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Movies like The Ax

Key Features:
Unemployment, Desperation, Murder, Dark humor, Social commentary, Crime, Thriller, Moral ambiguity, Economic hardship, Psychological thriller
Tone:
serious, cynical, gritty
Target Audience:
Fans of dark comedies, Viewers interested in social commentary, Thriller enthusiasts
Emotional Arc:
Desperation → Anxiety → Shock

The Ax

2005-03-02
The Ax Poster - Find Similar Movies

Bruno is a former paper mill worker who has been unemployed for three years. Concluding that there is too much competition in his line of work, he decides to eliminate his competition permanently.

Genres
Comedy, Crime, Drama, Thriller
Cast
José Garcia, Karin Viard, Geordy Monfils, Christa Théret, Ulrich Tukur, Olivier Gourmet, Yvon Back, Thierry Hancisse, Olga Grumberg, Yolande Moreau
Crew
Costa-Gavras, Costa-Gavras, Jean-Claude Grumberg
Rating
6.933(202 votes)
The AxThe Ax
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Louise-Michel
6.125

In this radical and endearing black comedy, a group of retrenched female factory workers decide to pool their compensation money… and hire a hit man to liquidate their boss.



Odd Job
Odd Job(2016)
6.1

An unemployed factory worker takes a job as a hit man to make ends meet.



The No-Job Agency
4.6

Stéphane, Cathy and Thierry are the best employees of the Employment Agency of their city. But their results are so good that the agency will have to close because of a lack of unemployed. The three colleagues then have the crazy idea of creating unemployment to save their job.



The Crisis
6.9

Victor is a legal advisor who finds himself abandoned by his wife and fired the same day. He tries to seek comfort from different friends and family members, but everyone he meets is concerned with their own problems. His morale begins to falter when he realizes that no one cares about him.



Scribe
Scribe(2016)
5.921

Two years after a burn-out, Duval is still unemployed. Contacted by an enigmatic businessman, he is offered a simple and well-paid job: transcribing telephone tapping. Duval accepts financially without questioning the purpose of the organization that employs him. Precipitated at the heart of a political plot, he must face the brutal mechanics of the underground world of the secret services.



The Butcher
7.127

An unlikely friendship between a dour, working class butcher and a repressed schoolteacher coincides with a grisly series of Ripper-type murders in a provincial French town.



The Suicide Shop
6.3

In a cold French city where suicide is a common urge, there is a colorful shop, managed for many years by the Tuvache family, where it is very easy to obtain the necessary tools to satisfy the sinister desires of so many depressed citizens.



Discount
Discount(2014)
6.006

To fight against the introduction of automatic checkouts that threaten their jobs, staff members at Hard Discounts secretly create their own "Alternative Discount" outlet by salvaging products that would otherwise have been wasted.



Godard's Passion
5.743

While shooting a film, the director becomes interested in the unfolding struggle of a young factory worker that has been laid off by a boss who did not like her union activities.



Bloody Oranges
5.98

Simultaneously, a retired couple overwhelmed by debt tries to win a dance contest, as the minister of economy is suspected of tax evasion, and a teenage girl encounters a sexual maniac, while a young lawyer attempts to climb the social ladder. When the shoe drops, the winner won’t necessarily be the one we expected.



In Paris
In Paris(2006)
6

After a love affair ends badly, a young Parisian named Paul sinks into the same kind of deep depression that led his sister to kill herself. He moves back home with his father and aimless brother Jonathan but refuses to get out of bed.



The Brute
The Brute(1953)
6.9

A tough young man, who helps to kick poor people out of their houses, falls in love with a girl. She lives with her father in the building about to be demolished.



The Mill
The Mill(2023)
5.8

A businessman wakes up beside an ancient grist mill situated in the center of an open-air prison cell with no idea how he got there. Forced to work as a beast of burden to stay alive, he must find a way to escape before the birth of his child.



Park Benches
5.3

As she does every morning, Lucie takes advantage of her journey to work to lose herself for a while in the pages of a good book. And as she does every morning, she joins her colleagues at the office with a smile. It's a working day just like any other. Then suddenly all activity in the office stops. All attention is turned towards the window of the opposite building opposite and abanner reading: Man Alone. Is it a hoax? A cry for help? Everyone has his own interpretation, and will try, by any means possible, to discover what lies behind this mysterious message.



Tony
Tony(2010)
5.883

Unemployed and unemployable, Tony is a sympathetic recluse with severe social problems, an addiction to VHS action films and a horrible moustache. Occasionally he snaps and murder is the result…



Stroszek
Stroszek(1977)
7.315

Bruno Stroszek is released from prison and warned to stop drinking. He has few skills and fewer expectations: with a glockenspiel and an accordion, he ekes out a living as a street musician. He befriends Eva, a prostitute down on her luck and they join his neighbor, Scheitz, an elderly eccentric, when he leaves Germany to live in Wisconsin.



Une époque formidable

Michel Berthier, a senior executive at a mattress manufacturing company, has just been fired. As he does not dare to tell the truth to Juliette, his partner, he goes into debt to maintain the family’s standard of living, showering them with gifts. But soon he can no longer lie, and he decides to leave the house. After losing his money, his car, and his shoes, he meets Toubib, Mimosa, and Crayon, three “homeless” people who wash themselves in the restrooms at the Gare de l’Est. They take him under their wing and lead him to break into his former company in order to get sleeping bags and beds.



The Workshop
5.933

Antoine has agreed to follow a writing workshop where some young people in insertion must write a noir novel with the help of Olivia, a recognized novelist. The work of writing will bring to life the working-class past of the city. Its shipyard is closed for 25 years, a nostalgia that does not interest Antoine, influenced by the anxiety of the present world



Thanks Boss!
7.3

A family fired by a company owned by LVMH (Group owned by French billionaire, Bernard Arnault) seeks reparation from their previous employer with the help of the movie director.



My Piece of the Pie

France, a factory worker, lives with her three daughters in Dunkirk. The factory where she worked has been closed, leaving France and all of her workmates without a job. She decides to go to Paris to look for work. There she finds a cleaning job at the home of a rich man, Steve, whose world is radically different from her own. As their paths keep crossing, she discovers that her employer played a part in closing the factory in Dunkirk...



Ares
Ares(2016)
6.1

In a near future, the world order has changed. With its 10 millions of unemployed citizens, France has now become a poor country. Its people wavers between rebellion and resignation and find an outlet in the shape of TV broadcast ultra brutal fights in which the players are legally doped and unscrupulous.



A Bad Son
A Bad Son(1980)
7.439

Bruno is released from prison. He looks for a job and tries to start a new life. His first stop is at his father's apartment.



The Plan
The Plan(2018)
6

Three friends who have been fired from the company where they worked and are demoralized because of their unemployment status. In these circumstances, they meet to undertake the plan that mentions the title but there is a problem: the car with which they would travel has broken down and the crane must wait.



Carbone
Carbone(2017)
6.708

In danger of losing his business, Anthony Roca, an ordinary man, develops a scam that will become the heist of the century. Overtaken by the crime, he will have to deal with betrayal, murder and settling.



I Stand Alone
7.416

After completing jail time for beating up a man who tried to seduce his mentally-handicapped teenage daughter, The Butcher wants to start life anew. He institutionalizes his daughter and moves to the Lille suburbs with his mistress, who promises him a new butcher shop. Learning that she lied, The Butcher returns to Paris to find his daughter.



Micmacs
Micmacs(2009)
6.6

While standing in the doorway of the video shop where he works, Bazil is inadvertently shot in the head. Now homeless and jobless, he is taken in by a troupe of misfits who live in a giant mound of trash. There Bazil begins his quest for revenge against the people who produced the gun that shot him.



Il vegetale
5.707

Fabio struggles with a cumbersome father and a capricious and spoiled little sister who consider him a good for nothing, a “vegetable” in fact. The unfortunate recent graduate looks for a job reacts to the contempt of his family and demanding employers, when an unexpected event remixes roles…



The World Is Yours
6.729

To escape his life of crime, a Paris drug dealer takes on one last job involving Spain, unhinged gangsters, his longtime crush and his scheming mother.



Faultless
Faultless(2016)
6.1

Constance, a 40-years-old real estate agent, gets fired from her job. With no options left, she contacts her former boss, from the small agency where she started her career. To her surprise, he is hiring, but explains he may have already found someone. Constance is convinced she will get the job because of her experience and extensive qualifications. But when Audrey, a younger and prettier woman, is hired instead, it proves too much for Constance to take.



The Fall
The Fall(2019)
6.722

A mob's punishment of a lone man proves cruel and unusual.



The Editor
5.575

A one-time (and now one-handed) master film editor toiling in the cinematic sweatshops of 1970s Italy becomes the prime suspect in a series of brutal murders.



Delicatessen
7.3

In a post-apocalyptic world, the residents of an apartment above the butcher shop receive an occasional delicacy of meat, something that is in low supply. A young man new in town falls in love with the butcher's daughter, which causes conflicts in her family, who need the young man for other business-related purposes.



The Green Butchers
7.1

Svend and Bjarne work for a butcher in a small Danish town. Fed up with their boss' arrogance, they decide to start their own butcher shop. After dismal beginnings, an unfortunate accident happens which coincides with a large order of meat. One hasty decision leads to another and soon the business thrives. In the meantime, Bjarne has to deal with his twin brother who has been in coma for years following a gruesome car accident.



Emily the Criminal
6.7

Desperate for income, Emily takes a shady gig buying goods with stolen credit cards supplied by a charismatic middleman named Youcef. Seduced by the quick cash and illicit thrills, they hatch a plan to take their business to the next level.



Carom Shots
6.1

Paul Martin is the subservient brown-nosing youngster who needs quick advancement up the hierarchy to pay for the modern lifestyle he is buying on credit. Seeing that marrying his immediate superior's daughter will not get him the results he wants, he begins plotting the demise of the head of the company. The company itself specializes in holiday travel and unscrupulously brutalizes its customers for maximum profit, spending more thought on publicity gimmicks than customer service...



Those Who Work
6.236

Frank, a man of action who worked his way up all by himself, dedicates his life to work. No matter the place or the circumstances, be it day or night, he’s on the phone, handling the cargo ships he charters for major companies. But when he has to deal with a crisis situation, Frank makes a brutal decision and gets fired. Profoundly shaken, betrayed by a system to which he gave his all, he has to progressively question himself to save the one connection that still matters to him: the bond he’s managed to maintain with his youngest daughter, Mathilde.



The School Teacher
6.021

After having lost his job for having saved a child accused of shop lifting, Frédéric Barbier decides to become a school teacher with some funny results.The great comedy actor Coluche is excellent as a simple school teacher.



The Measure of a Man
6.567

At the age of 51 and after 20 months on unemployment, Thierry starts a new job that soon brings him face to face with a moral dilemma. How much is he willing to accept to keep his job?



Fresh Bait
6.424

With the ambition to start a boutique overseas but without the means to do so, Nathalie finds herself in a desperate situation, where she would do anything to acquire what she needs. Along with her boyfriend, Eric, and his friend Bruno, she concocts a plan where she seduces clueless men and accompanies them to their places, then allows Eric and Bruno to break in. But the three soon encounter trouble after one of their schemes ends in murder.



At War
At War(2018)
7

After promising 1100 employees that they would protect their jobs, the managers of a factory decide to suddenly close up shop. Laurent takes the lead in a fight against this decision.



Our Struggles
6.442

While Olivier, a 39 year-old foreman gives his job everything he’s got, Laura, his wife and the mother of their two children, abandons the family home, leaving Olivier alone to face his responsibilities. Lost and completely thrown, Olivier is going to have to come to terms with his new status as a single father raising his children alone. Because Laura’s not coming back.



The Outsider
7

A drama about the less known aspects of the trading activity inside one of the biggest banks in the world - Société Générale. The movie tracks the rise and fall of anonymous trader turned superstar turned escape goat - Jérôme Kerviel - just as the 2008 financial crisis was unfolding



The Surprise
6.8

An eccentric multimillionaire signs an agreement to have his life ended. While selecting his coffin he meets a young woman who has signed up for the same arrangement. Trouble ensues when the couple falls in love and wishes to get out of the contract.



Escape
Escape(2024)
5.4

A young man becomes convinced that the solution to all his problems is to live in jail, and he will do whatever it takes to get it.



French Blood
5.981

Marco Lopez, a former Neo-Nazi and skinhead, tries to leave his violent, racist and hateful past behind him.



Bruiser
Bruiser(2000)
5.453

After years of being browbeaten and walked on, a man wakes one day wearing an expressionless mask, fitted with a personality that enables him to take revenge.



Forgive Us Our Debts

Threatened by creditors, a newly unemployed man agrees to work for a debt collector, but soon discovers his deal with the devil has unexpected costs.



Sound and Fury
6.5

This drama depicts the misery of neglected children in big cities. 13 years old Bruno is of a good family, but since the death of his grandmother he spends most of his time alone, in a phantasy world, while his mother is away at work. But then he befriends the violent Jean-Roger, who's from a severely disturbed family, where nobody cares what he's doing. In school Jean-Roger drives their teacher into despair just for fun. To separate the two boys, she starts to stimulate Bruno's interests by giving him extra lessons. When Jean-Roger fears loosing his one and only friend, he becomes even more aggressive.



The Method
6.7

Seven candidates to a high executive position on a multinational company show up for a selection test in a skyscraper at the financial district. Among them, the most disparate personalities: the winner, the aggressive, the insecure, the critic, the indecisive…



Exit Plan
Exit Plan(2019)
6.076

Insurance broker Max's life is about one thing - keeping his walnut brain tumour in check. He eats properly, exercises and lives properly, but all of this self-consciousness makes him more and more depressed. When he realises that his beloved wife plans to leave him, he decides to take his own life.



Sex Is Comedy
5.815

A director struggles with a difficult sex scene between a young actor and actress who can't stand one another. Aided by her loyal assistant, she is hell-bent on getting the scene right without compromise.



The Laundromat
6.007

When a widow gets swindled out of insurance money, her search for answers leads to two cunning lawyers in Panama who hide cash for the superrich.



The Page Turner
6.514

Mélanie Prouvost, a ten-year-old butcher's daughter, is a gifted pianist. That is why she and her parents decide that she sit for the Conservatory entrance exam. Although Mélanie is very likely to be admitted, she unfortunately gets distracted by the president of the jury's offhand attitude and she fails. Ten years later, Mélanie becomes her page turner, waiting patiently for her revenge.



The Prey
The Prey(2011)
6.449

A robber escapes from prison with a single objective in mind: to track down his former cellmate, a serial killer who intends to pin his crimes on him. A cop is sent after the robber who, despite his best efforts, soon becomes Public Enemy Number One. As the protagonists are driven to their limits, it becomes increasingly unclear who is the hunter and who is the prey.



French Tech
6.5

Down-on-his-luck, unemployed Alexandre has two months to prove to his wife he can take care of his two young kids and be financially independent. Now, the thing is, although The Box, a user-friendly startup, wants to hire him on pro- bation, the company’s slogan is “No kids!” and Séverine, his future boss, is a short-tempered “killer”. So if Alexandre wants to land the job, he’s bound to lie... Will his meeting with Arcimboldo, an “entrepreneur of himself” and the king of online odd jobs, help the brave, disoriented Alexandre overcome all those challenges?



The Good Boss
7

Julio Blanco is the proprietor of Básculas Blanco, a Spanish company producing industrial scales in a provincial Spanish town, which awaits the imminent visit from a committee that will decide if they merit a local Business Excellence award: everything has to be perfect when the time comes. Working against the clock, Blanco pulls out all the stops to address and resolve issues with his employees, crossing every imaginable line in the process.



Falling Down
7.386

An ordinary man frustrated with the various flaws he sees in society begins to psychotically and violently lash out against them.



Umbrella Coup
6.9

Grégoire Lecomte, the unlucky actor anxious to find a "real job", goes to take a screen test for a role of a killer, but gets to mafiosi by mistake. He takes their don for a producer, and they mistake him for a hitman with whom they had an appointment. Deluded Lecomte signs contract with them. He is supposed to kill gun dealer Otto Krampe at his birthday party in Saint-Tropez by piercing him with a cap of the umbrella with a built-in syringe with potassium cyanide. Lecomte is not aware that it has to be a real murder.



The Apprentices
6.5

Antoine is a failed and depressed writer. Fred doesn't do much in his life and seems to be happy about it. The two of them share an apartment and live in a shambles. The adventures and mostly the misadventures of these two buddies/losers, makes them realise that despite everything that happens their friendship is the most important thing in their lives.



The Worst Ones
6.78

The story centres on a group of teenagers street cast in their neighbourhood and selected to play in a feature film during the summer. The film tells the story of this film shoot and of the connections that will be formed during it.



Carne
Carne(1991)
6.798

After a dreadful incident coupled with an ungovernable paroxysm of violence, a butcher will fall into a downward spiral that will burn to the ground whatever dignity still remained in him.



Love Crime
6.2

In the sterile setting of a powerful multinational, a ruthless corporate executive and her ambitious protégée bare their claws in a vicious battle for supremacy.



Capital
Capital(2012)
6.1

The head of a giant European investment bank desperately clings to power when an American hedge fund company tries to buy them out.



Carne
Carne(1968)
6.284

A woman who works in a meat packing plant is continuously preyed upon by lecherous men.



Up to His Ears
7.087

A millionaire realizes he really wants to live after he has hired an assassin to kill him.



Two Much for the Job

After five years enduring horrible work conditions, Sophia finally gets chosen for a long-awaited transfer from her thankless teaching job at a rough middle school. Ecstatic to start a new life teaching at the French Lycée in Barcelona, her hopes are dashed to bits when a well- connected, over-qualified teacher at an upscale Paris school cuts in to take the position. Determined to stand her ground, Sophia and her clever neighbour Mr. Picard join forces to sabotage her competitor’s candidacy.



The Factory
6.203

When a factory is bound to close, a group of workers decides to take action against the owner.



Some Like It Rare
6.43

Sophie and Vincent’s small butcher shop is on the brink of bankruptcy and their marriage is falling apart. Their lives are turned upside down when Vincent accidentally kills a vegan activist who vandalized their shop. Overwhelmed and terrified of being accused of murder, their only solution is to get rid of the body by turning it into ham. To their surprise the ham is so popular that it may save their business… that is if they’re ready to keep “hunting"!



Skirt Day
Skirt Day(2008)
7.082

A teacher, driven to exasperation from insults and insubordination, takes her class hostage.



The Wise Guys
7.924

Hector Valentin returns to France from Canada when he inherits a small sawmill. He has difficulties restarting the run-down operation which has inefficient workers and is hampered by the dirty tactics of its bigger...



The Hammer
6.106

Approaching forty, Ferro is unsatisfied with his life as a construction worker and part-time boxing instructor in Los Angeles, CA. After a successful bout with a young pro boxer, Ferro decides to don the gloves one last time. The movie recounts his unlikely quest for Olympic gold.



The Moustache
6.1

One day, on a whim, Marc decides to shave off the moustache he's worn all of his adult life. He waits patiently for his wife's reaction, but neither she nor his friends seem to notice. Stranger still, when he finally tells them, they all insist he never had a moustache. Is Marc going mad? Is he the victim of some elaborate conspiracy? Or has something in the world's order gone terribly awry?



Detective
Detective(1985)
5.2

Emile Chenal and his wife, Françoise, leaned on boxing manager Jim Fox Warner to cough up the considerable sum of money that he owes them, with both the police and the mob circling the situation. In the same hotel, Inspector Neveu looks into a murder that took place years before, and his storyline overlaps with the arc of the Chenals.



Dismissal
Dismissal(2017)
5

A successful Spanish executive from a telecommunications company working in Argentina is about to face the most important week of his life, but all his plans will be sabotaged by an eccentric character who will make his week a living hell…



Mado
Mado(1976)
6.4

A middle-aged businessman faces bankruptcy after his partner's suicide and a rival's unscrupulous offer to buy his company. Determined to avoid the trap, he finds an unexpected solution through a prostitute.



Two Days, One Night

Sandra is a young woman who has only one weekend to convince her colleagues they must give up their bonuses in order for her to keep her job — not an easy task in this economy.



Full Time
Full Time(2022)
7.028

Julie finally gets an interview for a job where she can raise her children better only to run into a national transit strike.



Coup de Torchon
7

A pathetic police chief, humiliated by everyone around him, suddenly wants a clean slate in life, and resorts to drastic means to achieve it.



The Price to Pay
5.4

Jean-Pierre, a wealthy businessman, is lonely. He still desires his wife but she only seems interested in shopping and the beauty salon. Tired of lunching alone every day, one day he decides to invite his chauffeur to join him, and a relationship quickly develops as the two find they have much in common. Are they just cash machines for their wives? Don't they deserve some love in return? Jean-Pierre confiscates his wife's credit card, but things don't turn out exactly the way he'd hoped...



The Debt
The Debt(1999)
6.968

Based on true events, the movie tells the story of two men who want to start a scooter business but don't have the required collateral for a bank loan. Then one of them runs into a former flat neighbour who offers to lend them the money. The guy turns out to be a thug and starts to extort them. Their life goes downhill from there.



The Clink of Ice
5.9

An alcoholic writer is visited by an incarnation of his cancer.



The Hunt
The Hunt(2012)
8.095

A teacher lives a lonely life, all the while struggling over his son’s custody. His life slowly gets better as he finds love and receives good news from his son, but his new luck is about to be brutally shattered by an innocent little lie.



Emilia Pérez
6.51

Rita, an underrated lawyer working for a large law firm more interested in getting criminals out of jail than bringing them to justice, is hired by the leader of a criminal organization.



The Stronghold
7.4

A police brigade works in the dangerous northern neighborhoods of Marseille, where the level of crime is higher than anywhere else in France.



The Big Store
6.223

Four guys working for a small grocer in trouble, declare war on a new giant neighborhood supermarket by attempting several coups. A film about the big store taking over the business of smaller stores.



Sud
Sud(1993)
6.8

During a hot Sunday afternoon in a small Southern Italian town, a school serving as a polling place is occupied by a group of three locals and an Eritrean immigrant, all unemployed, desperate and armed.



Andy
Andy(2019)
5.491

A lazy man becomes a prostitute.



Le Séminaire Caméra Café

Six employees of the Geugène company travel to Paris to take part in a motivational seminar.



Mondays in the Sun
7.229

After the closure of their shipyard in Northern Spain, a few former workers: Santa, José, Lino, Amador, Sergei and Reina keep in touch. They meet mainly at a bar owned by their former colleague Rico. Santa is the most superficially confident and unofficial leader of the group. A court case hangs over him relating to a shipyard lamp he smashed during a protest against the closure. José is bitter that his wife, Ana, is employed when he is not.



Staring at Strangers

Carpenter Sergio runs away and hides in a closet after his boss fired him. When the closet arrives at its buyer's house, he decides to stay there, hiding in his new home living with an unknown family.



Amer
Amer(2009)
6.207

Ana is confronted with body and desire at three key moments of her life. As a young girl, she brings her dead grandpa back to life. In her puberty, she discovers the power of decay and sexuality. Finally, she wrestles with loss and loneliness when she returns to her parental home, now derelict.



The Moon in the Gutter

A dockworker seeking revenge on the killer of his sister finds himself the object of desire for two women.



The Child
The Child(2005)
7.1

A poor young Belgian mother wants her petty thief of a boyfriend to be gainfully employed to raise their newborn child, but he has other ideas.



The Killer
6.58

After a fateful miss, an assassin battles his employers, and himself, on an international manhunt he insists isn't personal.



Spy, Stand Up
7.2

Sebastien Grenier, a former French spy, is working as a financial analyst in Zurich. However, his peaceful existence starts to disintegrate when he is recruited by a top French intelligence operative to discover how one of their own secret agents was found out and executed in broad daylight.



Nice and Easy
6.534

Sebastian has one ambition in life: to do nothing. His horizon is his couch. His life he does not want to live but contemplate. But today, if you do nothing - You are nothing. So driven by his two roommates, that chain internships and odd jobs, decided to Anna and not quite decided Bruno, Sebastien will have to - A little.



Magnet of Doom
6.25

Young boxer Michel Maudet is sacked by his manager after a series of match defeats and is forced to look for a new job. He is engaged as secretary to a millionaire named Ferchaux who is in a hurry to flee the country when he discovers he has been implicated in a high-profile fraud.



Kafka
Kafka(1991)
6.4

After a colleague is murdered, insurance worker Kafka gets embroiled in an underground group who are attempting to thwart a secret organization that controls the major events in society.



The Professional
7.2

French secret service agent Josselin Beaumont is dispatched to take down African warlord N'Jala. But when his assignment is canceled, he's shocked to learn that his government is surrendering him to local authorities. He is given a mock trial and sentenced to 20 years of hard labor. But Beaumont escapes from prison and vows not only to avenge himself against his betrayers but also to finish his original assignment.

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