I walked through the aftermath of the fentanyl cloud, searching for Edwige, my kangaroo companion from my misadventures in North America.

I feared for the worst as I came upon the bodies of the Goose Lord Gang, littered across the marina.

A figure slumped toward me. It was the Goose Lord. Whatever was left of him had murder on the brain.

— To be continued. 

Tonight’s movie is 2023’s Hypnotic from director Robert Rodriguez. It’s a movie with stuff that happens like explosions and shooting. Ben Affleck plays Detective Danny Rourke of the Austin P.D. and we begin this motion picture with his recalling the abduction of his 9 year-old daughter to his therapist. After the session, it’s off to stop a bank robbery from a tip his department received. A mysterious stranger dressed in a suit seemingly has the power of hypnosis and can force his will upon people with mere words.

Yes, this is another movie about the power of the mind. It’s not so different from Scanners as this movie features a number of individuals with psionic powers. The mysterious stranger is named Dellrayne (William Fichtner) and he can even suggest that police officers aid him with his nefarious deeds or simply shoot each other. But there is one man who can’t bend to his will. Yes, it’s Detective Danny Rourke.

Rourke seeks out a mystic named Diana Cruz (Alice Braga) and she explains to him about people in the world called Hypotics, a secret group of hypnotists trained by the government. Obviously, this Dellrayne character has it in for Rourke now that he knows he’s immune to his hypnotism powers. Lucky for Rourke, Cruz also has hypnosis powers. A chase ensues and Rourke and Cruz flee to Mexico. Dellrayne follows them and manages to convince a mob to kill them with his hypnosis powers. But Rourke manages to use his own hypnosis blocking powers to turn the crowd on Dellrayne allowing them to flee.

Rourke and Cruz find River (Dayo Okeniyi) , some kind of super hacker who can help the two of them lay low while offering them homemade Mountain Dew. But then we learn that this whole movie up until this point has been a complete sham. It turns out Dellrayne, Cruz, and River all work for the Division, a shadow government organization made up of hypnotics. They’ve all been using their psionic powers on Rourke to make him think he’s a detective stumbling into the world of hypnotics.

All the Division wants to know is the whereabouts of his daughter and these repeated scenarios are just them trying to get to the truth. Of course, it turns out Rourke’s daughter is the most powerful hypnotic of them all. Also, Cruz is Rourke’s wife and mother of their child, but the Division reconditioned her to be evil or something.

Frankly, there’s an old expression called “flipping the script” and that’s exactly what has happened in this movie. Guess what? That script will be flipped again before the credits roll.

Jeff Shuster (episode 47, episode 102, episode 124, episode 131, episode 284, episode 441, episode 442, episode 443, episode 444, episode 450, episode 477, episode 491, episode 492, episode 493, episode 495, episode 496, episode 545, episode 546, episode 547, episode 548, episode 549, episode 575, episode 596, episode 597, episode 598, episode 599, episode 642, episode 643, episode 644, episode 645, episode 670, episode 686, episode 687,  688, and 689) is an MFA graduate from the University of Central Florida.