Payback is a 1999 American neo-noir action thriller film^[4][5] written and directed by Brian Helgeland in his directorial debut, and starring Mel Gibson, Gregg Henry, Maria Bello, Lucy Liu, Deborah Kara Unger, David Paymer and James Coburn. It is based on the novel The Hunter by Donald E. Westlake using the pseudonym Richard Stark, which had earlier been adapted into the 1967 film Point Blank.