| Toxic | |
|---|---|
| Directed by | Alan Pao |
| Produced by | Brian Hartman Corey Large Alan PaoBrian Hartman Corey Large Alan Pao |
| Written by | Corey Large Alan Pao |
| Starring | Susan Ward Corey Large Master P Dominique Swain Charity Shea Danny Trejo Costas Mandylor |
| Release date(s) | March 2010 |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $2 million |
Toxic is a 2010 thriller film. It was released direct-to-video on July 8, 2010. The movie is told with past and present cut up and mixed together, rather than chronologically. The story focuses on a girl name Lucille, who has a mental illness. After she kills a man, her mind takes on his identity and she starts to live life truly believing she is him.
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The plot of the movie was not told in a straightforward fashion and had past and present mixed together. Below is the plot pulled apart and pieced back together in chronological order.
Lucille has a mental disorder, which stems from her brother's death, which occurred when she was young, and which her father blamed her for, never forgiving her. It is never revealed how the brother died or why her father blames her but it made her mentally unstable. A big part of the movie is that helping her will get you killed so it is a possibility that she was already unstable and when her brother tried to help her, he was killed. But since these details are not in the movie, its unclear. Thomas, who also stole money from her father, his boss, was the one who had her committed to "save her" and didn't tell her father where she was. Sid and Antoine, who also work for her father, go after Thomas because of the money but Thomas tries to get away by saying he knows where Lucille is. Van Sant, her father, then sends them to find Lucille and keep her away from him. Meanwhile, Lucille escaped from the hospital and Gus, her doctor, has left to find her.
Next we find out about Angel, who used to work for Van Sant but now owns a brothel, and about Nadine who works for him. She wants to quit and go back to school but Angel says she can't until some "new blood" comes in. A short while later she finds Lucille in an ally and brings her to Angel, hoping she will take her place. But when Lucille is attacked on her first day, Angel has to rescue her and takes her to his girlfriend's, Malvi's, apartment. Nadine sees this and gets very upset. While Lucille is telling Angel who her father is, Nadine rolls off the top of the building and kills herself. This leads Sid and Antoine to the brothel where they ask about Lucille. Angel's goons attack them and soon Angel and more goons show up which causes an even bigger gun battle. During this, two unknown men go to see Van Sant and kill him along with Lena, his fortune teller. After the battle, Angel returns to Malvi's apartment but is interrupted in the middle of their agreed "special knock" by Sid and so, thinking he is someone else, Malvi shoots him. Sid then goes into the apartment and is attacked by Malvi which causes him to drop his gun. Lucille then picks it up and shoots him.
Lucille can't live with what she has done and so "becomes" Sid, her mind living with two distinct personalities, and eventually forces the one that is causing pain, Lucille, away and "kills" it. From that moment on the character Lucille becomes the character Sid, the one we see working in the bar. The Sid that was looking for Lucille and was in the gun battle is dead and the Sid that is working in the bar and falling for Michelle is Lucille who believes she is Sid. For the rest of the plot, "Sid" is referring to Lucille as Sid and not the actual man. Also, all the other characters see Sid as Lucille, as a girl, and it is only Lucille that sees her reflection as that of Sid, a man.
Lucille, as Sid, leaves the apartment and starts walking down the road where Steve finds her and picks her up. He allows Sid to stay in the attic of his strip club in exchange for working there. Gus comes in one night and is shocked to see Lucille but surprised that she thinks she is Sid. He decides not to tell her directly and instead tries to use his psychology training to pull Lucille out again. Sid later begins to see things as Lucille's personality tries to "retake" her body and mind. But since Sid doesn't know anything about Lucille in that sense, he believes he is seeing ghosts and so runs out of the club screaming and hitches a ride from someone to go see Michelle, who lives in a hotel. Sid begins to fall for Michelle and so kisses her, she kisses back but then stops and says she can't because she has a daughter (remember she sees Sid as the girl she is). Next the father of Michelle's daughter tries to manipulate her into being with him but when she refuses, he says he is going to seek full custody of their daughter. Michelle goes to Steve for money but he says there is only one way for her to get it which is to sleep with customers. Michelle agrees and Steve sets her up with Greg. When he won't wear a condom however, they fight and Michelle has Simon run him off. Simon then tries to get Sid to "work" (sleep with customers) for him but Sid, interpreting Simon's "interests" totally the wrong way (as Lucille truly believes she is a man), accuses Simon of being gay and so Simon attacks him. Steve tells Sid that he is fired but Michelle asks Steve to give him one more chance and he tells her to take Sid to a doctor friend of his.
Michelle decides to do some digging during this and calls Sid to tell him that she found some information on the girl he is "seeing". When she tells Sid about what she has found though he tells her not to come into work. He then goes to confront Steve and says he thinks Steve killed Lucille. Steve says that it was Sid who really killed her (it is unclear how he knows this but it is probable that Gus has told him). Sid refuses to listen and continues to accuse Steve before shooting him in the back and taking his money. Next Michelle return home, having not gone to work, to find information about Lucille at her door which gives her a picture of the girl that she knows as Sid (it is presumed that Gus left it there as he shows up quickly later on). A car pulls up and she thinks it's Steve but when Sid gets out, she runs away from him. She is scared of him and asks why he has Steve's money and car. Sid wants to run away with her but Michelle confronts him about him not really being a man. Sid completely ignores that and is instead happy that Michelle found information Lucille.
Gus shows up just then and Sid points the gun at him, asking what he did to Lucille. Gus says Lucille is dead because she couldn't live with what she had done. He gets the gun away from Sid and asks if he loves Michelle, which he says yes too, and then Gus kills Michelle to force Lucille "out". Several flashbacks occur about the characters and their comments referring to the fact that Sid is a girl and Lucille is finally forced out while Sid is lost forever. Afterwards, Gus takes Lucille away but she says she doesn't like being herself and so gets him to pull over with the promise of sex before she kills him to "become" him like she did Sid. She, now as Gus, leaves the car and starts walking down the road where Greg later finds her and picks her up. Greg believes it's "Sid", as that's how he knows "her" and asks if she remembers him, but since she is now Gus she says doesn't.
Score by Scott Glasgow
Songs by