DIRECTED BY: Richard Donner

WRITTEN BY: Brian Helgeland

MEL GIBSON AS: Jerry Fletcher

GENRE: Mystery, Romance, Thriller

TAGLINES:

- What you know could kill you.

- What if your most paranoid nightmares had just come true?

- Jerry Fletcher sees conspiracies everywhere. One has turned out to be true. Now his enemies want him dead. And she’s the only one he can trust.

PLOT SUMMARY:

A paranoid cab driver, Jerry Fletcher (Gibson), publishes a newsletter about conspiracy theories and nourishes a desire for the lovely Alice Sutton, a Justice Department employee. Suddenly Jerry finds himself in trouble with the CIA when one of the theories turns out to be accurate. Jerry escapes from the hands of Dr Jonas only to end up on the run. Alice finds herself in the middle of this cat and mouse game as it is revealed that Jerry and his main nemesis, Dr Jonas, have a past relationship that could lead to dangerous consequences. –Yahoo! Movies

RELEASE DATES:

1997 August 7 (Australia)
1997 August 8 (Sweden, United States)
1997 August 16 (Taiwan)
1997 August 20 (France)
1997 August 28 (Netherlands)
1997 August 29 (United Kingdom)
1997 September 5 (Portugal)
1997 September 6 (South Korea)
1997 September 11 (Singapore)
1997 September 18 (Argentina)
1997 October 1 (Hong Kong)
1997 October 2 (Israel, New Zealand)
1997 October 10 (Brazil, Estonia, Iceland)
1997 October 17 (Mexico, Poland, Turkey)
1997 October 24 (Italy)
1997 November 1 (Japan)
1997 November 6 (Germany)
1997 November 13 (Spain)
1997 November 14 (Denmark, Switzerland)
1997 November 21 (Romania)
1997 November 29 (Kuwait)
1997 December 4 (Russia)
1997 December 31 (Hungary)

BOX OFFICE GROSS:

United States: $75,982,834
International: $61,000,000

FILMING LOCATIONS:

New York, New York, and Los Angeles, California, USA.

TRIVIA:

- Jodie Foster was initially offered the role of Alice.

- Jerry’s cab license is issued in the name of “Raffi Paloulian,” a script clearance researcher on the film and friend of screenwriter Brian Helgeland. Paloulian also appears as an extra.

- Jerry runs into a theater showing Ladyhawke (1985), also directed by Richard Donner.

- Director Richard Donner is an animal-rights and pro-choice activist. The newsstand where Jerry picks up his newspapers has an anti-fur slogan on it.

- Jerry’s cab is numbered 1S48. The bus that Jerry hooks up to the fruit cart is 1648. This is a tribute to stunt-man Harry Wowchuk who worked on this movie and who was born on October 16, 1948 and who has worked with Richard Donner and Joel Silver on three movies.

- The doctor who lets Julia Roberts into the restricted area to see Mel Gibson handcuffed to the bed is Gibson’s younger brother Donal Gibson.

- All of the scenes at the horse farm were shot at Lionshare Farm in Greenwich, CT, which is owned by United States Equestrian Team member Peter Leone. Leone coached Julia Roberts through the scene at the end where she rides her horse across a field at a gallop.

- The character names “Dr. Jonas” (Patrick Stewart), and “Agent Lowry” (Cylk Cozart), were both named after British character actor Morton Lowry, who portrayed the school teacher Mr. Jonas in How Green Was My Valley (1941).

- In the original script, the theme song was to be “Blue Moon”.

- When Alice Sutton returns to Jerry Fletcher’s torched apartment, looking for clues on his conspiracy wall, the mugshot of Ezekiel Walters is played by a shot of Brian Helgeland, the writer.

- When Jerry is in the hospital for the first time (where he writes the word Geronimo on the wall), the room number on the hospital door is briefly visible: 322. This number is well-known in conspiracy circles as being the address of the Skull & Bones society at Yale University, which is said to have the skull of Geronimo in its possession.

- In the movie several times an earthquake is referenced that took place in southern coast with a magnitude of 7.3 during a presidential visit. There indeed happened a 7.3 earthquake in North-West part of Turkey in 1999, just to be followed by a presidential visit.

- Director Cameo: [Richard Donner] Jerry’s cab passenger in the opening credits.

- According to director Richard Donner, Mel Gibson improvised the opening scenes in which his character expounds his conspiracy theories to a succession of passengers.

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