Tomorrow: We’ll use this story recap as a springboard into a discussion of the importance of strategic problem-solving.

< SPOILER WARNING >
Key plot points from this story of poisoned British hitman, who needs to keep his adrenaline flowing to stay alive, are pictured below. It gets ugly. And is not for the faint of heart. You have been warned!
< / SPOILER WARNING >

Hitman Chev Chelios wakes up to a recorded video message from his long-time rival, Ricky Verona, explaining how Chev’s been injected with a synthetic drug that will stop the flow of adrenaline to his heart and kill him within the hour.

Chev tries to find Verona. With mixed results.

Verona calls Chev to gloat and promise a bad end for Chev’s girlfriend, Eve. Verona reveals that Carlito–Chev’s boss–has betrayed Chev to the Chinese Triads, to save his own crime syndicate after the hit Carlito paid Chev to execute on the leader of the Chinese Triads. (Got it?)

During a car chase through a mall, Chev learns from his underground doctor, Doc Miles, that he needs to keep his adrenaline pumping through constant excitement or artificial adrenaline to stay alive long enough for Miles to arrive and administer a cure.

To keep alive, Chev listens to Achy Breaky Heart at full volume…

… steals drugs from the hospital…

… does some risky stunt riding…

And has sex with Eve in public. He also gets into a whole lot of fights.

Finally, Chev arranges a meeting with Carlito, Verona, and their cronies. Of course, it’s a double cross. But Chev isn’t there alone; he’s backed up by the Chinese because, it turns out, Chev actually spared their leader.

Verona kills Carlito, and escapes in Carlito’s helicopter. High above LA, Chev wrenches Verona from the copter. As they plummet to the ground, Chev snaps Verona’s neck. Then calls Eve. She’s not available so he leaves a message, apologizing that he will not be coming back to her. Then Chev hits the pavement.

THE END
…

Until Crank High Voltage.

Tomorrow: We’ll use this story recap as a springboard into a discussion about the importance of strategic problem-solving.

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Tomorrow: We’ll use this story recap as a springboard into a discussion on the importance of weaving (ha! ha!) a compelling user experience for your product.

< SPOILER WARNING >
Key plotpoints of this goofy, disturbing, heart-breaking movie are pictured below. You have been warned!
< / SPOILER WARNING >

Customs agents discover a 20-foot container filled with human hair–and the body of a missing girl. In the morgue, Yamazaki, the deviant night watchman, discovers that the dead girl is growing hair at an incredible rate. He steals the body and harvests the non-stop hair for extensions which he sells to local salons.

Yuko is an up-and-coming hair stylist at one of these local salons. After a hard day at work, Yuko comes home to discover that her drunken half-sister, Kiyomi, has dumped her eight-year-old daughter, Mami, off at Auntie Yuko’s house–possibly forever.

Which can only be a good thing for Mami, as Yuko quickly deduces that Kiyomi is abusing Mami.

Kiyomi returns for Mami, and Yuko rebuffs her–but not before Kiyomi shatters Yuko’s self-confidence by dredging up painful secrets from the past.

Meanwhile, yes–the haunted hair extensions begin killing unsuspecting women as Yamazaki grows ever more demented–and comes into contact with Mami and Yuko, betraying a very strange attraction to their hair.

Kiyomi eventually kidnaps Mami. Kiyomi accidentally saves Mami by forcing her into a closet–just before the haunted hair extensions attack.

After Mami is released from the hospital into Aunt Yuko’s care, Yuko takes Mami to the salon for a makeover… and weaves (the unknowingly haunted) extensions into the little girl’s hair.

Later, the police arrive at Yuko’s salon, hot on the trail of the serial killer doling out extensions with the exact same DNA. That’s when Yuko realizes her mistake. She hurries home, only to find she’s too late!

Yamazaki kidnaps Yuko and Mami, bringing their unconscious bodies to his apartment… which is completely overrun with hair. When he angrily snips the hair extensions off Mami’s head, Yamazaki is destroyed by the ghost of the dead girl he’s been cannibalizing for hair extensions.

The dead girl finds peace, and Yuko and Mami vow to continue their journey to becoming world-class hairstyles.

THE END

Tomorrow: We’ll use this story recap as a springboard into a discussion on the importance of weaving (*sorry*) a compelling user experience for your product.

New around here? Subscribe to the feed to receive future updates. You can also continue the conversation on Twitter.

Bonus Content

Listen to Yamazaki sing about hair in this disturbing “Music Video Trailer” for Exte: Hair Extensions. Contains spoilers plus some really creepy imagery.

< SPOILER WARNING >
Key plotpoints of this film are pictured below. You have been warned!
< / SPOILER WARNING >

Young Quinn Abercromby visits his mother at work. She’s the chief of a construction crew working on the Underground in London.

Proving that it’s never a good idea to dig TOO far underground, the construction works accidentally awaken an enormous, hibernating dragon which quickly kills everyone except for Quinn.

Over the course of twenty years, dragons (and nuke-happy humans) reduce the earth to a cinder. Quinn grows up to lead a group of survivors who dwell inside a stone castle in Northumberland.

A group of heavily armed Americans charges into town, led by Denton Van Zan. Although they don’t like or trust one another, Quinn and Van Zan agree to pursue the dragon that’s been threatening the castle and killing the crops…

… and cooperate to slay it.

Van Zan wants to recruit Northumberlanders into his army, to attack the only known male dragon. Kill it, and no new dragons can be born. Quinn disagrees. They wrestle. Van Zan wins and takes his army to fight the male dragon. The male dragon incinerates all but Van Zan and two of his soliders, then backtracks their trail and attacks the castle.

Quinn and Van Zan work together to save the people trapped in the castle and hunt down the male dragon.

When Van Zan’s plan is to kill the dragon with an explosive tied to a crossbow bolt fails, he takes a flying leap with an axe at the dragon. It doesn’t go well for Van Zan.

Quinn takes aim with his own explosive-tied-to-a-crossbow-bolt–and kills the dragon dead!

Months later, no new dragons have been reported and the existing dragons have eaten one another. Things are looking good!

THE END

Tomorrow, we see what “Reign Of Fire” can teach us about product management and agile development.