Mercury Man

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.

Mercury Man is a 2006 Thai superhero and martial arts/action film directed by Bhandit Thongdee. Martial arts choreography was done by Panna Rittikrai, who also did such choreography for Ong Bak, Tom Yum Goong and Born To Fight.

The story follows a firefighter named Chan who is seen as being a bit too impulsive. When terrorists try to break their leader, Osama bin Ali, out of prison, a fire is started and Chan's unit responds. When Chan sees the terrorists shooting people in their escape he confronts them, only to have a mystical amulet embedded accidentally embedded into his body in the ensuing melee. This amulet gives him magnetic and pyrokinetic powers as well as a good degree of invulnerability. Chan then becomes the superhero Mercury Man to help stop the activities of Osama bin Ali.

Not to be confused with the Charlton Comics character of the same name.

Tropes used in Mercury Man include:
  • Action Girl - can be said of almost every woman in the movie, with the notable exception of Chan's mother
  • An Ice Person - Areena, after she stabs herself with the moon amulet
  • Berserk Button - Don't try to cut Grace's face

"Do you know how much this face cost?"

  • Chekhov's Skill - The boy from the beginning has telekinesis, which he has refined to be able to stop time on a stopwatch perfectly. Used by the villains to further their goals, and later by the boy to foil their plans
  • Everybody Was Kung-Fu Fighting - Except for Chan's mom, everyone in the movie seems to know Muay Thai or is a capable brawler
  • Impossibly Cool Clothes - Mercury Man's costume is completely fireproof, despite being incredibly thin fabric
  • Magic Meteor - The amulets are both this
  • Mind Over Matter - Introduced at the beginning is a child with telekinesis who saves the day towards the end of the film
  • Mistaken for Masturbating - Chan, in testing how his body becomes fiery hot whenever his heart beats fast, looks through a girlie mag and his clothes burn off--just as his mom walks in the room
  • Playing with Fire - A less-used aspect of his abilities, Mercury Man has fire-based powers
  • Shout-Out - There are a few references to Spider-Man in the film in the form of graffiti
  • Something Person - Mercury Man
  • Stuff Blowing Up - A tiny shaving of the moon amulet was shown as capable of causing a large enough explosion to travel some miles and still push a jeep a good distance. It's justified in that one of the amulets is basically Plutonium and the other Uranium
  • Suicide Attack - The terrorists' objectives involve a copious amount of suicide bombers
  • Superhero
  • Super Villain - Areena
  • Transsexualism - Chan's sister, Grace, is a transwoman, portrayed by the famous trans Muay Thai fighter Nong Toom (Parinya Kiatbusaba)
  • Warrior Monk - The guardian of the moon amulet
  • Weaksauce Weakness - The amulet has a weakness to honey.