True Lies is a 1994 action comedy film directed by James Cameron and starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, Jamie Lee Curtis, Tom Arnold, Bill Paxton, Tia Carrere, Charlton Heston, and Art Malik. Dollhouse's Eliza Dushku makes an early appearance in her acting career. True Lies is an extended remake of the 1991 French movie La Totale!,[1] which was directed by Claude Zidi and starred Thierry Lhermitte and Miou-Miou.[2] The movie "True Lies" was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Visual Effects and it won a Golden Globe for Jamie Lee Curtis's comedic portrayal of "Helen Tasker".
True Lies was the first Lightstorm Entertainment project to be distributed under Cameron's multimillion dollar production deal with 20th Century Fox, as well as the first major production for the visual effects company Digital Domain, which was co-founded by Cameron. True Lies was the only feature movie outside of The Terminator series to be directed by James Cameron, music scored by Brad Fiedel and feature Arnold Schwarzenegger.
Plot
Harry Tasker leads a double life, performing dangerous covert missions for the United States Government's counter-terrorism agency Omega Sector with his support team of Albert "Gib" Gibson and Faisil. His wife Helen, and daughter Dana, believe him to be a boring computer salesman who does a lot of corporate travel. Harry is unable to spend quality time with his family due to his secret identity, causing Helen to believe that he doesn't appreciate her, and Dana to disrespect him.
During a mission in Switzerland, Harry breaks into the secret financial records of oil tycoon Jamal Khaled, who is financing a Palestinian terrorist faction, Crimson Jihad, led by Salim Abu Aziz. Harry becomes suspicious of antiques dealer Juno Skinner, and her links to terrorists. However, after visiting Juno, Harry is tailed by Aziz and his men through the Georgetown Park shopping mall and the Westin Bonaventure Hotel. As a result, Harry misses his own birthday party, hurting Helen.
The next day, Harry tries to make up by surprising Helen during lunch, but overhears her talking with a co-worker about a man named Simon. Harry is heartbroken, believing his wife is having an affair with another man. Enraged, Harry uses Omega Sector's resources to track down Simon, and comes to realize that he is just a used-car salesman trying to seduce Helen by pretending to be a spy. The irony for Harry is that he's a spy pretending to be a salesman.
In anger, Harry arranges for a SWAT team to capture Helen and Simon during their next meeting, and as they break in, Harry catches Simon in the act of seducing Helen. He interrogates Helen through a one-way mirror and uses voice distortion to disguise his voice. However, he learns that Helen never had an affair with Simon and that she was only craving for adventure, something which Harry had never provided her with. Then, Harry and Gib terrorise Simon before letting him go.
So Harry arranges a fake mission for Helen. He gets her to pose as a prostitute in order to plant a tracking bug on an arms dealer. Harry assumes the role of the dealer, using the darkened hotel room to hide his face and a tape recorder to disguise his voice, and plans to reveal himself to her later to reaffirm his love. As Helen strip-teases for Harry, Aziz's men burst into the room and captures Harry and Helen.
The terrorists, together with Juno, take Harry and Helen to a hideout on an island in the Florida Keys. They had hidden four stolen nuclear warheads inside Juno's antiquities and smuggled them into the United States. Aziz reveals their plan to detonate one of the warheads to cover their tracks, then flee with the other three warheads and make their demands known to the government. Aziz's men drugged Harry with a truth drug in an attempt to obtain information from him, while Helen uses this opportunity to learn the truth about Harry and the kind of man he really is. Harry kills their captors and they attempt to escape, killing many of the terrorists.
However, Harry had to jump into the sea to escape a fuel tanker explosion. Helen is taken hostage by Juno and the terrorists, in a convoy of vehicles, flee the island, leaving the first nuclear warhead embeded in concrete on a timer.
In the meantime, Gib comes to the rescue, having tracked them down using a bug he had planted in Helen's purse (at Harry's request earlier). As the terrorists get on the Overseas Highway to the mainland, Harry coordinates an attack on the convoy with the aid of two Marine AV-8B Harrier jets and a helicopter,
Helen is able to escape through the roof window of Juno's limousine and is pulled to safety by Harry in the helicopter, as the limousine falls over a damaged section of the bridge into the ocean, killing Juno. The good guys gather on the mainland to wait out the nuclear explosion. Harry and Helen kiss, reaffirming their love for each other.
News arrives that Aziz and his terrorists have taken refuge in a Miami office skyscraper, and Aziz is holding Dana as a hostage. Harry borrows one of the Harrier jets to fly to the building. In the meantime, Aziz asks for a television crew to broadcast his demands to the government. Faisil poses as part of the television crew, and kills a number of the terrorists. In the confusion, Dana steals the launch key for the warheads and escapes to the roof, chased by Aziz.
Harry arrives in the Harrier and kills the terrorists in the building. However, terrorists in a helicopter shoot at him as he flies the Harrier while fighting Aziz and trying to rescue Dana. Harry finally persuades Dana to jump onto the Harrier but Aziz follows. However, Harry makes Aziz fall onto an AIM-9 Sidewinder missile and then fires the missile with Aziz at the helicopter.
The scene shifts to the following year, where the Tasker family have strengthened their bonds after the events in Florida. Harry is happily able to spend quality time with his wife and daughter. The phone rings, and Harry prepares to embark on another mission. This time, Helen has become Harry's partner in Omega Sector, and the couple are able to balance their personal and professional lives together.
During their mission, Harry and Helen spot Simon trying to seduce another girl with his spy act, and terrorise him again. They then tango much to Gib's chargin.
Cast
Reception
Upon its release in 1994, the film garnered mostly positive reviews. Based on 37 reviews collected by Rotten Tomatoes, True Lies has a 68% fresh rating and a weighted average of 6.3/10.[3] James Berardinelli from Reelviews gave the film 3.5 stars out of 4, saying "I have yet to decide whether True Lies is a better comedy or action film. It contains heavy elements of both, and plays them equally well. Unlike such failed attempts as Hudson Hawk and Last Action Hero, however, True Lies is a big, grandiose movie that has an immense amount of fun while never taking itself too seriously... Speed (which was released in the same year) and True Lies deliver a summer one-two punch that will leave viewers squirming with excitement and gasping for breath."[4] The film relies heavily on stunts, often performed by Schwarzenegger and Curtis themselves. The film earned $146 million domestically and $232.6 million abroad,[5] making it third best-grossing movie of 1994,[6] and also a comeback for Schwarzenegger following the disastrous Last Action Hero of the previous summer. For her performance, Jamie Lee Curtis received a 1994 Golden Globe for Best Actress in a Musical/Comedy.[7]
The film was criticized as sexist, or even misogynistic, for its treatment of female characters.[8] Others perceived it as conveying a strong anti-Arab or anti-Muslim prejudice.[9]
Possible sequel
Online news reports in 2002 quoted the actress Eliza Dushku as saying there was going to be a sequel reuniting the original cast with the writer/director James Cameron. Cameron originally planned upon making a sequel sometime in 2002, but he put his plans on hold once the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks occurred in New York City, citing that "in this day and age, terrorism isn't funny."[citation needed] The film is referenced throughout The Kid & I where Tom Arnold appears as a character based on himself, but given a fictitious name, who starred in True Lies and is pursued to make a sequel by a fan, Schwarzenegger and Curtis cameo as themselves. James Cameron himself told in an interview that there were no plans for a new True Lies that he knew of but that he and Arnold had spoken about possibly working in a new project together when Arnold leaves office. [10]
Soundtrack
| 1. |
"Sunshine Of Your Love" |
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| 2. |
"Darkness, Darkness" |
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| 3. |
"Alone In The Dark" |
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| 4. |
"Entity" |
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| 5. |
"Sunshine Of Your Love (remix)" |
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| 6. |
"Main Title/Harry Makes His Entrance" |
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| 7. |
"Escape From The Chateau" |
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| 8. |
"Harry's Sweet Home" |
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| 9. |
"Harry Rides Again" |
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| 10. |
"Spying On Helen" |
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| 11. |
"Juno's Place" |
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| 12. |
"Caught In The Act" |
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| 13. |
"Shadow Lover" |
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| 14. |
"Island Suite" |
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| 15. |
"Causeway/Helicopter Rescue" |
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| 16. |
"Nuclear Kiss" |
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| 17. |
"Harry Saves The Day" |
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Songs appearing in the film not included with the release of the soundtrack
References
- ^ IMDB.com - La Totale!
- ^ http://www.answers.com/topic/true-lies
- ^ "True Lies". Rotten Tomatoes. http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/true_lies/. Retrieved 2008-11-16.
- ^ http://www.reelviews.net/movies/t/true_lies.html
- ^ http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=truelies.htm
- ^ http://www.boxofficemojo.com/yearly/chart/?yr=1994&p=.htm
- ^ http://movies.msn.com/celebrities/celebrity-awards-and-nominations/jamie-lee-curtis/
- ^ John Simon, "True Lies," National Review, August 29, 1994, http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1282/is_n16_v46/ai_15779214/
- ^ Charles Glass, "A prejudice as American as apple pie," New Statesman, November 20, 1998, http://www.newstatesman.com/199811200007
- ^ http://www.thearnoldfans.com/news/1519.htm
External links
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