The Contract (2006 film)
The Contract is a 2006 German-American action thriller film directed by Bruce Beresford and written by television writer Stephen Katz and John Darrouzet. The Contract stars Morgan Freeman as assassin Frank Carden and John Cusack as teacher Ray Keene. Released direct to video in the United States and most of Europe, The Contract received little critical notice despite its high-profile cast.
| The Contract | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Directed by | Bruce Beresford |
| Produced by | Boaz Davidson Randall Emmett George Furla Andreas Grosch Avi Lerner Danny Lerner Andreas Schmid Les Weldon |
| Written by | Stephen Katz John Darrouzet J.D. Zeik |
| Starring | Morgan Freeman John Cusack Jamie Anderson Alice Krige Megan Dodds Bill Smitrovich Ian Shaw Ned Bellamy |
| Music by | Normand Corbeil |
| Cinematography | Dante Spinotti |
| Edited by | Mark Warner |
Production company | Millennium Films
Emmett/Furla Films VIP Medienfonds |
| Distributed by | First Look International |
Release date | October 9, 2006 (Haifa) July 24, 2007 (United States) |
Running time | 97 minutes |
| Country | Germany United States |
| Language | English |
| Box office | $5,549,200[1] |
Plot
Frank Carden (Morgan Freeman) is a professional assassin who has been hired to kill a reclusive billionaire named Lydell Hammond, Sr., a vocal opponent of stem cell research. Carden's plan goes awry when he gets injured in a car accident and ends up in the hospital. When hospital staff see his gun, they call the police. They are able to peel away his false identity, and federal marshals are called in to pick him up.
Widower Ray Keene (John Cusack), a high school gym teacher, ex-cop, and well-intentioned but not very able dad to Chris (Jamie Anderson), belatedly realizes the need to bond with his son when the latter gets caught smoking marijuana and takes him hiking in the wilderness. Carden is being driven through that same wilderness by the marshals, but his men stage a rescue attempt. The car is crashed, and most of the marshals end up dead. The surviving marshal asks Keene to take the prisoner to the authorities and then dies of his injuries. Ray and Chris have to get Carden out of the wilderness and hand him over to the authorities. Carden's men, highly skilled ex-military thugs, track them down to rescue Carden and kill the Keenes. The pursuit brings a couple, Sandra and Lochlan (Megan Dodds and Ryan McCluskey) into the crossfire, with Lochlan being killed by Carden's men.
In a tense standoff in a cabin in the woods, Carden's friends turn up, and Keene agrees to let Carden go. Just at that moment, one of Carden's thugs bursts in and punches Chris, causing Keene to panic and kill him, sustaining critical wounds in the process, while Sandra shoots the other as he enters firing. Carden escapes, taking Chris as a hostage, while Sandra and Keene are rescued by the local police. Miles (Alice Krige), Carden's mission handler, tells Davis (Corey Johnson), Carden's recent recruit, to kill Carden and Chris and to make it look like Carden did it. She also tells him to kill Keene in case Carden told him anything about his job.
Feeling defeated and resting at home, a televised news report echoes an earlier conversation about Carden's job description with the key phrase "exterminating obstacles to progress" which makes Keene aware of Carden's intended target. Keene heads to the funeral of Hammond, Jr., to intercept Carden and inadvertently saves Carden from Davis. Carden gets the upper hand on Davis, killing him with his own sniper rifle. However, the battle forces Carden to miss his own window of opportunity to assassinate Hammond, Sr. Carden relents in giving Keene a set of keys to a hotel room where Carden locked up Chris, letting father and son reunite while he disappears.
In Washington, D.C., Carden intercepts Miles, aware of her role in hiring Davis to kill him. Carden threatens to "come after her" if any harm were to come to the Keene family. Two weeks after the incident, Keene enters into a relationship with Sandra and holds a family barbecue, expressing disbelief in hearing a radio news report about Hammond, Sr., dying in a boating accident, realizing that Carden finished his contract killing.
Cast
- Morgan Freeman as Frank Carden
- John Cusack as Ray Keene
- Jamie Anderson as Chris Keene
- Bill Smitrovich as Chief Ed Wainwright
- Ned Bellamy as Officer Evans
- Megan Dodds as Sandra
- Jonathan Hyde as Turner
- Corey Johnson as Davis
- Alice Krige as Miles
- Ian Shaw as Michaels
- Jonas Talkington as Paramedic
- Ryan Spike Dauner as Helicopter Pilot #1
- Atanas Srebrev as Rodriguez
- Maynard Eziashi[2] as Agent Chuck Robbins
Production
Director Bruce Beresford talks extensively about the production of the movie in his memoir Josh Hartnett Definitely Wants To do This... True Stories From A Life In The Screen Trade.[3]
The film was shot almost exclusively in Bulgaria and the DSK Bank central headquarters served as one of the main sets.
The scenes on the large rock were filmed at the Zlatnite Mostove on the Vitosha Mountain by Sofia, the capital city of Bulgaria.
Reception
The film received negative reviews. It has a 0% "rotten" rating on Rotten Tomatoes from 5 critics who reviewed it.[4] Leonard Maltin awarded the film two stars.[5]
References
- "The Contract". Box Office Mojo.
- Onikoyi, Ayo (22 January 2012). "Nollywood is doing fabulously well, says Nigerian Hollywood star". Vanguard. Retrieved 24 February 2015.
- Beresford, Bruce (January 8, 2007). Josh Hartnett Definitely Wants To Do This... True Stories From A Life in the Screen Trade. HarperCollins Publishers Australia. ISBN 9780732284398.
- "The Contract". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved 23 June 2015.
- Maltin, Leonard (2017). Leonard Maltin's Movie Guide: The Modern Era, Previously Published as Leonard Maltin's 2015 Movie Guide. Penguin. ISBN 9780525536314.page 283