Wild Card (2015 film)

Nick Wild is a recovering gambling addict who takes odd jobs in Las Vegas as a "chaperone" (his version of a bodyguard) to support his addiction. After helping a client impress a girl, Nick accepts a proposition from a young man named Cyrus Kinnick to show him around Vegas and provide protection while he gambles. While eating at a diner, Nick's waitress friend Roxy hands him a message from his friend Holly, who wants him to stop by her house. Holly is a professional escort, who explains that she had a date the previous night at the Golden Nugget. After the date, she was brutally assaulted and beaten by three unknown folks in their hotel room. Holly requests Nick to find their identities in order to sue them.

Nick discovers that the one who is responsible for assaulting Holly is a gangster named Danny DeMarco, who had two of his thugs dump her in a hospital car park. Nick goes to the hotel to confront DeMarco and a confrontation develops, resulting in Nick overpowering DeMarco and his men, who are tied up. Nick calls Holly, who contemplates castrating DeMarco, who then breaks down and begs her forgiveness. Holly decides to just take the $50,000 from DeMarco's desk and leaves. Holly splits the money with Nick and leaves Las Vegas. Nick takes Cyrus to a casino and whilst playing blackjack with dealer friend Cassandra, Nick goes on a huge winning streak with the next dealer, amassing over a half a million dollars, but has a sudden anxiety attack while going to the cashier and decides to keep on gambling, eventually losing all his winnings (as well as his original $25,000) on a single blackjack bet with Cassandra.

The next morning, Cyrus, who is revealed to be a self-made millionaire, wants Nick to mentor him on being brave, but Nick declines. At the bar, DeMarco's boys arrive to deliver Nick to DeMarco, but Nick fends them off. Nick meets with Baby, who is the mafia boss of Las Vegas. Baby has received a complaint from DeMarco, who claims that Nick broke into his hotel room, pistol-whipped him, and killed two of his men – all to fund his gambling addiction. Baby takes Nick to a room with DeMarco, where Nick tells his side of the story: that DeMarco killed his own guys, to save face after begging for his life, and that DeMarco bears a cut on his sex. Baby tells DeMarco to drop his pants to prove Nick wrong, but he refuses and leaves.

At the local diner, Cyrus offers Nick a check for $500,000 and a plane ticket to Corsica for what he has learned from Nick. DeMarco and his crew appear in the diner. Cyrus shows his newfound manliness by singing loudly as a distraction so Nick can escape. Nick thinks about his sailboat and then kills the thugs and DeMarco with his utensils behind the diner. Afterwards, Cyrus insists Nick take the check and the ticket, where Nick accepts and drives out of Las Vegas.

• Jason Statham as Nick Wild
• Michael Angarano as Cyrus Kinnick
• Milo Ventimiglia as Danny DeMarco
• Dominik Garcia-Lorido as Holly
• Anne Heche as Roxy
• Sofía Vergara as DD
• Max Casella as Osgood
• Jason Alexander as Pinky
• Francois Vincentelli as Benny
• Daviena McFadden as Millicent
• Chris Browning as Tiel
• Matthew Willig as Kinlaw
• Grieice Santo as Cocktail Waitress
• Hope Davis as Cassandra
• Stanley Tucci as Baby
• Michael Papajohn as Pit Boss
• Lara Grice as First Doctor

Simon West said that Jason Statham developed the project himself "maybe over five years".[5] At one point, Brian De Palma was slated to direct until West replaced him.[6] West stated:

He [Statham] showed it to me once when we were doing Mechanic, but I was off doing something else, but then he showed it to me again after Expendables 2 and I got into it, because of the writing really. William Goldman is a hero of mine ... I actually worked with him on The General's Daughter. He did plot hole work on the script. So this was a chance to work with him on a whole script – not just a polish on a script.[5]

West said the script filmed was the one Goldman wrote over thirty years ago. He later elaborated:

I rang him up and said, "I'm about to put the record straight and fix this film for you." I did ask him, what's your one piece of advice for me when shooting this? He said, "Just make sure that Nick is the toughest guy you've ever seen in your life." That, I think is his approach – no matter how complicated the character is intellectually, no matter how much dialogue there is, or twists and turns Goldman puts in the script, at the end of the day, he has this one thing that he has above his desk that reminds him what the character should be. It was the same for me – once he told me that, "Nick's the toughest guy in Vegas", every scene informs that. Even when he's not doing anything, everybody in the room knows that, and everybody knows his history, what he's capable of. And so he ultimately doesn't have to do that much, because he is the toughest guy in Vegas.[7]

"It was nice firstly to have a script that was so set, because on any big movie scripts are constantly in flux," said West. "It also made it easy to sell to actors like Stanley Tucci and Sofia Vergara because their parts were very set out. There's nothing in the script that's really aged, there's no pyrotechnics or technology really."[8]

The trailer for Wild Card debuted on December 12, 2014. West later recalled:

It was a formidable thing, there are pages and pages of dialogue – it's a drama really. It's not an action film really, it's a character piece. Jason [Statham] is the lead in every scene and he has huge dialogue scenes. I knew he was passionate about it, but was like, "Are you happy with all this dialogue stuff?" and he said, "Yes, yes. I love it. I want to do it." So I turned up on the first day not knowing what it was going to turn out like. Especially after The Mechanic where he only has five lines in the whole film! That character has no dialogue. But we turned up on the first day and he knew every word by heart and was amazing. So, Wild Card, I think will surprise a lot of people – it's a very strong dramatic piece by him. There are, of course, also two or three fights! I think some of his best fights ever are in it. They're very realistic and we spent a lot of time on them, so they're very detailed and very well executed I think. But it's a great performance, and he's surrounded by some very cool actors: Stanley Tucci, Anne Heche, Sofia Vergara ... he's in a proper actor's environment and he really stepped up. I was amazed. I think this is just the beginning for him, I think you'll see a lot more dramatic stuff from him.[5]

Lionsgate released the film in a limited release and through on demand on January 30, 2015.[11]

• List of films set in Las Vegas

Wikiquote has quotations related to Wild Card.

• Wild Card at IMDb
• Wild Card at Rotten Tomatoes
• Wild Card at Metacritic