Brow Beat

Count the Acts of Vengeance in the Acts of Vengeance Trailer

Fans of vengeance, revenge, avengement, and even retribution were thrilled when it was revealed that director Isaac Florentine’s upcoming film would be titled Acts of Vengeance, instead of the working title, Act of Vengeance. But just how many acts of vengeance did Florentine and screenwriter Matt Venne have to add to their story before the FDA approved the name change? To find out, we watched the trailer closely, on the lookout for any acts of vengeance. Here’s what we found:

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1.     Antonio Banderas punches a mirror. What sinister role did this mirror play in the deaths of his wife and child? Start talking, mirror!

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2.     Antonio Banderas defaces the cover of a paperback copy of Marcus Aurelius’ Meditations with magic marker to symbolize the vow of silence he’s taken in the wake of the deaths of his family. Although this is definitely an act of vengeance, it’s unclear if Banderas is targeting the owner of the book—preferred reading of the morally compromised since Hannibal recommended it to Clarisse—or Aurelius himself. Either way, somebody’s getting some magic-marker scented revenge.

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3.      Antonio Banderas whales on these two dudes under a bridge. Just fuckin’ pounds them, man, it’s absurd. One of them appears to be wearing New York Times White House correspondent Glenn Thrush’s hat, so probably Banderas is seeking retribution for the impact the paper’s campaign coverage may have had on the outcome of the 2016 presidential election.

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4.     Antonio Banderas hits a guy in the head with a cast-iron skillet. The eggs were served cold, and so was his vengeance.

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5.     Antonio Banderas disarms a guy and then points his own gun at him. If I had to characterize this act in one word, that word would probably be “vengeance.”

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6.     Antonio Banderas gets knocked down, but he gets up again, you are never gonna keep him down. Oh man, somebody’s in trouble now!

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7.     Antonio Banderas punches a security guard. “I’ll tell you when there’s no trespassing,” he’d say, if he hadn’t taken a vow of silence.

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8.     Antonio Banderas contemplates the unceasing pain of existence and the fragility of all mortal life. Someone must be punched for this. But who?

By our count, that is at least eight acts of vengeance you are guaranteed to see, should you buy a ticket to Acts of Vengeance—and honestly, Florentine and Venne may have dodged a bullet when they made the title plural. Imagine how angry viewers would be if they sat down to watch Act of Vengeance, expecting one act of vengeance maximum, and then were subjected to eight or more acts of vengeance, as we see in the trailer. That kind of false advertising might inspire viewers to commit an act of vengeance of their own—and when it comes to acts of vengeance, nobody commits just one.