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Film / Skin Trade

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"Blood for blood."

Skin Trade is a 2014 Thai-Canadian-American action thriller film starring Dolph Lundgren, Tony Jaa, Ron Perlman, Peter Weller and Michael Jai White.

An American cop is pursuing a Russian human trafficker. The trafficker responds by killing his family. He pursues his nemesis to Southeast Asia, where he teams up with another cop to bring his foe down.


This film contains examples of:

  • Abusive Parents: Min's mother sold her to human traffickers at the age of twelve, and was upset that she only got $700 for her.
  • An Aesop: Human trafficking is very, very bad.
  • And the Adventure Continues: After destroying Dragovich's organization, Nick learns that his daughter lives and was sold off. The film ends with him heading off to find her.
  • Arch-Enemy: Nick Cassidy has Viktor Dragovic, the human trafficker who killed his wife and sold his daughter.
  • Big Bad: Viktor Dragovic, a Serbian human trafficker.
  • Blackmail: Dragovic buys two more weeks in Cambodia by revealing that he has photos of a high official there committing many acts of adultery, including possible underage sex.
  • Cycle of Revenge: Nick kills Dragovic's son in self-defense. Dragovic has Nick's family killed. Nick goes on a Roaring Rampage of Revenge against Dragovic's entire criminal empire.
  • Dissonant Serenity: Expressed brilliantly through body language by Reed, whose fighting style has him advancing calmly and keeping an upright stance and the hands down. Only when Tony starts turning the tide on him he starts getting agitated.
  • Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Dragovic loves his sons deeply, and kills Nick's family because he killed his son.
  • Event Title
  • Former Regime Personnel: Dragovic used to be a soldier in Serbia in the days of the Bosnian genocide. He was even tried in the Hague, albeit exonerated.
  • Human Traffickers: The main antagonists of the film are an international trafficking ring that killed The Hero's family. The film was specifically made by Dolph Lundgren to raise awareness on the issue.
  • Lightning Bruiser: Reed is a lot quicker than he looks, nearly defeating Tony when they fight.
    • Nick is pretty fast for being a big guy as well, but not nearly as quick as Reed.
  • The Mafiya: The main antagonists are Serbian human traffickers, but they primarily base their operations in Russia.
  • Mighty Glacier: Nick is a downplayed example as he is very quick for his size but his age means he's noticeably slower than Tony who is able to run circles around Nick while dodging his attacks. However, when Nick does land a blow, it clearly hurts Tony a lot and Nick nearly comes out on top of their fight with a few powerful punches and kicks that badly rattle Tony whose own blows didn't hurt Nick as much.
  • The Mole: Reed is an FBI agent on Dragovic's payroll who's sent to eliminate Nick.
  • Roaring Rampage of Revenge: A cop's family is killed by a human trafficking gang he's pursuing, so he quits his job and dismantles them without the restrictions of due process.
  • Villain Opening Scene: The first scene is some of the traffickers kidnapping and filming themselves raping a young woman in Cambodia.

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