A Man Of Action Plot Synopsis
Loosely inspired by the life of Lucio Urtubia, the movie explores the history of this enigmatic Spanish anarchist, a man who pulled off a legendary counterfeiting operation in Paris. With fake Traveler’s Cheques handed out, America’s biggest bank – City Bank – cast their gaze on Lucio and attempted to take him down. Before any of this takes place though, the movie spends a considerable amount of time introducing Lucio and his backstory, beginning back in the 40’s with Lucio’s upbringing and just why he hates the system so much. After the death of his father, Lucio is eventually introduced to Quico, a charismatic Anarchist who teaches him the tricks of the trade, along with a crucial bit of advice – never trust a stranger.
What is Lucio’s plan?
After an earlier plan involving counterfeit notes, Lucio comes up with an ingenious plan to counterfeit Traveler’s Cheques instead. After managing to dupe the Teller, Lucio has big plans to hit the banks hard. The team decide to each take on a different bank and hit at 12pm simultaneously. That way when the Tellers are checking the serial numbers, they won’t realize that there’s anything awry. When the cheques eventually make it to HQ and they realize they’ve been duped, it’ll be too late as Lucio and the Anarchists would have already taken off with the money, distributing it to who really needs it. If everything works, they can do it again every month. After the plan is a success, Mr Barrow is sent to Paris on behalf of City Bank to sort this out, grilling Inspector Costello who immediately suspects Lucio is the one responsible. Costello has a tail put on him, while Lucio’s partner Anne tells her husband to think of their daughter, Juliette, before he does anything stupid. After all, if he makes a mistake, hell be put behind bars. Everyone sees Lucio’s bigger plan – to transfer over 1 million traveler’s cheques – as too risky and bail out. Lucio refuses, loses his tail that Costello planted on him, and prepares for the big job. During the meet with Tony Greco, Lucio forgets the number one rule he was taught by Quico – never trust a stranger.
Who is Tony Greco? Who wants to kill Lucio?
Tony Greco is actually a police officer, and Charlie Alvarez was in on it as well. Instead of taking 20 years behind bars, he was offered $10,000 to help catch Lucio in the act. After the betrayal, he takes a plane to Buenos Aires and leaves. As a result, Lucio is looking at up to 15 years, but he’s also getting death threats too, including a package with a bullet inside. Lucio speaks to Inspector Costello, but he’s as much in the dark as Lucio is over the death threats. He points out that Lucio has angered a lot of people, including the Secret Service and the Americans. However, Costello has no love for the Americans himself, whom we know play dirty. In fact, Costello even calmly told Barrow that he wouldn’t be planting fake evidence on Lucio to get an arrest. Anne’s phone is being traced and at a phonebooth, Lucio is discovered and arrested.
Does Lucio talk his way into going free?
At the police station, Lucio speaks to Mr Barrow and offers a deal. Although Barrow has Lucio, he doesn’t have the printing gear nor all the cheques and as such, the operation will just continue without him. It’ll never end. In exchange for Lucio handing over all the plates and the cheques, Lucio suggests he be cleared of all charges and also given a decent compensation package for the inconvenience. With City Bank’s reputation on the line, Barrow doesn’t have much choice. Barrow reluctantly agrees to take the deal, and although Costello sees this as a win for the minor bricklayer beating the system, Barrow sees this tip as the House always winning and saving City Bank to move onto bigger things.
How does A Man Of Action end?
As the film ends, Lucio is reunited with Anne and Juliette in Bolivia, where he lives out his days. The thing is, no one knows how much money Lucio demanded from City Bank to stop the anarchist cause and I guess we never will. Whenever Lucio is asked, he simply replies “a lot.” Shortly after Lucio Urtubia’s actions, big banks looked for alternatives to Traveler’s Cheques, which led to the rise of cards and ATMs in the mid 1980’s. Lucio unfortunately passed away on July 18th 2020, with Anne and Lucio breaking up before this but remaining good friends until his subsequent passing. Read More: A Man Of Action Movie Review
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