Film / Bimmer

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Bimmer (Бумер, alternatively Bumer, named after a common nickname of BMW) is a 2003 Russian crime drama film by Peter Buslov and Denis Rodimin.

In a chaotic 1999 Moscow, four thief friends, Kostyan the Cat, Dimon the Scald, Petya the Rama, and Lyokha the Killa, steal a parked 1995 BMW 750iL, and soon find themselves being pursued. Trying to get away, everything that could go From Bad to Worse, does, as the corrupt cops and other gangsters keep getting in the way, they have no supplies, while the car and their companionship are always on edge of breaking apart.

Has received a videogame version by Gaijin Entertainment and Dmitry Puchkov, telling an alternative story. In 2005 it has received two novelizations. Bumer: Film vtoroy (Second movie) was released in 2006.

Bimmer features the following tropes:

• Anachronic Order: The narrative jumps back and forth, with what actually started the plot gets revealed near the very end, while some pieces of the "Where Are They Now?" Epilogue are mixed in after some encounters.
• Ax-Crazy: Killa doesn't tolerate being disrespected and isn't afraid to throw hands or use a gun to keep someone who he doesn't like quiet. This is what drags the team into a big mess in the first place, as the gangster he pointed the gun at wasn't phased and Killa's hand slipped. Even during the pursuit, he suggests violent options to get away, and despite his loyalty to the group he Can't Take Criticism.
• Bear Trap: A drunk village cop drops some cash. While reaching for it in the snow, it happens to land on a bear trap. He ends with his hand bit.
• Bribe Backfire:
  • While trying to leave the town, Rama offers a patrol officer cash to look the other way so he wouldn't check the stolen car. The cop is more than willing to report nothing... if given a lot more, which eats practically the rest of the team's savings.
  • Trying to get away from drugs suddenly being found in the car, they try to bribe another patrol again. Two cops instead take them at gunpoint, and after emptying their wallets on top of taking the weed, consider "the fine" paid.
• The Casanova: Rama doesn't think twice about flirting with whatever girl happens to be nearby.
• Central Theme: Actions have consequences. Doing one crime to cover another will just accumulate the risk and is never worth it.
• The Chase: Despite changing the number plate, the moment the team leaves the garage, a black van pursues them. A bit later, the team finds themselves wanted by the police.
• Coincidental Broadcast: Scald's insider friend Max leaves a Public Secret Message for the gang on a music requests radio. Scald so happened to be listening to another car while scouting. Killa lampshades how lucky Scald was.
• Contrived Coincidence:
  • The team bribe a gas station kid with a tape player and a metal bat. While taking gas from the private gas station, its owners just so happen to show up. When offered the same deal, the mobsters insist on cash they don't have. Then the boss also happens to show up, and is merciful enough to take the player.
  • Out of the four, Cat's phone goes missing. It's still in the car, and Nastya ends up calling him several times exactly when he's out, and ends up leaving him. Scald finds it at the end of the movie, but the battery goes dead as soon as he picks up the call.
• Creator Cameo: The director Peter Buslov plays one of the gas station gangsters.
• Downer Ending: The "just one unarmed guard" robbery ends with Killa shot to death, Rama being shot by the police while shielding Cat, Scald ditches everyone, and Cat gets arrested without getting to tell Nastya where he went.
• Hard Cut: When checking finances, Rama mocks Killa that they will likely only be able to afford milk with this. Killa has a large milk bottle in the very next scene.
• Laser-Guided Karma: The Hate Sinks, a large Dirty Cop and a trucker Hoarse, end up severely injuring themselves much later after screwing up the gang For the Evulz.
• A Lighter Shade of Black: While the gang commits quite a range of crimes including murders, they just want to be left alone and one circumstance or bad decision leads to another. This is contrasted with many other characters they meet, who are all too eager to hurt others for a quick buck or just out of spite. Bribing the Dirty Cop with own cash is portrayed as Pay Evil unto Evil. While not a saint himself, out of the four, Cat is also the only one who tries to do things right.
• The Mafiya: As not uncommon for The '90s Russia, while the protagonists are gangsters themselves, they keep running into groups who have a lot of manpower to defend their "business".
• Meaningful Name: Lyokha's nickname Killa sounds like 'killer', and fittingly him being prone to violence results in a death that starts the plot of the movie.
• The Mole: Cat's friend Kirill is a policeman, who informs him that "four morons have shot an undercover FSB" and they're now wanted.
• Mugging the Monster: A drunk former militaryman Pasha is not amused that his girlfriend Katya has slept with Rama, and threatens him with a rifle. A seasoned gangster Rama calls his bluff because the rifle isn't loaded properly and beats him up.
• My Car Hates Me: The titular car does absolutely nothing but fall victim to one Plot-Driven Breakdown after another.
• Nerves of Steel: At the "Plate" restaurant, Killa shoots the floor and tries to make the other gang to calm down. He's the only one in a frenzy, as everyone else is unfazed, while the gang leader even looks bored. This, unfortunately, causes Killa to panic.
• Never My Fault:
  • When Cat blames Killa for shooting a guy which got them into trouble, Killa, who provoked the shootout in the first place, asks why should he tolerate both of theirs disrespect and takes offense he's even considered to be at fault.
  • Scald explains that everything has started when the Lexus gangsters interfered with his Merc ride and then mugged him. What the actual flashback shows is that Scald was the one driving recklessly and broke many traffic laws, and when the Lexus drivers pulled him over for creating a dangerous turn, he provoked them.
• Not Dead, Just Asleep: The gang breaks into a house to treat injured Scald, and see a grandma nicknamed Dogstress sleeping there. Cat can't get a reaction from her, so everyone assumes she's dead and they start looting, before she introduces herself.
• Phone-Trace Race: The team got a couple of silent phone calls and figure out the police could be trying to track them this way and turn them off.
• Properly Paranoid: The team decides to protect the truckers from gangsters by claiming they are the bodyguards, but the gangsters then quiz what's in the trucks after checking themselves. Killa claims it's alcohol, which is correct, because he decided to check in the trucks himself first.
• Protection Racket: Some local gang starts harassing caravan truckers that they're "sitting on their spot", and need to pay a fee with some of their cargo. Killa makes a counter-offer, the truckers can pay him to bodyguard against cases like these so the gangsters would go away, while Killa beats one of the truckers for not getting the clue. Because of this, instead of thanking them, when reunited with the caravan the truckers start a fight, stab Scald and cut BMW's tire.
• The Promise: Cat and Nastya agree to go to France. She's aware that he's a criminal, but he assures her he'll make it this time. Before the plot of the movie, he said he'll return in a couple of hours. He gets dragged into The Chase, keeps missing the calls, and ends up in jail.
• Rule of Symbolism: In the final shot of the film the BMW's lights slowly fade as if it's dying.
• Scenery Censor: After Rama sleeps with Katya, when she walks away nude, the fence obscures the bottom half of the screen.
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here: For the IT store robbery, Scald insists on letting him be involved despite the injury, even as a Getaway Driver, pressuring Cat to go as well despite him not wanting to be involved. As soon as the shootout ends badly, Scald decides to escape on the BMW alone. He regrets this immediatelly, but is the only one to end up as Karma Houdini.
• Shout-Out:
  • When Scald asks to remove the phone batteries on top of turning them off so they wouldn't be traced, Rama makes a mocking comparison to James Bond.
  • Cat calls Killa Batman at a cafe for his agressive interrogation skills.
• A Tragedy of Impulsiveness: All four of the gang let their emotions take over their reason and only dig themselves deeper.
  • Killa thought that waving a gun at another gang will keep them quiet. He gets intimidated instead and accidentally shoots one of them, kickstarting the plot. At the patrol check, he suggests flooring it, so Cat has to compromise to bribery to avoid getting extra attention from the police. Then he suggests robbing the IT store, which fails completely, with him dying first.
  • Rama decides to break the hood lock so the police wouldn't be able to check the stolen car's engine number, but this also means if anything goes wrong they'll have no access for repairs. Another officer "finds" drugs in the car, and is a lot more suspicious of the broken bonnet, so Cat again has to improvise.
  • Scald nearly scrapping another foreign car and refusing to apologize is what really started the whole chain of events, something he decides not to tell.
  • Cat is the only one who objects to robbing the IT store to get easy money, but as usual folds under team pressure with assumption that it'd be a quick job. It results in a massive shootout, with Killa and Rama dead and Cat arrested.
• Undercover Cop Reveal: The senior gangster who was shot by Killa was an undercover agent of FSB, so the team finds themselves in an extra amount of trouble, as if shooting someone in a restaurant wasn't bad already.
• Villain Protagonist: The plot of the film is about four carjackers ending up murdering someone, and while trying to find a place to lie low just make their crime lists longer.
• Wicked Cultured: One of the gang, Scald, can recognize that the background track on the radio is by Gustav Mahler, while Rama is only annoyed by it.