Nikita (film)

For the 1990s television series, see La Femme Nikita. For the 2010 television series, see Nikita (TV series).

Nikita
Original film poster
Directed by	Luc Besson
Produced by	Patrice Ledoux Luc Besson Claude Besson
Written by	Luc Besson
Starring	Anne Parillaud Jean-Hugues Anglade Tchéky Karyo
Music by	Éric Serra
Cinematography	Thierry Arbogast
Editing by	Olivier Mauffroy
Distributed by	Gaumont (France) The Samuel Goldwyn Company (US)
Release date(s)	21 February 1990 (1990-02-21) (France) 17 August 1990 (1990-08-17) (Italy)
Running time	117 minutes
Country	France Italy
Language	French Italian
Budget	FRF50 million
Box office	USD$5,017,971 (US) €37,214,655

Nikita is a 1990 Franco-Italian thriller film written and directed by Luc Besson; it was released in the United States as La Femme Nikita. The film centers around a young female criminal who is recruited to work as an assassin for the French government.

Plot

Nikita (Anne Parillaud) is a teenage junkie who participates in the robbery of a pharmacy owned by a friend's parents. The robbery goes awry, erupting into a gunfight with local police, during which her cohorts are killed. Suffering severe withdrawal symptoms, she murders a policeman. Nikita is arrested, tried, and convicted of murder and is sentenced to life in prison.

In prison, her captors fake her death, making it appear that she has committed suicide via a tranquilizer overdose. She awakens in a nondescript room, where a well-dressed but hard-looking man named Bob (Tchéky Karyo) enters and reveals that, although officially dead and buried, she is in the custody of a shadowy government agency. She is given a choice of becoming an assassin, or actually occupying "row 8, plot 30", referring to her fake grave. After some resistance, she chooses the former and proves to be a talented killer. One of her trainers, Amande (Jeanne Moreau), transforms her from a degenerate drug addict to a femme fatale. Amande implies that she was also rescued and trained by the DGSE.

Her initial mission, killing a diplomat in a crowded restaurant and escaping back to the Centre, doubles as the final test in her training. She graduates and begins life as a sleeper agent in Paris with her boyfriend Marco (Jean-Hugues Anglade), a man she meets in a supermarket and who knows nothing of her real profession.

Her career as an assassin goes well until a document-theft mission in an embassy goes awry, requiring the ruthless Victor "The Cleaner" (Jean Reno) to destroy the mission's evidence and all corpses. During the mission, Victor is wounded and dies. Marco reveals that he has discovered Nikita's secret life, and, concerned over how her activities are affecting her psychologically, persuades her to disappear. Upon discovering that she abandoned the agency, Bob meets with Marco, and they both discuss and decide what is best for Nikita.

Cast

• Anne Parillaud as Nikita
• Jean-Hugues Anglade as Marco
• Tchéky Karyo as Bob
• Jeanne Moreau as Amande
• Jean Reno as Victor "The Cleaner"

Reception

Nikita received mixed reviews by critics both in France and abroad. On Metacritic, the overall rating by the critics is 56%. However, on Rotten Tomatoes the film has a rating of 87%. A number of critics, including Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert, positively reviewed the film.

The film was a box office hit.

Legacy

Remake

Main article: Point of No Return (film)

In 1993, Warner Bros. remade Nikita in English as Point of No Return (The Assassin), directed by John Badham and starring Bridget Fonda. Nikita also inspired the 1991 Hong Kong action film Black Cat, which closely follows the original film’s storyline.

TV series

Main articles: La Femme Nikita and Nikita (TV series)

A TV series based on the film, titled La Femme Nikita, was created in 1997. It was produced in Canada by Warner Bros. and Fireworks Entertainment. The series ran for five seasons on USA Network, and generated a sizable cult following of its own. It was created by Joel Surnow, who later co-created 24 with fellow La Femme Nikita executive consultant Robert Cochran. It starred Peta Wilson as Nikita and Roy Dupuis.

In 2010, the CW network picked up a new series Nikita, with Maggie Q as a Nikita who has gone rogue.

See also

• Assassinations in fiction
• Girls with guns

External links

• Nikita at the Internet Movie Database
• Nikita at AllRovi
• Nikita at Box Office Mojo
• Nikita at Rotten Tomatoes
• Nikita at Metacritic