The contract
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| German title | The contract |
| Original title | The contract |
| Country of production | USA , Germany |
| original language | English |
| Publishing year | 2006 |
| length | 96 minutes |
| Age rating | FSK 16 |
| Rod | |
| Director | Bruce Beresford |
| script |
John Darrouzet , Stephen Katz |
| production |
Randall Emmett , George Furla , Avi Lerner , Danny Lerner , Andreas Schmid , Les Weldon |
| music | Normand Corbeil |
| camera | Dante Spinotti |
| cut | Mark Warner |
| occupation | |
| |
The Contract is an American - German thriller directed by Bruce Beresford from 2006 .
action
Frank Carden is a former officer with the rank of major and is now a contract killer . He leads a group of killers who have been assigned to kill the multimillionaire Lydel Hammond senior. Since he lives very secluded and is closely guarded, Frank and his people run over Lydel Hammond junior, the son of the entrepreneur, in a car in order to lure the father of the victim into the public eye at the funeral of his son.
The physical education teacher and ex-cop Ray Keene, meanwhile, has problems raising his son Chris, who was caught smoking marijuana . The father blames the emerging interpersonal problems on his wife's cancer death, but the boy blames the father for his behavior.
Ray then plans a camping holiday together in nature to improve the relationship with his son.
Frank is involved in a car accident, passes out and is hospitalized. There, the gun that he has with him is discovered, whereupon the hospital security service takes his fingerprints and does research about his identity. It is found that Frank is wanted by the CIA and the FBI and, according to their records, has been missing since a military deployment in the 1970s. After these events, Frank is arrested and is said to be driven to an airport after his recovery and handed over to the public prosecutor's office . But his accomplices start an attempt to free themselves, in the course of which the vehicle, together with Frank and the policeman, rushes down a slope and crashes into a river. Frank saves himself and a police officer whom he shot earlier on the river bank. Ray and his son, who happened to want to spend their camping holiday here, rush to their aid. Before the policeman succumbs to his injuries, he manages to give Ray the order to turn Frank over to the police. Ray takes over both the keys to the handcuffs and the policeman's weapon and goes with his son Chris and Frank towards the nearby highway , hoping to get out of the dead zone with their mobile phone .
Frank's accomplices are already waiting for the group at the parking lot of the highway where Ray has parked his car. So Ray looks for another way to contact the police. Meanwhile, the FBI has taken over the search for the fugitive. In secret phone calls between the FBI agent Miles and a defected killer from Frank's troop, it quickly becomes clear that the government would rather see Frank dead.
Ray, Chris and Frank meet a camping couple who join the group to avoid falling into the hands of the pursuers. Meanwhile, the accomplices hijack a police helicopter by posing as injured hikers who need the help of the police. With the help of the helicopter, they quickly find the five-man team and shoot the couple's husband. Ray manages to shoot one of the pursuers, who has let himself off without further ado, from a short distance, and takes the automatic weapon of the pursuer. With this he can make the helicopter flee and even crash it.
The fugitives hide in a log cabin shortly before dark , but the killers are long on their heels and attack at night. Ray realizes that the situation is hopeless, but before he can let Carden go, a chaser breaks into the hut and a scuffle ensues in which Ray can gain the upper hand. Another killer shoots the group, but can also be eliminated. In the further firefight, the remaining defector just misses Frank, but has to give up further attempts to kill Frank, as the police in the approaching helicopter have become aware of the shooting. Frank then manages to escape and he takes Chris hostage. Ray and the camper Sandra are found by the police in the wooden hut with minor injuries and taken care of.
When Ray later hears the news on television, he becomes aware of the imminent funeral of the Hammond heir. He manages to locate Frank in the adjacent forest next to the cemetery and in this way he can prevent the attack at the last second. He persuades Frank to give him his son back, and since Frank has developed a bond with Ray and Chris during the trip through the woods, he gives him the key to the hotel room, in which he is holding Chris. In return, Ray makes no move to detain him at the cemetery or turn him over to the police. However, the defector, who has since received the order to make both Carden and Ray and Chris disappear, is there and shoots them both. Carden can use a ruse to turn the tide and kill the killer himself. However, the funeral is already over and the assassination attempt on Mr. Hammond ultimately failed.
The film ends with a barbecue among the villagers, which is also joined by Ray, Chris and Sandra. Ray hears on the radio that Mr. Hammond was killed in a tragic accident while on vacation on his yacht . It remains to be seen whether it was actually an accident or whether Frank still fulfilled his assignment.
criticism
Björn Helbig wrote for film releases that the film had numerous narrative strands between which he "jumped lively". It shows various conflicts between the characters, which, however, are not sufficiently worked out.
film-dienst stated, “The conspiracy thriller fails to convince as a genre film with its unfocused story overloaded with subtexts; the »political« topic is ultimately reduced to the vehicle of a fairytale family reunification. "
background
The production cost of the film were estimated at 25 million US dollars . Filming for the film began in July 2005. The filming locations were in the Bulgarian capital Sofia , its US counterpart Washington, DC, and Spokane in Washington state . The world premiere of the film took place on October 9, 2006 at the Haifa International Film Festival . In Germany the film was released on April 5, 2007, in Austria it was first seen on April 27, 2007. In the United States, the film was released on DVD on July 24, 2007.
The director Bruce Beresford writes in his 2007 memoir "Josh Hartnett Definitely Wants To Do This ... - True Stories From A Life In The Screen Trade" that the production had to struggle with massive problems and that the script did not make much sense to him. After 50 days, the producers stopped their support, so that Beresford was forced to complete the film with his personal fortune. Beresford also writes that Steven Seagal asked for a supporting role but was turned down.
For the nude scene of Megan Dodds one was double used.
Web links
- The Contract in the Internet Movie Database (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Release certificate for The Contract . Voluntary self-regulation of the film industry , February 2007 (PDF; test number: 109 047 K).
- ↑ Björn Helbig: film review , at film releases , accessed on September 7, 2014.
- ↑ film review , film-dienst , 7/2007
- ↑ a b budget and box office results according to the Internet Movie Database
- ↑ Locations according to the Internet Movie Database
- ↑ a b c Start dates according to the Internet Movie Database
- ↑ a b c Background information according to the Internet Movie Database