Men in Black is a 1997 science fiction comedy film directed by Barry Sonnenfeld, starring Tommy Lee Jones, Will Smith, Linda Fiorentino, Vincent D'Onofrio, Rip Torn and Tony Shalhoub. The film was based on the Men in Black comic book series by Lowell Cunningham, originally published by Marvel Comics. The film featured the creature effects and makeup of Rick Baker. The film was released on July 2, 1997, by Columbia Pictures and grossed over $587 million worldwide against a $90 million budget. It was followed by a 2002 sequel, Men in Black II, inspired an animated series titled Men in Black: The Series, and a second sequel, entitled Men in Black 3, which will be released on May 25, 2012.
Plot
Agent K (Tommy Lee Jones) is a member of the Men in Black (MiB), a secret agency without ties to any government, whose goal is to maintain Earth as a "neutral zone" for extraterrestrial aliens, whom they disguise as humans around New York City. The agency maintains its secrecy by using a neuralyzer to wipe the memories of those that encounter either them or the aliens, and also the memories of former agents when they retire. Operating from a large underground base at a Triborough Bridge and Tunnel Authority ventilation station, they fund themselves by obtaining patents on alien technologies released for consumer consumption.
K's former partner, D, has just retired, but K identifies New York City detective James Darrell Edwards III (Will Smith) as a potential replacement, due to his ability to follow a disguised alien. After putting Edwards through several tests, each of which having an underlying meaning of using one's common sense (i.e. using a table in the center of a room to write on, instead of just doing so at his chair, and inferring that a young girl with college textbooks could be more dangerous than frightening looking aliens), K offers him the chance to join the MIB, which Edwards accepts. Edwards' past identity is erased, and he becomes Agent J, assigned to K by the agency director, Zed (Rip Torn). K helps to orient J to the workings of the MIB; during this, they learn that numerous alien refugees are trying to find a way off of Earth. MIB is contacted by an Arquillian fleet near Earth's orbit; the fleet warns that a "Bug," a member of a giant cockroach-like alien species that are currently at war with various other alien races as they feed off the carrion of their wars, has crashed down to Earth and is seeking an object known as the Galaxy that would turn the tide in favor of the Bugs. To prevent this, they are willing to destroy the Earth unless the MIB can secure the Galaxy before their deadline within a day.
K and J find the Bug has taken the human skin of a farmer, Edgar (Vincent D'Onofrio), as its disguise and killed two Arquillians it believed to have possession of the Galaxy. The two bodies, along with a pet cat that refuses to leave its owner, are taken to a city morgue, where Dr. Laurel Weaver (Linda Fiorentino) discovers one of the Arquillians, Rosenberg, is barely alive; struggling with English, it mutters that "The Galaxy is on Orion's belt" to her before it expires. K and J arrive to help remove the alien bodies and wipe Laurel's mind, but not before learning of this message. En route back to headquarters, they realize that Orion refers not to the constellation, but to Rosenberg's cat, and the belt referring to its collar. Racing back to the morgue, they find the bug there, having realized the same thing. It steals the Galaxy, which appears to be a small charm, and kidnaps Laurel, getting away on foot while the MIB secure its spacecraft to prevent it from leaving the planet.
As the Arquillian deadline looms, the MIB attempt to determine how Edgar will leave the planet, until J recalls information in his initial briefing that reveals that the observation towers at Flushing Meadows are disguised spacecraft. J and K race there, finding Edgar attempting to climb into the structures. Their arrival distracts the Bug but it is able to enter the craft and start takeoff. K and J fire on the ship, forcing it to crash back to Earth. As the two face off against Edgar, it removes the disguise, revealing its true form, devours their guns and knocks them away, preparing to board the second ship. K tells J to not let the Bug go on the second ship and create a distraction for the Bug. K goads the Bug to devour him which it does by swallowing him into his stomach; J provokes the Bug closer to him by crushing some cockroaches from a nearby dumpster. Before the Bug can eat J and continue to head to the second ship though, J tells the bug to get out of his face before something bad happens and K found his gun in the Bug's stomach and blasts his way out, splitting the alien in half. K is revealed to be safe and J acquires the Galaxy from within the Bug's stomach, and the news is relayed to the Arquillian fleet, but when the top-half of the bug appears behind them, Laurel shoots the bug by using J's gun while it was dragged out of the Bug's stomach.
As MIB cleans up the situation, and K apparently prepares to neuralyze Laurel, he admits that he was not training J as a partner but as his replacement, as he is ready to retire from the agency. J acknowledges this, and neuralyzes him. In the epilogue, Laurel is shown to have become J's new partner Agent L, while K (now Kevin Brown) has returned to civilian life.
As the camera pans out, showing the Earth, solar system and eventually the galaxy, it is revealed that the galaxy is itself a marble. A pair of alien hands finish playing with it and place it inside a sack with other such galaxies.
Cast
- Tommy Lee Jones as Kevin Brown / Agent K: J's grizzled and humorless mentor. Clint Eastwood turned down the part, while Jones only accepted the role after Steven Spielberg promised the script would improve, based on his respect for Spielberg's track record. He had been disappointed with the first draft, which he reportedly said "stank;" he felt it did not capture the tone of the comic.[2]
- Will Smith as James Darrell Edwards III / Agent J: A former NYPD member, newly recruited to the MiB. Smith was cast because Barry Sonnenfeld's wife was a The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air fan. Sonnenfeld also liked his performance in Six Degrees of Separation.[2] Chris O'Donnell turned down the role because he found the role of a new recruit too similar to Dick Grayson, whom he played in Batman Forever and Batman & Robin.[3] David Schwimmer also turned down the part.[2] Like Jones, Smith said he accepted the role after meeting with Spielberg and cited his success as a producer.
- Vincent D'Onofrio as Edgar the Bug: A giant alien insect who eats a farmer and uses his skin as a disguise. He is the main antagonist of the film. John Turturro was offered the role.[2]
- Linda Fiorentino as Dr. Laurel Weaver / Agent L: A deputy medical examiner who has had a few run-ins with the MIB in the past.
- Rip Torn as Chief Z: The head of the MIB.
- Tony Shalhoub as Jack Jeebs: An alien, posing as a pawn shop owner, who deals in illegal weapons.
- Siobhan Fallon Hogan as Beatrice: Edgar's wife.
- Mike Nussbaum as Gentle Rosenberg, Arquillian Jeweler: Guardian of the galaxy, which he has attached to his pet cat's collar.
- Jon Gries as Van Driver
- Sergio Calderón as Jose
- Carel Struycken as Arquillian
- Fredric Lehne as INS Agent Janus
- Kent Faulcon as 2nd Lt. Jake Jensen
- Richard Hamilton as Agent D: K's partner at the start of the film, he decides he is too old for the job and has K erase his memory so he can retire.
- David Cross as Newton the Morgue Attendant
- Tim Blaney as Frank the Pug (voice): A smart-talking pug-like alien.
- Scottie Ray as Mikey and additional alien voices
Production
The film is based upon the comic book The Men in Black by Lowell Cunningham. Producers Walter F. Parkes and Laurie MacDonald optioned the rights to The Men in Black in 1992, and hired Ed Solomon to write a very faithful script. Parkes and MacDonald wanted Barry Sonnenfeld as director because he had helmed the darkly humorous The Addams Family and its sequel Addams Family Values. Sonnenfeld was attached to Get Shorty (1995), so they approached Les Mayfield to direct, as they had heard about the positive reception to his remake of Miracle on 34th Street. They actually saw the film later and decided he was inappropriate.[citation needed] Men in Black was delayed so as to allow Sonnenfeld to make it his next project after Get Shorty.[2]
Much of the initial script drafts were set underground, with locations ranging from Kansas to Washington DC and Nevada. Sonnenfeld decided to change the location to New York City, because the director felt New Yorkers would be tolerant of aliens who behaved oddly while disguised. He also felt much of the city's structures resembled flying saucers and rocket ships. Production designer Bo Welch designed the MIB headquarters with a 1960s tone in mind, because that was when their organization is formed. He cited influences from Finnish architect Eero Saarinen, who designed a terminal at John F. Kennedy International Airport. Being the arrival point of aliens on Earth, Welch felt MIB HQ had to resemble an airport.[2]
ILM provided most of the special effects. Rick Baker led the special effects of the film, which was the most complex in his career to date. He had to have approval from both director Barry Sonnenfeld and executive producer Steven Spielberg: "It was like, 'Steven likes the head on this one and Barry really likes the body on this one, so why don't you do a mix and match?' And I'd say, because it wouldn't make any sense." Sonnenfeld also changed a lot of the film's aesthetic during pre-production: "I started out saying aliens shouldn't be what humans perceive them to be. Why do they need eyes? So Rick did these great designs, and I'd say, 'That's great — but how do we know where he's looking?' I ended up where everyone else did, only I took three months."[4]
Filming began in March 1996. Five months into the shoot, the crew realized their ending was unexciting. It was originally meant to be a humorous existential debate between Agent J and the Bug, and five potential replacements were discussed. One of these had Laurel Weaver being neuralyzed and K remaining an agent. The change to a fight sequence annoyed Rick Baker, as their animatronic Bug had to be replaced with computer-generated imagery. Further changes were made during post-production to simplify the plotline involving the possession of the tiny galaxy. The Arquillians would hand over the galaxy to the Baltians, ending a long war. The bugs need to feed on the casualties of the war and steal it to continue the war. Through changing of subtitles, the images on MIB's main computer and Frank the Pug's dialogue, the Baltians were eliminated from the plot. Earth goes from being potentially destroyed in the crossfire between the two races into being possibly destroyed by the Arquillians to prevent the bugs getting the galaxy.[2]
Soundtracks
Two different soundtracks were released in the US: a score soundtrack and an album, featuring various songs. In the UK only the album was released, but the score is readily available for import.
Danny Elfman composed the score for the film, making use of his usual combination of orchestra and electronics. The score also makes prominent use of jazz for the M.I.B. theme, which consists of an ostinato, usually played on lower instruments.
Promotion
Galoob released various action figures of characters and aliens in the film. An official comic adaptation was released by Marvel Comics. The official Men in Black game is a third-person shooter developed by Gremlin Interactive and released to lackluster reviews in October '97 for the PC and the following year for the PlayStation. Also a very rare promotional PlayStation video game system was released in 1997 with the Men in Black logo on the CD lid. Men in Black: The Animated Series was created by Sony Pictures Television, and also inspired several games. Men in Black was the inspiration behind the Men in Black: Alien Attack ride at Universal Studios Orlando, in which Will Smith and Rip Torn reprised their roles. A Men In Black roleplaying game was also released in 1997 by West End Games.
Will Smith released a single concurrent with the film, also called "Men in Black".
Reception
Men in Black won the Academy Award for Best Makeup, and was also nominated for Best Original Score and Best Art Direction. It was also nominated for the Golden Globe of Best Motion Picture - Musical or Comedy.[5]
The film was acclaimed from critics, having a 91% rating on the Rotten Tomatoes film critic website.[6]
Following the film's release, Ray-Ban stated sales of their Predator 2 sunglasses (worn by the organization to deflect neuralyzers) tripled to $5 million.[7]
American Film Institute Lists
References
External links
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