Austin Butler provides a dynamic and gritty efficiency within the crime thriller movie Caught Stealing. Butler performs Henry “Hank” Thompson, a former high-school baseball star turned New York bartender who finds himself mistakenly focused by seemingly the whole late Nineties New York legal underworld. Empathetic, loyal, and refreshingly scared, Butler’s Hank is a distinctly relatable protagonist who, removed from being a one-man killing machine, merely aspires to guard the individuals he cares about and keep alive.
Nevertheless, whereas Butler’s display presence in Caught Stealing, which is predicated on Charlie Huston’s 2004 novel of the identical title, is undeniably magnetic and star-affirming, the truest take a look at of his star high quality is whether or not he can information Caught Stealing to the type of box-office success that may end in at the very least one sequel. By Butler’s compelling presence and Darren Aronofsky’s energetic route, Caught Stealing successfully establishes Hank as a genuinely partaking character whose reluctant anti-hero persona mirrors that of Jack Reacher. Nevertheless, whereas the Jack Reacher franchise at present encompasses 29 novels, there are presently two different Hank Thompson novels which can be obtainable for adaptation.
‘Caught Stealing’ Incorporates a Completely Odd Motion Hero
The best solution to describe Austin Butler’s Hank Thompson in Caught Stealing is that he is the type of man who will fortunately give a stranger the shirt off his again. This benevolent streak reveals up in acts starting from giving cash to a wino sleeping exterior his Decrease East Aspect house to agreeing to babysit the cat of his drug-dealing, Mohawk-loving English punk neighbor.
This latter act of kindness has disastrous repercussions for Hank, who’s attacked and viciously crushed by two Russian hoods on the hunt for his neighbor, Russ, who conveniently fled city. When he awakens in a hospital mattress, the alcoholic Hank discovers that he’s misplaced a kidney to the beating and due to this fact can’t ever drink once more.
At this level, the foundations of the motion style conventions dictate that Caught Stealing will turn out to be an ordinary revenge thriller, by which the previously passive Hank reveals a latent aptitude and proclivity for brutal violence and systematically mows down his cookie-cutter adversaries, very similar to what occurred to Charles Bronson’s architect Paul Kersey within the first Demise Want movie and its varied sequels.
Nevertheless, his action-hero transformation is solely restricted to concern and self-preservation. Removed from turning into a vigilante, Hank realizes that he’ll certainly die except he assists the Russians in getting what they need, which is the possession of a sure key. This dynamic, by which Hank is beholden to the Russian mafia, extends all through Charlie Huston’s Hank Thompson novel trilogy. Furthermore, the one weapon with which Hank has proficiency is a baseball bat, a potent image of a once-promising baseball profession that was tragically reduce brief.
Hank Thompson Cannot Escape the Russian Mob
One of the vital attention-grabbing points of the Jack Reacher movie sequence, together with the Reacher tv sequence, is how a lot these tasks have ignored the chronological order of Lee Baby’s long-running Jack Reacher e-book sequence. The primary Jack Reacher movie is predicated on the novel One Shot, the ninth e-book within the sequence, whereas the sequel, Jack Reacher: By no means Go Again, is predicated on By no means Go Again, the 18th e-book within the sequence. The primary novel, Killing Ground, serves as the idea for the primary season of Reacher, from which the second season is customized from the eleventh e-book within the sequence, Unhealthy Luck and Bother. Then, the third season is customized from Persuader, the seventh e-book within the sequence.
Nevertheless, the choices for a sequel to the movie adaptation of Charlie Huston’s acclaimed 2004 novel Caught Stealing are rather more restricted. That’s, except a sequel is predicated on an unique screenplay, a risk that appears moderately unlikely provided that Huston wrote the script for Caught Stealing. When it comes to Huston’s Hank Thompson novel trilogy, Caught Stealing was adopted by the 2005 publication of the second installment, Six Unhealthy Issues, and the 2006 publication of the third and presently last installment, A Harmful Man, each of which have obtained related acclaim and business success as that of Caught Stealing.
Like Caught Stealing, A Harmful Man and Six Unhealthy Issues each place Hank in proximity to the Russian mafia. Six Unhealthy Issues opens with Hank residing off the grid in Mexico with cash he stole from the Russian mafia, till he’s tracked down by a Russian mobster, who threatens to homicide his dad and mom in California except he returns the stolen cash. In A Harmful Man, down-on-his-luck former baseball prospect Hank, who’s nonetheless indebted to the Russian mafia, is assigned by a Russian mobster to observe over a minor league baseball star who reminds him of his youthful self, by way of the child’s seeming lack of ability to remain out of bother.
Austin Butler Dominates ‘Caught Stealing’
Whichever of the 2 remaining Hank Thompson novels is customized right into a sequel to the movie model of Caught Stealing, assuming that the box-office efficiency warrants a sequel, a Hank Thompson movie sequence is solely depending on Austin Butler. His charismatic and weak efficiency in Caught Stealing has enabled him to fully transcend his Oscar-nominated efficiency as Elvis Presley in Elvis.
That Butler registers so strongly all through Caught Stealing is very spectacular provided that Hank is regularly surrounded by a gallery of colourful supporting characters, led by a spirited cat named Bud, performed brilliantly by Tonic the cat, who could be the unquestioned scene-stealing star of Caught Stealing with out Butler’s commanding presence. With Bud at his facet, Hank transforms from a relatable loser to an unsure and untrained hero who’s keen to place the lifetime of a cat forward of his personal. Caught Stealing is now taking part in in theaters.
Caught Stealing
- Launch Date
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August 29, 2025
- Director
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Darren Aronofsky
- Writers
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charlie huston
- Producers
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Ari Handel, Jeremy Dawson