One thing I have learned from roughly 2,000 film reviews for The Legionnaire is that you get unintentionally Christian messages in the unlikeliest of movies.  Take today’s, The Hitman’s Bodyguard (2017), for example.  At one point, one of Christianity’s most enduring questions is broached: is there such a thing as redemption?  You will get the context in the synopsis to follow, and it should be emphasized that it is asked without any reference to Faith.  Another argument that could mitigate the specialness of this statement is that we are dealing with Western culture.  The signs are increasingly sparse, but there was a time when belief in God and the Bible guided how we behaved and thought.  These days, “redemption” is just a fancy word, but for centuries it meant something that happened to sinners when they gave their hearts to God.  Yet, just like the foolishness of dismissing a title like this as just another buddy comedy, mixed with a lot of action, we should be more aware that God speaks to us in mysterious ways.

For Michael Bryce (Ryan Reynolds), The Hitman’s Bodyguard, mystery is the precise thing he tries to avoid.  His motto is that “boring is always best,” and this means that as he transports his high valued targets to safety, he leaves nothing to chance.  Despite all his planning, he witnesses one of his clients, corrupt Japanese businessman Kurosawa (Tsuwayuki Saotome), be murdered while in Michael’s protection.  This not only damages Michael’s reputation, but leads to the loss of everything else of value in his life, including his girlfriend, International Criminal Police Organization (INTERPOL) officer Amelia Roussel (Élodie Yung).  Two years pass, and he is now looking after lesser value targets with fewer resources.  Meanwhile, Amelia has continued her law enforcement career, and she has been tasked with escorting the internationally infamous assassin Darius Kincaid (Samuel L. Jackson) to testify at the Hague.  He has been asked to speak on behalf of the prosecution that is trying a case against former Belarusian dictator Vladislav Dukhovich (Gary Oldman). In exchange for his testimony, Darius has been promised that his wife and fellow killer, Sonia Kincaid (Salma Hayek), will go free.  As usually happens in these types of movies, there is somebody working on the inside of INTERPOL helping Vladislav.  That person is deputy director Jean Foucher (Joaqium de Almeida).  It is Jean who tips Vladislav’s men as to the route INTERPOL is taking from Coventry in England where Darius is being held to the international criminal court in the Hague in the Netherlands.  In the inevitable attack, Darius is able to slip free of his handcuffs, but not without Amelia noticing.  However, since they are being attacked on every side, they decide to join forces to escape.  They end up in an INTERPOL safe house, but she realizes that there is an informant in her ranks.  This means that not only will their route to the Hague be all but suicidal, but that they will soon figure out where she has stashed Darius.  Thus, she turns to Michael, with whom she is still angry for blaming her for the Kurosawa failure.  He remains mad, too, but agrees to help when she promises to help restore his reputation.  Upon getting to the safe house, though, he almost promptly turns around and leaves when he discovers that it is Darius that Amelia wants Michael to protect.  It should come as no surprise that among many other unseen run-ins between Darius and Michael, the former had been the one to kill Kurosawa.  For now, Michael is just furious for having to look after someone who has caused so many problems for him like Darius.  The comedy of this is supposed to come from their vastly different personalities.  Michael tries to be well prepared for everything, while Darius is more free-spirited.  As they travel together, Darius continues to nose into Michael’s personal business, particularly the relationship with Amelia.  In the process of their trek, while dodging various bad guys along the way on a Möbius strip of over-the-top action, Darius shows his affection for Sonia.  During their stop-over in Amsterdam, he leaves flowers in a window where she can see them as a sign of his love for her.  Still, they have only a limited amount of time to get to the Hague because if Darius does not appear in court by a certain time, Vladislav will go free.  Some more action stuff happens, the long and short of which is that Darius gets to the court room with seconds to spare.  Though what Darius presents is incriminating, Vladislav has no intention of going to prison.  As Vladislav delivers a megalomaniacal rant about his rights as the leader of Belorussia, his remaining men hatch a plan to spring him from custody.  As chaos erupts, Michael takes a bullet for Darius, but is well enough to save his once-and-future lover in Amelia, who had gone after a fleeing Jean.  As a way of further redeeming himself, Darius stops Vladislav from getting away, though I am guessing it would have been preferable had he been taken alive.  Nonetheless, Darius is taken back into custody, being a man of his word.  Yet, a year later on his wedding anniversary, he escapes prison to find Sonia and have a dance with her in a bar erupting into a brawl.

Because of the romance between Darius and Sonia, and Amelia and Michael to a certain extent, I suppose you could also label The Hitman’s Bodyguard as a romantic comedy.  I guess this aspect of the story is necessary, though if it were taken out you would still have a movie that makes sense.  At the same time, these scenes are part of what makes Darius into less of a monster.  After all, he is happy to report that he has killed over 250 people over the course of his career as an assassin.  At the same time, he posits that the only people he murdered were bad guys, including the man who had done in his preacher father.  In discussing that moment, Darius turns to matters of religion.  He states that the Bible tells us that revenge should be left to God, and he is right, but he also did not want to wait for divine retribution.  That last bit is problematic, but there is another conversation involving Christianity that I would like to focus on more.  In commenting on their different styles of doing things, Darius asks who is more wicked: the one who kills the wicked, or the one who protects the wicked?  At first blush, you might say it is the one doing the protecting.  After all, who would want to help a villainous person?  To that, I would bring us back to the topic of redemption.  A person who is bad today could be good tomorrow.  Or that person can remain bad, become good for a few months, bad a few days, etc.  The point is that a person’s story is not set right now, at least so long as they are among the living.  Each breath, each second, each day is an opportunity to make a change for the better.  It depends on the person.  One can remain bad so long as bad remains in the heart.  God redeems the person who earnestly seeks to return to Him.  I get it, though.  Darius does what any of us might want to do to someone many perceive as truly evil.  At the same time, only God can know someone’s soul, and everyone deserves the opportunity to redeem it.

All the same, I would not say that The Hitman’s Bodyguard is a film with many redeeming qualities.  It is a pretty standard action comedy, made somewhat better by the interplay of Jackson and Reynolds.  If that is fine with you, along with a bit of swearing and violence, then have at it.  Otherwise, you have already seen something like this movie.