Synopsis for
The Matador (2005) More at IMDbPro »

Julian Noble (Pierce Brosnan) wakes up in bed next to a hooker. He looks in her bag and discovers some purple nail varnish; he paints his toe nails and goes to burn some documents. Julian Noble is a hitman! The credits begin with the song Town Called Malice.

After the credits Julian is sitting on a bench in a park in Denver pretending to read a paper. He keeps staring at a Porsche across the road. A young boy comes up to him asking whether it is Julian's car and saying his mom thinks Julian is cute. Julian rudely replies "I don't know anything about that car and I'm only interested in your mother if she lost 20 ponds and 30 years!" The boy goes away and Julian sees a man getting into the Porsche; he quickly gets up and walks away quickly. A second later the car explodes!

The next scene moves onto Danny Wright (Gregg Kinnear) waking up in Denver at 5.45 with a terrible storm going on. He gets up quietly without waking up his wife. He goes downstairs and eats breakfast when his wife, Bean (Hope Davis), comes down woken up by the storm. They talk about how they will miss each other and Danny replies he will be back in just two days. They embrace and then start to undress each other. Simultaneously a tree falls on their kitchen and interrupts them. Danny asks Bean whether she is still horny!

You next see Danny running into Denver airport out of the pouring rain. He meets his business partner and they talk about how important their trip is and how they can't afford to miss the plane to Mexico. Julian is also catching the same flight. A female airport worker asks him how he is today and after looking down her cleavage and at her name tag he replies "Couldn't be better. But more importantly how are you Genevive."

As they arrive in Mexico City a man walks towards a hotel carrying a large grey briefcase. Julian gets out a taxi and walks into the hotel. The man follows him. Julian walks straight into the hotel bar and gets a margarita. The strange man sits on a stool next to Julian and orders a beer. Julian asks the bartender whether there are any good and bloody bullfights on on Sunday. The bartender replies there is a good one with a matador from Madrid. The bartender then asks Julian whether he is in town for business or pleasure. Julian replies "My business is my pleasure". Before the conversation had ended the man walked out of the bar leaving his suitcase behind.

Julian goes up to his room and opens the suitcase. in it he finds a sniper rifle and pictures of his target. Danny and his partner are exiting from the same hotel to go to their business meeting. They are both worried. Julian leaves the hotel after them and goes into the city. He goes to a market stand where he shoots ornaments of shelves. Three school girls are watching him he smiles at them and scores on the first shot. When he misses the second shot. He smiles at the girls and then laughs. The girls giggle at him.

Julian's boss, Mr Randy (Phillip Baker Hall), comes to greet him to explain about the job. He remarks that the girls might be too pubescent even for him! His boss says the kill has to be made today which Julian isn't happy about. As his boss walks off he shouts at Julian happy birthday. Julian is amazed it is his birthday.

Julian then goes and follows his target with his sniper sights. He pulls the trigger and kills his target. Meanwhile Danny and his partner walk joyfully into a bar talking about how brilliant their first pitch session went.

Julian returns to his hotel room and is watching TV and being melancholy. He is wearing a large Mexican hate and takes it off with annoyance. He picks up the phone and rings the whole of his phone book. They all hang up on him. He gets really annoyed and decides to leave it and go down to a whore house.

When he returns to the hotel he goes straight to the bar where Danny is drinking. He orders a margarita and Danny says he looks like he needs one. Julian says how they always taste better in Mexico "margaritas and cock" this put Danny off and made him shut up. A few seconds later Julian apologizes fir the comment saying he was just stopping the conversation. Danny stays and allows Julian to buy him a drink.

They get talking and Julian commends Danny for getting back on his feet with his new business deal after being dropped from his job suddenly and made to be left struggling. Danny tells Julian about his wife and a child that died. Julian after hearing about Danny's son tells a joke about a fifteen inch schlong. Danny thinks this is very rude and he walks off to bed.

In the morning Julian walks through the hotel lobby in just his trunks and boots drinking a can of beer to the swimming pool. He jumps in and hallucinates. He imagined sharks are there. At the entrance to the hotel Danny and his partner had some bad look. The buyers wanted to hear other pitches. Danny's partner had to go home to his kids so Danny was left to stay just in case the job came through. Julian managed to catch up with Danny and apologized to him for his rudeness over his son. he lies about having lost a wife to make Danny forgive him. He invites Danny to a bullfight with him. Danny is reluctant at first but then goes.

At the bullfight they both smoke cigars. Danny is amazed by the experience. Julian tells Danny that he doesn't have a proper address, that he lives wherever he works. Danny is really suprised and asks what Julian does. Julian says he'd rather not say. Julian then explains to Danny the honour of a bull dying in a bull fight and that the crowd respects the bull. Danny finally persuades Julian to say what he does. Julian asks him to not "loose his shit" when he tells him what job he does. Julian says "sometimes people need to be eliminated. Danny does not believe it and jokes about Julian being a hitman. Julian says "my handler calls me a facilitator, a facilitator of fatalities." Danny finds this hilarious and does not believe him.

Danny humours Julian and says he wants a man in the crowd killed. Julian agrees and they leave the bull ring. They go outside the toilets and Julian explains the "got-to-pee" theory. He tells Danny about what to and what not to worry about. He shows Danny the escape routes and picked a lock of a door. Danny is amazed.

Julian then empties lighter fluid into a bin full of paper. The man Danny joked about killing got up and went into the toilets. Julian threw a cigarette into the bin and it exploded. The guards immediately ran to put it out. Julian dragged Danny away, pulled out a knife and dragged him into the toilets. He goes to the cubicle the man is in. Danny is now scared and begs Julian not to kill him. Julian kicks open the door his knife ready with Danny whimpering. He apologizes to the man and pulls Danny out of the toilets laughing.

The two walk down the street together to a little bar. Julian asks Danny a favour. He wants Danny's help with a job and offers to pay $50 000. Danny is revolted by the idea and says no. He changes the subject but Julian changes it back. Danny still says no so Julian walks off in a mood, Danny calls him back and Julian just says "consider me the best cocktail party story you ever met".

That evening Danny heard news that the business deal is now going against him. He sits drinking. Julian comes knocking on the door drunk trying to apologize. The screen goes black and you hear a bottle smash. The screen changes to six months later.

There are short clips of Julian having sex, drinking and killing people in Vienna, Moscow, Las Vegas, Sydney. The screen slows down in Budapest where he is meeting Mr Randy. Julian wants to have a break as he feels "burnt out" but Mr Randy said he can't otherwise the agency will find a new young assassin. Julian says he is tired and doesn't want to do that job. Mr Randy remarks about a failure in Manila but pleads with him to do that job. Julian reluctantly agrees and goes off to do it.

He is on a roof above a crowded square and has his sights set on his target. He is about the pull the trigger when he sees himself cowering. he tries again but collapses.

The screen changes to Mr Randy. He is speaking to the messenger of his boss Mr Stick. The messenger says Mr Stick wants Julian dead. Mr Randy is surprised and sad. He says he's only made two mistakes. The messenger walks off.

The screen changes again but this time to Denver where Danny and Bean are having sex. All looks well. That evening they are in bed talking about how they love each other and support each other. Tomorrow is the fourth anniversary of their son's death. In the middle of their conversation the doorbell rings. It is late at night so they both run downstairs. Danny look out the door and sees Julian standing there. He lets Julian in and hugs him. He greets bean and says she's fantastic. Danny asks Julian what he is doing there.

Julian replies he doesn't know but Danny and Bean offer him some whisky. They sit down and talk. Julian notices the bull fight ticket framed and on the wall. Julian is touched by this. Bean asks to see Julian's gun. He shows it to her and comments "My god you are a magnificent woman!". Julian comments on how good Danny looks and understands that Danny got the job he went to Mexico for. Julian proposes a toast to Bean, Danny and himself ("a toast to a dead man")

The three move in to the kitchen and Julian explains how he messed up in Manila and how he was burnt out. He said he drank and had sex but nothing worked. He still felt terrible. He said he had to kill a copper wire executive in a market. His plan was to bump into him and stab him. But as Julian got near to his target. The target turned into a child. Him as a child. He collapsed and work up in a pile of donkey excrement.

Julian then explained how his jobs from then were hot and cold. He explained his mistake in Budapest and said how his bosses now wanted to kill him. Danny is really amazed and asks can't he just apologize. Julian said it is impossible as he only just got out of Budapest alive because Mr Randy let him off.

Bean then asked him how he got here. Julian tells her how their home is the only home he knows. That Danny is his only friend. Bean invites Julian to stay the night. Julian asks Danny whether he can dance with Bean. Danny obliges and Julian and Bean dance beautifully together. Bean then makes a comment about having a horrible hangover. Julian tells her a recipe to prevent this from "the only woman he'd ever loved" his mother. Danny then knows how Julian lied about his wife. There is a moment of tenseness between them. Julian asks whether they want him to leave but they say no so he stays.

Julian wakes Danny up after they went to bed. He takes him into his rent a car. Julian again says he needs Danny's help. He said he had been offered a reprieve from death but needed Danny's help to do it. He couldn't do the job on his own as he was burnt out. He needed Danny to help kill the target. At first Danny says no but after Julian says Danny owes him, he obliges.

They flew to Arizona together to the race courses to kill the target. Julian gets Danny to open a door to set off the alarm so he could turn off the alarm in the future. He then asks Danny to knock into the target so Julian could have a clear shot. Julian is on the stairwell with a sniper rifle. Danny does his part but Julian is unable to take the shot he breaks down. Danny goes to find him and together they agree that Danny will talk Julian through firing. They are successful in killing the man.

The screen then changes to the plane on the way home. Julian says thank you and Danny says it's ok. They talk about what happened the night where Julian was knocking on Danny's hotel room. There is a flashback and we discover what really happened. Danny let Julian in and they began talking. Danny asked Julian to kill his business opponents. Julian says no as he doesn't think Danny is that type of person and knows Danny will regret it. The flashback ends and they are back on the plane. Danny says " You became my friend that night Julian. You surprised me!" Julian replied "I surprised myself." Julian tells Danny that really he didn't do any assignment and that the person he killed was Mr Stick. Julian killed the guy that was trying to kill him.

Bean and Danny, when he got back, went to the cemetery together and Julian after watching them for a while left leaving only a little piece of information showing that he was going to Greece!