The Gunman

The Gunman is a 2015 action thriller film directed by Pierre Morel and written by Don Macpherson, Pete Travis and Sean Penn, based on the novel The Prone Gunman (French title: La position du tireur couché) by Jean-Patrick Manchette. It stars Penn along with Javier Bardem, Idris Elba, Mark Rylance, Jasmine Trinca and Ray Winstone. The film is about Jim Terrier (Penn), a mercenary who assassinates the Minister of Mining of the Democratic Republic of Congo in 2006 on orders from multinational mining companies. Eight years after Terrier has retired from mercenary work, he and the people close to him become the targets of hit squads sent by a powerful multinational security firm, and he must fight to stay alive. The film was released on March 20, 2015 by Open Road Films. It was a box office bomb, grossing just $24 million against its $40 million budget and receiving a poor critical reception. Plot American Jim Terrier is a former Special Forces soldier who has become a black-ops mercenary. He is part of a team deployed by a corporation in the Democratic Republic of Congo in 2006, under the cover of providing security to local projects. He falls in love with Annie, a fellow expat working as an NGO doctor in a local hospital. During this period, even though civil war has wreaked havoc on the country, large multinational mining companies continue to profit from the country's mining industry. After the Minister of Mining announces his plans to declare contracts with the mining companies unjust and renegotiate the terms, the mining companies hire Terrier's team to assassinate the Minister to ensure their access to the rich mineral resources. Terrier delivers the fatal shot from a sniper rifle and flees from Africa, leaving Annie behind. After that, Terrier retires from his mercenary career. Eight years later he returns to DRC as a charity worker to build wells. One day Terrier is brutally assaulted by a local hit squad, but he manages to kill them all. While searching the attackers' bodies, he finds signs that the attack was not random and that he was the target. Scared and suspicious, Terrier flees to London to meet an ex-mercenary colleague Cox, who reveals that Felix Marti, their ex-boss in the Congo assassination, has formed a large international security firm offering its services to major clients, such as the Pentagon.