ABSOLUTION

*CUT TO THE CHASE*

NOTE: This spoiler was submitted by Spectre

The film opens with Thug (Liam Neeson) parking his car down the street from the house he is renting. He narrates that when he was nine years old, he got into a fight with a boy at school. His father told him “Don’t be a pussy.” So Thug beat the boy to a pulp; his father later noted that perhaps he wasn’t a pussy after all.

Thug goes with Kyle Conner (Daniel Diemer), the son of his employer, mob boss Charlie Conner (Ron Perlman) to a fishery to discuss a deal with a supplier. The man is willing to do business, but when pressed by Kyle about what the “product” is, the man gets defensive, to almost the point of violence. He sees Thug standing there silently, and makes a crack about his age, while his associate looks to have a fight. Thug speaks to the man, telling him to calm his subordinate before he breaks both of his shoulders. The man smiles and they ultimately conclude the deal with Kyle.

Leaving, Kyle chastises Thug for even speaking up and threatening violence. However, Thug realizes Kyle is a novice and over his head. “You wanna be a boss one day. Start acting like one,” Thug says. As they drive, Thug tries to smoke, but Kyle tells him not to in his car. Kyle snorts and Thug tells him his cocaine problem will only cause him trouble.

Thug goes to a mattress store which is the business cover for Charlie Conner’s real operation. Charlie talks to Thug about how the deal went. Thug attempts to cover for Kyle, saying he got a decent price but Charlie sees right through him; he knows Kyle is incompetent. Charlie tells Thug his son went to college and got a degree. Charlie wanted Kyle to be a lawyer, a legitimate profession to be proud of. Instead, Kyle wanted to go into the family business, even though Charlie doesn’t think his son has it. Charlie tells Thug of his next assignment, and Thug blanks on key information. When Charlie asks if he is okay, Thug lies, saying he has been having really bad headaches. He goes outside to his car, where he has a notepad where he is writing down key information. He writes on one page that Charlie Conner is his boss.

Thug goes to a local gym and spars with a new boxer. While he gets in some solid hits, he also takes a few himself. He later sits in the locker room, lost. The owner comes in and checks on him. Thug goes to leave, and the owner reminds him of why he was really there; to take the protection money owed. Thug takes it and leaves.

Thug goes to his favorite local bar, and argues with the bartender over getting free drinks. Suddenly, he hears a loud argument at the end of the room between a woman and her boyfriend. Thug walks over to the man and tells him to take it outside. When the man refuses and implies he will hurt Thug, Thug knocks him out with one punch. The Woman (Yolanda Ross) yells at Thug, saying he killed her boyfriend.

“He ain’t dead, he’s just stupid,” Thug replies, going back to his seat.

Later, Woman yells at Thug when he leaves the bar for knocking out her boyfriend. Thug tells her the guy deserved it. Woman nods with a smile but then asks who will take her home.

Thug and Woman go back to her place where he makes out with her aggressively. She gently, but firmly tells him to slow down and they proceed to have sex. Later in bed, Woman talks about how she doesn’t mind the noise of her apartment and the nearby buildings as she hates the silence. She notices a tattoo on his arm, the name “Loopy” and says that was a nickname she had in high school. When she asks Thug who it was for, he just replies “Some whore.” Woman notes that wasn’t nice, but Thug counters it was in honor of a woman he thought he loved. He went to get it and when he returned, she was hooking up with two of his friends. Woman tells him that what he did was ultimately romantic.

The next morning, Thug leaves her apartment. He goes home and works out when he gets a call from Charlie to pick up a pill shipment from Dr. Gruber (Ryan Homchick). Charlie asks if Thug knows where to go, and Thug says yes. Thug then proceeds to check his notebook.

At the office, Dr. Gruber tries to haggle on the price of the pills but Thug shuts him down. As he leaves though, he asks him about his memory problems. Dr. Gruber tells him he should probably be checked out by a doctor who deals with that ASAP.

Thug goes to the doctor. Meeting with her, he learns that he has CTE, and he may only have a few years before he can no longer take care of himself. She asks if he has kids, and he says yes. She tells him she is asking because he will need full time care eventually.

Thug goes home and parks his car. Grappling with his fate, he pulls out a gun, intending to kill himself. However, he looks over he sees a small child, a young girl, who gives him the middle finger and a smile. That is enough to stop him for now. It also sends him on a new path, one of attempted amends.

Back in his house, Thug makes a call to his daughter, Daisy (Frankie Shaw). Daisy is less than happy to hear from him, wants nothing to do with him, and refuses to see him. Thug tries to ask about his son but cannot remember his name. “You mean Colin Dad?” Daisy asks. Thug says yes, and asks for his address. Daisy tells him that he died two years ago. Thug is aghast and shocked and asks her why no one told him. Daisy retorts that he couldn’t remember his name so what does it matter. Thug asks her where Colin is buried.

Thug smacks his head, angry at himself. “Fucking idiot,” he says.

The next morning, he goes to the cemetery where after some searching, finds his son gravestone, clearing away the grass and dirt away in frustration. After taking a moment, he leaves, yelling to a caretaker, “You should take better fucking care of this place!”

Thug goes to see his daughter at her house, seeing a for sale sign in the door. Going around the back he sees her. Daisy is less than happy to see him, but Thug says he just wants to see her, perhaps take her out to dinner one night. He soon learns that he has a granddaughter, Katie and a grandson, Dre (Terrence Pulliam). Thug asks why she is selling the house and Daisy laughs in his face; she was renting and the owners are selling it out from under her. Thug attempts to make some form of explanation for his past actions but Daisy is having none of it. She tells him he was an asshole, just like the fathers of his grandchildren, bred from a whole generation of assholes. Thug asks again to take them out to dinner, but Daisy tells him to get lost.

Thug goes to sleep that night and imagines his house floods like the sea. When he wakes up, he finds himself on his bed, as if it were a boat, seeing the image of his father. Thug is shocked and surprised to see him.

“Are you still mad?” Thug asks.

“Nah, I ain’t mad no more kid,” his father replies.

Thug hears music, and his father points out the special engine that plays music akin to a guitar.

The next day, Thug meets up with Woman, with her joking about him being a gangster. They spend the day in bed together. Thug notices the scars that encompass her tattoos, and she tells them they are scars from cigarette burns and bad boyfriends. She notices he has scars of his own, and Thug says that they came from assholes too. Thug gets a call from Charlie and gets up to dress, telling her he has to go to NYC. When Woman asks for a kiss goodbye, Thug tells her he doesn’t have time and leaves.

Thug and Kyle drive to NYC. Kyle asks for directions, knowing that Thug has been there multiple times. Thug deflects, telling him to use his GPS. When they reach their destination, Thug tells him to loop around the building so he can check for anything that is not supposed to be there. Satisfied, he makes the switch with their contact, for a large moving truck, which Kyle and Thug drive off in. On the highway, Kyle wants to know what they are transporting, but Thug scolds him. “Jobs like this, you don’t want to know,” he says. Suddenly, a police car gets behind them and Kyle panics. In response, Thug pushes him to the ground, so the cop will only see him and not a panicking Kyle, which would only cause trouble.

Once the cop passes by, Kyle gets back up in his seat and tells Thug he will talk to his dad about his lack of respect for him. Thug counters saying respect is not just given out; it has to be earned. Kyle does a bump of cocaine, and Thug notes that the drug is going to make him paranoid.

Thug and Kyle get the truck to a nondescript suburban home owned by Gamberro (Javier Molina) who tells them to park around back. Kyle wants to get out but Thug tells him to get back inside. They are not supposed to know. However, fate intervenes. Thug hears a woman screaming, and one of them, Araceli (Deanna Tarraza) reaches up to the driver’s side where Thug is, begging for help. Two of Gamberro’s men drag her away, and Thug looks down in shock as his hand bleeds from being accidentally cut by her. Thug is horrified and guilt ridden, realizing he helped traffic women that will be forced into the sex trade.

The next day, Daisy is at the school, watching Dre playing football. Thug arrives, and watches with her as Dre gets an interception that leads to a touchdown. After the game, Thug gives him the gift of a reel mechanism for fishing. Dre wants to stick around for the next game, and Daisy allows it, seeing she has to pick up her daughter. After the other game, Thug tells Dre he promised his mother that he would get Dre home.

In the car, Thug asks Dre why he had previously gotten kicked off the team for hitting the coach’s son. Dre says the kid wouldn’t stop getting in his face. Thug tells him that sometimes you have to know when to walk away. When Dre asks about his time in prison, Thug tells him it was because he couldn’t walk away. Dre also tells him his mother said he abandoned his family. Thug says silent, all but confirming it. Dre then asks about his days as a boxer.

Thug takes Dre to the gym and the two of them watch a pair of boxers spar. Later, Thug and Dre pad up and Thug shows Dre some basic moves. Thug drives him home after, asking Dre to not tell his mother about the boxing.

“You’re afraid of her?” Dre asks.

“Damn right I am,” Thug says.

“Me too,” Dre says with a smirk.

That night, Thug dreams of his father again. When he wakes up, he realizes the wound he got from Araceli has opened up and he is bleeding again. As he tends to the wound, Thug narrates that his dad used to take him fishing every Sunday but he was never allowed in the boat alone. However, one week his dad got arrested and couldn’t be bailed out. Thug took the boat out, thinking he would never find out. His father did though. They NEVER went fishing again. “He took it away to punish me,” Thug notes.

Taking his bleeding hand as a sign he needs to do something, Thug goes back to Gamberro’s house and requests Araceli. She begins to disrobe but Thug tells her no. “I don’t know why I’m here,” Thug admits. Thug asks her if she has family in the US, and if she wants him to call them. Araceli tells them no, they already know. She tells him she has to work off a 20,000 debt to be free and shows him a picture of her child. Thug, quietly unsettled, but having no means to clear her debt, tells her he can’t help her and leaves, leaving her distraught.

Thug gets a call from Charlie, telling him he needs to collect 20,000 from a priest. The Priest sees him and tries to hide but Thug finds him. The Priest apologizes for panicking, and gives over the money. Thug asks if he does confessions, but the Priest says he has no time for that…just before being shot in the head. Thug realizes that the men who killed the Priest are actually here for him and gets the drop on two of them, before being cornered by a third with a shotgun. Getting to his car, Thug crouches down and gets the car to reverse, running the man over. Thug wants to know who hired him and threatens his love ones if he doesn’t comply. The killer says that a big guy with a spider web tattoo on his neck sent them to kill Thug. Thug drives off, leaving him to die.

Thug goes to Charlie’s house and gives him the money. Charlie asks Thug who the guys were and if he has enemies. Thug says too many to count, but none that would warrant this response, ultimately labeling them amateurs.

Thug goes home, only to find Woman on the street nearby. After some convincing, he lets her come to his rental house, that doesn’t have much. Woman sees the information about CTE, and after a brief denial, Thug confirms that he is sick. Thug asks her if she noticed his memory lapses. Woman said she did but she thought he was just an alcoholic, which Thug agrees is also accurate. Thug tells her about his son, Colin, who overdosed on heroin two years before. Thug tells her he was gay, and he perhaps didn’t handle it well enough. He looks at her and tells her that what they have isn’t going to end well given his condition. Using a metaphor of a puddle of gasoline meeting a flame, Woman tells Thug that she knows it to be true and accepts it but they should enjoy the time they do have.

The next morning, Thug tells Woman he is meeting Daisy and his grandchildren at a dinner and would like her to come with him. The day arrives and Thug makes himself presentable for a nice meal. However, time passes, and Thug realizes Daisy stood him up and has a meltdown/breakdown in the restaurant with Woman having to comfort him and take him home.

The next morning, while Thug sleeps, Woman meets with Daisy and tells her the truth about her father. Thug hears them and is enraged at Daisy knowing, and threatens to hurt Woman, in front of Daisy and Dre. Woman and Dre leave the house, with Daisy scolding her father saying “She didn’t deserve that.” Daisy admits that she did stand him up, because he abandoned them their entire lives. That being said, after learning there isn’t much hope for any treatment, Daisy tells him she will help him get a new doctor if he wants her to help. “Life’s a shit storm, eh?” Daisy says before leaving.

Thug has a panic attack, slapping his head, calling himself an idiot. He begins to punch the walls until his hands bleed, angry and ashamed with himself.

The next morning, Daisy and Dre are packing up the house when Thug arrives, asking to speak to Dre. Thug stumbles with his words, but ultimately apologizes about how he acted and tells Dre in no certain terms to emulate him. “Don’t be like me,” Thug says. Dre listens silently then walks down the hallway away from him.

That night, Thug goes to Charlie’s office, intending to ask for a loan of 40,000 dollars; 20,000 to buy Araceli’s freedom, and 20,000 to give to his daughter for a down payment on a house. As his memory is getting worse, he practices his speech all the way down. Getting off the elevator, he sees that Kyle and Charlie have a new enforcer. Getting to Charlie’s desk, he is told to sit down. Charlie tells him he happened to talk to Dr. Gruber and how Thug asked about his health. Thug tries to downplay it, only for Charlie to say that he is fired (the implication being with no severance either). Thug balks, saying he is fine, noting he took care of those three assassins. Charlie asks him to say his phone number and address but Thug cannot. Charlie tells him to leave, and Kyle rudely asks if he needs directions to the door. Thug goes up to leave, only to see that the enforcer has a spider web tattoo on his neck, just like the killer at the ambush said. He then proceeds to knock the man out and pull his gun.

Confronting Kyle and Charlie, Thug points out the man he just knocked unconscious, and is enraged that they tried to have him killed. When Thug asks Charlie if he knew about it, his silence confirms that he knew about Thug’s condition way before talking to Dr. Gruber and allowed it. Thug orders Charlie to open the safe. When he refuses, Thug shoots Kyle in the leg to make him comply. Charlie opens the safe, and Thug tells him to fill the bag inside with cash and guns. Thug, who is more disappointed than angry, tells Charlie he came to his office that night to ask him for a favor after 30 years of loyal service and Charlie was going to discard him like “a piece of shit on your shoe.” Thug holds a gun to Charlie’s head. Charlie, accepting his probable fate, begs Thug not to kill his son. Thug tells Charlie to sit down and shoots him once in the chest, killing him. Thug leaves, sparing Kyle as a final favor to his old boss.

Thug calls his lawyer Burt (Tom Kemp) to his office for an emergency meeting. After giving him a cash payment for his services, he tells Burt to get a cashier’s check to his daughter to put down a payment for a house for her and her children. Burt asks where he got the money. Thug shows him his hand where he wrote Charlie’s name. “It was nice knowing you,” Burt says, knowing that no matter what happens in the near future, Thug doesn’t have long to live.

Thug goes to Woman’s apartment and finds her drunk in the bathroom, with cigarette burns she gave herself. After tending to her wounds, he cuddles with her, telling her “I knew it would be me who screws things up.” Thug tells her she needs to get real help. Woman says Thug helps her. He holds her as she falls asleep.

Thug returns to Gamberro’s house, intending to buy Araceli’s freedom. Gamberro laughs at the idea of Thug buying one of his girls. Thug tells Gamberro they are both bullies who feed off human misery. Still, he is willing to do business, and offers him 30,000 for Araceli. Gamberro tells Thug she isn’t for sale, getting tense. When Thug asks why not, Gamberro shows him. Gamberro tells Thug that Araceli was murdered by one of her customers earlier in the day; he then proceeds to be glib about her death and the world. Thug, angry with himself for not getting her out fast enough and enraged with Gamberro’s indifference to her suffering, pulls out a gun and tells him to move.

Thug orders Gamberro to tell one of his enforcers to go home, and then to bring out every single girl he has working outside into the kitchen. Using his money and Gamberro’s money, he forces Gamberro to pay and release all his victims. As he complies, Gamberro sees one of his men creeping up with a gun. The last girl sees him though and screams, giving Thug a chance to see and shoot him dead. However, Gamberro stabs Thug several times with a hidden knife, causing him to fall to the floor. As Gamberro gloats, the last girl picks up the dropped gun, and shoots him in the head. The girl, panicked, tries to help Thug, but he just tells her to take the money and go.

Bleeding out, Thug calls Dre, telling him to be outside and not wake his mother. Getting to Daisy’s house, he sees Dre there. Thug tells Dre that he will hear some awful stuff about him in the coming days. Dre notices he is hurt, but Thug plays it off, claiming he is okay.

“Maybe the only way for me to do something right is to do something bad,” Thug says. Dre tells him he doesn’t understand but Thug says one day he will. Dre comes to the window and Thug briefly holds his hand, staining it with his blood. “I tried, I tried,” Thug says. Thug tells Dre to go back inside. Dre does, silently understanding this will probably be the last time he sees his grandfather alive.

Thug drives back to his house but instead of going to his home, he goes to a nearby house, whose wind chime sounded like a guitar to him. He breaks in, and realizes it is abandoned. As the sun rises and he hears the chime swing in the wind, Thug continues to breathe heavy and bleed out. The last shot is of the ocean, the implication being that Thug died of his wounds.

A nameless, aging gangster, Thug (Liam Neeson) has served Charlie Conner (Ron Perlman) for 30 years. However, when diagnosed with incurable CTE, Thug decides to take steps to reconcile with his daughter Daisy (Frankie Shaw) and spend time with his grandson Dre (Terrence Pulliam).

Thug finds out while doing a job with Charlie's son Kyle (Daniel Diemer) that part of their business is human trafficking and he tries to come up with the money to free one of the girls Araceli from her captivity. However, he learns that Charlie and Kyle set up to be killed so he robs Charlie's safe and kills him.

After getting his lawyer to set up a down payment for a house for Daisy, Thug goes to Araceli's pimp Gamberro (Javier Molina) to buy her freedom only to find out she was murdered by a customer hours before. Enraged, he forces Gamberro to pay and release all his victims. Gamberro gets the drop on Thug, stabbing him multiple times, only for Gamberro to be killed by one of the women he trafficked.

Having helped give his daughter a fresh start, a dying Thug says goodbye to his grandson and breaks into a house and listens to a wind chime as the sun rises. The last shot is of the ocean, signifying that Thug has died of his wounds.