7. Payback
Payback was a 1999 film starring Mel Gibson as Porter, a career criminal who, after pulling a job, is betrayed and then shot by his partner and his wife. They leave him for dead and make off with his money, but he survives and embarks on a revenge quest that sets him up against corrupt cops and a criminal syndicate. Its based off the beginning of Donald Westlates novel
The Hunter, which introduced the popular Parker character (renamed Porter for this one and Walker in the 1967 adaptation,
Point Blank). Brian Helgelands original version of
Payback was considered too dark and unappealing to audiences, and its easy to see why. In Helgelands cut, Porter is much more violent and abusive and the movie has a very ambiguous ending with Porter near-death. The studio wanted Porter to be more accessible, so Terry Hayes was hired to do a rewrite and Helgeland was replaced by production designer John Myhre, who reshot 30% of the film. The result is that
Payback became less of a violent noir thriller and more of a black comedy. 2006 saw the release of
Payback: Straight Up - The Directors Cut on DVD. This is Helgelands original cut of the film and while for the most part its the same, the latter portion is completely different. The theatrical cut features the syndicate leader, Bronson, played by Kris Kristofferson. To get his money back, Porter kidnaps Bronsons teenage son for ransom. But in the directors cut, Bronson is actually a woman and she never appears onscreen, only her voice is heard over the phone (courtesy of Sally Kellerman). Bronsons son also has no role in this version and a hard-to-watch scene of Porter beating his wife also appears. Unlike the others on this list, the theatrical cut of
Payback isnt necessarily a ruined film. Both are pretty entertaining to watch, and its interesting to see how the same basis led in two very different directions.