The Punisher (2004) Movie || Thomas Jane, John Travolta, Will Patton, Roy Scheider || Review & Facts

e e e e e e e e e e e e how are you guys guys this is not a movie this is a full detail review and fact video about this movie if you want to know about this movie then you must like this video because in today's video we will tell you what is its story which actors and actresses have worked in this film the director producer cameraman of this film is going to talk about them in detail we will talk about the post-production pre-production budget and filming of this film The starcast of the film will also give details about The Supporting Cast and production guys if you want to know about this movie you must watch this video you will find all the details of this movie in this video what is the story of this movie If you like this video then share it with your friends and subscribe our Channel The Punisher is a 2004 vigilante action film directed by Jonathan Hensley who also wrote the film alongside Michael France it stars Thomas Jane as the antihero Frank Castle and John Travolta as Howard Saint a Crime Boss who orders the death of Castle's entire family the film story and plot were mainly based on two Punisher comic book Stories the 1994 miniseries The Punisher year W by writers Dan abnett and Andy Lanning and the 2011 miniseries welcome back Frank by writer G enes though some scenes were derived from other Punisher stories such as Marvel preview presents The Punisher hash 2 Marvel super action featuring The Punisher hash one The Punisher war zone and The Punisher War Journal The Punisher was shot on location in Tampa Florida and environs in mid to late 2003 it was distributed by Lion's gate films in North America although Artisan entertainment which released a 1989 film adaptation of the same name on DVD financed and co-distributed the film with eventual Artisan owner Lionsgate Artisan sales agent Summit entertainment handled International sales with Columbia TriStar film Distributors International acquiring the rights in all non-north American territories except for India and China screenwriter Jonathan Hensley agreed to helm the film during its development stage despite a dispute with Marvel Studios marking his directorial debut Lionsgate films released the Punisher on April 16th 2004 it grossed $13 million in the United States over its opening weekend and reached a total gross of $ 54.7 million against a budget of $33 million but the reviews were generally negative Marvel Comics and lion gate began development on a sequel titled The Punisher 2 which instead became the 2008 reboot Punisher war zone after Jane and Hensley left the project due to creative differences the film marks the final production by Artisan entertainment for theatrical distribution an FBI bust of a smuggling operation and tamper results in the deaths of Bobby Saint the son of mafia boss Howard Saint an autoc cre an arms dealer however C's death was faked and is later revealed to be undercover FBI agent Frank Castle who is on his final mission before retirement enraged at the death of his son Saint orders his men to learn everything they can about C and acquires access by bribing corrupt federal law enforcement officers for his Federal service history St orders Castle to be killed at a family reunion in Puerto Rico though Saint's wife Livia insists that Castle's family be killed as well at the reunion Saints men including Saints best friend Quenton glass and Bobby's identical twin John kill Castle's entire family though Frank Castle Sr takes down some of the attackers Jon then shoots Castle leaving him for dead however Castle survives and is nursed back to health by Candelaria a local fisherman with the police and FBI unwilling to pursue the killers due to Saints power and Influence castle moves into an abandoned Apartment occupied by three outcasts Joan bumpo and spacker Dave and begins his mission to bring the Saints down with the help of information provided by Saints less malevolent henchmen mcky Dua Castle studies the saint family and learns their every move during which he discovers glass to be a closeted homosexual Castle openly attacks Saints business and sabotages his partnership with his Cuban Partners Saint discovers that castle is alive and sends assassins to kill him the first assassin Harry heck ambushes Castle on a bridge but is killed when Castle fires a ballistic knife into to his throat the Second Assassin Russian Behemoth nearly beats Castle to death in his own apartment but Castle manages to kill him as well the tenants treat Castle's wounds and hide him in his hidden elevator as Saints men arrive for him when Dave and bumpo refuse to reveal Castle's Hideout glass tortures Dave by plucking each of his piercings with pliers they leave one of their men to intercept Castle but Castle kills him after they leave with Mickey's help Castle poses as an anonymous blackmailer and arrang es for glass to be at certain places while planting Livia's car in the same location and ultimately placing one of Livia's earrings in glass's bed when Saint finds the earrings he stabs glass to death despite her protest that glass was gay Saint accuses Livia of having an affair with his best friend and throws Livia off an overpass onto a railroad track where she is run over by a train with st despondent Castle assaults saints club and kills every member of his mob including John SA escapes the building despite being wounded Castle pursues him and shoots him in a duel as St lies dying Castle Reveals His schemes that led Saint to kill his friend and wife Castle ties Saint to a car and sends it into the club's parking lot which is rigged with explosives Saint perishes in the ensuing explosion Castle returns home and prepares to kill himself with his mission fulfilled but decides to continue to fight crime after seeing a vision of his wife Castle leaves some of Saint's money as a farewell gift to the tenants for protecting him and is then seen standing alone on the Sunshine Skyway Bridge at sunset in a voice over Castle assumes the new identity of Punisher and vows to kill anyone who harms innocent people in any way the Punisher is a long dark slog through Grim Revenge unlike most movies based on Comic Book Heroes it doesn't contain the glimmer of a smile and its hero is a depressed alcoholic well he might be since his entire family including wife child father and even distant cousins has been massacred before his eyes as he seeks Vengeance he makes the Charles Bronson character in the movie Death Wish look relatively cheerful and well adjusted I wonder if the filmmakers understand quite how downbeat and dark their movie is it opens with an FBI sting that leads to the death of a mobster's son the operation we learn was the last assignment before retirement for agent Frank Castle Thomas Jane the criminal a wealthy high-profile money launderer named Mr St John Travolta orders Castle's death and then his wife Livia Laura Harring adds his family his whole family this sets up a sequence from which the movie hardly recovers Castle has a romantic walk on the beach with his wife Maria Samantha Mathis a hug with his child and sentimental moments as his father Roy Shader speaks at a family reunion then Castle's gunmen mow down the entire family in a series of gruesome vignettes not neglecting to linger on the death of wife and child after their their pitiful attempt to flee Castle kills a few of the attackers but is cornered on a pier shot repeatedly dowsed with gasoline blown up and lands in the water this establishes a pattern for the movie no one is killed only once later in the film a Target is shot chained to the back of a car and dragged into a car lot where all of the cars explode miraculously Castle survives and is nursed back to health by one of those useful cliches the black loner who lives by himself on an island and Poss possesses the wisdom of the ages the rest of the movie involves his recovery his preparations and his methodical revenge against Mr Saint and all of his people several colorful supporting characters are introduced especially the three oddballs who live in the shabby rooming house Castle occupies they are Joan Rebecca Rome and Stamos a sexy but frightened woman with an abusive boyfriend Mr bumpo John Pinette a tubby and spacker Dave Ben Foster who is pierced in ways you don't even want to think about we have all been indoctrinated in the notion that we are family and these three attempt to include Castle in their Circle despite his need to isolate drink kill and brood there is something a little odd when he's invited over for ice cream and cake the movie is Relentless in its violence there is a scene where spacker Dave is tortured by having his piercings removed with pliers the scene breaks the fabric of the film and moves into a different and macabra Arena The Punisher opens on the same weekend as another movie about a gruesome Massacre and an elaborate Revenge Kill Bill volume 2 but they are as different as night and day Kill Bill volume 1 vibrates with humor irony over the top exaggeration and the joy of filmmaking The Punisher is so grim and cheerless you wonder if even its hero gets any satisfaction from his accomplishments that said I have to note that the film directed by Jonathan Hensley is consistently well-acted and has some scenes of real power that the Punisher is a dreary and charmless character does not mean that Thomas Jane doesn't play him well he goes all the way with the film's dark vision and is effective in the action scenes Travolta as Mr Saint finds a truth you would not think was available in melodrama of this sort his grief over his son and possessive jealousy over his wife are compelling the film doesn't simply set up Saint as a bad guy and a Target but devotes attention to the character and develops an intriguing relationship between Saint and his right-hand man Quenton glass the always effective will patent The Punisher is able to use Saints jealousy to drive a wedge between the two men but here's the strange thing what happens between Saint and glass is convincing but what the Punisher does to sabotage their relationship is baffling and ludicrous involving false fire hydrants and the improbable detail that Saint would allow his wife to go to the movies alone after he knows the Punisher is alive and at War write down the line the performances are strong even the three Misfits in the rundown rooming house are given the dimension and screen time to become interesting the screenplay by Michael France and Jonathan Hensley based on the Marvel comic doesn't simply foreground The Punisher and make everyone else into one-dimensional cartoons there's so much that's well done here that you sense a good movie slipping away that movie would either be lighter than this one or commit to its seriousness like Scarface this one loses control of its mood and doesn't know what level of credibility it exists on at the end we feel battered down and depressed emot we probably don't seek from Comic Book Heroes reviewed this movie a while back in 2021 but I rewatched the extended edition recently in my slow attempt to catch up with a lot of older superhero material and my opinions have changed a fair bit that I decided to rewrite and republish the review of The Punisher 2004 having watched the 1989 adaptation starring Dolph lungren also helped for me to get some New Perspectives right on the bat I do feel like 2004 The Punisher starring Thomas Jane as the titular Punisher ends up being a bit more faithful to the comics compared to the 1989 movie Jane's Punisher actually goes around wearing the skull vest albeit only in his first and last outing for one and we also get the appearance of some of punisher's minor Supporting Cast from the comics such as assassins like the Russian or Harry heck or ones like Mickey dooka and specker Dave arguably the movie also acts as a nicer introduction to The Punisher actually showing us Frank Castle's origin story in a more detailed manner instead of treating it as an afterthought having his origin story be tied to the first criminal Syndicate that Punisher wipes out also gives us a more tangible crime for Frank to punish although your mileage may vary on how effective it is as a proper adaptation of the Punisher it's not the best but we also get a lot more scenes focusing on Frank's turmoil and torment compared to the 89 movie which had Frank more of a reactive character the movie isn't without its fault though in a huge chunk does lie with its First Act while I do praise the 2004 adaptation for actually drawing out the deaths of Frank's family and tying it to the first criminals that Frank hunts down it feels a bit too long and a bit too needlessly cruel we start off with Frank as an undercover cop that's about to retire and finally be there for his family the final operation however results in the death of Bobby Saint overeager son of the mafia boss Howard Saint the initial scenes of the movie focuses on Howard Saint a very entertaining John Travolta who surprisingly doesn't chew the scenery as much as you think he would in a role like this reacting to this death and trying to figure out and punish the one responsible for Bobby's death this leads to him sending a whole ass Hitman Squad to hunt down Frank Castle's family and Frank Castle's family instead of just being his wife and kids being killed in the crossfire of crime it's his entire extended family including his parents and like around a dozen assorted cousins and nephews and nieces that get sarily hounded down and murdered by Saints minions in an honestly gratuitously long scene that gets a bit uncomfortable to watch but also we kind of get it you don't really need to show Maria Castle driving around on a car for so long you know and I kind of wanted them to get on with the plot there is a nice little thematic tie in of mutual Revenge where Howard Saint's entire deal is hunting for the man who killed his family and Frank's motivation would later be similar however how Howard's initial orders for only Frank to be killed ends up being amended to his whole family by Howard's angry wife Livia the extended addition restores around 15 plus minutes of screen time that revolves around a subplot of Frank's traitor's partner James weeks who gets caught up in gambling deaths during Howard Saints investigation into the enigmatic arms dealer that resulted in the death of his son and later on continues to appear throughout Frank's punishing as Frank mentally puts the pieces together in his head this actually adds a nice little Dynamic into Frank's world not just him wiping out a single Mafia Syndicate but also him having to deal with a traitorous friend a reason that actually makes a lot of the scenes with his wacky neighbors a lot more palatable now that there's an actual thematic thread speaking of which yeah I'm not the biggest fan of the transition from the death of the castle family to Frank's return as The Punisher he just survives being shot and blown up into the ocean and gets saved by a random fisherman just because the movie gives us a bit of an origin to Frank's over preparedness with Guns by his whole ex-military backstory and his dad also being a gun nut and we get the excuse handwave of Frank Jr buying the skull shirt for his dad but otherwise next we see Frank he's basically in all business mode all Punisher mode he's emotionless he hates the cops and the law for not investigating his family's death he says badass one liners and he refuses to make friends and keeps every single friendship attempt at arms length and we just kind of cut away to him hanging out in an apartment with the three wacky neighbors a guy with a lot of metal piercings spacker davea fat guy bumpo and pretty waitress with an abusive boyfriend Joan played by Rebecca Roman AA Mystique from X-Men and I'll cover these wacky neighbors very quickly in that they do suck up a lot of time I don't think they're as bad as many other comedic relief characters in these movies and I get what they're trying to do Joan and later on the two guys really try to get Frank to open up with dinners and constant and assistance that they are fellow losers and family the themes of Frank really refusing any kind of companionship is done rather well and in the extended addition this is contrasted nicely against Frank's betrayal by agent weeks but I really don't think the chemistry between Frank and the other neighbors are particularly convincing Frank does end up beating up and chasing off Joan's abusive boyfriend which is a nice short scene do like that Frank doesn't immediately jump Jones Bones especially since he's still in morning after Maria Castle's death Joan was really thirsty though Frank meanwhile continues his investigation into the Saints operations kidnapping and torturing the nebish and non-threatening henchman McKey Dua there's a bit of a moment where I realize that Frank does this because he has been interacting with Mickey while undercover and as such he knows Mickey is harmless hence the whole sequence where he gives a vivid description of the sensation of being tortured with a burning hot iron being cold and Frank pretending to torture Mickey while burning steak which makes the smell of burnt meat and pressing a popsicle against Mickey's back it's a scene lifted from Punisher MAX and I thought this was a nice little way to show that Frank isn't too far gone the movie doesn't immediately explain why Frank was nicer to Mickey and trust him to be his man on the inside on the Saints operations however and Mickey himself also notably has no character resolution at the end of the movie after his plot relevance is over Frank ends up doing a bit of an investigation into the saint family and ends up sketching up a plan to turn Howard Saint Livia Saint Howard's right-hand man Quenton glass and their business partner the Toro Brothers against each other and we do get a couple of cool scenes of Frank either investigating and making up elaborate plans or just going full on skull shirt and shotguns and attacking Howard Saints bank and tossing money to the public the detective scenes admittedly feels rather off since ultimately Frank ends up doing some 5D chess mind game stuff that involves him framing Quenton and Livia for having an affair which later on leads to the overp possessive Howard being deathly jealous of his best friend and his wife this also comes with the unfortunate with modern values scenes of Frank finding the Scandal that Quenton is actually homosexual and uses these pictures to Blackmail Quenton glass and make him move around where he wants while this is all going on Howard Saint gets more and more frustrated and it is nice to see John Travolta's acting Travolta is easily the strongest actor in this movie though that's not to Thomas Jan's fault his Direction requires him to be a bit more static and it is pretty fun to see him slowly go off the hinges the next part of the movie ends up being a bit campier and more comic book why than the rest of it though and perhaps not in a good way despite apparently knowing where Frank Castle lives Howard Saint sends three waves of Assassins each of whom arrive at different timings and act separately the first assassin Harry heck played by musician Mark colie is perhaps the most memorable for showing up a diner and playing a whole ass country song about how he's going to kill Frank and Frank does nothing and instead of embracing some Ridiculousness and doing something with the guitar Harry heck just attacks Frank by tailgating him and shooting his car a whole bunch Frank kills Harry with a shootable pocket knife and yeah okay the next assassin the Russian is an Unstoppable giant strongman that fights Frank in probably the most fun action seen in the movie where he and Frank just bashes their way around the apartment complex I do like the theme of this fight where Frank actually lets his guard down after having some dinner with his wacky neighbors but I'm unconvinced that half of the fight needed to take place with cutaways to the neighbors doing wacky singing this fight was fun though and then the third wave of Assassins are just a bunch of gunmen who show up and torture spacker Dave ripping out all of his face piercings and demanding that they give up where Frank is hiding and this scene is kind of full of a bit of rather glaring plot holes why didn't the gunmen arrive with the Russian why don't they kill Dave and bumpo why did Dave and bumpo actually stay behind wouldn't it be easier for them all to escape the idea of the scene as solid with the neighbors taking a bullet for Frank but it just makes the mafia look grossly incompetent after Frank recovers from his injuries with the Russian he implements his plan to frame Quenton glass for sleeping with Livia this one is a neat little sequence of scenes and it does benefit a lot from John Travolta is Howard Saints slowly piecing together what he thinks is an affair in his head growing increasingly more and more pissed off at his perceived betrayal Howard Saint confronts Quenton glass and murders the very confused and loyal man in his own house and goes home and attacks Livia tossing him from a bridge into the path of the incoming train unfortunate modern-day implications aside this is actually surprisingly cruel on Frank Castle's part and it does give a nice little Mafia flare to the movie's plot as opposed to Frank shoots people up a lot oh speaking of Frank shooting people up in the extended scene this is where Frank confronts weeks after several brief meetings and we get a pretty cool sequence of Frank pretending to leave his handgun without bullets unattended just to confirm if weeks is really against him and the scene where he intimidates weeks to basically kill himself is a bit dark and I'm not sure if I really like it but the theme of the movie is punishment and all of these people getting royally by Frank do deserve death and then we get the final scene where Frank Dons a military vest with a skull spray painted on it pulls on a compound bow and arrow and attacks Howard Saint's club and kills everyone inside we get a nice gory scene where the blond lead thug gets a knife graphically shoved up his lower jaw and another cruel and unusual death as Howard's remaining son Jon is forced to hold a bomb that he will undoubtedly lose strength at some point as Howard tries his best to get out of the building Frank catches up shoots him and details in full detail that he killed his remaining son and Quenton and Livia's deaths are all unfounded properly destroying Howard Saints mind Frank ties Howard to a moving car and sets it to autoc crash into a parking lot at which point apparently Frank took the time to plant enough detonation charges that the explosion pattern looks like the Punisher logo with his mission finished we get a rather dark scene as Frank actually prepares to kill himself after the mission is done really hammering home how broken a man like The Punisher is he ends up not doing so after seeing a vision of his family but he also leaves behind his Newfound friends and goes off to become the Vigilante known as The Punisher end credits and again as with all adaptations of the Punisher people's mileage varies a lot on whether this adaptation of the Punisher is too hard too soft misses the mark and I feel that the movie does a decent job at both showing Frank as someone who has some degree of Mercy towards Mickey towards Joan's abusive boyfriend and how nice he is towards the neighbors but also sometimes unnecessarily cruel getting Howard to kill his closest friends the way he kills Jon or weeks I do think the movie also has a lot of nice themes that it kind of doesn't follow up fully on I would have liked a more proper and definite answer on whether Frank finding a new family is a good thing or not and the movie really flipflops about it in the Final Act ultimately though I did find this movie extremely enjoyable and while I don't think it beats John berle's Netflix Punisher it's still a pretty fun watch regardless The Punisher opened in 2649 theaters on April 16th 2004 and grossed $ 13.8 million over its opening weekend ranking at hash 2 at the box office behind Kill Bill volume 2 723 the film has us gross of $ 33.8 million and an international gross of $2.9 million giving it a worldwide total of $5 54.7 million three at around 26 men's when Frank Castle's wife and child are in the Blazer trying to escape it flips over while flipping the hand on the steering wheel is wearing a black bracelet but when Maria crawls out of the car she is wearing no bracelets the black bracelets are safety devices for The Stunt Driver similar to what Sprint car drivers wear to prevent their arms exiting the profile of the vehicle during accidents or stunts at around 1 h45 mins during Castle's final raid at the Saints estate he fires several shots into a head man with his pistol and follows up with a tactical reload replacing a semi full Magazine with a completely full one Castle then racks the slide to chamber around there would be no reason to do this as there is already a round in the chamber if the pistol was in fact empty the slide would have been automatically locked to the rear at around 1 H50 mins when Saint is tied to the car and the explosions are happening his lower half catches fire in the next shot he is not on fire after Dave comes back from the hospital the tissue in his nose switches sides after he comes into the apartment at around 23 mens when Castle grabs the motorcycle to chase after the gunmen who are chasing Maria and will the dead family member who'd originally been riding it is nowhere to be seen at around 1 H7 mens when they were transporting the money in the boat Castle used a Claymore anti-personnel Mine to blow up the money when the mine detonates there's a big Fireball Claymore mines are filled with 100 met metal balls and do not explode creating a fireball the explosion in the scene is not typical for a Claymore Mine at around 36 mens after Frank is shot on the pier he later returns to his father's house and retrieves his father's guns since it was a crime scene the police would have removed all the weapons from the scene and not left them for anyone to steal at around 28 mins the truck that is used to kill Castle's family in Puerto Rico has a front license plate license plates in Puerto Rico are only displayed in the back of the car as you are only given one plate for the car all glass in commercial buildings is tempered and cannot be cut with a glass cutter as shown when Quenton is getting ready to set the pier on fire he sprays diesel fuel green cover on the pump all around and lights it diesel is not very volatile it does not change to a vapor easily like gasoline does you can throw a match into Diesel and it will usually just get snuffed out diesel is injected into an engine under very high pressure and through tiny nozzles so it atomizes into a very fine mist and since it's injected into very hot compressed air that combination of fine mist and heat is enough to cause it to vaporize and ignite diesel fuel just laying there won't do anything at around 24 mens during the massacre at the castle estate in Puerto Rico when Maria attempts to escape with will she tells him to run to the Jeep it's a Chevy Blazer but a Jeep is commonly used as a shorthand for an off-road car not necess necessarily of a Jeep make at around 10 mens after Saint kills the henchmen that was assigned to look after his son Saint drops the gun on the stomach of the henchmen only to have him jump as the weight of the gun hit his gut at around 24 mens after Castle shoots the gas tank it blows up the henchmen setting him on fire and you can see the fireproof mask and gloves on him at around 27 mens when the Blazer flips over you can see the mechanism under the truck on the passenger side used to flip the truck over at around 25 men's as castle and Lincoln fight and Frank lifts the knife to Lincoln's face right before Frank Cuts him you can see the tape across the face of where Lincoln is to be cut at around 26 men's obvious stunt double when the Blazer starts to flip over the Punisher 2004 directed by Jonathan Hensley is a gripping vigilante film that Chronicles the transformation of Frank Castle Thomas Jane from a dedicated FBI agent to a Relentless Avenger after the brutal murder of his family the film's plot is a dark exploration of Revenge Justice and the personal cost of becoming a vigilante the film opens with Frank Castle an FBI undercover agent celebrating his retirement and reuniting with his family in Puerto Rico this idyllic moment is abruptly shattered when a mobster named Howard St John Travolta seeking Vengeance against the FBI for his son's death orders a hit on Castle's family during a reunion picnic Castle's wife and children are mercilessly gunned down in a shocking and brutal attack orchestrated by Saints men the massacre is not only a devastating personal loss for Castle but also sets the stage for his transformation into the Punisher a figure of vigilante justice after the tragic death of his family Frank Castle is left in a state of despair and driven by a singular desire for Revenge believed to be dead after the attack he survives and is taken in by a group of underground dwellers in a rundown building these outcasts including Joan bebeca Roman Stamos a former beauty queen turned StreetWise survivalist provide him with shelter and Care Castle's transformation begins as he adopts the Persona of the Punisher Dawning a distinctive skull symbol and becoming a symbol of fear for the criminal underworld Castle meticulously plans his revenge against Howard Saint and his criminal Empire he starts by targeting Saints men using his expertise and tactical skills to eliminate them one by one his methods are brutal and efficient leaving a trail of violence in his wake The Punisher mission is not just about exacting Revenge but also dismantling the entire criminal Network that contributed to his family's death this Mission becomes a dark Crusade reflecting his shift from a grieving husband and father to a Relentless agent of Vengeance as Castle delves deeper into his quest for vengeance he uncovers the intricate web of corruption and crime orchestrated by Howard Saint Saint is depicted as a ruthless Crime Boss who has built his Empire through illegal activities and violence his actions are driven by a desire for power and control and his willingness to sacrifice anyone who threatens his position Castle's investigation reveals not only Saints criminal dealings but also his personal vendettas and the moral depravity that underpins his Empire Castle's pursuit of saints henchmen leads him to confront various characters including Saints enforcer John Kevin Nash and his loyal right-hand man Harry James Carpino each encounter is marked by intense action sequences and showcases Castle's transformation into a fearsome vigilante his confrontations are not merely physical battles but also psychological warfare as he confronts the moral ambiguities of his actions and the impact they have on his sense of justice the film's climax centers on the confrontation between Frank Castle and Howard Saint Castle's plan to bring Saint to Justice culminates in a high-stake showdown he infiltrates Saints lavish Mansion prepared to take down the crime boss and his remaining forces the confrontation is marked by a series of violent and dramatic moments as Castle fights his way through Saints security and henchmen in a dramatic twist Castle uses his knowledge of saints family Dynamics against him he manipulates Saints own greed and sense of betrayal to create a situation where Saint's wife Livia Laura Harring and their son Billy Ben Foster become involved in the confrontation the film reveals the complexities of saints personal life exposing the fractured relationships and underlying tensions within his family the final battle is a brutal and intense clash between castle and Saint the punisher's Relentless pursuit of Justice culminates in a climactic confrontation where Castle finally faces Saint the battle is both physical and psychological as Castle confronts the man responsible for his family's death and the criminal Empire that perpetuated their suffering the violence is raw and unrelenting reflecting the depths of Castle's rage and the personal stake of his quest for vengeance after the final confrontation the film addresses the aftermath of Castle's actions Howard Saint is defeated and his criminal Empire is dismantled however the victory comes at a significant personal cost for Castle the film explores the emotional and psychological toll of his transformation into the Punisher despite achieving his goal of Revenge Castle is left to Grapple with the consequences of his actions and the moral implications of his vigilantism castle journey is not just about revenge but also about seeking Redemption and coming to terms with his own sense of justice the film concludes with Castle reflecting on his actions and the impact they have had on his life the ending is a poignant and introspective moment highlighting the complexities of Castle's character and the personal cost of becoming a vigilante The Punisher is a dark and intense exploration of themes such as Revenge Justice and personal Redemption the film delves into the psychological and emot emotional complexities of its protagonist portraying Frank Castle's transformation from a grieving family man to a Relentless Avenger the film's portrayal of violence and vigilante justice is both compelling and unsettling reflecting the moral ambiguities of its Central character the film's action sequences are brutal and unflinching showcasing the physical and emotional toll of Castle's quest for vengeance the punisher's character is depicted as a complex and conflicted figure driven by a desire for justice but but also grappling with a personal cost of his actions the film's exploration of these themes adds depth to its narrative and provides a thought provoking examination of the nature of Revenge and Justice The Punisher 2004 remains a significant entry in the Vigilante genre known for its dark tone and intense action sequences the film's portrayal of Frank Castle's transformation into the Punisher offers a compelling and introspective look at the nature of Revenge and the personal cost of vigilantism the film exploration of themes such as Justice Redemption and the impact of violence resonates with audiences making it a memorable and impactful portrayal of a classic comic book character overall The Punisher provides a gritty and thought-provoking take on the Vigilante genre offering a complex and emotional narrative that explores the personal and moral dimensions of Revenge and Justice in the ending of The Punisher 2004 Frank Castle now fully immersed in his role as the Vigilante known as The Punisher confronts Howard Saint in a dramatic showdown at Saint's Mansion after a series of brutal confrontations Castle meticulously dismantles Saints criminal Empire exploiting the internal tensions within Saints own family to his Advantage the climactic battle is fierce and unforgiving culminating in Castle's confrontation with Saint Castle's Relentless pursuit of vengeance is fulfilled as he decisively defeats Saint bringing an end to the crime boss's reign of terror despite his victory the film underscores the heavy personal cost of Castle's transformation into the Punisher the victory is Bittersweet Castle has achieved his goal of exacting Revenge but is left to Grapple with the profound psychological and emotional toll of his vigilante actions the final scenes reflect on Castle's inner turmoil and the moral complexities of his quest for justice leaving him to contemplate the true meaning of his Relentless Pursuit and the personal sacrifices he has made the Punisher is a 2004 vigilante action film directed by Jonathan Hensley who also wrote the film alongside Michael France it stars Thomas Jane as the antihero Frank Castle and John Travolta as Howard Saint a Crime Boss who orders the death of Castle's entire family the film's story and plot were mainly based on two Punisher comic book Stories the 1994 miniseries The Punisher year W by writers Dan abnett and Andy Lanning and the 2011 miniseries welcome back Frank by writer G enes though some scenes were derived from other Punisher stories such as Marvel preview presents The Punisher hash 2 Marvel super action featuring The Punisher hash one The Punisher war zone and The Punisher War Journal The Punisher was shot on location in Tampa Florida and environs in mid to late 2003 it was distributed by Lion's gate films in North America although Artisan entertainment which released a 1989 film adaptation of the same name on DVD financed and co-distributed the film with eventual Artisan owner Lionsgate Artisan sales agent Summit entertainment handled International sales with Columbia TriStar film Distributors International acquiring the rights in all non-north American territories except for India and China screenwriter Jonathan Hensley agreed to helm the film during its development stage despite a dispute with Marvel Studios marking his directorial debut Lionsgate films released the Punisher on April 16th 2004 it grossed $13 million in the United States over its opening weekend and reached a total gross of 54 $7 million against a budget of $33 million but the reviews were generally negative Marvel Comics and lion gate began development on a sequel titled The Punisher 2 which instead became the 2008 reboot Punisher war zone after Jane and hensle left the project due to creative differences the film marks the final production by Artisan entertainment for theatrical distribution an FBI bust of a smuggling operation in Tampa results in the deaths of Bobby Saint the son of Mafia boss Howard Saint an auto C an arms dealer however C's death was faked and is later revealed to be undercover FBI agent Frank Castle who is on his final mission before retirement enraged at the death of his son Saint orders his men to learn everything they can about C and acquires access by bribing corrupt federal law enforcement officers for his Federal service history St orders Castle to be killed at a family reunion in Puerto Rico though Saint's wife Livia insists that Castle's family be killed as well at the reunion Saints men including Saints best friend Quenton glass and Bobby's identical twin John kill Castle's entire family though Frank Castle Sr takes down some of the attackers Jon then shoots Castle leaving him for dead however Castle survives and is nursed back to health by Candelaria a local fisherman with the police and FBI unwilling to pursue the killers due to Saints power and Influence castle moves into an abandoned Apartment occupied by three outcasts Jones bumpo and spacker Dave and begins his mission to bring the Saints down with the help of information provided by Saints less malevolent henchman mcky Dua Castle studies the saint family and learns their every move during which he discovers glass to be a closeted homosexual Castle openly attacks Saint's business and sabotages his partnership with his Cuban Partners Saint discovers that castle is alive and sends assassins to kill him the first assassin Harry heck ambushes Castle on a bridge but is killed when Castle fires a ballistic knife into his throat the Second Assassin Russian Behemoth nearly beats Castle to death in his own apartment but Castle manages to kill him as well the tenants treat Castle's wounds and hide him in his hidden elevator as Saints men arrive for him when Dave and bumpo refuse to reveal Castle's Hideout glass tortures Dave by plucking each of his piercings with pliers they leave one of their men to intercept Castle but Castle kills him after they leave with Mickey's help Castle poses as an anonymous blackmailer and arranges for glass to be at certain places while planting Livia's car in the same location and ultimately placing one of Livia's earrings in glass's bed when Saint finds the earrings he stabs glass to death despite her protest that glass was gay Saint accuses Livia of having an affair with his best friend and throws Livia off an overpass onto a railroad track where she is run over by a train with Saint despondent Castle assaults saints club and kills every member of his mom including John saint escapes the building despite being wounded Castle pursues him and shoots him in a duel as Saint lies dying Castle Reveals His schemes that led Saint to kill his friend and wife Castle ties Saint to a car and sends it into the club's parking lot which is rigged with explosives Saint perishes in the ensuing explosion Castle returns home and prepares to kill himself with his mission fulfilled but decides to continue to fight crime after seeing a vision of his wife Castle leaves some of Saint's money as a farewell gift to the tenants for protecting him and is then seen standing alone on the Sunshine Skyway Bridge at sunset in a voice over Castle assumes the new identity of Punisher and vows to kill anyone who harms innocent people in any way the Punisher is a long dark slog through Grim Revenge unlike most movies based on Comic Book Heroes it doesn't contain the glimmer of a smile and its hero is a depressed alcoholic well he might be since his entire family including wife child father and even distant cousins has been massacred before his eyes as he seeks Vengeance he makes the Charles Bronson character in the movie Death Wish look relatively cheerful and well adjusted I wonder if the filmmakers understand quite how downbeat and dark their movie is it opens with an FBI sting that leads to the death of a mobster's son the operation we learn was the last assignment before retirement for agent Frank Castle Thomas Jane the criminal a wealthy High profile money launderer named Mr St John Travolta orders Castle's death and then his wife Livia Laura Harring adds his family his whole family this sets up a sequence from which the movie hardly recovers Castle has a romantic walk on the beach with his wife Maria Samantha Mathis a hug with his child and sentimental moments as his father Roy Shader speaks at a family reunion then Castle's gunmen mowed down the entire family in a series of gruesome vignettes not neglecting to linger on the death of wife and child after their pitiful attempt to flee Castle kills a few of the attackers but is cornered on a pier shot repeatedly dowed with gasoline blown up and lands in the water this establishes a pattern for the movie no one is killed only once later in the film a Target is shot chained to the back of a car and dragged into a car lot where all of the cars explode miraculously Castle survives and is nursed back to health by one of those useful cliches the black loner who Liv lives by himself on an island and possesses the wisdom of the ages the rest of the movie involves his recovery his preparations and his methodical revenge against Mr Saint and all of his people several colorful supporting characters are introduced especially the three oddballs who live in the shabby rooming house Castle occupies they are Joan Rebecca Rome and St a sexy but frightened woman with an abusive boyfriend Mr bumpo John Pinette a tubby and spacker Dave Ben Foster who is pierced in ways you don't even want to think about we have all been indoctrinated in the notion that we are family and these three attempt to include Castle in their Circle despite his need to isolate drink kill and brood there is something a little odd when he's invited over for ice cream and cake the movie is Relentless in its violence there is a scene where spacker Dave is tortured by having his piercings removed with pliers the scene breaks the fabric of the film and moves into a different and macabra Arena The Punisher opens on the the same weekend as another movie about a gruesome Massacre and an elaborate Revenge Kill Bill volume 2 but they are as different as night and day Kill Bill Volume One vibrates with humor irony over the top exaggeration and the joy of film making the Punisher is so grim and cheerless you wonder if even its hero gets any satisfaction from his accomplishments that said I have to note that the film directed by Jonathan Hensley is consistently well- acted and has some scenes of real power that The Punisher is a dreary and charmless character does not mean that Thomas Jane doesn't play him well he goes all the way with the film's dark vision and is effective in the action scenes Travolta as Mr Saint finds a truth you would not think was available in melodrama of this sort his grief over his son and possessive jealousy over his wife are compelling the film doesn't simply set up Saint as a bad guy and a Target but devotes attention to the character and develops an intriguing relationship between Saint and his right-hand man qu glass the always effective will patent The Punisher is able to use Saints jealousy to drive a wedge between the two men but here's the strange thing what happens between Saint and glass is convincing but what the Punisher does to sabotage their relationship is baffling and ludicrous involving false fire hydrants and the improbable detail that Saint would allow his wife to go to the movies alone after he knows the Punisher is alive and at War Right Down the Line the performances are strong even the three Misfits in The Rundown rooming house are given the dimension and screen time to become interesting the screenplay by Michael France and Jonathan Hensley based on the Marvel comic doesn't simply foreground The Punisher and make everyone else into one-dimensional cartoons there's so much that's well done here that you sense a good movie slipping away that movie would either be lighter than this one or commit to its seriousness like Scarface this one loses control of its mood and doesn't know what level of credibility it exists on at the end we feel battered down and depressed emotions we probably don't seek from Comic Book Heroes reviewed this movie a while back in 2021 but I rewatched the extended edition recently in my slow attempt to catch up with a lot of older superhero material and my opinions have changed a fair bit that I decided to rewrite and republish the review of The Punisher 2004 having watched the 1989 adaptation starring Dolph lungren also helped for me to get some New Perspectives right on the that I do feel like 2004 is the Punisher starring Thomas Jane as the titular Punisher ends up being a bit more faithful to the comics compared to the 1989 movie Jane's Punisher actually goes around wearing the skull vest albeit only in his first and last outing for one and we also get the appearance of some of punisher's minor Supporting Cast from the comics such as assassins like the Russian or Harry heck or ones like Mickey dooka and specker Dave arguably the movie also acts as a nicer introduction to to The Punisher actually showing us Frank Castle's origin story in a more detailed manner instead of treating it as an afterthought having his origin story be tied to the first criminal Syndicate that Punisher wipes out also gives us a more tangible crime for Frank to punish although your mileage may vary on how effective it is as a proper adaptation of the Punisher it's not the best but we also get a lot more scenes focusing on Frank's turmoil and torment compared to the 89 movie which had Frank more of a reactive character the movie isn't without its faults though in a huge chunk does lie with its First Act while I do praise the 2004 adaptation for actually drawing out the deaths of Frank's family and tying it to the first criminals that Frank hunts down it feels a bit too long and a bit too needlessly cruel we start off with Frank as an undercover cop that's about to retire and finally be there for his family the final operation however results in the death of Bobby Saint overeager son of the mafia boss Howard Saint the initial scenes of the movie focuses on Howard Saint a very entertaining John Travolta who surprisingly doesn't chew the scenery as much as you think he would in a role like this reacting to this death and trying to figure out and punish the one responsible for Bobby's death this leads to him sending a whole ass Hitman Squad to hunt down Frank Castle's family and Frank Castle's family instead of just being his wife and kids being killed in the crossfire of crime it's his entire extended family including his parents and like around a dozen assorted cousins and nephews and nieces that get summarily hounded down and murdered by Saints minions in an honestly gratuitously long scene that gets a bit uncomfortable to watch but also we kind of get it you don't really need to show Maria Castle driving around on a car for so long you know and I kind of wanted them to get on with the plot there is a nice little thematic tie in of mutual Revenge where Howard Saint's entire deal is hunting for the man who killed his family and Frank's motivation would later be similar however Howard's initial orders for only Frank to be killed ends up being amended to his whole family by Howard's angry wife Livia the extended addition restores around 15 plus minutes of screen time that revolves around a subplot of Frank's traitor's partner James weeks who gets caught up in gambling deaths during Howard Saints investigation into the enigmatic arms dealer that resulted in the death of his son and later on continues to appear throughout Frank's punishing as Frank mentally puts the pieces together in his head this actually adds a nice little Dynamic into Frank's world not just him wiping out a single Mafia Syndicate but also him having to deal with a traitorous friend a reason that actually makes a lot of the scenes with his wacky neighbors a lot more palatable now that there's an actual thematic thread speaking of which yeah I'm not the biggest fan of the transition from the death of the castle family to Frank's return as The Punisher he just survives being shot and blown up into the ocean and gets saved by a random fisherman just because the movie gives us a bit of an origin to Frank's over preparedness with Guns by his whole ex-military backstory and his dad also being a gun nut and we get the excuse handwave of Frank Jr buying the skull shirt for his dad but otherwise next we see Frank he's basically in all business mode all Punisher mode he's emotionless he hates the cops and the law for not investigating his family's death he says badass one liners and he refuses to make friends and keeps every single friendship attempt at arms length and we just kind of cut away to him hanging out in an apartment with the three wacky neighbors a guy with a lot of metal piercings spacker daa fat guy bumpo and pretty waitress with an abusive boyfriend Joan played by Rebecca Roman aeka Mystique from X-Men and I'll cover these wacky neighbors very quickly in that they do suck up a lot of time I don't think they're as bad as many other comedic relief characters in these movies and I get what they're trying to do Joan and later on the two guys really try to get Frank to open up with dinners and constant insistence that they are fellow losers and family the themes of Frank really refusing any kind of companionship is done rather well and in the extended addition this is contrasted nicely against Frank's betrayal by agent weeks but I really don't think the chemistry between Frank and the other neighbors are particularly convincing Frank does end up beating up and chasing off Jan's abusive boyfriend which is a nice short scene do like that Frank doesn't immediately jump Jones Bones especially since since he's still in morning after Maria Castle's death Joan was really thirsty though Frank meanwhile continues his investigation into the Saints operations kidnapping and torturing the nebish and non-threatening henchman mcky Dua there's a bit of a moment where I realize that Frank does this because he has been interacting with Mickey while undercover and as such he knows Mickey is harmless hence the whole sequence where he gives a vivid description of the sensation of being tortured with a burning hot iron being cold and Frank tending to torture Mickey while burning some steak which makes the smell of burnt meat and pressing a popsicle against Mickey's back it's a scene lifted from Punisher MAX and I thought this was a nice little way to show that Frank isn't too far gone the movie doesn't immediately explain why Frank was nicer to Mickey and trust him to be his man on the inside on the Saints operations however and Mickey himself also notably has no character resolution at the end of the movie after his plot relevance is over Frank ends up doing a bit of an invest tigation into the saint family and ends up sketching up a plan to turn Howard Saint Livia Saint Howard's right-hand man Quenton glass and their business partner the Toro Brothers against each other and we do get a couple of cool scenes of Frank either investigating and making up elaborate plans or just going full on skull shirt and shotguns and attacking Howard Saints bank and tossing money to the public the detective scenes admittedly feels rather off since ultimately Frank ends up doing some 5D chess mind game stuff that involves him framing Quenton and Livia for having an affair which later on leads to the overp possessive Howard being deathly jealous of his best friend and his wife this also comes with the unfortunate with modern values scenes of Frank finding the Scandal that Quenton is actually homosexual and uses these pictures to Blackmail Quenton glass and make him move around where he wants while this is all going on Howard Saint gets more and more frustrated and it is nice to see John Travolta's acting Travolta is easily the strongest actor in this movie though that's not to Thomas Jane's fault his Direction requires him to be a bit more static and it is pretty fun to see him slowly go off the hinges the next part of the movie ends up being a bit campier and more comic book why than the rest of it though and perhaps not in a good way despite apparently knowing where Frank Castle lives Howard Saint sends three waves of Assassins each of whom arrive at different timings and act separately the first assassin Harry hack played by musician Mark klie is perhaps the most memorable for showing up in a diner and playing a whole ass country song about how he's going to kill Frank and Frank does nothing and instead of embracing some Ridiculousness and doing something with the guitar Harry heck just attacks Frank by tailgating him and shooting his car a whole bunch Frank kills Harry with a shootable pocket knife and yeah okay the next assassin the Russian is an Unstoppable giant strongman that fights Frank in probably the most fun action seen in the movie where where he and Frank just bashes their way around the apartment complex I do like the theme of this fight where Frank actually lets his guard down after having some dinner with his wacky neighbors but I'm unconvinced that half of the fight needed to take place with cutaways to the neighbors doing wacky singing this fight was fun though and then the third wave of Assassins are just a bunch of gunmen who show up and torture spacker Dave ripping out all of his face piercings and demanding that they give up where Frank is hiding and this scene is kind of full of a bit of rather glaring plot holes why didn't the gunman arrive with the Russian why don't they kill Dave and bumpo why did Dave and bumpo actually stay behind wouldn't it be easier for them all to escape the idea of the scene as solid with the neighbors taking a bullet for Frank but it just makes the mafia look grossly incompetent after Frank recovers from his injuries with the Russian he implements his plan to frame Quenton glass for sleeping with Liv this one is a neat little sequence of scenes and it does benefit a lot from John Travolta Howard Saint slowly piecing together what he thinks is an affair in his head growing increasingly more and more pissed off at his perceived betrayal Howard Saint confronts Quenton glass and murders the very confused and loyal man in his own house and goes home and attacks Livia tossing him from a bridge into the path of the incoming train unfortunate modern-day implications aside this is actually surprisingly cruel on Frank Castle's part and it does give a nice little Mafia flare to the movie movies plot as opposed to Frank shoots people up a lot oh speaking of Frank shooting people up in the extended scene this is where Frank confronts weeks after several brief meetings and we get a pretty cool sequence of Frank pretending to leave his handgun without bullets unattended just to confirm if weeks is really against him and the scene where he intimidates weeks to basically kill himself is a bit dark and I'm not sure if I really like it but the theme of the movie is punishment and all of these people getting royally by Frank do deserve of death and then we get the final scene where Frank Dawns a military vest with a skull spray painted on it pulls on a compound bow an arrow and attacks Howard saints club and kills everyone inside we get a nice gory scene where the blond lead thug gets a knife graphically shoved up his lower jaw and another cruel and unusual death as Howard's remaining son Jon is forced to hold a bomb that he will undoubtedly lose strength at some point as Howard tries his best to get out of the building Frank catches up shoots him and details in full detail that he killed his remaining son and Quenton and Livia's deaths are all unfounded properly destroying Howard Saints mind Frank ties Howard to a moving car and sets it to autoc crash into a parking lot at which point apparently Frank took the time to plant enough detonation charges that the explosion pattern looks like the Punisher logo with his mission finished we get a rather dark scene as Frank actually prepares to kill himself after the mission is done really hammering home how broken a man like The Punisher is he ends up not doing so after seeing a vision of his family but he also leaves behind his Newfound friends and goes off to become the Vigilante known as The Punisher and credits and again as with all adaptations of the Punisher people's mileage varies a lot on whether this adaptation of the Punisher is too hard too soft misses the mark and I feel that the movie does a decent job at both showing Frank as someone who has some degree of Mercy towards Mickey towards Joan's abusive boy boyfriend and how nice he is towards the neighbors but also sometimes unnecessarily cruel getting Howard to kill his closest friends the way he kills JN or weeks I do think the movie also has a lot of nice themes that it kind of doesn't follow up fully on I would have liked a more proper and definite answer on whether Frank finding a new family is a good thing or not and the movie really flip-flops about it in the Final Act ultimately though I did find this movie extremely enjoyable and while I don't think it beats John berle's Netflix Punisher it's still a pretty fun watch regardless The Punisher opened in TN 649 theaters on April 16th 2004 and grossed $13.8 million over its opening weekend ranking at hash 2 at the box office behind Kill Bill volume 2 723 the film has a gross of $ 33.8 million and an international gross of$ 20.9 million giving it a worldwide total of $ 54.7 million three at around 26 mens when Frank Castle's wife and child are in the Blazer trying to escape it flips over while flipping the hand on the steering wheel is wearing a black bracelet but when Maria crawls out of the car she is wearing no bracelets the black bracelets are safety devices for The Stunt Driver similar to what Sprint car drivers wear to prevent their arms exiting the profile of the vehicle during accidents or stunts at around 1 h45 mins during Castle's final raid at the Saints estate he fires several shots into a henchman with his pistol and follows up with a tactical reload replacing a semi full Magazine with a completely full one Castle then racks the slide to chamber around there would be no reason to do this as there is already a round in the chamber if the pistol was in fact empty the slide would have been automatically locked to the rear at around 1 H50 mins when Saint is tied to the car and the explosions are happening his lower half catches fire in the next shot he is not on fire after Dave comes back from the hospital the tissue in his nose switches sides after he comes into the apartment at around 23 mens when Castle grabs the motorcycle to chase after the gunmen who are chasing Maria and will the dead family member who' originally been riding it is nowhere to be seen at around 1 H7 mens when they were transporting the money in the boat Castle used a Claymore anti-personnel Mine to blow up the money when the mine detonates there's a big Fireball Claymore mines are filled with 100 metal balls and do not explode creating a fireball the explosion in the scene is not typical for a Claymore Mine at around 36 mens after Frank is shot on the pier he later returns to his father's house and retrieves his father's guns since it was a crime scene the police would have removed all the weapons from the scene and not left them for anyone to steal at around 28 mens the truck that is used to kill Castle's family in Puerto Rico has a front license plate license plates in Puerto Rico are only displayed in the back of the car as you are only given one plate for the car all glass and commercial buildings is tempered and cannot be cut with a glass cutter as shown when Quenton is getting ready to set the pier on fire he sprays diesel fuel green cover on the pump all around and lights it diesel is not very volatile it does not change to a vapor easily like gasoline does you can throw a match into Diesel and it will usually just get snuffed out diesel is is injected into an engine under very high pressure and through tiny nozzles so it atomizes into a very fine mist and since it's injected into very hot compressed air that combination of fine mist and heat is enough to cause it to vaporize and ignite diesel fuel just laying there won't do anything at around 24 mens during the massacre at the castle estate in Puerto Rico when Maria attempts to escape with will she tells him to run to the Jeep it's a Chevy Blazer but a Jeep is commonly used as a Shand for an off-road car not necessarily of a Jeep make at around 10 mens after St kills the henchmen that was assigned to look after his son Saint drops the gun on the stomach of the henchmen only to have him jump as the weight of the gun hit his gut at around 24 men's after Castle shoots the gas tank it blows up the henchmen setting him on fire and you can see the fireproof mask and gloves on him at around 27 mins when the Blazer flips over you can see the mechanism under the truck on the passenger side used to flip the truck over at around 25 men's as castle and Lincoln fight and Frank lifts the knife to Lincoln's face right before Frank Cuts him you can see the tape across the face of where Lincoln is to be cut at around 26 men's obvious stunt double when the Blazer starts to flip over the Punisher 2004 directed by Jonathan Hensley is a gripping vigilante film that Chronicles the transformation of Frank Castle Thomas Jane from a dedicated FBI agent to a relentless Avenger after the brutal murder of his family the film's plot is a dark exploration of Revenge Justice and the personal cost of becoming a vigilante the film opens with Frank Castle an FBI undercover agent celebrating his retirement and reuniting with his family in Puerto Rico this idyllic moment is abruptly shattered when a mobster named Howard St John Travolta seeking Vengeance against the FBI for his son's death orders a hit on Castle's family during a reunion picnic Castle cast's wife and children are mercilessly gunned down in a shocking and brutal attack orchestrated by Saints men the massacre is not only a devastating personal loss for Castle but also sets the stage for his transformation into the Punisher a figure of vigilante justice after the tragic death of his family Frank Castle is left in a state of despair and driven by a singular desire for Revenge believed to be dead after the attack he survives and is taken in by a group of underground dwellers in a rundown building these outcasts including Joan Rebecca Rome and Stamos a former beauty queen turned StreetWise survivalist provide him with shelter and Care Castle's transformation begins as he adopts the Persona of the Punisher Dawning a distinctive skull symbol and becoming a symbol of fear for the criminal underworld Castle meticulously plans his revenge against Howard Saint and his criminal Empire he starts by targeting Saints men using his expertise and tactical skills to eliminate them one by one his methods are brutal and efficient leaving a trail of violence in his wake the punisher's mission is not just about exacting Revenge but also dismantling the entire criminal Network that contributed to his family's death this Mission becomes a dark Crusade reflecting his shift from a grieving husband and father to a Relentless agent of Vengeance as Castle delves deeper into his quest for vengeance he uncovers the intricate web of corruption and crime orchestrated by Howard Saint Saint is depicted as a ruthless crime boss who has built his Empire through illegal activities and violence his actions are driven by a desire for power and control and his willingness to sacrifice anyone who threatens his position Castle's investigation reveals not only Saints criminal dealings but also his personal vendettas and the moral depravity that underpins his Empire Castle's pursuit of saints henchmen leads him to confront various characters including Saints enforcer John Kevin Nash and his loyal right-hand man Harry James carpine each encounter is marked by intense action sequences and showcases Castle's transformation into a fearsome vigilante his confrontations are not merely physical battles but also psychological warfare as he confronts the moral ambiguities of his actions and the impact they have on his sense of justice the film's climax centers on the confrontation between Frank Castle and Howard Saint Castle's plan to bring Saint to Justice culminates in a high-stake showdown he infiltrates Saints lavish Mansion prepare to take down the Crime Boss and his remaining forces the confrontation is marked by a series of violent and dramatic moments as Castle fights his way through Saints security and henchmen in a dramatic twist Castle uses his knowledge of saints family Dynamics against him he manipulates Saints own greed and sense of betrayal to create a situation where Saints wife Livia Laura Haring and their son Billy Ben Foster become involved in the confrontation the film reveals the complexities of saint personal life exposing the fractured relationships and underlying tensions within his family the final battle is a brutal and intense clash between castle and Saint the punisher's Relentless pursuit of Justice culminates in a climactic confrontation where Castle finally faces Saint the battle is both physical and psychological as Castle confronts the man responsible for his family's death and the criminal Empire that perpetuated their suffering the violence is raw and unrelenting reflecting the depths of Castle's rage and the personal Stakes of his quest for vengeance after the final confrontation the film addresses the aftermath of Castle's actions Howard Saint is defeated and his criminal Empire is dismantled however the victory comes at a significant personal cost for Castle the film explores the emotional and psychological toll of his transformation into the Punisher despite achieving his goal of Revenge Castle is left to Grapple with the consequences of his actions and the moral implications of his vigilantism Castle's journey is not just about revenge but also about seeking Redemption and coming to terms with his own sense of justice the film concludes with Castle reflecting on his actions and the impact they have had on his life the ending is a poignant and introspective moment highlighting the complexities of Castle's character and the personal cost of becoming a vigilante The Punisher is a dark and intense exploration of themes such as Revenge Justice and personal Redemption the film delves into the psychological and emotional complexities of its protagonist portraying Frank Castle's transformation from a grieving family man to a Relentless Avenger the film's portrayal of violence and vigilante justice is both compelling and unsettling reflecting the moral ambiguities of its Central character the film's action sequences are brutal and unflinching showcasing the physical and emotional toll of Castle's quest for vengeance the punisher's character is depicted as a complex and conflicted figure driven by a desire for justice but also grappling with a personal cost of his actions the film's exploration of these themes adds depth to its narrative and provides a thought-provoking examination of the nature of Revenge and Justice The Punisher 2004 remains a significant entry in the Vigilante genre known for its dark tone and intense action sequences the film's portrayal of Frank Castle's transformation into the Punisher offers a compelling and introspective look at the nature of Revenge and the personal cost of vigilantism the film's exploration of themes such as Justice Redemption and the impact of violence resonates with audiences making it a memorable and impactful portrayal of a classic comic book character overall The Punisher provides a gritty and thought-provoking take on the Vigilante genre offering a complex and emotional narrative that explores the personal and moral dimensions of Revenge and Justice in the ending of The Punisher 2004 Frank Castle now fully immersed in his role Ro as the Vigilante known as The Punisher confronts Howard's Saint in a dramatic showdown at Saints Mansion after a series of brutal confrontations Castle meticulously dismantles Saints criminal Empire exploiting the internal tensions within Saints own family to his Advantage the climactic battle is fierce and unforgiving culminating in Castle's confrontation with Saint Castle's Relentless pursuit of vengeance is fulfilled as he decisively defeats Saint bringing an end to the crime boss's reign of terror despite his victory the film underscores the heavy personal cost of Castle's transformation into the Punisher the victory is Bittersweet Castle has achieved his goal of exacting Revenge but is left to Grapple with the profound psychological and emotional toll of his vigilante actions the final scenes reflect on Castle's inner turmoil and the moral complexities of his quest for justice leaving him to contemplate the true meaning of his Relentless Pursuit and the personal sacrifices he has made the Punisher is a 2004 vigilante action film directed by Jonathan Hensley who also wrote the film alongside Michael France it stars Thomas Jane as the anti-hero Frank Castle and John Travolta as Howard Saint a Crime Boss who orders the death of Castle's entire family the film story and plot were mainly based on two Punisher comic book Stories the 1994 miniseries The Punisher year one by writers Dan abnett and Andy Lanning and the 21 miniseries welcome back Frank by writer G enes though some scenes were derived from other Punisher stories such as Marvel preview presents The Punisher hash 2 Marvel super action featuring The Punisher hash one The Punisher war zone and The Punisher War Journal The Punisher was shot on location in Tampa Florida and environs in mid to late 2003 it was distributed by Lion's gate films in North America although Artisan entertainment which released a 1989 film adaptation of the same name on DVD financed and co-distributed the film with eventual Artisan owner lion gate Artisan sales agent Summit entertainment handled International sales with Columbia TriStar film Distributors International acquiring the rights in all non-north American territories except for India and China screenwriter Jonathan Hensley agreed to helm the film during its development stage despite a dispute with Marvel Studios marking his directorial debut Lionsgate films released the Punisher on April 16th 2004 it grossed $13 million in the United States over its opening weekend and reached a total gross of $ 54.7 million against a budget of $33 million but the reviews were generally negative Marvel Comics and lioncap began development on a sequel titled The Punisher 2 which instead became the 2008 reboot Punisher war zone after Jane and Hensley left the project due to creative differences the film marks the final production by Artisan entertainment for theatrical distribution an FBI bust of a smuggling operation in Tampa results in the deaths of Bobby Saint the son of mafia boss Howard Saint and Otto C an arms dealer however C's death was faked and is later revealed to be undercover FBI agent Frank Castle who is on his final mission before retirement enraged at the death of his son Saint orders his men to learn everything they can about C and acquires access by bribing corrupt federal law enforcement officers for his Federal service history St orders Castle to be killed at a family reunion in Puerto Rico though Saint's wife living insists that Castle's family be killed as well at the reunion Saints men including Saints best friend Quenton glass and Bobby's identical twin Jon kill Castle's entire family though Frank Castle Sr takes down some of the attackers Jon then shoots Castle leaving him for dead however Castle survives and is nursed back to health by Candelaria a local fisherman with the police and FBI unwilling to pursue the killers due to Saints power and Influence castle moves into an abandoned Apartment occupied by three outcasts Joan bumpo and spacker Dave and begins his mission to bring the Saints down with the help of information provided by Saints less malevolent henchmen Mickey Dua Castle studies the saint family and learns their every move during which he discovers glass to be a closeted homosexual Castle openly attacks Saint's business and sabotages his partnership with his Cuban Partners Saint discovers that castle is alive and sends assassins to kill him the first assassin Harry heck ambushes Castle on a bridge but is killed when Castle fires a ballistic knife into his throat the Second Assassin Russian Behemoth nearly beats Castle to death in his own apartment but Castle manages to kill him as well the tenants treat Castle's wounds and hide him in his hidden elevator as Saints men arrive for him when Dave and bumpo refuse to reveal Castle's Hideout glass tortures Dave by plucking each of his piercings with pliers they leave one of their men to intercept Castle but Castle kills him after they leave with Mickey's help Castle poses as an anonymous blackmailer and arranges for glass to be at certain places while planting Livia's car in the same location and ultimately placing one of Livia's earrings in glass's bed when Saint finds the earrings he stabs glass to death despite her protest that glass was gay Saint accuses Livia of having an affair with his best friend and throws Livia off an overpass onto a railroad track where she is run over by a train with st despondent Castle assaults Saints club and kills every member of his mob including JN Saint escapes the building despite being wounded Castle pursues him and shoots him in a duel as Saint lies dying Castle Reveals His schemes that led Saint to kill his friend and wife Castle ties Saint to a car and sends it into the club's parking lot which is rigged with explosives Saint perishes in the ensuing explosion Castle returns home and prepares to kill himself with his mission fulfilled but decides to continue to fight crime after seeing a vision of his wife Castle leaves some of Saint's money as a farewell gift to the tenants for protecting him and is then seen standing alone on the Sunshine Skyway Bridge at sunset in a voice over Castle assumes the new identity of Punisher and vows to kill anyone who harms innocent people in any way the Punisher is a long dark SLO through Grim Revenge unlike most movies based on Comic Book Heroes it doesn't contain the glimmer of a smile and its hero is a depressed alcoholic well he might be since his entire family including wife child father and even distant cousins has been massacred before his eyes as he seeks Vengeance he makes the Charles Bronson character in the movie Death Wish look relatively cheerful and well adjusted I wonder if the filmmakers understand quite how downbeat and dark their movie is it opens with an FBI sting that leads to the death of a mobster's son the operation we learn was the last assignment before retirement for agent Frank Castle Thomas Jane the criminal a wealthy high-profile money launderer named Mr St John Travolta orders Castle's death and then his wife Livia Laura Haring adds his family his whole family this sets up a sequence from which the movie hardly recovers Castle has a romantic walk on the beach with his wife Maria Samantha Mathis a hug with his child and sentimental moments as his father Roy Shader speaks at a family reunion then Castle's gunmen mow down the entire family in a series of gruesome vignettes not neglecting to linger on the death of wife and child after their pitiful attempt to flee Castle kills a few of the attackers but is cornered on a pier shot repeatedly dowsed with gasoline blown up and lands in the water this establishes a pattern for the movie no one is killed only once later in the film a Target is shot chained to the back of a car and dragged into a car lot where all of the cars explode miraculously Castle survives and is nursed back to health by one of those useful is the black loner who lives by himself on an island and possesses the wisdom of the ages the rest of the movie involves his recovery his preparations and his methodical revenge against Mr Saint and all of his people several colorful supporting characters are introduced especially the three oddballs who live in the shabby rooming house Castle occupies they are Joan Rebecca Roman St a sexy but frightened woman with an abusive boyfriend Mr bumpo John Pinette a tubby and spacker Dave Ben Foster who is pierced in ways you don't even want to think about we have all been indoctrinated in the notion that we are family and these three attempt to include Castle in their Circle despite his need to isolate drink kill and brood there is something a little odd when he's invited over for ice cream and cake the movie is Relentless in its violence there is a scene where spacker Dave is tortured by having his piercings removed with pliers the scene breaks the fabric of the film and moves into a different and macabra Arena Arena The Punisher opens on the same weekend as another movie about a gruesome Massacre and an elaborate Revenge Kill Bill volume 2 but they are as different as night and day Kill Bill volume 1 vibrates with humor irony over the toop exaggeration and the joy of filmmaking The Punisher is so grim and cheerless you wonder if even its hero gets any satisfaction from his accomplishments that said I have to note that the film directed by Jonathan Hensley is consistently well acted and has some scenes of real power that the Punisher is a dreary and charmless character does not mean that Thomas Jane doesn't play him well he goes all the way with the film's dark vision and is effective in the action scenes Travolta as Mr Saint finds a truth you would not think was available in melodrama of this sort his grief over his son and possessive jealousy over his wife are compelling the film doesn't simply set up Saint as a bad guy and a Target but devotes attention to the character and develops an intriguing relationship between between Saint and his right-hand man Quenton glass the always effective will patent The Punisher is able to use Saints jealousy to drive a wedge between the two men but here's the strange thing what happens between Saint and glass is convincing but what the Punisher does to sabotage their relationship is baffling and ludicrous involving false fire hydrants and the improbable detail that Saint would allow his wife to go to the movies alone after he knows the Punisher is alive and at War Right Down the Line the performances are strong even the three Misfits in the rundown rooming house are given the dimension and screen time to become interesting the screenplay by Michael France and Jonathan Hensley based on the Marvel comic doesn't simply foreground The Punisher and make everyone else into one-dimensional cartoons there's so much that's well done here that you sense a good movie slipping away that movie would either be lighter than this one or commit to its seriousness like Scarface this one loses control of its mood and doesn't know what level of credibility it exists on at the end we feel battered down and depressed emotions we probably don't seek from Comic Book Heroes reviewed this movie a while back in 2021 but I rewatched the extended edition recently in my slow attempt to catch up with a lot of older superhero material and my opinions have changed a fair bit that I decided to rewrite and republish the review of The Punisher 2004 having watched the 1989 adaptation starring Dolph lungren also helped for me to get some new perspectives right on the bat I do feel like 2004 is the Punisher starring Thomas Jane as the titular Punisher ends up being a bit more faithful to the comics compared to the 1989 movie Jane's Punisher actually goes around wearing the skull vest albeit only in his first and last outing for one and we also get the appearance of some of punisher's minor Supporting Cast from the comics such as assassins like the Russian or Harry heck or ones like Mickey Dua and specker Dave arguably the movie also acts as a nicer introduction to The Punisher actually showing us Frank Castle's origin story in a more detailed manner instead of treating it as an afterthought having his origin story be tied to the first criminal Syndicate that Punisher wipes out also gives us a more tangible crime for Frank to punish although your mileage may vary on how effective it is as a proper adaptation of the Punisher it's not the best but we also get a lot more scenes focusing on Frank's turmoil and torment compared to the 89 movie which had Frank more of a reactive character the movie isn't without its faults though and a huge chunk does lie with its First Act while I do praise the 2004 adaptation for actually drawing out the deaths of Frank's family and tying it to the first criminals that Frank hunts down it feels a bit too long and a bit too needlessly cruel we start off with Frank as an undercover cop that's about to retire and finally be there for his family the final operation however results in the death of Bobby Saint over eager son of the mafia boss Howard Saint the initial scenes of the movie focuses on Howard Saint a very entertaining John Travolta who surprisingly doesn't chew the scenery as much as you think he would in a role like this reacting to this death and trying to figure out and punish the one responsible for Bobby's death this leads to him sending a whole ass Hitman Squad to hunt down Frank Castle's family and Frank Castle's family instead of just being his wife and kids being killed in the crossfire of crime it's his entire extent extended family including his parents and like around a dozen assorted cousins and nephews and nieces that get summarily hounded down and murdered by Saints minions in an honestly gratuitously long scene that gets a bit uncomfortable to watch but also we kind of get it you don't really need to show Maria Castle driving around on a car for so long you know and I kind of wanted them to get on with the plot there is a nice little thematic tie in of mutual Revenge where Howard Saint's entire deal is hunting for the man who killed his family and Frank's motivation would later be similar however Howard's initial orders for only Frank to be killed ends up being amended to his whole family by Howard's angry wife Livia the extended addition restores around 15 plus minutes of screen time that revolves around a subplot of Frank's traitorous partner James weeks who gets caught up in gambling debts during Howard Saints investigation into the enigmatic arms dealer that resulted in the death of his son and later on continues to appear throughout Frank's punishing as Frank mentally puts the pieces together in his head this actually adds a nice little Dynamic into Frank's world not just him wiping out a single Mafia Syndicate but also him having to deal with a traitorous friend a reason that actually makes a lot of the scenes with his wacky neighbors a lot more palatable now that there's an actual thematic thread speaking of which yeah I'm not the biggest fan of the transition from the death of the castle family to Frank's return as The Punisher he just survives being shot and blown up into the ocean and get saved by a random fisherman just because the movie gives us a bit of an origin to Frank's over preparedness with Guns by his whole exmilitary backstory and his dad also being a gun nut and we get the excuse handwave of Frank Jr buying the skull shirt for his dad but otherwise next we see Frank he's basically in all business mode all Punisher mode he's emotionless he hates the cops and the law for not investigating his family's death he says badass one liners and he refuses to make friends and keeps every single friendship attempt at arms length and we just kind of cut away to him hanging out in an apartment with the three wacky neighbors a guy with a lot of metal piercings spacker Dave a fat guy bumpo and pretty waitress with an abusive boyfriend Joan played by Rebecca Roman a a Mystique from X-Men and I'll cover these wacky neighbors very quickly in that they do suck up a lot of time I don't think they're as bad as many other comedic relief characters in these movies and I get what they're trying to do Joan and later on the two guys really try to get Frank to open up with dinners and constant insistence that they are fellow losers and family the themes of Frank really refusing any kind of companionship is done rather well and in the extended addition this is contrasted nicely against Frank's betrayal by agent weeks but I really don't think the chemistry between Frank and the other neighbors are particularly convincing Frank does end up beating up and chasing off Joan's abusive boyfriend which is a nice short scene do like that Frank doesn't immediately jumped Joan's bones especially since he's still in morning after Maria Castle's death Joan was really thirsty though Frank meanwhile continues his investigation into the Saints operations kidnapping and torturing the nebish and non-threatening henchman Mickey Dua there's a bit of a moment where I realize that Frank does this because he has been interacting with Mickey while undercover and as such he knows Mickey is harmless hence the whole sequence where he gives a vivid description of the sensation of being tortured with a burning hot iron being cold and Frank pretending to torture Mickey while burning some steak which makes the smell of burnt meat and pressing a popsicle against Mickey's back it's a scene lifted from Punisher MAX and I thought this was a nice little way to show that Frank isn't too far gone the movie doesn't immediately explain why Frank was nicer to Mickey and trust him to be his man on the inside on the Saints operations however and Mickey himself also notably has no character resolution at the end of the movie after his plot relevance is over Frank ends up doing a bit of an investigation into the saint family and ends up sketching up a plan to turn Howard Saint Livia Saint Howard's right-hand man quent and glass and their business partner the Toro Brothers against each other and we do get a couple of cool scenes of Frank either investigating and making up elaborate plans or just going full on skull shirt and shotguns and attacking Howard Saints bank and tossing money to the public the detective scenes admittedly feels rather off since ultimately Frank ends up doing some f 5D chess mind game stuff that involves him framing Quenton and Livia for having an affair which later on leads to the overp possessive Howard being deathly jealous of his best friend and his wife this also comes with the unfortunate with modern values scenes of Frank finding the Scandal that Quenton is actually homosexual and uses these pictures to Blackmail Quenton glass and make him move around where he wants while this is all going on Howard Saint gets more and more frustrated and it is nice to see John travol is acting Travolta is easily the strongest actor in this movie though that's not to Thomas Jane's fault his Direction requires him to be a bit more static and it is pretty fun to see him slowly go off the hinges the next part of the movie ends up being a bit campier and more comic book why than the rest of it though and perhaps not in a good way despite apparently knowing where Frank Castle lives Howard Saint sends three waves of Assassins each of whom arrive at different timings and act separately the first assassin Harry hack played by musician Mark collie is perhaps the most memorable for showing up in a diner and playing a whole ass country song about how he's going to kill Frank and Frank does nothing and instead of embracing some Ridiculousness and doing something with the guitar Harry heck just attacks Frank by tailgating him and shooting his car a whole bunch Frank kills Harry with a shootable pocket knife and yeah okay the next assassin the Russian is an Unstoppable giant strongman that fights Frank in probably the most fun action seen in the movie where he and Frank just bashes their way around the apartment complex I do like the theme of this fight where Frank actually lets his guard down after having some dinner with his wacky neighbors but I'm unconvinced that half of the fight needed to take place with cutaways to the neighbors doing wacky singing this fight was fun though and then the third wave of Assassins are just a bunch of gunmen who show up and torture spacker Dave ripping out all of his face piercings and demanding that they give up where Frank is hiding and this scene is kind of full of a bit of rather glaring plot holes why didn't the gunmen arrive with the Russian why don't they kill Dave and bumpo why did Dave and bumpo actually stay behind wouldn't it be easier for them all to escape the idea of the scene is solid with the neighbors taking a bullet for Frank but it just makes the mafia look grossly incompetent after Frank recovers from his injuries with the Russian he implements his plan to frame Quenton glass for sleeping with Livia this one is a neat little sequence of scenes and it does benefit a lot from John Travolta Howard Saint slowly piecing together what he thinks is an affair in his head growing increasingly more and more pissed off at his perceived betrayal Howard Saint confronts Quenton glass and murders the very confused and loyal man in his own house and goes home and attacks Livia tossing him from a bridge into the path of the incoming train unfortunate modern day implications aside this is actually surprisingly cruel on Frank Castle's part and it does give give a nice little Mafia flare to the movies plot as opposed to Frank shoots people up a lot oh speaking of Frank shooting people up in the extended scene this is where Frank confronts weeks after several brief meetings and we get a pretty cool sequence of Frank pretending to leave his hand gun without bullets unattended just to confirm if weeks is really against him and the scene where he intimidates weeks to basically kill himself is a bit dark and I'm not sure if I really like it but the theme of the movie is punishment and all of these people getting royally by Frank do deserve death and then we get the final scene where Frank Dawns a military vest with a skull spray painted on it pulls on a compound bow and arrow and attacks Howard saints club and kills everyone inside we get a nice gory scene where the blond lead thug gets a knife graphically shoved up his lower jaw and another cruel and unusual death as Howard's remaining son Jon is forced to hold a bomb that he will undoubtedly lose strength at some point as Howard tries his best to get out of the building Frank catches up shoots him and details in full detail that he killed his remaining son and Quenton and Livia's deaths are all unfounded properly destroying Howard Saints mind Frank ties Howard to a moving car and sets it to autoc crash into a parking lot at which point apparently Frank took the time to plant enough detonation charges that the explosion pattern looks like the Punisher logo with his mission finished we get a rather dark scene as Frank actually prepares to kill himself after the mission is done really hammering home how broken a man like The Punisher is he ends up not doing so after seeing a vision of his family but he also leaves behind his Newfound friends and goes off to become the Vigilante known as The Punisher end credits and again as with all adaptations of the Punisher people's mileage varies a lot on whether this adaptation of the Punisher is too hard too soft misses the mark and I feel that the movie does a decent job at both showing Frank as someone who has some degree of Mercy towards Mickey towards Joan's abusive boyfriend and how nice he is towards the neighbors but also sometimes unnecessarily cruel getting Howard to kill his closest friends the way he kills JN or weeks I do think the movie also has a lot of nice themes that it kind of doesn't follow up fully on I would have liked a more proper and definite answer on whether Frank finding a new family is a good thing or not and the movie really flip-flops about it in the Final Act ultimately though I did find this movie extremely enjoyable and while I don't think it beats John burle's Netflix Punisher it's still a pretty fun watch regardless The Punisher opened in 2649 theaters on April 16th 2004 and grossed $1 13.8 million over its opening weekend ranking at hash 2 at the box office behind Kill Bill volume 2 723 the film has us gross of $3 33.8 million and an international gross of $2.9 million giving it a worldwide total of 54.7 $7 million three at around 26 mens when Frank Castle's wife and child are in the Blazer trying to escape it flips over while flipping the hand on the steering wheel is wearing a black bracelet but when Maria crawls out of the car she is wearing no bracelets the black bracelets are safety devices for The Stunt Driver similar to what Sprint car drivers wear to prevent their arms exiting the profile of the vehicle during accidents or stunts at around 1 h45 mins during C 's final raid at the Saints estate he fires several shots into a henchman with his pistol and follows up with a tactical reload replacing a semi full Magazine with a completely full one Castle then racks the slide to chamber around there would be no reason to do this as there is already round in the chamber if the pistol was in fact empty the slide would have been automatically locked to the rear at around 1 H50 mins when Saint is tied to the car and the explosions are happening his lower half catches fire in the next shot he is not on fire after Dave comes back from the hospital the tissue in his nose switches sides after he comes into the apartment at around 23 mens when Castle grabs the motorcycle to chase after the gunmen who are chasing Maria and will the dead family member who'd originally been riding it is nowhere to be seen at around 1 H7 mens when they were transporting the money in the boat Castle used a Claymore anti-personnel Mine to blow up the money when the mine detonates there's a big Fireball Claymore mines are filled with 100 metal balls and do not explode creating a fireball the explosion in the scene is not typical for a Claymore Mine at around 36 mens after Frank is shot on the pier he later returns to his father's house and retrieves his father's guns since it was a crime scene the police would have removed all the weapons from the scene and not left them for anyone to steal at around 28 mins the truck that is used to kill Castle's family in Puerto Rico has a front license plate license plates in Puerto Rico are only displayed in the back of the car as you are only given one plate for the car all glass in commercial buildings is tempered and cannot be cut with a glass cutter as shown when Quenton is getting ready to set the pier on fire he sprays diesel fuel green cover on the pump all around and lights it diesel is not very volatile it does not change to a vapor easily like gasoline does you can throw a match into Diesel and it will usually get snuffed out diesel is injected into an engine under very high pressure and through tiny nozzles so it atomizes into a very fine mist and since it's injected into very hot compressed air