Never Back Down Review
A) Event Synopsis and Theme
1. The film opens in the middle of a high-school football game, with Jake Tyler helping his team to win. Frustrated, one of the players from the opposing team taunts him about the death of his father from drunk driving. Known for his hot temper, Jake immediately begins a brawl with the opposing player. The brawl is captured on the crowd's mobile phones and personal video cameras, and soon is downloaded to the internet.
This is in fact the last game Jake will play at this high school as he and his family is moving to Orlando, Florida. His younger brother, Charlie (Wyatt Smith), has received a tennis scholarship at a school there. His mother (Leslie Hope) is upset that Jake often seems
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He then kisses Baja in front of him to let him know that she is his girlfriend. Knowing that he was apparently set up for a fight, Jake attempts to leave, but when Ryan taunts him about the death of his father, Jake accepts the challenge. He loses badly, Ryan brutally beating him. Baja appears disgusted at Ryan as a result of the fight.
The day after, Max comes to Jake's house, and again pleads with him to learn from his teacher, a Mixed Martial Arts fighter Jean Roqua (Djimon Hounsou). Jake goes to Roqua's gym and meets Max there. Roqua, sensing that Jake isn't there for the right reasons, allows Jake to train with him, in class and personally before classes, on the condition that he does not fight outside the gym. Jake notices that Roqua apparently lives in the gym.
Baja also comes by Jake, apologizing for setting him up for a fight, but she also points out he wanted that fight, he just didn't want to lose." Jake does not accept the apology. Later, Baja tells Ryan their relationship is over as he is only happy when he's hurting people. Ryan grabs her, but Jake intervenes. To save face, Ryan again taunts Jake about his father. Later, back in the gym, Roqua sees that Jake is too angry to be training. He tells Jake to go home and cool off, and Jake replies, "At least I have a home". On the ride back home in Max's car, angry images flash through Jake's mind, and we see how his father died: one night, after drinking too much, Jake's
Jake and Alonzo move on to the gangster’s house named Smiley. When they get into the house Alonzo says he has to use the restroom and leaves Jake alone. Jake realizes a bit later that Alonzo has left him on his own. While on his own he figures out from Smiley that Alonzo owes the Russian MOB 1 million dollars by midnight or be killed. At the that time Jake realizes that he needs to get out but is stopped and dragged to the bathroom and a gun put up to his head. But turns out that he protected Smiley’s cousin in the alley earlier that day and was set free. Jake starts to look for Alonzo and finds him Sara’s apartment and tries to arrest him. While this is all going on Alonzo tries and gets the crowd around him to kill Jake, offering to pay them. No one took up on the offer and just walked away. He gets away and runs to LAX and while there the Russian MOB fire at him while in his car and they kill him. Jake finally feels some relief until he turns on the news to see them saying Alonzo died while serving a warrant to a high-risk person at LAX.
The story begins with Jake driving on the freeway. He is so enraptured by his daydream of better possibilities that he ends up smacking the car ahead of him. Jake considers driving away but instead he stops and finds out that the owner of the Toyota he hit was a beautiful girl. From there, Jake switches into his smooth talker role with Mariana. Jake then tries to con her by saying he doesn't
The movie starts off with a group of teenagers in school, all from different social groups. They all meet in detention on a Saturday where they are forced to sit in complete silence and they get assigned to write a paper about “who you think are” by their principal Vernon. Throughout the movie their minds are exposed to the different lives and experience of each other; with that they create this bond that
Similarly, Jake keeps looking back in his past and resents the time's people have wronged him, particularly his father. The narrator states that “He [father] had a way of making it harder for me [Jake]” and how “always when I [Jake] was around him[father] I did things to make me ashamed”(35). So instead of learning from his past and his father’s shortcomings he latches onto them and does the same with his daughter and family. This demonstrates Jake’s unforgiving nature and how he has trouble accepting his former and current life. Throughout the story Jake is shown to be irresponsible as he spends his wife’s support check getting drunk, he constantly comments on everybody’s negative nature but never seems to embrace their positive side. He is heedless of his daughter’s life and is seen when he asks her how school is and she replies by saying that “It’s holidays”. Jake is an ironic character in the way that he doesn't like to communicate with people but he works as a salesman, he wants people to remember him but he keeps doing things that would make one forget him. Jake is very morose and has suicidal thoughts, one instance is when he thinks of his beer bottle as a gun. “His hand taking the gun to his mouth because he had nothing left to say and no reason to go on living”. Jake’s telephone symbolizes a choice, he can use the phone to reach out to people or have it disconnected which would mean him giving into his solitary life and perhaps commit suicide. But things seem to change when Jake has to save his drowning daughter’s life and he himself has a near death experience while trying to save her. This causes Jake to have an epiphany and rethink his approach to life, he decides that the time has come where he has to choose between hiding behind his telephone or using it to reach
The climax of Jake’s capabilities is illustrated in an early scene in the film where he engages in a fight while in bar by imposing greater damage on a well-built thug who appeared to have defeated every person in his sight until he met Jake. This is a significant scene since it shows what Jake is capable of doing. As one
Since Jake is the bigger man of the two he calmly walks away. After that his friend Sarah tells him that she was very proud of him walking away from the altercation and that he shouldn’t let Casey get to him. Later on in the week the coach announces that Jake will be the new starter. Casey wasn’t so happy about so Jake walked up to him and told Casey no hard feelings.
In the opening scene is shows three boys playing street hockey, Jimmy, Sean, and Dave, when two men pull up in a car posing as police officers and abduct one of the boys (Dave) he is held captive and is tortured until he escapes. The movie then shows these three individuals in present day with their families. Jimmy owns small store which he runs with his daughter Katie, Sean who is a Homicide Detective for Boston and Dave who married and has a young boy.
In the beginning, Jake at first is nervous and frustrated that Amy is late. Which is a lack of commitment from Amy's side, and Jake is just feeling the effects of it. When Amy does get there, Jake starts to ask questions and is very aggressive about it; all the while he does not give her a chance to speak. This is another type of transgression, Jake is displaying problematic emotions while he is addressing Amy. Also while Jake is questioning Amy, she is acting suspiciously, and either trying to avoid the question or delaying the answer. Which does not help and actually makes the situation worse, between the two. Throughout the session they are both distant, no touching whatsoever and avoiding eye contact. Things do get pretty heated between the two, and Jake even pressured the counselor into revealing what his thoughts are; in which was unsatisfying to both of them.
Jake: I know I can’t treat you like that but you’ve got to know I didn’t mean any of that stuff…I just freaked out on the situation, not at you…. I was drunk, and I walked in and saw the two of you together and I totally flipped out.
Jake, on the other hand, is young and inexperienced. Near the beginning of the case, Jake says to Carl
You and I live in a world were modernism is reaching new heights every day. One day that touchscreen phone is considered new, and then next week it’s old news. These two stories that I am going to compare are about the role of technology, science and how it affects me and you. Based on how it uses new technology and modern science A Sound of Thunder is a better sci-fiction story.
Most people don’t realize that the media play up the stereotypes and gender roles that are out there. We don’t realize that the movies and television shows we watch feed into the stereotypes and gender roles that we believe in. Remember the Titans, directed by Boaz Yakin, tells the story about a high school football coach, Herman Boone, attempting to integrate T.C. Williams High School in Alexandria in 1971. Boone coming to T.C. Williams High School really upset many parents and students. When the parents of the football players found out he was going to be helping the head coach, Bill Yoast, many were fuming with anger. Why? Because he is African-American. Parents did not want their children playing African-American children in sports or sitting next to them in classrooms. This movie is based on a true story and the film challenges everything we claim we know about discrimination and racism in school.
With the FBR on their tails as they cross the states, Chase and Ember must solve their conflicts between each other. This started with Chase’s enrolment into the FBR and leaving Ember so they can work together and get to safety. Ember ends up running away from Chase multiple times as they are on their way to the carrier,due to their disagreements and past relationship. As Chase and Ember reach the carrier 's house, The FBR barge in and search the place. The original carrier gets caught smuggling missing and runaway persons and fugitives into hiding and is shot by the FBR as Chase and Ember are hiding inside. They manage to escape the FBR and run off into the woods to find the second carrier, however; along the way they meet a family who Chase and Ember had not realized were good friends with the FBR. They would of been arrested if it weren 't for Embers eavesdropping on the family’s plan. The two outrun the FBR and eventually find “the resistance” headquarters where Chase tells Ember the truth about her mother. Ember is devastated at the truth and decides to run away, but this time Chase isn’t there to save her so she gets caught by the FBR and is sent to a detention facility where the despicable Tucker Morris is in charge. Chase turns himself in at the same
It shows how Jake is persistent and dedicated to his job, even if it always seems like he is in over his head. Jake, however, also departs from the film noir tradition when he lets his emotions get the best of him. The greatest example of this is seen during the exchange between him and Evelyn when he is trying to find out the truth about Katherine. Resorting for the first time to violence against a woman, the near desperation with which Jake pushes Evelyn to confess is an expression of his fears and anxieties about being completely lost amidst the lies that surround him. The result is the humanization of Jake Giddes’ character. He simply is not perfect, and ultimately fails to see the bigger picture of what he is involved with until .
He demonstrates his propensity for extreme cruelty. Although he is a part of the generation, ironically he is different from the rest of them. He realizes the uselessness of the Lost Generation's way of life. He tells his friend Robert Cohn, "You can't get away from yourself my moving from one place to another." (19) Jake doesn't think highly of Cohn, but he puts up with him anyway. Interestingly, Cohn is also attracted to Brett and this fuels Jake's already heightened feelings of inadequacy; thus Jake takes a condescending attitude toward Cohn. Jake describes Cohn as weak and inexperienced, timid and easily intimidated by a strong woman (Frances). This condescending attitude toward Cohn is nothing but the reflection of Hake's very own insecurities about his manhood.