Repo Man
1984 · Directed by Alex Cox
Emilio Estevez becomes a repo man in LA. There's a Chevy Malibu with something radioactive in the trunk. Punk rock. Aliens. Existentialism. Nothing is explained. Nothing needs to be.
Why It's Cult
Repo Man is what happens when the LA punk scene makes a science fiction film on no budget. The plate of shrimp monologue is a whole philosophy in ninety seconds. Harry Dean Stanton gives the performance of his career. The soundtrack includes Iggy Pop, Black Flag, Suicidal Tendencies. Required viewing for anyone claiming to understand the eighties.
The Plot, Officially
Frustrated punk rocker Otto quits his supermarket job after slugging a co-worker, and is later dumped by his girlfriend at a party. Wandering the streets in frustration, he is recruited in the repossession of a car by a repo agent. After discovering his parents have donated his college fund to a televangelist, he joins the repossession agency (Helping Hand Acceptance Corporation) as an apprentice "repo man". During his training, he is introduced into the mercenary and paranoid world of the drivers, befriended by a UFO conspiracy theorist, confronted by rival repo agents, discovers some of his one-time friends have turned to a life of crime, is lectured to near cosmic unconsciousness by the repo agency grounds worker, and finds himself entangled in a web of intrigue concerning a huge repossession bounty on a 1964 Chevy Malibu driven by a lunatic government scientist, with Top Secret cargo in the trunk.
Gateway Scenes
Act 2
The "plate of shrimp" monologue from Miller in the parking lot.
A whole philosophy of coincidence delivered by a punk-rock philosopher in ninety seconds.
Starring
Harry Dean Stanton, Emilio Estevez, Tracey Walter
Where to Watch
via JustWatch →
