Silent Night (2023)
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A father who loses his voice and his son to a gang war spends a year training to exact a brutal, silent revenge on Christmas Eve.
The story
Brian Godlock is an electrician living in the fictional town of Las Palomas, Texas, with his wife Saya and young son Taylor Michael. Their lives are shattered on Christmas Eve when Taylor is killed in a gang war drive-by shooting. Brian survives the attack but is shot in the throat, leaving him unable to speak. While grieving, Brian becomes cold and distant, focused solely on revenge. He spends the following year bodybuilding and undergoing intensive self-defense and weapons training to prepare for a plan to eliminate every gang member involved in his son's death on the following Christmas Eve.
Full plot (contains spoilers)
Brian Godlock, an electrician in Las Palomas, Texas, loses his son Taylor Michael to a gang war on Christmas Eve. After being shot in the throat and rendered mute, Brian spends a year training in bodybuilding and combat. He begins his revenge by gathering information from a detective, Dennis Vassel, and abducting a gang member to extract information. Brian sends a threatening card and amputated fingers to the gang leader, Playa. On Christmas Eve, Brian systematically kills Playa's gang members. He eventually reaches Playa's penthouse, where he is confronted by Vassel. After a violent struggle involving Playa's girlfriend, Vassel shoots Playa, allowing Brian to deliver the final blow. Following his revenge, Brian hallucinates a peaceful future with his son. His wife, Saya, receives a final letter of apology and thanks from him before visiting Taylor's grave, where a toy train set is placed.
- First release year
- 2023
- Runtime (minutes)
- 104
- Production countries
- United States
- Original languages
- English
- Directors
- John Woo
- Writers
- Robert Archer Lynn · writer
- Cast and characters
- Joel Kinnaman · Brian Godlock; Scott Mescudi; Harold Torres · Playa; Catalina Sandino Moreno · Saya; Kid Cudi · Detective Dennis Vassel; Yoko Hamamura · Ruiz; Valeria Santaella · Venus; Vinny O'Brien · Anthony Barelo
- Genres
- vigilante; action-thriller; crime
- Themes
- Revenge; Grief; Sacrifice
- Tone and mood
- Brutal; Suspenseful; Cathartic
- Premise and plot tags
- Vigilante; No Dialogue; Christmas; Action
- Reception
- The film received mixed reviews from critics and audiences, with some praising the action and performance while others found the lack of dialogue dull.
- Reported review scores
- Metacritic · score: 53 · scale: 100 · review count: 29; CinemaScore · score: C · scale: A+ to F; PostTrak · score: 67%
- Production trivia
- The film features no spoken dialogue.; Joel Kinnaman performed method acting by not speaking for the entire shoot.; Filming took place in Mexico City.
Film metadata comes from the open sources listed in Credits & Contact. Catalogue details may be incomplete.
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