Going the extreme
MARGOT Robbie continues her very interesting Hollywood career path – Brooklyn gold digger (The Wolf Of Wall Street), bat-swinging supervillain (Suicide Squad), disgraced champion figure skater (I, Tonya )–with Terminal, a neo-noir thriller replete with exotic dancers, killers, a criminal mastermind, neon signs, more twists than an Auntie Anne’s pretzel, and Alice In Wonderland undertones.
Directed by Vaughn Stein and produced by the Oscar-nominated Robbie, the film (now showing in cinemas) is Sin City viewed through a Blade Runner lens.
Terminal intertwines stories set in and around a big-city English train station, as well as a nearby diner.
While we can’t say too much about them without giving the mysteries away, here are the five colourful characters who make it worth a visit to Terminal.
Annie, the mysterious waitress – Robbie isn’t just slinging pie and cheap coffee here, and the trailer alone shows her manipulative Annie (in various hairdos) performing on a stripper pole, pointing a gun at a dude and looking like she’s gonna stab another dude (who’s tied up). So when Annie says, “I have an unquenchable bloodlust for darkness and depravity,” you kinda believe her.
Bill, the suicidal professor –An English teacher plagued with an unknown and untreatable terminal disease – it’s not cancer, he checked – Bill (Pegg) ends up at the End of the Line Diner wanting to travel to, well, the end of the line. He’s ready to off himself, and Annie definitely has some thoughts on how he should go about doing it.
Vince and Alfred, the bickering hitmen – These two contract killers get a high-profile new assignment from the shadowy Mr Franklyn, though they might just murder each other before the job is done. Vince (Dexter Fletcher) is the alpha-male veteran of the duo, constantly putting down rookie Alfred (Max Irons, son of Jeremy).
Alfred, Annie’s new boyfriend, doesn’t appreciate the treatment and starts scheming behind his partner’s back. (Fun fact: Fletcher is the director of the upcoming Queen biopic Bohemian Rhapsody, taking over from Bryan Singer, who was fired.)
Clinton, the oddball night janitor – There are shades of over-thetop Austin Powers personas – a little Austin here, a little Fat Bastard there – in Mike Myers’ limping handyman, who boasts buck teeth, a cockney accent and a pleasant disposition (at least compared to the rest of this strange crew). Clinton cleans up messes when needed but, like everybody else in Terminal, harbours his own secret integral to the intersecting narratives. – USA Today/Tribune News Service