The Hunted (2003)

An FBI deep-woods tracker captures a trained assassin who has made a sport of hunting humans.

Director:

William Friedkin

Writers:

David Griffiths, Peter Griffiths

Stars:

Tommy Lee Jones, Benicio Del Toro, Connie Nielsen

2 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Tommy Lee Jones	...	L.T. Bonham
Benicio Del Toro	...	Aaron Hallam
Connie Nielsen	...	Abby Durrell
Leslie Stefanson	...	Irene Kravitz
John Finn	...	Ted Chenoweth
José Zúñiga	...	Bobby Moret (as Jose Zuniga)
Ron Canada	...	Harry Van Zandt
Mark Pellegrino	...	Dale Hewitt
Jenna Boyd	...	Loretta Kravitz
Aaron DeCone	...	Stokes (as Aaron Brounstein)
Carrick O'Quinn	...	Kohler
Lonny Chapman	...	Zander
Rex Linn	...	Powell
Eddie Velez	...	Richards
Alexander MacKenzie	...	Sheriff

Storyline

In the green woods of Silver Falls, Oregon, Aaron Hallam, a trained assassin AWOL from the Special Forces, keeps his own brand of wildlife vigil. After Hallam brutally slew four deer hunters in the area, FBI Special Agent Abby Durrell turns to L.T. Bonham-- the one man who may be able to stop him. At first L.T. resists the mission. Snug in retirement, he's closed off to his past, the years he spent in the Special Forces training soldiers to become skilled killers. But when he realizes that these recent slaying is the work of a man he trained, he feels obligated to stop him. Accepting the assignment under the condition that he works alone, L.T. enters the woods, unarmed--plagued by memories of his best student and riddled with guilt for not responding to Aaron's tortured letters to him as he began to slip over the edge of sanity. Furious as he is with his former mentor for ignoring his pleas for help, Aaron knows that he and L.T. share a tragic bond that is unbreakable. And, even as ...

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Plot Keywords:

special forces | hunter | fbi | capture | combat | 

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Taglines:

What happens when the hunter becomes the hunted?

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Genres:

Action | Crime | Drama | Thriller

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for strong bloody violence and some language

Details

Official Sites:

Filmax [Spain] Official Site

Country:

USA

Language:

English Serbo-Croatian

Release Date:

14 March 2003 (USA)

Also Known As:

Die Stunde des Jägers

Filming Locations:

Blue Heron Paper Company - 419 Main Street, Oregon City, Oregon, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$55,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend:

$13,482,638 (USA) (14 March 2003)

Gross:

$34,238,611 (USA) (23 May 2003)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Lakeshore Entertainment, Alphaville Films

Technical Specs

Runtime:

94 min

Sound Mix:

DTS Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

The knife used by Hallam (Benicio Del Toro) throughout most of the movie is a Beck Wilderness Survival Knife, designed by Tom Brown Jr. (a tracker/survival expert who was a technical advisor on this feature) and constructed by David Beck.

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Goofs

When Aaron Hallam is stuck in traffic, he smashes his car head-on into several cars so that the hood is badly damaged. But when he gets out of the car near the bridge, the hood is completely intact.

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Quotes

[first lines]
Narrator: [voiceover] God said to Abraham, "Kill me a son." Abe says, "Man, you must be puttin' me on." God say, "no"; Abe say, "what?" God say, "You can do what you want, Abe, but the next time you see me comin', you better run." Abe says, "Where do you want this killin' done?" God says, "Out on Highway 61."

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Connections

Featured in The Sopranos: Johnny Cakes (2006)

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Soundtracks

Highway 61 Revisited
by Bob Dylan
Performed by Johnny Cash
Johnny Cash performs courtesy of American Recordings

User Reviews

I Don't Get the Low Score Here

How could they have made this story better. There wasn't a need for more dialog or love story and the fight scenes were amazingly well done. Tommy Lee Jones and Benicio Del Toro played expertly off one another. I didn't flash onto another film when I was watching this. I was surprised to read a comparison to Rambo. What? How is that even possible. Other than the military theme (which is rather minimal in this film, since Aaron could have easily been CIA, etc.) and people being killed, what is the connection?

While Rambo is gory and violent and rather gratuitous, The Hunted is none of these. The worst we get with the "killings" are a few glimpses of *photos* if the hunters killed at the beginning of the film. I guess this is a thinking man's action film and for those that don't want to think, they will be quick to put it down.