Thursday (1998 film)
Encyclopedia
Thursday is a 1998
American
crime
/thriller/black comedy
movie written
and directed
by Skip Woods
.
) has cleaned up his life. He is now a married architect and is looking to adopt a child with his wife when Nick (Aaron Eckhart
), an old partner from his days as a drug dealer in Los Angeles, shows up on his doorstep. Nick leaves a couple of suitcases in Casey's guest room before leaving to run some errands. After Nick leaves, Casey becomes suspicious of one of the suitcases and eventually opens it to find it filled with heroin. After calling Nick to yell at him for bringing drugs into his home, he disposes of all of it in the kitchen sink.
Ice (Glenn Plummer
), a Jamaican Rasta hitman, enters Casey's house and is about to kill him, but Casey manages to persuade him to have a last smoke of marijuana
. After having smoked, Ice is about to kill Casey when Ice's cell phone rings. Ice begins to rap over the phone in an effort to clinch a record deal, and Casey seizes the moment and knocks him out. Casey then ties him up and leaves him in his garage.
A representative from the adoption agency comes to interview Casey about his fitness to be a father. The representative is particularly curious to know what Casey did for several years when he lived in L.A. as there is no account of his time there. Casey tries his best to cover up his past as well as his recent encounter with the hitman.
During the interview, Dallas (Paulina Porizkova
), Nick's ex-lover who wants the money that she believes Nick left with Casey along with the heroin, shows up. She scares away the representative from the adoption agency by telling a story about Casey's drug-dealing and murdering past.
When left alone with Casey, Dallas questions him about the money's whereabouts. Angry that he cannot help her, she decides to kill him. But not before she ties him up to a chair, fellates
him to force an erection, gets naked and proceeds to mount and rape him. She tells him she will not kill him until he orgasms and she plans to go on until she makes him get an orgasm. Delivering on her word, she reaches multiple orgasms, but gets no results from him.
While Dallas reaches a third orgasm, another hitman called Billy Hill (James LeGros
) breaks in and shoots her, splattering her blood all over Casey, his walls and his floor.
Billy believes Casey when told that he does not have the heroin, but plans on torturing him with a saw and a blow torch
anyhow, while he brags about his prowess and technique of cauterization
as he sets to work. Hill is interrupted by cops ironically raiding the house next door. As Billy checks on it Casey is able to loosen the tape around his wrists and grabs a frying pan and sits back down. Billy returns and tells Casey the cops got the wrong house. As he is about to proceed, he notices something is wrong. But catching Billy off guard, Casey overpowers him, and leaves him in the garage.
Nick calls Casey from a pay phone, apologizes for everything and admits he had stolen the heroin and money from the police. After he hangs up, it is revealed to us that Nick has been shot, and is bleeding severely, seemingly about to die.
Finally, a corrupt cop (Mickey Rourke
) arrives with a bag which contains Nick's head. He gives Casey until 7 p.m. to find the money but tells him that he does not care about the heroin. The cop then sees the garage with Ice and Billy tied up and Dallas dead and unloads a magazine into Ice and Billy. He then tells Casey to throw them out as it is garbage day.
In the end, Casey calls Ice's boss and tells him that the heroin is being auctioned off at 7 p.m. at his house. He recalls Nick's earlier words which promptly lead him to find the money and a wedding present in the spare tire of his car. He takes them, puts them in Dallas' Lamborghini Diablo
car and goes to pick his wife up at the airport to presumably escape the country. The movie ends as we see the cops and the Jamaicans, both armed, about to meet each other at the house.
based on 6 reviews (2 positive, 4 negative). Some harshly criticized the film for its violence and stereotypes.
An excerpt from Roger Ebert
's critique:
1998 in film
-Events:* February 14 - Sharon Stone marries Phil Bronstein.* Former child star Gary Coleman is charged with assaulting a young female bus driver at a California shopping mall.-Top grossing films:...
American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
crime
Crime film
Crime films are films which focus on the lives of criminals. The stylistic approach to a crime film varies from realistic portrayals of real-life criminal figures, to the far-fetched evil doings of imaginary arch-villains. Criminal acts are almost always glorified in these movies.- Plays and films...
/thriller/black comedy
Black comedy
A black comedy, or dark comedy, is a comic work that employs black humor or gallows humor. The definition of black humor is problematic; it has been argued that it corresponds to the earlier concept of gallows humor; and that, as humor has been defined since Freud as a comedic act that anesthetizes...
movie written
Screenwriter
Screenwriters or scriptwriters or scenario writers are people who write/create the short or feature-length screenplays from which mass media such as films, television programs, Comics or video games are based.-Profession:...
and directed
Film director
A film director is a person who directs the actors and film crew in filmmaking. They control a film's artistic and dramatic nathan roach, while guiding the technical crew and actors.-Responsibilities:...
by Skip Woods
Skip Woods
Skip Woods, is an American screenwriter, producer and film director. He is best known for writing the screenplay for Swordfish and the film adaptation of the Hitman video game series...
.
Plot
Casey Wells (Thomas JaneThomas Jane
Thomas Jane is an American actor known for his roles in the 1999 film Deep Blue Sea, the 2001 TV film 61*, the 2004 film The Punisher and the 2007 Stephen King adaptation The Mist...
) has cleaned up his life. He is now a married architect and is looking to adopt a child with his wife when Nick (Aaron Eckhart
Aaron Eckhart
Aaron Edward Eckhart is an American film and stage actor. Born in California, he moved to England at the age of 13, when his father relocated the family. Several years later, he began his acting career by performing in school plays, before moving to Sydney, Australia, for his high school senior year...
), an old partner from his days as a drug dealer in Los Angeles, shows up on his doorstep. Nick leaves a couple of suitcases in Casey's guest room before leaving to run some errands. After Nick leaves, Casey becomes suspicious of one of the suitcases and eventually opens it to find it filled with heroin. After calling Nick to yell at him for bringing drugs into his home, he disposes of all of it in the kitchen sink.
Ice (Glenn Plummer
Glenn Plummer
Glenn E. Plummer is an American film and television actor.Plummer was born in Richmond, California. He has appeared in numerous films and television series, primarily in supporting roles or small bit parts, such as High Top in Colors. His prominent roles came in the films Menace II Society, Speed,...
), a Jamaican Rasta hitman, enters Casey's house and is about to kill him, but Casey manages to persuade him to have a last smoke of marijuana
Cannabis (drug)
Cannabis, also known as marijuana among many other names, refers to any number of preparations of the Cannabis plant intended for use as a psychoactive drug or for medicinal purposes. The English term marijuana comes from the Mexican Spanish word marihuana...
. After having smoked, Ice is about to kill Casey when Ice's cell phone rings. Ice begins to rap over the phone in an effort to clinch a record deal, and Casey seizes the moment and knocks him out. Casey then ties him up and leaves him in his garage.
A representative from the adoption agency comes to interview Casey about his fitness to be a father. The representative is particularly curious to know what Casey did for several years when he lived in L.A. as there is no account of his time there. Casey tries his best to cover up his past as well as his recent encounter with the hitman.
During the interview, Dallas (Paulina Porizkova
Paulina Porizkova
Pavlína Pořízková-Ocasek is a Czech model and actress. At the age of eighteen years, she became the first woman from Central Europe to grace the cover of the Sports Illustrated swim-suit issue. She was the second woman to be featured on the swim-suit issue's front cover consecutive times...
), Nick's ex-lover who wants the money that she believes Nick left with Casey along with the heroin, shows up. She scares away the representative from the adoption agency by telling a story about Casey's drug-dealing and murdering past.
When left alone with Casey, Dallas questions him about the money's whereabouts. Angry that he cannot help her, she decides to kill him. But not before she ties him up to a chair, fellates
Fellatio
Fellatio is an act of oral stimulation of a male's penis by a sexual partner. It involves the stimulation of the penis by the use of the mouth, tongue, or throat. The person who performs fellatio can be referred to as the giving partner, and the other person is the receiving partner...
him to force an erection, gets naked and proceeds to mount and rape him. She tells him she will not kill him until he orgasms and she plans to go on until she makes him get an orgasm. Delivering on her word, she reaches multiple orgasms, but gets no results from him.
While Dallas reaches a third orgasm, another hitman called Billy Hill (James LeGros
James LeGros
James LeGros is an American film and television actor. He is known as a star of independent films with a diversified body of work in the early to mid 1990s.-Personal life:...
) breaks in and shoots her, splattering her blood all over Casey, his walls and his floor.
Billy believes Casey when told that he does not have the heroin, but plans on torturing him with a saw and a blow torch
Blow torch
A blowtorch , blow torch , or blowlamp is a tool for applying lower-intensity and more diffuse flame and heat for various applications, than the oxyacetylene torch. Before aerosol cans and pressurized gas cylinders, fuel was pressurized by a syringe or pump...
anyhow, while he brags about his prowess and technique of cauterization
Cauterization
The medical practice or technique of cauterization is the burning of part of a body to remove or close off a part of it in a process called cautery, which destroys some tissue, in an attempt to mitigate damage, remove an undesired growth, or minimize other potential medical harmful possibilities...
as he sets to work. Hill is interrupted by cops ironically raiding the house next door. As Billy checks on it Casey is able to loosen the tape around his wrists and grabs a frying pan and sits back down. Billy returns and tells Casey the cops got the wrong house. As he is about to proceed, he notices something is wrong. But catching Billy off guard, Casey overpowers him, and leaves him in the garage.
Nick calls Casey from a pay phone, apologizes for everything and admits he had stolen the heroin and money from the police. After he hangs up, it is revealed to us that Nick has been shot, and is bleeding severely, seemingly about to die.
Finally, a corrupt cop (Mickey Rourke
Mickey Rourke
Philip Andre "Mickey" Rourke, Jr. is an American actor, screenwriter and retired boxer, who has appeared primarily as a leading man in action, drama, and thriller films....
) arrives with a bag which contains Nick's head. He gives Casey until 7 p.m. to find the money but tells him that he does not care about the heroin. The cop then sees the garage with Ice and Billy tied up and Dallas dead and unloads a magazine into Ice and Billy. He then tells Casey to throw them out as it is garbage day.
In the end, Casey calls Ice's boss and tells him that the heroin is being auctioned off at 7 p.m. at his house. He recalls Nick's earlier words which promptly lead him to find the money and a wedding present in the spare tire of his car. He takes them, puts them in Dallas' Lamborghini Diablo
Lamborghini Diablo
The Lamborghini Diablo is a high-performance mid-engined sports car that was built by Italian automaker Lamborghini between 1990 and 2001. It was the first Lamborghini capable of attaining a top speed in excess of . After the end of its production run in 2001, the Diablo was replaced by the...
car and goes to pick his wife up at the airport to presumably escape the country. The movie ends as we see the cops and the Jamaicans, both armed, about to meet each other at the house.
Cast
- Thomas JaneThomas JaneThomas Jane is an American actor known for his roles in the 1999 film Deep Blue Sea, the 2001 TV film 61*, the 2004 film The Punisher and the 2007 Stephen King adaptation The Mist...
as Casey Wells - Aaron EckhartAaron EckhartAaron Edward Eckhart is an American film and stage actor. Born in California, he moved to England at the age of 13, when his father relocated the family. Several years later, he began his acting career by performing in school plays, before moving to Sydney, Australia, for his high school senior year...
as Nick - Paulina PorizkovaPaulina PorizkovaPavlína Pořízková-Ocasek is a Czech model and actress. At the age of eighteen years, she became the first woman from Central Europe to grace the cover of the Sports Illustrated swim-suit issue. She was the second woman to be featured on the swim-suit issue's front cover consecutive times...
as Dallas - James LeGrosJames LeGrosJames LeGros is an American film and television actor. He is known as a star of independent films with a diversified body of work in the early to mid 1990s.-Personal life:...
as Billy Hill - Paula MarshallPaula MarshallPaula Marshall is an American actress.-Career:In 1992, Marshall had a three-episode guest role on The Wonder Years and later guest-starred on shows such as Seinfeld, Nash Bridges, Grapevine and Diagnosis: Murder. In 1994, she got her first sitcom role on Wild Oats...
as Christine - Michael JeterMichael JeterMichael Jeter was an American actor.- Early life :Michael Jeter was born in Lawrenceburg, Tennessee. His mother, Virginia , was a housewife...
as Dr. Jarvis - Glenn PlummerGlenn PlummerGlenn E. Plummer is an American film and television actor.Plummer was born in Richmond, California. He has appeared in numerous films and television series, primarily in supporting roles or small bit parts, such as High Top in Colors. His prominent roles came in the films Menace II Society, Speed,...
as Ice - Mickey RourkeMickey RourkePhilip Andre "Mickey" Rourke, Jr. is an American actor, screenwriter and retired boxer, who has appeared primarily as a leading man in action, drama, and thriller films....
as Kasarov - Gary DourdanGary DourdanGary Robert Dourdan is an American actor. He is best known for portraying Warrick Brown on the television series CSI: Crime Scene Investigation.-Early years:...
as Lester "Ball-peen" James
Release
The film was released to DVD in 2002 by Polygram/USA films. A week after its release, Polygram/USA Films went bankrupt, and no more than 1,000 copies of the DVD were made.Critical response
Thursday received mixed reviews from the critics. It currently holds a 33% approval rating at Rotten TomatoesRotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is a website devoted to reviews, information, and news of films—widely known as a film review aggregator. Its name derives from the cliché of audiences throwing tomatoes and other vegetables at a poor stage performance...
based on 6 reviews (2 positive, 4 negative). Some harshly criticized the film for its violence and stereotypes.
An excerpt from Roger Ebert
Roger Ebert
Roger Joseph Ebert is an American film critic and screenwriter. He is the first film critic to win a Pulitzer Prize for Criticism.Ebert is known for his film review column and for the television programs Sneak Previews, At the Movies with Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert, and Siskel and Ebert and The...
's critique:
"It is unhip to admit to being offended by anything in the new movies, and indeed it's pretty hard to offend me, but a film named Thursday crossed the line....". "Watching it, I felt outrage. I saw a movie so reprehensible I couldn't rationalize it using the standard critical language about style, genre or irony. The people associated with it should be ashamed of themselves.... There is a "plot", but essentially the film is a series of geek-show sequences in which characters are tortured, raped, murdered and dismembered in between passages of sexist and racist language. This movie goes out of its way to be offensive--to women, Orientals, Pakistanis and especially blacks. Thursday's attitude towards blacks is so obscene, I'm surprised that it was made in this day and age".
Won
- Cognac Festival du Film Policier
- 1999 special jury prize (tied with A Simple PlanA Simple Plan (film)A Simple Plan is a 1998 drama film directed by Sam Raimi, based on the novel of the same name by Scott Smith, who also wrote the screenplay of the film. It was shot in Delano, Minnesota and Ashland and Saxon, Wisconsin. Billy Bob Thornton was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor...
).
- 1999 special jury prize (tied with A Simple Plan
External links
- Thursday trailer at NYTimes