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Mutant Action (Spanish: Acción mutante)[3] is a 1993 science fiction black comedy film co-written and directed by Álex de la Iglesia. It stars Antonio Resines, Álex Angulo, and Frédérique Feder.
| Mutant Action | |
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| Spanish | Acción mutante |
| Directed by | Álex de la Iglesia |
| Written by |
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| Produced by | |
| Starring |
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| Cinematography | Carles Gusi |
| Edited by | Pablo Blanco |
| Music by | Def Con Dos |
Production companies | |
| Distributed by |
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Release dates |
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Running time | 97 minutes |
| Countries |
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| Language | Spanish |
| Budget | €1.5 million ($3 million)[2] |
| Box office | $1 million |
Plot
editA future post-apocalyptic world is ruled by the good-looking people. A terrorist group of disabled people, who see themselves as mutants, take arms against their oppressors. They plan to rid the world of "beautiful people" and superficiality. They are very inept at what they do and mistrust one another. They assassinate body builders, massacre an aerobics class on live TV and blow up a sperm bank as part of their violent campaign.
Led by their chief Ramón Yarritu (Antonio Resines), they plan their final hit before retirement; the kidnap of Patricia Orujo (Frédérique Feder), the daughter and only heiress of billionaire businessman Lord Orujo (Fernando Guillén), the plan involves kidnapping the girl in the middle of her wedding but the scene becomes a massacre when the girl cuts the cake with a large sharp knife puncturing the chest of one of the terrorists that was hidden inside of it, badly hurt he opens the cake top and open fire on the alarmed and unsuspecting attendees, 2 members of the terrorist group are killed in the middle of the fray but the rest manage to flee with Patricia as their hostage. They staple Patricia's lips together with a special electronic device and escape from the police in their spaceship whose disguised as a gigantic fish merchant ship.
Ramón, planning to keep the ransom money for himself, hides from the group that the amount set for the exchange is 100 million and declares its only 10 million, the gang accidentally watches a news flash report where the correct amount to be delivered by the girl's family is revealed, the gang gets upset and summons Ramón to explain the misinformation but he turns the gang members against each other by convincing them there is a traitor on board the ship and that is part of the crew.
His scheme and plot leads to the deaths of all the crewmen/henchmen of the gang seemingly accidentally each time a member was murdered by Ramón himself, while killing the last one of the terrorists - Juan (Juan Viadas), who has a siamese twin .. Álex (Álex Angulo), he is discovered and a fierce fight starts culminating in the destruction of the guidance system of the ship. They crash on a planet called Axturiax, a brutal and forgotten mining planet inhabited only by male crazed, sex-starved miners because all women had died. Ramón and Patricia, who has developed Stockholm syndrome, are captured by miners but manage to escape, but not before they attempt to gang-rape her, Álex survives the crash too and after he friendlies with a blind experienced miner, he decides to pursue Ramón to avenge his death brother and to rescue Patricia, he must drag the attached dead body of his brother Juan around with him for the rest of the film, A planned ransom drop trick by Orujo turns into mayhem, when a portable nuclear device is activated by lord Orujo to wipe clean the whole area, the event is compounded by live TV coverage for the ransom negotiations when Álex arrives and kills Lord Orujo with a headshot, initiating a dogfight inside the bar that goes to its climax when the police forces join the show and Ramón decides to sacrifice himself to allow Patricia escape and survive the bar fight with the police forces outside ... greeting Patricia with a French kiss and Álex by telling him he is still useless, he uses Lord Orujo mini nuke to evaporate the police army outside entrance while the bar trembles and crumbles due to the mini nuke shockwave.
When the nuclear blast is over Álex finally gets rid of his siamese twin attached body and finds Patricia hidden below a metal cage that saved her, they hold each other in order to ready a machine gun and get outside the destroyed bar.
Cast
edit- Antonio Resines as Ramón Yarritu[4]
- Álex Angulo as Alex Abadie[4]
- Frédérique Feder as Patricia Orujo[4]
- Karra Elejalde as Manitas[4]
- Fernando Guillén as Orujo[4]
- Enrique San Francisco as Luis María de Ostolaza[4]
- Jaime Blanch as the crazy TV host
- Juan Viadas as Juan Abadie[4]
- Bibiana Fernández & Rossy de Palma as luxury guests
- Féodor Atkine as Kaufmann
- Ramón Barea as blind shepherd[4]
- Santiago Segura as Ezequiel[4]
- Saturnino García as Quimicefa[4]
- Jon Gabella as Chepa[4]
- Alfonso Martínez as M. A.[4]
Production
editA Spain-France co-production, Acción mutante was produced by El Deseo and CIBY 2000.[4] The film was shot in Erandio, Biscay.[5] Álex de la Iglesia and Jorge Guerricaechevarría wrote the script over a two year period and gave the script to Agustín and Pedro Almodóvar whom they knew through a mutual friend.[2] The Almodóvars responded favorably to the script as well as Iglesia's 1990 short film Mirindas Asesinas (The Miranda Killings) and told Iglesia that on condition of some adjustments they'd produce the film when they had the time with Iglesia delivering the approved draft four months thereafter.[2] Iglesia stated the comic book Hard Boiled served as an inspiration for Mutant Action.[2] The special effects work included many veterans of the film Delicatessen.[2] During production Iglesia and Pedro Almodóvar often clashed over the level of violence on display in the film with Almodóvar at one point exclaiming to Iglesia that he wished he'd directed the movie himself.[2] Despite Almodóvar's misgivings with Iglesia's approach to the material, Almodóvar respected Iglesia's decisions and never used his status as executive producer to take away control.[2]
Release
editThe film premiered in Bilbao and Madrid on 3 February 1993.[4]
Accolades
edit| Year | Award | Category | Nominee(s) | Result | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1993 |
7th Goya Awards | Best New Director | Álex de la Iglesia | Nominated | [6] |
| Best Editing | Pablo Blanco | Nominated | |||
| Best Art Direction | José Luis Arrizabalaga | Nominated | |||
| Best Production Supervision | Sandra García | Won | |||
| Best Makeup and Hairstyles | Paca Almenara | Won | |||
| Best Special Effects | Olivier Gleyze, Yves Domenjoud, Jean-Baptiste Bonetto, Bernard André Le Boette, Emilio Ruiz del Río, Hipólito Cantero | Won |
See also
editReferences
edit- Citations
- ^ "Mutant Action (1993)". UniFrance. Retrieved 6 March 2022.
- ^ a b c d e f g Jones, Alan (December 1993). "Mutant Action". Cinefantastique. Fourth Castle Micromedia. Retrieved 15 January 2024.
- ^ Buse, Triana Toribio & Willis 2007, p. 8.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Buse, Triana Toribio & Willis 2007, p. 182.
- ^ García, Sergio (28 September 2020). "Bilbao, un escenario de película". El Correo.
- ^ Viaje al cine español. 25 años de los Premios Goya (PDF), Lunwerg, 2011, pp. 274–275, ISBN 978-84-9785-791-8
- Bibliography
- Buse, Peter; Triana Toribio, Núria; Willis, Andy (2007). The cinema of Álex de la Iglesia. Manchester and New York: Manchester University Press. ISBN 978-0-7190-7136-2.