top of page

Hotline Miami | The Game

Overview

 

Genre

  • Top-down shooter

​

Themes

  • raw brutality . hard-boiled gunplay . skull crushing close combat . retro style

​

Synopsis

  • Set in 1989 in Miami, Florida, the masked anti-hero known only as ‘Jacket’, receives mysterious phone calls to complete hits on the Russian mafia. The further he gets involved, the clearer things become.

​

Keywords

  • fast-paced . violence . psychedelic . surreal . brutal . Miami . neon . blood . weapon . mask . phone calls . 1980s

​

Film Adaption

  • Quentin Tarantino’s aestheticization of violence, soundtracks primarily from the 1980s.

  • John Wick’s (2014) action scenes.

  • Drive’s (2011) neo-noir aesthetics.

The Characters

rooster.jpg

Rooster

horse.jpg

Horse

owl.jpg

Owl

biker.jpg

Biker

beard.jpg

Beard

The Sound

Dust - |M|O|O|N|
00:00
Hydrogen - |M|O|O|N|
00:00
Roller Mobster - Carpenter Brut
00:00

Timeline

 

  • Jacket meets & chats with Horse, Rooster & Owl.

  • April 3rd - first time meeting with Rooster.

  • Get a phone call, go do a hit, vomits, go home.

  • Another couple of hits, rescues Hooker from Movie Producer.

  • Talks to Owl, Horse & Rooster. Rooster asks questions :

1. Do you like hurting other people?

2. Who are leaving messages on your answering machine?

3. Where are you right now?

4. Why are we having this conversation?

  • "Masked Assailant" written in the newspaper.

  • Phone important, locations : a bar, convenience shop, burger/fast food joint (pizza) and videotape shop.

 

May 5th 1989

  • Tiger Mask guy (?) is strapped to a bomb & Jacket kills them with the bomb.

  • With all the killings, the streets aren't safe. Says Beard - outside at convenience store where someone else is killed by white suit.

 

May 11th

May 13th

  • Mask murders continue, last night a dozen bodies - again connections to the local Russian Mafia.

  • Meets Janitor (girl) and Janitor (man).

  • Beard has a friend who's in the police force - told him a group of masked people killing Russians.

 

May 23rd

  • Shoot out, 3 politicians among casualties, a heavy blow for the Russo - American Coalition - several victims tied to the criminal network

  • Goes to a hit, something happens, calls at hit place to go somewhere else - the phone company place as there had been a 'prank caller'. Jacket arrives and everyone there is dead, goes to the second floor - meets Biker who says he's so close.

 

PART THREE

  • Meets with Owl, Horse & Rooster - looks ill, the room is bloodstained. "Next time we meet will be the last. I can see it in your eyes".

  • 3 predictions :

1. "Someone you know is not who you think he is "

2. "Something will soon be taken from you"

3. "On July 21st you will wake up in a bigger house"

 

May 27th

  • Disco place.

  • Starts to get weird.

  • Does a hit, goes to the convenience store, Biker is there, head decapitated.

  • Beard says none of this is happening - flashes - Biker is gone as Beard tries to convince him. There's a Janitor (?) in the bathroom - starts to glitch with static flashing on the screen.

 

May 31st

  • Does a hit, police arrives on the scene.

  • Outside the pizza place, dead white suit guy is there - "we don't like strangers around here ain't that right Parker?" - with dead doggo.

  • Another Green-Eyed Bald Guy is at the store, Beard's dead behind the counter.

 

June 3rd

  • Does a hit, go to VHS place, the Green-Eyed Bald Guy is there, Beard (VHS version) is dead.

 

June 8th

  • Movie Producer - dead - shows up at Jacket's apartment.

  • Performs a hit, car inside the hit place.

  • A green-haired guy says he gives up Jacket approaches, there's static that's interspersed between it + cut + jump forward + he lits him on fire.

  • Goes to the bar - Richter (?) (Green-Eyed Bald Guy) chases you out of the bar, meets dead guys on the side.

 

PART FOUR || CONNECTIONS

  • Hooker is dead, Rat Mask guy kills Jacket : press 'R' to restart - you're Jacket again, but everything is dark & filthy, static you see yourself dead & Hooker is dead & Rooster is sitting where Rat Mask was, he says "from now on what you do won't serve any purpose", "you will never see the whole picture & it's all your fault".

  • Rooster suggests he go to bed, he then suddenly becomes a patient & another room appears on the apartment floor - meets himself on hospital bed + head explodes.

 

CHAPTER TWELVE

  • The cop asks when Jacket will wake up - reveals he's been in a coma for weeks now, cop reveals he's a prime suspect & Hooker was his Girlfriend - got the guy who shot Jacket & Girlfriend.

 

July 21st

  • Static keeps coming on screen + screen get rockier as he's escaping the hospital.

  • Even the transition to the next chapter becomes static-y, goes to closing + going back to black.

  • The car is defaced with words like 'whore', the apartment is trashed & gross - sees the outline of Girlfriend's body + changes.

  • Goes to the police department & kills them. Finds keys, opens up cell - it's Richter says he doesn't know anything, not personal + mentions the weird phone calls + lets him know that cops might know more - strangles him.

  • Jacket takes case file.

 

July 23rd

  • Suspect seems to be threatened as Jacket looks at case files.

  • Goes to the building where it's listed on file, kills everyone there, threatens guy for the owner's place & kills him.

  • Meets Russian Mafia Boss + kills the girl assassin/subordinate - Russian Mafia Boss kills himself - Jacket picks up the phone - then he goes up.

  • Meets an older guy who's in a wheelchair, he says he's given up, can't do anything & lets Jacket kill him.

  • Jacket takes off mask, lights a cigarette & looks at something that floats away.

 

July 23rd - May 13th

  • Biker threatening guy with a scar to get out of the 'game' - tips him to a Chinese restaurant - threatens guy at the restaurant about answers as to who's leaving these messages.

  • Reveals they're using Phone Hom - he's (the guy being threatened) the one that set it up - needs to hack into the system to figure out who it is - reveals that he went into hiding & 'they' had a political agenda.

 

May 16th

  • Newsletter of 50 blessings.

  • Got a phone call, reveals that Biker had missed a hit.

 

May 23rd

  • Biker goes to Phone Hom - kills everyone there - finds the person who's controlling these phone calls but Jacket comes in & Biker kills Jacket & leaves.

 

May 24th

  • Phone call basically letting Biker know he's dead.

  • Biker heads to the place where the people controlling this are.

  • Reveals the woman Janitor.

  • Biker hacks into it, figures out what's happening - goes to the underground base where the Janitors are operating & confronts them about their 'line off work' - their password is 'I was born in the USA'.

  • Janitors : nationalists - this is their scheme for the USA & that 50 Blessings is a foundation for patriots.

  • After finding out about the Janitors, he kills them as they want to topple the Russo - American Coalition.

  • Biker then leaves on his motorbike.

©2019 by RMIT Class '19

  • pinterest
bottom of page