Plot
In a seedy basement, Porter (Mel Gibson) lies severely wounded with two gunshot wounds in his back. A whiskey drinking surgeon removes the bullets and Porter spends months healing.
He then begins tracking down Val Resnick (Gregg Henry), his former partner, and Lynn (Deborah Unger), his ex-wife, both of whom betrayed Porter and left him for dead following a $140,000 heist from the Chinese triads. After leaving Porter for dead, Val rejoined the Outfit, a powerful criminal organization, using $130,000 of the heist money to repay an outstanding debt. Porter is intent on reclaiming his $70,000 cut and gets himself a gun by pawning watches.
Porter enlists the help of a call girl, Rosie (Maria Bello), who is affiliated with the Outfit. Porter once served as her driver, during which time they developed a romantic friendship, which ultimately was the reason behind Porter's wife conspiring against him. To get his money, Porter is forced to deal not only with Resnick but with a lowlife named Stegman (David Paymer), with crime bosses from the Outfit, with the Chinese triads and with corrupt police detectives Hicks and Leary (Bill Duke and Jack Conley).
He first finds Val and kills him with a revolver in Rosie's apartment. He then kills three of the Outfit's hit squad henchmen, including leader, Philip (John Glover), who have been sent by Outfit boss, Carter (William Devane) to "Stitch this mutt up."
Following several unsuccessful attempts to reclaim his $70,000, Porter shoots Carter.
With the aid of Rosie, he kidnaps Johnny, the son of Bronson (Kris Kristofferson), the Outfit's head, and arranges for Hicks and Leary to be busted by their own colleagues in Internal Affairs by planting Leary's finger prints on the gun Porter used to kill Resnick, pick pocketing Hick's badge, then leaving both in the vicinity of Resnick's dead body.
The mob's top figures, Bronson and Fairfax (James Coburn), join the hunt to take him down. Porter is captured by the Outfit after a wild chain of events involving the triads. After being tortured by having his toes smashed with a hammer, Porter lures Bronson and his men to an apartment that had previously been rigged by the Outfit's men to a phone connected to plastic explosive. After they meet an explosive demise, Porter and Rosie (with her dog, also named Porter) drive off to Canada to begin a new life.
Read more about this topic: Payback (1999 Film)
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—Jane Rule (b. 1931)
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The Good Old Cause, reviv’d, a Plot requires,
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