A Man of Action Ending Explained: Based on true events, “A Man of Action” follows an anarchist bricklayer as he takes on the major banks in a Robin Hood-Esque quest for justice.
A Man of Action Plot
The events of “A Man of Action” begin in 1962 at an airport, when a couple is hiding from the police while carrying a large amount of cash in a suitcase. In order to distract the cops who are closing in on them from all sides, they produce large sums of money and toss them into the air.
The film then flashes back 20 years to explore the turbulent upbringing of the man, Lucio Urtubia. When a teen Lucio goes to the bank and seeks for a loan to help rescue his dying father, he receives no support and is forced to see his ailing father pass away.
His sister has already moved to Paris, but he must first complete his military service. After eluding the military for ten years, Lucio eventually makes it to Paris, where he finds work in the construction industry.
Soon, Lucio finds the local anarchist movement connecting with his own anti-order/anti-authority ideals. He quickly finds himself becoming a full-fledged anarchist and propagating the ideology by distributing fliers.
The union isn’t in a position to turn it over to the government in any significant way. The well-known anarchist Quico Sabaté influences Lucio to take his anarchist project to the next level by suggesting they loot banks.
Even though Lucio makes several mistakes during their first robbery, he eventually agrees, and the two of them pull off their first heist. Soon, they get the process down more efficiently while the police get on his track.
As Sabaté prepares to leave for Spain to fight the fascists, Lucio will have to put an end to the robberies and say goodbye to him. During this time, Lucio, along with his brother-in-law Patrick, Arturiano, and Petite Jeanne, formed a small but influential faction within the anarchist movement (a printer).
The revolutionary biology student Anne meets the anarchist and future lover Lucio by chance. With the help of Anne and others, Lucio establishes a dollar counterfeiting operation and cashes the phony ones for real money.
However, he’d later get arrested and sentenced to some time in prison. He saves Charlie lvarez from an assault from another inmate and the two become fast friends in prison.
Unhappy in prison, Lucio would be granted conditional parole so that he could meet his newborn daughter Anne, Juliette. While he ceased producing fake currency at that point, he did eventually find another means of reprisal against financial institutions.
It’s done with the trendy new traveler’s checks that are often hailed as the wave of the financial future. In a coordinated effort with other anarchists, Lucio decides to print thousands of these checks and pulls off a massive fraud, putting City Bank in a dangerous financial bind.
Through his arrangement with the American bank, he avoids serving at least 12 years in prison and helps his fellow anarchists by securing a bag of weapons.
To Whom Does Lucio Turn His Back?
A Man of Action Ending Explained: As expected, Lucio’s attempt at check forgery backfires. It would take a significant amount of time and work to cash in all of those checks.
Patrick thinks they should just retire, but Lucio has the bright idea of selling the checks in bulk to a big investor. With the help of Charlie Álvarez, his former prison companion whom he saved the life of and became friends with, Lucio and Arturio meet an American buyer named Tony Greco.
However, before the exchange of cash and checks, Lucio falls victim to the setup and is arrested. During his trial, Lucio meets with his lawyer Thierry who finds out and tells him how he was betrayed by one of his own.
In the past, Thierry had told him that Patrick, Lucio’s sister’s spouse, was the only member of his squad to go missing before the authorities rounded them up. Because of this, Lucio blamed Patrick for betraying him.
Near the end of “A Man of Action,” however, Thierry discloses that Tony Greco was an undercover policeman and that Charlie lvarez betrayed him.
He says he agreed to an agreement to have Lucio detained in exchange for $10,000 and a flight to Buenos Aires because the police threatened him with a 20-year sentence. Since Tony Greco and Charlie lvarez were working together with the authorities, he would never be able to cash in all those cheques.
With Which City Bank Institution Does Lucio Negotiate?
A Man of Action Ending Explained: In exchange for the Bank dismissing all accusations against him and also paying him some lovely, small recompense for all the inconvenience he’s undergone, Lucio has offered to hand over all of the printing plates he’s used to print the traveler checks to Barrow, the City Bank representative.
Even though Barrow initially baulked at this ridiculous agreement, he soon came to accept the terms after Lucio convinced him of the disastrous impact his still-in-circulation checks and still-in-use printing facility would have on City Bank’s finances and reputation.
In exchange for dropping all accusations against Lucio, Barrow promises to pay him an undisclosed sum of money.
At the conclusion of “A Man of Action,” Lucio takes the money bag and, along with Arturiano and Petite Jeanne, celebrates the triumph of the flea over the elephant.
Will Lucio and Anne and Juliette Get Back Together?
A Man of Action Ending Explained: And sure enough, the “Basque Fox” himself, Lucio, boards a plane to Tacacoma, Bolivia, to be with his family again. Lucio finally meets Juliette and Anne, albeit late on his promise.
He tells Anne that he will help her out as much as possible in the construction industry and with her social work. The family is reunited and continues to live together, but their happiness is bittersweet.
It is shown in the film’s closing credits that despite their separation, Lucio and Anne remained close friends throughout the remainder of their lives, despite their initial disappointment at the prospect of living apart.