Enemy of the State
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Enemy of the State is a 1998 film written by David Marconi, directed by Tony Scott, and starring Will Smith, Gene Hackman, Jon Voight, and Lisa Bonet. The film grossed over $250,000,000 worldwide ($111,549,836 domestically - all figures in USD).
Tagline: It's not paranoia if they're really after you.
Plot
As the movie opens, legislation is pending to expand surveillance powers of law enforcement agencies. Republican Senator Phil Hammersleigh (Jason Robards, uncredited), who is trying to stop the bill, is killed by rogue NSA agents supervised by Thomas Reynolds (Jon Voight), an official trying to push the bill by unscrupulous means necessary. The operatives are not aware that the murder is being recorded by a video camera used to track populations of geese.
A geese population researcher named Daniel Zavitz (Jason Lee) removes the tape from the camera. Upon playing it, Zavitz discovers it contains footage of the murder. However, Zavitz is seen by an NSA agent while recovering the tape from its camera. Zavitz copies the tape onto a computer cartridge. When the agents show up, he hides it in a TurboExpress and runs.
Will Smith plays Robert Clayton Dean, a labor lawyer working in trade union cases. While shopping at a lingerie store for his wife, Dean encounters Zavitz (an old college buddy), fleeing the NSA agents (they knew each other from Georgetown University). Unbeknownst to Dean, Zavitz drops the videotape into his shopping bag and escapes. He is killed, however, while trying to escape the agents on bike by trying to cross a busy street only to be run over by a fire engine. Using high-tech satellite technology, the NSA quickly discovers that Dean must be in possession of the tape, and a chase develops. This is only complicated more when the NSA disrupts Robert's credit line and start to invade his personal life, even going to so far as to murdering friends (Lisa Bonet) and keeping track of Robert through high tech devices.
The only person who might be able to help Dean is Brill (Gene Hackman), who traces the rogue unit in the NSA. After the tape is accidentally destroyed, they stage an encounter and create a Mexican standoff between the NSA agents and a mafia boss (Tom Sizemore, uncredited) along with a dozen or so mobsters, who have been threatening Dean. A large shootout ensues, with Dean and Brill among the survivors as Reynolds and nearly all of the men involved in the conspiracy and the mobsters are killed. The plot behind the legislation is revealed and the only two survivors who are left to tell the truth are computer nerds Fiedler (Jack Black) and Jamie (Jamie Kennedy) and they are reluctant to confess.
With his life finally back together and Brill quickly disappearing, Robert sits with his family, only to see a blurred image on screen revealing a beach, as it's washed out with the expression "Wish you were here", a greeting from Brill who has relocated to somewhere tropical.
Cast
- Will Smith - Robert Clayton Dean
- Gene Hackman - Edward 'Brill' Lyle
- Barry Pepper - Det. David Pratt
- Jon Voight - Thomas Brian Reynolds
- Regina King - Carla Dean
- Ian Hart - Det. John Bingham
- Lisa Bonet - Rachel F. Banks
- Jake Busey - Krug
- Scott Caan - Jones
- Jamie Kennedy - Jamie Williams
- Jason Lee - Daniel Leon Zavitz
- Gabriel Byrne - Fake Brill
- Stuart Wilson - Congressman Sam Albert
- Jack Black - Fiedler
- Laura Cayouette - Christa Hawkins
- Loren Dean - Loren Hicks
- Dan Butler - NSA Director Shaffer
Trivia
- While most of the addresses and locations mentioned in the movie are in Washington, DC, the vast majority of the filming was done in the neighboring city of Baltimore, MD.
- The film's setting is around Christmas time, but was actually filmed in January and February of 1997. Many of the filming locations were told to haul all of their holiday decor back out and "re-decorate."
- Filming crews had hoped to film a few "white Christmas" scenes, but the winter of 1997 brought warm temperatures, and no snow, to the Washington, DC area.
- The movie had a TSCM consultant in the staff, who also played a minor role as a spy shop merchant.
- The movie deals heavily with issues that cropped up again in the debate over the United States Patriot Act. Coincidentally, the antagonist and foremost proponent of the anti-privacy bill (Reynolds) is shown in the film to have a birthday on September 11.
- Mel Gibson and Tom Cruise were considered for the part that went to Will Smith. George Clooney was also considered for a role in the film, which may have been Reynolds role.
- Also, the TurboExpress handheld was shown in this movie
- Seth Green is uncredited.
- In the film, the ferry that Dean rides is mentioned to have a destination to Gibson Island, a real island on the coast of the Chesapeake Bay. However, no such ferry exists, as Gibson Island is a privately-owned corporation.
- Shots of the NSA satellite, seen frequently during the movie, were re-used in the pilot episode of the TV series 24.
See also
- Conspiracy thriller
- Enema of the State, a music album which came out a year later.
- The Conversation, a 1974 film featuring Hackman in a similar role. Old identification photos appearing in Brill's dossier in "Enemy of the State" bear a striking resemblance to surveillance expert Harry Caul in "The Conversation," especially the glasses. Brill acknowledges he has changed his name before.
External link
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