Enemy of the State (film)

Enemy of the State is a 1998 American spy-thriller about a group of rogue NSA agents who kill a US Congressman and try to cover up the murder. It was written by David Marconi, directed by Tony Scott, and produced by Jerry Bruckheimer. It stars Will Smith and Gene Hackman, with Jon Voight, Lisa Bonet, and Regina King in supporting roles.



Contents
[hide]  *1 Plot  ==Plot[ edit] == In the late 90's, U.S. Congress moves to pass new legislation that dramatically expands the surveillance powers of intelligence agencies on individuals, opposing political parties, non-profit movements and groups. However, one congressman, Phil Hammersley, remains firmly opposed to its passage, since he believes it would almost totally destroy the privacy of American citizens, and is preventing passage of the legislation.
 * 2 Cast
 * 3 Production
 * 4 Reception
 * 4.1 Box office
 * 5 Real life
 * 6 See also
 * 7 References
 * 8 External links

NSA official Thomas Reynolds meets with Hammersley in a public park to discuss about the passage. However, he drugs and murders Hammersley, spreads painkiller pills over his car, places him in the car and pushes it in a lake to make it look like a drug-induced accident. However, he is unaware of a video camera set up by wildlife researcher Daniel Zavitz that has captured the entire incident. Zavitz discovers the murder on footage, and alerts an underground journalist, at the same time transferring the video to an innocuous computer disc. Reynolds learns of Zavitz's footage, and sends a team to recover the video. While fleeing, Zavitz runs into an old college friend, labor lawyer Robert Clayton Dean. Zavitz secretly passes the computer disc into Dean's shopping bag without his knowledge. Zavitz flees and is killed when hit by a fire truck. Reynolds soon has the underground journalist killed.

When the NSA discovers that Dean may have the video, a team raids his house and plants surveillance devices. Unable to find the video, the NSA proceeds to falsely implicate Dean of passing classified information to Rachel Banks, a former girlfriend. The subterfuge destroys Dean's life: he is dismissed from his job, his bank accounts are frozen, and his wife throws him out of the house. Trailed by the NSA, Dean meets with Banks, who sets up a meeting with "Brill", one of her secret contacts. After meeting an NSA agent posing as Brill, Dean realizes his error, only to have the real Brill, retired NSA agent Edward Lyle, ferry him to temporary safety and help rid Dean of most of the tracking devices he is unwittingly carrying. Dean ultimately rids himself of the final device and, fleeing his pursuers, escapes.

With Dean and Lyle in hiding, the NSA agents kill Banks and frame Dean for the murder. Lyle is able to the recover the video that shows the NSA executing Hammersley's murder, but it is destroyed during an escape from an NSA raid. It is then revealed that Lyle was an expert in communications for the NSA; he was stationed in Iran in 1979 before the Iranian Revolution. When the revolution occurred, Lyle made it out of the country, but his partner, Rachel's father, was killed. Since then he has been in hiding, having faked his death during the revolution. Lyle tries to coax Dean into trying to run away, but Dean is adamant about clearing his name.

Dean and Lyle trail another supporter of the surveillance bill, Congressman Sam Albert, by videotaping him having an affair with his aide. Dean and Lyle "hide" bugs that Reynolds had used on Dean in Albert's room so Albert will find them and have the NSA start an investigation about Albert's tapping. Lyle also deposits $140,000 into Reynolds' bank account to make it appear that he is taking bribes.

Lyle contacts Reynolds to tell him he has the video of the Hammersley murder and asks to meet. Dean tells them that the Hammersley murder footage is in the hands ofMafia boss Paulie Pintero, whose office is under FBI surveillance. Dean, Reynolds, and the NSA team head into Pintero's restaurant, precipitating a gunfight that kills the mobsters, Reynolds, and several of his NSA team.

Dean and Lyle escape, with Lyle quickly disappearing from the authorities. The FBI discovers the plot behind the legislation, and the U.S congress is forced to abandon the passage plan to avoid a national scandal, though they cover up the NSA's involvement to prevent a large riot against the agency. Dean is cleared of all charges and is reunited with his wife. Lyle escapes to a tropical location, but sends a "goodbye" message to Dean. ==Cast[ edit] == ==Production<span class="mw-editsection" style="-webkit-user-select:none;font-size:small;margin-left:1em;line-height:1em;display:inline-block;white-space:nowrap;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;font-family:sans-serif;"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket" style="color:rgb(85,85,85);">[ edit<span class="mw-editsection-bracket" style="color:rgb(85,85,85);">] == <p style="margin-top:0.5em;line-height:17.9200000762939px;color:rgb(37,37,37);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:14.3999996185303px;">The story is set in both Washington, D.C., and Baltimore, and most of the filming was done in Baltimore. Location shooting began on a ferry in Fell's Point. In mid-January, the company moved to Los Angeles to complete production in April 1998.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-3" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;font-size:11.1999998092651px;">[3]
 * Will Smith as Robert Clayton Dean
 * Gene Hackman as Edward "Brill" Lyle
 * Jon Voight as Thomas Brian Reynolds
 * Barry Pepper as David Pratt
 * Regina King as Carla Dean
 * Ian Hart as John Bingham
 * Lisa Bonet as Rachel F. Banks
 * Jascha Washington as Eric Dean
 * James LeGros as Jerry Miller
 * Jake Busey as Krug
 * Scott Caan as Jones
 * Jamie Kennedy as Jamie Williams
 * Jason Lee as Daniel Leon Zavitz
 * Gabriel Byrne as Fake Brill
 * Stuart Wilson as Congressman Sam Albert
 * Jack Black as Fiedler
 * Anna Gunn as Emily Reynolds
 * Laura Cayouette as Christa Hawkins
 * Loren Dean as Loren Hicks
 * Bodhi Elfman as Van
 * Dan Butler as NSA Director Admiral Shaffer
 * Seth Green as Selby (uncredited)
 * Tom Sizemore as Boss Paulie Pintero (uncredited)
 * Jason Robards as Congressman Phil Hammersley (uncredited)
 * Philip Baker Hall as Attorney Mark Silverberg (uncredited)
 * Brian Markinson as Attorney Brian Blake (uncredited)
 * Larry King as Himself (uncredited)
 * Ivana Miličević as Ruby's Sales Clerk

<p style="margin-top:0.5em;margin-bottom:0.5em;line-height:17.9200000762939px;color:rgb(37,37,37);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:14.3999996185303px;">Mel Gibson and Tom Cruise were considered for the part that went to Will Smith, who took the role largely because he wanted to work with Gene Hackman, and had previously enjoyed working with producer Jerry Bruckheimer on Bad Boys. George Clooney was also considered for a role in the film. Sean Connery was considered for the role that went to Hackman. The film's crew included a technical surveillance counter-measures consultant who also had a minor role as a spy shop merchant. Hackman had previously acted in a similar thriller about spying and surveillance film, The Conversation (1974). ==Reception<span class="mw-editsection" style="-webkit-user-select:none;font-size:small;margin-left:1em;line-height:1em;display:inline-block;white-space:nowrap;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;font-family:sans-serif;"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket" style="color:rgb(85,85,85);">[ edit<span class="mw-editsection-bracket" style="color:rgb(85,85,85);">] == <p style="margin-top:0.5em;line-height:17.9200000762939px;color:rgb(37,37,37);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:14.3999996185303px;">Enemy of the State received 71% positive reviews on the film-critics aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, with 81 critics surveyed.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-4" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;font-size:11.1999998092651px;">[4]  Metacritic displayed a normalized ranking of 67 out of 100 on the basis of 22 critics.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-5" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;font-size:11.1999998092651px;">[5]  Kenneth Turan of the Los Angeles Times expressed enjoyment in the movie, noting how its "pizazz [overcame] occasional lapses in moment-to-moment plausibility;"<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-6" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;font-size:11.1999998092651px;">[6]  Janet Maslin of the New York Times approved of the film's action-packed sequences, but cited how it was similar in manner to the rest of the members of "Simpson's and Bruckheimer's school of empty but sensation-packed filming."<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-7" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;font-size:11.1999998092651px;">[7]  In a combination of the two's views, Edvins Beitiks of theSan Francisco Examiner praised many of the movie's development aspects, but criticized the overall concept that drove the film from the beginning — the efficiency of government intelligence — as unrealistic.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-8" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;font-size:11.1999998092651px;">[8]

<p style="margin-top:0.5em;margin-bottom:0.5em;line-height:17.9200000762939px;color:rgb(37,37,37);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:14.3999996185303px;">Kim Newman considered Enemy of the State a "continuation of The Conversation", the 1974 psychological thriller that starred Hackman as a paranoid, isolated surveillance expert.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-9" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;font-size:11.1999998092651px;">[9]

<p style="margin-top:0.5em;margin-bottom:0.5em;line-height:17.9200000762939px;color:rgb(37,37,37);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:14.3999996185303px;">Movie Room Reviews gave the film 3 1/2 stars and said this about Will Smith in a more dramatic role; "Enemy of the State gave him a chance to show that he could play the action hero without the swagger or funny antics, which likely helped his career."<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-10" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;font-size:11.1999998092651px;">[10] ===Box office<span class="mw-editsection" style="-webkit-user-select:none;font-size:small;margin-left:1em;line-height:1em;display:inline-block;white-space:nowrap;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket" style="color:rgb(85,85,85);">[ edit<span class="mw-editsection-bracket" style="color:rgb(85,85,85);">] === <p style="margin-top:0.5em;line-height:17.9200000762939px;color:rgb(37,37,37);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:14.3999996185303px;">The film opened at #2, behind The Rugrats Movie, grossing $20,038,573 over its first weekend in 2,393 theatres and averaging about $8,374 per venue.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-11" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;font-size:11.1999998092651px;">[11] <sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-12" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;font-size:11.1999998092651px;">[12] ==Real life<span class="mw-editsection" style="-webkit-user-select:none;font-size:small;margin-left:1em;line-height:1em;display:inline-block;white-space:nowrap;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;font-family:sans-serif;"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket" style="color:rgb(85,85,85);">[ edit<span class="mw-editsection-bracket" style="color:rgb(85,85,85);">] == <p style="margin-top:0.5em;line-height:17.9200000762939px;color:rgb(37,37,37);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:14.3999996185303px;">An episode of PBS' Nova titled "Spy Factory" reports that the film's portrayal of the NSA's capabilities are fiction: although the agency can intercept transmissions, connecting the dots is difficult.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-13" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;font-size:11.1999998092651px;">[13]  However, in 2001, then-NSA director Gen. Michael Hayden, who was appointed to the position during the release of the film, toldCNN's Kyra Phillips that "I made the judgment that we couldn't survive with the popular impression of this agency being formed by the last Will Smith movie."<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-14" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;font-size:11.1999998092651px;">[14]  James Risen wrote in his 2006 book State of War: The Secret History of the CIA and the Bush Administration that Hayden "was appalled" by the film's depiction of the NSA, and sought to counter it with a PR campaign on behalf of the agency.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-15" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;font-size:11.1999998092651px;">[15]

<p style="margin-top:0.5em;margin-bottom:0.5em;line-height:17.9200000762939px;color:rgb(37,37,37);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:14.3999996185303px;">In June 2013 the NSA's PRISM and Boundless Informant programs for domestic and international surveillance were uncovered by The Guardian and Washington Postas the result of information provided by whistle blower Edward Snowden. This information revealed capabilities such as collection of Internet browsing, email and telephone data of not only every American, but citizens of other nations as well. The Guardian's John Patterson opined that Hollywood depictions of NSA surveillance, including Enemy of the State and Echelon Conspiracy, had "softened" up the American public to "the notion that our spending habits, our location, our every movement and conversation, are visible to others whose motives we cannot know."<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-16" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;font-size:11.1999998092651px;">[16]