Synopsis for
The Saint (1997) More at IMDbPro »

Over the years I have become impressed with Val Kilmer as an actor. I first saw him in Top Gun and wondered if he could just play Mr. Cool. In this movie he plays well over ten different characters and he makes them believable. Elisabeth Shue does a fine job of playing Dr. Russell. The villains are appropriately creepy.

The movie opens up with a scene from his youth where we see the young Simon Templar exhibit his skills as a thief. The ketch ends as he watches the death of his first true love. Fade to the present where he is in Russia to steal a microchip. Things don't go smoothly in the ways of real life and we watch Simon escape from certain capture due to his advanced planning. He comes home to England and checks his bank account to see the million bucks from his latest heist is deposited but he still hasn't reached his goal of $50M in the bank. One last heist.

He picks up a job from the Russians he just stole the chip from and his assignment is to steal the formula for cold fusion from Dr. Emma Russell (Shue). We watch him case out her house and her in the kind of detail missing from the stolen chip caper. He forces a meeting with Emma and since he knows what she is all about he can talk to her as if he knew her. So she is dually impressed but comes right back at him with what he is all about. Since she obviously didn't do any work on him he is taken aback.

They fall in love and he becomes guilty about his assignment and deception and resolves not to steal the formula. But the Russians persuade him to do so by threatening to kill Emma. She is heart broken about the theft and with the help of Scotland Yard chases him to Russia to confront him. They then are plunged into the middle of a plot to overthrow the elected premier and are sent running for their lives.

Thomas puts a plan into place to reveal the planned coupe with the help of Emma.

Its intense always and has a couple of apparently slow scenes but that's because some of the action is very fast paced. Some of the scenes are very intense. The music adds to the movie.