The Limits of Control is a 2009 American film written and directed by Jim Jarmusch, starring Isaach de Bankolé as a solitary assassin, carrying out a job in Spain.

The mission itself is left unstated and the instructions are cryptic, including such phrases as "Everything is subjective," "The universe has no center and no edges; reality is arbitrary," and "Use your imagination and your skills."

A code written on a small piece of paper is inside each matchbox, which Lone Man reads and then eats.

In Almería, he is given a ride in a pickup truck - driven by a companion of the Mexican - on which the words La vida no vale nada ('life is worth nothing') are painted, a phrase Guitar says to him in Seville, and he is taken to Tabernas desert.

After the assassination with a guitar string, he rides back to Madrid, where he locks away the suit he has worn throughout the movie and changes into a sweatsuit bearing the national flag of Cameroon.

Jarmusch had the first idea about "a very quiet, very centered criminal on some sort of mission" fifteen years prior to the release of the movie.

Isaach de Bankolé was to play a quiet centred criminal in the Torres Blancas apartment tower that Jarmusch himself first visited in the 80s.

[8] Jacques Rivette's films were also used as inspiration for the plot full of disorienting cryptic clues with no clear solution.

"[9] Jarmusch also employed the Oblique Strategies created by musician Brian Eno to reassure himself in the creative process, specifically the using phrases "Are these sections considered transitions?

For scenes where no suitable music could be found, Jarmusch's own band Bad Rabbit recorded new songs.

Music served as the inspiration for the atmosphere and editing of the film, the guitar that appears in the story should represent a guitar that was used in the 1920s by Manuel El Sevillano to record "Por Compasión: Malagueñas", lyrics from "El Que Se Tenga Por Grande" are referenced throughout the film.