Red (2010)

Red is a 2010 American action comedy film loosely inspired by the Homage Comics limited series of the same name. Produced by Di Bonaventura Pictures and distributed by Summit Entertainment, it is the first film in the Red series. Directed by Robert Schwentke and written by Jon Hoeber and Erich Hoeber, it stars Bruce Willis, Morgan Freeman, John Malkovich, Helen Mirren, Karl Urban and Mary-Louise Parker, alongside Rebecca Pidgeon, Brian Cox, Richard Dreyfuss, Julian McMahon, Ernest Borgnine, and James Remar. Red follows Frank Moses (Willis), a former black-ops agent who reunites with his old team to capture an assassin who has vowed to kill him.

The film was released on October 15, 2010. It grossed $199 million worldwide. In 2011, the film received a Golden Globe nomination for Best Musical or Comedy Film. A sequel, Red 2, was released on July 19, 2013. Another sequel, Red 3, was in development in 2013 but did not appear.

Frank Moses (Willis), a former black-ops CIA agent, who's now in RED (Retired, Extremely Dangerous) status, lives alone in Cleveland. Lonely, Frank creates opportunities to talk to Sarah Ross (Parker), a worker at the General Services Administration's pension office in Kansas City, by tearing up his pension checks and calling to say they haven't arrived.

One night, an assassination squad raids Frank's house and attempts to kill him but he easily wipes them out. Knowing they will have tapped his phone, he believes Sarah will be targeted. In Kansas City Sarah refuses to go with him so he kidnaps her. Meanwhile, CIA agent William Cooper (Urban) is assigned by his corrupt boss Cynthia Wilkes (Pidgeon) to hunt down and kill Frank.

To find out who is targeting him, Frank tracks down some of his old associates for help. He goes to New Orleans, Louisiana, and visits his CIA mentor Joe Matheson (Freeman), who tells him the same hit squad murdered a New York Times reporter. An agent posing as a police officer tries to abduct Sarah but Frank returns in time. Cooper chases them but Frank tricks the police into arresting Cooper and escapes with Sarah. The two head to New York City and find clues left by the reporter which lead them to a hit list.

They find Marvin Boggs (Malkovich), another old associate now excessively paranoid, who tells them that the people on the list, including Frank and Marvin, are connected to a secret 1981 mission in Guatemala. A pilot on the list, Gabriel Singer (Remar), tells them the mission involved extracting a person from a Guatemalan village. Singer is shot by a helicopter-borne machine-gunner and the team escapes as Cooper closes in.

Ex-Russian secret agent Ivan Simanov (Cox), in return for a favor, helps Frank infiltrate the CIA headquarters archive. Henry, the records keeper (Borgnine), has much respect for Frank and simply hands him the Guatemala file, as well as informing Frank that Cooper had visited earlier to investigate Frank's past. Frank confronts Cooper in his office and the two fight. Frank is wounded, and Joe arrives to help extract the team. They hide out in the home of former wetwork agent Victoria Winslow (Mirren), who treats Frank's wound and joins the team.

The file leads them to Alexander Dunning (Dreyfuss), an arms trafficker. Joe poses as a buyer and enters Dunning's mansion with Frank and Marvin while Victoria and Sarah keep watch outside. They interrogate Dunning, who tells them the target for extraction was Lieutenant Robert Stanton (McMahon), whose US Senator father organized the extraction via Dunning. The younger Stanton is now Vice President and has ordered the assassination of all involved in the mission (other than Dunning) to hide the fact that he massacred village civilians.

The FBI surrounds Dunning's mansion. Cooper tries to negotiate Frank's surrender, and Frank tells him about the Vice President's treachery. The terminally ill Joe pretends to be Frank, walks outside, and is killed by an unknown shooter. The confusion, as well as Victoria's cover fire, buys the team time to leave the mansion, extracted by Ivan, but Sarah is captured. Frank calls Cooper from Cooper's own family's home phone and warns him against harming Sarah.

The team kidnaps Stanton to trade for Sarah. Dunning arrives at the meeting point. Dunning injures Stanton, revealing himself and Wilkes to be behind the assassinations and that Stanton was never involved. Disgusted with Wilkes' corruption, Cooper pretends to arrest Frank but instead shoots Wilkes. Marvin and Victoria kill Dunning's bodyguards, and Frank subdues Dunning by punching him in the throat. Cooper lets Frank's team go as Marvin shoots and kills Dunning.

Ivan reminds Frank of his favor, in Moldova, which Sarah eagerly insists on coming along for. A few months later, Frank and Marvin are fleeing Moldovan troops with a stolen nuclear device.