Beckett is a 2021 Netflix film, featuring John David Washington, Alicia Vikander, Boyd Holbrook, and Vicky Krieps.
Wanting to avoid political unrest in Athens, tourist Beckett (John David Washington) drives him and his girlfriend April (Alicia Vikander) out into the Greek countryside. However, a late night drive results in a car accident that takes the life of his love. Not only that, but Beckett is witness to a political conspiracy, and he finds himself on the run through the country as he tries to make his way to the U.S. Embassy.
The film was released on August 16, 2021.
Tropes in this film include:
- Agony of the Feet: Beckett shoots the cop in the foot with his own gun during a struggle, albeit unintentionally.
- Bittersweet Ending: Beckett overcomes his pursuers and rescues Dimo in public, though he learns Karras's assassination, Dimo's kidnapping, and Beckett's chase was caused by gangsters who Karras was indebted to. Beckett also has nothing to live for, as the love of his life is dead and he still has to deal with the political mess of being a U.S. citizen caught up in a cover-up between the Americans and the Greeks. The final line of the movie is "I should have died."
- Dirty Cop:
- One of the people chasing down Beckett is a cop, and it's why Beckett is paranoid of contacting the Greek police for help.
- The U.S. Embassy, or at least Tynan, are in cahoots with Dimo's kidnappers.
- Dramatic Irony:
- Despite attempting to commit suicide, Beckett refuses to be killed by his pursuers.
- If the woman had just waited a few more seconds before trying to shoot him, Beckett would've killed himself. If another person came across the scene, they would've found that he committed suicide instead of mysteriously shot.
- Driven to Suicide: Beckett returns to the house where he crashed the car and plans to kill himself to be with April. Sitting next to her dried pool of blood, he's about to take a handful of sleeping pills… then sees a woman about to shoot him.
- Friend to All Children: Beckett. At the beginning, he's shown being friendly to a little girl; he decides against taking the beekeeper family's van after seeing it has a booster seat; on the second train, he acknowledges a girl staring at him; and at the end, he risks his life to save Dimo.
- He Knows Too Much: Beckett is being pursued because he crashed his car into the house where the nephew of a politician was being held captive and saw him.
- Hero Stole My Bike: Beckett attempts this while being chased, but he's exhausted and the woman on the motorbike easily throws him off.
- Hero with Bad Publicity: Beckett looks suspicious to most people due to being a non-fluent foreigner being chased down by the police.
- Impaled Palm: The cop gets shot in the hand by Beckett, who is struggling with the blonde woman and can't aim straight.
- Locked Out of the Loop: Beckett has no idea what's going on in Greece politically. Lampshaded by Tynan, who tells him to just Google it after he gets home, since the news will probably get most of the details after the fact.
- Now What?: Beckett reflects on the events of the film and believes that "I should have died."
- Police Are Useless: Majessy from the U.S. Embassy repeatedly tells Beckett to turn himself in to the Greek police after he tells him he shot an officer, ignoring that he keeps saying back that it was self-defense and that he can't trust the police.
- Politically Incorrect Villain:
- Elena and Leni suspect that Beckett is being pursued by Sunrise, a far-right ultra-nationalist group in Greece that is known for having cops on their side. However, apparently neither Sunrise or any rightwing extremists were behind this, if Tynan is to be believed about their motives.
- Tynan spins the perspective around, denying that Sunrise is after Beckett (and smugly proves his point when the news claims the extreme leftist group, the Communist Front, was responsible) and dismissing Elena and Leni as activists who twist things in their favor along with naively believing that their rallies will have any effect on anything. Of course, Tynan is one of the villains.
- Properly Paranoid: By the time Beckett meets Tynan, he's mostly suspicious enough about Tynan's questions and actions. Tynan dismisses the activists as naive and manipulative, asks questions about Elena and Leni under the claim of tracking down people to back Beckett up, tries to get Beckett to drink alcohol, claims he has a good cop friend that can help Beckett but they can't do on the Embassy's grounds for undefined reasons, and then drives Beckett out to an empty lot to supposedly meet up with said cop friend. Fortunately, Beckett reacts fast enough to escape from him.
- Red Herring: At the end, Tynan reveals that Dimo was kidnapped by the mob because Karras owed them, not by far-right ultranationalists who were against him.
- Rule of Three: Beckett encounters Leni and Elena three times; when he first meets them putting up posters, when he goes to Alexei's shop, and lastly, when he sees them after the rally and they wave him over, but he chooses not to go to them so that he can instead help Dimo.
- Scenery Porn: As Beckett travels through the countryside of Greece to the city of Athens, we get glimpses of what everyday life looks for the locals, though due to his situation, Beckett doesn't have the time to stop and appreciate it.
- Surprisingly Realistic Outcome:
- Beckett considers asking the beekeeper family for their van, only to decide against it because they evidently have a kid. Not only that, but they're not keen on just giving him their family van, even if he's in distress.
- In one chase, Beckett almost gets hit by a motorcyclist and then tries to steal her bike by pushing her off, but he's too weak and she shoves him away before driving off in a hurry.
- Torture Always Works:
- Beckett asks the beekeeper and his wife not tell anyone about him as he heads to the train station. Then at the train station, the cop reveals they told him, though when Beckett guesses he had to beat the information out of them, he freely admits it.
- Beckett puts a pole to Tynan's face after having already beaten him and demands that he tells him what's really going on with Karras, though he won't give up everything because it's "classified" and he should "just Google it".
- Was It Really Worth It?: At the end, an exhausted Beckett remembers that everything he just went through was because of the car crash that he miraculously survived yet took the life of his girlfriend, before then saying that he should've died.
