Redaxes
Released by Walt Disney Pictures on June 2, 2006
NOTE:
Special thanks to
@QTXAdsy who submitted the voice cast and plot summary below last September.
Set in Northumbria during the 1870's of the Second Industrial revolution, a bounty hunter duo known by their second name as the 'Redaxes' are out trying to make a living a unruly land with nowhere to call home. They are a brother and sister named Aiden (Ewan McGregor), a snarky 26-year-old musket slinging master, and his younger sister is called Julia (Billie Piper), a spunky 19-year-old who much like her brother is a master shooter with a musket. When they are giving a bounty from an unknown source simply by a person known by the initials as 'H.O.', who is offering them £2000 if they can capture the somewhat naïve and young 20-year-old future Duke of Northumbria, William (Andrew Garfield) and bring him to the back of a pub in Bamburgh known as the Red Bull and hand him over there. They capture him and explain to him that it's nothing personal and it’s just business. In shock and with nowhere to go, William has to go along as their hostage with no idea what is planned for him as they take him to the Red Bull. However upon arriving they are ambushed by some a group of rifle men led by a wealthy coal baron by the name of Hugo Oswin (Willem Dafoe) and that the so called bounty placed on William's head was nothing but a hoax and instead was a set up in order to get the siblings captured all due to a past mission that went horribly wrong and that Hugo is out for revenge. Following this twist, a battle takes place in which Aiden and Stacy both are defeated are taking in by Oswin who plans to have them executed at dawn. When William asks if he can leave, he is shocked when Hugo says that he is also part of a bargaining chip in order for his family to give up their title and hand it over to Hugo, so he adds their lands to his growing empire and is to be imprisoned along with the Redaxes.
That night, the three of them are in held in a short dead end mine that they are locked in until dawn and despite his anger of being stuck with them, he understands that neither of the siblings are to blame and that they were simply duped and wishes he could do something to help. However, it is in there in which William discovers there is a slight opening in the ceiling and after prying it open with one of the muskets, he finds a way out for them and they make their escape though they are quickly spotted by one of the guards and another gunfight happens in the mine complex. Aiden gives William a musket to use, though William says he's never used one and doesn't know how to, frustrated by this, Aiden bemoans that they should just dump him here and make their escape, though Julia insists that they should take him as they might get a reward for saving him and after a drawn out battle while making their escape, they eventually get away from Hugo's mining complex and find their way back to William's home in which the Redaxes encounter William's parents, Harry (David Jason) and Louise (Joanna Lumley), the Duke and Duchess of Northumbria.
Despite the awkward first encounter due to the fact that the siblings had to abduct William as part of a bounty and with Harry even going as to order for Aiden and Julia to be imprisoned, but William explains about how they helped him to escape and how it was all a hoax, they are eventually willing to forgive the siblings mainly at the fact that their son is still alive. As part of their thanks, Aiden and Julia allowed to spend the week with them in their mansion to recover and after William tells them that Hugo might be out there to get them, the Duke and Duchess order a search to capture him for his actions. With the siblings staying at their stately home, William does though start to get to know them a bit better and mostly with Julia in which the two do seem to hit it off very well, even teaching him how to fire a musket and even starts calling him as 'Willy' as an affectionate nickname, though Aiden is annoyed by this as he thinks it's not worth to form any attachment to him as things will be back to normal soon.
The efforts across Northumbria to search for Hugo Oswin and his whereabouts have all come up with nothing as he has seemly disappeared without a trace, however in that time he has acquired a large ship that is stationed some 10 miles away from the coast and is plotting his revenge to wipe out the Northumbrian Nobility and take over the land. But to find news about what is going on, he sends a spy over to the mainland called Jimmy Smith (Hugh Laurie) a somewhat reluctant spy who forced to do it in fear of his life and is giving the task to try and see what has been going on. He soon finds the location and first discovers Julia and William out in the large garden during a shooting range practice with a musket and by now William has started to become a decent shooter while William also shows off her sword fighting skills which he has learnt since he was young. Impressed with him being a quick learning on the musket and his sword skills, Julia says to William that he could run off and join her and Aiden on their adventures, in which William admits that he doesn't know if he'd fit in with them but does say he enjoys Julia's company. After William leaves to return to the mansion, Julia stays behind and starts to think about her budding friendship with William and Jimmy starts to realise that she is starting to have feelings for the future Duke and gives the information back to Hugo if this will help. Hugo in turn is delighted at such a notion and plans to use this to his advantage. A few days later, the Duke and Duchess start to also notice that their son and Julia have gotten quite close and even think that that William might have a potential bride, though William rubbishes off such an idea that they have just met and more so with Aiden who tries to convince Julia that they have to leave and go out for any future missions.
It is then however Julia who is the first to ask out William for a date and despite his surprise at this, he agrees if it helps him to enjoy the countryside. The following day, the two of them enjoy their time out in the countryside and in the nearby town, in which they end up in a local pub and Julia stuns William by downing 10 pints without breaking a sweat and even wins a drinking contest with a unruly guy trying to chat her up. Despite all this William is relieved to actually enjoy himself without the worries of the life he has and it is here that the two of them end up finding themselves getting closer and towards the end of the night, find themselves confessing to each other about how they feel, though they decide not to tell anyone just yet about their news.
During all of this time however, Aiden decides to get some air to clear his head and has done a minor bounty for a local farm. On his way back however he is ambushed by Hugo with Jimmy alongside him and despite Aiden trying to defend himself Hugo's guards manage to hold him down. Hugo makes the rather strange offer that he is willing to put all past things behind them if Aiden can bring William and his parents in return for Julia to stay with Aiden, so they can return to their bounty hunting days. At first Aiden is conflicted by this, but wishing to return to what he loves best, he accepts and arranges a plan. The following day, Aiden invites William for a walk towards the coast for what he claims as bonding as a way of making it up to him, though Julia is suspicious of this due to his brother's previously cold attitude towards William and follows them without them noticing this.
It is then on the beach in which the two men stop and watch the horizon, unaware of Hugo's forces taking cover in some nearby rocks waiting for their moment to strike. William then makes a confession to Aiden about his feelings for Julia and if he could have Aiden's permission for them to be together. Oddly despite how Aiden has felt about his sister getting into a relation, he is conflicted about how he should respond to this but before he has a chance to say anything, Hugo's forces come from their hiding spots and capture William, even with Julia coming out and trying to help but can do nothing about it. Aiden then confesses what this whole walk was about and Julia is furious about what he's done and even though Hugo's forces leave with William with Julia staying with Aiden as promised, though Jimmy decides to stay behind due to him feeling sorry for Julia and having never really liked Hugo to begin with.
The two siblings get into a major argument with Julia confirming that she and William have feelings for each other and Aiden's excuse that he wanted her to be safe and have things the way they were in order for her to be happy. However both Julia and Jimmy chew out Aiden saying that if he really cares for his sister then he would let her choose her own path and as they watch helplessly as William is taking off shore towards the rest of Hugo's fleet, Julia breaks down that the love of her life is gone and Aiden now realises how horrible he's been and tells her to return to the mansion to warn Harry and Louise about what has happened so they can organise a rescue mission and they promptly make chase back.
When they do arrive though, they are shocked to see that mansion has firebombed and Aiden realises that as part of the original plan, it would seem that Hugo has captured the Duke and Duchess and have gone out along with their son. Aiden and Julia then return to the coast where they commandeer a boat thanks to Jimmy who knows where to find a spare one and they row out towards the trapped family. Out there on one of the ships, Hugo is forcing the Duke and Duchess to sign a binding forum that will effectively see them abdicate and hand over their lands to Hugo in the presence of captured nobles who has brought along forcefully to act as witnesses to the signing. While Harry tries to reason with Hugo over a deal to try and put this all behind them, William then see's out in the distance a small boat containing the two siblings and Jimmy and tries to help stall time by calling out saying he think he spies Royal Navy boats coming their way and this causes those on board to panic to try and look out for them. When they do see nothing and see what William has been trying to do, Hugo lets his frustrations out on William and begins to strangle him round his neck trying to choke him to death in order to get Harry and Louise to sign the treaty.
However, this stalling tactic is just all the time that Aiden and Julia have needed to sneak up on deck and announce their arrival when Julia shoots at Hugo's hands while he's strangling William and from then on, Hugo orders his troops to fight them off and a large battle follows on deck as the Redaxes do their best to fend off the overwhelming forces on deck while Jimmy does his part to help the Northumbrian nobles to safety, though William insists that he wants to help the Redaxes and despite protests from his parents, he tells them that he loves Julia and will not lose her like this. Hearing their son's words, they say they bid him well and hope he'll be save as they leave with the other previously captured nobles. It is here that William shows of his sword skills that captures Aiden's eye as now the group of three battle hard to stay alive, though during all of this, Hugo, despite the injuries to his hands, has been trying to escape on one of the lifeboats though Aiden see's this and tries to stop him from escaping.
Due to the amount of musket firing going about, all of this all leads to parts of the ship catching fire and pretty soon the entire ship begins to catch ablaze and many on board begin to jump ship. It is one board however while Aiden and Hugo and fighting it out in the life boat in a furious fist fight that Julia and William reunite and kiss to express their happiness of finding each other, though their tender moment is cut short when they see the life boat that has Aiden and Hugo in it falls from it's cables and tumbles down capsizing and now has the two men trying to drown each other despite parts of the ship now starting to fall around them. It is then Julia has an idea and see's the large mast of the ship that is slowly falling on it's side due to the base being burnt and seeing where it might land on her brother and Hugo, she quickly tells William to start cutting down the mast with his sword in the direction of the brawl in the water.
William does his best to try and cut it down as Julia tries to help her brother by aiming at Hugo's head but can't get a clear aim due to the two men constantly moving about. It is then that William after much effort manages just get the mast to fall on it's side and seeing this, Julia yells at her brother to get out of the way and notices it coming down and only by the skin of his teeth gets away while Hugo is not so lucky and is too late with the thick beam coming down on him and killing him instantly. Then after much scrambling to find something to float on, the three of them escape to meet up with Harry and Louise and head back to the coast.
It is when they return that Aiden discovers just how much his sister and William really care for each other and the previously snarky man apologises for his actions leading to this and even Harry and Louise accept his apology and to make up for what he has done, Aiden then allows permission for Julia to be with William and it is then the happy couple can be finally together. Eventually William and Julia are married, though the film ends on a somewhat bittersweet note with Aiden, despite being allowed to return anytime he wants, he decides to carry on being a bounty hunter and leaves to carry on with his life, knowing that his little sister is safe.
Voice Cast
Ewan McGregor - Aiden Redaxe
Billie Piper - Julia Redaxe
Andrew Garfield - William
Willem Dafoe - Hugo Oswin
David Jason - Harry, the Duke
Joanna Lumley - Louise, the Duchess
Hugh Laurie - Jimmy the Spy
The World Premiere for Redaxes was held once again at Edinburgh's Murrayfield, which has become something of a good luck charm for Disney's British openings.
It was also the very first to feature a new Disney logo created by Weta Digital:
