Proof of Life (2000)

Alice hires a professional negotiator to obtain the release of her engineer husband, who has been kidnapped by anti-government guerrillas in South America.

Director:

Taylor Hackford

Writers:

Tony Gilroy, William Prochnau (article),

Stars:

Meg Ryan, Russell Crowe, David Morse

5 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Meg Ryan	...	Alice Bowman
Russell Crowe	...	Terry Thorne
David Morse	...	Peter Bowman
Pamela Reed	...	Janis Goodman
David Caruso	...	Dino
Anthony Heald	...	Ted Fellner
Stanley Anderson	...	Jerry
Gottfried John	...	Eric Kessler
Alun Armstrong	...	Wyatt
Michael Kitchen	...	Ian Havery
Margo Martindale	...	Ivy
Mario Ernesto Sánchez	...	Arturo Fernandez (as Mario Ernesto Sanchez)
Pietro Sibille	...	Juaco
Vicky Hernández	...	Maria (as Vicky Hernandez)
Norma Martínez	...	Norma (as Norma Martinez)

Storyline

In a mountainous South American country, drug-dealing rebels kidnap Peter Bowman, a US engineer who works for an oil company's subsidiary. The company calls in a negotiator, Terry Thorne, an Aussie ex-soldier based in London. When the subsidiary goes bankrupt, the oil company washes its hands of the matter and pulls Thorne. Bowman's wife Alice begs him to stay. She and Peter's sister cobble together some money, Thorne talks ransom terms with the cash-strapped rebels, and Peter, chained high in the mountains, is sustained by a photo of Alice. When the politics of the situation change, so must Thorne's strategy. And what can Alice and he do about the attraction growing between them?

---

Plot Keywords:

negotiator | ransom | money | south america | insurance | 

---

Genres:

Drama | Thriller

---

Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for violence, language and some drug material

Details

Official Sites:

Warner Bros. (UK) Warner Bros. (US)

Country:

USA

Language:

English Spanish Russian Italian French

Release Date:

8 December 2000 (USA)

Also Known As:

Prueba de vida

Filming Locations:

Biedrusko, Poznan, Wielkopolskie, Poland

Box Office

Budget:

$65,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend:

£762,614 (UK) (2 March 2001)

Gross:

ESP 418,713,174 (Spain) (29 June 2001)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Castle Rock Entertainment, Bel Air Entertainment, Anvil Films

Technical Specs

Runtime:

135 min

Sound Mix:

DTS Dolby Digital SDDS

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Harrison Ford was originally offered the lead role but turned it down.

---

Goofs

There's a red bucket visible when Peter and Kessler work in the camp, just before Peter grabs the map. It changes position and even vanishes briefly.

---

Quotes

[first lines]
Terry Thorne: This is the conclusive ransom report for Mr. Pierre Lenoir. Location, Chechnya. Result, positive.

---

Connections

Referenced in Marathon (2002)

---

Soundtracks

"I'll Be You Lover, Too"
Written and Performed by Van Morrison
Courtesy of Warner Bros. Records Inc.
By Arrangement with Warner Special Products

User Reviews

Good Crowe, Ryan, Morse

Despite the obvious ending being reminiscent of "Casablanca," which is a great film, "Proof of Life" held up for the most part with A LOT of action--guns, muscle, and physical cruelty. Crowe is mostly always good, but Ryan surprised me in this. I found her multi-dimensional, able to shake the cutesy business that she usually plays, and really good as a quite desperate wife who has some issues with her world-hopping engineer husband. Morse was believably chauvinistic early on (before the kidnapping), and quite remarkably believable as a desperate hostage. Crowe was solidly heroic, not a Humphrey Bogart, to be sure, but certainly someone whom Ryan as Alice would remember for a long time. Certainly Terry and Alice never had "Paris" to remember, but there were good vibrations between them as Crowe plotted to save her husband.