Midnight Runners plot summary
Midnight Runners is a 2017 South Korean film directed by Jason Kim and starring Park Seo-joon and Kang Ha-neul. It’s a light, action-packed comedy with a serious dramatic theme, an important social message, and a happy ending.
Two young men, Park Ki-joon (Park Seo-joon) and Kang Hee-yeol (Kang Ha-neul) are admitted to the Korea National Police University. Between grueling and rigorous training, they form a bond of friendship and embark on a one-night adventure after witnessing a crime.
What happened on that fateful night?
Ki-joon and Hee-yeol arrive at the luxurious, upscale Club Octagon and are dazzled by the sights and sounds; all the pretty girls gathered; music and dance; and celebrities who frequent the venue. They have a great time, but gradually realize that this place is not for them because no one cares about them.
Later, they saw a young pretty girl (Lee Ho-jung) in a pink parka on the street. The boys decide to try their luck at being friends with her, but they don’t have the courage to approach her. As they try to figure out how to talk to him, they end up following him. While strategizing, they witness the girl being abducted by some people in a passing car.
Ki-joon and Hee-yeol complain over the phone about the kidnapping. They meet with Captain Kim (Kim Gang-hyun) of the Missing Person Unit at the Gangnam Police Station and ask for his help. But Kim says that he and his entire team have been ordered to search for the business tycoon’s missing son.
Boys understand that delay means danger. Plus, they’re the only ones who know the girl’s been kidnapped, so if they don’t do something, she’s definitely going to die. If they don’t act, who will?
Being students of the academy, they are not allowed to do research by law. They know that even if they can save the girl with a long shot, they will be kicked out for breaking the rules. But here the life of an innocent girl is at stake and they have to fulfill their moral duty.
How do guys try to find girls?
The first thing they do is go back to the crime scene. They find the package that the girl dropped when she was kidnapped. This is a food package containing “tteokbokki”. They start asking all the neighboring street food vendors, until an old woman recognizes her food, remembers the girl in the pink parka as one of her regular customers, and points to the basement of the building where she works.
The two arrive at the location, a shady ear cleaning parlor. Ki-joon stands guard as Hee-yeol enters. The second learns that the kidnapped girl is a runaway minor named Lee Yoon-jung; the whole place is illegal and all the girls working here are running away.
He gets her address, goes outside, and is startled to see Ki-joo circling the block with two cops chasing him. It turns out that the two policemen intended to enter the hall, and Ki-joon chases them away by hurling insults at them to protect his friend. So when Hee-yeol comes out, she is joined by Ki-joon and two hot feet at security.
The duo arrive at Lee Yoon-Jung’s address, where a shady villain Gun-Young (Lee Seung-Hee) unlocks the door through the security lock. When he hears that they are from the Police Academy, he runs out the back exit. The duo catch him and find out the name and address of the man he sold to Lee Yoon-Jung.
The duo then take a taxi to where the kidnappers are. This is one of those crime-ridden areas that even the cops run away from. In a series of misadventures, they discover a series of kidnapped girls trapped in hellish conditions in an abandoned, ram-locked building; being beaten by kidnappers; they are nearly killed in the process; and finally manages to escape to a nearby police station.
The policeman on duty sticks to procedure and refuses to help without seeing their IDs (which they lost in Angel). When Ki-joon yells at him for his unsympathetic attitude, the police insult them and handcuff them. They are finally released when Professor Yang Sung-il (Sung Dong-il) shows up early in the morning.
What is the purpose behind kidnapping girls?
Professor Yang recognizes the “Menopur” label the boys found in the hideout earlier as an ovulation drug that can produce twenty eggs or eggs for a healthy woman.
The truth that emerges is that a criminal gang led by the burly Yang-choon (Ko Jun) targets young runaway girls living anonymously. If these girls are abducted, no one will know or care, and their runaway friends will fear the police, so they won’t report any missing persons.
Once taken into custody, these girls are given ovulation drugs and their eggs or ova are periodically retrieved, just like in an egg farm. These eggs are then sold to infertile couples for a fee. The recipient couples are mostly decent, affluent people who are completely unaware of the criminal activity behind these egg donations. Add to the depravity that if any girl is infertile, she is either trafficked or worse, organ harvested.
Why are the boys upset that the real cops are taking over?
Professor Yang really wants to help stop crime. He tells the boys to go back to school and let the real cops take over from here. Unfortunately, the boys find that given current case expectations and procedures, it will take two to three weeks for the cops to begin their investigation.
Professor Yang also learns that the car involved in the kidnapping is an unregistered car and the manual search procedure of the CCTV tapes will take about a month. He warns the boys that if they get involved again, they will be kicked out.
How do the boys demolish the clinic?
Ki-joon and Hee-yeol think that even though it is illegal to embark on a rescue mission, it would be a sin not to. They manipulate classmate Jae-ho, a braggart whose father is a high-ranking police officer, into revealing the name of an officer who can help them at the Gangnam CCTV center.
Medusa is their old drill instructor who can freeze a man’s blood with her fierce gaze. He remembers them and responds in a surprisingly friendly tone. Ki-joon says that his friend was the victim of a hit-and-run by an unregistered car in Gangnam, and Medusa agrees to help them.
The boys begin a grueling fitness session and also (unbeknownst to their teacher) demand police batons, handcuffs, tasers, and protective gear in Professor Yang’s name.
They soon receive a call from Medusa, who informs her that the vehicle with the H Fertility Clinic logo was spotted twice, on the second and fourth Sundays.
On D-Day, Ki-joon and Hee-yeol arrive and beat up a gang of gangsters. Their boss Yang-choon (Ko Jun) is a tougher nut to crack. He’s a brutal fighter and single-handedly beats the boys around him, but this time it’s a do-or-die situation and the boys come back with even more power despite their severe beating. They gang up on the gangster boss, knocking him out cold and handcuffing him.
Soon, a cavalcade of police cars rushes into the clinic and the police are finally taken into custody.
How does it end for the boys?
The Academy’s faculty members are divided on what action should be taken against boys who violate the Academy’s rules. Half of the faculty are demanding dismissal, insisting it will set a bad precedent if disciplinary action is not taken. Others argue that the boys did the right thing, saved more than 20 kidnapping victims, and should not be punished.
The president asks Professor Young’s opinion, who says that it would be bad if the boys ignored the kidnapped girl. If they neglected the victims to avoid punishment, it would be more dishonorable than expulsion. He admits that he envies their passion and misses the days when he was younger and didn’t worry about the consequences when he caught the bad guys.
After much thought, wiser counsel prevails. The boys are not expelled, but as a significant punishment they will be detained for a year and must do 500 hours of community service.
In the epilogue, saved girl Lee Yoon-Jung visits the boys while they are doing community service and expresses her gratitude. She tears up in the hug and thanks them for saving her life, but they revert to their goofy ways as she shows them around campus.