Repo Man (1984)

In director/scriptwriter Alex Cox's off-beat, debut cult film with a punk/New Wave sensibility suitable for the mid 1980s - it was a hybrid sci-fi black comedy crime film similar in plot to Kiss Me Deadly (1955) (and its nuclear Pandora's box) - and later inspired the glowing suitcase in Pulp Fiction (1994), in its tale about car repossessions in Los Angeles and possible extra-terrestrials. It featured many quotable but nonsensical lines of dialogue, such as: "Let's go get sushi and not pay," "The more you drive, the less intelligent you are," "I don't want no Commies in my car. No Christians either," and "John Wayne was a fag."

The low-budget and irreverent independent film Repo Man (although distributed by Universal Pictures) was executive-produced by The Monkees' rock band performer Michael Nesmith - it was his first credited role as the executive producer of a feature film, after his earlier Timerider: The Adventure of Lyle Swann (1982).

The film failed at the box-office for many reasons, not the least of which was its confusing and amateurish plot, but was revived by its best-selling punk-rock soundtrack (featuring Black Flag, The Circle Jerks, Fear, Suicidal Tendencies, The Plugz, and Iggy Pop) and its reemergence on VHS tapes. Cox's under-appreciated film was a brutal satire that criticized American society and its consumerism (and tacky advertising), greedy James Baker-like tele-evangelists, and exhibited youth's rebelliousness and disaffected disdain over the social, political, and racial norms of the time. Many of the characters were named after popular, low-priced beer brands, for example: Bud, Miller, Oly, and Lite. And many depictions of consumable products were seen to be packaged with bland generic labels (i.e., "FOOD," "BEER," "DRINK," "ALL PURPOSE DETERGENT," or "CORN FLAKES") - to comment on life's oppressive plainness.

The film's poster presented a fairly succinct synopsis of the plot:

"Meet Otto. He's a clean-cut kid in a dirty business. He's a Repo Man. He steals cars legally. Now, he's out to repossess a '64 Chevy Malibu...with an amazing reward of $20,000. But, Otto is not alone. There are others who want the car and will do anything to get it. The risks are great, because hidden in the trunk is something so incredible it could destroy them all. We'll give you a hint... it glows in the dark."

REPO MAN ... it's 4 A.M., do you know where your car is?

• the opening title credits to the sound of an Iggy Pop tune ("Repo Man Theme Song") were presented with monochromatic fluorescent green outlines on a road map, viewed with static jump cuts on a 1980s computer monitor, traveling from Los Alamos, NM (the famed site for secret nuclear research) south to Albuquerque, NM and then heading westward on Interstate 40 (and/or Route 66 and other smaller state highways) through Arizona, and passing by Meteor Crater near Winslow, AZ, Seligman, Kingman and Yucca, before entering into California (at Needles), and ending up just east of the ghost-town of Goffs, CA on a secondary road (just off Hwy 95) on the outskirts of the Mojave Desert - marked by a blinking bulls-eye
• in the film's classic opening sequence - J. Frank Parnell (Fox Harris), the driver of a dilapidated tan-colored 1964 Chevrolet Chevelle Malibu sedan was on a journey from Los Alamos, NM to California's Mojave Desert; he wore black rimmed glasses (one eye was clear and the other patched); he was pursued and pulled over for his weaving and erratic driving by a highway motorcycle cop (Varnum Honey); [Note: The rear license plate read KBB-283]; the cop asked: "What you got in the trunk?" and despite a warning from the spaced-out Frank about his cargo: ("You don't wanna look in there"), the cop asked for the car keys
• when the cop opened the trunk as Frank watched from his rear-view mirror, he was immediately vaporized by a nuclear blast down to his semi-melted, smoking leather boots [Note: A similar scene was earlier seen in Timerider (1982), co-written and produced (uncredited) by Michael Nesmith; also note how the rear license plate changed to 127-GBH]
• without getting out of the car to retrieve the car keys, Frank drove off and continued his westward drive to Los Angeles; the opening suggested an iconic 'Holy Grail' existence of a glowing white-light thing (a weapons-grade plutonium, radioactive neutron bomb or the remains of four dead aliens?) being transported by an insane government agent
• the film's central teenaged character was 18 year-old young punk rocker Otto Maddox (Emilio Estevez) who was introduced at his job in Los Angeles, CA; he was a nihilistic, delinquent, disaffected grocery store (Pik 'N Pay) stock clerk, who was viewed stacking a display of generic cans of "YELLOW CLING SLICED PEACHES"; he was working alongside his nerdy, simpleton co-worker-friend Kevn (Zander Schloss) who was annoyingly singing a 7-Up ad jingle: ("I'm feeling 7-up. Feeling 7-up. I'm feeling 7-up. It's a crisp refreshing feeling, crystal clear and light. America's drinking 7-up and it sure feels right. Feeling lucky 7")
• Otto was becoming aggravated by Kevin's singing, and was also warned by his boss Mr. Humphries (Charles Hopkins) for being late on the job, and for not paying attention to spacing the cans properly; Otto became belligerent and insubordinate by cursing at his boss ("F--k you!"); when Kevin reacted with a chuckle, Otto shoved him into the display of peach cans, and shot double middle-fingers at the store's security guard (Luis Contreras) before storming off; Kevin also lost his job for laughing at Otto's misfortune

Otto Fired from His Pik 'N Pay Clerk Job by His Boss For Insubordination

• afterwards, Otto was slam-dancing at a raucous, back-alley warehouse punk club-party, where he met up with his best friend - recently-released from the "slammer" Duke (Dick Rude); shortly later in a house party (in Kevin's parents' house!) after Otto returned upstairs after going to get a beer, he caught his punk-rock girlfriend Debbi (Jennifer Balgobin) having sex with Duke - her new sex partner; upset by his romantic break-up and his job firing, the disillusioned, disenfranchised and frustrated Otto sat by railroad tracks as dawn approached, halfway singing the lyrics to Black Flag's "TV Party" ("...We're dedicated to our favorite shows Saturday Night Live! Monday Night Football! Dallas! Jeffersons! Gilligan's Islands! Flintstones!...")

Otto's Girlfriend Debbi With Punk Rocker Duke	At Dawn by RR Tracks, the Disillusioned Otto Was Getting Drunk	Bud Parked by the Side of Road
Otto Offered $25 by Bud to Drive A Car Out of the "Bad Area"	Bud Attacked by the Repossessed Car's Angry True Owner	The Car With NM Plates Swerving In Front of Bud's and Otto's Cars on the Freeway

• in the early morning, laid-back Bud (Harry Dean Stanton) was parked in a Chevy Caprice, and noticed Otto wandering aimlessly in a dangerous Hispanic neighborhood in LA; he pulled up next to him and offered him $25 dollars - to assist him by driving his sick and pregnant 'old lady's' car (a white 1978 Oldsmobile Cutlass Salon) - who was about to deliver twins at a hospital - to get her car out of the "bad area"; while following Bud's car out of the area, Otto realized something was up when the car's white-haired Hispanic owner (George Sawaya) and his wife emerged and attacked him; as they drove on the freeway, the '64 Chevy Malibu with NM plates (with its left blinker on) swerved to its right in front of them

Master 'Repo-Man" Bud (Harry Dean Stanton)	Oly (Tom Finnegan)	Cop Otto Plettschner (Richard Foronjy)
Phone-Receptionist/Secretary Marlene (Vonetta McGee)	Unorthodox Black Man Lite (Sy Richardson)	Hippie Mechanic and Conspiracy Theorist Miller (Tracey Walter)
Bud Interacting With The Helping Hand Acceptance Corporation Office Employees

• Otto ended up following Bud to the parking lot and the offices of the Helping Hand Acceptance Corporation (a predatory 'repossession' car company that seized cars from deadbeat and delinquent debtors); inside the front office, an angry black repo victim and pimp Miner (Jon St. Elwood) and his girlfriend Delilah (Kelitta Kelly) were arguing with repo officer Oly (Tom Finnegan) at one of the desks; Miner paid cash to retrieve his Cadillac before leaving; Otto realized that he had been swindled by Bud's deceitful ruse to repossess the Hispanic man's car
• Otto became contemptuously defiant ("You're all repo men!") and poured out the generic Beer he was given by Oly; when master 'repo-man' Bud offered Otto a job as his apprentice: ("What do you say, kid? Were always on the look out for a few good men"): Otto turned him down: ("Screw that! I ain't gonna be no repo man, no way"); the office's receptionist Marlene reminded Bud (who had a fake ID stating his age was 21) that he was already on the payroll as she handed him $25 dollars for the job: ("It's too late - you already are"); as Otto left the lot, mechanic Miller (Tracey Walter) handed him a Christmas-pine tree air freshner ("You find one in every car. You'll see"}
• meanwhile, in the Mojave Desert, men in white Hazmat radiation-proof suits were searching an area with a local Sheriff (David Chung) and a woman dressed in black - later identified as eccentric alien-seeker Agent Rogersz (Susan Barnes) with a white-gloved, metal left hand - to investigate the motorcycle cop's death; the Sheriff asked: "What could have done that to him? Gasoline? Napalm?"; the woman responded: "It happens sometimes. People just explode. Natural causes"; in a van with two blonde government agents also dressed in black, she was notified via a computer screen that their suspect was partly-confirmed to be on West Coast (possibly LA)
• now unemployed and distressed by the aimless job options available to them, while visiting an employment office and perusing newspaper listings with Kevin, Otto paid a visit to his ex-hippie, catatonic, stoned-out marijuana-smoking parents (Jonathon Hugger and Sharon Gregg) who lived in Edge City [Note: Edge City was the name of the film's production company]; they were seen mesmerized watching a TV broadcast of preacher Reverend Larry (Bruce White): "Destroy the twin evils of godless communism abroad and liberal humanism at home"; as Otto was eating directly out of an opened can of "FOOD," he heard the preacher admitting: "I do want your money. Because God wants your money"
• Otto discovered that his father had been convinced to give his promised HS graduation money reward (of $1,000 for completing HS, to fund a trip to Europe) to the crooked, right-wing tele-evangelist Reverend Larry's telethon, to send Bibles to El Salvador, in exchange for having their names inscribed on “The Honor Roll of the Chariots of Fire": (Father: "It was a gift from all of us, jointly")
• in the next scene, the restless Otto had changed his mind about Bud's job offer and was riding with Bud, who explained he would be paid on commission; as part of Otto's job training, Bud described some of the requirements of the job; he had to dress like a detective to scare off people who might think he was carrying a gun ("Only an asshole gets killed for a car"); and he would also work mostly at night and be sleep-deprived; as Bud and Otto snorted a line of coke to keep awake, he explained the "Repo Code" of honor: "Never broke into a car. Never hot-wired a car, kid. I never broke into a trunk. I shall not cause harm to any vehicle nor the personal contents thereof. Nor through inaction let that vehicle or the personal contents thereof come to harm. That's what I call the Repo Code, kid. Don't forget it - etch it in your brain. Not many people got a code to live by anymore"
• then as Bud pointed to a group of four rowdy tennis players having their vehicle towed by Lite and Miller, he added: "Ordinary f--kin' people I hate 'em....See an ordinary person spends his life avoiding tense situations. Repo man spends his life getting into tense situations"; Bud proposed going to buy booze: ("Let's go get a drink") and literally bought two 4-packs of "DRINK" in a liquor store; after leaving, Otto's trio of thieving punk friends (Otto's ex-girlfriend Debbi, Duke, and Archie (Miguel Sandoval)), who had chosen a path of crime, rose up from behind the counter in the midst of robbing the liquor store owner
• Otto had been easily lured to work in the exploitative, exciting and unpredictable world of automobile repossession populated by wild, rule-breaking desperados; the co-workers at Otto's new job became his 'family' of sorts - they were a number of eccentric, mercenary, rebellious and paranoid characters who shared a certain camaraderie and clannish relationship with each other, and the world-weary, laconic Bud was becoming Otto's surrogate father figure
• meanwhile in the middle of the night, Parnell's '64 Chevy Malibu drove by the disabled van parked on an LA bridge, with Hazmat suit-wearing men looking under the hood
• while out driving around in the LA River basin, Bud and Otto were confronted by two used car swindlers and degenerate scam-artists - the hated rival Rodriguez Brothers (Lagarto (Del Zamora) and Napoleon "Napo" (Eddie Velez)) - who challenged them in their open red convertible to a car race; after the short chase, the brothers drove off, and Bud reacted: "Repo man's always intense"; Otto was happily surprised: "Gee Bud. You never told me it was gonna be like this, man. Cops and robbers. (laughter) Real live car chases (laughter)"

Rival Competition From the Rodriguez Brothers - Racing Them in the LA River Basin

• when they returned to another liquor store for more drinks, it had also just been robbed by the inept punk gang members; as they awaited the clerk, Bud warned Otto about their competitive rivals - the used car sales lot of the Rodriguez Brothers, who sold Helping Hand's repossessed car at low prices (with high interest rates) in order to keep the turn-over rate of repo-cars high: ("Two notorious delinquents currently responsible for at least thirty vehicles in the field")
• while Otto was on a job with Lite, who considered the Rodriguez Brothers as "car thieves just like us," he learned about Lite's unorthodox method with females - to scare them with a dead rat in a paper bag ("It never fails"); although when attempted by Otto on a Ms. Magruder (Sue Kiel) seated in her 1975 MG B Roadster, he was maced in the face before she drove off
• one day outside a coin-op laundromat, Bud expressed his disdain for irresponsible rich people - referring to delinquent brokerage consultant Bruce I. Pearson (Dale Reynolds): "I've never understood it....The f--kin' millionaires. They never pay their bills"; Otto quickly repossessed the man's huge flashy red 1976 Cadillac El Dorado convertible parked out in front of the laundromat and drove off
• while driving the Cadillac back to the yard, Otto picked up cute brunette Leila (Olivia Barash) after noticing her running down a sidewalk; he bragged to her that he was a "repo-man" - ("It's a repossesser. I take back cars from dildos who don't pay their bills. Cool huh?"); during the ride, she ducked down to avoid being spotted by the two blonde, sinister-looking Government Agents wearing black and driving in a nearby car ("If they see me, they'll kill me"); wearing a 'Smiley Face' button on her dress and also on a similar wristwatch, she showed Otto a crumpled and cryptic photograph she had in her possession, and claimed that it depicted the bodies of four radioactive dead aliens - actually, it looked like a picture of condoms filled with water and wearing grass skirts; Otto laughed: "It looks like sausage"

Hitchhiker Leila (Olivia Barash) - Employed at the United Fruitcake Outlet
Leila's Picture of 4 Dead Aliens	UFO (United Fruitcake Outlet)	Quick Make-Out Scene in Backseat of Parked Car

• Leila predicted that the photo would be on the cover of every major tabloid newspaper in two days time; she also claimed that she was part of a secret underground network of renegades who believed in the existence of ETs or extraterrestrials and life in outer space; one of the scientist's in their "secret sect" had recently smuggled the alien corpses from the Los Alamos AF base in the trunk of a 1964 Chevy Malibu; she also told how the car went missing and it had to be found soon: ("We've got to find him"); the group was preparing a press conference to tell the world about the aliens, and was conducting a search (a 'repo' search in a sense) for the car, the scientist and the aliens
• Otto dropped the ET-activist and conspiracy theorist Leila off at her place of work - the United Fruitcake Outlet (with initials UFO); after they briefly chatted, she coyly hinted she was OK with making out with him - she invited Otto to get in the backseat of his repo car with her; the camera was positioned from across the street in the sped-up time-lapsed segment, with squeals of implied sex heard from them

A Search Was Announced for the Missing Chevy Malibu, and the Aliens in Its Car Trunk
$20,000 Bounty Offered for the '64 Chevy Malibu	Leila's Picture of Dead Aliens On Front Page of Tabloid

• as Leila had stated, a $20,000 bounty 'wanted notice' and offer (from XX Finance) went out for the Chevy Malibu from the renegade underground network - it was the reward for locating the car (and its trunk's contents of stolen alien corpses); Otto had just returned to Helping Hand, and was at his desk and reading The News - with the headlines: "Top Professor's Startling Discovery...E.T.s Will Land Any Day Now - Aliens Will Bring Joy & Happiness to all the Earth"; the competitive Rodriguez brothers, Bud, and others learned of the reward and went on a mission to claim the money
• on another job to repossess a red 1970 Pontiac Firebird, Otto (with a Slim Jim) and Lite (with a briefcase) broke into the car - the car alarm went off as they hot-wired the car; before speeding off, Lite required Otto to wear his seat-belt: ("I don't ride with anybody unless they wear their seatbelt. It's one of my rules"); Otto found Lite's .45 caliber handgun weapon in the briefcase, used to scare-off car owners (by firing only blanks) (Lite boasted: "I'd kill anybody who crosses me"); Otto had also been given Lite's self-help book Dioretix ("The Science of Matter Over Mind") and was urged to read it: "You'd better read it and quick. That book will change your life. Found it in a Maseratti in Beverly Hills" [Note: The book was a reference to Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard's book Dianetics]
• meanwhile in a vacant lot, spaced-out, screwy Miller, a wacko mechanic working at Helping Hand, delivered a bizarre philosophical monologue about a "lattice of coincidence" while burning clothes (and Otto's self-help book) in an oil drum with co-worker Otto: "A lot o' people don't realize what's really going on. They view life as a bunch o' unconnected incidents 'n things. They don't realize that there's this, like, lattice o' coincidence that lays on top o' everything. Give you an example; show you what I mean: suppose you're thinkin' about a plate o' shrimp. Suddenly somebody'll say, like, plate, or shrimp, or plate o' shrimp out of the blue, no explanation. No point in lookin' for one, either. It's all part of a cosmic unconciousness"
• Miller went on to describe other elements that were tied together, including the Bermuda Triangle, and UFOs, flying saucers and spaceships that he believed were time machines that took people into the past; he ended by summarizing: "People get so hung up on specifics. They miss out on seeing the whole thing"; he also stated his preference for transportation - the bus, and that he refused or was unable to drive: ("The more you drive, the less intelligent you are")
• the sickened lunatic Los Alamos scientist Parnell - who was driving the 1964 Chevy Malibu - had arrived in LA and was scheduled to meet other UFO compatriots; however, he had become weakened and sickened by the radioactivity; when he stopped for gas at a gas station (and was vomiting), his car was seized by the predatory repo Rodriguez Brothers; the car quickly changed hands a few more times; while the two brothers stopped for sodas and called double-agent Marlene from a phone booth, their parked Chevy Malibu was stolen by the three thieving punks who were robbing a nearby pharmaceutical business, to use it as their getaway car
• later, Parnell came upon his car at a night club, and challenged the three punks into opening the trunk (Duke burned his hand, but Archie was entirely incinerated); Duke and Debbi were scared away and went off to commit more crimes: (Duke: "Let's go get sushi and not pay"), allowing Parnell to reclaim and take possession of his car
• in an outdoor scene at Helping Hand, Miller told his beer-drinking buddies (who disagreed with him): "John Wayne was a fag...He was, too, you boys. I installed two-way mirrors in his pad in Brentwood, and he come to the door in a dress"
• a frantic search for the car was conducted by many competing groups: Otto and Bud (and their Helping Hand colleagues including Miller, Oly, and Lite), the Rodriguez Brothers, Leila who was kidnapped with Otto by government agents and then cooperated with Agent Rogersz, and the trio of crime-obsessed punks (now reduced to only two - Duke and Debbi); as a result of Bud starting a fight by threatening the Rodriguez Brothers with a baseball bat, a harrassment suit was filed against Helping Hand and Bud was fired; Bud was angry at Otto for not backing him up
• on his own, Otto chased down the lobotomized "loonie" Parnell (whose mind was 'eroding') and was offered a hitched ride in the Malibu; during the aimless trip, Otto was told about Parnell's tormented scientist 'friend' who invented the neutron bomb and requested a lobotomy after realizing the consequences of nuclear war: ("Ra-di-a-tion, yes indeed! You hear the most outrageous lies about it. Half-baked goggle-boxed do-gooders telling everybody it’s bad for you. Pernicious nonsense! Everybody could stand a hundred chest X-rays a year. They ought to have 'em, too. When they canceled the project, it almost did me in. One day my mind was literally a-burst. The next day nothing. Swept away. But I showed them. I had a lobotomy in the end....Friend of mine had one. Designer of the neutron bomb. You ever hear of the neutron bomb? Destroys people - leaves buildings standing. Fits in a suitcase. It's so small, no one knows it's there until - BLAMMO. Eyes melt, skin explodes, everybody dead. So immoral, working on the thing can drive you mad. That's what happened to this friend of mine. So he had a lobotomy. Now he's well again")
• soon after, Parnell passed out, collapsed and died from radiation sickness due to prolonged exposure; Otto dragged Parnell's body out of the car, left him on a park bench, and drove back to the Helping Hand lot, where he parked the Malibu, locked the gate and went on a search for Bud; Otto didn't realize that Bud was lying in wait there at the lot to resteal and then hide the car; after hiding the vehicle, Bud reunited with Otto
• while Bud and Otto were getting a drink at the local liquor store, Bud was shot in the head during a botched robbery committed by Debbi and Duke, and he was hospitalized; Duke was lethally injured during the shoot-out and Otto comforted him as he slowly died
• afterwards, Otto was captured and tortured by the government who questioned him about the Malibu; in the film's crazed and climactic conclusion - consisting of many twists and turns regarding the car's location and possession, many of the characters reconverged, including government agents and Agent Rogersz, Marlene, the Rodriguez brothers, the repo-men, UFO scientists, and even the Bible-waving televangelist
• Otto teamed up with the Rodriguez Brothers to help Bud sneak away from his hospital room to escape capture by the agents; Bud retrieved the Chevy Malibu (he was the only one who knew its whereabouts - it was in the hospital parking garage) and drove back to the Helping Hand's repossession lot
• as Bud defiantly sat behind the wheel in the glowing bright green Malibu, Otto warned Bud to be sensible and give up the car: "Only an asshole gets killed over a car"; the defiant Bud with a handgun, who attempted to defend his claim to the car, was machine-gunned at long range by a sniper-agent in a circling helicopter and then slowly died in Otto's arms

		Bud Machine-Gunned by a Sniper in a Helicopter
Bud Seated in the Glowing Malibu in the Helping Hand's Lot

• as Otto held on tightly to the dying Bud, the Malibu (with sparks) emitted a mysterious, blinding light force field (a parody of the climax of Spielberg's Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977)), and held back or incinerated a trio of holy men and the agents wearing flame-retardant Hazmat suits who tried to get close; the tele-evangelist's Bible was also struck by sparks and burst into flames

Bright Green Malibu	Miller at the Wheel	Glowing and Levitating Car
Otto's Wide-Eyed Amazement	The Speeding Car	Cosmic Ride

• in the film's final moments, Helping Hand mechanic Miller (a believer in aliens - a time traveler?) was the only one to approach the car; he was easily able to slide behind the wheel to go for a "spin" even though he didn't know how to drive; he summoned Otto to join him as a passenger; Otto left the dying Bud, and also ignored Leila who claimed they had a "relationship" (Otto: "F--k that!"); during a euphoric, cosmic drive for both time-travelers Miller and Otto, the car miraculously levitated and floated upward before speeding away for an "intense" ride across the LA skyline; it then blasted into interplanetary outer space
• the ending credits scrolled in a reversed fashion - downwards instead of upwards (again inspired by Kiss Me Deadly's opening credits)