Max Payne is a 2008 neo-noir action film based on the video game series of the same name developed by Remedy Entertainment and published by Rockstar Games. Directed and co-produced by John Moore and written by Beau Thorne, the film stars Mark Wahlberg as the title character, Mila Kunis as Mona Sax, Ludacris as Jim Bravura, and Beau Bridges as B.B. Hensley. The film revolves around revenge, centering on the New York police detective as he journeys through New York City's criminal underworld while trying to learn the truth behind the murder of his wife and child.
Filming took place in spring, 2008. Extensive visual effects were used in many scenes in the film. Max Payne was released on October 16, 2008, in Australia, one day prior to the United States release date. The film received generally negative reviews and grossed $85.8 million against a production budget of $35 million.
Plot Max Payne is a detective assigned to the NYPD Cold Case Unit. He lost his wife Michelle and infant daughter Rose in a horrific murder; since that day, Max has been consumed by the desire to find his family's killer. He comes under suspicion from the NYPD when Natasha, an acquaintance of one of Max's informants, is brutally murdered and Max's wallet (which she had stolen) is found at the crime scene. Max's former partner, Alex Balder, is slain in his home after informing Max of a possible connection between Natasha's death and his family's murder. Max is framed as a murderer, and Lt. Bravura of Internal Affairs is tasked with bringing him in.
Max and Mona Sax, a freelance assassin and Natasha's sister, visit Natasha's tattoo parlor, where the tattoo artist reveals the meaning behind a tattoo that Natasha had: it represents the wings of a Valkyrie, which, in Norse mythology, are creatures that decide the fate of warriors in battle. Max goes to secretly take some of Michelle's belongings out of storage and finds that documents from when she worked at the Aesir Corporation, a major pharmaceutical manufacturer, have gone missing. Max interrogates Michelle's former supervisor, Jason Colvin, in his office at Aesir and learns that Michelle was involved with the development of Valkyr, a drug that the company produced under military contract in an attempt to create super-soldiers. Unfortunately, only a few subjects showed positive results; the rest saw hallucinations and eventually went insane, forcing Aesir to terminate the project and cover up their involvement. Jason agrees to testify against his employers, as long as Max can protect him. Max agrees, but then SWAT officers (Aesir contractors in disguise) raid the office, killing Jason and attracting Bravura's attention.
After an intense gunfight, Max escapes with the evidence and shows Mona a video explaining the Valkyr project and featuring Jack Lupino, a former Marine who was one of Aesir's successful test subjects. Lupino explains in the video that while taking the drug, he feels invincible, and suffers none of the side effects. Max confronts Lupino, now a powerful gangster involved with the trafficking of Valkyr as a designer drug, at his warehouse hideout, and the two men fight until Lupino gains the upper hand. Max's defeat appears certain until B.B. - Aesir's head of security and a father figure to Max - arrives and shoots Lupino dead. He then has Max knocked out and brought to the city docks.
B.B. explains that he has been secretly selling Valkyr for personal profit and admits to killing Michelle after she found incriminating evidence that could have exposed him. He tries to drown Max in a faked suicide, but Max breaks free and dives into the icy river. He almost drowns, but hears the voice of his wife telling him it is not yet time for him to die. He swims to shore and, to prevent hypothermia, consumes vials of Valkyr stuffed in his pockets by B.B., which causes him to see intense hallucinations but also makes him nigh-invincible. Max follows B.B. back to the Aesir Corporation's headquarters. Assisted by Mona, he shoots his way through the building's security, eventually confronting and killing B.B. on the building's helipad. His vengeance is complete, and he falls to his knees, ready to die. He sees a vision of his wife and child smiling at him, and suddenly comes to, as the sun cuts through the clouds and a SWAT team surrounds him.
A post-credits scene shows Max and Mona in a bar. Mona shows Max a newspaper with Aesir CEO Nicole Horne's picture on the front. Max and Mona then look at one another with understanding and renewed purpose.
Cast
Mark Wahlberg as Max Payne: An NYPD officer out for revenge against his family's killer. When Wahlberg first read the script he thought it was "awesome", but was wary after finding out it was based on a video game. While describing his role, Wahlberg has said, "It's probably one of the edgier roles I've played but also the most layered. Here's a very happy guy who worked a dismal job, and had a beautiful family. But the beauty in his life was taken away. He just goes on a rampage. It's all driven by emotion." Mila Kunis as Mona Sax: A Russian-American assassin who seeks revenge for the murder of her sister. Kunis had played the video game before reading the script but did not progress very far into it. Kunis' favorite part in preparing for the role was weapons training and safety which included disassembling and rebuilding an MP5K blindfolded. Beau Bridges as B.B. Hensley: A former cop and the ex-partner of Max Payne's father, now employed as head of security for the Aesir Corporation. Bridges had never heard of the game but since his children were excited to learn about his role they convinced him it would be a big movie. Kate Burton as Nicole Horne: CEO of Aesir Corporation. Ludacris as Lieutenant Jim Bravura: An officer assigned to Internal Affairs who is investigating Max and leads the effort to arrest him. The role was originally written for a 60-year-old man, but after auditioning, Ludacris got the call from Moore and had the part. Chris O'Donnell as Jason Colvin: A top executive of the Aesir Corporation, described as Nicole Horne's "right-hand man". Nelly Furtado as Christa Balder: Wife of Alex Balder. Donal Logue as Alex Balder: An NYPD detective and Max Payne's former partner. Amaury Nolasco as Jack Lupino: A former Gunnery Sergeant in the United States Marine Corps who became one of the earliest test subjects for Valkyr. He subsequently started trafficking Valkyr for profit. Olga Kurylenko as Natasha Sax: Mona's sister. Joel Gordon as Owen Green: A Valkyr addict and Natasha's friend. Jamie Hector as Lincoln DeNeuf: A Haitian crime boss and contact of Mona's. Stephen R. Hart as Tattoo Artist. James McCaffrey as Jack Taliente, an FBI agent, in an uncredited role. McCaffrey provides the voice of Max Payne in the video game series. Marianthi Evans as Michelle Payne: Max Payne's wife, who was murdered along with her baby daughter.
Production
Development The 2001 video game Max Payne was optioned by the production company Collision Entertainment to produce a live-action film adaptation. By April 2002, distributors Dimension Films and Abandon Entertainment were attached to the project. Shawn Ryan, the creator of the television series The Shield, was hired to write a script for the planned film. By June 2005, without production starting, Collision Entertainment had taken the project to 20th Century Fox. In November 2007, with a script written by Beau Thorne, Fox announced John Moore as the director and Mark Wahlberg as the title star.
Filming Filming began in Toronto on March 2, 2008, and wrapped by May 9, 2008. Shooting the film in 35 mm 3-perf, several different areas around Toronto were used for multiple locations in the movie, including the old Daily Bread food bank building at Bathurst & Lakeshore. It took a full week to shoot just the final gunfight inside the Aesir Headquarters using more than 6,000 squibs.
Upon finding the building for the Aesir Headquarters it took eight weeks in pre-production to build the set and another week for the special effects team to install the squibs. The outside top half of the building was completely made of CG, by Mr.X, giving it a more high tech look. Using Google Earth they were able to find out the building's geometry. No location could be found for a rooftop helipad so a set was built in front of a green screen. Soho VFX attached the helipad to the building and set it atop New York City.
In order to recreate the bullet time used in the games without using a complex camera setup, the technique used is called "Boom Vision". Moore used Vision Research's Phantom HD digital camera which takes 1,000 fps. When the video is played back, it gives the illusion of slow motion, a method of high-speed photography. The technique was used for two action scenes and required the construction of a special rigging that had the camera on a propeller that spun at two revolutions per second. The crew was not allowed near it while it was being used for fear of damaging the camera or getting injured. Soho FX then blended the thousands of shots into the other footage during post-production.
A contest was held between visual effects teams to see who could create the best drug-induced hallucinations. A reel was shot from actual set locations, it also included footage in front of a green screen with a stand-in for Wahlberg. The reel was then sent to ten different teams where Canadian company Spin created the best demo reel. To win Spin changed the falling snow into burning embers over a matte New York skyline painting. During the climactic hallucination scene, the entire room was to be torn apart from the ceiling down around Max. A camera on a track circled Max and Spin later "recreated the ceiling in CG, so it could break away and reveal the Valkyrie world above."
Moore gave the approval on Valkyrie designed by illustrators Chris Roswarne and Rob McCallum. As a point of reference and to limit the use of CG a Valkyrie suit and makeup were worn by performer Mako Hindy. Moore "wanted the Valkyries to have a slow motion quality to them, almost as if they were underwater." During the 15 weeks of post-production the Valkyries were further developed by Spin to support this. Using Maya, 3DS Max, and ZBrush they were able to create the Valkyries and have control over their wings. The artists sometimes had full control over each individual feather. They had to overcome the darkness of the film as it made it more difficult to track each object. Spin also handled atmospheric CG and the CG matte backdrop elements.
Rating
Though filmed with the intention of receiving a PG-13 rating, Max Payne received an unofficial R rating by the MPAA on September 5, 2008. Moore, angered that the equally dark The Dark Knight received a PG-13 rating when Payne received an R, said "The MPAA changes their rules willy-nilly and it depends on who's seeing your actual movie at the time. It's very difficult to get a hold of what's acceptable."
On September 22, 2008, a trailer confirmed a PG-13 rating, "for violence including intense shooting sequences, drug content, some sexuality, and brief strong language." Director John Moore confirmed in an interview with GameDaily's John Gaudiosi that the film was awarded the PG-13 rating without any major changes being made to the film. Describing the re-editing process Moore stated, "We trimmed some frames more for the sake of trimming frames than anything, but we got the rating without any major changes at all."