A fearless, globe-trotting, terrorist-battling secret agent has his life turned upside down when he discovers his wife might be having an affair with a used-car salesman while terrorists smuggle nuclear war heads into the United States.
Harry Tasker (Arnold Schwarzenegger) leads a double life. At work he is a government agent with a license to do just about anything, while at home he pretends to be a dull computer salesman. He is on the trail of stolen nuclear weapons that are in the hands of fanatic terrorists when something more important comes up. Harry finds his wife is seeing another man (Bill Paxton) because she needs some adventure in her life. Harry decides to give it to her, juggling pursuit of terrorists on one hand and an adventure for his wife on the other while showing he can Tango all at once.Written by
John Vogel <jlvogel@comcast.net>
The name on the door of the office which the Harrier backs into during the final aerial scene is "D. SIMPSON". This is a reference to legendary producer Don Simpson who produced the very aerial Top Gun (1986) among others. See more »
Goofs
The holes in the bread vans are smaller than the 25mm rounds fired by the Harriers. See more »
Quotes
Faisil:
[in a conference room in their counter terrorism sector]
It's a scale really, with a perfect mission at one end and a total pooch screw at the other, and we're right about in the middle.
Spencer Trilby:
You're new on Harry's team, aren't you?
Faisil:
Yes.
Spencer Trilby:
So what makes you think that the slack I cut him in anyway translates to you?
See more »
Crazy Credits
In the middle of the credits, Gib (who's waiting outside in the stereotypical spy van as Harry's having fun inside the party) says, "You know what? I'm sick of being in the van. You guys can be in the van next time. I've been in the van for fifteen years, Harry." See more »
Alternate Versions
The UK cinema version was cut by 1 second to remove an ear-clap, and VHS versions received a further 8 seconds of cuts (the video sleeve actually carried the note, "This film has been edited for censorship purposes"). These cuts included: removal of a head-butt; a reduction in impacts to the face with a hand dryer; a reduction in impacts to a head being rammed into a urinal; a reduction in length of sight of bloody facial injury; sight of a trocar being thrown and embedded into an eye; removal of neck breaks (including a rearranging of footage); removal of a tire iron being rammed into a ribcage. The original 2001 DVD release (issued by Universal) was an uncut version, likely taken from the Australian DVD, and wrongly featured the fully uncut print. It was recalled shortly afterwards and replaced in 2003 with a Columbia release, which features the same cuts but edited in a much more obvious and choppy fashion, using repeated and slowed-down footage in an attempt to maintain a consistent runtime. The 2008 "Greatest Ever Action Heroes" DVD collection features the full uncut version, but the BBFC did not officially waive the cuts until February 2010. See more »
James Cameron has directed some fantastic action movies during his career (Aliens, the first two Terminator movies, The Abyss, Titanic--that boat action was like totally awesome!!), but none were as funny as True Lies is. Arnold Schwarzenegger (Terminator, Eraser, the Governor of California) is Harry Tasker, a computer programming father by day, James Bond by night, working for a top secret government agency that is beyond the CIA and run by Charlton Heston. Tom Arnold, in his first dramatic role, plays Harry's partner, Gib, and is the smartass, class clown of the agency. Schwarzenegger and Arnold have a fantastic chemistry, creating the movie's biggest laughs. Jamie Lee Curtis plays Harry's under-appreciated wife, Helen, who flirts with the idea of leaving Harry for a used-car salesman, played with uber-confidence by Bill Paxson. Helen finds out the true identity of her husband in another funny scene where both are captured by Arab terrorists with help from a truth serum. The action part of True Lies comes from Harry trying to track down the nuclear bomb that has been stolen by the terrorists. A wonderfully shot escape scene on the bridge that connects the Florida Keys to the mainland is the pinnacle of True Lies. An action film that does not take itself too seriously (notice all of the silly Arnold-lines peppered throughout the movie, my personal favorite being "you're fired!" before Trump thought of it), True Lies is wildly entertaining, so much so that you almost forget Tom Arnold was married to Roseanne.
106 of 143 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful to you?
| Report this
James Cameron has directed some fantastic action movies during his career (Aliens, the first two Terminator movies, The Abyss, Titanic--that boat action was like totally awesome!!), but none were as funny as True Lies is. Arnold Schwarzenegger (Terminator, Eraser, the Governor of California) is Harry Tasker, a computer programming father by day, James Bond by night, working for a top secret government agency that is beyond the CIA and run by Charlton Heston. Tom Arnold, in his first dramatic role, plays Harry's partner, Gib, and is the smartass, class clown of the agency. Schwarzenegger and Arnold have a fantastic chemistry, creating the movie's biggest laughs. Jamie Lee Curtis plays Harry's under-appreciated wife, Helen, who flirts with the idea of leaving Harry for a used-car salesman, played with uber-confidence by Bill Paxson. Helen finds out the true identity of her husband in another funny scene where both are captured by Arab terrorists with help from a truth serum. The action part of True Lies comes from Harry trying to track down the nuclear bomb that has been stolen by the terrorists. A wonderfully shot escape scene on the bridge that connects the Florida Keys to the mainland is the pinnacle of True Lies. An action film that does not take itself too seriously (notice all of the silly Arnold-lines peppered throughout the movie, my personal favorite being "you're fired!" before Trump thought of it), True Lies is wildly entertaining, so much so that you almost forget Tom Arnold was married to Roseanne.