Hotline Miami | The Game
Overview
Genre
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Top-down shooter
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Themes
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raw brutality . hard-boiled gunplay . skull crushing close combat . retro style
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Synopsis
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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.
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Keywords
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fast-paced . violence . psychedelic . surreal . brutal . Miami . neon . blood . weapon . mask . phone calls . 1980s
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Film Adaption
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Quentin Tarantino’s aestheticization of violence, soundtracks primarily from the 1980s.
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John Wick’s (2014) action scenes.
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Drive’s (2011) neo-noir aesthetics.
The Characters

Rooster

Horse

Owl

Biker

Beard
The Sound
Timeline
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Jacket meets & chats with Horse, Rooster & Owl.
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April 3rd - first time meeting with Rooster.
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Get a phone call, go do a hit, vomits, go home.
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Another couple of hits, rescues Hooker from Movie Producer.
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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?
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"Masked Assailant" written in the newspaper.
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Phone important, locations : a bar, convenience shop, burger/fast food joint (pizza) and videotape shop.
May 5th 1989
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Tiger Mask guy (?) is strapped to a bomb & Jacket kills them with the bomb.
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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
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Mask murders continue, last night a dozen bodies - again connections to the local Russian Mafia.
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Meets Janitor (girl) and Janitor (man).
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Beard has a friend who's in the police force - told him a group of masked people killing Russians.
May 23rd
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Shoot out, 3 politicians among casualties, a heavy blow for the Russo - American Coalition - several victims tied to the criminal network
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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
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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".
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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
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Disco place.
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Starts to get weird.
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Does a hit, goes to the convenience store, Biker is there, head decapitated.
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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
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Does a hit, police arrives on the scene.
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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.
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Another Green-Eyed Bald Guy is at the store, Beard's dead behind the counter.
June 3rd
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Does a hit, go to VHS place, the Green-Eyed Bald Guy is there, Beard (VHS version) is dead.
June 8th
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Movie Producer - dead - shows up at Jacket's apartment.
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Performs a hit, car inside the hit place.
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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.
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Goes to the bar - Richter (?) (Green-Eyed Bald Guy) chases you out of the bar, meets dead guys on the side.
PART FOUR || CONNECTIONS
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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".
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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
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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
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Static keeps coming on screen + screen get rockier as he's escaping the hospital.
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Even the transition to the next chapter becomes static-y, goes to closing + going back to black.
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The car is defaced with words like 'whore', the apartment is trashed & gross - sees the outline of Girlfriend's body + changes.
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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.
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Jacket takes case file.
July 23rd
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Suspect seems to be threatened as Jacket looks at case files.
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Goes to the building where it's listed on file, kills everyone there, threatens guy for the owner's place & kills him.
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Meets Russian Mafia Boss + kills the girl assassin/subordinate - Russian Mafia Boss kills himself - Jacket picks up the phone - then he goes up.
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Meets an older guy who's in a wheelchair, he says he's given up, can't do anything & lets Jacket kill him.
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Jacket takes off mask, lights a cigarette & looks at something that floats away.
July 23rd - May 13th
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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.
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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
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Newsletter of 50 blessings.
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Got a phone call, reveals that Biker had missed a hit.
May 23rd
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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
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Phone call basically letting Biker know he's dead.
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Biker heads to the place where the people controlling this are.
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Reveals the woman Janitor.
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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'.
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Janitors : nationalists - this is their scheme for the USA & that 50 Blessings is a foundation for patriots.
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After finding out about the Janitors, he kills them as they want to topple the Russo - American Coalition.
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Biker then leaves on his motorbike.
