5. Repo Men (Miguel Sapochnik, 2010)
Being a debt collector has always been considered one of those ‘nasty’ jobs, considering that if you look at the moral aspect of the profession, you must be a heartless and compassionless individual. But if you thought that was bad enough, the job in Repo Men is a debt collecting business much worse.
The job of the protagonist, Remy (Jude Law), is not to collect debt in its usual sense, but rather to take back his company’s given property in the shape of organs, from individuals that were not able to pay back the price for them on time – causing them nothing less than their lives.
Being part of such a brutal business, Remy is a professional in his field, that is up until his heartless personality becomes accompanied by a heartless body after a tragic car accident which forces him to shift to the other side of the playing field. Being largely in debt for his new heart and struggling to pay it off, Remy finally realises the pain and suffering he has been causing all of these years, as he chooses to stand up to the corrupt and unfair system.
4. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (Michel Gondry, 2004)
Some memories are extremely painful and can make our lives a misery. Nobody wants to keep on thinking about the loss of loved ones or about a dark period of their lived. The only remedy to the internal pain may be to somehow forget and move on, or perhaps see a psychologist to deal with the suffering. In Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Dr. Mierzwiak (Tom Wilkinson) takes psychological treatment to another level by not just verbally treating the painful memories, but extracting them altogether.
Of course, the movie isn’t based around Dr. Mierzwiak, although he is the central aspect of the plot. Joel Barish (Jim Carrey) is going through a devastating break-up with Clementine (Kate Winslet) after an intense and serious love affair.
The pain is so difficult to handle that both of them decide to go through the memory extraction procedure offered by Mierzwiak. But in the process, Joel realises that perhaps this is not what he really wants and that these memories are not ones he truly wants to forget and so he begins to fight and resist the extraction.
3. Inception (Christopher Nolan, 2010)
Although being a thief in fiction movies isn’t an unusual occupation considering the interesting plot the job may bring along with it, being a mind thief is something unusual both in the real world and on screen. In Inception, Cobb (Leonardo DiCaprio) doesn’t sneak into people’s houses or property, instead he goes straight into people’s minds through dream-technology, along with fellow thought extractors, revealing and taking out information for his customers.
The dangerous job causes Cobb to become a fugitive and to lose everything that is dear to him. Finally, his already interesting and challenging job becomes even more so when he is assigned the task that can help him get out of hiding and return to his beloved children – all his has to do is to plant an idea into the mind of a big company’s CEO, building and breaking through layers and layers of the subconscious of the mind.
2. Perfume: The Story of a Murderer (Tom Tykwer, 2006)
Although today the job of a perfumer is still quite rare, the task of making perfumes has largely simplified with the introduction of modern technology and innovative equipment. Going back in time however, this job was particularly rare and unusual as it required an impeccable scent sense, as well as knowledge of the complicated and complex craft that is perfume-making.
Grenouille (Ben Whishaw) in Perfume: The Story of a Murderer was the perfect candidate for such a career as he was gifted with an exceptional sense of smell. But from all of the smells that surround him, he is most drawn to the beautiful scent of particular women. Going through his difficult life, he is granted with opportunities to train and make first class perfumes. This encourages him to try out methods of his own to create the ultimate perfume, letting the story take a dark turn.
1. Beetlejuice (Tim Burton, 1988)
We have all heard of the job of an exorcist, who helps to extract ghosts from ‘haunted’ places; although this job in itself would be considered quite rare and unusual in the real world, Tim Burton’s Beetlejuice creates a twist on this uncommon profession, introducing a “bio-exorcist”, or a reverse exorcist who helps ghosts get rid of unwanted humans rather than vice versa.
After dying in a car accident, Barbara (Geena Davis) and Adam (Alec Baldwin) become trapped as ghosts in their former home. Deciding to make the most out of the slightly unfortunate situation, they decorate and get on with their homely lives, that is until they get disturbed by the loud and chaotic couple who move in along with their young daughter Lydia.
After failed attempts to scare the intruders away, Adam and Barbara seek the help of Beetlejuice (Michael Keaton) – a bio-exorcist whose problem-solving methods become not only frightening and dangerous to the humans, but to the ghosts themselves. Hopefully this job will stay fictitious.
Author Bio: Polina is an aesthete and cinephile, devoted to using the arts to revive “sex, drugs and rock’n’roll” in hopes of loosening up the world by defying the unnecessary social restrictions. When taking time off her edgy crusade she can be found soaking in a bubble bath with a Dostoevsky novel.