understanding the assignment movie

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The 'I Understood The Assignment' TikTok Audio Explained

A social media trend has reached peak popularity whenever brands start participating in it; by the time junior creatives and social media interns finish pitching and explaining a trend for approval, it's probably already been seen on every platform. So, with that in mind, it should be easy to backtrack the timeline of a trend to learn more about it when a brand joins in on the fun. One glaring exception is the Duolingo Owl — that's one up-to-date bird.

McDonalds' "I understood the assignment" era on Twitter began in the second half of 2021. So did Starbucks '. With a calculation based on conjecture, the trend can be traced back to the beginning of 2021. We looked to Know Your Meme for confirmation, and it turns out we were right. This is what high school teachers meant when they said that we'd use math after graduating.

This particular phrase has garnered extreme attention across all social media platforms. On TikTok , videos submitted under the "I understood the assignment" hashtag have received more than 600 million views; an excess of 30,000 posts wear it on Instagram . But what does it mean? And why is there an entire song dedicated to it? Read on to learn more.

The 'I understood the assignment' trend has been used by celebrities

How was the "I understood the assignment" trend created? In March 2021, a Twitter user @thering26 posted stills of Uma Thurman in numerous acting roles. "Uma Thurman will always understand the assignment," the accompanying text read. Soon, the phrase and meme format spread across Twitter like wildfire; it is used to describe someone who knows how to get the job done (via Know Your Meme ). The meme format is particularly popular for talking about actors who can pull off very different roles with top-notch acting.

A few months later, artist Tay Money put a new spin on the trend. She released a song that claimed she understood " The Assignment ." The artist herself used a part of the song that said "I understood the assignment" on TikTok. This led to a trend of people posting accomplishments and stories that proved that they knew what was expected of them and went above and beyond (via Know Your Meme ).

Even celebrities hopped on the trend. Taylor Swift used it to promote "All Too Well" (via YouTube ) and basically immortalized the phrase. There are currently around 250 million views on the "the assignment" hashtag on TikTok . It also led to the creation of another relatable sound that remixes Tay Money's song with Reese Witherspoon in "Legally Blonde" saying, " Actually, I wasn't aware that we had an assignment ." And that's how one meme took over the internet.

“The Assignment” is a thrilling action film that delves into the world of revenge and identity. Directed by Walter Hill, the movie follows the story of Frank Kitchen, a hitman who undergoes an involuntary gender reassignment surgery as an act of revenge. The film’s ending leaves viewers with a lot to unpack and understand.

In the final moments of the film, Frank Kitchen, played by Michelle Rodriguez, confronts his former surgeon, Dr. Rachel Kay (Sigourney Weaver). Throughout the movie, it becomes clear that Dr. Kay orchestrated Frank’s transformation as a form of punishment for his past crimes. However, what remains unclear is whether Frank seeks revenge or redemption.

As Frank confronts Dr. Kay, he is faced with a choice: to kill her and seek vengeance for what she has done or to let go of his anger and move on with his life. This decision is symbolic of Frank’s journey throughout the film. He has been consumed by rage and a desire for revenge but now has the opportunity to break free from this cycle.

The ending can be interpreted in two ways. On one hand, Frank could choose to kill Dr. Kay, thus perpetuating the cycle of violence and revenge that has defined his life thus far. This would suggest that he is unable to escape his past and that he is ultimately doomed to repeat his mistakes.

On the other hand, Frank could choose not to kill Dr. Kay, signaling a desire for redemption and a chance at a fresh start. By letting go of his anger and choosing forgiveness over revenge, he would be breaking free from the chains that have bound him for so long.

The film intentionally leaves this decision up to interpretation, allowing viewers to draw their own conclusions about Frank’s character arc. It poses thought-provoking questions about the nature of revenge and whether it truly brings closure or only perpetuates more pain.

Furthermore, “The Assignment” also explores themes of identity and self-acceptance. Throughout the film, Frank struggles with his new body and the implications it has on his sense of self. The ending, therefore, can also be seen as a moment of self-discovery and acceptance.

By choosing not to kill Dr. Kay, Frank may be embracing his new identity and finding peace within himself. This interpretation suggests that the film is ultimately about personal growth and the ability to move forward despite past trauma.

In conclusion, “The Assignment” ending leaves viewers with a lot to ponder. It presents a choice between revenge and redemption, forcing us to question our own beliefs about justice and closure. Additionally, it explores themes of identity and self-acceptance, adding depth to the overall narrative.

Ultimately, the ending is open-ended, allowing for multiple interpretations. It is up to each viewer to decide what they believe Frank’s final decision signifies. Regardless of how one chooses to interpret it, “The Assignment” is a thought-provoking film that sparks conversations about revenge, identity, and personal growth.

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Always Understand the Assignment Meaning

Hi, everyone has anyone heard the meaning “ They Always Understand the Assignment” it’s a catchphrase that, when paired with images of an actor or an actress in their various roles, is used as a way of complimenting their acting skill and range. I just found this out today on Twitter. For example:” will always understand the assignment" Has anyone else seen it on their Twitter page?

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Do You Know What All The Top Gen Z Phrases For 2022 Mean?

Senior Trends Reporter, HuffPost UK

Everyone knows Gen Z are the ones currently deciding what’s in and what’s out.

But do you know what the top phrases they used in 2022 actually mean?

Using Google trends data, Preply – a language learning app – identified the top slang terms used in the last year which had people quickly hunting the internet to learn what they actually meant.

Here’s a breakdown of all the definitions, starting with the most-Googled:

1. Understood the assignment

Think of it as the 2022 edition of the phrase “killing it” – it means when someone put in additional effort and went above and beyond a brief, basically.

It went particularly viral back in 2021 when fans of various actors compared all the different roles they had played, alongside the caption, “they understood the assignment” – a tweet format which continued throughout 2022.

listen, jenna ortega is so good in wednesday and the scene where she dances is perfect proof that she understood the assignment pic.twitter.com/MIMjXrdsgR — Nora Dominick (@noradominick) November 26, 2022

Ooh, probably not the one you want to be associated with.

Pronounced ‘chew-gee’, it means someone behind on trends, out of fashion, and who is a bit cringey. So if you’re still trying to use the word “random” to describe something quirky, you’re probably a bit cheugy in Gen Z’s eyes.

Sorry, we don’t make the rules.

Bussin’ is an adjective for something absolutely amazing, and usually related to food. Like this TikToker, who described Ikea meatballs as “bussin bussin”.

Presumably it stems from “bust a move” but we’re not too sure about the exact origins of this one.

@ashyizzle Those meatballs were bussin bussin ✨ #mukbang #ikea ♬ Famous piano songs for comedy and cooking programs - moshimo sound design

4. Caught in 4k

This is somewhere between “caught in the act”, “caught in the trap” and “caught red-handed”, it usually refers to catching someone out – but with digital evidence.

That can be video proof, a voice recording, a text screenshot or a photo, it all counts.

Think of it like the 2022 edition of “we have the receipts”, except “4k” means the proof against someone is particularly high quality.

On social media, users often attached a camera emoji to really hammer home how it means someone (or their scandal) has been exposed.

5. Sending me

When something is hilarious online, LOL is no longer enough.

So Gen Z invented “sending me” to express how something is so hilarious, they are incapable of carrying on as normal.

Perhaps it originates from “sending me insane”, but either way it has a similar hysterical sentiment to “I’m literally screaming” and “I can’t deal”. So it’s a new way of laughing, but online.

6. Ate that

This is seriously high praise. Despite it sounding like the opposite, “ate that” means someone is doing such an amazing job. We know, it sounds like they consumed the task whole – but maybe that’s a good thing?

7. Main character

This one is somewhat easier to understand.

If you embody main character energy, then you are the central figure in every situation.

TikTok has made this one very popular. Think of that person who everyone looks at when you walk into a room like you’re in a movie – if you’re a main character, you’re this person now.

And it doesn’t matter how you attract that attention either, as this baptised baby proves:

He's got that main character energy pic.twitter.com/eNClGDLPHr — made me smile (@mademe__smile) December 27, 2022

8. Snatched

This is the ultimate compliment about your appearance.

It began with New York City drag culture back in the 1990s, but has resurfaced to mean anyone who is quite simply, very attractive, perfect and amazing.

It’s like an upgrade of “on point”, you look like perfection.

Confusingly, it was also used to describe a particular waist shape for hourglass figures as well – so you would have a “snatched waist” – but appears to have been extended to apply to appearances as a whole.

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TikTok explores what it truly means to 'understand the assignment'

You've probably seen the phrase "understood the assignment" used to death on social media. Here's why everyone is saying it. The slang term is a popular way to praise someone who is going above and beyond to do a good job. According to Urban Dictionary, "understood the assignment" means, "a phrase used when someone is giving it 110% ... Whether it’s what they’re doing, what they’re wearing, someone who is really on top of their s***" . In the Twitter trend, users pay tribute to their favorite actors and actresses who've been able to pull off a slew of eclectic roles. TikTok tends to go along with Urban Dictionary's definition, rather than focusing on celebrities

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Margot Robbie as Harley Quinn in Birds of Prey

These Actors Definitely Understood the Assignment

Sometimes, there are just actors who understand their roles so completely that fans always know they can trust them. So when a meme started to go around pointing out who “understood” the assignment, the results varied. From pointing out that these actors always shine no matter the quality of the movie to pointing out specific kinds of roles they always flock to and understand, it was just a way for fans to share love for their favorites.

For me, my go-to choice was Margot Robbie. While a favorite actress of mine, she also always seems to shine in whatever movie she’s in. Even movies that are not well-loved (like Suicide Squad ) have the love for Robbie and her performance shining through. The movie might not be great, but you know that Margot Robbie will be. Because, as the meme points out, she understands the movie she’s supposed to be in, even if the rest of the movie doesn’t match her the right way. (Again, just think about Suicide Squad .)

Many took to Twitter to share their love for their faves and talk about the roles they shine in.

SHE always understands the assignment pic.twitter.com/KiW4T80AMp — no context schitt’s creek (@nocontxtSC) April 5, 2021

Y’all wanna talk about somebody who ALWAYS understands the assignment—I got two words for you: Colman. Domingo. pic.twitter.com/wRe1gax9Ex — Shanelle Genai (@shanellegenai) April 5, 2021

the way paul dano always understands the assignment pic.twitter.com/vbBHWmGNU1 — kyrs (@josepedropascaI) April 6, 2021

Pedro Pascal ALWAYS understands the assignment pic.twitter.com/yXgo6bmsGn — C (@cgarci_) April 2, 2021

No you don’t understand HE always understands the assignment pic.twitter.com/o2xqpCUR0E — mary tfatws spoilers (@marvelousxoxo) April 5, 2021

Riz Ahmed ALWAYS understands the assignment pic.twitter.com/PjEPsYlv3u — (@LilNaanX) April 5, 2021

He always understands the assignment. Kind of. #SunnyFXX pic.twitter.com/VtqvZmFD0z — It’s Always Sunny (@alwayssunny) April 6, 2021

He always understands the assignment… pic.twitter.com/RilTNUxgZp — Morgan (@ViciousVixxenV) April 5, 2021

natasha lyonne always understands the assignment pic.twitter.com/N9f7iEmczI — Debbie (@dtooshie) April 5, 2021

Who is someone you think always understands the assignment and always knows exactly what their role is meant to be? Let us know your picks in the comments below!

(image: Warner Bros.)

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Walter Hill Defends The Assignment: ‘This Is Entirely Consistent With Transgender Theory’

Controversy surrounded early film-festival screenings of The Assignment , the new hyperpulpy action film co-written and directed by American filmmaker Walter Hill. Based on a decades-old script by Denis Hamill, the film follows a male assassin named Frank Kitchen (Michelle Rodriguez) who unknowingly undergoes a sex-change operation by the Doctor (Sigourney Weaver), which has led to complaints that the film is transphobic. The Assignment is certainly lurid and dated in its understanding of gender identity, but the film also very much feels like a movie from the director of early classics like The Driver , The Warriors , and Hard Times , movies about male-dominated subcultures that ultimately confirm, as Hill puts it, “macho ethics do not work.” Vulture spoke with Hill about the controversy surrounding The Assignment , his characters’ relationship to queerness and femininity, and how he feels about Feud ’s depiction of Whatever Happened to Baby Jane? director Robert Aldrich.

You initially struggled with the concept for The Assignment because you felt like it was a little too much like a dated melodrama. What changed your mind? Denis Hamill had written an original screenplay in the late 1970s. I first read it then. I didn’t do anything with it because I was busy doing a lot of things in those days. I never forgot it, and was quite taken with it. Twenty years later, I ran across some reference to it. I called Denis, and I optioned it. I did a script of it, but abandoned it because I felt we had made it overly complicated and difficult. We just didn’t do a good job, really. Then I ran into it ten or so years later. At that time, I read it again, and had an idea about how to do it. It came to me rather suddenly. My idea was tempered by the notion that we would do it like one of the Tales from the Crypt episodes that I had done. So a moral tale, which sounds rather grandiloquent, I know. But it would be about wicked people who do wicked things, but in doing them, receive a punishment from fate. Also, assuming they survive the experience — my characters don’t always survive — they are sadder but wiser, I guess is the old phrase.

I also like contrast. I like to pair off two people to slug it out. I liked the contrast between [the Doctor], a bullying intellectual overachiever that had been legitimately hindered by her societal attitudes. And her opponent [Frank] being this fellow who was the kind of Darwinian survivor of the lowest underworld kind of experience: an abandoned child, state-raised, involved in criminal activity since teenage years, etc. Pairing those two against each other was kind of interesting to me.

The Assignment feels like a response in some ways to earlier films like Hard Times in that it suggests that characters can change. This is kind of a major shift since characters’ identities in your films are usually tragically immutable. Without spoiling anything for readers, the way that Frank in The Assignment becomes attached to his dog feels like a deliberate response to the way that Chaney, Charles Bronson’s character in Hard Times , gives away his cat. Does that speak to a change in outlook between then and now? I think we’re pretty much hardwired from the time we’re 6 or 7 years old. I’ve always believed the Jesuits and Freud were right about that attitude. At the same time, I think time tempers our many attitudes. As I said, the characters wind up sadder but wiser. Frank is certainly a more positive fellow at the end of the drama than he was that the beginning. The ending’s a little vague, purposefully. But he’s now determined to use his street talents — criminal talents — in a positive way in the vigilante spirit, to do things that the police can’t do, or are restricted from doing. Properly so. But that’s Frank. We don’t make them saints, either character. The Doctor — as I put it, the “bullying intellectual” — is left very much to her own principles. She’s going to tend to her own garden. She will pursue her library of interests, and take up a contemplative life. Not the worst fate, although it’s not exactly the way she would have chosen it. But she lives in the mind, and is again, sadder but wiser.

The Assignment has been criticized because you have a character who goes through a gender reassignment against his will. You have, however, said that you sympathize with anyone going through such a transition since they have it bad enough without negative representations in film. You’ve also defended the plot of the film as a pulpy conceit, like the plastic surgery in Johnny Handsome . Still, what would you say to a critic who finds the entire premise insensitive ? I’d tell ’em to find another way to make a living … Well, in the first place, he does not go through gender reassignment, he undergoes genital alteration. That is a very different thing. Frank is a guy. Frank is a guy when he shows up, Frank goes through gender alteration against his will, and Frank remains in a woman’s body. And Frank, until the very last line, remains a guy. This is entirely consistent with transgender theory, the idea that we are what we think we are. Frank undergoes a reversal of the transgender process, which is the idea that if you believe yourself to be one thing, and your body is different, you may choose to alter your body. Frank remains consistent with what’s inside his head. He did not choose to alter his body, but it was done.

We live in a gender-fluid society compared to the world I grew up in. I’m an old fella. It’s very different now. Gender fluidity is a good thing. People express themselves in more positive ways, but there’s always going to be people who try to politicize certain social situations, and want to make things an aggressive attack, thinking that they’re making a defense of their moral position. I don’t know, you’d have to ask them. Look, I think this: When you are intellectually attacking something you have not seen, you are on pretty weak ground. I don’t know what to say beyond that. I don’t think that until one has shared the experience of seeing the film that a very productive dialogue can be had.

In your movies, there’s no insult more cutting for women than “whore” and no insult more barbed for men than “faggot.” There are several strong women in your films, some of whom are prostitutes, but almost no gay characters. But it feels like homosexuality is just another perceived weakness that men talk about, but rarely bring themselves to confront. Is queerness in that sense harder for men to talk about in your films? Would a male character find a harder time relating to another male gay character? I don’t know. It seems to me that I’ve consistently presented gay characters in a positive way, whether it’s Hard Times , The Driver , The Warriors . It’s not explicit in these movies, but it’s not exactly deeply disguised: The Connection , Ronee Blakley’s character in The Driver ; Rembrandt, Marcelino Sanchez’s character in The Warriors ; Poe, Strother Martin’s character in Hard Times … I think I gave people a break in The Long Riders . I don’t think it’s productive to list this stuff out movie after movie. But … restate your question?

Queerness is something that many of your male characters are afraid of. Well, certainly the Ajax character in The Warriors is bothered by the idea that that’s something people might see him as. So, because he’s bothered by it, he uses low street language about gayness. But he is presented as an insensitive fellow. I always think that it’s so easy to create a character that’s one thing. Ajax is also heroic in his physical courage. He’s a limited character. He perceives the world through the wrong end of the telescope a lot. But I don’t present him to be an admirable fellow in many ways. I think it’s also wrong to say that people who have a wrong take on things are incapable of heroic acts as well.

When you make action or genre films, people assume a kind of simplicity that is not necessarily there. But what can I tell you? I still like being an action director.

In Hard Times , The Driver , and The Warriors there’s always a moment where women asserts themselves in a way that makes it harder for men to pigeonhole them. In Hard Times , it’s the scene where Jill Ireland’s character tells Bronson’s character that she’s “got a better offer.” In The Driver , it’s the scene where Isabelle Adjani tells Ryan O’Neal there’s “no guarantees” about her not selling him out. And in The Warriors , it’s the bit where Deborah Van Valkenburgh’s character says, “I’ll tell you what I want: I want something now.” Your scripts for these three films are famously spartan, so these dialogue exchanges, which revolve around declarative statements, stand out. Can you talk a little about writing these three scenes? Well, I guess I have to plead guilty to the charge. It’s a wonderful thing about motion pictures: A character can be revealed very simply at times. They can be mysterious up to a point, and then you give them a moment, and it can be simply stated, and that changes everything. I’m very pleased you found those examples. After a while, you start to think nobody notices. [ Laughs. ] And as far as writing those scenes … I don’t know, I can’t remember. [I] just wrote it because I thought it was right.

You worked on oil rigs and at a construction company prior to writing screenplays. Your dad and granddad also worked with their hands and were role models for you. Is it fair to say that your movies’ depictions of women are a reaction to the way women behaved and were treated in the male-dominated world you came from? I’m not sure, I’d have to think about it. Thinking back — which is something I try never to do — I had a very good relationship with my father. Probably distressingly so for my writing and directing. It always seems that if you have a terribly neurotic childhood, that’s a great advantage. My childhood was marked by the fact that I got sick a lot of the time. But other than that, I got along with both my parents very well. I admired them enormously. My father was a real smart guy, but he was also a very physical fellow. As my grandfather, who was a wildcat oil driller when he was a younger man, he was kind of a tramp athlete for a while. This was around the time of the First World War. Then he made a living as an oilman. Both my father and grandfather were very respectful of their women, and their wives. I was never really exposed to any kind of crude behavior by either one of them; such a thing was unthinkable. I was certainly exposed to a million incidents of crude behavior when I went to school. [ Laughs. ] And various crass attitudes people had about social situations that everybody found themselves in.

You once said about Sam Peckinpah, with whom you worked on The Getaway, that “he was good at finding short catchphrases for characters that described their inner workings, but I always thought he was way too explicit in having characters baldly state thematic ideas.” How do you avoid having your characters overstate the obvious? I would temper what I said about Sam a bit. Look, I admired his movies enormously, and think he’s one of the real masters. However, I don’t think he was a masterful director of dialogue. But few are. It’s the thing about what we call foreign films. It’s pretty hard to judge since I don’t speak any foreign language. But how good a Japanese director, or Italian director is has got to be tempered by the fact that we don’t speak the language and it’s being translated.

The look of The Driver , Streets of Fire , and a number of your other films are indebted to the paintings of Edward Hopper. If you had to describe the style of an Edward Hopper painting to someone who’s never seen one, how would you describe something like, say, “Nighthawks”? I feel like I’ve been busted. [ Laughs. ] Although it’s probably pretty obvious. I don’t know. I don’t think it’s useful to try to really describe it. What’s useful is the fact that the paintings are so evocative in what they do to you. You’re quite right, the paintings did have a big effect on me. It’s kind of a cliche now. But to be Hopper-esque in 1977 was a very different thing than it is today. I was quite taken with the nighttime setting, the isolation, and the deracinated characterization of the people in Hopper’s paintings. At the same time, you feel a tremendous strength and passion within, a commitment to a certain aesthetic idea and ideal. I find all that very inspirational.

In a recent interview, with regard to your upcoming Whatever Happened to Baby Jane? remake, you said that recent movies “tolerate” “self-pity” more than before . You’ve said that you want to de-emphasize that Jane is crazy, and play up her alcoholism. You’re also making her and Blanche have active sex lives, if what I’ve read recently is still true. In this way, are you making these characters less pitiable? [ Baby Jane ] is no longer an active project, I’m sorry to say. But since you brought this up, I would like to say this: There’s this thing that’s on television now …

Feud . Feud . I find it absolutely reprehensible what they’re doing to the reputation of Robert Aldrich.

I knew Bob. He was absolutely nothing like the character that’s being depicted. They’ve got the physical facts entirely wrong. Part of the problem is that [ Feud actor] Alfred Molina is such a good actor that he’ll make you believe anything. He’s a wonderful actor. But I don’t know why they’re so intent on turning on a very positive, powerful filmmaker. He gave much of his life to not only making motion pictures, but also made things better for directors everywhere. He was the president of [the Directors Guild of America]. He fought for some of the most significant contractual breakthroughs in our history. There’s no director in the guild who’s not indebted to Robert Aldrich.

I don’t think [what the creators of Feud are doing] is illegal. I’m a firm believer in the First Amendment. But I think it’s shameful. I guess I could go out and write a novel that posits that Abraham Lincoln was a child molester. But I think it would be shameful. Aldrich’s films will endure and Aldrich is Robert Aldrich. But millions of people watch this thing. The idea that this will be their impression of Robert Aldrich is enormously unfortunate.

What’s next for you? Oh … [ Laughs, points to his manager. ] He just shook his head and said “No!” Peckinpah used to have a line: “I just go where I’m kicked.”

This interview has been edited and condensed.

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Entertainment
Review: In The Assignment, Michelle Rodriguez Is a Hitman Caught Between Worlds

Review: In The Assignment , Michelle Rodriguez Is a Hitman Caught Between Worlds

W riter-producer-director and pulp maestro Walter Hill has been rattling cages and delivering quality thrills since the early 1970s. He made his directorial debut with Hard Times (1975), a scrappy, bruising drama starring Charles Bronson as a Depression-era bare-knuckles boxer. He’s also the guy behind the New York City street-gang extravaganza The Warriors (1979), the stolen-gold nail biter Trespass (1992) and The Driver (1978), with Ryan O’Neal, the ruminative getaway drama that helped inspire Edgar Wright’s upcoming car-chase musical Baby Driver .

Hill has influenced plenty of filmmakers—not just Wright, but also Michael Mann and Quentin Tarantino, to name just a few—though he hasn’t been particularly prolific as a director in recent years. His new film, The Assignment, isn’t likely to win him any new friends: Michelle Rodriguez stars as killer-for-hire Frank Kitchen, whose life is upended when he’s captured and knocked out by a gang of baddies, only to wake up wrapped in bandages—and a woman. The surgeon genius behind this transformation is steely-cool Dr. Rachel Kay ( Sigourney Weaver ), a straitjacketed jailbird who tells her own story to an earnest prison shrink played by Tony Shalhoub. Between Dr. Kay’s calculating testimony and and Frank’s sometimes anguished first-person account, delivered in voice-over, we piece together exactly what happened to Frank and how he/she went about wreaking revenge.

Not all of Hill’s movies are great, and The Assignment certainly isn’t. Maybe, in the strictest terms, it isn’t even any good. But even a mediocre Walter Hill film has more style and energy—and a finer sense of the sweet spot between joy and despair—than ninety percent of the action thrillers that get made today. Considering its over-the-top plot mechanics, The Assignment isn’t quite as nutso and passionate as it ought to be. Even the violence, gritty at times, feels a little impersonal and detached. But the film’s tawdry precision is compelling by itself.

In the opening sequence, we see a face in profile, almost entirely obscured by gauze, as a throaty voice launches into a preamble: “I killed a lot of guys…” Before we meet the teller of the tale—as a she, she doesn’t even have a name—we meet the man she used to be. Frank is a Casanova with piercing eyes and soot-black facial hair that could have been lifted from a 1960s dime-store toy, the one where you use a magnetic stylus to arrange piles of metal shavings, encased in a blister-pack bubble, into outlandish beards and sideburns for a cartoon man’s face.

In other words, it looks fake. But even the exaggerated macho-ness of that hair may be a kind of intentional overstatement. Frank goes out and picks up a young woman, Johnnie (Caitlin Gerard). They have hot, rowdy sex, and Johnnie suggests she might like to see Frank again. He’s positioned, perfectly, to be the quintessential clueless, oafish guy who never calls again.

But Frank does call Johnnie again—only he does so after he’s no longer Frank, after his previous identity, with all its he-man hallmarks, has been quite literally cut away. Rodriguez gives a smart, sharp performance here. She’s playing a character that is, almost literally, a cartoon. Every once in a while, Hill freezes a frame and transforms the image into a literal comic-book panel, a way of reminding that we’re watching something beyond reality (and a device he used in his own cut of The Warriors years ago, before it became commonplace). But as Rodriguez plays them, her character’s anguish and confusion are hardly cartoony.

She’s lost in her new identity, but the problem is less that she’s adjusting to being a woman than that she’s learning new things about being human. She adopts a pit-bull named Poncho. He’s as tender-tough as she is, as unsure exactly how he should act or what he should be. Rodriguez has the face of someone who’s just feeling her way along. Everything is a new puzzle, but there are pleasant surprises too. When her face registers relief or pleasure, it’s like the sun elbowing a thundercloud out of the way.

When The Assignment played at the Toronto Film Festival last fall—at that time, it was called (re)Assignment, a much better title, though its earlier working title, Tomboy, was perhaps best of all—it drew criticism for being insensitive toward, or at least cavalier about, transgender issues. But even if you discount the fact that films aren’t required to be public service announcements—in fact, they’re usually pretty bad when they are—the ideas behind The Assignment are more complex than they might seem on the surface. Many of them are also pure Walter Hill: The script was written by journalist, novelist and screenwriter Denis Hamill more than 30 years ago, and it borrows pulp elements of previous Hill films like Johnny Handsome (1989), in which Mickey Rourke plays a deformed gangster whose face is transformed by plastic surgery.

In Hill’s movies, men make mistakes right and left, and suffer for them. In The Assignment, Frank doesn’t choose to become a woman, and he desperately wants not to be one. But what if his enforced rebirth represents a second chance, a chance to be better? That’s one of the ideas The Assignment, in its sometimes awkward way, flirts with. It also crawls through the dust toward another cruel reality: Maybe it takes a woman who used to be a man to understand just how much of a man’s world this really is.

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"I take orders from the Octoboss."

The Assignment

Here’s what it’s about: ruthless hitman Frank Kitchen is just doing his thing one day, ruthless hitmanning, when he gets jumped and knocked unconscious and later he mysteriously wakes up in a hotel room with a woman’s body. Not, like, in bed with a dead woman. Like, he looks down and he has female genitalia.

Rodriguez plays Kitchen, which makes sense for one of the most macho big name actresses we have, and she does a good job of moving and acting masculine in her feminine body, but she can’t (or doesn’t) play the male part of the movie convincingly. They put a beard on her, and fake nose that I thought made her look a little like Oscar Isaac, but then she just has her normal long hair in a ponytail.

She also has a scene with a fake hairy chest and dick. That doesn’t look real either, but it makes you think “Wow, Walter Hill and Michelle Rodriguez. You’re goin all the way with this thing. Respect.”

(By the way, this is not the only actress who has played a transgender assassin in recent years – there was also Chloe Sevigny on the British show Hit & Miss in 2012. Supposedly she’s good in it, as usual.)

It’s kind of an OLDBOY situation – coming to in a weird, seedy hotel, mysterious tape tells him to keep taking the hormone pills, there are implications that it’s a revenge plot by evil surgeon Rachel Jane (Sigourney Weaver, AVATAR), he does detective shit trying to track down what’s going on. He hides out with a nurse (Caitlin Gerard, MAGIC MIKE ) who takes care of him and they fall for each other, despite the complicated circumstances. And there are flashbacks and stories and Tony Shalhoub ( PAIN & GAIN ) is a psychiatrist hearing Dr. Jane’s side of the story and he doesn’t even believe her that there’s such a person as Frank Kitchen.

Speaking of kitchens, Hill throws everything and the sink at this story: USUAL SUSPECTS style wraparound interrogation, WARRIORS director’s cut type traced-comic-panel-transitions, flashbacks and flash forwards, hard boiled noir narration by Frank that turns out to be a video he made. (When he explains to the audience that he wiped the fingerprints at a crime scene and planted guns on dead people, you gotta question the wisdom of making a video diary about it.)

I know Hill doesn’t need to be chained to the sparseness of HARD TIMES or the precision of ALIEN for everything he ever does, but when he tries to do modern hyperactive style it always seems cheesy. This stuff is too random, too jumbled, too cheap – a bunch of flash without style. Which is ironic, because there’s a scene where Dr. Jane talks about an essay by Edgar Allen Poe, which she interprets as saying that you shouldn’t worry about the content of a piece of art if it’s stylish enough. It’s a pre-emptive meta defense that I think overestimates both how stylish THE ASSIGNMENT is and how offensive it is.

But also don’t worry about it because I don’t think it’s fair to read this as anti-trans. The gender re-assignment surgery is only awful here because it’s done against Frank’s will. In fact, Dr. Jane is performing a mad science experiment that proves that just having the body and hormones of a woman doesn’t change Frank from being a macho prick. The doctor, and the movie, argue that gender is something other than our parts. I would say that Frank is not trans – he doesn’t see himself as a woman.

Another odd gender thing is that Dr. Jane has short hair and is in prison orange for much of the movie, but real late in the game she goes to record a deposition and she’s wearing a suit and tie. I had to think wait a minute, was I supposed to have seen her as a man this whole time? Or was I supposed to see her as a woman but now realize she’s actually a man? As far as I could tell the answer is C, she just wears male type clothes in this scene. And this must be intentional, to keep us on our toes about these gender distinctions.

Actually maybe that’s why he didn’t make this an official Tale From the Crypt, though. The Crypt Keeper would’ve been too insensitive about all this.

Man, I know I’m stepping in it by bringing this up, but I’m stepping in it by reviewing the movie at all, so what the hell, here goes: the other criticism is that a non-trans actor can’t play a trans person in a movie or it’s what they call “trans-face.” Please allow me a moment to dig myself into a hole about sensitive topics.

First I want to say that I know I have at least a couple regular readers who are trans, and I love them and I’m very proud that all kinds of people come together here to talk about action movies and shit. Second I want to say that I groan every time somebody complains about “political correctness” or “identity politics,” and I listened to Bret Easton Ellis’s podcast interview with Hill about this movie dreading Ellis’s inevitable, obnoxious monologue about “snowflakes” (it happens in the middle). I think it’s a good thing to be sensitive to other people’s feelings, and to evolve your values as you get older instead of stubbornly stick with what you grew up with if it’s not working for society anymore (or never was and you just didn’t realize it). And third I want to say that I’m open to the possibility that I’m wrong about all this, and it’s more important to me to be nice to people than to be right, so if one or all of you say I’m full of shit I don’t want to fight you about it. We got bigger, stupider, more orange fish to fry and shouldn’t waste energy on our friends.

But… ( Swallow. ) I believe in art as much as I believe in anything, so I have a hard time getting behind these increasingly popular rules that put ideology before art. There are all kinds of nuances and individual cases and sensitivities, of course, but the whole idea of acting is that you’re not the character you’re playing, you’re putting yourself in their shoes. Great stretches and transformations are something we value in many of the great actors. I love seeing Tom Hardy be Bronson and Bane and two guys in LEGEND . I love seeing Meryl Streep doing the accent in BRIDGES OF MADISON COUNTY and Viggo or Dolph or Scott Adkins playing Russian. I get why people got mad at Zoe Saldana for playing Nina Simone, because she looked ridiculous with that makeup on. But also it sucks for her because she’s a good actress and of course she wanted that role and if it was an Australian guy wearing a fake nose to play a famous Irish guy nobody would’ve trashed him the way they did Saldana, so that’s yet another white privilege.

Anyway if Laverne Cox made a good Letty that would be awesome. Rodriguez doesn’t entirely pull this off not because she’s not actually a man forced to be a woman in real life, but because she doesn’t entirely pull it off.

Having said that, I have to acknowledge that there are more layers to all these controversies about cultural appropriation and different types of “face” and what not. And the biggest part of it is about jobs, and making sure there are opportunities for all talented people, not just the same white ones. So, don’t slow that fight down on my account, but I worry that as people try to right those wrongs they’re demanding a type of segregation. We have this groundswell of the online outraged saying a great Chinese director can’t put Matt Damon in his movie , a man who has practically spent his entire life training to make a movie like BATGIRL can’t make BATGIRL, there can’t be a Halloween costume of The Rock’s character from MOANA because white kids would wear it… and I keep reading about controversies related to novelists writing about characters from other cultures, as if it’s ideal for all stories by white people to only contain white people. Which sort of puts a damper on stories, in my opinion. I see the good in white kids imagining themselves as a Pacific Islander, in men wanting to tell stories about women, in movies that bring together different nations, even though there’s more to it.

Maybe I should assume I just don’t get it. That’s fair. But just make sure you’re not the guys telling Bruce Lee not to combine martial arts disciplines or teach them to non-Chinese people. That’s all I ask. Remember that those are the bad guys in that story. Sharing is progress.

Anyway, please be easy on me, I’m trying to be honest. And now that I’ve dug my own grave revealing all my Archie Bunker shit I realize that the problem with Rodriguez in the role is that she can’t convincingly look like a man for the man parts, and the obvious answer is an actor who is physically male but adept at looking female – a female impersonator. Which I know is different from trans, so maybe we were both wrong? I guess then we’d have trouble believing the parts where it’s crucial that people accept Frank as female, but that seems more achievable than making the audience accept Rodriguez as male.

Believe it or not this thing has been kicking around for almost 40 years now. Denis Hamill (TURK 182!, CRITICAL CONDITION) wrote a version called TOMBOY in 1978 and Hill liked the idea enough that he optioned it and tried to rework it into something of his own. But he never could figure out how to make it work until recently he dug it back out with this idea of making it “like a graphic novel,” whatever that means. He also made it into an actual comic book published by Hard Case Crime. If anybody has read it and liked it better than the movie let me know.

Walter Hill, I don’t know what’s up with you, but at least you’re not boring. Please keep makin ’em.

The Warriors
The Fast and the Furious
The Getaway (1972)

26 Responses to “The Assignment”

June 27th, 2017 at 11:29 am

Hearing about this makes me think of another movie that I can’t even mention the name of without it being a massive SPOILER (I’m pretty sure that Vern hasn’t reviewed it). So what I’ll do is, I’ll write in lower-case font in the middle of a longer paragraph of text copied and pasted from the Washington Post about Senate leaders postponing their shitty healthcare vote below…

… Facing a rebellion within their own ranks, Senate Republican leaders on Tuesday postponed a vote to overhaul the 2010 Affordable Care Act until after the July Fourth recess. The current proposal by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) would cause an estimated 22 million more Americans to be uninsured by the end of the coming decade while reducing federal spending by $321 billion during that time, the Congressional Budget Office concluded Monday. The film that I was talking about was talking about was the skin I live in by Almodovar (D-Md), but even mentioning that kinda’ gives away the film’s best twist. The forecast by Congress’s nonpartisan budget scorekeepers appeared to rapidly erode Republicans’ confidence in the bill, with at least five GOP lawmakers saying that they would vote against even a procedural motion to start debate. In a sign of the challenge Senate Republicans face in mustering enough votes, Majority Whip John Cornyn (R-Tex.) said the procedural vote is likely to be scheduled for Wednesday rather than Tuesday.

… anyhow. I don’t think I’ll be checking out THE ASSIGNMENT anytime soon, I’m sad to say. But just to lob a conversational hand grenade into the mix, re: Vern’s thoughts on casting, what did y’all think about Joseph Fiennes as Michael Jackson?

June 27th, 2017 at 11:45 am

Whatever its flaws this deserves huge credit for giving a double meaning to a totally generic title like THE ASSIGNMENT.

June 27th, 2017 at 12:08 pm

I’m out and about, but I see there is a video essay on this topic, just in time to school me, hopefully it will help me understand.

June 27th, 2017 at 12:45 pm

As always, Vern, really appreciate your honest, thoughtful, and open approach to this sort of issue. One thing I didn’t get from your review: does THE ASSIGNMENT use its nutty gimmick to make any kind of coherent point about gender? Is this a metaphor, somehow, or what? I don’t see how you could have such a button-pushing premise and avoid making some kind of statement, but I sure can’t figure out what it could be from the description.

June 27th, 2017 at 1:00 pm

I agree the movie would probably have worked better with a male actor in the lead, because while I love Rodriguez, seeing the way they tried to make her look like a man was so over the top ridiculous the movie just could not get back from that. And then when her character is turned into a woman, she’s just way too beautiful, making the whole thing so unbelievable they completely lost me. It’s not the even the biggest issue the film has either – that would be the fact that 50% of the running time is spent on conversations between Weaver and her psychiatrist, which are dull and completely unnecessary. That shite would have killed the film dead even if the actor/actress playing the lead would have been 100% convincing.

It’s a shame, because I think there’s tons of potential in the story concept for an intensely disturbing, gripping film. Sadly none of that came out in the execution.

June 27th, 2017 at 1:01 pm

Scott Foy said it sucked and the action isn’t very good.

There are starting to be many transgender actresses. There is one that should be given a female lead. Her name is Michele Hendley. Not only is she hotter than most actresses, she is also a top notch at acting.

June 27th, 2017 at 1:35 pm

I wish 70’s & 80’s greats like Hill and Schrader would stop trying to keep up with the cool kids, and just make their movies without trying too hard. Did anyone see DOG EAT DOG? Apart from being mean-spirited and boring, it was yet another attempt by Schrader to be Tarantino-Cool (see his so-so TOUCH for another example).

Thankfully DePalma is still consistent with his own style.

June 27th, 2017 at 1:38 pm

What the hell has DePalma been up to lately anyway? Seems like he went really quiet after that documentary.

June 27th, 2017 at 3:04 pm

I think it would’ve been entirely possible to make Rodriguez look like a convincing man, but not with that fake beard. Linda Hunt played a man before cgi even existed. That beard just made the whole thing look cheap and misguided.

Also this is a hitman movie with almost no action. She shoots a few people sometimes but if you can’t make an action movie, make it about something else instead of having Sigourney weaver give Exposition for half the movie.

Vern, thank you for baring your soul for us. I found that very steady and even handed. I still hope there is a great trans action movie one day. This is not it.

(A friend even gave me the perfect title for it. TRANSACTION! But that might be insensitive and I’m totally serious about a trans action hero.)

June 27th, 2017 at 5:41 pm

I’ve expressed similar Archie Bunker sentiments here before. I haven’t expressed them as artfully as Vern here, though. I do think there is a kind of moral mob-and-pitchfork psychology of the internet at work where people are just addicted to being outraged by anything that could possibly be regarded as insensitive to [insert one’s identity group here]. On the whole, I think it is good that you have these perspectives in the conversation, shining a light on these issues, keeping people honest, and accountable and whatnot. It’s definitely better than how it was 10-20 years ago when no one really raised these issues, because people did not have a platform to challenge the mainstream white guy way of narrating things. At the same time, I do think there is often a self-righteous, un-nuanced, and petty tenor to a lot of the popular discourse around this stuff that only reinforces right-wingers worst stereotypes of activists and liberals in general.

Also, this picture of Michelle Rodriguez as a dude is cracking me up.

June 27th, 2017 at 5:45 pm

The thing is though Vern, you’re totally right, I don’t understand why people have such a bug up their ass about who can play what in movies these days, acting is an artform, it’s not reality and people used to understand that, Dustin Hoffman won an Oscar for playing an autistic character, as Franchise Fred mentioned Linda Hunt won an Oscar for playing a male character and Gary Oldman tried and spectacularly failed in TIPTOES to play a little person, but now people seem to have this literalist attitude that you can only portray what you are, which is highly reductive to the artform that is acting.

That’s not to say that for example GHOST IN THE SHELL would have been a lot more interesting with a Japanese actress instead of ScarJo, but people are taking it too far when they insist that only a trans person can portray a trans character for example.

The most recent absurd controversy of that type I’ve heard is people don’t want Peter Dinklage to play Herve Villechaize, as if actors who are little people and the exact same (mixed) ethnicity as Herve Villechaize are easy to find.

June 27th, 2017 at 5:59 pm

Yeah, that photo does not work. Michelle Rodriguez has a certain toughness to her that might make you think she could pull off pretending to be a dude, but it’s just not happening here (although, maybe it works better when it’s not a still image? Maybe?). The makeup department weren’t doing their job.

June 27th, 2017 at 7:59 pm

I’m not sure there’s anything really worth talking about regarding The Assignment except to note how ironic it is that, of the films in the ‘Wouldn’t it be fucked up if a surgeon gave you SRS?’ microgenre (the awkward little… brother(?) of the ‘Unnecessary surgery probably sucks, eh? family) the one that started with a ‘killer t****y’ script in the 70’s would have the best understanding of gender identity?

I will lightly defend the pre-backlash in that the early details of the film and early interviews and such were pretty dire sounding.

As far as casting goes, well, I am quite sure this is unintentional because you’re good people Vern, but you come off pretty reactionary in the review. Better actors are passed up for parts all of the time for dumber or more political reasons than ‘let’s try auditoning a trans actor for the trans role for once.’ Like, it’s kind of ludicrous to imply that casting someone in movie for name recognition or because they know someone or because they signed a multi-movie contract and you’d really like to get that over with is fine, but if you are thinking about prioritizing trans actors in trans roles, that’s when you’ve crossed the line and are getting in the way of True Art.

I don’t want to come off as being mean or harsh because I know you’re trying your best on these sort of things and I appreciate it, and I understand you were mostly using it to launch into a broader point but it does come off as ill-conceived, at least in regards to this particular issue (if not this particular movie because it’s really pretty tangental to trans stuff in movies and TV.)

June 27th, 2017 at 9:26 pm

Thank you, Birch. I certainly don’t mean to imply that it would be unfair if trans actors were prioritized for any roles. I’m more thinking that if whatever actor does great they should be praised for it. Like, I’m not able to get mad at Wesley Snipes and Patrick Swayze for TO WONG FOO, for example. But in retrospect I think what I’m arguing for here is kind of a pipe dream/idealist/easy-for-me-to-say type of world where those types of artistic decisions can be made not at the expense of other actors. I guess I just hope some day if the world survives long enough there won’t be such an imbalance and a side benefit of that will be that those type of castings won’t be a problem.

I appreciate the criticism and thanks for being so nice about it too.

p.s. I’m glad I didn’t bring up when Joseph Fiennes almost played Michael Jackson

June 27th, 2017 at 9:38 pm

I just watched this and Vern is right. It’s not anti-trans by any stretch. The awful thing that is done to Frank is not making him a female but forcing him to live as someone he did not choose to be…so the message can actually be construed as pro-be who you are.

(I threw some red in there)

June 27th, 2017 at 11:07 pm

I mean, that is a high school drama club level beard. Come on!

June 27th, 2017 at 11:21 pm

I’m really surprised that this movie has such a good cast! Especially because I didn’t know it existed before your review.

As usual, you nailed my thoughts about a certain topic in a much more eloquent way than I would be able to word them, so I just shut up.

Btw, I finally realized who “male” Michelle Rodriguez reminds me of: singer/transvestite Conchita Wurst!

June 28th, 2017 at 4:24 am

Liked this one – It’s not Top of the Hill Hill, but it’s not bad, kinda brave and says some interesting stuff.

I really did not understand the whole “this film is trans-phobic” thing at all.

Critics were falling over themselves inn a rush to be offended.

There are many things to be legit upset about in this shitty world – but the indignation surrounding this one was wrong headed, I think.

June 28th, 2017 at 1:50 pm

Like you, over the years I’ve come around to thinking that some of the ideological purity tests leveled against art, even if well-intentioned, can be harmful in their own ways. Ultimately I think it just comes down to this: everyone’s going to have their own opinion about something, and it’s impossible to make something that NO ONE could complain about (and even if it were possible that thing would probably not be universally adored, but considered boringly inoffensive at best).

As a director, this comes up for me most during casting. I often have to ask myself, am I being racist/sexist/ageist/whateverist here? If I cast *this* particular person in this role, am I missing an opportunity to give another actor of a different gender/race more visibility? And after I weigh those & every bit of criteria, who do *I* think is best for a role? Every director will weigh those criteria differently, just as every viewer is going to have their own opinion about whether the correct decisions were made. So at a certain point you have to just accept that and own your decisions, knowing that they won’t work for everyone. Then if more than 50% of people think you screwed up, you probably did, so you apologize. Otherwise you brush it off.

June 28th, 2017 at 9:21 pm

I haven’t seen this film but Rodriguez’s makeup doesn’t look that bad to me in the screen grab here. S/he looks kinda like Richard Edson to me. Something seems off about the arms though – maybe they just need to be hairier?

Reading about this movie reminds me of the old Melvin Van Peebles movie WATERMELON MAN, in which Godfrey Cambridge has to be in whiteface at the beginning of the movie in order to play a white guy who mysteriously transforms into a black guy. Obviously that film was a satire about race relations, so I share Subtlety’s curiosity about whether THE ASSIGNMENT addresses gender issues in any similar way.

What’s interesting about WATERMELON MAN now (or even 10 years ago, which is when I think I saw it on TV) is that it allows for the possibility of a person born into a more privileged group coming to identify with the struggles of a less privileged group, which is not a possibility that the modern left seems to allow for much anymore. I have come to loath hearing the word “appropriation” which basically is a fancy word which means “don’t be influenced by or try to identify with other peoples and cultures, ever, because that kind of open-mindedness is bad”.

I don’t remember people booing when Felicity Huffman played a transgender ex-male in TRANSAMERICA – in fact it won a GLAAD Media Award didn’t it?

Lesson learned: if you make yet another movie about a white straight “cisgender” male then you’re fine, but if you even try to depict anyone else then you’ll be ripped to shreds. Which strikes me as a really counterproductive strategy for promoting diversity.

If nothing else, the “let’s attack a limited-release film starring a Latina bisexual actress, and say we’re doing it to defend the underdog” crowd has raised my awareness of this film and made me curious to see it.

August 13th, 2017 at 2:07 pm

First of all – movie business is still business. So every decision is made to gain more profit. If bringing in transgender actress/actor and it seems profitable to suits, then they’ll do it. Of course, there would be filmmakers with mission, especially in indie circles, to spread the word about certain problems etc, but I watch movies for entertainment. I leave my moral issues and dilemmas behind at the moment I enter the cinema. If someone calls someone nigger or white trash in movies, it won’t offend me – quite many people are mixing reality and movies, bursting into movie message boards and shouting about how this or that movie is racist or how Zaldana should be get bigger roles. She WILL get bigger roles, if it’s meaning more profit to the studios.

February 23rd, 2023 at 8:01 am

I saw that Dead For a Dollar played all the autumn festivals (Venice, Toronto, etc) to mostly favorable reviews, and I’ve certainly kept my eyes open for some sort of –y’know–release.

So, imagine my surprise to walk into the public library and see it on the DVD rack…

I’ve yet to watch it, I’m just making this post as a PSA in case there’s others that had no idea it was ever released to the public in any form.

(Didn’t really know where to put this, so I picked the comments for Hill’s previous most recent movie)

February 23rd, 2023 at 10:38 am

I haven’t seen it yet either, but I have heard from multiple people that despite low production values it’s good and interesting.

February 23rd, 2023 at 10:44 am

I thought DEAD FOR A DOLLAR was decent. A generic-but-enjoyable western with some really great actors and a few select moments of really great lines and patter. I didn’t care for the sepia-toned look of it, though. I really liked THE HARDER THEY FALL because it showed how it was okay, even cool, for a western to be colourful. The colouring of the fantasy-western comic THE SIXTH GUN had a similar objective, and it was refreshing there, too.

February 23rd, 2023 at 12:28 pm

I Redboxed Dead For A Dollar a while ago. It doesn’t really live up to your expectation of what a Walter Hill-Christoph Waltz-Willem Dafoe joint should be, but it’s kinda fun to watch the three of them do their thing. You’ve just got to accept that you’re in for Django, not Clint Eastwood.

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Common Sense Media Review

Violent thriller irresponsibly tackles transgender themes.

Parents Need to Know

Why Age 18+?

Brutal shootings/killings. Blood sprays/spurts. Dead bodies. Kicking, beating. S

Full-frontal male and female nudity. Sex scene with thrusting (includes tearing

Frequent strong language includes "f--k," "f--king," "motherf--king," "bulls--t,

Secondary character snorts cocaine on-screen. Scenes of heavy drinking straight

Brands of hormone tablets Premarin and Prevara are mentioned and taken by a char

Any Positive Content?

Gender reassignment surgery is portrayed as an experiment and punishment perform

Main character Frank is a hired killer who commits violent acts and seeks reveng

Gender reassignment surgery, which can be life-affirming (if not life-saving) fo

Violence & Scariness

Brutal shootings/killings. Blood sprays/spurts. Dead bodies. Kicking, beating. Streaming blood. Bloody wounds. Brief images of surgery relating to non-consensual gender reassignment, with gory, bloody cotton/bandages. Hypo needle held to neck. Attempted sexual assault, followed by perpetrator being beaten to death with a baseball bat. Passing mention of death of father and brother. Reference to dog fighting and killing dogs.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Violence & Scariness in your kid's entertainment guide.

Sex, Romance & Nudity

Full-frontal male and female nudity. Sex scene with thrusting (includes tearing open condom wrapper). Woman in sexy underwear; there's mention of paying for sex, implying that she's a sex worker. References to "pimps" and "hookers."

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Sex, Romance & Nudity in your kid's entertainment guide.

Frequent strong language includes "f--k," "f--king," "motherf--king," "bulls--t," "s--t," "s--thead," "t-ts," "ass," "a--hole," "bastard," "douchebag," "piss," "hell," "goddamn," and "idiot," as well as racial slurs ("chinky" and "Chinaman").

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Language in your kid's entertainment guide.

Drinking, Drugs & Smoking

Secondary character snorts cocaine on-screen. Scenes of heavy drinking straight from liquor bottles. Social drinking. Drugs shown, including hormone tablets taken by lead character.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Drinking, Drugs & Smoking in your kid's entertainment guide.

Products & Purchases

Brands of hormone tablets Premarin and Prevara are mentioned and taken by a character.

Positive Messages

Gender reassignment surgery is portrayed as an experiment and punishment performed against someone's will. The film suggests that revenge can be warranted, offering satisfaction after trauma. However, glimpses of empathy can be found in the darkest of moments.

Positive Role Models

Main character Frank is a hired killer who commits violent acts and seeks revenge after being the victim of non-consensual gender-reassignment surgery. Frank generally shows little regard for others' lives but does have a strong determination to survive and extends empathy toward a dog and a character he has grown to care for, despite her double-crossing behavior. Dr. Rachel Jane puts scientific discovery before others' suffering, cruelly experimenting on unhoused people. She's arrogant and vengeful and shows no remorse for her actions.

Diverse Representations

Gender reassignment surgery, which can be life-affirming (if not life-saving) for individuals, is portrayed here as non-consensual and experimental, used as a punishment. Frank tries to get his surgery reversed, saying he thought it's what he wanted, which plays into damaging narratives about people changing their minds about surgery. Pre-surgery Frank is played by cisgender female actor Michelle Rodriguez in a mustache, beard, and chest plate, and she puts on a deep voice. Post-surgery Frank has a relationship with a woman; during sex, he says "I'll do what I can," implying that intimacy between two female bodies is somehow lesser than heterosexual sex. Offensive moments include a male doctor asking a female doctor whether she commits crimes because she didn't have a good sex life. Female bodies are sexualized, including Frank using his naked breasts to distract other men. A psychiatric hospital is referred to as the "nut house." Racist language is used toward a Chinese character, including "chinky" and "Chinaman." There's some ethnic diversity within the cast -- Rodriguez is Dominican-Puerto Rican and there are actors of Chinese and Middle Eastern descent in supporting roles.

Did we miss something on diversity? Suggest an update.

Parents need to know that The Assignment is an action/thriller with an irresponsibly handled topic at its core: The main character, an assassin, is given gender reassignment surgery against his will, changing his body from male to female. The content is extremely mature, including graphic nudity (male and female full frontal), bloody shootings, beatings, and killings, and brief but semi-graphic sex scenes. Language includes "f--k," "s--t," and "a--hole," plus racist terms like "chinky" and "Chinaman." Characters use drugs, including cocaine, and the main character occasionally drinks alcohol (sometimes too much). Due to the mature (and badly handled) themes and violent and sexual content, the movie is appropriate only for older teens and adults. To stay in the loop on more movies like this, you can sign up for weekly Family Movie Night emails .

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What's the Story?

In THE ASSIGNMENT, a prickly, Shakespeare-and-Poe-quoting surgeon, Dr. Rachel Kay ( Sigourney Weaver ), lives in a psychiatric hospital and is interviewed by Dr. Ralph Galen ( Tony Shalhoub ). She tells her story in flashback. Her brother, in trouble with gangsters, becomes the target of an assassin named Frank Kitchen ( Michelle Rodriguez ). Dr. Kay subsequently kidnaps Frank and performs non-consensual gender reassignment surgery on him as revenge. And so Kitchen awakens in a female body, and, after searching for a way to reverse the procedure (and failing), decides to get his revenge on everyone connected to Dr. Kay -- all the way up to dangerous, well-protected gangster "Honest John" ( Anthony LaPaglia ).

Is It Any Good?

This thriller starts out with a ludicrous and irresponsibly handled idea. Even directed in a pulpy, creative way by Walter Hill (who worked with Weaver on Alien as producer and is best-known for directing action classics like The Warriors and 48 Hrs. ), The Assignment struggles to escape its misguided premise. Certainly the film is inauthentic, casting cisgender female actor Rodriguez to play both pre- and post-surgery versions of a male character. And though The Assignment tries to praise trans people for their courage, its portrayal of gender reassignment surgery as a punishment plays into damaging narratives. When real-life discrimination against trans people is a huge problem in society, it makes it difficult to concentrate on the movie's redeeming features.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

Families can talk about The Assignment 's violence . Does it feel gratuitous or necessary? What impact does the pulpy nature of the filmmaking have? Does associating it with comic book violence change how you view it?

The film centers on a character who has non-consensual gender reassignment surgery as a punishment. What message do you think this sends about surgery for transgender people? Why is it important to be conscious and careful about portrayals like this on-screen?

How does the movie portray drinking and drug use ? Does it make substance use seem enjoyable? Glamorous? Or does it seem sad/desperate? Are there consequences ?

Movie Details

In theaters : April 7, 2017
On DVD or streaming : June 6, 2017
Cast : Michelle Rodriguez , Sigourney Weaver , Tony Shalhoub
Director : Walter Hill
Inclusion Information : Female actors, Latino actors, Middle Eastern/North African actors
Studio : Saban Films
Genre : Action/Adventure
Run time : 95 minutes
MPAA rating : R
MPAA explanation : graphic nudity, violence, sexuality, language and drug use
Last updated : November 6, 2023

Did we miss something on diversity?

Research shows a connection between kids' healthy self-esteem and positive portrayals in media. That's why we've added a new "Diverse Representations" section to our reviews that will be rolling out on an ongoing basis. You can help us help kids by suggesting a diversity update.

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‘The Assignment’ Review: Michelle Rodriguez Snarls Through Tacky Trans-sploitation Saga

The handling of trans issues is all wrong here, but then so is everything else in Walter Hill’s shoddy, sloppy revenge tale

In “The Assignment,” director and co-writer Walter Hill handles the medical and psychological complexities of transgender surgery with all the subtlety and anatomical understanding of Ray Milland’s head being sewn onto Rosey Grier’s body in “The Thing with Two Heads.”

Never mind that the transgender community in this country (and in much of the world) has become a target for hate, with trans individuals more likely to face discrimination, violence and homicide than almost any other segment of the population because of the fear and ignorance promulgated by conservative pundits and politicians: For Hill and co-writer Denis Hamill (“Turk 182!”), gender surgery is just a lurid backdrop for their story of mobsters and revenge, their idea of a little freak-show frisson for their blood-and-guts storytelling.

The 75-year-old Hill doesn’t get a pass for not understanding the basics — despite mad scientist Sigourney Weaver’s third-act assertion that gender is dictated by the mind and not the genitals — and he certainly doesn’t get a pass for the overall shoddiness of “The Assignment,” a film that’s poorly written and haphazardly shot. (Someone inserted comic-book-style transitions in post, in an attempt to underscore the film’s distance from recognizable reality.)

And if you were expecting sterling action from the man behind “48 HRS.,” “The Warriors” and “The Long Riders,” forget it; the shoot-outs are either abrupt or languid, and the pacing lacks any sense of suspense or even menace. And since it’s told in flashback, we pretty much know where the story is going.

We open with Tony Shalhoub as a psychiatrist interviewing a straitjacketed Weaver as Dr. Rachel Jane, who was institutionalized after being judged mentally unfit to face trial for a bloodbath at which she was the only survivor. After brilliant plastic surgeon Dr. Jane was stripped of her medical license (for reasons the film never explains), she started doing back-alley operations, from nose jobs to gender-confirmation surgery (a term the film never uses), as well as hideous experiments on homeless people (which are also never explained).

The only person to whom Dr. Jane was close was her ne’er-do-well brother Sebastian (Adrian Hough, “When Calls the Heart”), and when he is killed by hitman Frank Kitchen (Michelle Rodriguez, in a Halloween-store mustache and beard — more on that in a second), Dr. Jane vows revenge. Via gangster Honest John (Anthony LaPaglia), Dr. Jane arranges for Frank to be captured; when Frank wakes up later, he discovers that the mad doctor has given him a new face, breasts and a vagina, leaving a recorded message that Frank should start over with a new life, leaving the old violence behind.

If the movie thinks that Dr. Jane’s surgery on Frank is in any way “experimental,” that applies only in the sense that when Rodriguez unwraps the bandages, there are no scabs or stitches or swelling — Frank emerges from surgery ready for the cover of Vogue. (Compare this to the lengthy, arduous transformation in “The Skin I Live In,” a somewhat similarly plotted film made by a writer-director with a far better understanding of anatomy, gender and obsession.)

In the closest “The Assignment” gets to understanding that gender is more than just external characteristics, Frank remains Frank on the inside, and he sets out to make Dr. Jane pay for what she’s done.

In the press notes, Hill gives an interview in which he attempts to justify the film’s existence, insisting that this is a revenge story that in no way reflects the reality of trans lives; there’s no reality here, to be sure, but the exploitative nature of the film — not to mention the just plain bad taste on display — doesn’t excuse him from the vile product he’s created. This movie’s idea of being transgressive about gender includes putting Weaver in tailored suits and ties and having a post-op Rodriguez wear a cheap blonde wig and red lipstick so that she looks like a drag queen.

Then of course there’s Rodriguez’s turn as pre-op Frank, including a full frontal scene involving a hairy flat chest and dangling fake appendage. It’s hard to nail down the single most embarrassing moment of “The Assignment,” but this would definitely rank in the top five. (Not that the sloppy cinematography by James Liston is doing any of the actors any favors.)

Hill and Hamill’s screenplay apparently dates back to the 1970s (unsurprising, given its thoroughly outdated state of mind), but even with that lengthy gestation period, it’s still a narrative catastrophe. Flashbacks begin with “three years ago” or “22 months ago” or “18 months ago,” but when we go flashback-to-flashback it’s unclear how those dates stack up next to each other. Dr. Jane quotes Shakespeare and Poe as a way to show off her superior intellect, but her dialogue is so clunky that she rarely comes off as intelligently as she’s supposed to. It doesn’t help that Weaver gives us a by-the-numbers baddie; she was far more gleefully evil in the barely-seen “The Cold Light of Day.”

“The Assignment” is reprehensible, yes, but it’s also dull and inept. Fans of Walter Hill should treat his latest effort like the kind of car crash from which it’s best to avert one’s eyes.

Cast & crew
User reviews

The Assignment

After waking up and discovering that he has undergone gender reassignment surgery, an assassin seeks to find the doctor responsible. After waking up and discovering that he has undergone gender reassignment surgery, an assassin seeks to find the doctor responsible. After waking up and discovering that he has undergone gender reassignment surgery, an assassin seeks to find the doctor responsible.

Walter Hill
Denis Hamill
Michelle Rodriguez
Tony Shalhoub
Anthony LaPaglia
141 User reviews
89 Critic reviews
34 Metascore
1 win & 1 nomination

Top cast 38

Frank Kitchen

Dr. Ralph Galen

Honest John

Nurse Becker

Doctor Rachel Jane

Sebastian Jane
Hotel Manager

Earl Hawkins

Office Nurse

Vladimir Gorski

Mexican Man

Stenographer
All cast & crew
Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

More like this

Did you know

Trivia The first draft of the screenplay was written in 1978.
Goofs At around 48:06, when the main character is videotaping herself, she points a gun directly at the camera from a distance of probably less than a foot. This has the unintended consequence of revealing that the pistol is an Airsoft replica of an M1911 .45 ACP with a much-smaller inner muzzle than that of the real firearm.

[first lines]

Frank Kitchen : I killed a lot of guys. They were worthless pieces of shit, but I killed them, and you're not supposed to kill people. So what happened to me? I guess maybe in the end... it was a lot better than what I deserved. But it takes a long time to work that out. In the meantime, you just want to get get even.

Soundtracks Blindfold Written by Joseph Hicks Performed by Halo Stereo

User reviews 141

Apr 22, 2017
How long is The Assignment? Powered by Alexa
March 3, 2017 (United States)
United States
Official site (Japan)
Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
See more company credits at IMDbPro
$5,000,000 (estimated)

Technical specs

Runtime 1 hour 35 minutes

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Tenet Really Explained, For Real This Time

Image may contain John David Washington Clothing Apparel Footwear Shoe Suit Coat Overcoat Human and Person

After a long game of chicken with the coronavirus, Christopher Nolan’s Tenet finally hit US theaters in September 2020. You probably didn’t see it then. On December 15th of that year, it hit VOD—some of you watched it then, and some of you balked at paying on-demand prices. Eventually it turned up on HBO Max. But even if you've finally seen Tenet , you probably didn’t understand it. And even if you rewatched it, which you absolutely have to do to understand Tenet , you still probably don’t understand it.

Naturally, Tenet explainers exist on the internet, but GQ humbly finds them to be either confusing or incomplete. And sure, the idea of doing homework to explain a movie might not sound exciting, but once you know what’s going on, there’s a lot to like in Tenet — and arming yourself with the proper tools to understand it can let you focus more on the deeply impressive and exciting filmmaking on display for the third, fourth or even fifth rewatch, instead of feeling confused .

After Tenet , of course, Nolan knocked out a little film called Oppenheimer , which is nominated for thirteen Oscars this year; to celebrate that achievement and prime the pump for another mammoth-scale blockbuster-to-be, Warner Bros. will rerelease Tenet in 70MM IMAX and other large-format theaters in February, with new footage from Denis Villenueve's shot-in-IMAX Dune: Part Two as an appetizer. Which means you have another chance to unravel the film's mysteries, or just let them wash over you as the enormous images flood your brain. Either way, here are seven key things to know going in.

Despite what you may have heard, Tenet isn’t really about time-travel--it’s about time manipulation . Rather than jumping forward decades like Back to the Future , the characters are able to do something more like rewinding and fast-forwarding through time. This core idea is known as inversion, and it’s possible thanks to a new technology that can reverse the entropy of people and objects, but thankfully you don’t need to know what entropy is to get it. Inversion is explained around 15 minutes in, when the scientist Barbara (Clémence Poésy) makes loose bullets jump off a table into her hands in order to demonstrate the concept to the Protagonist (John David Washington)--the bullets are moving backwards through time while the people stay stable.

Inversion becomes more complicated as it trickles into complicated action sequences, like the highway chase. Eventually, when we realize that the masked man the Protagonist fought down corridors during the Freeport battle was an inverted version of himself, it becomes clear that scenes from the first half of the movie involved characters who rewound from the second half.

Inversion takes place when a person or thing passes through a temporal turnstile. The turnstiles were created by Tenet’s bad guy, Andrei Sator (Kenneth Branagh), and are typically housed in a large space. They show up in a few different places throughout Tenet , but the first time is during the Freeport sequence in which the Protagonist grapples with a masked trooper. Later in the movie, the turnstiles are color-coded on either side to let people (and the audience) know what side is which; red signals forward movement through time, while blue is for those going backward.

Crossing through a temporal turnstile automatically inverts whatever passes through it. Once on the other side, time is reversed, but only for the object or person that passed through -- for everyone else, time is still proceeding in a forward direction. And so an inverted bullet isn’t fired by a gun, but instead is caught by it. Cars seem to drive backward. People who are in inverted time can’t breathe air backwards, so they have to carry oxygen machines. If you’re in a fire, the flames draw heat away from the body, which means you freeze instead.

When someone is inverted, they can move backward for a seemingly infinite amount of time--to the point, for instance, where they can interact with an earlier version of themselves. However, inverted time still flows at the same pace, which means if you’re trying to get to an event that took place a week ago, you’d have to wait a full week. This is why near the end of the movie, for example, Neil (Robert Pattinson), Katherine (Elizabeth Debicki), and the Protagonist have to wait things out in an inverted shipping container for a while before returning to the Freeport.

Inversion initially doesn’t seem too dangerous. But it turns out that the unnamed creator of inversion technology allowed it to become weaponized into an object known as the Algorithm (referred to as “plutonium-241” for a large portion of the movie), which is capable of inverting the entirety of time itself instead of just individual objects. Regretting this, the inversion creator decided to kill herself, but not before she broke the Algorithm into nine physical pieces ( MCU Infinity Stones, anyone? ) and hid them throughout time. If stacked together to rebuild the final formula, the Algorithm would cause all events on Earth to start flowing backward. The inversion of the Earth itself is said to cause a catastrophic event that would destroy everything that ever lived, according to Neil.

Sator is part of a group that wants to acquire the Algorithm and reverse time in order to undo the effects of climate change and other devastation the present has wrought on the future. (Also, he’s dying and decides to take a melodramatic “if I can’t have it, no one can” approach.) This sets up Tenet ’s core plot: the Protagonist must recover the Algorithm’s final piece to stop the end of the world. In other words, it’s essentially a fancy Bond movie, with Sator playing the over-the-top villain role.

The Protagonist and his crew sit in a van outside the opera house, waiting for a Ukrainian SWAT team to appear in response to a terrorist attack inside. When they arrive, the Protagonist’s squad puts on velcro badges to match the real SWAT team and sneak in alongside them. As the Ukrainian team pipes gas into the main room to knock the villains out, the terrorists put on gas masks and begin planting bombs in the aisles full of people. The Ukrainian team moves in and begins to take out the terrorists while the Protagonist rushes off to the box seats to rescue an asset, because the whole siege is just a cover to assassinate him. They exchange a code phrase — “We live in a twilight world” and “There are no friends at dusk” — to validate one another. It turns out the asset, listed in the credits as the “Well-Dressed Man,” has brought something to the opera that the Protagonist needs to recover, and the item in question is at coat check. The Protagonist and the suited man zipline down to the main floor to retrieve the item.

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As they progress, the Protagonist encounters a member of the Ukrainian team who has placed a bomb; the man asks the Protagonist to place another. When the Protagonist refuses, the SWAT member prepares to shoot, only for the Protagonist to be saved by another member of his own team who also references “dusk” as a code word. The Protagonist then runs to coat check to get the package, which is a piece of the Algorithm — although he (and the audience) doesn’t know this at the time. The Protagonist and his team regroup and change clothes. The Protagonist then rushes out to defuse the bombs, which are tied to a central timer. As the Protagonist collects the devices, he’s cornered by another SWAT team member who tells him to plant a bomb. The Protagonist then notices a hole in the wood paneling begin to fix itself as the SWAT member is shot by a masked third party. As he turns to run away, the Protagonist notices a red string on his mysterious savior’s backpack. We’ll later learn this was Neil working to help the Protagonist.

After the Protagonist and one of his team members gather the last of the bombs and detonate them safely, they head out to escape in a getaway van, only to be caught and captured by a set of mercenaries. The mercenaries torture the Protagonist for information, but he resists, then manages to swallow a cyanide pill. The movie fades to black as the Protagonist blacks out, only for him to wake up and learn — via an info dump from beloved character actor Martin Donovan — that the entire interrogation was a test.

At the end of the movie, we’ll learn a future version of the Protagonist sent the mercenaries to capture him so that he ends up being recruited for the Tenet organization that he’ll eventually create—more on that later.

Tenet is the name of the organization that the Protagonist himself created—more on that in a bit—to keep the earth’s timeline flowing correctly. It’s also an interlocking hand gesture that indicates the flowing of time backward and forward, and a palindrome that’s spelled the same way in either direction. Other instances of inversion symbolism include Sator’s name, which is a reference to Sator Square — a five-by-five interlocking grid of letters, dating back to the early Christian era , that reads the same in every direction. Sator’s name backward is Rotas, the name of the security group that guards the Freeport warehouse. Tenet also contains the word “ten” front and back, and that number comes into play as a measurement of time during the film’s staggering closing setpiece, known as the “Temporal Pincer.”

This is where Tenet really starts to get confusing. The pincer movement is a military maneuver that involves attacking an enemy from both sides simultaneously, closing like a lobster or crab’s claw. Tenet ’s pincer involves two different teams attacking a location from both directions in time — forwards and reverse — hence the “temporal” bit. The best way to keep everything straight is to pay attention to the way Nolan color-codes things; red signals forward movement through time, while blue is for those going backward. Also, those who have been inverted wear oxygen masks, which is another handy signifier.

A few different temporal pincer movements happen throughout the film. Sator performs a pincer during Tenet ’s highway car chase sequence. The first time we see the sequence, Neil and the Protagonist successfully capture the final piece of the Algorithm. Then the duo see an Audi driving in reverse towards them on the highway. Inside the inverted vehicle is Sator (you know he’s inverted because he’s wearing an oxygen mask) holding Katherine at gunpoint. He counts down from three, preparing to shoot her, as another car that was lying upside down on the road in front of them flips rightside up and begins driving in reverse. As Katherine’s life is threatened, the Protagonist hands over the Algorithm piece by bouncing the case off the second inverted car into Sator’s Audi. Sator escapes into another vehicle as the Protagonist jumps into the Audi and rescues Katherine. From there, the Protagonist is captured by Sator’s crew and is brought to a warehouse containing a turnstile for interrogation.

As the Protagonist is brought into the red side, he notices Sator walking in reverse to the turnstile with Katherine. Sator stands on the other side of the glass (in a blue room to note that he’s inverted) with Katherine and interrogates the Protagonist, eventually shooting Katherine with an inverted bullet. The Protagonist seems to acquiesce, giving up the location of the Algorithm piece to the inverted Sator. At this point, a non-inverted Sator runs into the Protagonist’s room to question him again. As Commander Ives (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) and his backup arrive to assist the Protagonist, Sator heads through the turnstile, into the past, setting up the events we just saw unfold.

The Protagonist then heads through the turnstile after Sator, after telling Ives he lied to Sator about the location. Now, we see the highway events unfold from the past’s perspective. The Protagonist gets into a vehicle to give chase. It’s at this point we realize the second reversed car was actually an inverted Protagonist coming to help save the day. However, Sator figures out the lie and confronts the Protagonist, flipping over the car, and leaving him for dead. After the Protagonist wakes up, Neil tells him Sator has the final Algorithm piece. We don’t actually see Sator snag it — he just blows up the Saab with the inverted Protagonist — but Neil tells the audience he’s successfully recovered it.

Sator’s crew tries to assemble the Algorithm in the villain’s Soviet-era hometown of Stalask-12, setting up Tenet ’s massive concluding set piece. It’s another temporal pincer, with two different teams starting their approach to Stalask-12 from opposing ends of a ten-minute window, in another play on the “ten” portion of the movie’s title. The red, forward-moving team consists of the Protagonist and Ives, while the blue team consists of Neil and a group of backward-moving, inverted troops. As the duo arrive at the Algorithm’s location, an underground bunker, they appear to be too late, because Sator’s crew has pieced all nine parts together behind a locked gate. They plan to bury the Algorithm and then explode the bunker, leaving the Algorithm underground for recovery in the future. As Sator’s crew works, Ives and the Protagonist notice a dead soldier on the other side who suddenly reverts to life, stopping a bullet meant for the Protagonist and unlocking the gate.

Turns out the soldier was Neil. After Ives and the Protagonist head underground, Neil chases Sator’s henchmen through a turnstile. After a beat, he proceeds to cross through the turnstile, uninverting himself in the process, since he was originally on the blue team. Neil then drives a truck to pull Ives and the Protagonist out right before the explosion seals them inside.

The three regroup, having saved the day. It’s at this point Neil states that he’s been working for a future version of the Protagonist this entire time. The two are pals, having met in Neil’s past, which is actually the Protagonist’s future. That’s why in one of their first scenes together, Neil already knows the Protagonist doesn’t drink when working. Neil then states this is the end of his story, as he’ll need to leave in order to put himself in the right place in time to take the bullet underground. However, the two will meet again once the Protagonist recruits Neil at some point in the future. This is the close of their friendship, but their beginning is still to come.

At this point, we can understand that Tenet ’s narrative functions as a temporal pincer itself, with the past and future versions of Washington’s Protagonist working to bring the film’s events together, like the aforementioned opera house opening. It’s hard to fully comprehend where the movie truly ends and where it begins. Does your head hurt? This is why perhaps more than any other Nolan movie, it’s worth revisiting Tenet a second—or third, or fourth—time to see how it all comes together.

The Assignment

“The Assignment” is a canny, tricky thriller that could serve as an illustration of what this week’s similar release, “The Peacemaker,” is not. Both films involve an international hunt for a dangerous terrorist, but “The Peacemaker” is a cartoon and “The Assignment” is intelligent and gripping–and it has a third act! Instead of an action orgy, it has more than enough story to see it through to the end and keep us absorbed the whole way. Yes, it ends with a deadly struggle, but as the setting for another stage of the movie’s web of deceit.

The film is centered on a CIA plot to discredit and kill Carlos, the feared terrorist who operated for years, despite the best efforts of the free world’s security agencies to capture him. Donald Sutherland plays Fields, the CIA agent for whom Carlos has become an obsession, and when he finds a U.S. Navy officer named Ramirez ( Aidan Quinn ) who’s a dead-ringer for the terrorist, he devises a risky scheme: He’ll train Ramirez to impersonate Carlos, then use the double to convince the KGB that their attack dog is disloyal. As a result, Carlos will either be dead or, almost as good, discredited in the eyes of his sponsors.

Fields works with an Israeli named Amos ( Ben Kingsley ) in training Ramirez, after first using psychological tactics to persuade the reluctant Navy man to leave his wife and family and become a counter-terrorist. (The scene where Fields shows Ramirez a dying child in a hospital is a direct echo of “ The Third Man “.) Then the false Carlos, is sent into the field to work the deception, which I will not describe.

“The Assignment” is fascinating because its characters can be believed, because there is at least a tiny nugget of truth in the story, and because from the deceptive opening credits, this is a film that creates the right world for these characters to inhabit. Sutherland’s CIA man is especially well drawn: “I don’t have any family,” he says, “and I don’t have any friends. The only people I’ve ever cared about were the ones I’ve killed.” Quinn plays a dual role, as Ramirez and Carlos, and has some tricky scenes, especially one in which a former lover of Carlos helps train him sexually so that he will be a convincing bedmate for another of the terrorist’s lovers.

The screenplay, by Dan Gordon and Sabi H. Shabtai , has action scenes that grow from the story and are not simply set pieces for their own sake. It’s impressive the way so many different story threads come together all at once near the end.

The director, Christian Duguay , is new to me. What he has is a tactile love of film, of images. He and the cinematographer, David Franco, don’t use locations so much as occupy them; we visit Jerusalem, Paris, Vienna, Washington, Tripoli and Moscow (or sets and effects that look like them) and yet the movie’s not a travelogue but a story hurtling ahead.

I have seen so many lazy thrillers. They share the same characteristics: Most of the scenes involve the overpriced star, the villain is underwritten, and the plot is merely a set-up for the special effects, the chases and the final action climax. “The Assignment” gives us ensemble work by fine actors, it has a villain of great complexity (developed through the process of imitating him), and at the end there is a tantalizing situation for us to unravel as we leave the theater.

Roger Ebert

Roger Ebert was the film critic of the Chicago Sun-Times from 1967 until his death in 2013. In 1975, he won the Pulitzer Prize for distinguished criticism.

Claudia Ferri as Maura Ramirez
Aidan Quinn as Annibal Ramirez/Carlos
Ben Kingsley as Amos
Celine Bonnier as Carla

Directed by

Christian Duguay
Sabi H. Shabtai

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The Assignment Movie

A hit man seeks revenge after being knocked out and awakening to discover he has been surgically turned into a woman.

Who's Involved:

Michelle Rodriguez, Sigourney Weaver, Anthony LaPaglia, Walter Hill, Caitlin Gerard, Tony Shalhoub

Release Date:

Friday, April 7, 2017 Limited

Plot: What's the story about?

Hitman Frank Kitchen (Michelle Rodriguez) is given a lethal assignment, but after being double-crossed, he discovers he’s not the man he thought he was—he’s been surgically altered and now has the body of a woman. Seeking vengeance, Frank heads for a showdown with the person (Sigourney Weaver) who transformed him, a brilliant surgeon with a chilling agenda of her own.

official plot version from sabanfilms.com

3.21 / 5 stars ( 14 users)

Poll: Will you see The Assignment?

Who stars in The Assignment: Cast List

Michelle Rodriguez

Fast X, Machete

Sigourney Weaver

Avatar: Fire and Ash, The Girl in the Park

Tony Shalhoub

Cars 2, Pain and Gain

Anthony LaPaglia

Annabelle: Creation, Nitram

Caitlin Gerard

Insidious: The Last Key, Smiley

Who's making The Assignment: Crew List

A look at the The Assignment behind-the-scenes crew and production team. The film's director Walter Hill last directed Dead For A Dollar and Bullet to the Head . The film's writer Walter Hill last wrote Dead For A Dollar and What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? .

Walter Hill

Screenwriter

Production Companies

Watch the assignment trailers & videos.

Theatrical Trailer

Production: what we know about the assignment.

Michelle Rodriguez is to play the hitman while Sigourney Weaver is the scalpel-wielding doctor.
Based on a story by Denis Hamill.

Filming Timeline

2016 - May : The film was set to Completed status.

Cameras start rolling November 9, 2015 in Vancouver.

The Assignment Release Date: When was the film released?

The Assignment was a Limited release in 2017 on Friday, April 7, 2017 . There were 18 other movies released on the same date, including Smurfs: The Lost Village , Going in Style and The Case for Christ . As a Limited release, The Assignment will only be shown in select movie theaters across major markets. Please check Fandango and Atom Tickets to see if the film is playing in your area.

The Assignment DVD & Blu-ray Release Date: When was the film released?

The Assignment was released on DVD & Blu-ray on Tuesday, June 6 , 2017 .

The Assignment VOD & Digital: When was the film released digitally?

The Assignment was released across all major streaming and cable platforms on Friday, April 7 , 2017 . Digital rental or purchase allows you to instantly stream and download to watch anywhere and anytime on your favorite devices. Available from various digital retailers including Amazon Video, iTunes, Google Play, Apple, Vudu and others.

Q&A Asked about The Assignment

Seen the movie? Rate It!

Also known as

Tomboy, A Revenger's Tale

Follow the Updates

Mon., Jun. 12, 2017 from Amazon
added the US Blu-ray release date of June 6, 2017
added the US DVD release date of June 6, 2017
Sun., Mar. 19, 2017 from Saban Films
added Theatrical Trailer to trailers & videos
added the US VOD release date of April 7, 2017
added a poster to the gallery
added photos to the gallery
added a synopsis
set the MPAA rating to R for graphic nudity, violence, sexuality, language and drug use
added a running time of 95 minutes

Looking for more information on The Assignment?

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Watch The Assignment

1 hr 35 min
4.7 (9,270)

The Assignment is a 2016 action-thriller film directed by Walter Hill and starring Michelle Rodriguez, Tony Shalhoub, and Anthony LaPaglia. The film follows the story of Frank Kitchen, a hitman played by Michelle Rodriguez, who gets kidnapped and undergoes gender reassignment surgery against his will. This shocking and unexpected turn of events is orchestrated by Dr. Rachel Kay, a brilliant but unhinged surgeon played by Sigourney Weaver.

The movie begins with Frank Kitchen as a ruthless hitman taking out his targets with surgical precision. However, things take a turn when he is ambushed and taken captive by a group of individuals who want to teach him a lesson. The leader of this group is a brilliant but unhinged surgeon named Dr. Rachel Kay, who is convinced that Frank is a despicable human being and deserves to be punished.

Dr. Kay proceeds to carry out a radical plan to punish Frank, which involves gender reassignment surgery. Against his will, Frank wakes up to find that he has become a woman. Shocked and confused, Frank is left to navigate his new life as a woman, all while seeking revenge against those who wronged him.

Throughout the movie, we see Frank struggling to come to terms with his new identity and trying to adapt to his new body. Michelle Rodriguez delivers a powerful and convincing performance, portraying Frank's transformation with sensitivity and depth. As Frank struggles to understand his new identity, we see him facing discrimination and violence from those who refuse to accept his new reality.

Meanwhile, Dr. Kay is dealing with the consequences of her radical plan as Frank sets out to get revenge on those who wronged him. Tony Shalhoub plays Dr. Ralph Galen, an associate of Dr. Kay who helped with the gender reassignment surgery. Anthony LaPaglia plays Honest John Hartunian, a crime boss who is one of Frank's targets.

As the movie progresses, we see Frank getting closer to his targets and encountering more obstacles along the way. The film also raises questions about the ethics of gender reassignment surgery and the consequences of playing God with someone's identity.

Overall, The Assignment is a gripping and thought-provoking movie that explores themes of identity, revenge, and justice. The film features strong performances from its talented cast and is directed with skill and intensity by Walter Hill. While the movie's plot may be disturbing to some viewers, it offers a unique and compelling perspective on the nature of identity and the limits of human intervention.

The Assignment is a 2017 action movie with a runtime of 1 hour and 35 minutes. It has received mostly poor reviews from critics and viewers, who have given it an IMDb score of 4.7 and a MetaScore of 34.

Genres Action Crime Thriller
Cast Michelle Rodriguez Tony Shalhoub Anthony LaPaglia
Director Walter Hill
Release Date 2017
MPAA Rating R
Runtime 1 hr 35 min
Language English
IMDB Rating 4.7 (9,270)
Metascore 34

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The Assignment (2016)

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The Assignment streaming: where to watch online?

Currently you are able to watch "The Assignment" streaming on The Roku Channel, Tubi TV for free with ads or buy it as download on Amazon Video, Microsoft Store, Apple TV. It is also possible to rent "The Assignment" on Apple TV, Amazon Video, Microsoft Store, Spectrum On Demand online

Ace assassin Frank Kitchen is double crossed by gangsters and falls into the hands of rogue surgeon known as The Doctor who turns him into a woman. The hitman, now a hitwoman, sets out for revenge, aided by a nurse named Johnnie who also has secrets.

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TV Listings

Cast & Crew

The Assignment

34 Metascore
1 hr 35 mins
Suspense, Action & Adventure

A macho hit man is abducted and given unwanted male-to-female gender-confirmation surgery by a deranged doctor. With the help of a one-night stand, the assassin seeks revenge on those responsible for the operation in this gripping action thriller.

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1:54 tHE ASSIGNMENT

Cast & Crew See All

Michelle Rodriguez

Frank kitchen / tomboy.

Sigourney Weaver

Dr. rachel kay.

Tony Shalhoub

Dr. ralph galen, latest news see all, trailers & videos see all.

tHE ASSIGNMENT

IMAGES

The Assignment movie review & film summary (2017)
The Assignment (1997)
Everything You Need to Know About The Assignment Movie (2017)
The Assignment (2016)
Everything You Need to Know About The Assignment Movie (2017)
The Assignment

VIDEO

Assignment Vienna : All fight scenes (1972)
Who understood the assignment? 😅 #iamyourmother #marchmadness #stpatricksday #short
[Trailer] Confidential Assignment 2: International

COMMENTS

What Does 'I Understand The Assignment' Mean And Why Is It Being Used
Project Coconut is hitting all gears for the presidential campaign of Vice President and potential Democratic candidate Kamala Harris.The newest trend established by her supporters features a series of posts with the catchphrase I Understand The Assignment' with the hopes of getting the endorsement from the Gen X and Boomers.. Although the phrase shares the same chorus as the 2021 music The ...
The 'I Understood The Assignment' TikTok Audio Explained
How was the "I understood the assignment" trend created? In March 2021, a Twitter user @thering26 posted stills of Uma Thurman in numerous acting roles. "Uma Thurman will always understand the assignment," the accompanying text read. Soon, the phrase and meme format spread across Twitter like wildfire; it is used to describe someone who knows how to get the job done (via Know Your Meme).
The Assignment Ending Explained
"The Assignment" is a thrilling action film that delves into the world of revenge and identity. Directed by Walter Hill, the movie follows the story of Frank Kitchen, a hitman who undergoes an involuntary gender reassignment surgery as an act of revenge. The film's ending leaves viewers with a lot to unpack and understand.
Always Understand the Assignment Meaning : r/movies
Always Understand the Assignment Meaning. Hi, everyone has anyone heard the meaning " They Always Understand the Assignment" it's a catchphrase that, when paired with images of an actor or an actress in their various roles, is used as a way of complimenting their acting skill and range. I just found this out today on Twitter.
The Assignment movie review & film summary (2017)
The Assignment. " The Assignment " is a film that arrives in theaters having already inspired vast outpourings of anger from two groups —the transgender community, which appears to be offended by its very premise, and action buffs, who are put off both by the premise (albeit for different reasons) and what they feel is a lazy execution ...
What Does 'Understood The Assignment' Mean And Other 2022 Slang
1. Understood the assignment. Think of it as the 2022 edition of the phrase "killing it" - it means when someone put in additional effort and went above and beyond a brief, basically. It ...
TikTok explores what it truly means to 'understand the assignment'
The slang term is a popular way to praise someone who is going above and beyond to do a good job. According to Urban Dictionary, "understood the assignment" means, "a phrase used when someone is ...
These Actors Definitely Understood the Assignment
These Actors Definitely Understood the Assignment. Sometimes, there are just actors who understand their roles so completely that fans always know they can trust them. So when a meme started to go ...
'The Assignment': Walter Hill on Movie's Gender Controversy
The Assignment is certainly lurid and dated in its understanding of gender identity, but the film also very much feels like a movie from the director of early classics like The Driver, The ...
'The Assignment' Review: A Hitman Caught Between Two Worlds
Considering its over-the-top plot mechanics, The Assignment isn't quite as nutso and passionate as it ought to be. Even the violence, gritty at times, feels a little impersonal and detached. But ...
The Assignment
THE ASSIGNMENT is Walter Hill's weird new pariah of a movie, a Tale From the Crypt without a Keeper, based on a gimmick that was too challenging to execute ... there were people angry before it came out, who hadn't seen it and probly didn't understand that it was destined to be seen by like 17 dedicated Walter Hill fans on V.O.D.
The Assignment Movie Review
Kids say: Not yet rated Rate movie. This thriller starts out with a ludicrous and irresponsibly handled idea. Even directed in a pulpy, creative way by Walter Hill (who worked with Weaver on Alien as producer and is best-known for directing action classics like The Warriors and 48 Hrs. ), The Assignment struggles to escape its misguided premise.
'The Assignment' Review: Michelle Rodriguez Snarls Through ...
The 75-year-old Hill doesn't get a pass for not understanding the basics — despite mad scientist Sigourney Weaver's third-act assertion that gender is dictated by the mind and not the ...
They Always Understood the Assignment
About. They Always Understood the Assignment is a catchphrase that, when paired with images of an actor or an actress in their various roles, is used as a way of complimenting their acting skill and range. Originating from a viral tweet, the meme and phrasal template gained popularity in March and April 2021, mainly on Twitter.
The Assignment (2016)
The Assignment: Directed by Walter Hill. With Michelle Rodriguez, Tony Shalhoub, Anthony LaPaglia, Caitlin Gerard. After waking up and discovering that he has undergone gender reassignment surgery, an assassin seeks to find the doctor responsible.
'Tenet' Explained, For Real This Time
The movie fades to black as the Protagonist blacks out, only for him to wake up and learn — via an info dump from beloved character actor Martin Donovan — that the entire interrogation was a test.
The Assignment movie review & film summary (1997)
The Assignment. "The Assignment'' is a canny, tricky thriller that could serve as an illustration of what this week's similar release, "The Peacemaker,'' is not. Both films involve an international hunt for a dangerous terrorist, but "The Peacemaker'' is a cartoon and "The Assignment'' is intelligent and gripping--and it has a third act!
Everything You Need to Know About The Assignment Movie (2017)
The Assignment Movie. By Amy Renner Jun. 12, 2017. A hit man seeks revenge after being knocked out and awakening to discover he has been surgically turned into a woman. Who's Involved: Anthony LaPaglia, Michelle Rodriguez, Walter Hill, Sigourney Weaver, Tony Shalhoub, Caitlin Gerard. Release Date: Friday, April 7, 2017 Limited. R RESTRICTED MPA.
The Assignment (2016 film)
The Assignment (also known as Tomboy, Revenger (in Australia) and formerly known as (Re) Assignment and Tomboy: A Revenger's Tale) [4] is an action crime thriller film directed by Walter Hill and co-written by Hill and Denis Hamill. The film stars Michelle Rodriguez, Tony Shalhoub, Anthony LaPaglia, Caitlin Gerard, and Sigourney Weaver.. The film had its world premiere at the Toronto ...
Watch The Assignment Online
R. 2017. 1 hr 35 min. 4.7 (9,270) 34. The Assignment is a 2016 action-thriller film directed by Walter Hill and starring Michelle Rodriguez, Tony Shalhoub, and Anthony LaPaglia. The film follows the story of Frank Kitchen, a hitman played by Michelle Rodriguez, who gets kidnapped and undergoes gender reassignment surgery against his will.
The Assignment streaming: where to watch online?
Currently you are able to watch "The Assignment" streaming on The Roku Channel, Tubi TV for free with ads or buy it as download on Microsoft Store, Apple TV, Amazon Video. It is also possible to rent "The Assignment" on Apple TV, Amazon Video, Microsoft Store, Spectrum On Demand online.
The Assignment
From Walter Hill the Director of THE WARRIORS and STREETS OF FIRE. After her brother is killed, an unhinged cosmetic surgeon (Sigourney Weaver) captures the assassin (Michelle Rodriguez) who committed the crime and performs an underground gender reassignment. Now, the assassin formerly known as Frank is out for revenge of his own.
The Assignment
The Assignment. 34 Metascore. 2016. 1 hr 35 mins. Suspense, Action & Adventure. R. Watchlist. A macho hit man is abducted and given unwanted male-to-female gender-confirmation surgery by a ...

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