FilmSkool — a free film school
Hancock
Hancock is a down-and-out superhero who's forced to employ a PR expert to help repair his image when the public grows weary of all the damage he's inflicted during his lifesaving heroics. The agent's idea of imprisoning the antihero to make the world miss him proves successful, but will Hancock stick to his new sense of purpose or slip back into old habits?
2008 · Directed by Peter Berg · 92 min · Fantasy · Action · Screenplay in the scene database · 8 frames
Tagline
There are heroes. There are superheroes. And then there's Hancock.
Plot
John Hancock is an alcoholic, reckless superhuman imbued with flight, invulnerability, and super-strength. Acting as a haphazard and unrefined superhero in Los Angeles, he is shunned, ridiculed, and hated by the public for his drunken and careless crime fighting acts, and rude and unpleasant disposition.
Hancock rescues Ray Embrey, a community-minded but struggling public relations specialist, from an oncoming train, but also accidentally derails it in the process. In gratitude, Ray offers to help improve Hancock's public image and hopes that he will be the spokesperson for his charitable brand, "All Heart". Hancock meets Ray's family, his son Aaron, and his wife Mary, who is suspicious of him. Ray encourages Hancock to issue a public apology and surrender himself to local authorities, hoping that it will build public confidence in Hancock and create demand for him to return. Hancock reluctantly agrees and is placed in prison where he easily fends off attacks from other inmates but struggles to connect with his support groups for alcohol abuse and anger management. Ray visits frequently, encouraging Hancock to be patient, and later Ray's family visits as well, bringing him homemade spaghetti with meatballs.
The crime rate in Los Angeles rises and Hancock is eventually released to help. Sporting a new leather super suit, he successfully rescues a wounded police officer during a bank robbery shootout and hostage situation orchestrated by Red Parker, ending when Hancock prevents Parker from using a 'dead man's switch' by slicing off his hand and turning both over to the police. The public applauds Hancock as a hero and the officers praise him for ending the crisis without loss of life. Hancock has dinner with Ray and Mary and reveals that he is an amnesiac and immortal, having woken up in a hospital 80 years ago with no memory of his identity. Ray tells Hancock that Mary is Aaron's stepmother and that his biological mother had died in childbirth. Carrying a drunk Ray home, Hancock kisses Mary, who kisses him back but then throws him through the wall, revealing that she also has superpowers.
Plot summary from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA.
Crew
- Written by: Vincent Ngo, Vince Gilligan
- Cinematography: Tobias A. Schliessler
- Edited by: Paul Rubell, Colby Parker, Jr.
- Music: John Powell
- Production design: Neil Spisak
- Produced by: Will Smith, Akiva Goldsman, James Lassiter, Michael Mann
Cast
- Will Smith as John Hancock
- Charlize Theron as Mary
- Jason Bateman as Ray
- Jae Head as Aaron
- Eddie Marsan as Red
- David Mattey as Man Mountain
- Maetrix Fitten as Matrix
- Thomas Lennon as Mike
- Johnny Galecki as Jeremy
- Hayley Marie Norman as Hottie
Production
- Country: United States of America
- Language: English, French, Japanese, Vietnamese
- Studios: Columbia Pictures, Relativity Media, Blue Light, Weed Road Pictures
- Budget: $150,000,000
- Box office: $629,400,000
- Themes: love of one's life, flying, alcohol, advertising expert, superhero, pokies, forbidden love, lovers, invulnerability, affection
Own the film
FilmSkool earns a small commission from qualifying Amazon purchases, at no cost to you.
More by Peter Berg
On this film
This is the plain index, shown because JavaScript is off. Every lesson here is a free video published by the channel credited on it and plays through that channel's own embed — FilmSkool hosts nothing.