Assassins - The Killer

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Movie
German title Assassins - The Killer
Original title Assassins
Assassins the killer.svg
Country of production United States , France
original language English
Publishing year 1995
length 133 minutes
Age rating FSK 16
JMK 14
Rod
Director Richard Donner
script The Wachowskis ,
Brian Helgeland
production Richard Donner,
Joel Silver
music Mark Mancina
camera Vilmos Zsigmond
cut Richard Marks
occupation

Assassins - The Killer (Original title: Assassins ) is an action - thriller from the year 1995 by director Richard Donner . The main roles are played by Sylvester Stallone , Antonio Banderas and Julianne Moore .

action

Robert Rath from Portland 's assassins and is considered the number one in its industry. He does not know his clients personally; he always receives his orders and the information about the target person anonymously via the Internet . For 15 years, however, he has been plagued by feelings of guilt because at that time he was commissioned to kill his colleague and friend Nicolai, which he did with a targeted shot in the heart.

Rath wants to get out and end his career as a hit man. However, he still takes on an assignment: He is said to kill billionaire Alan Branch for $ 200,000, who is said to have been involved in money laundering , drug trafficking and financing illegal death squads . As he is about to carry out his mission, another shooter beats him and shoots his target. The shooter is the apparently crazy Miguel Bain, who is arrested on site by the arriving police. While still in the police car on the way to the station, he manages to escape, killing three policemen.

Rath does not want to let someone snatch his order from under his nose and also find out who his competitor is and who his client was. Rath steals a taxi and waits for a suitable radio message: As an alleged taxi driver, he succeeds in taking Bain for a trip to the airport. After a while he realizes that Robert Rath, who is his great role model as a hit man, is driving him. Since they are separated by bulletproof armored glass in the taxi , a conversation takes place between the two of them. Bain explains that while he admires Rath, he must kill him in order for him to become the best of his trade. He demonstrates his ruthlessness by threatening to shoot innocent people and escapes while the police chase the taxi.

Rath manages to escape the police. He now wants to withdraw - because he receives the tempting offer of two million US dollars for another order and accepts it again. A Seattle computer specialist plans to sell stolen data on a floppy disk to four Dutch buyers. Rath should eliminate the buyers and get the diskette. The computer specialist and obvious cat lover, of whom there are no pictures and only known by the name Electra, is supposed to kill him too.

There are some complications in the Marriott hotel where the transaction is to take place, as Bain is also after the woman and her buyers. The four buyers are shot dead by Bain and turned out to be Interpol undercover agents . Rath escapes with Electra, but Bain uses the cat photos Electra left behind to locate their apartment. In the meantime, Electra can shake Rath off, but she loses her beloved cat, with whose help the professional can track her down again. There is another fight with Bain in her apartment, two uninvolved neighbors are killed. Rath eventually blows up the apartment with the help of a gas pipe, injuring Bain but escaping.

After Rath had exchanged the disk for a suitcase of money, he notices that there is a bomb in the suitcase and can throw it away in good time. Electra had already replaced the diskette as a precaution. With a renewed contact, the buyer now offers 20 million US dollars for the disk, which he is to transfer to a bank account in San Juan . Rath plans to collect the money from the very same bank in front of which he had shot Nicolai 15 years earlier and to deposit the disk there. In the meantime, Bain is given the task of killing Rath. Bain behaves as Rath had expected, and with the window of an abandoned hotel chooses exactly the same shooting position opposite the bank as his great role model once did. However, Rath leaves him fidgeting for hours until Bain finally gets nervous and follows him into the bank. During this time Electra tries to take Bain's left rifle.

However, it breaks through the rotten floor in the building and Bain returns, closely followed by Rath, who suspects that Electra is in trouble due to the broken radio contact. With combined forces, the two can defeat Bain, when suddenly Nicolai, who was believed to be dead, appears. He survived the assassination with a bulletproof vest because he knew that Rath would shoot his victim in the heart - he has led an undetected life since the end of the Cold War . He was also Rath's anonymous client, since the data stolen by Electra contained explosive information about his secret identity and the secret organization covering him. Now he wants to take the money back and kill everyone involved. The bain lying on the ground is not finished yet and shoots Nicolai together with Rath. Then he also wants to shoot Rath from behind, but Electra puts on her sunglasses so that Rath can see him in the reflection behind her and shoot him through his jacket. Rath and Electra take the suitcase and disappear together.

background

The shooting of Assassins took place from April 6, 1995 to July 24, 1995 on US locations in Seattle , Everett and Portland as well as in Puerto Rico in San Juan . Production costs were around 50 million US dollars estimated. Sylvester Stallone's fee accounted for 15 million US dollars. The film grossed around $ 83 million in cinemas around the world, including around $ 30 million in the United States. The film premiered in the USA and Great Britain, where it was first seen on October 6, 1995. Originally, the film was supposed to be released in June 1995. The cinema release in Germany took place on October 26th 1995. At the German box offices over 680,000 visitors were counted.

The main role was originally supposed to play Sean Connery , who was not available due to filming on another film project. Michael Douglas and Arnold Schwarzenegger were planned as alternative casts for the role of Robert Rath . Woody Harrelson and Tom Cruise were in discussion for the role of Miguel Bain , Christian Slater declined the role. Mel Gibson thought the script was very successful and would have liked to direct the film, but because of the advanced work on his film Braveheart, he let his friend Richard Donner take precedence.

Brian Helgeland was hired to rewrite the script during production. The two original screenwriters Andy and Larry Wachowski were not satisfied with his results and asked not to be named in the credits, which was rejected by the Writers Guild of America .

Michael Kamen , a friend of director Richard Donner , wrote the original score . Since Donner considered the film music to be too heavy, slow and worn out and wanted a lighter and faster background music for his film, he offered Kamen to revise the film music. Kamen had to cancel the revision because he was already working on the music to Die Hard: Now even more . Then Mark Mancina was commissioned to compose a new film score.

A typical trademark of the director Richard Donner are his political statements integrated into the films. Anti- NRA logos, directed against the US Firearms Association, can be seen on the buses . In one scene, the logo can be seen in large when Bain loses his gun. The character played by Julianne Moore sprays a woman wearing fur with red paint to protest against the wearing of furs. A sign in a pet store reads an invitation to adopt stray pets. You can also see a woman with the Pro-Choice imprint on her T-shirt, which means that pregnant women can choose whether to have a child or not.

In the original English it can be heard how the supposedly Dutch buyers speak German to one another.

The bank and the hotel where Bain is waiting to fire the fatal shot at Rath are both in San Juan , but they are neither opposite nor on the same street.

The film shows a procession on the day of the dead , the so-called “Día de Muertos”, through the streets of San Juan . However, this is a Mexican tradition that is not celebrated in Puerto Rico .

Reviews

"The clichés of the genre are processed with an inhuman coldness that has not been seen in the 'upscale' action cinema for a long time."

- Lexicon of international film

“The serious, sometimes even silent thriller drama by director Richard Donner (' Lethal Weapon ') perfectly balances calm suspense and effective action. [...] Conclusion: macho duel with style and atmosphere. "

- Cinema

"Richard Donner shows himself to be a reliable old hand with this passable action thriller. The duel between Sylvester Stallone and Antonio Banderas is not without its wit. [...] The showdown at the end is, however - as usual in Hollywood cinema in the nineties - drawn out too much. "

- prism

Awards

Sylvester Stallone was nominated for the 1996 Golden Raspberry for worst actor.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Age rating for Assassins - Die Killer . Youth Media Commission .
  2. ↑ Locations according to the Internet Movie Database
  3. ↑ a b c d budget and box office results according to the Internet Movie Database
  4. ↑ a b c d e f g h i j k background information according to the Internet Movie Database
  5. ↑ a b Start dates according to the Internet Movie Database
  6. ↑ Assassins - The Killer. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed March 2, 2017 .Template: LdiF / Maintenance / Access used 
  7. ↑ Assassins - Die Killer on cinema.de
  8. ↑ Assassins - Die Killer on prisma.de
  9. ↑ Nominations and awards according to the Internet Movie Database