Harpoon (2019 film)
Harpoon is a 2019 Canadian horror comedy film written and directed by Rob Grant. The film stars Munro Chambers, Emily Tyra, and Christopher Gray, and is about three best friends who become stranded on a yacht in the middle of the ocean.[4] It premiered at the Rotterdam International Film Festival on January 24, 2019, and played at several film festivals, including the Calgary Underground Film Festival, where it won the audience award. It was theatrically released on October 4, 2019.
| Harpoon | |
|---|---|
 Film poster | |
| Directed by | Rob Grant |
| Produced by |
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| Written by | Rob Grant[1] |
| Starring |
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| Music by | Michelle Osis[1] |
| Cinematography | Charles Hamilton[2] |
| Edited by | Rob Grant[1] |
Production company | 775 Media Corp[1] |
Release date |
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Running time | 82 minutes[3] |
| Country | Canada[1] |
| Language | English[3] |
Plot
The movie starts with a description of the characters we will be following. Jonah is a cowardly young adult who has been without both symbolic and literal fortune his whole life. He lived with his parents of whom he had a fleeting relationship. When they perished they had accumulated a large amount of debt and left him with very little. He is best friends with Richard, a wealthy but mentally unstable man who has shown to have difficulty controlling his temper. On his way over to Jonah's parents house where he is cleaning out some things, we see Richard screaming and punching his steering wheel, alluding to some aggression he has towards his friend. When Richard gets there, he brutally beats on Jonah and knocks over his parents urns, when suspecting Jonah has slept with his girlfriend, Sasha. Sasha is a thick-skinned military brat who graduated from nursing school and works with the elderly. She despises Richard's affluent spending habits and seems to be hesitantly staying with Richard, and moderates the two men. She quickly intervenes with the scuffle, hitting Richard in the back of the head and pulling him off of Jonah. It is revealed that Jonah and Sasha's relation was to purchase a spear gun (which Sasha comedically calls a harpoon) for Richard's birthday. Realizing his wrongful conclusion, he brings the two out on his yacht, "The Naughty Buoy", to hope to reconcile with them.
The narrator (Brett Gelman) begins to explain the types of friendship that were originally described by Aristotle, friendship of utility, pleasure, and mutual respect. He proposes that there are other forms of friendship as well. The friendship he brings up in this case is the friendship of history, which he explains is friends with whom you have grown with and stay in acquaintance with "just because". At this point we go back to the dichotomy of the three on the boat. Jonah and Sasha tell Richard that he owes them one free punch each for how he had acted back at the house, in the rule of 'Even Stevens'. Though reluctant, he allows this, as he takes a surprise punch to the stomach from Jonah, and a hit to the face by Sasha, somewhat relieved by the retribution.
Some time passes as the three begin to enjoy their time on the boat. Jonah begins to fish on the stern as Sasha sits on the bow tanning. Richard walks up to Jonah to converse with him. Jonah asks him what brought him to the conclusion that he slept with Sasha, seeing that he only told them about the texting conversation. Richard reveals a few of the reasons for his suspicions, one being the way that Jonah looks at Sasha lovingly being eerily similar to how Richard looks at her as well. Richard in return, asks Jonah about an emotionally charged conversation that he and Sasha had a few weeks back. Jonah, realizing that Richard is still quite suspicious about this conversation, explains that he is still making "mistakes" alluding to Richard's possible infidelity during his relationship with Sasha. After a seedy back and forth, Richard seems to regain some of his suspicion. He goes over to Sasha, first gleefully asking if she wants to see him shoot his spear gun that they gave him. Un-amused she watches him fire it, and retrieve the bolt from the water. As Richard is distracted on the other end catching a large fish, Richard questions Sasha. Starting as just a question of if they are alright seeing as they have had some recent struggles, to which she agrees in averse tones, he then more curiously asks her about the same argument he inquired about with Jonah. She pauses, and explains it was just about his gift, contradicting the story line that Jonah provided. Now convinced of the fact that they really have had relations resulting in them sleeping together, Richards' aggression resurfaces and begins to build. He heads to the stern where Jonah is killing the fish he has caught. Richard strikes him hard enough to eject him from the yacht, and heads to confront Sasha once more. Sasha hearing the struggle, nervously grabs she speargun, pointing it at Richard's stomach. They fight for control of the gun, and in the altercation Sasha inadvertently discharges it, hitting Jonah's hand as he is climbing back onto the boat. Sasha, now shocked from the sight of what she caused, loses the upper hand as Richard chases her into the hull, as she tries to contact help on the radio. Screaming and now in a fit of rage, Richard rips the radio from its holding and begins to choke Sasha. As she begins losing consciousness, seeing a fading image of Richards furious expression, he is knocked unconscious with a bottle of gin by a now freed, but wounded, Jonah.
Concluding that Richard has successfully exposed their affair, they decide on how to rid themselves of him. They are hesitant to make it seem intentional, due to the fact that Richard's father is also a very vile and powerful man, explaining earlier in the film that he has the ability to make people "disappear". Not wanting this to be their fate, Jonah makes a plan to place Richard on the bow, as the two rock the boat, "unintentionally" having Richard fall off and drown in a pseudo-tragic drunken accident, making it undetectable to a lie detector. Sasha is uncertain that this will void their guilt, and is taken back by Jonah's perceived stupidity. Despite this, she goes along with the plan anyway. During this time, she explains to Jonah that Richard has a safe with 80 thousand dollars in his closet and provides him with the code, suggesting he use that money and run away to avoid accusation. As they begin rocking the boat more, Richard finally falls into the water, but regains consciousness shortly after.
Distraught over the fact that the two would see him killed, Richard proposes that they ought to make a deal to not kill one another and go there separate ways when they make it ashore, bargaining with the keys to the yacht he had been keeping in his pocket. Displeased with the sight of now being unable to leave Richard behind, they accept these terms. Unconvinced and trying to maintain his safety, Richard also chaffed with the two that they must throw every item that could be used as a weapon overboard before he re-enters the vessel, to which the two reluctantly agree. During their purging of the suspicious objects Jonah makes suspicious eye contact with Sasha while asking if she can help him find a golf club that he is searching for, to which Richard forbays. Jonah then quickly finds the golf club and throws it off the ship, and Richard reenters.
All three on the yacht again, Richard goes to the helm where he takes the wheel and places the key in the ignition. After multiple attempts, the boat's engine will not turn over, furthering the helplessness of the situation. All three of the members are taken by anger and panic.
Still in complete mistrust, Richard leads Sasha and Jonah into the hull, where he has the two others sit separately to avoid collusion. An extremely charged argument breaks out between the three. Richard casts them as horrible people for their past actions. Sasha rebuttals with the fact that Richard has had an affair a year ago which resulted in him having a bastard child. She goes on to explain that the woman bering this child refused to have an abortion and was murdered shortly afterward, surmising that either Richard or his father killed her. He denies this fact which Sasha does not believe and explains that it is this fact that made her not leave him in the first place, seeing that he would probably have her killed as well while highlighting the bruises from the strangling earlier. Richard is disgusted by this, but without much defense, turns his attention Jonah. He is mad that his closest friend would do something like this, and notes how spineless it was that Jonah did not just fess up when he was initially accused before the boat trip. Jonah at this point acts skittish and does not have much rebuttal other than his own self-loathing. Richard, wanting retribution for the two calling an "even-Stevens" on what he was initially correct to assume of them. While he does not hit Sasha, although he would do so gladly, asks Jonah to put his hand on the table top. Jonah hesitates, and places his good hand on the table top. Richard denies him this, and tells him "other hand", looking at the bandaged hand from the speargun injury. Jonah, then slowly and worriedly slides his bloodied hand upon the table. As soon as Richard has an open shot he slams his fist down upon Jonah's wound, Jonah now wincing and writhing in pain from the impact.
Now that Richard believes they have reached some essence of justice, the three evaluate their supplies and their chance of survival. They have extremely few supplies: a spoiled banana, handful of sauce packets and about a pint of drinking water in a small Tupperware. Quoting her knowledge gained in nursing school, she nervously explains that being the only usable water, the group has roughly about seven days before they die from dehydration. After Richard makes jests toward her knowledge gained in college, he begins to explain that they still have favorable odds, seeing that there are shipping boats passing through the part of the ocean that they are marooned. When asked the probability of their being rescued, Richard says that there is a 90% chance(or 90/10) that there will be a ship to find their yacht. The three find some comfort in the proposed odds and begin their wait for assistance.
The sadistic narrator comes back to comedically verify the actual fleeting odds of the situation, as an overlying card shows that almost a week has passed and no shipping boats have shown up. He highlights their lack of responsibility before boarding seeing that they set out on a Friday before a long weekend. He also points out the other, more superstitious factors that have seemed to also affected them (Fridays being bad luck to sail, redheaded people such as Sasha being bad luck on boats, throwing out an albatross statue during their bargaining. . .etc .). With all of this in mind, the narrator once again surmises that the characters are without much real hope at all. As we look back to the present situation Richard kills a seagull for sustenance, to which the narrator finalizes his explanation with such an action of killing a sea bird extremely bad luck.
Richard brings the dead gull, back within the hull of the ship. He places the small, now-empty, Tupperware below the bird and drains its blood into it. Jonah frighteningly asks if he really plans on drinking it, to which Sasha agrees to Richard's plans. She recounts the portion of Edgar Allan Poe's Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket, namely the portion of the tale where the marooned men drink a turtle's blood to survive which,only providing little help, ends in the men drawing sticks to see who will be sacrificed to be consumed by the others to prolong their survival. The man who is inevitably sacrificed is named Richard Parker, which they relay is what the tiger in Life of Pi is named after. Jonah, still skeptical, argues that they should not go off of a fictitious story as a means of survival. The two refute his suspicions by then explaining that later in time, there was a real shipwreck which the exact same events occurred 46 years after the story, with the man being sacrificed also named Richard Parker. Freaked-out but still skeptical of the validity, Jonah questions if the consumption of this blood will really benefit them at all, to which the other two agree that they will take their chances. Richard is the first to take large gulps of the thick blood, followed by Sasha. As Jonah takes one large swing and swallows it, he immediately vomits into the sink, an action that Richard scoffs at.
The narrator begins another form of friendship that he believes exists. This friendship is the friendship of survival. He explains that this type of friendship exists when people rely on those around them working together in order to survive the hardships that they are enduring. During the narration, we see our three characters doing various tasks around the ship. They seem to still have a lot of disgust for one another, but are working together in hopes of simply surviving just a bit longer.
The three "friends" sit inside the hull exhausted and tattered. Richard perks up, remembering a bottle of scotch he had stowed away from when they had first purchased the yacht, and walks over to retrieve it. Both Jonah and Sasha excitedly reach for the bottle, but Richard pulls away. He says he will not allow them to take a drink, until they tell him when they had sex, claiming he is not mad anymore, but just wants to know. Sasha shortly after tells him it was new years after Richard had passed out drunk and they were cleaning up. He hands her the bottle, but stops Jonah from drinking yet, asking him specifically what they were arguing about that day. Jonah hesitates at first, but then explains that Jonah had asked Sasha to run away with him, leaving Richard behind, but she would not in fear of being hunted down by Richard's father. Richard finding relief from the truth finally being told, hands Jonah the bottle. As a means of comedic relief, Richard then asks Sasha which of the two men were better in bed. Sasha tells them that Richard was better, and apologizes to Jonah, while taking another swig of the Scotch. Jonah, who is angered by this, starts unhappily asking Sasha why, and is given the answer that he is too "vanilla". He is genuinely displeased by her responses, and tells her that she has an awkward "sex face", relating it to someone who is about to sneeze. Richard gleefully agrees to Jonah's analysis, and Sasha is now offended. To level the playing field, she tells Richard that he always sweats profusely during sex. Richard is unfazed by her insults, she is unrelenting with the analysis to no avail. Revealing the issue with his hand Richard and Sasha go tell Jonah to rinse it with salt water. Jonah, argues that the ocean water is not helping, and he needs to kill the infection with the scotch they have left. The other two impede him in doing so, saying it would not do any better, and do not want to sacrifice the remaining alcohol. Jonah reluctantly gets up to clean his wound, still chuckling at the things that Sasha brought up about Richard and stumbling from intoxication. As the almost finished bottle cycles back to Richard, Sasha asks him whether it was him or his father that murdered his pregnant adulteress, seeing that they were all revealing the truth. Richard solemnly tells her that as he had stated before, neither of them was the one to kill her.
During one night, the three are shown in their respective sleeping spots. Jonah is shown whining and squirming in severe discomfort. He finally shouts, unable to hold back the pain any longer. The other two look over to see that Jonah has a severe infection in his hand that is spreading, and is succumbing to his illness. Sasha, seeing the severity of the issue, makes the notion that they need to amputate his arm to stop the illness from spreading to his body. Jonah is starkly against this plan, retorting by saying he is fine. Richard insults him for his cowardliness once again. With this and Sasha telling him that this is the only way if he wants to survive, Jonah reluctantly agrees. They break the bottle, and Richard gives Sasha his belt to tie around Jonah's arm. They steady Jonah and get him ready, but Richard stops them, before grabbing the Tupperware again, places it under his arm, and stands ready once more. They make one laceration to Jonah's bicep and he can no longer take the pain, whispering into Sasha's ear before fleeing from the two, who do not make him continue. Richard angrily asks what he told Sasha, to which she remains silent.
The following day, an extremely weak and ill Jonah sits on the side of the boat, retching. Richard goes up to Sasha, to hesitantly inquire if Jonah, in his condition, will be able to be eaten if need be. Sasha, in disgust, tells him that while Jonah might be edible, that they would not go through with that for the moral conflict in cannibalism. She notes that he and Jonah are perfect for each other, revealing that Jonah said that they ought to kill him to free themselves from Richard's instability and control. Richard who leaves dubiously from her response, goes and speaks with Jonah. Jonah yells at him, relaying how he should have been angrier when Richard knocked over his parents ashes, but was unaffected by it. He insults how easy Richard's life has been, the antithesis of how Jonah's life has been his entire life. Richard then tells him how he had always tried to provide for both Jonah and Sasha, to which Jonah said that he did so selfishly, urging that Richard did this for both his enjoyment and his ego. Tensions on the yacht at this point are at a breaking point.
That night, Jonah is seen again in anguish from the infection, which results in him shouting in pain and getting out of bed. Jonah, Richard, and Sasha all finally come to the conclusion that one must be sacrificed for the others to survive. Richard once again notes that Jonah, who is quickly dying at this point, should finally be courageous and sacrifice himself for the good of the group, which Jonah refutes, and urges that if he has something to eat or drink he will begin to recover. He also verbally attacks Richard, explaining that he has been having affairs, even after he told Sasha that the girl who became pregnant was the last time, and it would not happen again. Richard, now enraged that Jonah sold him out, reveals that it was Jonah who murdered the pregnant girl, not Richard or his father. Once Sasha hears this, she sits in horror and disbelief. Jonah tries to explain himself to her, saying that he did it to keep the group together, and that if she knew of his actions, she would leave and they would have never seen her again. This however, does nothing to console the now horrified Sasha.
With Sasha sickened by the sight of both Richard and Jonah, she reaches the conclusion that the only way is to draw sticks, referring back to the Edgar Allan Poe story. They all agree. Richard cuts a piece of wire into three unequal strips, and allows the others to draw. After everyone has a piece they open their hands, revealing that Sasha holds the shortest of the three. She begins to tremble as the two men watch as she holds the bottle to her wrist. She is unable to do it herself, leaving the two men to draw once again to see who must kill her, this time Jonah making Richard choose between two strips. When they open their palms once more, Jonah is shown to be holding the shorter piece. He stares in disbelief, and says that Richard always ends up on top. Richard says he has to do it, which Jonah softly says "no" before suddenly lunging at Richard with the broken bottle and tears out Richards throat. In his final breaths, Richard mutters out "We had a deal" before collapsing dead.
Sasha witnessing all of this happen before her eyes falls into shock, as Jonah tries to console her. He announces that she must eat, and stands up and walks to the stairs. It is revealed that while he was getting the golf club earlier in time, he had hidden and stowed away cookies, as well as removed a spark plug from the yacht's inner-workings. He explains to Sasha that he did this in order to rid them of Richard, while making it look like a necessary evil on their part. He applauds her retelling of the story of Richard Parker, and how convincing her helplessness was. Jonah then still looking ill, says that his arm was just a bit of bad luck, before saying that they could now run away together with the money in the safe that she said they could take. In utter disbelief, she corrects him, by saying that she actually stated he could take the money, implying that she would not be coming with him. Visibly unhappy with that sentiment, he looks at her blankly, clearly losing his grip and sanity in the situation. As to not to be killed, she sheepishly tells him that she will run away with him. This pleases Jonah, as he tells her to eat as he leaves the hull to go put the spark plug back, returning the boat to working order.
In shock, and enraged, Sasha stands up in the now fully operating yacht to Jonah who is checking things at the stern. She punches him directly in the face, to which Jonah looks up wide-eyed and baffled. In a darkly comedic point of the film, he agrees with what Richard says about her hitting really hard for a girl. She punches him again, this time harder flinging him towards the propellers. The film pauses before he hits the water. The narrator speaks again about how finally through Jonah's miss fortune and now-revealed sins he was destined to meet his fate. The film resumes to show Jonah being caught within the propellers of the ship, being shredded into a bloody pulp, having his severed and infected arm being the only piece of him left intact.
Sasha stares for a moment at the remaining shrapnel of Jonah before going up the steps of the yacht, towards the helm. She is completely drained at this point and looks at the draw-bar to the throttle. Right before she pushes it forward, the film pauses one last time to allow the narrator to remind the viewer about how red haired people are bad luck on a boat as mentioned previously. She hits the throttle and the force of the boat moving forward throws her backwards. She tumbles off of the side of the boat as it continues to move absent of its captain. She resurfaces to see the boat driving farther and farther away, leaving her in the middle of the ocean with nothing.
Release
Harpoon had its world premiere at the Rotterdam International Film Festival on January 24, 2019.[3][5] It was also shown at the Chattanooga and Calgary Underground Film Festivals, and won the audience award at the latter.[4] It was theatrically released on October 4, 2019.
Reception
The review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes reports a 97% approval rating with an average score of 7.5/10, based on 58 reviews. The website's consensus reads, "A B-movie with an A-level commitment to entertain, Harpoon should hit the target with horror fans in the mood for gory, darkly humorous antics on the open water."[6] On Metacritic, the film achieved an average score of 65 out of 100, based on 6 reviews.[7]
References
- Harvey, Dennis (October 1, 2019). "Film Review: 'Harpoon'". Variety. Retrieved January 30, 2020.
- DeFore, John (October 3, 2019). "'Harpoon': Film Review". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved January 30, 2020.
- "Harpoon". Rotterdam International Film Festival. Retrieved January 30, 2020.
- Dalton, Ben (May 30, 2019). "Arrow Films picks up horror comedy 'Harpoon' for UK (exclusive)". Screen Daily. Retrieved January 20, 2020.
- "Programme". Rotterdam International Film Festival. Archived from the original on January 30, 2020. Retrieved January 20, 2020.
- "Harpoon (2019)". Rotten Tomatoes. Fandango Media. Retrieved August 13, 2020.
- "Harpoon". Metacritic. Retrieved January 30, 2020.