He lost his wife Michelle and infant daughter Rose in a horrific murder; since that day, Max has been consumed by the desire to find his family's killer.

Max goes to secretly take some of Michelle's belongings out of storage and finds that documents from when she worked at the Aesir Corporation, a major pharmaceutical manufacturer, have gone missing.

Unfortunately, only a few subjects showed positive results; the rest saw hallucinations and eventually went insane, forcing Aesir to terminate the project and cover up their involvement.

After an intense gunfight, Max escapes with the evidence and shows Mona a video explaining the Valkyr project and featuring Jack Lupino, a former Marine who was one of Aesir's successful test subjects.

explains that he has been secretly selling Valkyr for personal profit and admits to killing Michelle after she found incriminating evidence that could have exposed him.

He swims to shore and, to prevent hypothermia, consumes vials of Valkyr stuffed in his pockets by B.B., which causes him to see intense hallucinations but also makes him nigh-invincible.

He sees a vision of his wife and child smiling at him, and suddenly comes to, as the sun cuts through the clouds and a SWAT team surrounds him.

The 2001 video game Max Payne was optioned by the production company Collision Entertainment to produce a live-action film adaptation.

[11] In November 2007, with a script written by Beau Thorne, Fox announced John Moore as the director and Mark Wahlberg as the title star.

[13] Shooting the film in 35 mm 3-perf,[14] several different areas around Toronto were used for multiple locations in the movie, including the old Daily Bread food bank building at Bathurst & Lakeshore.

[16] In order to recreate the bullet time used in the games without using a complex camera setup, the technique used is called "Boom Vision".

A camera on a track circled Max and Spin later "recreated the ceiling in CG, so it could break away and reveal the Valkyrie world above.

"[19] On September 22, 2008, a trailer confirmed a PG-13 rating, "for violence including intense shooting sequences, drug content, some sexuality, and brief strong language.

He rated the album an eight out of ten, saying "The detuned piano really adds that sense of depth to the proceedings and makes every single track on the CD stand out.

The site's critics consensus reads: "While it boasts some stylish action, Max Payne suffers severely from an illogical plot and over direction.

"[26][27] Metacritic gave the film a weighted average score of 31 out of 100 based on 25 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews".

[citation needed] Louise Keller said "The most striking element is the production design..."[29] Bruce Paterson wrote for the Australian Film Critics Association that "Mark Wahlberg is terrific in hard-bitten roles", but in a reference to the Valkyries concluded, "it could have done with more of the Norse and less of the force.

"[30] Critic Armond White has defended the film stating that Moore "explores genuine, contemporary anxiety [and that] his images are richer than his plots.

[32] IGN went on to give Max Payne the "Best Videogame Adaptation" award of 2008, noting "this is how sad games-to-film have become that the only one worthy of being named the "best" of the year is a movie that we panned.

[35] Mark Wahlberg received a Golden Raspberry Award nomination for Worst Actor for his performance in the film (also for The Happening), but "lost" to Mike Myers for The Love Guru.

1 at the box office, with $17,639,849 during its first weekend against newcomers Sex Drive, The Secret Life of Bees, and W.[37] The film earned $40,689,393 domestically, and $44,727,512 overseas, making a worldwide total of $85,416,905.

While it is not considered an overwhelming success, its U.S. gross was around the same range as other video game adaptations such as Hitman, Silent Hill, and Resident Evil.

[40] It went on to receive a score of 7 out of 10 on IGN, being described as "a first-rate transfer that manages to show off the range of the high-definition format with few, if any, real weaknesses".

A flashback scene where Max finds his family murdered was right at the beginning of the game, as opposed to being shown in the middle of the film.

was also presented as being responsible for the trafficking of Valkyr, whereas in the game, his role was simply that of a crooked cop who betrayed Max and his death was in a shootout at a parking garage.

[43][44][45] A large segment of the video game featuring Max discovering an old government laboratory producing Valkyr (and learning why his family was killed) was completely absent from the film.

[46] The scene where Max is forced to ingest Valkyr, causing him to experience intense hallucinations of his guilt and pain, is shown in the film as him doing so in a desperate attempt to prevent hypothermia after jumping in the water to escape from B.B.