MONKEY MAN

*CUT TO THE CHASE*

NOTE: This spoiler was submitted by Jeremy

The film opens in India. A woman, Neela (Adithi Kalkunte), tells her son (Jatin Malik) the story of the god Hanuman. The legend tells that the monkey god consumed the sun, and as punishment, the other gods stripped him of his powers.

In the present day in Yatana, the son has become a fighter known only as “Kid” (Dev Patel). He wears a monkey mask and fights in underground tournaments at a place called Tiger’s Temple. Kid gets beaten in his latest fight. The club’s owner, Tiger (Sharlto Copley), shorts Kid on his earnings despite his protests.

Kid gets info from a boy on the streets over a woman named Queenie Kapoor (Ashwini Kalsekar), who runs a brothel called Kings and is connected to a guru named Baba Shakti (Makarand Deshpande), a figure that has a connection to Kid’s past. Kid has a street thief steal Queenie’s wallet while she is at an outdoor restaurant, which he later returns to her at the Kings hotel. She gives him money to send him on his way, but Kid manages to convince Queenie to hire him for whatever job nobody else wants to do.

Kid begins working in the kitchen under the name “Bobby”. He befriends a coworker, Alphonso (Pitobash), and is witness to how ruthless Queenie is at her job. Kid later goes downtown to a secret area to buy a small gun. At work, he convinces Alphonso to go to Tiger’s Temple to bet on Kid’s opponent for the evening to earn easy money as an incentive to help Kid get promoted and work his way to the top of Kings. During the match, Kid makes good on his word that he would win the first two rounds but go down in the third.

Alphonso gets Kid to start working at the upper levels of Kings to tend to the bigger clients, including chief of police Rana Singh (Sikandar Kher), who is one of Kid’s main targets. Kid witnesses one of the new girls, Sita (Sobhita Dhulipala), looking uncomfortable around one of the men, and he walks out before he gives into the temptation of attacking him. They talk outside after she sees him feeding a stray dog, and she tells him he shouldn’t be working in a place like that.

Over a certain length of time, Kid practices for a confrontation until he is granted access into the VIP floor. He witnesses Rana getting a lap dance from Sita and slips him a vial of tainted cocaine. This draws Rana into the bathroom where Kid attempts to confront him at gunpoint, but is distracted by a nearby goon, which gives Rana an opportunity to strike Kid. They get into a brutal fight, with the other goon getting killed, but Rana nearly kills Kid until he manages to stab him in the face. Kid begins to run out of the building but has to fight off other gunmen. Kid escapes with Alphonso in his wagon and flees, but they get rammed into by more of Rana’s corrupt cops. Alphonso flees on foot while Kid is abducted.

Kid regains consciousness in the back of a police wagon before he swipes a gun and kills the guards in the back, then makes his way out. He runs through a brothel where other thugs attempt to kill him, including one with an axe. Kid bites his nose off before he gets shot in the head by more incoming gunmen. Kid makes his way to the rooftops and runs until a chopper up above shoots him and sends him falling into the river.

Kid later wakes up in a temple of Ardhanarishvara (a target of Baba Shakti’s group due to them being a community of trans people) and is greeted by the head priest, Alpha (Vipin Sharma). She has Kid look upon the statues of Shiva and Parvati before explaining their stories. The people of the temple have also tended to Kid’s wounds. While he recovers and spends time among the people, Baba Shakti has learned of the attack on Rana. Shakti tells Rana to ensure that Kid is dealt with quickly, as despite him being a “nobody”, he can quickly grow to be a “somebody” that will take down their whole empire.

Alpha speaks to Kid privately and understands that he is carrying a deep pain in him. She gives him a hallucinogenic powder to ingest to guide him through an awakening. Through a flashback, it is shown that Baba Shakti ordered Rana and his men to invade Kid’s village and slaughter everybody and setting everything ablaze. Neela hid him but he was forced to witness as Rana sexually and physically assaulted her before he strangled her. He then had his men set her body on fire, with Kid trying in vain to revive her when they left, and that is why his body is covered in burn marks.

Kid starts to train himself to regain his strength, while Shakti’s candidate for the Sovereign Party, Adesh Joshi, starts to rise in the polls. Discourse is already occurring regarding their treatment of minorities, though Shakti appears to sway public opinion in his favor regardless. At the temple, a young woman is beaten by Rana’s men after the temple is issued an eviction notice.

Kid returns to Tiger’s Temple and has the young boy from earlier bet on him for the victory. Kid’s first opponent, King Cobra (who defeated him at the beginning), goes down easily when Kid delivers a swift kick and knocks him out cold. He is then put up against a much larger opponent called Baloo The Bear. Despite him putting up a much fiercer fight, Kid defeats Baloo and earns the crowd’s (which includes a proud Alphonso) cheers of “Monkey Man!” Kid has the young boy collect his earnings and donate it to the Ardhanarishvara temple.

On the evening of Diwali, Joshi is elected to power, and a celebration is held at Kings. Kid arrives in his monkey mask and proceeds to beat the crap out of the security guards before guiding Alpha’s fighters inside and helping kill other guards. As Shakti’s people are celebrating Joshi’s victory, Kid enters the building with a literal bang after setting off a firework and igniting a gas canister. He proceeds to decimate Shakti’s men throughout the building before he is cornered with a whole squad of thugs. The Ardhanarishvara warriors arrive and aid Kid in fighting the thugs. Queenie emerges with a gun and tries to kill Kid, but Sita whacks her over the head with a dinner tray, killing her. Kid then severs Queenie’s thumb with the tray and makes his way up.

Kid enters Rama’s floor and has a rematch with him. Rama puts up another good fight, but Kid gains the upper hand and proceeds to beat Rama’s head with a stiletto, knocking him down each time he tries to get up. Rama finally has enough, and Kid beats him until he finally cracks his skull open. He then uses Queenie’s thumb to make his way to the top.

Kid finally goes to confront Baba Shakti. He attempts to use his phony peaceful methods to approach Kid, but he will not have it. Shakti shows Kid his padukas (sandals) that were made by one of his “devoted followers” to prevent his feet from harming anything living. As Kid is distracted by a chopper’s lights, Shakti pulls out a shiv from the padukas and stabs Kid in the gut. Before he can deliver a killing blow, Kid lets his hand get impaled with the other shiv and knocks Shakti down, stabbing him in the chest repeatedly. Shakti then begs for mercy, and Kid responds that only God can forgive him now. Kid then drives the shiv into Shakti’s head. He looks up at an image of Hanuman as he sees one final flashback of his mother before he slumps over.

"Kid" is a fighter in an underground boxing club. He plots revenge against the guru Baba Shakti and the chief of police Rana Singh, as they invaded his village when he was a child and murdered his mother. In the present day, they are in power over the Sovereign Party. Kid gets a job working at the Kings brothel connected to the two men, which is run by a ruthless woman named Queenie Kapoor. With help from another employee named Alphonso, Kid works his way up to get to the VIP level to confront Rana. However, he is overpowered by Rana's men and has to escape before he is shot into the river.

Kid is saved by members of the Ardhanarishvara community, who help guide him through his recovery and path to peace. After their temple is threatened by Rana's men, Kid fights again in the boxing club and uses his winnings to give to the temple.

Kid infiltrates Kings on the night of Diwali when Shakti's political candidate is elected. With help from the warriors of the temple, Kid kills Shakti's men. One of the brothel's girls, Sita, kills Queenie, and Kid uses her thumb to gain access to the top floors. He has a rematch with Rama and brutally beats him to death to avenge his mother before finally making his way to Baba Shakti. The wicked guru stabs Kid in the gut and nearly kills him, but Kid overpowers him and stabs him in the chest repeatedly before dealing the killing blow to his skull. Kid then reminisces about his mother before he slumps over from his wounds.