Spartan is an American political thriller film written and directed by David Mamet and starring Val Kilmer, Derek Luke, William H. Macy, Ed O'Neill, Tia Texada, and Kristen Bell. It was released in America and Canada in March 12, 2004.
Plot
"Bobby Scott" (Val Kilmer) is a former Marine Recon Master Gunnery Sergeant, visiting a military compound where he and other personnel select and train recruits for a covert special operations unit. He observes the process in which trainee Curtis (Derek Luke) is selected for the unit. He also meets Sergeant Jacqueline Black (Tia Texada), a petite young woman who serves as an instructor in knife-fighting.
On his way out of the compound he is told to report for duty in an emergency operation being organized in Boston. Arriving at the staging area, he learns that Laura Newton (Kristen Bell), a Harvard student and daughter of the President, is missing. Scott and other members of his unit are enlisted in the operation to find Laura before the news media learn of her disappearance in two days, when she is due back at her classes.
From Laura's boyfriend Scott learns that she may have visited a bar in the city where female students can earn money by providing sex to wealthy businessmen. Scott encounters a pimp at the bar, and by brutally torturing him learns the location of the brothel where the assignations take place. At the brothel he learns from one of the prostitutes that Laura was present earlier but was drugged and taken away by some men. The madam gives Scott and his colleagues the location of a pay phone that serves as a contact for the men. When the phone is used, Scott, now joined by Curtis, follows the men who use it to a beach house where they suspect Laura may be held. When Scott enters the house, the two men there become violent before he can question them, and he and Curtis kill them.
The investigation is now proceeding on the theory that Laura was abducted by a white slavery ring, a group of international traffickers in prostitutes, who have no idea of Laura's identity. When her disappearance is reported by the media, however, her captors will realize who she is and dispose of her to protect themselves.
Returning to the staging area in Boston, Scott and the others are told that the pay phone has received a number of calls from a federal prisoner, Tariq Asani, who may be connected to the white slavery ring. Scott meets with the enigmatic Mr. Burch, who seems to be in overall command of the investigation. Also present is Stoddard, who seems to be Burch's deputy. Burch tells Scott that Asani is to be transported, along with a second convict who is on death row, to another facility for medical treatment the next day. Burch explains that a plan has been formed to intercept the transport and use Asani to locate the other members of the ring.
The next day, when the car transporting the two prisoners stops at a gas station on a lonely country road, Scott appears in a manner staged to make the prisoners believe he has just robbed the gas station and killed everyone inside. He disposes of the guard driving the prisoners' car and then shoots the death row prisoner. He prepares to shoot Asani, but Asani begs to be spared and promises that his connections can help Scott get out of the country immediately. Scott agrees and drives off with Asani. As they drive away, Asani explains that he is indeed part of a white slavery ring based at a place called Mascala in Dubai and that this is where he and Scott will go to ground.
Asani has been injured in the fight at the gas station and is bleeding, and Scott stops the car at a convenience store down the road ostensibly to get some first aid supplies. He leaves Asani in the car while he goes inside for the supplies; inside are Curtis and other government personnel who provide him with additional ammunition. Asani, however, sees Curtis through the window talking to another man whose jacket opens momentarily to reveal a badge and gun. Believing he and Scott are in danger, Asani takes a shotgun from a parked truck nearby and shoots Curtis, wounding him. Scott shoots and kills Asani.
The plan to use Asani to infiltrate the white slavery ring must now be shelved. Instead, Scott's unit assembles in strength at an air base and prepares to fly to Dubai. They intend to enter Mascala, the estate where they believe Laura is held captive, and retrieve Laura. But the news media have learned that Laura is missing; almost immediately, there is a report that Laura's body and that of one of her college professors have been discovered near a sailboat off Martha's Vineyard. The rescue operation is called off and Scott returns home.
Scott resumes his other life at home, where his neighbors believe he is a salesman who is often absent on business trips. But he is soon approached by Curtis, who gives him proof that Laura was indeed at the beach house they visited -- an earring Curtis found at the house that Laura is wearing in all of her published photos -- and thus could not have been killed in a boating accident with her professor. When Scott and Curtis return to the beach house to investigate, Curtis is assassinated by a sniper who has been watching the house. Scott tricks the sniper into thinking he also has been shot and escapes.
Scott now believes that the government has lied about Laura's death and is covering up what actually happened. He attempts to contact Laura's mother by visiting an exclusive rehab center where she is being treated for alcoholism. He is prevented from seeing the mother by a female Secret Service agent, but when he shows the agent the earring, the agent recognizes it as one she herself gave Laura, and admits that a cover-up is occurring. The agent reveals that the President visited Boston to conduct an extramarital affair and took Laura's Secret Service detail for extra protection, which made it possible for Laura to be abducted. The President's handlers then faked Laura's death to shield him from the political fallout that would result should the media discover his actions. The agent, who helped raise Laura and loves her like a daughter, begs Scott to rescue her.
In a quandary, Scott meets with Sergeant Black and tells her what has happened. Black insists that they must try to fulfill their original mission to rescue Laura.
Deprived of the support of his unit, Scott turns to Avi, an old friend and former Israeli agent now in the private sector. Avi confirms that there is a white slavery ring based at the Mascala estate in Dubai, and that this is where Laura is likely being held. Scott asks Avi to help him assemble the men and resources needed to rescue the girl. Avi offers to try to get the government to take Scott back, and promises that if they will not then he will help Scott with his mission.
We next see Scott on a plane headed for Dubai, and we understand that Avi's overtures to the government on Scott's behalf were not successful. Arriving in Dubai, Scott picks up a knife and guns that have been smuggled into the country in a cargo container for him by Avi, then meets an Australian who is to help him retrieve Laura from Mascala the next day. The two men go to reconnoiter Mascala that night and, seeing that Laura is about to be moved elsewhere, decide to take her out immediately rather than wait. There is a brief firefight and the Australian is killed, but Scott grabs Laura and gets away.
Scott takes Laura to a safe house. Distraught at the way she has been treated by her father and his people she at first refuses to be taken home, but eventually yields to Scott's persuasion. The next night Scott takes her to his cargo container at the airport, which has been prepared so that Laura can remain hidden inside while it is flown to Geneva. While explaining the plan to Laura, however, Scott examines his knife and discovers a transmitter has been planted in it. Realizing he has been tracked by the government, Scott hurries Laura out of the container just as Stoddard and operatives from Scott's unit arrive to apprehend them.
While chasing Laura and Scott through a vast hangar, Stoddard confirms that Laura's death was faked in order to protect her father politically, and that the plan was to leave her in the hands of the white slave ring. Because of Scott's interference, however, Laura must now be killed. Scott and Laura are separated during the chase, and Stoddard gets hold of Laura. He hands Laura over to one of his operatives -- who turns out to be Sergeant Black. Black ignores Stoddard's orders and tries to help Laura escape by getting her aboard a private jet belonging to a Swedish news agency that is readying for takeoff near the hangar.
Black gets Laura to the jet, where the Swedish journalists recognize Laura at once and allow her aboard, but Black is shot dead by Stoddard in the process. Scott is also shot and wounded, but kills Stoddard with his knife. The jet takes off with Laura safely aboard.
In the final scene, two men watch a news program on a television in the window of a store in London. The program explains that Laura Newton has been rescued and shows her being reunited with her father. It also shows Burch telling the media that as a result of what happened to Laura the government is now committed to end the international traffic in prostitutes. One of the men watching the program is Scott, who has grown a beard. The other, a weary-looking businessman, says "Time to go home," and leaves. Scott responds, "Lucky man." He leaves also.
Cast
Reception
Spartan received mixed but generally good reviews and has a score of 65% on Rotten Tomatoes and 60% on Metacritic. Roger Ebert in The Chicago Sun-Times gave the film a four-star rating saying that "The particular pleasure of 'Spartan' is to watch the characters gradually define themselves and the plot gradually emerge like your face in a steamy mirror."[1] Tim Robey in The Daily Telegraph felt the film was let down by a "botched" finale, "as though Mamet felt obliged to reproduce a standard-issue Tom Clancy climax while knowing that this wasn't the way to go."[2]
Miscellaneous
- Spartan's title and story allude to King Leonidas I, of Sparta, who sent one soldier when a neighboring state requested military aid. As Scott says, "One riot, one Ranger". Previously, Mamet used that dialogue in House of Games. The remark is said to be Texas Rangers lore.
- The Dubai locales were filmed in Los Angeles, California.
- Eric L. Haney, a retired U.S. Army Command Sergeant Major who operated in Delta Force, was the technical advisor, and briefly appears. After Spartan, he and Mamet created The Unit television series about an Army unit mirroring Delta Force.
- David Mamet's Rabbi, Mordechai Finley, appears as one of the training cadre.
References
External links
