The Replacement Killers is a 1998 action movie directed by Antoine Fuqua in his directorial debut and co-produced by none other than
John Woo.
The film follows
Hitman with a Heart John Lee, played by
Chow Yun Fat in his first major Hollywood role, as he seeks to clear a debt with ruthless Triad crimelord Terence Wei (played by Kenneth Tsang) by killing his enemies. Unfortunately, the last contract is one that Lee cannot go through with — killing a cop's young son in revenge for the death of Wei's own son, a Triad lieutenant, in a police shootout.
Wei is pissed that Lee could not complete the contract, and not only seeks to kill him, but hires replacement killers in order to finish the job that Lee could not. Worse, he also has his men in China start looking for Lee's family to take revenge upon them as well. Lee seeks to ensure his family's safety by having them moved to a secure location, and for this purpose enlists the help of skilled forger Meg Coburn (
Mira Sorvino) to create a new passport for him. The two soon have to deal with not only the assassins sent to kill Lee, but the replacement killers sent to kill the cop and his son, as well as finding a way to stop Wei from exacting horrible vengeance against Lee's family.
This film provides examples of:
- Action Girl: Meg. Possibly a Dark Action Girl, given her career choice.
- Action Prologue: John's hit at the nightclub, followed by Zedkov's attempted drug bust of Wei's son.
- Back-to-Back Badasses: Meg and John during the shootout at her office, sort of—they face opposite directions to take out each other's would-be shooter.
- Badass Damsel: John's hostage holds her own against the bad guys.
- Badass in a Nice Suit: John, at the beginning.
- Badass Longcoat: Ryker, the big, German-looking replacement killer.
- Best Served Cold: Wei wants to be sure Zedkov's son dies in his arms so Zedkov will understand Wei's pain.
- Big Bad: Terence Wei.
- Blood Brothers: Seemingly, Alan and John.
- Briefcase Blaster: Ryker is equipped with this. (Since he and Collins carry out their assignment like proverbial bulls in a china shop, one wonders why he bothers disguising his weapon.)
- Butt Monkey: Loco.
- Car Fu: Meg uses this in the final battle, although it's more Van Fu.
- Catch Phrase: Meg's "I didn't think so."
- Contract On The Hitman
- Cool Shades: John, occasionally, and a few of Wei's men.
- Even Evil Has Standards: Subverted. John isn't evil—he's being forced to do Wei's bidding.
- Gun Fu
- Guns Akimbo: Of course.
- Heroic Bloodshed
- Hitman with a Heart
- Honor Before Reason: Not only does Lee seek to ensure his family's safety, but also to keep the cop and his son from getting killed by Wei's replacement killers.
- Imperial Stormtrooper Marksmanship Academy: Where the replacement killers evidently learned their trade.
- Informed Ability: See above entry. For professionals, the movie's title characters really suck at their job.
- It's Personal: For everybody except Meg, who's just sort of dragged into the situation.
- Although, before the final fight, she insists on coming along because she now cares what happens to John.
- Kirk Summation: "So you didn't want to shoot a kid; Welcome to the human race."
- Leap and Fire
- Marked Bullet: John's calling card. If he sets one on the table in front of you, kiss your ass goodbye.
- Mexican Standoff: Between John and Wei.
- One Last Job: What John's assignment to kill Zedkov's son was supposed to be.
- Red Oni, Blue Oni: John is blue, Meg is red.
- Revenge by Proxy: Not only does Wei want Zedkov's son to die in revenge for his own son's death, but when Lee proves unable to go through with it, he seeks to kill not only Lee, but his family as well. He's a bastard like that.
- Sacrificial Lamb: Wei's son winds up being this, kicking off the revenge plan.
- The Triads and the Tongs: The major bad guys in this flick.
- Throw Away Guns
- Would Hurt a Child: Wei and the replacement killers, in direct contrast to Lee.
- Wouldn't Hurt a Child: Leads to John's inability to complete his assignment.
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