‘Proud Mary’ Trailer: If John Wick and Jackie Brown Had a Baby

By Neil Miller

Taraji P. Henson suits up and shoots up in the first trailer for ‘Proud Mary,’ a film about a woman named Mary who just wants to make a difference.

In 20 years, we’ll look back at the state of action cinema in this decade and be thankful for one thing: that a number of people saw John Wick and said, “We should do one of those with ____.” Later in the summer, Charlize Theron gets her John Wick movie when Atomic Blonde hits theaters. That one has a Cold War vibe and a signature brutality. Now Taraji P. Henson is getting into the act with Proud Mary, a version of John Wick that has more of a Jackie Brown kind of vibe. While this is usually the point where any reasonable observer would begin to wonder whether or not we’ve crossed into heavily derivative territory, I have an alternate take: I’m here for this.

In fairness, the “revenge thriller” isn’t anything new. Nor is the revenge thriller that is anchored by a single, highly skilled killer something we haven’t seen before. In recent history, we can thank Taken for re-popularizing the genre. Further back there are films like Oldboy and The Limey that carried the torch at the turn of the century. Further back still, films like Ms. 45, John Woo’s The Killer, Get Carter, Death Wish, and Point Blank are all part of the legacy that has wrought films like Wick and Mary. The evolution in these modern iterations is innovative action choreography and dominant central personalities. If it feels like Charlize Theron and Taraji P. Henson are “getting their John Wick movies,” that’s because they’ve earned it.

The official logline on Proud Mary is simple: “Taraji P. Henson is Mary, a hit woman working for an organized crime family in Boston, whose life is completely turned around when she meets a young boy whose path she crosses when a professional hit goes bad.”

We’re ready for the rest of it when it hits theaters on January 12, 2018. For now, here’s the trailer:

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