Hancock

John Hancock (Will Smith) is an unhappy, alcoholic superhero who is living in his own miserable and lonely world. He has saved numerous lives in Los Angeles over the years, but in doing so has caused widespread property damage costing the city millions of dollars. The public has had enough of Hancock, and want him to either stop or move to another city. One day, Hancock saves Ray Embrey (Jason Bateman), a public-relations spokesperson whose attempts to market his world-changing "All-Heart" charity aren't gaining traction, from being run over by a train (in the process causing a massive derailment in Hancock's haphazard manner). Ray feels he owes Hancock his life, and he makes it his mission to change Hancock's public image for the better.

Ray persuades Hancock to go to prison so that the public will realize how much they need him. He reluctantly agrees and after a month the Chief of Police calls him to help save an officer who is pinned down in a chaotic bank robbery shootout. Hancock saves the officer, removes the gang, and cuts the hand off the gang's leader (Eddie Marsan), who is holding a dead man's switch on a detonator.

After the rescue, Hancock becomes popular once more, as Ray had predicted. Ray and his wife Mary (Charlize Theron) go out to dinner with Hancock, where he relates how he woke up 80 years earlier with no memories of his life. Later that night, while Ray sleeps after passing out from drinking too much, Hancock discovers that Mary has super powers as well. Mary reveals that they are the last two "gods" or "angels" and have been a couple off and on for 3,000 years. All the others of their kind died - when they meet their other half they become mortal, which allows them to be injured, age, and have children. These immortals were created in pairs, and are inevitably drawn towards each other; she is Hancock's other half and wife for the last three millenia. She left him after he lost his memory after an attack in order to keep him from losing his powers.

Mary and Hancock have a brief fight over revealing this fact to Ray, inadvertently doing just that in the process. Hancock starts to lose his powers and is shot twice in the chest when he stops a liquor store robbery. When he is admitted to the hospital, the news media covers it, thus revealing his location. Shortly before this the news had also revealed that the one-handed robber had orchestrated a jail break during which eight men escape. Along with two other men, whom Hancock attacked and humiliated during his first day in prison, the revenge-driven villain heads to the hospital. Mary is shot while attempting to protect Hancock. Hancock finishes off the henchmen, but is still severely wounded. Just as he is about to be killed by the one-handed criminal, Ray grabs a fire axe and chops the killer's other hand off, thus saving Hancock. To save Mary, Hancock leaves the city, restoring both of their powers. The film ends with Hancock accepting his role as a hero and living in New York City, letting Ray and Mary live a normal life while remaining their friend. He calls them on the phone one evening as they walk along the Santa Monica Pier and has them look up to the sky. He has painted Ray's All-Heart logo on the moon as a thanks.

Cast

• Will Smith as John Hancock, an alcoholic, down-and-out, incredibly sarcastic superhero.^[1] He is invulnerable, does not age, possesses superhuman strength, and can fly at supersonic speeds.^[2] To give a realistic appearance of superhero flight, Smith was often suspended by wires 60 feet above the ground and propelled at 40-50 miles per hour.^[3]
• Jason Bateman as Ray Embrey, a corporate public relations consultant whose life Hancock saves. Bateman said, "[It] was a fun thing to play, a very idealistic guy that's trying to build up this suicidal, homeless alcoholic that then ends up hitting on my wife. It was a fun thing. To play the victim is funny."^[4]
• Charlize Theron as Mary Embrey, Ray's wife.