind flashbacks of Nemesis failing to help his heroic twin brother Samaritan up, who had earlier on spared him, in the final confrontation with Cyrus, Nemesis/Joe broke the hammer that decades ago he tries to kill Samaritan with, restrains Cyrus with it and threw him off to his doom. Joe also gave his silent approval when he heard Sam's proclamation to the public that it was Samaritan doing the rescue.
- Intergenerational Friendship: Even though Joe Smith is mostly annoyed by Sam at the beginning, they become friends over the course of the movie.
- Meaningful Name: Stallone's character goes by Samaritan in his super hero alter ego. A modern definition of Samaritan is "a person who is generous in helping those in distress," according to Meriam-Webster. This trait is best demonstrated when Joe casually pulls the bullies off from the kid they were pummeling. Except, Joe never actually goes by the name himself, and is pretty adamant to Sam whenever he asks that That Man Is Dead.
- Meaningful Rename: Sam, who already knew Joe is Nemesis and not Samaritan, responded to the reporter's question about the identity of the hero who rescued him, and excitedly told everyone that the hero Samaritan is still alive.
- Mistaken Identity: Everybody thinks Joe Smith is the the retired hero Samaritan, but he really is his twin brother the thought-dead villain Nemesis.
- Mugging the Monster: At one point, Joe is attacked by a gang of thugs in an alley and takes them all out single-handed. Even after no-selling a knife blow to the shoulder, all he can say is "Really?" before sending the hapless mook flying through a wall.
- Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: The gang that attacks Sam causes Samaritan to get back into superheroics again. Or rather, eases Joe into taking on the role of the hero rather than the villain.
- Oh, Crap!: Up until the finale, Cyrus pretty much plays by the supervillain handbook - kidnap the hero's loved ones, bait them to a location where they have the advantage and then fight them one-on-one. But when Joe reveals he is Nemesis, Cyrus visibly panics and orders his clearly-outmatched henchmen to kill Joe immediately.
- Protagonist Title: There's no way describing this trope for this film can't be a spoiler. Subverted because the climax of the movie revealed the protagonist Joe is NOT Samaritan...
- Retired Badass: After their final confrontation at the power plant, Nemesis and Samaritan were presumed dead. Samaritan hasn't fought crime in a quarter-century, having resigned himself to the life of a garbage collector under the name Joe Smith.
- Retired Monster: Who Joe Smith really is. Not Samaritan, but his twin brother Nemesis, who never turned himself in after his survival in the final fight. Downplayed since Joe Smith no longer has any desire to fight on any side, and prefers to stay out of most conflicts, personal or not, altogether. In fact, he minds his own non-violent, legal business and is relatively amiable as long as you stay out of his way.
- The Reveal: Joe Smith is NOT Samaritan but is actually his twin brother Nemesis. It was hinted a few times in the movie but the third act of the movie made it clear when he corrected Cyrus during their fight. Flashbacks showed that during the climatic final battle between Samaritan and Nemesis, Samaritan eventually won but hesitated finishing off Nemesis, and walked off. It was then he was caught in the center of the collapsing building that they were fighting on, and held on for dear life. Nemesis tried but failed to rescue his heroic twin brother, and from then onwards decided to stay out of the superhero vs supervillain fights altogether.
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here: How Joe/Nemesis dealt with the whole superhero vs supervillain affair. He couldn't bear to continue being a "bad guy", but at the same time, he can't deal with the fact that evil and good isn't as clear cut as anyone would like it to be. Before the climatic reveal, the movie tried to make it look like Joe was Samaritan with an Achilles in His Tent moment.
- Super-Strength: Joe Smith is able to throw off three attackers (who were assaulting Sam) with ease. Later, he flips over a large car to protect himself and a young girl from a grenade blast.
- Surprisingly Realistic Outcome: There are demonstrated limits to Joe's superhuman abilities, who's shown to be so durable that knives and bullets can't hurt him.
- His Healing Factor allows him to heal extremely quickly from even grievous injuries, but the more he heals the more it taxes and heats up his body, to the point he can suffer a heart attack.
- Related to the above point, he avoids suffering grievous injury if he can, not just because its painful, but because relying on his Healing Factor is just as risky to his immediate wellbeing.
- Being rammed at full speed by a car broke his bones, forcing him to rely on his Healing Factor.
- Extended altercations eventually tired him out to the point that a completely normal human like Cyrus can challenge him.
- The fact that Joe is past his prime and suffering the effects of old age have also taken a toll on his body, which correlates to his overexerting Healing Factor and the hazardous effects it could have on him if not stabilized. This complicates matters for him in the final fight, as despite Cyrus being an otherwise ordinary man wielding a weapon that gives him an advantage against him, Joe is worn out from fighting his way through Cyrus' gang up to that point and takes several hard knocks from the younger, healthier opponent despite his natural advantages.
- That Man Is Dead: Joe insists that Samaritan is dead when confronted by Sam. Turns out he's being literal.
- This Is Gonna Suck: Cyrus' Dragon Farshad has a short-lived moment of this when Joe rams one of the blackout grenades into his belly and activates it.
- Villainous Breakdown: Cyrus who was masquerading as Nemesis wasn't particularly fazed by the alleged return of Samaritan, but quickly loses it when he learns that his target Joe wasn't Samaritan but is instead the real Nemesis, who was demonstrated to be excessively violent towards his opponents. At the very end, Cyrus was pleading for mercy when Nemesis restrained him and threw him to his own death in the burning building. But to be fair, he gave Nemesis a pretty close fight.
- Walking Spoiler: In all honesty, one shouldn't be seeing this page at all if he or she wants to avoid any spoiler. Especially a spoiler as big as Joe's true identity.
- Well-Intentioned Extremist: A social commentary about class warfare that is regrettably not explored further on, it is hinted that both the working class and the underworld (under Cyrus' control at least) viewed Nemesis as an underdog hero punching up. In fact, with regards to this trope, the movie deliberately hinted specific aspects of Joe, or rather, Nemesis himself. He was upset when Sam told him about a journalist who apparently wrongly interpreted Nemesis' objectives as trying to cause trouble, and when Joe fought Cyrus he disagreed with the latter about what Nemesis was trying to do.
- Wham Line:Cyrus: No one comes to save you good guy!
Joe: You keep calling me the "good guy". I'm not the good guy. I'm the bad guy!
"The things you bury tend to haunt you."
