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Unleashed (film)
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Unleashed (also known as Danny the Dog), is a 2005 action/thriller film, directed by Louis Leterrier and written by Luc Besson. It is set in Glasgow, Scotland.
nleashed is the story of Danny (Jet Li), a man who has lived his entire life as a slave. Raised since childhood by vicious "Uncle" Bart (Bob Hoskins), Danny has been trained like a dangerous human attack dog, used to beat people who have not paid their loan back to Bart.
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Encyclopedia
Unleashed (also known as Danny the Dog), is a 2005 action/thriller film, directed by Louis Leterrier and written by Luc Besson. It is set in Glasgow, Scotland.
Plot
Unleashed is the story of Danny (Jet Li), a man who has lived his entire life as a slave. Raised since childhood by vicious "Uncle" Bart (Bob Hoskins), Danny has been trained like a dangerous human attack dog, used to beat people who have not paid their loan back to Bart. When Danny has his collar on, he is tame and harmless, but once Bart takes his collar off (and tells him to attack), Danny becomes a vicious, brutal fighter. Although a grown man, Danny still has the mentality of a child, and is forced to live in squalor, naive and innocent of the real world.
One day, Bart brings Danny with him to confront a client, a jeweler, who also hasn't paid back his loan. But this man, a vicious criminal himself, figures out how to prevent being beaten by Danny and manages to beat Bart and his men before they can take his collar off. However, Bart manages to free himself and take off Danny's collar, causing Danny to mercilessly beat the client and all of his guards before he surrenders. Afterwards, Bart berates Danny as a "useless piece of shit", wondering why Danny didn't come to his defense earlier (although he was aware that Danny will not fight with his collar on).
Bart then brings Danny to a warehouse where he is planning to confront another gang of debtors. He sets up a device that will blink a red light, signaling Danny to come into the room where he is if they run into any trouble. After Bart and his men leave him there, Danny starts playing with a piano. Danny is then greeted by the blind piano tuner Sam (Morgan Freeman), who asks him to help tune a piano, and teaches him how to play it briefly. Danny is taken aback by Sam's warm and friendly nature. However, Danny realizes he forgot about his duty to help Bart, and rushes into the next room. The furious Bart, having suffered many injuries along with his other guards, take him back "home" and throw him into his cellar.
Back at Bart's lair, a man comes by to offer Bart a lucrative business proposition. He says he witnessed Danny's beating at the jewelry store, and was very impressed. He tells Bart that he is the owner and proprietor of an illegal underground cage fighting tournament, where people can bet on the fights and the contests are to the death. Intrigued, Bart brings Danny to this fighting ring, where Danny effortlessly kills a large battler, winning Bart a grand sum of prize money. The businessman invites Bart to come back the next month, but to make the fight more entertaining next time.
On the car ride back home, Bart states how easy that was and how much more money was made than by his loan shark activities, and even begins talking about retirement before the car is suddenly hit by a truck. Hitmen hired by the jeweler beaten by Danny and Bart open fire on the car, and then drive away. A wounded and bloodied Danny crawls out of the car, with everyone else inside, including Bart, presumably dead. With nowhere else to turn, Danny goes to the piano warehouse where he had met Sam, finding him before he passes out.
When Danny wakes up, he is in strange clothes and a strange bed. Sam knocks on the door and comes in with milk and a sandwich, but the frightened Danny hides under the bed. The understanding Sam then leaves. Then, Sam's teenage stepdaughter, Victoria (Kerry Condon) comes home and finds Danny. She manages to coax Danny out of his shyness and finally Danny begins to open up to the family.
It is revealed that Sam and Victoria are Americans, in Scotland so that Victoria can go to music school. Before Victoria was born, her father died, and Sam, being her father's best friend, married her mother. Then, later in Victoria's life, her mother was in a car accident, which left her parents dead and Sam completely blind. Sam then raised Victoria, and this new family has been living a simple life in Scotland. Together, the two show Danny the real world and even begin to teach him how to live a normal life, with Victoria teaching Danny music and piano. Victoria even successfully removes Danny's collar. Victoria is surprised that Danny knows how to play a particular tune, a song that Danny says he "heard in his head." Sam later tells Danny that they are planning to return to New York soon, and that they would like Danny to come home with them.
However, it is not meant to last. Bart returns, not dead after all but merely injured from the attack, and is searching for his "dog". Danny is then found and captured, brought back to Bart, who intends to make much more money from his lucrative slave. The night before the tournament, Danny asks Bart if he knew his mother. Bart tells him that he found him abandoned, no one wanting him, and shows him a few photos of their early work. The next night, Danny is brought to the cage fighting tournament again. With good put into his heart by Victoria and Sam, Danny refuses to fight by saying "I don't wanna hurt people anymore." This makes Bart having to offer him a piano if he performs his duty. When Danny still refuses, Bart furiously pushes him into the pit to fight his first opponent. The proprietor of the tournament notices that Danny is just blocking and defending himself, not fighting back. This makes Bart throw an axe into the pit but as Danny refuses to pick it up, his opponent does but when Danny still refuses to fight back it forces the proprietor to dispatch multiple opponents. Danny at first refuses to fight back, but is forced to do so, disarming and disabling all of his opponents. However, he refuses to kill any of them. Bart shoots one of Danny's opponents in anger, realizing he won't get any money. Back at Bart's lair, he and his men beat Danny and throw him back into his cell. Later, as Bart is out getting a prostitute, Danny looks at some more of Bart's old photos, and finds a picture of who he believes to be his mother. Danny confronts Bart of this issue, and Bart tells him his "mother was a whore", that he tried to give her a better life, and that he loved her because "she understood" him.
While they are in the car, on their way to do doing business as usual again, Bart tries to coax Danny into thinking of him as family, but Danny, realizing he no longer wishes to be part of this life, seizes control of the car and causes another accident. He then runs from the wreckage and returns to Sam and Victoria. He shows Victoria a picture of his mom, who then describes the picture to Sam. Sam knows exactly where to go to find information about Danny's mother from the photo description. They go to a musical library, and Sam tunes their pianos in exchange for information. It turns out that his mother was a Chinese exchange student studying music. They also give him a photo of his mother. Victoria, using a magnifying glass, finds out what music his mother played: the first movement of Mozart's Sonata XI in A Major (the song that Danny "heard in his head" earlier). As she plays Sonata # 11 for Danny, the music helps him remember a very important event that happened at a young age: his mom, not making enough money to get by, prostituted herself to Bart. One day, as Bart came to see her, she hid him a closet, and began to make out with one of Bart's men, However, regretting it, she hits Bart's man, infuriating Bart, who then shoots her in the head just as she looks back at Danny through the closet. Danny, even though he was a young toddler, assaults Bart's man, but Bart quickly dispatches him. However, instead of killing him, Bart decides to take him and train him to become his attack dog.
Bart recovers, and summons a legion of thugs, as well as hires a dangerous assassin from the underground cage battling tournament, and tracks down Danny to Sam's apartment. Danny, realizing Sam and Victoria are in danger, tells them to hide in the closet as his own mother did years ago when she met with Bart, and fights the entire horde, eventually defeating and killing the assassin. An enraged Bart then goes up into the apartment to confront Danny.
Finding Sam and Victoria's things, Bart realizes what Danny has been doing all this time. He then tells Danny that what he dreams is impossible - that Danny will never be able to live a normal life, like Sam and Victoria. He tells Danny that he belongs to the criminal underworld, that it is a part of him and he can't change that. The defeated Danny seems willing to return to that life before viciously disarming and beating Bart. The bloodied Bart then orders Danny to kill him, to give in to his instincts because he is an animal and was always just Bart's dog. Before Danny can finish off Bart however, Sam knocks him out with a flower pot, stating that he talked too much shit. Thus Danny does not give into his 'instincts', thwarting Bart's last attempt to corrupt Danny completely. Some time later, Danny, a completely normal-looking man, is with Sam at a piano recital, where Victoria is getting ready to perform. Realizing Victoria is playing what Danny's mother played years ago, the movie ends with a shot of Danny's happy face; shedding a tear.
Cast
Critical Reception
The film received mostly positive reviews from critics and moviegoers alike, it has a 7.1 rating (3/2009) on IMDb based on 29,481 votes.
Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun Times states that "The film is ingenious in its construction. It has all the martial arts action any Jet Li fan could possibly desire."
Box office
In North America, this movie was released by Rogue Pictures (which was the division of Focus Features).
In its opening weekend in North America, the film grossed a respectable $10,900,901 ($5,570 per screen). Finally, the film's total gross wound up at $24.5 million in the North America; this box office result surpassed Rogue Pictures's expectations ($18 million gross at United States box office). It also scored a solid 66% Fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes and remains as one of Jet Li's most successful Hollywood movies today.
This movie went on grossing $25 million outside the U.S.
Soundtrack
The soundtrack was created by Massive Attack. It was released under the name Danny the Dog, in 2004 from EMI. In 2005, Virgin Records re-released the soundtrack under the title Unleashed, with two bonus tracks. Neither version features the song "Aftersun", featuring vocals by Dot Allison, that appears in the end credits of the film.
Track listing
- "Opening Title" – 1:10
- "Atta Boy" – 1:29
- "P Is for Piano" – 1:57
- "Simple Rules" – 1:20
- "Polaroid Girl" – 2:59
- "Sam" – 3:08
- "One Thought at a Time" – 4:23
- "Confused Images" – 1:59
- "Red Light Means Go" – 2:04
- "Collar Stays On" – 1:51
- "You've Never Had a Dream" – 2:46
- "Right Way to Hold a Spoon" – 3:19
- "Everybody's Got a Family" – 1:29
- "Two Rocks and a Cup of Water" – 2:32
- "Sweet Is Good" – 1:33
- "Montage" – 1:54
- "Everything About You Is New" – 2:25
- "The Dog Obeys" – 2:19
- "Danny the Dog" – 5:53
- "I Am Home" – 4:14
- "The Academy" – 1:45
Bonus tracks
In 2005 Virgin released a new version of the album with two bonus tracks.
- "Baby Boy" – 3:28 (Thea)
- "Unleash Me" – 2:36 (The RZA Feat. Prodigal Son & Christbearer of Northstar)
External links
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