The Story

How's Everything in the Pimp Business?

In a shocking, cold-blooded act, Travis wreaks vengeance on Iris' abductor - he sticks a gun point-blank into Sport's gut and shoots, wounding him in the stomach. A few moments later, he enters the darkened stairway leading to Iris' apartment where he approaches the manager of the hotel rooms. In another gory scene of incredible orgiastic violence and cold-blooded slaughter, partially filmed in slow-motion, he shoots and blows off part of the manager's right hand. The blast splatters blood and causes echoes throughout the corridors. [Travis' violent act is symbolic of the Vietnam War itself - an outburst of insanity.] Another gunshot sounds behind Travis - he is wounded on the left side of his neck - and begins to bleed profusely. Travis turns to look behind him and sees Sport, mortally wounded. He quickly guns him down at the end of the corridor. As Travis is trying to finish off the manager on the stairs, he is again shot from behind in the right shoulder by the private cop (one of Sport's Mafioso gangster associates and Iris' customer). Wounded and staggering, Travis kills him by filling his face and body full of bullets, causing him to fall backwards into Iris' room. Still alive, the wounded manager crashes atop Travis and wrestles him to the ground - they thrash around into Iris' apartment where Iris is shrieking and frozen in fear. Travis pulls his combat knife from his boot and impales the manager's left hand. He reaches over and picks up the revolver from the now-dead Mafioso and shoots him point-blank in the cheek - the manager's brains are splattered onto the wall. Iris is distraught by the gory slaughter. With two different guns, Travis attempts to shoot himself in the neck, but the guns click empty. Exhausted and struggling, he simply collapses onto the red velvet sofa next to a fear-stricken Iris. His head slowly drops back amidst the bloodbath. When the police arrive with guns drawn, Travis is unable to speak. In a gruesome closeup, he helplessly raises a blood-soaked, dripping finger to his head and makes explosive sounds with his mouth as he mimics pulling the trigger three times in a mock-suicide: "Pgghew! Pgghew! Pgghew!" At the end, Travis wishes to sacrifice himself as the ultimate act of fulfillment, cleansing, and purification, but his suicide attempt fails. He slowly loses consciousness from massive blood loss, and his head falls backward. [He certainly seems to die, but is he dead?]