American Ultra(2015)

Submitted by Julio M

Short pooper:
Mike (Jesse Eisenberg) is the result of a secret Government experiment codenamed “Wiseman,” and Phoebe (Kirsten Stewart) was originally assigned as the handler who would settle him in Liman, West Virginia -the town where he has lived for many years as a stoner constantly at odds with the law, despite his mild manners- and then leave, but ended up staying because she genuinely fell for him and pursued a relationship with him. After a lot of mayhem caused by the sustained persecution mounted by CIA agent Yates (Topher Grace) to eliminate them both, while Lasseter (Connie Britton) -who was hot on Mike’s trail to protect him- tried to stop Yates, their superior, Krueger (Bill Pullman), shows up and has all four captured. It turns out Krueger was the mysterious voice warning Lasseter earlier in the film about Mike; when Yates tries to smugly justify himself, Krueger kills him for failing to contain Mike and allowing the deaths of innocent people while sparing Lasseter when she points out the proof of the program’s success in Mike’s triumphing over his pursuers. Mike and Phoebe -who have just gotten engaged amidst all the chaos- are let go and, sometime later, are seen carrying out together an assignment for the Agency in Manila.

Longer version:
Having taken out many members of the “Toughguy” Army assembled by Yates to find and neutralize him, Mike comes to a direct confrontation with Laugher (Walton Goggins) but shows mercy and lets him live when Laugher admits he has mental issues and was forcibly conscripted into the program. Meanwhile, Yates is trying to abscond with Phoebe, and she releases herself, but, before he can kill her, Lasseter shows up and almost strangles him to death. They are all stopped by the sudden appearance of Director Krueger.

Although under gunpoint of many law enforcement agencies gathered around Max’s, Mike and Phoebe come out, badly bruised and beaten, and he gleefully proposes to her; she says yes but then, they are tasered and hauled away. At the same time, Petey (Tony Hale), having extensively cooperated with Lasseter, is arrested in his office.

Krueger has Yates and Lasseter brought over to a forest, where he berates them for the trouble caused -Yates for launching the operation with no authorization; Lasseter for interfering with a government operation-. Yates tries to justify the events that transpired, alluding that if the program was to be successful, collateral damage in the form of civilian deaths was justified and that he was just “trying to do whatever it took to attain that goal and be acknowledged for it.” Krueger looks like he agrees but then shoots Yates dead. Lasseter begs for her life, only for Krueger to reveal having been the source who gave her the heads-up about Mike but, then, regretted it when she took matters into her own hands and warned her that she could also end up killed “unless a miracle happened” regarding how Mike was still perceived as a liability in need of being dealt with; she then alludes that Mike was the most successful and valuable asset of any of the conducted “Ultra” programs since he was able to single-handedly dispatch 17 Toughguys.

We then go back to the initial scene, where Mike was being retained, handcuffed, in an interrogation room, nervously awaiting what could have been his demise but, instead, he gets asked, “Where do we want to begin… Agent Howell?”. The plot forwards to six months later, in Manila, where Mike and Phoebe, now presumably married, are dealing with a mission under the direct watch of Lasseter and Petey; Mike appears to have been taken by a pair of goons but, when being interrogated, all they see on him is a sample of his Apollo Ape art giving the finger. The movie ends with Mike surreptitiously taking out his intended target, a Chinese crime lord, as the image morphs into an animated style and the credits roll.