Spooked (2004)

A thriller loosely based on Ian Wishart's book The Paradise Conspiracy, about the mysterious death of a New Zealander who happened upon international banking records after purchasing a used computer.

Director:

Geoff Murphy

Writers:

Geoff Murphy (screenplay), Ian Wishart (book)

Stars:

Cliff Curtis, Chris Hobbs, Andrea Kelland

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Cliff Curtis	...	Mort Whitman
Chris Hobbs	...	Kevin Jones
Andrea Kelland	...	Office Clearance Girl
Ian Mune	...	Dave Johnson
John Leigh	...	Jimmy Blick
Mark Ferguson	...	Bill Roberts
Greg Johnson	...	Jonah Levine
Kevin J. Wilson	...	Mike Taylor
Alison Bruce	...	Sheila Miller
Vincent Ward	...	Bill Thorpe
Raybon Kan	...	Lester Albright
Paul Barrett	...	George Drake
Geoff Murphy	...	Fred
Merata Mita	...	Fred's Wife
Miriama Smith	...	Ruby Elder

Storyline

Investigative journalist Mort Whitman is onto the story of his lifetime, the most important story in the nation. It was huge involving a big pay-off from a multinational bank to a second-hand computer dealer Kevin Jones. Tracing the days leading up to Kevin's suspicious death, Mort reveals Kevin's increasing paranoia and erratic behavior through the eyes of his best mate Jimmy Blick and girlfriend Ruby Elder. What dangerous secrets had he stumbled upon? Did the forces - private security, police, SIS or CIA - that increasingly menaced his life, kill him? Or did he simply drink too much and crash his car? Mort is determined to get to the bottom of it, if it kills him.

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Plot Keywords:

based on novel | 

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Taglines:

These people play by their own rules.

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Genres:

Crime | Drama | Mystery | Thriller

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Details

Country:

New Zealand

Language:

English

Release Date:

3 February 2005 (New Zealand)

Filming Locations:

New South Wales, Australia

Box Office

Budget:

NZD 300,000 (estimated)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Ora Digital, Capital Pictures, NZOA

Technical Specs

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Inspired by the death of Paul White, who purchased some old Citibank computer hardware in June 1992 and was killed in unusual circumstances in September (as related in Ian Wishart's non-fiction bestseller "The Paradise Conspiracy").

User Reviews

a sad failure

All of the comments posted here are bang on the mark. I too went to see Spooked with high hopes and came away incredibly disappointed. I can't believe this screenplay received a greenlight, it reads like a rough draft. What is even worse is that Murphy was all over the media before the film's release lamenting on how difficult it is to obtain funding in this country. The staggering thing is that you can tell a reasonable amount of money has been spent on the film but that none of it makes any different, the film is still broken. A few things in particular irked me: the repeated and annoying cut aways to the jazz musician (a friend of Murphy's) and the reflection of the boom waving up and down in the TV screen in the shots taken at Silverscreen's Auckland headquarters. It was only in the action shots, during the scuffle on the staircase and the dramatic car crash that this movie flowed. That's testament to Murphy's grasp of action movie making, but the rest of Spooked is turgid. Quite possibly the worst NZ movie made in the last ten years.