Cleaner

Tom Cutler is a single father and former cop who makes his living wiping clean the evidence after fatal scenes. He takes on a high end assignment at a wealthy suburban home where a brutal shooting has occurred, hoping to preserve the peace for his daughter Rose. As the cleanup unfolds, Tom begins to suspect he might have erased more than physical traces he is meant to remove. The job drags him into a murky web of deceit and dangerous people who will stop at nothing to hide what happened, putting his family at risk. His meticulous approach sometimes collides with the demands of the case and the private pressure from rich clients who want everything sealed up.

Directed by Renny Harlin, Cleaner arrived in 2007 with a screenplay by Matthew Aldrich and a budget around 25 million, featuring Samuel L. Jackson as Tom Cutler.

Critics gave mixed responses to Cleaner premise, praising the lead performances and the film's grim mood while questioning the plausibility of its intrigue. The story wrestles with moral gray areas and the toll of violence, and it asks how far a person will go to protect family secrets, money, and influence.

Cleaner did not become a cultural touchstone, and its premise stays mainly among genre fans. Still the movie nails a claustrophobic mood as a single father fights corruption, a setup that echoes in other mid-2000s crime thrillers and nudges viewers to question how cleanliness hides danger.