Sin City (2005)

In director Robert Rodriguez' violent (cannibalism, dismemberment, mutilation, castration and more!), bloody and stylistic noirish monochromatic (with splashes of color) representation of Frank Miller's graphic novels:

• the overlapping, cross-cut hard-boiled stories set in dark and rain-slick Basin City
• in the film's opening, a doomed, suicidal red dress-wearing dame known as Customer (Marley Shelton) stood on a terrace high above the cold, teeming city - to be kissed and then killed by The Man/Salesman (Josh Hartnett), whom she had supposedly hired as a hit man
• in the first tale (told in two parts), disgraced, heart-failing ex-cop John Hartigan (Bruce Willis) saved young 11 year-old Nancy Callahan (Makenzie Vega as youth, Jessica Alba as adult) from depraved serial-killing pedophile Roark Jr. (Nick Stahl). Junior was one of Basin City's protected criminals - the son of Senator Roark (Powers Boothe). In the second part of the story, after a deadly shoot-out between Hartigan and Roark, Jr., Hartigan was framed for Junior's crimes and jailed for 8 years. After his parole release, Hartigan relocated Nancy, now 19 years old, performing as an exotic stripper in Kadie's Bar. He realized that it was a trap - he had been released to lead the forces of evil to Nancy. He was then pursued by the deformed, smelly and disfigured Roark, Jr., now known as Yellow Bastard. Again, Hartigan protected Nancy from the Yellow Bastard and brutally killed him, but then suicidally took his own life to ensure Nancy's future safety

Hartigan (Bruce Willis)	Nancy (Jessica Alba)	Yellow Bastard (Nick Stahl)

• in another storyline, tough ex-con, thuggish, Frankenstein-like street fighter Marv (Mickey Rourke) sought revenge against psycho-serial killer Kevin (Elijah Wood) for the Roark-instigated murder of his blonde hooker-lover Goldie (Jaime King). After he was set up and framed for the crime, Marv met with Lucille (Carla Gugino), his lesbian parole officer, and told her he was in pursuit of the one responsible for Goldie's death. He went after silent, creepy, cannibalistic serial killer Kevin (Elijah Wood) - who had decapitated many other Basin City prostitutes. Marv tortured and dismembered Kevin, and then propped him up against a tree, after his arms and legs were sawed off and tied off with rubber tubing tourniquets. Kevin was then devoured by a meat-eating wolf (Kevin's own pet wolf). Afterwards, the exasperated Marv cut Kevin's head off with a saw - and stood there with the decapitated head in his left hand. Marv also killed Cardinal Patrick Henry Roark (Rutger Hauer), the Senator's brother and the one responsible for Goldie's murder. In the bleak ending, Marv accepted his death sentence by execution in the electric chair for the murders of Kevin and Cardinal Roark (and for all their crimes as well). Before his death, Goldie's twin sister Wendy (also Jaime King) thanked Marv for avenging Goldie's death

Marv (Mickey Rourke)	Kevin (Elijah Wood)	Wendy (Jaime King)

• also, a third tale was about Sin City photographer Dwight McCarthy (Clive Owen) who angered abusive Jackie Boy (Benicio Del Toro) - because he had begun dating Jackie Boy's girlfriend Shellie (Brittany Murphy). The prostitutes in Old Town were led by Dwight's sometime-lover Gail (Rosario Dawson), where Dwight followed and watched as Jackie Boy began threatening one of the prostitutes named Becky (Alexis Bledel). One of Old Town's prostitute defenders and protectors, silent female martial arts expert Miho (Devon Aoki), battled Jackie Boy who ended up dead. Dwight discovered that Jackie Boy was actually Det. Lt. "Iron Jack" Rafferty, a Basin City police officer. If it was learned that the cop had been killed in Old Town, war would be waged on the prostitutes by the mob and Irish mercenaries. Meanwhile, the traitorous Becky had sold out Old Town by betraying the prostitutes to the mob after the killing of Jackie Boy, for money and to ensure her mother's safety from the mob. Gail was kidnapped by mob enforcer Manute (Michael Clarke Duncan) and held for ransom before an all-out assault. Dwight was able to intervene and free Gail and kill Manute, while the other prostitutes gunned down the remaining mob-mercenaries, as the injured Becky fled

Shellie (Brittany Murphy)	Dwight McCarthy (Clive Owen)	Old Town Prostitute Leader Gail (Rosario Dawson)

• in the short finale, Becky was confronted by the hit-man Salesman in an elevator - she was about to be assassinated for betraying the prostitutes
• each of the three main characters died for unselfish reasons: (1) Hartigan to protect Nancy, (2) Marv to avenge Goldie's murder, and to protect Wendy and other prostitutes, and (3) Becky to protect her mother from the mob