Blood Work (2002)

Still recovering from a heart transplant, retired F.B.I. profiler Terry McCaleb (Clint Eastwood) returns to service when his own blood analysis offers clues to the identity of a serial killer.

Director:

Clint Eastwood

Writers:

Michael Connelly (novel), Brian Helgeland (screenplay)

Stars:

Clint Eastwood, Jeff Daniels, Anjelica Huston

2 wins.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Clint Eastwood	...	Terry McCaleb
Jeff Daniels	...	Jasper 'Buddy' Noone
Anjelica Huston	...	Dr. Bonnie Fox
Wanda De Jesus	...	Graciella Rivers (as Wanda De Jesús)
Tina Lifford	...	Detective Jaye Winston
Paul Rodriguez	...	Detective Ronaldo Arrango
Dylan Walsh	...	Detective John Waller
Mason Lucero	...	Raymond Torres
Gerry Becker	...	Mr. Toliver
Rick Hoffman	...	James Lockridge
Alix Koromzay	...	Mrs. Cordell
Igor Jijikine	...	Mikhail Bolotov
Dina Eastwood	...	Reporter #1
Beverly Leech	...	Reporter #2
June Kyoto Lu	...	Mrs. Kang (as June Kyoko Lu)

Storyline

Retired F.B.I. profiler Terry McCaleb (Clint Eastwood), who has recently had a heart transplant, is hired by Graciella Rivers (Wanda De Jesus), to investigate the death of her sister, Gloria, who happens to have given McCaleb his heart. On the case, he soon deduces that the killer, who staged the murder to look like a random robbery, may actually be a serial killer Terry was trailing for years in the F.B.I. Can the elderly and feeble McCaleb, who had intended to spend his retirement living on his boat in the Los Angeles harbor, and who can't drive, and has to nap regularly, muster up the endurance to find the killer?

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Plot Keywords:

shot in the back of one's head | 2000s | title same as book | villain not really dead cliche | evil man | 

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Taglines:

The key to catching a killer is only a heartbeat away.

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Genres:

Action | Crime | Drama | Mystery | Thriller

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for violence and language

Details

Official Sites:

Warner Bros. [United States]

Country:

USA

Language:

English Spanish

Release Date:

9 August 2002 (USA)

Also Known As:

Blood Work

Filming Locations:

2527 W Burbank Blvd, Burbank, California, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$50,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend USA:

$7,312,413, 11 August 2002

Gross USA:

$26,235,081

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$31,794,718

Company Credits

Production Co:

Malpaso Productions, Warner Bros.

Technical Specs

Runtime:

110 min

Sound Mix:

DTS Dolby Digital SDDS

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.39 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

As of 2010, this is the last theatrically released movie that was fully composed by Clint Eastwood's longtime collaborating Composer Lennie Niehaus (a relationship which started from Tightrope (1984)). Clint's later movies were composed by Kyle Eastwood and Michael Stevens (Letters from Iwo Jima (2006), Gran Torino (2008), Invictus (2009)), and even Clint himself (Mystic River (2003), Million Dollar Baby (2004), Flags of our Fathers (2006), Changeling (2008), and Hereafter (2010)). Since this movie, Niehaus has conducted and orchestrated all but the latest two of Clint's movies, Invictus (2009) and Hereafter (2010) (which were conducted and orchestrated by Roger Kellaway and Ashley Irwin, respectively).

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Goofs

When McCaleb is doing a newspaper search on a computer, both search results are labeled as "1 of 1" and the result ID is the same, even though the headline and article summary is different for each result.

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Quotes

[first lines]
Detective Arango: [referring to McCaleb at crime scene] Okay, listen. Whatever happens, it'll his face on the front page.

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Connections

Featured in Blood Work: A Conversation in Spanish (2002)

User Reviews

All around enjoyable murder mystery and human interest drama

In "Blood Work" Eastwood plays an FBI agent, recovering from a heart transplant, who is asked by the sister of the murdered woman whose heart he received to find her killer. The result is surprisingly even and interesting murder mystery in which we see Eastwood piece together the evidence pointing to the killer while dealing with heart transplant issues and making nice with his pro bono client. The film has fewer plot holes than most murder mysteries; leans more toward human interest than derring-dos; and is another example of Eastwood successfully pushing out the age envelope in a self-directed film product. Recommended for more mature couch potatoes into murder mysteries. (B)