Setting: The story takes place at the Mexican border. Bryant is a construction worker who lives a very low profile life. Every morning he goes out and does his physical training and martial arts. Oscar a kid from the neighborhood secretly watches and copies what Bryant is doing every day before he goes to school.
Plot: Oscar is a high school senior. He is being hassled and shook down by Flacko a member of the L17 gang. One night Flacko and his crew come to Oscar's house looking for their money. It turns out that Oscar's brother Hector is the head of the L17 gang the big boss back in the US. Oscar doesn't care about the threats he just continues to follow Bryant and learn from him.
Training and Bonding: one day Bryant catches Oscar looking at him and instead of cussing him out or whatever he tells Oscar if he wants. So he starts training this kid teaching him the ways of the martial arts and oscar's confidence grows as the months go by. But still Flacko won't leave him alone.
Conflict: One day Hector comes back and scares the hell out of Bryant so he tells his little brother not to see him any longer. Oscar dreams of becoming a pro boxer and meets Marisol at a gym. Oscar kills it in an underground fight and two of the crowd the twins Ivan and Vlad one of whom is a little spying device think it looks like a good idea that they tell Sony Kilbane who is a big-time mafioso Bryant one time conflicted and arrested very much out of the picture.
Escalation: Sony on seeing the YouTube footage of Oscar's fight sends a couple of gun-for-hires to threaten and maybe do away with Bryant. Bryant then goes on to explain to the kid his backstory how he was once a casket in the special police unit who went deep into the belly of the beast mafia to take down bad guys and stamp out crime. While they are making things difficult for him the bad guys are catching up with him. As hitmen try to whack Bryant, he's joined by Oscar, by Hector and by Marisol. After hanging around for a while, Bryant finally gets the opportunity to show off some of his skills and manages to send all but one of the hitmen packing with mulling wounds.
Climax: Sony not having got off his backside yet and seeing one of his goons struggling to hand on to his six. So he sends two other members of the dirty New York City cops to try and arrest their target in a less-than-legal fashion to raid his house. But Bryant is the stuff of legends. He turns the tables on them and defeats them. One last card to play Eric a corrupt DEA agent busts in and takes Oscar and Marisol. Bryant and Hector then hook up to hatch a plan to get the two of them back.
Resolution: With the help of the L17 gang, Bryant and Hector go to rescue Oscar and Marisol from Valdez a Mexican mafia boss who is working with Sony. In the final battle, he gets reunited with his wife who he thought was in France in the clear. The film ends with Bryant getting ready to go take on Sony one last time.
Themes: "As Good As Dead" touches on themes of mentorship, redemption and fighting against corruption. It shows how through discipline and training one can be transformed and also how important it is to stand up to organized crime.
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