Kick-Ass is a 2010 superhero black comedy film directed by Matthew Vaughn from a screenplay by Jane Goldman and Vaughn. It is based on the comic book of the same name by Mark Millar and John Romita Jr., and is the first film in the Kick-Ass franchise.
It tells the story of an ordinary teenager, Dave Lizewski (Aaron Johnson), who sets out to become a real-life superhero, calling himself "Kick-Ass". Dave gets caught up in a bigger fight when he meets Big Daddy (Nicolas Cage), a former cop who, in his quest to bring down the crime boss Frank D'Amico (Mark Strong), has trained his eleven-year-old daughter (Chloë Grace Moretz) to be the ruthless vigilante Hit-Girl.
The film was released in the United Kingdom on 26 March 2010, by Universal Pictures, and in the United States on 16 April, by Lionsgate. Despite having generated some controversy for its profanity and strong violence performed by a child, Kick-Ass was well received by both critics and audiences. In 2011 it won the Empire Award for Best British Film. The film has gained a large cult following since its release on DVD and Blu-ray.
A sequel, written and directed by Jeff Wadlow and produced by Vaughn, was released in August 2013, with Johnson, Mintz-Plasse, and Moretz reprising their roles. In January 2024, Vaughn announced that a third film, titled Stuntnuts Does School Fight and directed by Damien Walters, had secretly been greenlit, cast, and had completed filming.
Plot Dave Lizewski is an awkward teenager who lives in Staten Island with his widowed father. Inspired by comic books and wondering why there are no real-life superheroes, Dave modifies a wetsuit to become a superhero but is attacked and critically injured while confronting muggers. Having some bones replaced with metal, Dave gains an enhanced pain tolerance. A rumor spreads in school that Dave is gay; following this, he and his crush, Katie Deauxma, develop a close platonic friendship after she approaches him based on the rumor.
Dave gains notoriety after rescuing a man from a gang attack. Calling himself "Kick-Ass", he starts a Myspace account and is contacted by Katie, who is being harassed by a drug dealer. Kick-Ass is outnumbered by the dealer and his henchmen but is saved by two costumed vigilantes, Big Daddy and his daughter Hit-Girl.
Big Daddy is really Damon Macready, a former police officer who was framed by Mafia boss Frank D'Amico and imprisoned. His wife committed suicide, leaving behind their daughter, Mindy. Upon his release, Damon trained himself and Mindy to get revenge on D'Amico by sabotaging his drug operations and stealing his money.
D'Amico targets Kick-Ass, who has been framed for killing his men. His son, Chris, convinces him that he can lure Kick-Ass into a trap by posing as a vigilante called "Red Mist". After meeting Kick-Ass, the plan goes awry when Red Mist finds his father's warehouse in flames and his men killed. A hidden camera reveals Big Daddy caused the carnage.
Dave reveals to Katie that he is Kick-Ass and that he is not gay, confesses his attraction to her, and pledges to give up crime-fighting. However, he is coaxed into another meeting with Red Mist, who tricks him into revealing Big Daddy and Hit-Girl's location. Hit-Girl is seemingly shot dead while Kick-Ass and Big Daddy are captured by D'Amico's men, then tortured and beaten on a live internet broadcast. Hit-Girl (who wore a bulletproof vest) raids the hideout and kills all of D'Amico's men but is too late to save Big Daddy, who was set on fire and dies from his burns.
Kick-Ass and Hit-Girl resolve to take down D'Amico for good. They violently infiltrate D'Amico's penthouse, culminating in Hit-Girl dueling D'Amico and Kick-Ass fighting Red Mist. D'Amico overpowers Hit-Girl and prepares to execute her, but Kick-Ass manages to subdue Red Mist and kill D'Amico by blasting him out of a window with a bazooka. Following their victory, Dave and Mindy unmask themselves and properly greet each other.
Dave and Mindy retire from crime-fighting; Dave pursues a relationship with Katie; and Mindy, under the guardianship of Damon's former partner, Marcus Williams, is enrolled at Dave's school. Meanwhile, Red Mist dons a new suit and plans revenge against Kick-Ass.
Cast
Aaron Johnson as Dave Lizewski / Kick-Ass, a high school geek who seeks to be a superhero Christopher Mintz-Plasse as Chris D'Amico / Red Mist, son of crime boss Frank D'Amico Chloë Grace Moretz as Mindy Macready / Hit-Girl, daughter of Big Daddy, raised as a vigilante since age 5 Mark Strong as Frank D'Amico, a New York mafioso with the city in his grip Nicolas Cage as Damon Macready / Big Daddy, an ex-cop turned vigilante seeking payback against Frank D'Amico for destroying his family Lyndsy Fonseca as Katie Deauxma, Dave Lizewski's girlfriend Clark Duke as Marty Eisenberg, Dave Lizewski's friend Evan Peters as Todd Haynes, Dave Lizewski's friend Sophie Wu as Erika Cho, Katie's friend Omari Hardwick as Sergeant Marcus Williams, Macready's former partner Stu Riley as Huge Goon Michael Rispoli as Big Joe, Frank D'Amico's enforcer Dexter Fletcher as Cody Jason Flemyng as Lobby Goon Xander Berkeley as Detective Gigante, NYPD Sergeant on D'Amico's payroll Kofi Natei as Rasul, a drug dealer who was causing problems for Katie Corey Johnson as Sporty Goon Adrian Martinez as Ginger Goon Katrena Rochell as Female Junkie Randall Batinkoff as Tre Fernandez Tim Plester as Danil Omar Soriano as Leroy Garrett M. Brown as Mr. Lizewski, Dave's father Elizabeth McGovern as Mrs. Lizewski, Dave's deceased mother Yancy Butler as Angie D'Amico, Frank D'Amico's wife Deborah Twiss as Mrs. Zane, Dave's teacher Craig Ferguson as himself
Series-creator Millar, a native of Scotland, asked Scottish television children's-show host Glen Michael to make a cameo appearance although his role was cut from the film. Millar was also set to make a cameo as a Scottish alcoholic but the scene was cut from the film. WCBS-TV news reporters Maurice DuBois, Dana Tyler, and Lou Young make cameo appearances. Marvel Comics creator Stan Lee filmed a cameo that was ultimately cut.
An image of Matthew Vaughn's wife, model Claudia Schiffer, appears prominently on a billboard poster.Important Easter Eggs To Look For While Watching Kick-Ass Gawker Media John Romita Jr. appears without his face being shown: "I was a barista. ... [T]hey asked me to look at the camera, then turn and turn the television on with a remote control. And then they edited out my face! I laughed and laughedI was the only authentic New Yorker in the scene and they edited out my face for not looking authentic enough! Then the producer, Tarquin Pack ... changed my first name to Tony: Tony Romita. 'Why'd you do that?' I asked. 'Well, "Johnny Romita" wasn't tough enough.'"
Production Development
The rights to a film version of the first volume of the comic book series were sold before the first issue was published. See notes by Millar in Kick-Ass #3: "As you read these words in early June, an official announcement should have been made on the movie, too, with the director name and a 2009 release date inked into the cinema schedule." Developed in parallel, the film writers took a different story direction, to reach many of the same conclusions. Comic book writer Mark Millar acknowledges the differences, explaining that a comic usually has eight acts, while a film usually has a three-act structure. Millar initially considered having American Jesus adapted and communicated to Matthew Vaughn about that concept, but Vaughn switched to Kick Ass after Millar mentioned it and sent some materials to Vaughn.
Vaughn said that, "We wrote the script and the comic at the same time so it was a very sort of collaborative, organic process. I met [Millar] at the premiere of Stardust. We got on really well. I knew who he was and what he had done but I didn't know him. He pitched me the idea. I said, 'That's great!' He then wrote a synopsis. I went, 'That's great, let's go do it now! You write the comic, I'll write the script. Jane Goldman, one of the screenwriters, said that when she works with Vaughn she does the "construction work" and the "interior designing" while Vaughn acts as the "architect".
Millar said that screenwriters Goldman and Vaughn had made a "chick flick", having placed more emphasis on the character emotions and particularly in having softened the character of Katie Deauxma.(Video) Millar stated that a film audience would have difficulty accepting Dave and Katie not being together, while a comic audience would more easily accept that idea. Frank Lovece of Film Journal International said that Katie is "much less Mean Girls" in the film than in the comic and that the romance between Dave and Katie "proves a needed counterbalance to the otherwise pervasive sense of optimism being stripped away layer by layer, down below angry cynicism and headed straight down the hole to nihilism". Kenneth Turan of the Los Angeles Times said "the romance provides an appealing backdrop that the more unnerving aspects of the film play out against". Other changes included having Red Mist be known to be a secret antagonist from the start, as well as making him less outright villainous, and D'Amico's mob initially thinking Kick-Ass is the one slaughtering their men.
In the original comic-book, Big Daddy is characterised not as an ex-cop, but as a former accountant who had been motivated to fight crime by a desire to escape from his life and by his love of comic books. In the film, his purported origin and motivations are genuine: writer Mark Millar stated that the revelation about Big Daddy's background would not have worked in the film adaptation and "would have ruined the movie".
The comic's artist, John Romita, Jr., stated that Big Daddy's story in the film "works better stopping short ... You love him better in the film".
The climax to the film differs significantly from the comics, with the use of the jetpack and rocket launcher: Millar called this "necessary" as "we're building up so much stuff that we needed some Luke Skywalker blowing up the Death Star moment". Comic writer Stephen Grant argued that the film "cheated" on its premise of a "real life" superhero by having these increasingly fantastic events and that this is "why it works. That's where much of the humor comes from ... when the film finally makes the notion [the fantasy] explicit we're already so deep into the magician's act that our instinct is to play along".
Vaughn initially went to Sony, which distributed Layer Cake, but he rejected calls to tone down the violence. Other studios expressed interest but wanted to make the characters older. In particular, studios wanted to change Hit-Girl's character into an adult. Goldman said that while studio executives said that it would be less offensive to portray Hit-Girl as a teenager, Goldman argued that it would have been more offensive since, as a teenager, Hit-Girl would have been sexualized. Goldman said that Hit-Girl was not supposed to be sexualized.Busch, Jenna. "How Kick-Ass' killer Hit Girl is like Alien's Ripley ". Blastr (Syfy). 6 April 2010. Retrieved 28 January 2011.
Vaughn had a little trouble adapting to film, as the film had no studio. The big studios doubted the success of an adaptation as a violent superhero, which made the film be independently financed, but this gave him the freedom to make the film the way he imagined, without having to worry about high censorship. Vaughn believed enough in the project to raise the money himself. Christopher Mintz-Plasse said that the creators of the film were wondering whether a distributor would pick up the movie. On the set, Vaughn jokingly referred to Kick-Ass as something that was going to be "the most expensive home movie I ever made". On 18 August 2009, it was announced that the film had been acquired for distribution in the United States and Canada by Lionsgate.