Snake Eyes (1998)

A shady police detective finds himself in the middle of a murder conspiracy at an important boxing match in an Atlantic City casino.

Director:

Brian De Palma

Writers:

Brian De Palma (story), David Koepp (story)

Stars:

Nicolas Cage, Gary Sinise, John Heard

1 win & 4 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Nicolas Cage	...	Rick Santoro
Gary Sinise	...	Commander Kevin Dunne
John Heard	...	Gilbert Powell
Carla Gugino	...	Julia Costello
Stan Shaw	...	Lincoln Tyler
Kevin Dunn	...	Lou Logan
Michael Rispoli	...	Jimmy George
Joel Fabiani	...	Charles Kirkland
Luis Guzmán	...	Cyrus (as Luis Guzman)
David Anthony Higgins	...	Ned Campbell
Mike Starr	...	Walt McGahn
Tamara Tunie	...	Anthea
Chip Zien	...	Mickey Alter
Michaella Bassey	...	Tyler's Party Girl #2
Paul Joseph Bernardo	...	Casino Security #1

Storyline

Ricky Santoro is a flamboyant and corrupt Atlantic City cop with a dream: become so well connected that he can become mayor. In lieu of that, he'll settle for keeping his comfortable lifestyle. On the night of the heavyweight boxing championship, Rick becomes mixed up in the assassination of the Secretary of Defense, an assassination involving his best friend. Becoming the investigating officer in the case, Rick soon uncovers a conspiracy to kill the Secretary and a mysterious woman in white. The conspiracy was shocking, but not half as shocking as the identity of its mastermind.

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Plot Keywords:

long take | pantyhose | white pantyhose | character repeats someone else's dialogue | miniskirt | 

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Taglines:

He's got 14,000 eyewitnesses and no one saw a thing.

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Genres:

Crime | Mystery | Thriller

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for some violence

Did You Know?

Trivia

Brian De Palma has stated that Rashomon (1950) was an influence on this film.

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Goofs

A tidal wave originally planned was removed from the film, but not entirely: - The wave can be seen briefly in a few frames as the police van arrives near the film's end. It hits the van, which begins to fall over. In the next shot, the van merely swerves into the building. - Richard Santoro mentions a recurring dream about being back in the tunnel underwater; but since the tidal wave sequence was taken out, he was never underwater in the first place.

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Quotes

[first lines]
Anthea: Good evening, everyone, and welcome to a Powell pay-per-view television event! It's hard to believe, but tonight's heavyweight fight is the swan song for the grand old Atlantic City Arena, the final event to be held in this storied hall before it is gutted and completely renovated as part of Gilbert Powell's Millennium Hotel and Casino. I'm eager to go ringside along with 14,000 fight fans who have braved Hurricane Jezebel to...
Lou Logan: Cut! Cut! Anthea, they want you to call it a tropical ...
[...]

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Crazy Credits

The end credits scroll over a construction site scene (presumably the new casino), closing in tighter and tighter until the final shot is of a bright red jewel embedded in a concrete pillar that the workmen are installing. Most of the time the jewel is hidden under the hand of one of the workers. The ring was worn by the red-haired woman/Navy agent who was part of Commander Kevin Dunn's scheme.

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Connections

Referenced in Community: Introduction to Teaching (2014)

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Soundtracks

Shortest Route
Written by Teppo Pulli, Jani Muurinen, Kalle Taivainen, Olli Nurminen & Toni Stranium
Performed by Xysma
Courtesy of Release Records
By Arrangement with Rykodisc and Ocean Park Music Group

User Reviews

A feast of visuals, but a famine of suspense.

Director Brian DePalma has always been excellent at letting the visual image speak for itself (like Hitchcock, with whom he is often compared). In "Snake Eyes", the juxtaposed and multi-angled images are captivating for a while, until you realize how unsuspenseful the story quickly becomes. Once all the key players and plot elements are revealed, the film seems to have nowhere to go and resorts to those hokey flashback devices where we see the events play out differently via each character's recollection. Cage and Sinise do the best they can with the material, but they lack real motivation, mirroring the film's lack of direction. This particularly hurts Sinise's characterization which starts out solid, then is set adrift mid-way through the film, and winds up completely contrived by the end. Overall a disappointment, but maybe not a bad rental if you are a Nicholas Cage fan.

Details

Country:

USA Canada

Language:

English

Release Date:

7 August 1998 (USA)

Also Known As:

Snake Eyes

Filming Locations:

Atlantic City, New Jersey, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$73,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend USA:

$16,310,373, 9 August 1998

Gross USA:

$55,591,409

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$103,891,409

Company Credits

Production Co:

Paramount Pictures, DeBart, Touchstone Pictures

Technical Specs

Runtime:

98 min

Sound Mix:

DTS Dolby Digital SDDS

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.39 : 1