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IMDbPro

Frantic

  • 19881988
  • RR
  • 2h
IMDb RATING
6.9/10
53K
YOUR RATING
Harrison Ford and Emmanuelle Seigner in Frantic (1988)
Need to re-encode 500k QT
Play trailer0:31
1 Video
85 Photos
  • Crime
  • Drama
  • Mystery
In a hotel room in Paris, a doctor comes out of the shower and finds that his wife has disappeared. He soon finds himself caught up in a world of intrigue, espionage, gangsters, drugs and mu... Read allIn a hotel room in Paris, a doctor comes out of the shower and finds that his wife has disappeared. He soon finds himself caught up in a world of intrigue, espionage, gangsters, drugs and murder.In a hotel room in Paris, a doctor comes out of the shower and finds that his wife has disappeared. He soon finds himself caught up in a world of intrigue, espionage, gangsters, drugs and murder.
IMDb RATING
6.9/10
53K
YOUR RATING
  • Director
    • Roman Polanski
  • Writers
    • Roman Polanski
    • Gérard Brach
    • Robert Towne(uncredited)
  • Stars
    • Harrison Ford
    • Betty Buckley
    • Emmanuelle Seigner
Top credits
  • Director
    • Roman Polanski
  • Writers
    • Roman Polanski
    • Gérard Brach
    • Robert Towne(uncredited)
  • Stars
    • Harrison Ford
    • Betty Buckley
    • Emmanuelle Seigner
  • See production, box office & company info
    • 184User reviews
    • 61Critic reviews
    • 66Metascore
  • See more at IMDbPro
  • Videos1

    Frantic
    Trailer 0:31
    Frantic

    Photos85

    Frantic (1988)
    Harrison Ford and Emmanuelle Seigner in Frantic (1988)
    Harrison Ford and Emmanuelle Seigner in Frantic (1988)
    Harrison Ford and Emmanuelle Seigner in Frantic (1988)
    Harrison Ford and Emmanuelle Seigner in Frantic (1988)
    Harrison Ford and Emmanuelle Seigner in Frantic (1988)
    Harrison Ford and Emmanuelle Seigner in Frantic (1988)
    Harrison Ford and Emmanuelle Seigner in Frantic (1988)
    Harrison Ford, Greta Scacchi, and Emmanuelle Seigner in Frantic (1988)
    Harrison Ford, Greta Scacchi, and Emmanuelle Seigner in Frantic (1988)
    Harrison Ford, Greta Scacchi, and Emmanuelle Seigner in Frantic (1988)
    Harrison Ford and Emmanuelle Seigner in Frantic (1988)

    Top cast

    Edit
    Harrison Ford
    Harrison Ford
    • Dr. Richard Walkeras Dr. Richard Walker
    Betty Buckley
    Betty Buckley
    • Sondra Walkeras Sondra Walker
    Emmanuelle Seigner
    Emmanuelle Seigner
    • Michelleas Michelle
    Djiby Soumare
    • Taxi Driveras Taxi Driver
    Dominique Virton
    • Desk Clerkas Desk Clerk
    Gérard Klein
    Gérard Klein
    • Gaillardas Gaillard
    Stéphane D'Audeville
    • Bellboyas Bellboy
    Laurent Spielvogel
    • Hall Porteras Hall Porter
    Alain Doutey
    Alain Doutey
    • Hall Porteras Hall Porter
    Jacques Ciron
    • Le Grand Hotel Manageras Le Grand Hotel Manager
    Roch Leibovici
    • Bellboy 2as Bellboy 2
    Louise Vincent
    • Touristas Tourist
    Patrice Melennec
    • Hotel Detective Le Grand Hotelas Hotel Detective Le Grand Hotel
    Ella Jaroszewicz
    • Restroom Attendantas Restroom Attendant
    Joëlle Lagneau
    • Floristas Florist
    Jean-Pierre Delage
    Jean-Pierre Delage
    • Floristas Florist
    Marc Dudicourt
    • Cafe Owneras Cafe Owner
    Artus de Penguern
    • Waiteras Waiter
    • Director
      • Roman Polanski
    • Writers
      • Roman Polanski
      • Gérard Brach
      • Robert Towne(uncredited)
    • All cast & crew
    • See more cast details at IMDbPro

    The Life and Times of Harrison Ford

    The Life and Times of Harrison Ford

    Take a look back at Harrison Ford's movie career in photos.
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    Storyline

    Edit

    Did you know

    Edit
    • Trivia
      Harrison Ford thought that "Frantic" was a misleading title for the film as the script didn't have a frantic pace. He suggested that "Moderately Disturbed" would be a more appropriate title. Roman Polanski wasn't amused.
    • Goofs
      In the airport scene with Michelle, Walker is terrified that the drug-sniffing dogs will find dope in their suitcase. Michelle assures Walker that there are no drugs, and the dogs walk by calmly. Walker seems to have forgotten that he's carrying at least a gram of cocaine in his pocket, which the police dogs don't notice either.
    • Quotes

      Michelle: What kind of music do you like?

      Richard Walker: What? Oldies, I like oldies.

      Michelle: Oldies? Yeah, me too. You like this?

      ["I've Seen This Face Before" by Grace Jones is playing on the radio]

      Richard Walker: This? This is not old.

      Michelle: Well, three, four years.

    • Crazy credits
      The opening and closing credits scroll over the streets of Paris.
    • Alternate versions
      The film was cut by 5 minutes by the Film Censors of Singapore to remove drugs, a few shots of sex and intimacy, and some violence for a 'PG' certificate for cinema. The film had no VHS release, but had a DVD release. It was later re-rated with a 'NC-16' (16+) certificate in its uncut version for consumer advice: Drug References.
    • Connections
      Featured in At the Movies: Frantic/Hairspray/Cop/Au Revoir Les Enfants/The Manchurian Candidate (1988)
    • Soundtracks
      I've Seen That Face Before (Libertango)
      Performed by Grace Jones

      Composed by Astor Piazzolla

      Written by Barry Reynolds, Dennis Wilkey, Nathalie Delon

      (from the album "Island Life")

      Courtesy of Island Records

    User reviews184

    Review
    Top review
    7/10
    Dark and dangerous goings on in the City of Lights
    (Some Spoilers) The movie "Frantic" slowly gets you to like it. It takes it's audience from a simple case of suitcases being innocently switched at the airport to an nail-biting off camera kidnapping. Then to a tour through the Paris underworld and nightlife to finally a confrontation with this mysterious Mid-East terrorist organization. The terror group is dealing with the smuggling of top-secret US government nuclear trigger mechanisms that, if in the wrong hands, can vaporise entire cities.

    American Doctor Richard Walker, Harrison Ford, and his wife Sondra, Betty Buckley, arrive from San Francisco at the Grand Hotel in Paris for a doctors convention where Dr. Walker is to be the featured speaker. Finding that his luggage had been switched at the airport Walker calls TWA Airline giving them all the information including the switched luggage ticket number. With her husband taking a shower Sondra is seen answering the door and then disappears out of sight and out of the movie.

    It takes a while for Walker, who thought that his wife went out shopping, to realize that something is terribly wrong when Sandra doesn't show up and goes to the hotel lobby to find out what happened to her. Walker is later told by the desk clerk that Sandra left the hotel together with a Arabic-looking man.

    Walker frantic that his wife was kidnapped goes to the local police only to be told that she may be cheating on him, it's something that seems to be very common among married couples in the city. Even the US embassy doesn't seem at all too concerned or caring about his wife's disappearance. That has a desperate and determined Walker go out on his own to track down where she is, alive or dead, and who's responsible for her disappearance.

    Opening up the switched luggage Walker finds a pack of matches from the Blue Parrot nightclub and the name and telephone number of a person named Dede on it. Walker also inadvertently finds the hidden nuclear trigger that he at first thinks is a ***SPOILER*** toy model of the Statue of Liberty. Finding out at the Blue Parrort that Dede is a drug dealer Walker goes to his apartment in the seedy side of the city only to find Dede, Doll Boyer, brutally murdered. Waiting in the hallway Walker sees this young woman Michelle, Emmanuell Seigner, enter Dede's pad and grabs her trying to find out what Dede and herself had to do with his wife's Sandra's disappearance. To Walker's surprise he finds that Michelle, after a bit of convincing on his part, was the person who's luggage she mistakenly has and that she's also some kind of illegal courier for a local Paris drug gang.

    You and both Walker and Michelle at first think that there's illegal drugs involved with,or in, the luggage that Walker mistakenly received at the Paris Airport. As the real truth slowly and shockingly comes out with the Arab terrorists gang Israeli Mossad and now even the US embassy getting into the mix it becomes more and more evident that there's something far more serious and explosive in that misplaced suitcase. there's also the fact that if the suitcase is ever gotten into the wrong hands it can lead to a nuclear holocaust.

    It takes a while for "Frantic" to unravel it's storyline, like most good thrillers do, but it's actor Harrison Ford who makes it come alive with his frantic and almost hysterical search for his missing and kidnapped wife Sondra. As he goes together with, an at first very reluctant, Michelle through the length and breath of the city to finally get his wife's kidnappers to release her. This only after a deadly shootout between the kidnappers and the perusing Mossad agents. Which lead to the precious and deadly triggering device to plant itself at the bottom of Paris' Seine River, where it could do no harm to anyone, courtesy of Dr. Richard Walker.
    helpful•14
    5
    • sol1218
    • Jul 28, 2006

    Details

    Edit
    • Release date
      • February 26, 1988 (United States)
    • Countries of origin
      • France
      • United States
    • Official site
      • Warner Bros. (United States)
    • Languages
      • English
      • French
    • Also known as
      • Điên cuồng
    • Filming locations
      • 48 Rue du Faubourg Saint-Martin, Paris 10, Paris, France
    • Production companies
      • Warner Bros.
      • The Mount Company (II)
    • See more company credits at IMDbPro

    Box office

    Edit
    • Budget
      • $20,000,000 (estimated)
    • Gross US & Canada
      • $17,637,950
    • Opening weekend US & Canada
      • $4,359,424
      • Feb 28, 1988
    • Gross worldwide
      • $17,637,950
    See detailed box office info on IMDbPro

    Technical specs

    Edit
    • Runtime
      2 hours
    • Color
      • Color
    • Sound mix
      • Dolby Stereo
    • Aspect ratio
      • 1.85 : 1

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