Crank
Carlito (Carlos Sanz) leads a wealthy and influential Mexican-American and his crime syndicate in Los Angeles, simply referred to in the film as the "West Coast Crime Syndicate". Worried about the encroachment of a group into LA of heavily-armed members of the Chinese mafia, and the effects that may have upon his operations, Carlito orders the contract killing of their leader, Don Kim (Keone Young). Carlito's best hitman, an English man called Chev Chelios (Jason Statham), is ordered to do the job. However Carlito has underestimated the Chinese and after the hit, the heat from Hong Kong is much greater than Carlito expected. Carlito immediately regrets that the hit may have been "ill-advised" and to ease the pressure Carlito offers the Chinese both an explanation and a solution: the hit was nothing to do with him, and Carlito will himself remove certain elements within his own organization who were responsible and operating on their own.
Ricky Verona (Jose Pablo Cantillo), a small time punk and long-time rival of Chev Chelios, uses the opportunity to conspire with Carlito against Chelios, unbeknown to Chelios who believes Carlito is still loyal to him. Whilst Chelios sleeps in his apartment one night, Verona silently breaks in and injects Chelios with the "Beijing Cocktail". This is a synthetic drug which inihibits the flow of adrenaline from the adrenal glands, slowing the heart, and eventually killing the victim. Chelios wakes to find a recorded video made by Verona mocking Chelios and explaining the situation, and that Chelios should only have about an hour left before the poison stops his heart.
Chelios speaks with an underground doctor who often works as a personal physician to the Mafia, Doc Miles (Dwight Yoakam), who informs Chelios that in order to survive and keep his heart beating he must keep his adrenaline pumping through constant excitement and danger, or get some artificial adrenaline, epinephrine (it should be noted adrenaline is the same thing as epinephrine.) With his own adrenaline keeping the poison at bay at first, Chelios breaks into a hospital and steals numerous drugs, much more than Doc Miles advises him to take and also being "juiced" by hits from a defibrilator. Even still he must keep his adrenaline up through reckless and dangerous acts such as picking fights with other gangsters, stealing things, committing robberies, fighting with police and driving cars through shopping malls.
The entire film takes place over a single day, starting in the morning and going through to late afternoon/early evening. Over the course of the day Chelios sets out to get his revenge on Verona, knowing that he probably will not make it to the end of the day, and attempting to find Verona and his street gang through Chelios' street contact Kaylo (Efren Ramirez), a flamboyant homosexual. Chelios also goes to pick up his unassuming girlfriend Eve (Amy Smart) before Verona's thugs get to her. In one notable scene Chelios has sex with Eve in the middle of a busy street in Chinatown while hundreds of people look on, in order to keep his adrenaline up.
In the end it is revealed that Chelios never actually killed Don Kim, in fact sparing his life and telling him to leave LA instead. Towards the end of the movie, Chelios arranges a rooftop meeting with Carlito, Verona and their henchman, who promise him the (fake) antidote to the Beijing Cocktail. Don Kim arrives along with his Triads to assist Chelios, and in a vicious shootout many of Carlito's men are killed. Carlito is killed by none other than an ambitious and treacherous Verona, who then attempts to leave in Carlito's escape helicopter. The movie concludes with Chelios confronting Verona in the helicopter and as they fight the pair fall from the chopper thousands of feet above LA, and mid-flight Chelios breaks Verona's neck, quipping "I told you I'd kill you, you little bitch!" He then calls Eve on his cell phone, apologizing that he will not be coming back to her. Chelios hits a car, bounces off it and lands right in front of the camera. In the last shot it is implied that his adrenaline is indeed still flowing fast; his nostrils flare, he blinks, and two heartbeats are heard.
