Enemy of the State (1998)

A lawyer becomes a target by a corrupt politician and his N.S.A. goons when he accidentally receives key evidence to a serious politically motivated crime.

Director:

Tony Scott

Writer:

David Marconi

Stars:

Will Smith, Gene Hackman, Jon Voight

5 wins & 16 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Will Smith	...	Robert Clayton Dean
Gene Hackman	...	Edward Lyle
Jon Voight	...	Thomas Brian Reynolds
Lisa Bonet	...	Rachel F. Banks
Regina King	...	Carla Dean
Stuart Wilson	...	Congressman Sam Albert
Laura Cayouette	...	Christa Hawkins
Loren Dean	...	Hicks
Barry Pepper	...	David Pratt
Ian Hart	...	Bingham
Jake Busey	...	Krug
Scott Caan	...	Jones
Jason Lee	...	Daniel Zavitz
Gabriel Byrne	...	Brill
James Le Gros	...	Jerry Miller

Storyline

Robert Dean is a mild-mannered lawyer who works in Washington, D.C. He is on the trail of a kingpin named Pintero. Meanwhile, a politician named Thomas Reynolds is negotiating with Representative Phillip Hammersley about a new surveillance system with satellites. But, Hammersley declines; Reynolds has Hammersley killed, but the murder is caught on tape, and the taper is chased by Reynolds' team of N.S.A. Agents. The guy must ditch the tape, so he plants it on Dean (unbeknownst to Dean). Then, the N.S.A. decides to get into Dean's life. That is when Dean's life began to fall apart all around him, with his wife and job both gone. Dean wants to find out what is going on. Then, he meets a man named "Brill" who tells him that Dean has something that the government wants. Dean and Brill formulate a plan to get Dean's life back and turn the tables on Reynolds.

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Plot Keywords:

on the run | surveillance | political corruption | conspiracy | nsa | 

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Taglines:

The only privacy left is inside of your head

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Genres:

Action | Crime | Mystery | Thriller

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for language and violence

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

20 November 1998 (USA)

Also Known As:

Enemigo público

Filming Locations:

4809 Boston St, Baltimore, Maryland, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$90,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend USA:

$20,038,573, 22 November 1998, Wide Release

Gross USA:

$111,549,836

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$250,649,836

Company Credits

Production Co:

Touchstone Pictures, Jerry Bruckheimer Films, Don Simpson/Jerry Bruckheimer Films

Technical Specs

Runtime:

132 min 140 min (extended)

Sound Mix:

DTS Dolby Digital SDDS

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.39 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

The Ecology Flag circa the first Earth Day can be seen on the truck of Daniel Zavitz as he drives away from retrieving the tape. In the shot where the man radio's the license plate number, the green and yellow flag can be seen on the upper left of the tailgate. The symbol was formed by taking the letters "e" and "o", taken from the words "environment" and "organism", and putting them in superposition, thereby forming a shape reminiscent of the Greek letter Theta. Zavitz also exclaims "Fuck a Duck" when he realizes what his hidden camera captures. He is a nature photographer monitoring the migratory patterns of Canadian geese.

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Goofs

Gene Hackman's character was said to be a graduate of Drexel University in Philadelphia. Considering Hackman's character's age, he would have been a graduate of Drexel Institute of Technology since Drexel changed its name in February 1970.

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Quotes

[first lines]
Congressman Phillip Hammersley: Come on. Come on, mutt. Now, look at that ball. All right. Come on, get that ball. Ah!

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Crazy Credits

The CNN journalist is a fictitious character.

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Alternate Versions

Also available in an "Unrated Extended Edition" which features some new/extended footage (ca. 7 minutes) like some explicit shots of the senator with his secretary or Dean finding his dead ex-girlfriend covered in blood.

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Connections

References The Rescuers (1977)

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Soundtracks

Hark the Herald Angels Sing
Music by Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy (1840) (uncredited)
Arranged by Richard Harvey
Courtesy of APM

User Reviews

Crackerjack Thriller with a message...

Why? Well for starters there is the best chase sequence since The French Connection. Then there is Will Smith as an actor - not just a star, though later in the movie he is admittedly overshadowed by veteran Gene Hackman.

There are two layers to this movie: On the surface is a pacy thriller with edge-of-the-seat chases but underneath lies a telling commentary on government surveillance. It is one of those truth-in-fiction stories which makes its point about government intrusion into privacy dramatically and effectively.

There are references to the classic, The Conversation: The surveilled couple talking in the park, and the Hackman character's premises are an obvious recreation of his workshop in the earlier movie. If you haven't yet seen The Conversation - see it before you see this one - you will understand the Hackman character a lot better (besides, it is a superb movie in its own right).

Oh, and Jon Voight is terrific as the bad guy...