In the Blood (2014 film)

In the Blood
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	John Stockwell
Screenplay by	James Robert Johnston Bennett Yellin
Starring	Gina Carano Cam Gigandet Danny Trejo Amaury Nolasco
Music by	Paul Haslinger
Cinematography	P. J. López
Edited by	Lucas Eskin Doug Walker
Production company	20th Century Fox Home Entertainment
Distributed by	Anchor Bay Films Freestyle Releasing
Release dates	April 4, 2014 (2014-04-04)
Running time	90 minutes
Country	United States, Puerto Rico
Language	English
Box office	$51,279

In the Blood is a 2014 American action film directed by John Stockwell. The plot revolves around young woman called Ava who searches for her abducted husband.

Plot

Ava, is a woman from Bridgeport Connecticut with incredible fighting prowess and a dark past. She lived with her outlaw father who taught her how to fight and all of the tricks of the trade and more importantly, to never be a victim. One night, her father is murdered by two hit men. Ava quickly kills both of them in retaliation.

The film skips several years ahead to Ava's wedding where she is getting married to Derek Grant, a former narcotics user whom she met at a needle exchange. While most people in the family accept Ava, Derek's father shows some disapproval given the fact that Derek knows little about her and the circumstances of how they met. Derek sternly tells him that he credits Ava for helping him get clean and that he loves her.

Ava and Derek later go on their honeymoon to an island off the coast of Puerto Rico. After having the time of their lives together, they are approached by a local named Manny who invites them to the island's main attraction on the zip lines on the next day. Afterwards, he invites them to a local night club to which the pair reluctantly agree to go. While there, Ava attracts the attention of a local criminal named Big Biz who wants to dance with her. When Ava tries to go back to Derek, Big Biz gets more aggressive prompting Derek to intervene. When Big Biz hits Derek, Ava becomes enraged and knocks him down which starts a huge brawl with his thugs. Ava expertly and easily beats them down. Manny helps them get out of the club and drive away in a taxi back to their beach house with both Manny and Derek questioning Ava on how she could fight so well. In the meantime, the boss of the island's criminal underworld Silvio Lugo witnesses the fight on the security camera and scolds Big Biz for drawing attention to the club and warns him to never let it happen again.

The next day, Manny comes over to Derek's and Ava's beach house to tell them that Big Biz is looking for them but it turns out he was only joking. After convincing the pair to come to the zip line, everything seems to go better as they all have fun. However, when it is Derek's turn to go on another zip line, his safety equipment tears while halfway through the zip line. While Derek is hanging on for dear life, Manny comes to rescue him. Despite Manny's efforts, Derek loses his grip and falls for thousands of feet as everyone looks on in horror. While an ambulance is being called by the zip line's manager JoJo, Ava rushes down to the gorge to find Derek. She finds him miraculously still alive but horribly injured. When the ambulance arrives to take him to the hospital, the EMT's don't allow Ava to ride in the ambulance. Ava tries to follow them on a motorcycle but eventually loses track of them. When she arrives at the hospital however, the staff claims that they haven't seen nor heard of Derek and when Ava goes to other hospitals on the island looking for Derek she gets the same answer. In desperation, she notifies Derek's family and goes to the local police station.

Derek's family fly in the very next day. They all go to the police station and speak with the chief of police Ramon Garza who after looking at all hospital records tells them that Derek was never admitted into any clinic or hospital on the island. Ava and her family along with Garza go to the zip line and confront the manager JoJo who denies any wrong doing. Back at the police station, Garza shows to be incompetent at his job and Ava takes it upon herself and Derek's family to look for Derek, hanging missing person's flyers of Derek as well as sketches of the two EMT's. Derek's disappearance also makes it to the news. Back at the beach house, Derek's father starts an argument with Ava accusing her of holding out some information on what really went down and having something to do with Derek's disappearance.

The next day, Derek's family leaves the island and Ava decides to solve Derek's disappearance by any means. She goes to the zip line and pulls JoJo out onto the zip line with her and threatens to drop him. She records JoJo's confession on video and it is revealed that it was Manny who actually called the ambulance and told JoJo to keep all of this quiet. She gives this new found evidence to Garza. Garza does not take kindly to the fact that Ava violently got a confession out of JoJo and has her arrested. Garza tells her she will be taken back to Puerto Rico and is no longer welcome on the island.

On the ferry, Ava easily overpowers her guard and swims back to shore. Later on in the night, she goes to another local club and finds Manny. Ambushing him in the men's restroom, she tortures him for information on Derek. Manny reveals that he is on the island illegally and if he talked to the cops he was going to get sent back as he has an ailing mother to take care of. It is also revealed that when Manny had called the ambulance, someone else had already called and that the EMT's are part of a neighborhood gang known as "Tierra Sindicato", one of the most dangerous neighborhoods on the island. Manny promises to help Ava as long as she follows all of his instructions.

Manny brings her to the Tierra Sindicato neighborhood and the evidence leads to a cock fighting match where Ava finds one of the EMT's. She follows him and subdues him. Ava takes him to an abandoned building and gruesomely tortures him by puncturing his vital organs with a pen. The EMT reveals that the fellow EMT is his brother whom knows more about Derek's disappearance than he does. Using his phone, Ava texts his brother to come to their location where Ava ambushes him. However, he resists Ava and in a brief furious struggle, Ava ends up shooting and killing him with his own gun.

Ava is arrested and Garza has her taken away to headquarters for interrogation as everyone seems to think that Ava is responsible for Derek's disappearance. However, it becomes clear that Garza wants Ava killed as the officers transporting Ava take her to a desolate spot and begin digging a hole. Ava breaks free of her handcuffs and kills the officers. Ava finds her way into Garza's house and threatens to kill his sleeping daughter if he does not start giving her information on why he tried to do away with her. Garza tearfully admits that the doctor that operated on Derek was owed a favor and during the operation, the doctor made a mistake that ended up killing Derek. The doctor begged Garza to cover it up, making it seem like Derek never made it to the clinic at all. Otherwise the Americans would have the clinic shut down. Furious at having been lied to this whole time, she kills Garza. She tearfully goes back to Manny's house who comforts her. Manny feeling guilty agrees to help Ava get revenge on all of the people involved in Derek's death.

The next day, Ava goes to the clinic where the doctor who operated on Derek works. After incapacitating a nurse, she sneaks in and violently confronts the doctor on what happened to Derek. The doctor surprises Ava by showing her via security camera that the criminal boss Silvio Lugo is on his way with a visibly injured Derek in tow. Posing as the doctor's assistant, it is revealed that Silvio suffers from Multiple Myeloma which requires stem cell transfusions from bone marrow and Derek just happened to be a perfect match. During the operation, Ava pulls out a gun and disarms Silvio's crew and rushes Derek out of the room. Silvio calls reinforcements and Ava shoots her way outside with Derek's help killing many of Silvio's men. Silvio joins the shootout and is incapacitated by Ava and used as a human shield to help Ava and Derek get away. During the car ride, Silvio taunts Ava on how they have nowhere to run as this is his island where he controls everything. Derek shoots him in the leg causing Silvio to leap out of the car. A car chase ensues where Manny has set up local people to point out directions to Ava and sabotage Silvio and his thug's chase.

Manny guides Ava and Derek to a nearby village to hide. However, Silvio arrives with more thugs and corrupt officers by his side who scatter in search for Ava and Derek. One by one, Ava and Derek incapacitate the thugs which is also made easier with the residents refusing to cooperate with Silvio. As the number of thugs dwindle, Silvio ends up finding Ava which leads to a savage brawl between the two which draws the neighborhood to witness. Silvio pulls out a knife and manages to cut Ava a few times but nevertheless is overpowered. As Ava gains possession of the knife, she prepares to kill Silvio and is egged on by the crowd to do it. before she can, she is stopped by Big Biz. Big Biz goes on a rant against Silvio on how tourists being kidnapped on the island is bad for their business as they need tourists to spend their money on prostitutes and gambling. He takes the knife away from Ava and slits Silvio's throat. He orders the cops to let Ava and Derek go and proclaims to the residents in attendance that the island will become a better place under him.

Manny gets Ava and Derek to a boat that will take them to Puerto Rico. Both Ava and Derek thank Manny for everything. As they leave on the boat, Manny calls out jokingly to them to come back soon and that he misses them already. Ava and Derek hug unto each other as they contemplate where the future will take them from there.

Reception

On Rotten Tomatoes the film holds a 41% approval rating based on 39 reviews. Brian Tallerico from Rogerebert.com gave the film one star out of four, writing that the "film history is filled with xenophobic tales of pretty Americans who disappear in foreign lands and the pretty people tasked with finding them".

External links

• In the Blood at IMDb
• In the Blood at AllMovie
• In the Blood at Rotten Tomatoes