Taglines: One hell of a ride.
“Drive Angry” stars Nicolas Cage as Milton, a hardened felon who has broken out for one last chance at redemption. Hell bent on stopping a vicious cult of fanatics who murdered his daughter, he has three days to stop them before they sacrifice his infant granddaughter beneath a full moon. Milton must us his anger to go beyond all human limits in order to save his last connection with humanity.
He’s joined by Piper, a young sexy-smart waitress who liberates her ex-boyfriend’s cherry red muscle car in order to help Milton. Now, the two of them are hot on the trail of the charismatic Jonah King and his murderous followers. King will throw every one of them faithful under the wheels of Milton’s turbo-charged Black ’71 Challenger, to fulfill hist destiny and unleash hell on earth.
But the bloodthirsty cult is the least of Milton’s problems. The police are after him, too. And worse. An enigmatic killer known only as “The Accountant.” The Accountant knows what Milton is trying to and and simply doesn’t care. With wicked cunning and hypnotic savagery, the Accountant will relentlessly pursue Milton at high speed across the forgotten back roads of the American south.
Fueled by high octane and pure rage, Milton and Piper must battle the onslaught of King’s disciples, avenge his murdered daughter, and save his granddaughter before his last chance at redemption is revoked.
Storyline
John Milton (Nicolas Cage) is an undead criminal that has broken out of Hell to kill Jonah King (Billy Burke), a cult leader that tricked Milton’s daughter into joining his followers in the wake of Milton’s death, only to kill her and her husband and steal their daughter – Milton’s granddaughter – to be sacrificed in a Satanist ritual.
After interrogating some of King’s followers, Milton discovers that the ritual will take place in Stillwater, a prison in Louisiana. He heads there, but stops by a diner, where he meets Piper (Amber Heard), a waitress that is withholding sex from her boyfriend, Frank (Todd Farmer), so he will marry her. Milton’s car is damaged, so he sabotages Piper’s car and follows her to fix it in exchange for a ride to her home, which is on the way to Stillwater.
There, Piper sees Frank having sex with another woman and they get into a fight, with Frank beating her up. Milton beats him up, knocks him out and steals the keys of his car, taking Piper along with him on a ride to Stillwater. Meanwhile, a supernatural operative of Satan, The Accountant (William Fichtner), arrives on Earth with the mission to bring Milton back to Hell. After interrogating Frank, he discovers that Milton and Piper are heading to Louisiana and tricks the police into helping him by impersonating an FBI agent.
At a shady hotel, Milton is attacked by King and his men, who heard about his return, but he kills most of them. The Accountant appears with the police and chases after Milton and Piper, who are chasing after King’s Van. Milton uses a gun labeled “The Godkiller” to shoot the Accountant out of the road. They then follow King to a church, only to find it filled with King’s followers.
They are ambushed and captured. Piper is kidnapped and Milton is shot in the face and left for dead, but he awakens and kills King’s men before pursuing his RV once again. Inside, Piper breaks free and fights King before jumping out of the RV and onto Milton’s car. King then disables the car by repeatedly shooting its engine.
Milton and Piper then meet Milton’s friend Webster (David Morse), who provides them a new car. Piper discovers that Milton is literally undead (demonstrated when his eye regenerated back after being shot by Jonah at the church) and had to abandon his daughter to protect her from his former companions and that’s why she was so easily manipulated by King.
She also discovers that the Godkiller was stolen by Milton from Satan himself and has the power to completely destroy one’s soul, preventing it from going to either Heaven or Hell. Meanwhile, the Accountant discovers that Milton is trying to save his granddaughter from being sacrificed and decides to help him due to Satan’s distaste for people that sacrifice innocent people in his name.
Piper realizes that Milton has returned from Hell to rescue his granddaughter. Milton tells Piper that he can not guarantee her safety and that she should leave, but she assures him that she has never had a worthy cause to fight for until now, and that she is with him regardless of the consequences. They then set off to Stillwater, evading the troops of Sheriff Cap (Tom Atkins) with the help of the Accountant and finally arriving at Stillwater. The Accountant captures Piper and forces Milton to give up the Godkiller before he can engage King, but he allows Milton to go into battle against King and his followers to save his granddaughter.
While Milton slaughters King’s men before they can sacrifice the child, Piper escapes The Accountant’s clutches with the Godkiller. King eventually gets the upper hand on Milton and savagely beats him. Piper fires the Godkiller at King, but misses and hits one of his few surviving men instead. She is knocked out by the gun’s recoil. King orders one of his female servants to murder the child.
However, the woman, who had been caring for the baby ever since King stole her, finds herself unable to carry out the deed, allowing Milton to grab the Godkiller and shoot King, destroying his soul. The Accountant retrieves the baby. He allows Milton to say goodbye to her, and Milton gives the baby to Piper, and makes her promise to care for and protect her. Webster arrives and looks on as Milton “dies”.
After both Piper and Webster have left, Milton is revealed to be still alive (because he is already dead, and you can’t kill whats already dead) and with the Accountant. He agrees to go back to Hell, but warns that if he is punished too severely for his actions, he will escape again. The Accountant claims that he looks forward to it, insinuating that chasing Milton is the most fun he has ever had. They then drive off into the gates of Hell.
About the Film
Nicolas Cage stated that he was originally drawn to the project by a scene in which his character’s eyes get shot out. In his previous film, Season of the Witch, he had wanted to have such a scene but producers rejected the idea.
The film was shot in 3-D, and special effects were created by Gary Tunnicliffe. The cameras were rented from Paradise FX. The three cars driven by Cage in the film are a 1963 Buick Riviera, a 1969 Dodge Charger R/T (440 Engine) and a 1971 Chevrolet Chevelle SS 454. The lead actor Nicolas Cage narrated the supernatural film at WonderCon 2010. Patrick Lussier wrote the film with Todd Farmer. Lussier filmed the movie in Minden, Plain Dealing and Shreveport, Louisiana.
The film has received mixed reviews from critics. It currently holds a 45% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, based on 111 reviews, and an average rating of 5.3/10. At Metacritic, which assigns a weighted average score out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the film received an average score of 44 based on 21 reviews, indicating “mixed or average reviews”.
James Kendrick said it was ‘loud, vicious, tasteless and inane’. He then went on to say ‘it thunders at you from every direction with a wild abandon that is more irritating and desperate than enlivening’. Mark Jenkins from the Washington Post commented that ‘Even at its most lurid, though, the movie is a little dull. And it only gets less compelling as the back story fills in.’
Thomas Layer from the Toronto Telegraph said the film was an “abysmal nightmare” and that this film was “more evidence that Nicolas Cage is a monotone, uninspiring thespian whose films should be avoided at all costs”. On the other hand, Elizabeth Weitzman from the New York Daily News wrote, “Drive Angry is pure grindhouse, so committed to its own junkiness that it is, in its way, a pleasure to behold.”
The Evening Standard film critic Stewart Pulsey praised the film for its “resilient desire to unmask the hypocrisies of patriarchal desire systems” but felt that the final act left an “acrid taste of laudanum and deflated erotica” in audiences’ mouths.
The film is considered a box office bomb, having opened at ninth place within the box office rankings at an underperforming $1.6 million on Friday, with a lower than expected $5 million weekend. Drive Angry’s box office performance made it the lowest-grossing opening of a 3D film released in over 2,000 US theaters. The film has however been slightly more successful in international markets earning $18,210,368 according to box office mojo, but was still not able to recover its budget.
Drive Angry 3D
Directed by: Patrick Lussier
Starring: Nicolas Cage, Amber Heard, William Fichtner, Billy Burke, David Morse, Charlotte Ross, Christa Campbell, Katy Mixon, Brent Phillip Henry
Screenplay by: Todd Farmer, Patrick Lussier
Production Design by: Nathan Amondson
Cinematography by: Brian Pearson
Film Editing by: Devin C. Lussier, Patrick Lussier
Costume Design by: Mary E. McLeod
Set Decoration by: Kristin Bicksler
Art Direction by: Zach Bangma, William Budge
Music by: Michael Wandmacher
MPAA Rating: R for strong brutal violence throughout, grisly images, some graphic sexual content, nudity and pervasive language.
Studio: Summit Entertainment
Release Date: February 28, 2011
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