Welcome back to Movie Recaps. Today I will show you an action,
crime, drama film from 2018, titled Hotel Artemis. Spoilers ahead! Watch out and take care.
In the year 2028, the streets of Los Angeles are taken over by riots when water gets privatized.
Professional criminals and brothers Sherman and Lev decide to take advantage of the chaos to rob
a bank with fellow robbers Buke and P-22, but the employees don't have access to the vaults. Sherman
gets an idea, though: because of the riots, all rich people are sending their employees to hide
their valuables, so the siblings decide to rob the clients instead. Lev even takes a particularly
beautiful pen from a man's pocket, who warns him stealing such an object is an awful idea,
but Lev doesn't listen. They blow up a wall to escape through an alley,
but the police find them and open fire on them. P-22 dies, and Buke and Lev get hurt
but Lev in particular is critically injured, and he didn't die as well only because Sherman
took most of the bullets for him with his bulletproof vest. To get them out of this mess,
he calls Hotel Artemis, a secret hospital that only treats criminals and is run by the Nurse,
a medical expert that hasn't left the hotel in over two decades because of her agoraphobia.
After telling Sherman there are free rooms for them and staring at a picture of her dead son,
the Nurse plays some music on her headphones and gets to work on getting those rooms ready.
There are two more criminals staying at the hotel at the moment, both of them
using the codenames Nurse has assigned them: there is Nice, an international assassin;
and Acapulco, an obnoxious arms dealer. The hotel is equipped with the latest healthcare technology,
and Nurse can even track each guest's location with her tablet. There is also a very strict set
of rules that include things like not killing the other guests, not taking pictures or videos, no
weapons allowed, and membership needing to be paid in advance. The Nurse turns off the music when the
new guests arrive, but she keeps them behind a gate until they have passed all the rules.
Buke reluctantly leaves his weapon, but when it is time to scan the chip on their wrists that proves
they are members, only the brothers pass the test, Buke's scar is fake. Being denied access enrages
him and he jumps on Sherman to attack him, so the Nurse finds herself with no other choice
but to call for Everest, her personal assistant and security, who effortlessly grabs Buke and
puts him to sleep with an injection before taking him out of the hotel. After giving the siblings
the codenames of Waikiki and Honolulu, Nurse takes them to a room so she can start patching them up.
Sherman takes the fancy pen from Lev before Nurse starts operating on him with the help
of a robot arm, and when the power suddenly goes out because of riot control, she doesn't worry:
the building has its own generator, which brings power back as soon as she is done mentioning it.
Now she can use the 3D printer to make a new liver for Lev. Meanwhile, Everest drops Buke under a
bridge before taking a call from Nurse, asking him to check on the generator when he comes back. Buke
takes advantage of his distraction to jump on him from behind and try to suffocate him, but Everest
easily shakes him off and threatens him with hunting him down if he ever tells anyone about
the hotel before leaving. Nurse checks on Nice's and Acapulco's injuries, and after she is gone,
Nice calls her client to ask for more money for this job because she had to shoot herself to get
closer to her target, and the client agrees. Back in the room, Nurse tells Sherman that 3D-printed
organs are toxic and Lev's condition is tragic, he is only living thanks to life support, and to move
him, they would have to put him to sleep with the same narcotics they use for baby elephants. After
checking Sherman's arm and hearing him complain about Lev having lied about quitting crime, she
leaves the room and takes a call from an unknown person, only to instantly hang up when the man is
incredibly rude to her, which is also against the rules. The mysterious caller tries again with the
same results, and it is not until the third time that the Nurse finally accepts to talk to him
when she hears his name: he is Crosby Franklin, son of famous crime lord and owner of the hotel,
Orian "The Wolf King" Franklin, who has been hurt and needs someone to see him as soon as possible.
It is against the rules for Nurse to leave and see patients at other locations,
so Crosby reluctantly accepts to bring him over to the hotel. The riots outside are
getting worse by the second, and now there are even drones and missiles going off.
Everest thinks they should evacuate, but Nurse disagrees, claiming the building is safe enough.
In the meantime, Nice goes to the rec room and gets to meet Acapulco, who immediately hits on
her and gets offended when she doesn't like it and treats him like the obnoxious idiot he is.
Their argument is suddenly interrupted by Sherman, who has come by for some coffee.
He and Nice say hi to each other, revealing they already met before and are friendly acquaintances,
which makes Acapulco think they are together and Sherman is trying to protect his girlfriend.
This makes both of them laugh, and while Sherman explains that Nice is actually the most dangerous
person in the building, he playfully pats Acapulco on the chest and steals his wallet before leaving
the room. Nice follows him after breaking a mug and throwing a piece at Acapulco as a warning,
calling him lucky for having the rules to protect him from her killing him. After she is gone,
Acapulco decides he has had enough and calls a helicopter to come to pick him up.
Nurse makes Everest come over to her room to show him what the security cameras are picking
up outside: since she wouldn't go to the Wolf King's location, Crosby is now sealing up some
of the hotel doors to be sure nobody else can get in after he brings in his father.
When the alarm suddenly starts ringing, they find something else on the screen: Morgan Daniels,
a police officer. She is looking directly at the camera and calling Nurse by her real name,
Jean Thomas, which not even Everest knows. Nurse admits to knowing her and wants to bring her in,
but Everest refuses, saying helping a cop would go against the rules and cause them to lose the
trust of their clients At that moment, the power goes out again. Everest leaves to take a look
at the generator, so Nurse drinks some whisky and grabs her medical bag and her son's picture before
heading out, sneaking out of the building by using a secret passage. Unknown to her, Sherman sees her
leave. Because of her agoraphobia, going outside is incredibly hard for her, so she puts on her
headphones and listens to some therapy recordings Everest gifted her. When she reaches Morgan,
she shows her the picture of her son, making sure she is the girl she used to know when she
recognizes the boy. Two teenagers run by then, and the cops that were chasing them find Nurse next
to Morgan's body on the floor. They don't believe her when she says she lives here, but before they
can interrogate her further, Everest shows up and quickly knocks all the officers out before picking
up Morgan and taking her inside with Nurse. While Crosby's men find those officers and kill them,
Sherman goes through Acapulco's wallet and finds a poker card hiding a microchip under its cardboard.
Nice arrives then, bringing Nurse's whiskey so they can have a drink together.
Sherman notices some of the changes she has gone through seen the last time they saw each other,
like all the membership scars on her wrist and the implant in her eye, which she has gotten so
her clients can see how she kills her targets, who are always important people. In return,
Sherman shows her the pen Lev stole, which startles Nice quite badly. She opens the hidden
compartment inside the pen, revealing six special diamonds that are worth eighteen million each.
The pen belongs to the Wolf King, who is known for killing anyone that steals from him,
so Nice wants Sherman to leave as soon as possible. Sherman refuses to go anywhere
until his brother can walk, and after they argue about this decision, Nice kisses him
and leaves him alone, not approving of the way he always lets his brother put shackles on his life.
While taking Morgan inside, Everest continues to scold Nurse for risking everything over a cop,
so Nurse reminds him she already broke the rules once when she found him as a kid and took him
in. After making sure Acapulco is gone from the hallway, they take Morgan to Nurse's room and
she proceeds to operate on her while trying to ignore the constant flashbacks of her son that
assault her mind. When they wake her up after the operation is over, Morgan asks Nurse why she has
accepted to help her, and Nurse says she did it because they are family, not because she is a cop.
Morgan also brings up the subject of her son, making the flashbacks bother her again, so
Nurse suddenly leaves with the excuse she needs to prepare another room. She does so while listening
to music but this time, after she is done, she sits there and cries as she remembers the day she
found her son's body after he died from OD. After calling a car to come and pick him up, Sherman
checks on Lev, who is now waking up. He shows him the Wolf King's logo on the pen and tells him that
while today he is helping him out, this will be the last time they will be working together. Lev
accepts this, but he is constantly distracted by the narcotic injection Nurse left on the table.
Meanwhile, Sherman investigates the secret passage, and Nice is on the roof, using a
special device to spy on Crosby's conversation with his men. Acapulco arrives then to wait for
his helicopter and tries to recruit her, but her answer is to knock him out when he realizes her
target is the Wolf King, who is now arriving at the hotel. Nurse goes to the gate to receive him,
but she doesn't open it yet because there are too many people and most of them are armed.
Crosby tries to protest, but the Wolf King tells him to obey the rules, so he is the only one that
crosses the gate. Before leaving with Nurse, he gifts his son his ring in case he doesn't make it.
Now all the Wolf King's men are locked behind the gates, Everest uses the chance
to take Morgan out of the building after she swears she won't tell anyone about the hotel.
They come across Sherman in the hallway, who immediately realizes Morgan is a cop thanks to her
boots, but he only makes a sarcastic comment about it and lets them leave without raising alarm.
While Nice puts a bomb she had hidden in her fake cigarette pack on the generator, Nurse takes care
of the Wolf King's wounds, which were caused, according to him, by a beautiful young woman.
Being under the effect of the medicine causes the Wolf King to slip and mention some lie he told
Nurse and her son's name, which he shouldn't know because she never mentioned it to him. She calls
Everest through the walkie-talkie and talks to Morgan, who tries to reassure her that her son's
death was not her fault. After reminiscing about the old days, she hangs up and goes to talk to the
Wolf King, who is waking up under the effect of the extra drugs she has injected him with.
Now his tongue is loose, the Wolf King finally confesses Nurse's son didn't ODed - being thrown
in the sea was the punishment for stealing the Wolf King's car. The police report had
been faked by the cops after he paid them to do so. This incident is what allowed him to find
Nurse and give her a new job after she had lost her will to live. As Los Angeles is put under
curfew and lockdown, Sherman goes to check on his brother only to find he has injected himself with
the Nurse's narcotics, confirming he is still an addict. Sherman tells him they need to leave while
putting the chip he stole from Acapulco in the 3D printer to create a gun, however, Lev doesn't want
to leave since he is sure he won't make it, but he does think Sherman should save himself. Morgan
manages to leave the building safely as Nurse raises a scalpel with the intention of killing
the Wolf King and Acapulco wakes up to receive his helicopter, but they are both interrupted by
the bomb finally going off and cutting all power. The helicopter leaves without picking up Acapulco,
who is now furious and wants to kill Nice for setting up the bomb by using a 3D-printed gun he
had hidden in his bag. Meanwhile, Nurse forgets about her revenge in order to go check on Lev,
who has lost his life support. Nice takes this opportunity to enter the Wolf King's room and,
after turning down his offer of more money, kills him while recording it all with her special eye.
Nurse tries to revive Lev to no avail. When her tablet warns her of the King's death and the
tracker indicates Nice is there with him, Sherman realizes she was the one that set up the bomb so,
blaming her for his brother's death, he picks up his gun and goes after her. He finds her in her
room and calls her out for her actions, but Nice swears she didn't know Lev was in life support and
there are bigger reasons why Sherman has lost him. Thinking she is right, Sherman begins to lower his
gun, only to suddenly be surprised by Acapulco, who shoots them both before starting a rant
about his superiority. Taking advantage of how distracted he is, Sherman tackles him and pushes
him foward until his head is on the tray of the 3D printer, which he activates in order to kill him.
Crosby finds out the ring his father left him is a bomb and uses it to blow a hole in the wall so he
and his men can escape while Nurse finds Sherman and Nice and guides them to the secret passage
after Nice grabs a bunch of scalpels to take with her. On their way out, they come across Everest,
who decides to stay behind to stave off the Wolf King's men. Nurse gives him a set of hotel keys
before hugging him, then she rushes into the elevator with Sherman only to see Nice is going
to stay behind to fight too as a way to apologize for Lev. Everest fights the men at the gate using
an emergency ax he takes from the wall while Nice uses the scalpels she stole to take care
of the men that are now sneaking into the secret passage through the hole caused by the bomb.
Both of them do well at first, fighting with ease, but soon the amount of thugs overpowers them.
Regardless, they buy enough time for Nurse to take care of Sherman's wounds on their elevator
ride and safely reach the front door, which hasn't been used in years. Sadly, Crosby is there waiting
for them, wishing revenge for his dead father. Sherman tries to strike a deal by showing him he
has the diamonds and telling him he could use them as proof of power to become the new Wolf King,
Crosby accepts but only in exchange for letting Sherman go, no Nurse. Sherman pretends to accept
too and when he comes closer to hand him the pen, he attacks Crosby and starts a fistfight.
Since Sherman is hurt, Crosby quickly gains the upper hand and tackles him to the floor, so Nurse
takes the chance to approach him from behind and inject the narcotics made for elephants,
effectively killing him. After picking up the pen again, Sherman guides Nurse through her anxiety
to help her reach the outside, where the riots are still going at full force. Together they
find the car Sherman had called for earlier, but she turns down his offer to go with him
because she wants to stay here and help these people since that is all she knows how to do.
Sherman has no plans for the first time in his life, so he just drives off after Nurse tells
him about a hotel in Las Vegas that could help him. She goes back to the hotel street and sees
the sign lighting up, implying someone turned on the generator again. Nurse puts on her headphones
and plays some music as she walks towards the riots, ready to be of help. Inside the hotel,
as the lights illuminate the hallways again, the shadow of a young woman can be seen passing by.