We were already excited about Wanted after seeing some footage at Wondercon, but the extended and deleted scenes we saw at New York Comic-Con sealed the deal for us. Wanted looks like it has enough slow motion, heart pounding chase scenes to give the slow-mo fight king The Matrix a run for its money. Director Timur Bekmambetov gave away some new plot details and explained why he chose not to put the characters in their comic-book garb. Minor spoilers ahead.
Extended version of Wesley-Meets-Fox scene:
Wesley is at a cash register inside a grocery store. Fox (Angelina Jolie) approaches Wesley and says, “Your father died yesterday on the roof of the Metropolitan building….sorry. The man who killed him is right behind you.” Cue heart beat sound effects and slow motion fire fight sequence. An unnamed gunman is trying to take out both Wesley and Fox. Fox is carrying a gigantic wrap-around gun with a corner video. (Which means she can shoot around the corner without having to peek over.) The fire fight goes back and forth while shoppers scream and run out of the way, until it spills out onto the street. Fox hops into her red Viper and literally picks up Wesley by opening the car door and donut spinning the car into him. Needless to say Wesley is not happy and begs Fox, ” I don’t know what you did to piss that guy off… Could you let me out at the next corner?” The chase ensues complete with gratuitous and completely fulfilling car flips, which compliment the one minute shoot-out Fox does while hanging from outside the car window (in motion of course). We also discover that the scary unnamed gunman can shoot bullets around objects without the help of Fox’s fancy gun.
Deleted Scene: An Introduction
Timur explained that this scene was cut because it took too long to explain Wesley’s heart condition. Wesley’s heart beats at 400 bpm and allows him access to much more adrenaline than a normal human, which is why he can become a member of the elite assassins. Wesley awakes in an unknown hideout home to Sloan and his gang. With out a second to lose Sloan orders Wesley to shoot the wings off a fly hovering above a waste basket, to add incentive the Gunsmith (played by the rapper Common) shoves another amazing looking pistol/sniper gun in the back of Wesley’s noggin. Wesley under immense pressure (and with the sound of his heart pumping) responds and shoots off the tiny wings off all the flies. Sloan brings over the wingless flies to Wesley and tells him that if he can learn to harness his adrenaline he can use it, and then lays it on thick telling him there’s a ‘Caged lion locked inside and he needs to find the key to release it.’ Wesley is then given his late poppa’s gun and told that the assassins want him to kill the man who killed his father.
When asked why the characters weren’t dressed in their superhero-esque attire (most notable Fox’s lack of ears) Timur responded, ” There are so many movies where the characters are in costume. I think it’s better now because you can focus on how they are different on the inside not the outside. It was a concept to ground the fantasy world. It’s a real world super assassins in it. Can you imagine a super assassin walking down in a costume? Everyone would know you are a super assassin. It’s not very professional.”
Oh and if you think tattoos are sexy, you’ll love Angelina Jolie in this, because she’s got about 100 black tribal and lettered tatts all over her hands and body.
