Repo Man

"It’s 4 a.m. Do you know where your car is?"

1984 1h 32m EN

👍

6.6

SOLID

★6.6TMDB · 718

ComedyScience Fiction

Synopsis

Spoiler shield

A down and out young punk gets a job working with a seasoned repo man, but what awaits him in his new career is a series of outlandish adventures revolving around aliens, the CIA, and a most wanted '64 Chevy.

“It’s 4 a.m. Do you know where your car is?”

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Cast

Emilio Estevez
Otto Maddox
Harry Dean Stanton
Bud
Tracey Walter
Miller
Olivia Barash
Leila
Sy Richardson
Lite
Susan Barnes
Agent Rogersz
Fox Harris
J. Frank Parnell
Tom Finnegan
Oly

Credits

Behind the camera

Director: Alex Cox
Writers: Alex Cox
Languages: English, Spanish
Countries: United States of America

Want more? Switch to Cinephile mode in the header for DP, composer, budget, box office, production companies, keywords, and release history.

Did you know?

Fun facts 🍿

1 / 8

MONEY

Did you know

Shot for just $1.5M — micro-budget by Hollywood standards.

MoodPlayr · trivia#01

2 / 8

ERA

Did you know

42 years old — old enough to be someone's favourite childhood film.

MoodPlayr · trivia#02

3 / 8

WORLD

Did you know

Dialogue crosses 2 languages: English, Spanish.

MoodPlayr · trivia#03

4 / 8

CINEMA

Did you know

Part of the "The Repo Collection" — so the characters or world continue elsewhere.

MoodPlayr · trivia#04

5 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Directed by Alex Cox, shot by Robby Müller. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.

MoodPlayr · trivia#05

6 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Original score by Steven Hufsteter. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.

MoodPlayr · trivia#06

7 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Editor Dennis Dolan shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.

MoodPlayr · trivia#07

8 / 8

CAST

Did you know

Emilio Estevez and Harry Dean Stanton and Tracey Walter carry the top of the cast.

MoodPlayr · trivia#08

Cinephile deep dive

The take

Alex Cox directs. Robby Müller behind the camera. Steven Hufsteter scores. Dennis Dolan cuts. Runs lean at under 100 minutes. Profitable at the box office. Produced in United States of America. Dialogue in English, Spanish.

Trivia

Things worth knowing

1Shot for just $1.5M — micro-budget by Hollywood standards.
242 years old — old enough to be someone's favourite childhood film.
3Dialogue crosses 2 languages: English, Spanish.
4Part of the "The Repo Collection" — so the characters or world continue elsewhere.
5Directed by Alex Cox, shot by Robby Müller. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.
6Original score by Steven Hufsteter. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.
7Editor Dennis Dolan shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.
8Emilio Estevez and Harry Dean Stanton and Tracey Walter carry the top of the cast.
9Marketing tagline: "It’s 4 a.m. Do you know where your car is?".
10IMDB entry: tt0087995 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.
11Classified under 22 themes, including "police", "capitalism", "dark comedy", "punk rock".
12Released under 13 different titles around the world.

The technical file

Cinematography: Robby Müller
Original score: Steven Hufsteter
Editing: Dennis Dolan
Production design: Lynda Burbank
Makeup / hair: Sharon Francis
Sound: Michael Minkler
Stunt coordinator: Eddie Hice
Runtime: 92 min · 1h 32m
Aspect ratio (typical): 1.37:1 (Academy)
Status: Released
Budget: $1,500,000
Box office: $2,300,000
Return: 153% of budget
Original language: EN
Certification (US): R
IMDB: Repo Man (1984)

Part of

The Repo Collection

The Alex Cox Repo movies

Also by

Alex Cox

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Community reviews

What people are saying

John Chard2015-04-19
★ 9/10
It happens sometimes. People just explode. Natural causes. Repo Man has become one of those films where even though it was savaged by many critics of the time (not Ebert, he loved it), was met with very poor box office as well, but now everyone seems to shout that they loved it back then, always have! It is the very definition of a "cult movie", a pic that went underground and found its audience, so much so it burst back above ground and today is still being discovered by an ever intrigued movie loving audience. Repo Man was one of a kind, a film that refused to be pigeon holed, a true original. Story for what it's worth has Emilio Estevez as L.A. punk Otto Maddox who gets bluffed into a repo man job. Taken under the wing of Bud (Harry Dean Stanton), Otto gets to become a fully fledged repo man, taking on all the perks and dangers that come with the territory. But when a mysterious 1964 Chevy Malibu arrives on the patch, all bets seem to be off because everyone is either after it or being disintegrated by it! The life of a repo man is always intense. OK! Where to start? Offbeat, eccentric, punk, funky, funny, smart? Repo Man is all those things, it dares to be bold and challenging, its satirical edges slicing away at film genres and American societies. Director Alex Cox (how wonderful that such an American film is directed by a British guy) fills out this scuzzy part of L.A. with hippies, freaks, punks, aliens, scientist nutters, UFO nutters, effeminate coppers and the repo men themselves, a bunch of grizzled souls hardened by life's travails, but always with a quip, a smile and a gunshot at the ready. The dialogue fizzes with cheeky derring-do, some lines even today still quotable and used in pubs and clubs across the continents. Robby Muller's cinematography has snap crackle and pop, as does the rocking soundtrack as Cox invites the likes of Iggy Pop, The Circle Jerks, Black Flag and The Plugz into his weird and wonderful world. Performances are bang on the dollar, Stanton the class act, Estevez superb, Tracey Walter proving what his fans already knew, that he's a legendary character actor. From an opening involving a pair of smoking boots, to the glowing sci-fi nirvana finale, Repo Man kicks ass. One viewing is never enough, and for sure there are those who have seen it once and hate it to the point of refusing to ever watch it again. That's a shame, because repeat viewings are essential, because the more you watch the more Cox's deliriously cheeky movie makes sense. 9/10

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