Shooter | |
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Directed by | Antoine Fuqua |
Screenplay by | Jonathan Lemkin [1] |
Based on | Point of Impact by Stephen Hunter |
Produced by |
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Starring | |
Cinematography | Peter Menzies Jr. |
Edited by |
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Music by | Mark Mancina |
Production companies | |
Distributed by | Paramount Pictures |
Release date |
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Running time | 124 minutes [2] |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Budget | $61 million [3] |
Box office | $95.7 million [3] |
Shooter is a 2007 American action thriller film directed by Antoine Fuqua [4] and written by Jonathan Lemkin, based on the 1993 novel Point of Impact by Stephen Hunter. [5] The film follows Force Recon Marine Scout Sniper veteran Bob Lee Swagger (Mark Wahlberg), who is framed for murder by a mercenary unit operating for a private military firm. The film also stars Michael Peña, Danny Glover, Kate Mara, Levon Helm, and Ned Beatty. [4]
Shooter was produced by Lorenzo di Bonaventura through Di Bonaventura Pictures, and released by Paramount Pictures in the United States on March 23, 2007. The film received mixed reviews and grossed $95.7 million on a $61 million budget.
USMC Force Recon Scout Snipers Gunnery Sergeant Bob Lee Swagger and his spotter Donnie Fenn provide overwatch for a mission in Ethiopia. The mission goes awry when an enemy militia assaults Swagger and Fenn's position with helicopter support. The CIA officer supervising the operation burns the mission, resulting in Fenn's death.
Three years later, Swagger is retired and lives in the Wind River Range. Swagger is approached by Colonel Isaac Johnson and his associates, Payne and Dobbler, to enlist his aid in thwarting a potential assassination attempt on the President during a public speaking event. Reluctantly, Swagger agrees to help. He assesses the only viable location is Philadelphia. On the day of the speech, Swagger accompanies Johnson to an overwatch position. The shot is made but is revealed to be a setup: the President's guest, Ethiopian Archbishop Desmond Mutumbo, is killed, and a Philadelphia police officer, on Johnson's payroll, shoots Swagger. Swagger escapes, disarms rookie FBI Special Agent Nick Memphis, and flees into the Delaware River.
Swagger travels to Kentucky and meets Fenn's widow, Sarah, who treats his injuries. Using Memphis, who was skeptical of the shooting, as bait, Sarah and Swagger feed him information, which he uses to investigate the shooting to force Johnson out of hiding. Suspecting they may be compromised, Johnson orders his men to capture Memphis and kill him. Before they can kill Memphis, however, they are killed by Swagger. Swagger releases Memphis and requests his help bringing down Johnson.
The two travel to Tennessee and meet with firearms expert Mr. Rate, who explains paper patching. Rate deduces that the wheelchair-bound Serbian sniper Mikhaylo Sczerbiak would be the only other sniper alive capable of making such a shot. Swagger concludes that he unwittingly conducted Sczerbiak's recon to ensure the assassination's success, and he and Memphis travel to Virginia to confront him. At the same time, Sarah's connection to Swagger is uncovered, and Johnson orders Payne to abduct her to be used as leverage.
Swagger and Memphis infiltrate Sczerbiak's estate, where the latter reveals that Johnson works for Montana Senator Charles Meachum on behalf of oil conglomerates exploiting developing nations for profit. Sczerbiak confesses that, acting on Johnson's orders, he assassinated Mutumbo to prevent information about crimes against humanity carried out by Johnson from going public, which include the massacre of a village on the Eritrea–Ethiopia border. Sczerbiak informs Swagger that he and Fenn had unknowingly covered the retreat of the contractors who carried out that mission and were supposed to be killed to cover it up. Upon revealing Sarah's abduction, he commits suicide. Swagger records the confession, escapes with Memphis, and kills the mercenaries sent to eliminate them. The pair escape to Montana, tip off the FBI, and arrange a meeting with Meachum and Johnson.
Johnson, Meachum, and Payne arrive, with Sarah held at gunpoint. With Memphis acting as a decoy, Swagger eliminates Johnson's counter-snipers and disarms Payne, whom Sarah kills shortly after. Meachum cryptically implies he is not the only politician who works for the oil companies. Deducing that the proof will get them killed, Swagger destroys the recording as the FBI arrives to arrest him. He is granted an audience with US Attorney General Russert. With Memphis's help, Swagger takes a live sniper round secretly given to him by Memphis and tries to fire it at Johnson, but it doesn’t shoot. Swagger reveals that whenever he leaves his rifles unattended, he switches the firing pins, making his rifles useless to other people. Memphis provides evidence to Russert cataloging Johnson's involvement in crimes carried out by Johnson. Russert laments that Johnson's crimes are outside US jurisdiction, so he cannot arrest Johnson. Privately, Russert confides in Swagger that extrajudicial measures may be necessary to end the corruption and orders Swagger's release.
Sometime later, Meachum, Johnson, and their associates discuss their next operation before Swagger attacks and kills all of them. He ruptures the gas line, frames Johnson as the attacker and flees as the house gets destroyed in a massive gas explosion. Swagger returns to Sarah in a waiting car, and the two drive off.
The novel Point of Impact was in development first at Universal and later at Paramount for twelve years, with seven screenwriters attempting many adaptations. The author Stephen Hunter also tried to adapt the book but was put off by the experience and disconnected himself from the process. [1] In 2000, William Friedkin agreed to direct the film with Tommy Lee Jones starring as Bob Lee Swagger. [6] However, the writers were unable to complete a script, and Friedkin and Jones to decide to make The Hunted (2003) instead. That film incorporated many of Friedkin’s ideas for Shooter, and its protagonist L.T. Bonham was also based on Jones’s planned portrayal of Swagger. Friedkin expressed interest in additionally directing Shooter as a sequel to The Hunted, but ultimately did not. [7]
Jonathan Lemkin read the book and some of the previous drafts and was able to avoid repeating some of the same mistakes. Lemkin updated the story away from the original post Vietnam setting, and restructured the story bringing the main event to the end of the first act, and to cut the multiple plot lines down to just the A story. His page 1 rewrite of the screenplay attracted Wahlberg and Fuqua, and on his second draft, the film got the green light to go into production. Unusual for a screenplay with such a long development process and multiple rewrites, Lemkin retained sole credit after Writers Guild of America arbitration, After Paramount secured the rights to distribute Shooter in the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, France, Germany, Switzerland and Austria, Focus Features came on board to handle international sales for other territories (excluding English, French and German-speaking territories). [1]
Most of the film was shot on location in New Westminster, Kamloops, Mission, Ashcroft and Cache Creek in British Columbia, Canada. [8] For example, Swagger's escape was filmed in New Westminster along the Fraser River, standing in for the Delaware River. The car chase that ends when it plunged into the river was filmed down 6th Street and off the Westminster Quay. The following scene of Swagger clinging to the side of a dredger was also filmed on the Fraser River near the Pattullo Bridge.
The assassination scenes were filmed in Independence National Historical Park in front of Independence Hall in Philadelphia. The sniper location was created from using the exteriors of the church steeple at the junction of New Street and North 4th Street and combining them with an elevated view from another building to create a fictional vista of the park. The final scene was in Mammoth Lakes, California, in the lakes basin.
The mountaintop confrontation was shot on the glaciers of Rainbow Mountain, near the resort town of Whistler, British Columbia. [9]
Shooter depicts a number of sniper tactics, thanks to the guidance of former US Marine scout sniper Patrick Garrity, who trained Mark Wahlberg for the film. Garrity taught Wahlberg to shoot both left- and right-handed (the actor is left-handed), as he had to switch shooting posture throughout the movie, due to Swagger's sustained injuries. He was also trained to adjust a weapon's scope, judge effects of wind on a shot, do rapid bolt manipulation, and develop special breathing skills. His training included extreme distance shooting up to 1,100 yards (1,000 m), and the use of camouflage ghillie suits. Fuqua appointed Garrity as the film's military-technical advisor. [10]
In the special features of the DVD, Garrity is interviewed pointing out that the shot fired in the assassination would not have hit the archbishop straight on, as in the film. When a round is fired it will fall from 30 to 40 feet (9 to 10 m) depending on the distance of the shot. To compensate, the round is fired at an arc calibrated by how far the round is going to fall, the distance of the shot, temperature, humidity, and wind. In his interview, Garrity said "At 2 yards (1.8 m), because of the hydrostatic shock that follows a large-caliber, high-velocity round such as the .408 Chey Tac (which is used in the shot), the target would literally be peeled apart and limbs would be flying 200 feet (60 m) away." The exit wound on the archbishop's head would have been too extreme to show in movie theaters. Instead, the movie depicts a much less graphic representation of the assassination.
Throughout the film, Swagger uses an array of sniper rifles, including the USMC M40A3, [11] the CheyTac Intervention, [12] and the Barrett M82.
The score to the film was composed by Mark Mancina, who recorded the music at the Todd-AO Scoring Stage in Studio City, Los Angeles, using a 77-piece orchestra conducted by Don Harper. [13] [14] A score soundtrack was released by Lakeshore Records and co-published by Shoelace Music [15] on March 27, 2007. The song "Nasty Letter" by Otis Taylor plays over the end of the film and credits.
Shooter grossed $47 million in the US and Canada and $48.7 million in other territories, for a total gross of $95.7 million against its $61 million production budget. [3]
The film grossed $14.5 million in its opening weekend, finishing in 3rd at the box office behind TMNT ($24.3 million) and 300 ($19.9 million).
On Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 47% based on 147 reviews and an average rating of 5.6/10. The site's critics consensus reads, "With an implausible story and numerous plot holes, Shooter fails to distinguish itself from other mindless action-thrillers." [16] Metacritic assigns the film a weighted average score of 53 out of 100, based on 33 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". [17] Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B+" on an A+ to F scale. [18]
Manohla Dargis of The New York Times called the film "a thoroughly reprehensible, satisfyingly violent entertainment about men and guns and things that go boom." Dargis described director Fuqua's technique as overshot and overedited, but said he has a knack for chaos and the result is "pretty enjoyable." [19] Kirk Honeycutt of The Hollywood Reporter gave a positive review but was critical of the weak characterization: "If the movie only lavished as much thought and care on its characters as it does on each intricate set piece, Shooter might have been a classic." Honeycutt says the problem is the screenplay by Jonathan Lemkin, and the source novel Point of Impact by film critic and author Stephen Hunter. He highlighted Peña for his performance, and praised the technical aspects of the film, particularly the stunt work, and the camera work of Peter Menzies Jr. [20] Tony Horkins of Empire magazine praised the movie: "The sequel-ready Swagger challenges Bourne's supremacy with an impressive shoot-'em-up, work-it-out action drama". [21]
Some film critics saw the film as left-leaning in its politics, including arguing that the main villain (Senator Meachum) is an analogy for then Vice President Dick Cheney. [22] [23] [24]
The DVD was released on June 26, 2007, reaching the top of the US sales charts. [25] The film earned $57.6 million in DVD sales in the North America. [26] Paramount Movies released the film on 4k Ultra HD Blu-ray on March 15, 2022. [27]
In 2016, USA Network picked up a series of the same name based on the movie, with Wahlberg as a producer and Ryan Phillippe as Swagger. [28]
The D.C. sniper attacks were a series of coordinated shootings that occurred during three weeks in October 2002 throughout the Washington metropolitan area, consisting of the District of Columbia, Maryland, and Virginia, and preliminary shootings, that consisted of murders and robberies in several states, and lasted for six months starting in February 2002. Seven people were killed, and seven others were injured in the preliminary shootings, and ten people were killed and three others were critically wounded in the October shootings. In total, the snipers killed 17 people and wounded 10 others in a 10-month span.
On November 22, 1963, John F. Kennedy, the 35th president of the United States, was assassinated while riding in a presidential motorcade through Dealey Plaza in Dallas, Texas. Kennedy was in the vehicle with his wife Jacqueline, Texas Governor John Connally, and Connally's wife Nellie, when he was fatally shot from the nearby Texas School Book Depository by Lee Harvey Oswald, a former U.S. Marine. The motorcade rushed to Parkland Memorial Hospital, where Kennedy was pronounced dead about 30 minutes after the shooting; Connally was also wounded in the attack but recovered. Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson was hastily sworn in as president two hours and eight minutes later aboard Air Force One at Dallas Love Field.
The Corruptor is a 1999 American action film directed by James Foley. The film was written by Robert Pucci, and produced by Dan Halsted. The film stars Chow Yun-fat and Mark Wahlberg. The film was released in the United States on March 12, 1999.
The Hunted is a 2003 American action thriller film directed by William Friedkin. It stars Tommy Lee Jones as a retired civilian contractor and SOF Trainer, who is tasked with tracking down a former student of his played by Benicio del Toro who has gone rogue; Connie Nielsen also stars.
Stephen Hunter is an American novelist, essayist, and film critic.
To Live and Die in L.A. is a 1985 American neo-noir action thriller film directed and co-written by William Friedkin. It is based on the 1984 novel of the same name by former U.S. Secret Service agent Gerald Petievich, who co-wrote the screenplay with Friedkin. It stars William Petersen, Willem Dafoe, John Pankow, John Turturro, Darlanne Fluegel and Dean Stockwell. Wang Chung composed and performed the original music soundtrack. The film tells the story of the lengths to which two Secret Service agents go to arrest a counterfeiter.
Ransom is a 1996 American action thriller film directed by Ron Howard from a screenplay by Richard Price and Alexander Ignon. The film stars Mel Gibson, Rene Russo, Gary Sinise, Delroy Lindo, Lili Taylor, Brawley Nolte, Liev Schreiber, Donnie Wahlberg and Evan Handler. Gibson was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for Best Actor. The film was the 5th highest-grossing film of 1996 in the United States. The original story came from a 1954 episode of The United States Steel Hour titled "Fearful Decision". In 1956, it was adapted by Cyril Hume and Richard Maibaum into the feature film, Ransom!, starring Glenn Ford, Donna Reed, and Leslie Nielsen.
The Jackal is a 1997 American action thriller film directed by Michael Caton-Jones, and starring Bruce Willis, Richard Gere, and Sidney Poitier in his final theatrically released film role. The film involves the hunt for a paid assassin. It is a loose take on the 1973 film The Day of the Jackal, which starred Edward Fox, and was based on the 1971 novel of the same name by Frederick Forsyth. Although the film earned mostly negative reviews from critics, it was a commercial success and grossed $159.3 million worldwide against a $60 million budget.
Antoine Fuqua is an American film director known for his work in the action and thriller genres. He was originally known as a director of music videos, and made his film debut in 1998 with The Replacement Killers. His critical breakthrough was the 2001 crime thriller Training Day, winning the Black Reel Award for Outstanding Director.
Point of Impact is a 1993 thriller novel by Stephen Hunter.
Shoot to Kill is a 1988 American buddy cop action thriller film directed by Roger Spottiswoode and starring Sidney Poitier, Tom Berenger, Clancy Brown, Andrew Robinson, and Kirstie Alley. The film follows an FBI agent pursuing a homicidal extortionist; when the extortionist kidnaps a fishing guide in the Pacific Northwest, the agent teams up with her partner, a local wilderness guide, to rescue her.
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Bob Lee "the Nailer" Swagger is a fictional character created by Stephen Hunter. He is the protagonist of a series of 12 novels that relate his life during and after the Vietnam War, starting with Point of Impact (1993) up to the most recent Targeted (2022). Swagger is the protagonist of the 2007 film and the 2016 TV series Shooter, each based on Point of Impact. Hunter has said that Swagger is loosely based on Carlos Hathcock, a U.S. Marine Corps Scout Sniper.
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Martin Luther King Jr., an African-American clergyman and civil rights movement leader, was fatally shot at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee, on April 4, 1968, at 6:01 p.m. CST. He was rushed to St. Joseph's Hospital, where he died at 7:05 p.m at age 39. He was a prominent leader of the civil rights movement and a Nobel Peace Prize laureate who was known for his use of nonviolence and civil disobedience. James Earl Ray, a fugitive from the Missouri State Penitentiary, was arrested on June 8, 1968, at London's Heathrow Airport, extradited to the United States and charged with the crime. On March 10, 1969, he pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 99 years in the Tennessee State Penitentiary. He later made many attempts to withdraw his guilty plea and to be tried by a jury, but was unsuccessful. Ray died in prison in 1998.
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Shooter is an American drama television series based on the 2007 film of the same name and the first three novels in the Bob Lee Swagger series by Stephen Hunter. The show stars Ryan Phillippe in the lead role of Swagger, a retired United States Marine Corps Scout Sniper from MARSOC living in seclusion who is coaxed back into action after learning of a plot to kill the President. USA Network picked up the pilot in August 2015 and ordered the series in February 2016.
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Distributor Paramount Pictures reported that two thirds of the audience was over 25 and the CinemaScore was "B+."