THE CONTRACTORS

The story follows Renton, a mid-level hitman sent to case a location for an upcoming hit. Only he never gets that far because someone is waiting to kill him in the backseat of his car. The guy in the backseat is good, but Renton is better. So now Renton has a new problem, the dead body of the backseat assassin in the trunk of his car. There is only one friend that he can trust to help him bury the dead body and sort out why he was being targeted in the first place. Enter Vin, who meets him at a desolate spot to help him bury the body. Only Vin dug the grave for two, because he is the one who set Renton up in the first place and hired the now recently deceased backseat assassin to kill him. Why? Because Renton married Vanessa Valenzetti, the daughter of Detroit’s most powerful crime families - a daughter that was supposed to be his mark on a previous job. Instead of killing her though, Renton falls in love and helps her to go into hiding in Brazil while he pulls off one last job that will give them the funds they need to start a new life. Now back to the predicament at hand, does Renton know that Vin set him up? Of course, which is why Renton shoots him in the arm first - don’t worry, it's just a flesh wound. Vin starts to spill the beans that Renton’s little elopement is out in the open and that Renton has a contract out on his life from the rival crime family that ordered the hit on the daughter… who is now Renton’s wife. Keeping up? So Renton chooses to spare Vin’s life so he can help him sort this situation out, and despite his backstabbing tendencies, he’s an old friend. 

Thus starts our journey into the seedy underbelly of the Detroit mafia scene. First thing is first, they need to get Vin patched up but hospitals are too risky for a bullet wound so they visit a holistic healing doctor. One of which Vin is more than skeptical of but she turns out to be good people. So Vin is ready for action, but they barely know where to start to fix this scenario… so they head to the local bar to sit and think (and to drink). But before they even can get a buzz they are double-crossed by the bartender and a 3-man hit squad tries to take them out. This is where you can see how efficient Ren and Vin are at what they do, they efficiently take out the hit squad John Wick style with the precision expected of professionals. They then question the bartender who tells them that their handler named BB caught wind that Ren did not go through with the hit and that a contract was put on Ren’s head, one that B.B. chose to capitalize on by sending the hit squad. 

So next up on the list to visit is BB, whom Ren and Vin very generously offer up the ultimatum of helping them to clear the hit on their names or get floated down the Detroit River with a bullet in his head. So BB offers to help find the leak on the Valenzetti side, while Ren and Vin set up a meeting with the rival Detroit mafia family who hired Ren to kill Venessa Valenzetti. This family is known as the Jackson 5 Mafia, consisting of 5 psychotic siblings who run an international crime ring peddling drugs and running illegally acquired guns. Since both Ren and Vin know they may not be walking out of this meeting alive, Ren calls up Vanessa (still hiding in Brazil) to tell her that things with the last big job didn’t go to plan and to stay safe down there. She being the strong-willed woman she is, nods her head while not listening, smiles back, and then immediately proceeds to book a plane ticket back to Detroit. Episode 1 ends with a Miami Vice-style travel buildup as Vanessa arrives at Detroit airport while Ren and Vin enter the warehouse to meet 2 of the brothers from the Jackson 5 Mafia. What happens next? Absolute chaos of course.