Silent Night(2023)

Plot Summary

• Brian Godlock is an electrician living a happy life in the fictional town of Las Palomas, Texas with his wife Saya and young son Taylor Michael. On Christmas Eve in 2021, Brian and Taylor are using a new bicycle on their front lawn. They are caught in the crossfire of a drive-by shooting in the middle of a gang war and Taylor is killed. Brian immediately tries to catch and kill the gangsters only for the leader of one of the gangs, Playa, to shoot him in the throat and leave him for dead. Brian survives, but his vocal cords have been severely damaged. Brian and Saya grieve over Taylor's death and Saya tries to be emotionally supportive to Brian during his physical recovery, but Brian becomes cold and distant, focused only on pursuing revenge for Taylor.Saya becomes emotionally overwhelmed and leaves Brian, who plans to kill all the gang members involved in Taylor's death on Christmas Eve in 2022. Over the course of the next year, Brian engages in bodybuilding, familiarizing himself with deadly weaponry and self-defense training. At one point, Brian appears to attempt to visit Detective Dennis Vassel, who offered to help in his son's case. Brian instead uses this opportunity to gather information on Playa's gang and begins reconnaissance on them, collecting evidence that will help put them away. Saya attempts to contact Brian, expressing that she and his parents are worried about him, but he continues to ignore her text messages. Brian attacks and abducts a member of Playa's gang, hurting and threatening him in an attempt to give written information on the gang's activity.The thug briefly manages to escape, only for Brian to subdue him in a fight. Brian delivers the bound thug to Vassel's house, along with a Christmas card, containing his intent to kill Playa and his gang, and a thumb drive with the evidence he has collected, along with the thug's written contributions to his information. He also sends two of the thug's amputated fingers to Playa, intimidating him. Brian spends the entire night of Christmas Eve 2022 killing the members of Playa's gang one by one, often interrupting their crimes in the process. After stealing a cell phone from a thug and using it to record a video of him being killed and sending it to Playa, the gang leader sends a group text for his soldiers to meet him at his place. Brian takes the opportunity to trap and kill them all there.After a massive gunfight and fistfight bloodbath as he fights his way to Playa, Brian finds himself confronted by Detective Vassel. Initially pointing their guns at one another, both silently put them down and agree to work as a team to finish off Playa. Playa's drug-addicted girlfriend manages to get the drop on them, shooting them both, only for Brian to sneak around and hold her at gunpoint. She drops her gun and feigns surrender. When Brian hesitates to kill her, Playa's girlfriend unveils a hidden sidearm and attacks him with it. Brian manages to kill her and confronts Playa. In the shootout between them, Playa manages to get the upper hand and is about to shoot Brian in the throat again, but Detective Vassel shoots Playa, allowing Brian to finish him off.Brian and Detective Vassel fall to the floor and look up at the ceiling and Christmas decorations, bleeding out and dying. Brian sees reflections of his memories of his time with Taylor and hallucinates an alternate future, where he and Taylor are both still alive. Saya opens a letter that Brian wrote to her, where he apologizes for how cold he has become in their marriage and thanks her for loving him. Brian further tells that he knows no one can make Taylor's death right, but that he is going to die trying. Saya takes the letter to Taylor's grave, where Brian had earlier brought his previously unopened Christmas present (a toy train set) that he built and set up around his grave.

Storyline

• From legendary director John Woo and the producer of John Wick comes this gritty revenge tale of a tormented father (Joel Kinnaman) who witnesses his young son die when caught in a gang's crossfire on Christmas Eve. While recovering from a wound that costs him his voice, he makes vengeance his life's mission and embarks on a punishing training regimen in order to avenge his son's death. Full of Woo's signature style, Silent Night redefines the action genre with visceral, thrill-a-minute storytelling. — Lionsgate