Wow. I don't even know where to start on this movie, except to say it hit me like a train. On one hand, it's extremely violent and becomes more graphic as it continues. But somehow in all the mess of blood and death, it masterfully addresses some huge themes. This film did NOT get the credit it deserved for the development of theme, but lost points in the public eye because of the twist ending. Not for me. The ending simply hammered in the point of the movie in a way that I will never forget.

SPOILER WARNING - I do get into the details of this film for the sake of analysis, so be warned.

The overriding theme is buried within the opening lines: "I never could understand how something could be both dead and alive at the same time." Remy, a man who repossesses organs for a living, is talking about the paradox of Schrodinger's Cat. In theory, a cat trapped in a box with a fatal poison that could be released at any time is both dead and alive at the same time. The fact that it could die anytime renders it already dead. And yet, it may still live for a while before the poison releases. Remy makes the connection later in the movie that what matters most is how the cat behaves while it is in the box. Does it give up? Does it scratch and claw its way out? Does it even realize it will die soon?

This theme is first played out on a cognitive level as Remy does his repos. Technically, the victimized clients are behind on payments, so the organs could be repossessed at any time. The client may live for a while, but only until The Union (the company that sold them the organ) catches up with them. Thus they are the cat in the box, both alive and dead at the same time.

When Remy gets shocked by a faulty defibrillator, his family and friends install a Union heart in him. With death as the only alternative, he accepts it. As he says, "Everybody signs." But being "owned" by The Union awakens him, and he now knows what it is like to be the kind of person he has spent his life killing. The theme gets personal as Remy is forced to understand how the paradox works.

Remy had once been emotionally and spiritually dead—killing mercilessly, never thinking that the people's lives had any value beyond providing him a paycheck. Then suddenly, Remy comes alive—alive with the understanding that life has value. This heart exchange in him (physically and spiritually) makes it impossible for him to repo organs anymore. Of course, he then gets behind on his payments and himself becomes Schrodinger's cat (on two levels now!). Physically, he moves from alive to dead, but spiritually, he moves from dead to alive.

The theme takes another even deeper dive when the twist ending is revealed. At the midpoint of the movie, Remy decides that if he really is the cat, then it's better to scratch and claw his way out than to sit complacently waiting for death. He sets out to destroy The Union with his friend Beth and abandons everything (job, family, best friend) for a higher calling. Ultimately, he accomplishes the task, to our great satisfaction.We hate the Union and all that it stands for—justice without mercy. Pay or die. We love mercy, and even if the sequences that accomplish the Union's destruction are cheesy and unlikely, we are glad to see The Union go.

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