Pain & Gain

In 1994, ex-con and bodybuilder Daniel Lugo is hired by Sun Gym owner John Mese as a manager. Lugo befriends trainer and bodybuilder Adrian Doorbal, who was recently rendered impotent from steroids. He envies the earnings and lifestyle of Victor Kershaw, a member he begins to train. Inspired to be a "doer" by motivational speaker/playboy Jonny Wu, Lugo plans to extort Kershaw for his assets. He recruits Doorbal, who seeks financial resources to pay for erectile dysfunction treatment. He manipulates Paul Doyle, another ex-con and born again Christian struggling with drug use, into joining the plan. Doyle, who had been staying at a church after leaving prison, assaults the priest at the church for making homosexual advances on him and becomes more intertwined with the gang. The "Sun Gym gang" kidnaps Kershaw, taking him to a small warehouse. Although Kershaw identifies Lugo, the scheme proceeds as planned. Under duress, Kershaw makes calls to provide explanations for his disappearance and transfers his assets to Lugo. Mese is bribed to notarize documents in Kershaw's absence. After collecting Kershaw's money and assets, the gang attempts to kill Kershaw. They stage a drunk driving crash, burn his car, then run him over. Unbeknownst to the gang, Kershaw survived and is hospitalized. He informs the police, who dismiss his story because of Kershaw's manner, blood alcohol level and him being from Colombia, a South American country known for drug trafficking. Kershaw contacts Ed Du Bois, III, a semi-retired private investigator, who warns Kershaw to leave the hospital. Kershaw takes his advice just as the gang arrives and hides in a cheap motel. The gang members spoil themselves with Kershaw's riches. Lugo takes over Kershaw's car and home and begins integrating himself with Kershaw's neighbors; Doorbal marries Robin, the nurse treating his impotence; Doyle abandons his sobriety, blowing his money on cocaine and Sorina, who is a stripper and Lugo's ex-girlfriend who believes he and Lugo work for the CIA. Du Bois tails them and goes on to meet Lugo under the guise of a personal training client. After Kershaw furiously calls Mese about his stolen money, the gang identifies the motel he stays at. They go to kill him, but discover that he has already checked out. They learn of Du Bois' link to Kershaw and plan to kidnap him, but the plan falls through. Doyle and Doorbal, having gone broke after excessive spending, plan another kidnapping with Lugo. They target Frank Griga, owner of a phone sex operation. They lure Griga and his girlfriend Krisztina Furton to Doorbal's to propose an investment scheme. The discussion breaks down when Griga points out that he distrusts Lugo and his friends due to their obvious lack of knowledge on running a business. During the ensuing fistfight, one of Doorbal's weights falls on Griga's head, killing him; Doorbal accidentally kills Krisztina by overdosing her with horse tranquilizer in the chaos. They dismember the bodies and dispose of them in a swamp. Doyle, perturbed by the violence Lugo promised would not happen, leaves the gang and returns to the priest's church. The police learn of Griga and Krisztina's disappearances and, with evidence from Du Bois, plan to arrest the Sun Gym gang. The police arrest Doyle at the church, Doorbal at home, and Mese at the Sun Gym. Lugo flees in Kershaw's speedboat. Deducing his destination, the police, Du Bois, and Kershaw fly by helicopter to the bank in Nassau that Kershaw uses as an offshore account. Lugo slips away from the authorities, but gets run over by Kershaw and is finally arrested. At the trial, Doyle gives a full confession incriminating Doorbal and Lugo. Robin, upon discovering her husband's criminal activities, divorces and also testifies against Doorbal along with Sorina. Lugo and Doorbal are sentenced to death, while Doyle and Mese are sentenced to 15 years. Doyle served 7 years and rededicated himself to Christianity while Mese died in prison. ==Cast==

==Comparisons between the film and actual events==

Multiple media properties compare and contrast details shown in the film versus actual events. History v. Hollywood also shows the headshot photograph, name, birthdate, and birthplace of the principals in a "Reel Face" v. "Real Face" lineup. As David Haglund and Forrest Wickman wrote in Slate's culture blog, Browbeat: "the film more or less adheres to a very rough outline provided by the novella-length, three-part, highly detailed series written by Pete Collins and published in the Miami New Times over a decade ago. Not surprisingly, many details, and a number of significant characters, are dropped from the movie. A lot of new, fictional detail – and one largely made-up character – takes its place. When the movie first tells us that it's a true story, we're seeing something that didn't happen. When we're told it's 'still a true story,' we're watching one invented character watch a semi-fictional character do something that sorta kinda took place." who notarized Kershaw's — in reality, Marc Schiller's — documents for Lugo; and stripper Sorina Luminita — based on Sabina Petrescu — whom Lugo claimed to have recruited to serve as the gang's femme fatale). In reality, the gang was much larger, Daniel Lugo was of Puerto Rican descent, Noel Doorbal was a native of Trinidad, and Doyle's character is a composite of several real life individuals of different nationalities who were not depicted in the film, such as Carl Weekes, Jorge Delgado, and Stevenson Pierre. Additionally, Doorbal's real-life girlfriend (Cindy Eldridge) helped scrub blood off Doorbal's condominium walls after Doorbal had dismembered Griga and Furton's bodies. Unlike Sorina, who in the film Lugo passes on to Doyle, the real-life Sabina and Lugo remained together as a couple and became engaged, and they fled together to the Bahamas (with Lugo's parents). Additional real-life players in the events are detailed in the Miami New Times article, "Sidebar: Cast of Characters". In the film, Victor Kershaw states he was born in Bogotá, Colombia. His real life counterpart, Marc Schiller, was born in Argentina. The car with which the gang tried to kill Schiller, by crashing it (into a construction vehicle in the film; into a utility pole in reality) and then by setting Schiller and it ablaze, was a Toyota 4Runner, not a BMW. In contrast to the film, the gang did not secure Schiller's seat-belt before crashing the car, and Schiller did not survive the crash from inside the car; rather, Schiller bailed out of the car, rolling onto the ground, before it hit the pole. When crashing the car and setting Schiller ablaze failed, the real-life gang ran over Schiller's body twice, but with a Toyota Camry, not a van. The movie portrays Paul Doyle as first running into a demeaning Frank Griga at a strip club where Luminita works. In reality, Doorbal first discovered Griga when Doorbal spotted a picture of a Lamborghini Diablo in a photo album belonging to his Hungarian stripper girlfriend, Beatriz Weiland (not portrayed in the film). He asked her who owned it. It turned out that Griga was one of Weiland's former generous boyfriends. It was she who introduced Griga to the gang. In reality, Frank Griga was also Hungarian and had a noticeable accent, which his on-screen portrayal lacks. The gang did meet at Frank Griga's home as in the movie. In reality, they met three times; the final instance at Doorbal's Miami Lakes apartment, where the murders actually took place. In reality, Lugo did not kill Griga—Doorbal did, by first cracking the side of his head with a blunt object, then strangling him with a headlock, and finally injecting him with Rompun. Krisztina Furton ran to see what had happened, and screamed. Lugo covered her mouth and tackled her. She had no gun, contrary to the movie portrayal. She was bound, then Doorbal injected her with the drug. Overall, Doorbal injected her three separate times, instead of twice. Miami New Times reporter Francisco Alvarado reports the facts associated with the power tools purchased by the gang, the cause of the chainsaw's failure, and the ensuing details, some of which differed from their film portrayal: They bought a gas-powered chainsaw from Home Depot to cut off body parts but forgot to fill it with motor oil, so it broke the first time they cranked the power tool on. Lugo returned the chainsaw to Home Depot, demanding a refund. He left the home-improvement store with an electric Remington Power Cutter, which came with a one-year guarantee to 'handle all your cutting chores quickly and easily.' He went back to the warehouse and handed the chainsaw to Doorbal, who took charge of the grisly dismemberment. When the power tool's teeth got caught in Furton's hair, Doorbal had Lugo chop off her head with a hatchet. The two murderers then used a curved blade and pliers to remove the faces and teeth off the heads. Details from those sources pertinent to the Sun Gym gang are summarized below: • Noel "Adrian" Doorbal (DC# M16320, DOB: December 21, 1971, Eleventh Judicial Circuit, Dade County Case # 95-17381-B); Sentenced to death July 17, 1998. Currently incarcerated in Florida State Prison, In December 2024, Doorbal was re-sentenced to life in prison. • Daniel Lugo (DC #M16321, DOB: June 4, 1963, Eleventh Judicial Circuit, Dade County, Case# 95-17381C); • Jorge Delgado (DC# 198219): "In return for testifying for the State, Delgado was sentenced to two prison terms of 15 and 5 years for his role in the murders of Griga and Furton and the attempted murder of Schiller." Facing 25 years in federal prison, Schiller was aided by the sitting trial judge of the criminal case against the Sun Gym gang who testified on his behalf. In 1999 Schiller was offered and accepted a plea deal for the statutory minimum of 46 months and was released from prison in 2001. == Production ==

Michael Bay first announced the film after the release of Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen (2009). Bay stated he wanted to do Pain & Gain between the second and third Transformers films. The project was put on hold when Paramount Pictures gave the third film, Transformers: Dark of the Moon, a 2011 release date. On February 13, 2012, it was confirmed that the budget for the film would be funded by Paramount as part of a two-picture deal with Bay. The budget was set at $35 million, the lowest of any film Bay has directed since his first feature film Bad Boys (1995). Bay, Dwayne Johnson, and Mark Wahlberg did not take salaries, instead signing on in exchange for back ends on the film's profits. Bay later confirmed that production would begin in Miami the following April, stating: "I'm extremely excited to simplify my film career this spring with a great character piece." On February 17, reports surfaced that Ed Harris had officially joined the cast and Rob Corddry was rumored to play John Mese, a former competitive bodybuilder who now owns the gym where Wahlberg's character works as a personal trainer. On February 23, it was confirmed that Anthony Mackie had joined the cast as "a bodybuilder and workout partner of Wahlberg's character Adrian Doorbal, who has little to show for his time in the gym and decides to get involved with the twisted plan." On February 28, 2012, it was reported that Bar Paly and Tony Shalhoub had joined the cast. Paly is cast as "an illegal immigrant and former beauty queen who dreams of becoming the next Marilyn Monroe. Wahlberg's character promises to make her a star, and she in turn agrees to do whatever he asks in the service of her new country." In an interview with The New York Times that April, Bay later stated the budget was an estimated $26 million. and principal photography began in Miami on March 31. That April, Dutch actress Yolanthe Sneijder-Cabau joined the cast as Wahlberg's character's object of desire. On April 5, Ken Jeong joined the cast as a character named Jonny Wu. The official trailer for the film was released on December 19. Steve Jablonsky, who worked on Bay's previous films, composed the film score. The soundtrack was released on Varese Sarabande. == Release ==

Home media In the United States, Pain & Gain was released by Paramount Home Media Distribution on digital formats such as iTunes and UltraViolet on August 13, 2013, and Blu-ray and DVD on August 27, 2013, earning a profit of $17,296,504 on DVD and Blu-Ray. ==Reception==

Critical response Rotten Tomatoes reports that 49% of 199 critics gave Pain & Gain a positive review, with an average rating of 5.4/10. The site's critics consensus reads, "It may be his most thought-provoking film to date, but Michael Bay's Pain & Gain ultimately loses its satirical edge in a stylized flurry of violent spectacle." Metacritic gave the film a weighted average score of 45 out of 100 based on 42 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". Audiences surveyed by Cinemascore gave the film an average grade of "C+" on an A+ to F scale. British critic Mark Kermode described the film as "grotesquely inappropriate" and "every bit as pumped up and steroidal as the appalling characters it is attempting to portray". Scott Foundas of Variety wrote "the violence mostly lands with a sickening thud, which is fitting, one supposes, but also ultimately numbing." Writing for The Observer, Philip French said he "rather enjoyed" the violent black comedy, with particular praise for Ed Harris. Referring to the movie as "a Bay botch job", Rolling Stone gave the film 1/2 star out of 4, noting: "[Bay] once claimed he wanted to make a small, personal film that would reveal the real Bay. And, I'm here to report, that Pain and Gain is that film. It's dumb, shallow, deeply cynical and creatively bereft." Simon Abrams of RogerEbert.com gave the film 2.5 out of 4 stars, calling it "as ambitious and vibrant as it is ugly and scattershot". Andrew O'Hehir of Salon found the film "cruel but funny", adding, "Michael Bay sends a clear message to those of us who've been making fun of him: He's been in on the joke the whole time." Subjects and law enforcement response The Associated Press published an article interviewing survivors and investigators of the Sun Gym gang. Miami-Dade Police Sgt. Felix Jimenez stated: "You are talking about real people. And in this particular case, especially when you're talking about the murder victims, these were innocent victims." Zsuzsanna Griga, whose brother and brother's girlfriend the gang killed and dismembered, said she did not want the American public to sympathize with the killers. David Haglund and Forrest Wickman of Slate wrote, in a post titled "How True Is Pain & Gain?": "In addition to the usual Hollywood streamlining and the amping up of certain scenes, the changes seem largely designed to make the central criminals more sympathetic. Whether you think that's a respectable thing to do will depend on what you think of their actual story – and perhaps, of the movies in general." Marc Schiller defamation lawsuit In April 2014, Marc Schiller (named Victor Kershaw in the film) filed a defamation lawsuit in the Southern District of New York against the producers of the film. In June 2015, the lawsuit was moved to the Southern District of Florida. In April 2016, Schiller settled with the producers for an undisclosed sum. == In popular culture ==

• Writer Pete Collins parlayed his three-part Miami New Times article series, that inspired the film, into a consultancy for the film's screenwriting team, multiple post-film articles (such as those in Miami New Times), and media appearances. ==References==

'The original Miami New Times articles by Pete Collins' (Referred to collectively, in the references, as "the articles in question") • "Pain & Gain, Part 1" – December 23, 1999 • "Pain & Gain, Part 2" – December 30, 1999 • "Pain & Gain, Part 3" – January 6, 2000 ==External links==