Dodge Tynes (Liam Hemsworth) is an athlete turned real estate developer who is heavily burdened with debt right when his wife Val (Sarah Gadon) is pregnant with their first child. Then he finds out he has an inoperable brain tumour and will be dead in mere weeks. Desperate for money to prolong his life long enough to meet his son, or at least provide for his family after his death, he approaches Miles Sellars (Christoph Waltz), a man who claims to specialise in tragic cases like this.
It becomes apparent very quickly that Sellars does not offer loans. He offers a chance to win huge amounts of money to a volunteer who can survive a hunt to the death for 24 hours under certain rules: no cash, no guns, no police, no telling anyone about the hunt, no leaving the city limits. Any violation of the rules means the time limit is voided, and the hunt continues forever. Every hour money is deposited into the prey's bank account, the amount increasing for every hour he can survive, up to a possible total of 24 million dollars, which will be guaranteed to go to Tynes' family whether he survives or not.
With seemingly nothing to lose beyond a few weeks, Tynes agrees, and what follows is a cat-and-mouse Deadly Game between Tynes, very fit but with no combat training, experience or any obvious killer instinct, against 5 veteran hunters who get alerted to his exact location every time a deposit gets made.
It was originally released as 15 short episodes before being compiled into a 2 hour film.
This show provides examples of:
- Affably Evil: Christoph Waltz it at his villainously charming best as Sellars. Yes, he's arranging for you to be hunted to your death, but damn if he isn't genuinely rooting for you along the way, and he's a man of his word.
- Nixon, once you earn his respect, counts as well. When you haven't, he's very much the faux version.
- A God Am I: Sellars has shades of this once Tynes finds out that he is perfectly healthy and his terminal illness had been faked to make him desperate enough to agree to the game. Revealing quotes from him include "I brought you back to life" and "God isn't organised enough to do what I do".
- Ancient Conspiracy: A conversation between Sellars and his Hypercompetent Sidekick reveals this game has been played continuously for 2000 years, and, though the prey sometimes survives, never once has the hunt been aborted once started.
- Ax-Crazy: All of the hunters to some degree, but Carter and Kennedy take the cake.
- British Stuffiness: While Nixon has his positive traits, he is also by far the most condescending of the hunters, and is mean-spirited enough to call up Sellars and complain about the poor quality of prey while Tynes is standing right in front of him and terrified for his life.
- Cool Car: Nixon drives a Jaguar XR sports car, and Reagan drives a antique muscle car. Kennedy, on the other hand, drives a bike.
- Deadly Game: And gets deadlier if you break the rules, even accidentally.
- Does Not Like Guns: Guns are forbidden, and the hunters are only allowed to kill the prey at close range. However, the hunters are free to use them to kill other people who might get in their way, and when Tynes gets one Sellars tells him that if he keeps it, he will tell the hunters they are now allowed to use theirs.
- Earn Your Happy Ending: Happier than expected, actually; Tynes entered the game believing that, in the unlikely event he actually won, all he would get is a few more weeks (with a slim chance of turning it into a few more months) before his tumour killed him. Since his illness was faked, he can actually look forward to a long and financially secure life.
- Evil Brit: Nixon has many of the tropes associated with this. However, he also unfailingly and ungrudgingly sticks to the rules.
- Evil Genius: Carter seems to be the smartest of the hunters, twice predicting where Tynes will go (before Tynes himself had decided) and setting a trap for him in advance. This is contrasted with the others who simply follow him.
- Fair-Play Villain: Sellers. He makes sure that everyone, including the hunters, abides by the rules of the game. In fact, when Suero (the main character of the second season) ends up getting arrested (which violates the rules of the game), Sellers is willing to cut him a break because he didn't do it on purpose.Sellers: You violated the letter of the law, but not its spirit, and for that reason, the Tiro Fund believes you should be given options.
- Faux Affably Evil: Most of the hunters are superficially polite or friendly, but it just serves to highlight how totally disconnected from the morality of what they're doing they are.
- Foreshadowing: We see Val researching Tynes' illness on the internet, and the brain scans she's looking at are completely different to the one Tynes was shown at the hospital, hinting that the scans he was shown were fake, and thus the "doctors" who showed them to him were lying.
- Gaining the Will to Kill: Both Tynes and others are surprised when he deliberately smashes in Carter's skull with a block, assuming that he lacked the stomach for it. To be fair, it did take the dead man threatening to go to Tynes' home and his pregnant wife and "scar her so bad you will never forget me" to provoke him to this.
- Graceful Loser: When time runs out, not only does Nixon cease his attack the very second he's meant to, he goes out of his way to give Tynes a hand out of the deadly situation he's in and sincerely congratulates him on his victory.
- Hell-Bent for Leather: Justified; Kennedy puts on a biker jacket when she rides a motorcycle.
- Hunting the Most Dangerous Game: An unusual example, in that the challenge for the hunters is more about whether their prey will successfully evade them for enough time, rather than kill them. It can happen, and Sellars makes it clear to all participants that he will not intervene beyond cleaning up the crime scene if Tynes injures or kills them, but the prey is referred to as a "runner" rather than considered a predator in his own right.
- Hypercompetent Sidekick: Sellars' right-hand-man Connell is constantly following Tynes, very efficiently and unobtrusively keeping his boss updated and cleaning up the various crime scenes.
- I Gave My Word: Sellars and Nixon are both completely serious about honouring both the spirit and the letter of the deals they made. This includes times when the hunters (who have paid enormous sums of money to take part,) demand that Sellars intervene to get them out of trouble, and Sellars politely but firmly refuses to give any help beyond making sure they don't end up in trouble with the police.
- Meaningful Name: Dodge Tynes spends the entire film trying to dodge assassins. Sellars comments on what a cool name it is when they first meet.
- More Deadly Than the Male: Kennedy is the only female hunter, and also the most proficient hand-to-hand fighter, borderline Ax-Crazy, and takes advantage of her unassuming appearance to lure Tynes into a trap.
- My God, You Are Serious!: Sellars' demeanour when proposing the hunt to Tynes causes him to realise this pretty quickly, considering how outlandish the situation seems.
- Non-Action Big Bad: Sellars is a completely non-physical threat, and his reaction when Val slaps him suggests he's not used to it.
- Rules Lawyer: Nixon is very well-versed in the rules of the hunt, and defends himself effortlessly when Reagan accuses him of interference. However, it is shown that he follows them sincerely, and doesn't bend them to his advantage in any way.
- Sadist: All of the hunters are doing this because they enjoy the thrill of the kill, but Carter is the only one who seems to take additional delight in torture.
- Scarily Competent Tracker: Even without the hunters being told exactly where Tynes is every hour, they are still disturbingly good at finding him.
- Slasher Smile: Many of the hunters at some point, but Kennedy's is the most noticeable.
- Smug Snake: All the hunters to some extent, but they are also all quite experienced and competent. Carter is the most sure of his intelligence, and repeatedly mentions his educational accomplishments and psychology degree (which, to be fair, does allow him to successfully predict Tynes' moves twice) but is also completely wrong about Tynes never being a killer.
- Surprisingly Realistic Outcome: Kennedy proves her Ax-Crazy Implacable Woman credentials by following Tynes into hanging off the underside of a bridge and continuing to make her way towards him. However, between him keeping a two-handed grip on the beam rather than trying to swing from one hand to the next, and his longer legs, all it takes is one solid kick to send her falling into the river.
- Theme Naming: All of Tynes’ hunters are named after famous American presidents. Ironically, one of them, Nixon, is British, and their ringleader is German.
- Villain Respect: Sellars starts off with a degree of this for Tynes, and Nixon gains it by the end.
- We Hardly Knew Ye: The hunter LBJ, despite being the first hunter we actually see closing in, gets the least amount of characterisation before his unceremonious death because he lags behind the others so much that he hardly gets any screentime. His comment that ends up becoming his last words suggests that, despite doing the hunt multiple times, he's actually quite incompetent, which fits in with what we see in the film compared to the other ones.
- Worthy Opponent: Nixon comes to see Tynes this way.
- Would Hit a Girl: Tynes is completely outmatched when brawling with Kennedy, but this is because of a vast disparity in skill. He has absolutely no hesitation in hitting her as hard as he can, and use his superior size and strength to his advantage.
- You're Insane!: Tynes says it to Sellars, who offhandedly responds with "all the greats are".
