contract killer

A fake hit man who actually works for the police is used to catch potential criminals who try to enlist him as a contract killer.

As Gary, a nerdy professor who finds his calling pretending to be a contract killer, Powell gets to do so many things in this movie — play a series of elaborate games of dress-up, be the romantic lead and depict a man duty-bound to practice what he teaches and show that humans can change.

Vance attributed the words of wisdom to McCarthy himself, not the fate-obsessed contract killer he created in the 2005 novel, adapted by the Coen Brothers into a 2007 Best Picture winner.

“Hit Man” is based on the unlikely true story of Gary Johnson, a mild-mannered college professor who assisted Houston law enforcement by posing as a contract killer, busting potential clients seeking his lethal services.

Earlier this year, Dennis Kenney, a professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, told The New York Times that the average person’s idea of a slick, skilled hit man is “pretty much myth,” adding that a contract killer is usually “nothing more than a thug who offers or agrees to a one-off payday.”