Accident Man is a 2018 British action-thriller film directed by Jesse V. Johnson, based on a series of strips written by British comic writer Pat Mills and Tony Skinner. The film stars Scott Adkins, Ashley Greene, Ray Stevenson, Michael Jai White, Ray Park and Amy Johnston.
It tells the story of Mike Fallon (Adkins), a lethal assassin known as the Accident Man for his signature style of always making sure the hit looks like an accident. Mike has what he thinks is the perfect life, until he finds out that his ex-girlfriend was murdered and realizes that it was a hit carried out by some of his associates. From that moment on, Fallon goes on a Roaring Rampage of Revenge against his coworkers to find out who executed the hit and who ordered it.
Followed by the 2022 sequel Accident Man: Hitman's Holiday where he's forced to be a bodyguard for an idiotic son of a queenpin, and has to face more ''themed'' assassins.
No relation to the novel, The Accident Man.
Accident Man contains the following tropes:
- Adaptational Backstory Change: How and why Mike becomes an assassin is different from the comics, with the main similarity being that Mike saw an assassin kill someone and spied on him for weeks before confronting him. In the comics Mike, already a sociopath from a young age, had decided that being a killer was what he wanted to do when he left school and wanted Mac to train him. In the film Mike is motivated to kill his bully and only wanted Ray to help him do that, only for Ray to be impressed by Mike and offered to teach him.
- Adaptational Jerkass: Zig-Zagged with Charlie as in some ways she's nicer than Hilary, but since she's never met Mike before the events of the film her treatment of him and not caring how revealing that Beth was pregnant with his child when she died would affect him makes her come across as more unlikable.
- Adaptational Name Change: Mike's ex Jill and her girlfriend Hilary are now Beth and Charlie, while Big Mac is now Big Ray.
- Adaptational Nice Guy:
- While Mike certainly had his own code of honour and sincerely loved Jill, with her death making him break his own rules to get revenge and thinking about her after, the film version makes him significantly less sociopathic. He's also significantly more polite to Charlie than he was to Hilary in the comics with the two parting on polite terms, takes offense over the homophobic jokes and slurs Mac said about Beth, and the ending implies that while he will remain an assassin he will be more moral than he was in the past.
- As noted above this is Zig-Zagged with Charlie, but unlike Hilary she eventually becomes much nicer to Mike and doesn't try to kill anyone like in the comics.
- Adaptation Dye-Job: While Jill is not seen often in the comics, she seemed to have brown/dark red hair while Beth blonde in this film, while Charlie is a brunette instead of a blonde like Hilary.
- Adaptation-Induced Plot Hole: Like in the comic Mike learns that Beth was murdered when Charlie left him a voice mail, but at the funeral it turns out that they've never actually met before this, while in the comics Mike and Hilary met often which explains why she would have the number of her girlfriend's ex, while here it's unclear why she would think to tell Mike. A more minor example is how after beating Mick and Mac Mike asks them who the client was, but in the next scene narrates how "they" were right about just being the gun; while this made sense in the comic as they said it to convince Mike to not fight them, in the film Mike was already interested in finding who hired them.
- Affably Evil: All the assassins. They're unrepentant killers who have little issue murdering innocent people for money but they're all friendly, enjoy each other's company and the kind of people you could go to the pub and have a few drinks with, even if you are a target. The sole exceptions are Poison Pete and Jane.
- Especially notable with Finnicky Fred and Carnage Cliff. The first is an inventor whose creations are made to murder and tests his inventions on random innocent people and Cliff is a who's a straight up berserker while on the job but once he snaps out of it he has a friendly chat with Mike, whom he did his utmost to kill, before he dies.
- Agony of the Feet: Mike gets information from Milton by brutally smacking the soles of his feet with a wooden stick, at one point threatening to do enough damage to prevent him ever walking again.
- Alliterative Name: Almost all the assassins are known by one: Carnage Cliff, Poison Pete, Mick and Mac and Finnicky Fred. The only exceptions are Mike and Jane the Ripper.
- Alternate History: Very downplayed but Charlie's comments suggest that the current Prime Minister is a man, despite also referencing Theresa May's environmentalism.
- Another Story for Another Time: Used almost word for word to describe the details of Jane's life story.
- Arrogant Kung-Fu Guy: Jane the Ripper is so supremely confident that she can kill Fallon all by herself that she doesn’t even try to use her katana to do it.
- Ax-Crazy: Carnage Cliff is such a demented psychopath that the police have trouble telling if he is a hitman or a serial killer. His weapon is a double bit ax that he uses to chop people to pieces. Clients only use him when they want to send a message.
- Bad Guy Bar: The Oasis, a bar owned by Big Ray where all the assassins hang out. It also doubles as the headquarters of their assassination firm.
- Bar Brawl: Mike is fond of starting these as a mean of releasing tension after carrying out a hit. He even bribes the bouncers beforehand, so they don't interfere.
- Bash Brothers: Mick and Mac are a pair of ex-special forces soldiers (one American, one British) who always operate as a pair. Their shared training allows to act as well-oiled machine in combat.
- The Berserker: When Carnage Cliff "flips the switch" he goes into a fugue state and kills anyone and everyone in sight, be they friend or foe.
- Blood Is Squicker in Water: Mike stabs Jane the Ripper, then pulls the sword out and shoves the body into a fountain. As it sinks under the water, blood fountains out of the mouth; staining the water red.
- Breaking the Fourth Wall: Fallon’s narration breaks the fourth wall several times.
- Brick Joke: Early in the film, Fred and Big Ray bet whether or not Fred's new assassination method, inducing lethal anaphylaxia via bandages, was going to work or not. Near the end of the film, Milton puts on a couple of Fred's bandages and chokes to death to a newly-acquired allergy to Earl Grey. Big Ray nonchalantly mentions owing Fred a hundred pounds.
- Bulletproof Human Shield: As Mick opens up on Mike with a light machine gun, Mike grabs Mac and spins around, holding Mac in front of him so Mick ends up emptying his clip into Mac. Mike then shoves Mac's bullet-riddled corpse into Mick.
- Carnival of Killers: After Mike kills Cliff, Big Ray orders the rest of the crew to hunt down and eliminate Mike. This consists of ex-special forces soldiers Bash Brothers Mick and Mac; Master Poisoner Poison Pete; finesse killer Finicky Fred; and katana wielding vamp Jane the Ripper.
- Chekhov's Gun: The poison bandages Fred was developing early in the film end up being used to kill Milton.
- Contract on the Hitman: Milton tries to have Mike killed after killing the accountant, but he sends an amateur that Fallon easily takes out.
- Creepy Souvenir: It is rumored that Jane keeps the penises of all the men she's killed as trophies.
- Curb-Stomp Battle: Mike inflicts on on a group of men at a pub after completing the opening hit.
- Dark Action Girl: Jane the Ripper is a lethal hand to hand combatant, and a master with the katana.
- Deadpan Snarker: Mike gets a lot of dry and witty remarks, especially when narrating.
- Denser and Wackier: The first film has its share of humor, and doesn't take itself too seriously, but there are quite a few dramatic moment and the ending with Big Ray and Mike falling out seemingly for good is a straight up
Tear Jerker. By contrast the second movie leans heavily into outright gross-out humor, and whenever things seem to take a turn for the dramatic a comedic gag happens just seconds afterwards. - Do Wrong, Right: When the Triad Biker tries to kill Fallon, Mike is more pissed off by the fact that the guy is doing such an amateur mess of the job than he is about the fact that he is trying to kill him.
- Dreadful Musician: One of Mike's targets, a metal band called the Satanic Mechanics, are described as such. Mike even dryly wonders if someone put a hit on them solely due to not liking their songs and says he was tempted to kill them for free after hearing a few for himself.
- Elites Are More Glamorous: Mick & Mac were special forces before they went into the assassination business. They argue all the time about whether the US or UK has the better outfit.
- Faking and Entering: Mick & Mac specialize in making assassination look like random street crime that the police won’t bother to investigate too thoroughly. This is why Fallon is able to tell they were the ones to kill Beth once he starts looking into the case.
- Flashback: There is a flashback in the middle of the movie showing how Mike met Big Ray and learned how to be an assassin.
- Friend on the Force: Mike has a guy on the London police that owes him a favor. He cashes it to get the file on Beth’s case.
- The Friend Nobody Likes:
- Poison Pete is a disgusting antisocial prick that the other assassins barely tolerate.
- Everyone at the Oasis dislikes Milton so much that Big Ray had to make it an official rule that nobody is allowed to harm Milton.
- Notably, Mike does not actively try to kill anyone in his club/organization who isn't already trying to kill him first, with Cliff and Mac only being killed in self-defense, but he kills Pete even though he can easily defeat him without killing him and also Jane, people he didn't like at all.
- From Camouflage to Criminal: Mac and Mick are a pair of form special forces soldiers (one British, one American) turned Professional Killers.
- Genius Bruiser: Mike, Jane and and Mick and Mac are all highly skilled combatants and smart enough to pull off regular assassinations that require considerable skill and planning.
- The Ghost: Mike's on and off model girlfriend is only mentioned briefly.
- Grenade Hot Potato: When Mac throws a grenade at Mike, Mike kicks it back at him while he's still in the air.
- The Handler: Milton is the only one who meets with the clients and hands out the assignments to the assassins.
- High-Voltage Death: Mike kills heavy metal band Satanic Mechanics by creating an 'accident' where the stage they are performing on is electrified.
- Honey Trap: Jane the Ripper specializes in using her sexuality to get in the bedrooms of her targets, who she then proceeds to brutally murder.
- Hoisted By His Own Petard: Fallon manages to get his associates killed by their own weapons. The only guy who is spared from that fate is Fred, who later shows up in the sequel.
- Insistent Terminology: Big Ray doesn’t like to refer to their profession as "hitmen" because that's an American term. They’re "assassins".
- Kick Them While They Are Down: The gang of chavs chasing the 15 year-old Fallon knock him to the ground and then repeatedly kick him. At the end of the film, Big Ray knocks Milton down and stomps on him repeatedly out of sheer frustration.
- The Lad-ette: Jane swears like a sailor and can outdrink most of the guys.
- Large and in Charge: Big Ray, as his name would indicate, is the main assassin in charge and played by 6'4 Ray Stevenson.
- Make It Look Like an Accident: Mike Fallon's specialty is to make his killings look like accidents or suicides.
- Master Poisoner: This is the specialty of Poison Pete.
- More Deadly Than the Male: On a one on one basis, Jane is the one who gives Fallon the hardest fight hand to hand, and the one who comes closest to killing him.
- Murder, Inc.: The Oasis is a Professional Killer company that is run by Big Ray and takes a cut from all the hits.
- Non-Action Guy: Finnicky Fred and Poison Pete are the only ones with no combat training or ability.
- Nothing Personal: Beth’s murder was completely professional, Mick & Mac had no ill will towards her, something that forces Mike to reexamine his own beliefs.
- Offhand Backhand: Fallon knocks out a Russian mook with an elbow to the face without even looking.
- Off with His Head!: Mike decapitates Atal Zim with a single stroke of Jane's katana after deciding he is not worth the far more elaborate demise he originally had planned.
- Parental Substitute: Big Ray is the closest thing Fallon has to a father, since he took him in and trained him to be the best assassin in London.
- Private Eye Monologue: Mike Fallon narrates the entire movie with a tone that wouldn’t be out of place in a noir film. Only snarkier.
- Professional Killer: The entire movie revolves around a group of assassins
- Serial Killer: Fred has many nuances to this as he tests his murder inventions by randomly flipping through a phone book and choosing completely innocent and unrelated targets to be his victims.
- Setting Update: The comics were published in The '90s, with Mike's flashback to when he was a child seemingly being in either The '60s or The '70s. This film moves the story to The New '10s, with Charlie telling a surprised Mike that the government cares about environmental problems since their prime minister is an environmentalist, and Mike's flashbacks to The '80s, which changes Mike to using a video camera instead of a normal camera to collect evidence on Ray.
- She Knows Too Much: The reason Beth was killed. A whistle-blower gave her evidence that an Indian oil company was bribing and extorting British politicians to get drilling rights in the North Sea.
- The Smurfette Principle: Jane is the only female assassin working for the company.
- Tae Kwon Door: Mike kicks Jane through a door hard enough to knock the door off its hinges.
- Throw the Book at Them: At the Russian health club, Mike knocks Fred out by hitting him in the head with a phone book.
- Translator Buddy: After Mac's jaw is broken and wired shut, his partner Mick is the only one who can understand his mumbling and translates for him.
- Two Shots from Behind the Bar: Big Ray has a sawn-off double barrel shotgun mounted on a swivel beneath the bar of his pub.
- Use Your Head: Jane grabs Mike by the shoulders and headbutts him in the face.
- Vigilante Man: Mike decides to be this at the end of the film, protecting innocent citizens from the criminals of the city.
- Villain Protagonist: Mike Fallon is a remorseless assassin who doesn’t see his victims as people, but as money in his bank account.