Frank Darrbo is a hapless fry cook. When his wife Sarah falls off the wagon and dumps him for Jacques, a drug dealer, Frank tries to get her back by reporting her kidnapped, grabbing her from Jacques’ car, and wailing for her to return. After watching Christian TV and having a vision, he becomes a superhero to fight evil. He sews a costume, finds a weapon (a pipe wrench) and looks for crimes to stop. He has problems: his wrench inflicts real injury, so the cops want him for being a vigilante, his sense of boundaries is flawed, and Jacques’ gang has guns. Libby, a clerk at a comic book store, becomes his sidekick, and it’s time to go save Sarah. What chance do they have?
In the outlandish dark comedy Super, James Gunn has created what is perhaps the definitive take on self-reflexive superheroes. When sad-sack loser Frank (Rainn Wilson) sees his ex-addict wife (Liv Tyler) willingly snatched by a seductive drug dealer (Kevin Bacon), he finds himself bereft and wholly unable to cope. But soon he decides to fight back under the guise of a DIY superhero called Crimson Bolt. With a hand-made suit, a wrench, and a crazed sidekick named Boltie (Ellen Page), the Crimson Bolt beats his way through the mean streets of crime in hopes of saving his wife. The rules were written a long time ago: You are not supposed to molest children, cut lines or key cars; if you do, prepare to face the wrath of the Crimson Bolt!
About the Story
Short-order cook Frank Darbo (Rainn Wilson) says in voiceover that he has only two good memories from a disappointing life: marrying his beautiful wife Sarah (Liv Tyler), and an incident in which he directed a police officer to catch a purse snatcher. Frank immortalizes these two events in a pair of crayon drawings that he hangs on his wall for inspiration.
Later, Sarah, a recovering addict, leaves Frank for Jacques (Kevin Bacon), a charismatic strip club owner who gets her hooked on drugs. Frank sinks into depression, where he has a vision in which he is touched by the hand of God and meets the Holy Avenger (Nathan Fillion), a superhero from a public-access television show on the All-Jesus Network who tells Frank that God has chosen him for a very special purpose. Frank believes that God has chosen him to become a superhero and goes to a local comic book store for inspiration. His claim that he is designing a new superhero is met with enthusiastic appreciation from the foul-mouthed store clerk, Libby (Ellen Page). Frank creates a superhero costume and assumes the identity of “The Crimson Bolt.”
Armed primarily with a pipe wrench, he begins to fight crime by delivering savage beatings to various rule breakers ranging from drug dealers and child molesters to a man who cuts in line at the movies. The Crimson Bolt soon becomes a media sensation. Initially, the media view him as a violent psychopath, but he begins to gain public appreciation after the criminal backgrounds of many of his victims come to light. Frank later attempts to rescue Sarah, but Jacques’ thugs recognize him under the costume and shoot him in the leg as he flees.
A wounded Frank goes to Libby for help, as his home is no longer safe with Jacques’s thugs looking for him. Libby cajoles Frank into letting her become the Crimson Bolt’s “kid sidekick”, christening herself “Boltie” and designing a sexually suggestive costume. She proves to be even more unhinged than Frank, using her superhero guise to almost kill a man who may or may not have vandalized her friend’s car. Frank decides to let her go, but changes his mind when Libby rescues him from some of Jacques’s thugs at a gas station. Libby soon becomes enamored with Frank, but her advances are turned down as Frank insists that he is still married. Arguing that it is different when they are in their superhero identities, Libby rapes Frank while the two are in costume. Frank runs to the bathroom and vomits, where he encounters a vision of Sarah in the toilet. He decides that it is time to rescue her from Jacques.
Armed with guns, pipe bombs, and bulletproof vests, Frank and Libby sneak into Jacques’ ranch killing the first few guards they encounter. However, they are both eventually shot. Frank is struck in the chest, his bulletproof vest sparing him, but Libby is shot in the head and killed. Devastated by her death, Frank goes into a rage, killing all of Jacques’s thugs despite their pleas for mercy. Inside, he has a final showdown with Jacques. Jacques shoots Frank and wounds him, but Frank gains the upper hand, and after delivering a final monologue he stabs Jacques to death as Sarah watches, horrified.
Super
Directed by: James Gunn
Starring: Rainn Wilson, Ellen Page, Liv Tyler, Kevin Bacon, Gregg Henry, Linda Cardellini, Stephen Blackehart, Nathan Fillion, Laurel Whitsett, Michelle Gunn
Screenplay by: James Gunn
Production Design by: William A. Elliott
Cinematography by: Steve Gainer
Film Editing by: Cara Silverman
Costume Design by: Mary Matthews
Set Decoration by: Kristin Bicksler
Music by: Tyler Bates
MPAA Rating: R for strong bloody violence, pervasive language, sexual content and drug use.
Studio: IFC Films
Release Date: April 1, 2011
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