The Returner

The Returner is a 2002 Japanese science fiction/action film. It involves a mercenary named Miyamoto who finds himself helping a girl called Milly who came back in time from the future to prevent humanity's destruction at the hands of aliens.

Miyamoto meets her by accident when he shoots her while trying to kill Mizoguchi, a member of The Triads who killed his best friend years before to sell his organs in the Black Market. Luckily, she is saved from the bullet by a piece of metal she was carrying in her pocket. When she tells her story, he doesn't believe her, until she shows him a future device that allows her to move fast enough to dodge bullets. Then she gets him to help her to find an alien who will summon the rest of its kind to Earth. They find it in a scientific research facility, but when she realizes it doesn't look like the future invaders, she hesitates in killing it, which allows Mizogushi, who found out about the hidden UFO, to steal the alien and the ship. Miyamoto and Milly must then work together to recover the alien before the space war can be triggered.

Tropes in this Film:

 * Alien Invasion
 * Bittersweet Ending
 * But for Me It Was Tuesday: When Miyamoto finally confronts Mizoguchi about the latter kidnapping Miyamoto's childhood friend to harvest his organs, Mizoguchi at first apathetically retorts that he doesn't recall that day.
 * Chekhov's Gun: The
 * also counts, since
 * Complete Monster: Mizoguchi- As if killing children for their organs isn't bad enough, by the end he's lost all common sense and kills people just for annoying him.
 * Died Standing Up:, in a particularly absurd way.
 * The Dragon: Mizoguchi, who starts as a hitman for the Chinese Triad, but kills his leader and takes over.
 * Jerk With a Heart of Gold: Miyamoto. Also Shi.
 * Fridge Logic: How powerful is the Triad that it had access to a government facility??
 * And then there's the  thing...
 * The Handler: Shi, an old lady who provides Miyamoto with information and weapons.
 * Hitman With a Heart: Miyamoto
 * Nice Job Breaking It Hero: It was actually  that caused the war.
 * Shout Out: Lots, including but not limited to:
 * The Matrix (Bullet Time and Badass Longcoat)
 * Terminator (single soldier coming back in time to save humanity)
 * Independence Day (The aliens)
 * Transformers (The aliens' ship, disguised as a
 * Transformers (The aliens' ship, disguised as a