Strange Days (film)

Strange Days
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Kathryn Bigelow
Produced by	James Cameron Steven-Charles Jaffe
Written by	James Cameron Jay Cocks
Starring	Ralph Fiennes Angela Bassett Juliette Lewis Tom Sizemore Michael Wincott Vincent D'Onofrio William Fichtner
Music by	Graeme Revell
Cinematography	Matthew F. Leonetti
Editing by	James Cameron Howard E. Smith
Studio	Lightstorm Entertainment
Distributed by	20th Century Fox
Release date(s)	October 13, 1995
Running time	145 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$42,000,000
Box office	$7,959,291

Strange Days is a 1995 American cyberpunk science fiction film directed by Kathryn Bigelow and produced and co-written by James Cameron and Jay Cocks, starring Ralph Fiennes, Angela Bassett, Juliette Lewis, Tom Sizemore, Michael Wincott and Vincent D'Onofrio. Despite positive reviews, the film was a commercial failure, earning only a fraction of its production cost in its domestic release. The film has garnered a cult following over the years for its dystopian and cyberpunk themes.

Plot

In the last days of December 1999, Los Angeles has become a dangerously volatile war zone of crime and violence. As a group of criminals rob a Chinese restaurant, the whole event is recorded by a robber wearing a 'SQUID' recorder or "Superconducting Quantum Interference Device", a device that records events directly from the wearer's cerebral cortex, which, when played back through a MiniDisc-like device, allow a user to experience the recorder's memory as if was his or her own experience. Lenny Nero (Ralph Fiennes), who viewed the whole thing, is a former LAPD officer turned black marketeer who deals in bootleg SQUID recordings. His main supplier, Tick (Richard Edson), tries to sell the clip to him. Lenny initially refuses due to the recording ending with the wearer's death, but eventually agrees to buy it at a reduced price, intending to edit out the death.

Meanwhile, a woman named Iris (Brigitte Bako) is being chased by two police officers as she flees to the subway, jumping aboard one of the trains. As the train departs, one of the officers shatters a window and grabs Iris; her wig is pulled off as she struggles, revealing a SQUID recorder headset inside.

While Lenny acts smooth with his clients, in private he pines for his ex-girlfriend Faith (Juliette Lewis), while relying on his two best friends, bodyguard Lornette "Mace" Mason (Angela Bassett) and private investigator Max Peltier (Tom Sizemore), for emotional support. Mace's relationship with Lenny is strained, due to her unrequited feelings for Lenny and her disapproval of his SQUID-dealing business. While the three are drinking together at a bar, Iris arrives, drops a disc through the sunroof of Lenny's car and attempts to explain her predicament to him, but flees when she sees police nearby. Lenny's illegally-parked car is towed away before Lenny can find the disc.

Hours later, Lenny receives a "blackjack" (snuff) SQUID from an anonymous sender, showing Iris getting raped and murdered. Troubled by the recording and Iris's warnings about Faith's safety, Lenny tries to get Faith away from her new boyfriend, music industry mogul Philo Gant (Michael Wincott), but to no avail.

Lenny later receives more snuff tapes. He and Mace discover that the case is tied to a cover-up of the murder of rapper and social commentator Jeriko One (Glenn Plummer) and one of his band mates by two LAPD officers. As they are hunted by the two policemen, Burton Steckler and Dwayne Engelman (Vincent D'Onofrio and William Fichtner), Lenny discovers that Iris witnessed (and her SQUID recorded) the murders.

Lenny, Mace, and Max meet at Tick's on New Year's Eve, only to discover that Tick has been rendered brain-dead from exposure to highly amplified SQUID recordings. Mace insists that the truth behind Jeriko's murder go public, but Max insinuates that if it did, the city would destroy itself from within. Lenny concludes that the assault on Tick was committed by the same person that killed Iris and fears Faith will be next.

Lenny and Mace confront Faith about the truth behind Jeriko's death. Faith mentions that Philo has been monitoring his inner circle. Concerned that Jeriko might be looking for a new manager, Philo hired Iris to spy on him. Realizing that Philo must have ordered the killer to murder Iris, Lenny convinces Faith to escape with them, but Philo's henchmen stop them.

As midnight approaches, Lenny and Mace sneak into a private New Year's party at the Bonaventure Hotel that Philo is hosting for the city's wealthy elite. Lenny gives the disk to Mace so she can deliver it to Deputy Police Commissioner, Palmer Strickland (Josef Sommer). Upon entering Philo's penthouse suite, Lenny finds another SQUID disk which shows Faith apparently being raped and killed. Refusing to watch anymore, Lenny finds a body covered in bedsheets and pulls the sheets aside to find Philo, whose brain has been damaged in the same manner as Tick's. Lenny watches the remainder of the clip and discovers the killer is Max. He hadn't killed Faith and it becomes apparent that the two have become lovers. In the clip, Philo enters the room and Max forces him to run the amplified recording. After the clip ends, Max and Faith enter the room. Max disarms Lenny and shoots Philo with Lenny's gun, explaining that he set Philo up because he wanted to have Faith killed for what she knew about Jeriko One's death, and that he now intends to frame Lenny for Philo's murder. As Max is about to shoot Lenny, Faith has a change of heart and attacks Max. In the ensuing fight, Lenny tries to throw Max off the balcony and Max grabs Lenny's necktie, leaving both of them dangling from the railing over the street below. Lenny manages to grab Max's knife and cut his tie off, and Max falls to his death.

Outside the hotel, Mace is pursued by Steckler and Engelman. She manages to subdue both of them, cuffing them to a scaffold, only for other nearby police officers to begin brutally beating her, triggering a riot in the crowd. Commissioner Strickland appears and restores order, having watched the recording of the murders, and orders the riot cops to arrest the two officers. As they are read their rights, Engelman takes a pistol from one of the officers and commits suicide, and Steckler is gunned down by the police when he tries to shoot Mace. As Lenny and Mace are being treated for their wounds, Faith is arrested for Philo's murder. At the stroke of midnight (which begins the new millenium), Lenny and Mace share a passionate kiss.

Cast

• Ralph Fiennes as Lenny Nero
• Angela Bassett as Lornette "Mace" Mason
• Juliette Lewis as Faith Justin
• Tom Sizemore as Max Peltier
• Michael Wincott as Philo Gant
• Vincent D'Onofrio as Burton Steckler
• William Fichtner as Dwayne Engelman
• Glenn Plummer as Jeriko One
• Brigitte Bako as Iris
• Josef Sommer as Palmer Strickland
• Nicky Katt as Joey Corto
• Richard Edson as Tick
• Michael Jace as Wade Beemer
• David Packer as Lane

Soundtrack

1. Skunk Anansie – "Selling Jesus"
2. Lords of Acid – "The Real Thing"
3. Tricky – "Overcome"
4. Deep Forest – "Coral Lounge"
5. Strange Fruit – "No White Clouds"
6. Juliette Lewis – "Hardly Wait"
7. Me Phi Me/Jeriko One – "Here We Come"
8. Skunk Anansie – "Feed"
9. Prong/Ray Manzarek – "Strange Days"
10. Satchel – "Walk In Freedom"
11. Kate Gibson – "Dance Me to the End of Love"
12. Lori Carson/Graeme Revell – "Fall in the Light"
13. Deep Forest feat. Peter Gabriel – "While the Earth Sleeps"

Release

Strange Days was given a limited release on October 6, 1995 in only one theater and grossed $31,062 on its opening weekend. It was given a wide release on October 13, 1995 in 1,691 theaters and grossed $3,656,012 on its opening weekend. The film went on to make $7,959,291 in North America, little more than a sixth of its $42 million production cost.

Reception

The film received praise for its gritty, serious view of a possible future, which slowly began to take shape even after its release and its becoming a cult classic. Roger Ebert gave the film four out of four stars and wrote, "The movie is a technical tour de force ... The pacing is relentless, and the editing, by Howard Smith, creates an urgency and desperation". In her review for The New York Times, Janet Maslin praised the performances of Ralph Fiennes and Angela Bassett: "Mr. Fiennes gleefully captures Lenny's sleaziness while also showing there is something about this schlockmeister that is worth saving, despite much evidence to the contrary. As for Ms. Bassett, she looks great and radiates inner strength even without the bone-crunching physical feats to which she is often assigned". Entertainment Weekly gave the film a "B-" rating and Owen Gleiberman wrote, "Strange Days has a dazzling atmosphere of grunge futurism, but beneath its dark satire of audiovisual decadence lurks a naggingly conventional underworld thriller". Rolling Stone magazine's Peter Travers called the film Bigelow's "magnum opus", and wrote, "In a film of striking performances, Bassett's is the standout -- she is fierce, funny and heart rending". In his review for the San Francisco Chronicle, Edward Guthmann wrote, "Strange Days wants to say something about faith and redemption -- about the importance of maintaining one's humanity in a darkened world. That's a worthy intent, but Bigelow is so enamored of high-tech thrills, and so mesmerized by the violence she seeks to condemn, that her efforts at 11th-hour moralizing seem limp and halfhearted". In his review for the Los Angeles Times, Kenneth Turan wrote, "No matter how much thought may have gone into Strange Days, terribly little has come out the other end".

External links

• Strange Days at the Internet Movie Database
• Strange Days at AllRovi
• Strange Days at Rotten Tomatoes
• Strange Days at Box Office Mojo