This is another guest post, the second in the new guest author series. This post is authored by Russ Ball, a haiku writer and film fan.
Okay, film fans. There’s something we need to talk about: the universe owes us a debt.
There are things that are simply supposed to happen. When you place bread in a toaster, you expect toast. When Natalie Portman establishes herself as an A-list celebrity and Hollywood finally starts making movies with strong female protagonists, we are supposed to get a sequel to Leon: the Professional.
I know you’ve seen The Professional (as it was released in the United States). But allow me to refresh your memory anyway:
Natalie Portman made her feature film debut in 1994 as “Mathilda” a 12 year old girl who befriends a lonely hitman (Jean Reno, aka the really cool French guy from Mission Impossible and Ronin) after the death of her family at the hands of a corrupt DEA agent (Gary Oldman, aka Commissioner Sirius Gordon-Black). The movie saw a few different releases, as some of the vibes between Portman and Reno were deemed too ‘Lolita-ish’ for middle America. The film is fantastic. Go watch it (again). Right now. I’ll wait. Here’s the trailer:
The rest of this depends on you knowing the movie, so seriously go watch it.
Back? Yeah, it’s great, right? So here’s what needs to happen.
Natalie Portman returns in Mathilda: The Professional II.
Hear me out.
Mathilda, having been orphaned first by her sleazy parents and again by her adopted killer father figure grows up to be an assassin too. Because obviously. Consider that part montage-d, probably during the opening credits.
Now, she’s blown through Leon’s cash, having traveled the world as a mercenary of sorts. Her traumatic childhood made it difficult to settle down. She’s beholden (as a #1 badass hitwoman) to the same mob that controlled Leon – a mob now headed by Mafioso Tony’s son – let’s call him James. He’s gonna inevitably be played by Gioavanni Ribsi, so actually let’s just call him Ribsi.
At a mob gathering where she’s been hired to provide security, she meets Tommy, the 8 year old autistic nephew of Bad Guy Ribsi. Tommy has an uncanny ability to recite any conversation he’s ever heard.
Do you see where this is going yet?
- Mafia party gets raided by DEA (including head DEA Agent Willem Defeo)
- Firefight breaks out – Tommy’s father & mother get killed.
- Mathilda saves little Tommy,
Turns out he’s heard some interesting conversations about Uncle Giovanni Ribsi, regarding some backroom deals with a corrupt DEA agent.
Ribsi, in an effort to get into politics, has staged the raid to cut ties with anyone who could smudge his reputation (like Matilda). He’s made a deal with the DEA to lock down the drug trade, giving Agent McCorruption (Willem Defoe, really) some of the action.
Tommy doesn’t understand what he has heard, but can recite it all.
Also, he’s a hacker.
Mathilda and Tommy find themselves on the run from the bad guys.
Mathilda, remembering all too well her times with Leon, decides to help Tommy avenge his parents.
HOW HAS THIS NOT BEEN A MOVIE YET??!?
Things to consider:
- Since Jurassic Park, everyone has enjoyed hacker kids saving the day. Maybe an Edward Snowden cameo?
- Natalie Portman.
- Many gun battles
- Visiting Leon’s grave. Sad part.
- Also, if you don’t recall, she planted a tree at the end of the original film. They go visit that tree too. Second sad part. (Edit: it’s actually a houseplant. Okay, so maybe the houseplant is still in the ground and they visit it?)
- Also, Tommy’s eight – and eight year olds are funny.
- Lots of ‘lets uncover the awesome stash of guns’ bits, where the eight year old pulls out a heavy one and almost drops it. You’ll laugh.
- Could be an on-the-run exotic travel movie. Let’s say Capri because I want to go there.
- Maybe when they go to visit the tree (or houseplant) from the first movie, that’s where one of the shoot-outs is.
- So many feels – revenge, loss, bonding, Natalie Portman.
- This simply must happen. Natalie, this part was the part you were born for.
- It ends with Natalie dying, and in a few decades we can get the third installment in the trilogy.
Universe, we’re waiting.
As long as it has Natalie Portman 🙂
Good stuff. Lol . .sometimes great movies are. Just better left alone. Nah!!. Who am I kidding!?. Make a sequel!!!!!
Leon The Professional is still one film on my own personal top ten list of movie’s ever made. It most definitely needs a sequel to see what kind of women Matilda grew up to become. I would love to see what Natalie Portman would do with HER character. I also am disappointed Commissioner Sirius Gordon-Black would not be able to share his character in a sequel, because Gary Oldman was simply fantastic. Hey Hollywood, you like to make money, what’s been taking so long?
Would love to see Natalie in a sequel “The Professional 2
Also leons twin brother neon
I have been thinking about this for years, but I was taking it in the lines of Matilda not blowing the money Leon left her but taken from her and kept by Tony. After she tries to getc what is rightfully hers, and Tony sending killers and ditry cops after her to get rid of her, she comes back with a vengeance.
I need a part I I, is a must!! It is a neeeeeed!!!!
If this comes to be the sequel some day I WOULD KILL MYSELF. It’s stupid, full of cliches and TOTALLY TOTALLY TOTALLY retarded. No wonder why all sequels suck… obviously thanks to non creative lovers of trash scenes and dumb explosions… keep your microscopic imagination for yourself please! there are at least 1 000 000 original possible stories for the sequel and you chose some sort of fast and furious trash for a classic and masterpiece? REALLY? And you consider a fan? hahahah you must be fan of fast and furious, maybe a fan of the expendables? am I right? DONT EVER POST SOMETHING SO IDIOT AGAIN PLEASEEEE
Chill.
If this comes to be the sequel some day I WOULD KILL MYSELF on top of sebastian1’s grave. I’m afraid the subtly to sebastian’s writing might be lost on you, but this is TOTALLY TOTALLY TOTALLY TOTALLY retarded. Like, the dude from Flowers for Algernon or even sebastian1 would understand that this sequel sucks. No wonder why all sequels suck.
sebastian1’s equanimity in the face of such a microscopic imagination makes me think he can’t consider a fan. A real fan would know there are at least 2 000 000 original possible stories, DFLovett. Hahahah he must like the expendables just like you. am I right? THIS MAKES ME SO MAD! sebastian1, your understated rhetorical flourishes (threatening to kill yourself, less than a quarter of the post is in caps, etc.) are lost on someone who would post something so idiot. DON’T EVER EVER POST SOMETHING LIKE THIS AGAIN, or else sebastian1 and I will have to erect an enormous cenotaph for all of the suicides your stupid sequel causes.
The most meta comment yet.
The sequel was made, but it didn’t feature Natalie Portman. The project was consequently retitled and released as a film in its own right. The movie that I’m referring to is Columbiana. If you watch it in the context of the spiritual successor to Leon, it doesn’t make a bad sequel.
I just ‘discovered’ this movie – twenty three years after its original debut – because of a couple of videos with Sting that I have been looking at over and over again on YouTube that carry the name of his song The Shape Of My Heart. I have not as yet seen the movie but I have been exploring all of the behind the scenes write ups and looking at trailers for the movie. Sting’s voice in the videos featuring scenes from the movie is haunting. Natalie Portman – who I have never seen in ANY movie – is mesmerizing in the movie scenes that I have seen so far. Perhaps tonight I will finally look at the entire movie itself. I am consumed by the anticipation.
Going out after Hl3.
I came up with much of this idea independently and decided to Google if it’s already been proposed, which is how I got here. I agree with the idea that this is a very logical kind of sequel idea, which is why multiple people would think of it. I have more ideas but I’m going to see if I can’t actually write this up.
Yes. I’ve been wanting a sequel to this!!!! Natalie Portman 👍🏽 Love that girl. She would be a great Professional !!!!! 👍🏽😊. That would be a great movie. Let’s make this sequel already.
If they did it, the plot couldn’t be that bland…. maybe Mathilda becomes a prosecutor or something on a mission to clean up the DEA ending up with her on the run clumsily recalling her childhood lessons from Leon. …or a prequel of Leons story, how he ended up in ny
Don’t touch a classic like that unless the plot is impeccable.
She gives up her role as a virgin nun to save her parish with ultra violence and roclet launchers
Twisting tired plot cliches don’t really seem like the right way to go. I think a more interesting story would be that, yes, she also becomes an assassin, but it feels empty to her. One day she learns that Leon ended up where he was because something similar had happened to him and his single mother and that, while he thought he’d avenged her, it turns out it was the “killer’s” teenage son acting on his own just trying to prove himself, and that he was still around today as a big mob guy and making people’s lives miserable. Now here’s the twist—she spends the remainder of the film trying to get this guy… and fails at every turn. After she losing everything and is about to be killed, it turns out the guy sees right through her. He gives her three options: be killed (which is tempting to her at this point as this path has made her feel like her whole life has had no meaning), work for him (which he says he doesn’t believe she wants because of what happens to innocent bystanders sometimes), or quit the business and move on with her life. After asking him to kill her, he explains that he regrets how he was when he was younger and the life it led to, but that he is pivotal to the success of too many people that would kill him and his family if he tried to leave… but that it’s not too late for her… and then he gives her the gun. She points it at her head for a minute before dropping it and walking out… presumably off to a new life.
‘The Professional’ was a great movie. Leon wanted her to have a better life. She took that road. A sequel with Mathilda being some kind of uber-assassin would disrespect the original movie.
reply to jake…
as we all learn the hard way…. life NEVER turns out the way we plan…