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Film / Domino (2005)

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Domino is a 2005 action film directed by Tony Scott, starring Keira Knightley, Mickey Rourke, and Édgar Ramírez.

The movie dramatizes the life of Domino Harvey, the daughter of Hollywood film star Laurence Harvey, who decided to become a bounty hunter after rejecting a Stepford Smiler life as a fashion model in Beverly Hills society. Arrested after a shoot-out in the Las Vegas Stratosphere tower that left Domino the only survivor and apparently connected to an 10 million dollar armed robbery on an armored transport three days before, Domino chronicles her lifestory before a criminal psychologist.

Except for a dedication, the film does not mention that the actual Domino Harvey died of a drug overdose just a few months before the movie was released.

No relation to Brian De Palma film.


This film provides examples of:

  • As Himself: Brian Austin Green and Ian Ziering appear as "those two guys from Beverly Hills, 90210" in the Vegas sequence.
  • Bounty Hunter: Domino Harvey. A case of Truth in Television, sort of.
  • Boyish Short Hair: As befitting a no-nonsense Action Girl.
  • Cell Phones Are Useless: At one point Domino is on the phone getting instructions, and thanks to poor reception she hears "remove the sleeve from his upper right arm" as "remove the right arm", with predictable results.
  • Dramatic Gun Cock: A dramatic conversation between Ed and Choco results in Choco cocking his revolver not once, but TWICE, despite the tension level never dropping to a point where the gun is ever, well, un-cocked. Some revolvers have an intermediate hammer position between fully down and fully cocked (hence "going off half-cocked"); it could be that Choco's revolver is one of those, or it could just be dramatic license.
  • Interrogation Flashback: There are some featured in the movie including one featuring Domino as a little girl.
  • Jitter Cam: The camerawork is incredibly jittery and disorienting. This became Tony Scott's signature style towards the end of his career.
  • Mononymous Biopic Title: Named after its protagonist, Domino Harvey.
  • Monumental Damage: A ballsy Vegas example has a character sympathetic to Afghani rebels blow half the top off the Stratosphere Tower, which is a real 1,000+ foot observation needle. Then, The Hero falls down the elevator shaft in a cabin just like the ones used at the actual tower (though real ones don't have a speedometer on the floor counter). The whole scene was done with startling accuracy and the Stratosphere signed off on its name/identity being used all over the darn thing.
  • Pre Ass Kicking One Liner: Domino is briefly shown being body shamed in a sorority initiation until she turns around to the sorority's resident Alpha Bitch and asks "Have you ever had a nose job?" before punching her in the face.
  • Sassy Black Woman: At one point there's a whole crew of bank-robbing sassy black women.
  • "Say My Name" Trailer: Imagine the phrase "My name is Domino Harvey" repeated about seventy times and you'll have a pretty good idea of what the trailer is like.
  • There Are Two Kinds of People in the World: A variation:
    Domino Harvey: There are three kinds of people in the world: the poor, the rich, and everyone in between.note 
  • Underwear Swimsuit: During a pool party, everyone wears swimsuits except for Choco, who goes in his briefs
  • Very Loosely Based on a True Story: Domino Harvey was a real person, but that's about it.
  • Viva Las Vegas!: The movie ultimately concludes the main character's How We Got Here story through the desert with a gunfight in the Stratosphere, that ends up with a helicopter attacking the tower (eventually crashing into the resort below) and one of the protagonist's friends sacrificing himself to blow up the entire observation pod, causing Domino to rapidly fall down the shaft in an Elevator Failure. The real tower was used instead of a generic knockoff, though the Monumental Damage was of course CGI and an accurate recreation of the restaurant level. Didn't stop them from calling it Based on a True Story, though.
  • You Can Leave Your Hat On: Domino defuses a Mexican Standoff by offering the gangsters' boss a lapdance.

Alternative Title(s): Domino

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