Great Scene: “Léon: The Professional”

Actually three scenes because they are all intimately linked.

Léon: The Professional (1994) is one of the best action movies precisely because it has in spades what so many films in this genre lack: Genuine emotion. Spectacle is fine, but if it has human heart pulsing through character interrelationships, it’s likely to be devoid of meaning.

IMDb plot summary: Mathilda, a 12-year-old girl, is reluctantly taken in by Léon, a professional assassin, after her family is murdered. Léon and Mathilda form an unusual relationship, as she becomes his protégée and learns the assassin’s trade.

In the first scene, NYPD ESU agents line up outside Léon’s apartment, preparing for an all out assault on Léon (Jean Reno) and Mathilda (Natalie Portman).

In his attempt to convince Mathilda to escape, Léon tells her:

You’ve given me a taste for life. I wanna be happy. Sleep in a bed, have roots.

This is proof the once hardened hit man has changed, discovered his own inner humanity through the influence of a twelve year-old girl.

Somehow Léon manages to escape and it looks like he may get away to reunite with Mathilda. Unfortunately he is being followed by Stansfield (Gary Oldman), the story’s Nemesis.

In the end, Mathilda gets revenge — via Léon — for her young brother’s death bringing closure to that subplot. But what of Mathilda? Carrying the plant, which has come to represent Léon, she makes her way back to the school from which she was expelled.

In giving the plant “roots”, Mathilda brings closure to her relationship with Léon, the plant a worthy talisman for the man she has come to love.

All of that action grounded in the profound feelings these two characters have for each other and one reason why the action has meaning.

At the end of the day, it’s the specificity of relationships which help audiences form a connection with characters. Here it’s a father-daughter type connection between a man who didn’t realize he could summon up such paternal instincts and a young girl who could only dream of finding a father figure she could trust.

Three great scenes from a great movie: Léon: The Professional.

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