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The film was criticized as sexist, or even misogynistic, for its treatment of female characters, such as the hero using his agency's resources to stalk and frighten his wife.<ref>John Simon, "True Lies," ''National Review'', August 29, 1994, http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1282/is_n16_v46/ai_15779214/</ref> Others perceived it as conveying a strong anti-Arab or anti-Muslim prejudice.<ref>Charles Glass, "A prejudice as American as apple pie," ''New Statesman'', November 20, 1998, http://www.newstatesman.com/199811200007</ref>
The film was criticized as sexist, or even misogynistic, for its treatment of female characters, such as the hero using his agency's resources to stalk and frighten his wife.<ref>John Simon, "True Lies," ''National Review'', August 29, 1994, http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1282/is_n16_v46/ai_15779214/</ref> Others perceived it as conveying a strong anti-Arab or anti-Muslim prejudice.<ref>Charles Glass, "A prejudice as American as apple pie," ''New Statesman'', November 20, 1998, http://www.newstatesman.com/199811200007</ref>


==Possible sequel==
==Possible sequel and television series adaptation==
{{refimprove|section|date=April 2010}}
{{refimprove|section|date=April 2010}}
In 2002, online news reports quoted Eliza Dushku as saying there would be a sequel reuniting the original cast with the writer/director James Cameron.{{citation needed|date=April 2010}} Cameron originally planned to make a sequel sometime in 2002, but he put his plans on hold once the [[September 11, 2001]] terrorist attacks occurred in [[New York City]], saying terrorism was no longer something to be taken lightly.<ref>[http://jam.canoe.ca/Movies/Artists/A/Arnold_Tom/2003/03/04/756420.html Sequel talk true or lies?]</ref> In the film ''[[The Kid & I]]'', Tom Arnold plays a fictional character based on himself. In that film, the character had starred in ''True Lies'' and is pursued, by a fan, to make a sequel; Schwarzenegger and Curtis cameo as themselves. In an interview, James Cameron stated there are no plans for a ''True Lies'' sequel, but he and Schwarzenegger had spoken about possibly working on a new project together once Schwarzenegger leaves office.<ref name="AFTL2">{{cite web|url=http://www.thearnoldfans.com/news/1519.htm|title=Cameron Doubtful for TL2 but Hopeful for Another! Tom Arnold Claims Another Project with "Lies" Team!|date=8-5-2009|publisher=TheArnoldFans.com|accessdate=6 April 2010}}</ref>
In 2002, online news reports quoted Eliza Dushku as saying there would be a sequel reuniting the original cast with the writer/director James Cameron.{{citation needed|date=April 2010}} Cameron originally planned to make a sequel sometime in 2002, but he put his plans on hold once the [[September 11, 2001]] terrorist attacks occurred in [[New York City]], saying terrorism was no longer something to be taken lightly.<ref>[http://jam.canoe.ca/Movies/Artists/A/Arnold_Tom/2003/03/04/756420.html Sequel talk true or lies?]</ref> In the film ''[[The Kid & I]]'', Tom Arnold plays a fictional character based on himself. In that film, the character had starred in ''True Lies'' and is pursued, by a fan, to make a sequel; Schwarzenegger and Curtis cameo as themselves. In an interview, James Cameron stated there are no plans for a ''True Lies'' sequel, but he and Schwarzenegger had spoken about possibly working on a new project together once Schwarzenegger leaves office.<ref name="AFTL2">{{cite web|url=http://www.thearnoldfans.com/news/1519.htm|title=Cameron Doubtful for TL2 but Hopeful for Another! Tom Arnold Claims Another Project with "Lies" Team!|date=8-5-2009|publisher=TheArnoldFans.com|accessdate=6 April 2010}}</ref>

In September 2010, multiple websites reported James Cameron developing ''True Lies'' as a possible television series with ''Dark Angel'' producer [[Rene Echevarria]] acting as showrunner and producer. <ref name="TLTV">{{cite web|url=http://www.deadline.com/2010/09/true-lies-series-in-the-works-with-james-cameron-producing/|title=
James Cameron Adapting 'True Lies' For TV|date=9-13-2010|publisher=Deadline.com|accessdate=13 September 2010}}</ref>


==Soundtrack==
==Soundtrack==

Revision as of 03:24, 14 September 2010

This article is about the film. For the video game, see True Lies (video game). For the album, see True Lies (album).
True Lies
File:True lies poster.jpg
Theatrical release poster
Directed byJames Cameron
Written byJames Cameron
Screen story:
James Cameron
Randall Frakes
Original screenplay:
Claude Zidi
Simon Michaël
Didier Kaminka
Produced byJames Cameron
Stephanie Austin
StarringArnold Schwarzenegger
Jamie Lee Curtis
Tom Arnold
Bill Paxton
Art Malik
Tia Carrere
Eliza Dushku
CinematographyRussell Carpenter
Edited byJames Cameron (Uncredited)
Conrad Buff
Mark Goldblatt
Richard A. Harris
Music byBrad Fiedel
Production
company
Distributed by20th Century Fox
Release date
July 15, 1994
Running time
141 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguagesEnglish
Arabic
French
German
Budget$100 million
Box office$378,882,411

True Lies is a 1994 American action-comedy film directed by James Cameron and starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, Jamie Lee Curtis, Tom Arnold, Bill Paxton, Tia Carrere, Charlton Heston, and Art Malik. Eliza Dushku also appears in the film in one of her first major film roles. True Lies is an extended remake of the 1991 French film La Totale!,[1] which was directed by Claude Zidi and starred Thierry Lhermitte and Miou-Miou. The film was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Visual Effects and Curtis won a Golden Globe for her comedic portrayal of Helen Tasker.

True Lies was the first Lightstorm Entertainment project to be distributed under Cameron's multi-million dollar production deal with 20th Century Fox, as well as the first major production for the visual effects company Digital Domain, which was co-founded by Cameron. True Lies was the only feature film collaboration outside of the Terminator series to feature Cameron, Schwarzenegger, and Brad Fiedel as director, actor, and composer respectively.

Upon its release, True Lies was one of the most expensive films ever made, costing anywhere from $100[2][3] to $120[4] million.

Plot

Harry Tasker (Arnold Schwarzenegger) leads a double life, performing covert missions for the United States Government under a counter-terrorism task force called The Omega Sector ("The last line of defense"). Albert "Gib" Gibson (Tom Arnold) and Faisil (Grant Heslov) assist him in these missions, while Spencer Trilby (Charlton Heston) is their boss. His wife, Helen (Jamie Lee Curtis), and daughter, Dana (Eliza Dushku), believe him to be a boring computer salesman with Tektel Systems (which is the cover company for Omega Sector) who does a lot of "corporate" travel. Harry is unable to spend quality time with his family due to his secret identity, causing Helen to believe that he doesn't appreciate her, and Dana to disrespect him.

Harry's latest missions to Switzerland leads him to the trail of an Islamic terrorist organization known as "The Crimson Jihad", a group of self-declared mujahideen led by Salim Abu Aziz (Art Malik), AKA "The Sand Spider". Harry suspects that an antiques dealer named Juno Skinner (Tia Carrere) has ties to Aziz, and after visiting her under the Rehnquist identity, he finds himself on a chase through the Georgetown Park shopping mall and the Marriott Marquis Hotel (actually filmed at the Westin Bonaventure Hotel) from Aziz's men on the night of his birthday party, making Helen believe he is having an affair.

When Harry tries to surprise her the next day at her office to take her to lunch, he overhears a conversation she has with a coworker about her talking about "Simon" (Bill Paxton), a man she is seeing. This causes Harry to worry about her fidelity and their marriage. Using the Omega Sector's resources (including a GPS tracker and wireless microphone hidden in her purse), he tracks down "Simon", who turns out to be a car salesman posing as a spy to lure Helen; the irony is that Harry is a spy pretending to be a salesman. Helen is captured at "Simon's" trailer and then taken into a room with a one way mirror with Harry and Gib on the other side. Harry questions her using a voice distorter about her relationship with "Simon" and about their marriage. She says that she wanted to have adventure in her life for once, since Harry never gave her that. Helen is then told that she can either go on a "mission" or be sent to prison. She chooses the "mission" and told that she will be contacted using the codename "Doris". Gib, using a voice distorter, calls Helen and tells her to pose as a prostitute named Michelle. She is to go to the Hotel Marquis and meet a suspected arms dealer and plant a bug by his phone. The suspected arms dealer is actually Harry and the room at the Marquis is used by the Omega Sector for their operations.

As Helen is about to plant the bug, she discovers it is Harry instructing her. No sooner had she realized that the man was her husband than Aziz's men burst into the hotel room, taking both Helen and Harry hostage. They are taken to a private jet with Juno Skinner on board. They are then given a tranquilizer and flown down to the terrorist hideout in the Florida Keys.

Aziz reveals he possesses small nuclear warheads hidden inside antique statues shipped by Juno, and plans to detonate one to demonstrate his force to the United States. Harry is forced, under the effects of a truth serum, to reveal his covert identity much to Helen's shock. Harry uses the opportunity to free both of them. Harry, while fighting Aziz' troops, appears to be killed in an explosion, and Helen is captured and taken with Aziz, Juno, and the rest of his forces as they leave the island, the warhead soon to go off. Thanks to the GPS tracking device Harry had previously placed in Helen's purse, Gib is able to help locate and rescue Harry. Harry arranges for the help of two Marine AV-8B Harrier jets to attack Aziz' convoy as they cross the Overseas Highway bridges, and Harry is able to make a daring rescue of Helen from Juno's limo into a helicopter before the limo falls over part of the damaged bridge (the driver having been killed and the vehicle out of control). Regrouping on the mainland out of the blast radius, Harry and Helen fall into a deep kiss as the nuclear explosion goes off in the distance.

Harry soon learns that Aziz, having arrived much earlier, has taken his daughter Dana hostage (having gotten Harry's home address and Dana's picture from Helen's purse) and has holed up in an office building in downtown Miami with one of the warheads. Harry borrows one the Harriers to go to his daughter's rescue. Faisil sneaks into the building as part of the requested news crew, and is able to provide a distraction to allow Dana to steal the arming key and escape up to the cranes on top of the building, Aziz following her. Faisil kills three of the terrorists with a gun hidden in the camera's videotape case, while Harry eliminates most of the rest with the Harrier's built-in machine gun while the rest board a helicopter. Harry arrives in time to catch Dana as she jumps from the cranes when he tells her to, as well as Aziz, who, after fighting Harry, gets hung up by his clothes on one of the Harrier's AIM-9 Sidewinder missiles. Harry grins, looks at Aziz and says "You're fired!", he then fires the missile with Aziz still hanging from it, sending it through the building and into the terrorists' helicopter on the opposite side, killing them all.

A year later, the Tasker family have strengthened their bonds after the events in Florida, though now Harry and Helen are partners as operatives in Omega Sector, with Gib and Faisil as their support team. Harry and Helen encounter Simon again and after scaring him, dance the tango. As the film concludes, Gib begins berating both of them for being stuck in the truck for fifteen years.

Cast

Reception

Upon its release in 1994, the film garnered mostly positive reviews. Based on 37 reviews collected by Rotten Tomatoes, True Lies has a 69% fresh rating and a weighted average of 6.4/10.[5] Website Metacritic, which assigns a weighted mean to various reviews, gave the film a 63 out of 100, indicating "generally favorable reviews".[6]

James Berardinelli from Reelviews gave the film 3.5 stars out of 4, saying,

"I have yet to decide whether True Lies is a better comedy or action film. It contains heavy elements of both, and plays them equally well. Unlike such failed attempts as Hudson Hawk and Last Action Hero, however, True Lies is a big, grandiose movie that has an immense amount of fun while never taking itself too seriously... Speed (which was released in the same year) and True Lies deliver a summer one-two punch that will leave viewers squirming with excitement and gasping for breath."[7]

The film relies heavily on stunts, often performed by Schwarzenegger and Curtis themselves. The film earned $146 million domestically and $232.6 million abroad,[8] making it third best-grossing movie of 1994,[9] and also a comeback for Schwarzenegger following the disastrous Last Action Hero of the previous summer. For her performance, Jamie Lee Curtis received a 1994 Golden Globe for Best Actress in a Musical/Comedy.[10]

The film was criticized as sexist, or even misogynistic, for its treatment of female characters, such as the hero using his agency's resources to stalk and frighten his wife.[11] Others perceived it as conveying a strong anti-Arab or anti-Muslim prejudice.[12]

Possible sequel and television series adaptation

In 2002, online news reports quoted Eliza Dushku as saying there would be a sequel reuniting the original cast with the writer/director James Cameron.[citation needed] Cameron originally planned to make a sequel sometime in 2002, but he put his plans on hold once the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks occurred in New York City, saying terrorism was no longer something to be taken lightly.[13] In the film The Kid & I, Tom Arnold plays a fictional character based on himself. In that film, the character had starred in True Lies and is pursued, by a fan, to make a sequel; Schwarzenegger and Curtis cameo as themselves. In an interview, James Cameron stated there are no plans for a True Lies sequel, but he and Schwarzenegger had spoken about possibly working on a new project together once Schwarzenegger leaves office.[14]

In September 2010, multiple websites reported James Cameron developing True Lies as a possible television series with Dark Angel producer Rene Echevarria acting as showrunner and producer. [15]

Soundtrack

Untitled
Track list
No.TitleMusicLength
1."Sunshine Of Your Love"Living Colour 
2."Darkness, Darkness"Screaming Trees 
3."Alone In The Dark"John Hiatt 
4."Entity"Mother Tongue 
5."Sunshine Of Your Love (The Adrian Sherwood & Skip McDonald Remix)"Living Colour 
6."Main Title/Harry Makes His Entrance"  
7."Escape From The Chateau"  
8."Harry's Sweet Home"  
9."Harry Rides Again"  
10."Spying On Helen"  
11."Juno's Place"  
12."Caught In The Act"  
13."Shadow Lover"  
14."Island Suite"  
15."Causeway/Helicopter Rescue"  
16."Nuclear Kiss"  
17."Harry Saves The Day"  

Songs appearing in the film not included with the release of the soundtrack

References

  1. ^ IMDB.com - La Totale!
  2. ^ Fox, D., 1994. Movies: 'True Lies,' 'Forrest Gump' and 'The Lion King' are on target to break a record for non-holiday weekend ticket sales. Los Angeles Times, [internet] July 18. Available at http://articles.latimes.com/1994-07-18/entertainment/ca-17141_1_true-lies [Accessed July 24, 2010].
  3. ^ Kempley, R., 1994. ‘True Lies’ (R). The Washington Post, [internet] July 15. Available at http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/style/longterm/movies/videos/trueliesrkempley_a0a475.htm [Accessed July 24, 2010].
  4. ^ 5 True Lies About James Cameron
  5. ^ "True Lies". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved 2008-11-16.
  6. ^ http://www.metacritic.com/video/titles/truelies?q=true lies
  7. ^ http://www.reelviews.net/movies/t/true_lies.html
  8. ^ http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=truelies.htm
  9. ^ http://www.boxofficemojo.com/yearly/chart/?yr=1994&p=.htm
  10. ^ http://movies.msn.com/celebrities/celebrity-awards-and-nominations/jamie-lee-curtis/
  11. ^ John Simon, "True Lies," National Review, August 29, 1994, http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1282/is_n16_v46/ai_15779214/
  12. ^ Charles Glass, "A prejudice as American as apple pie," New Statesman, November 20, 1998, http://www.newstatesman.com/199811200007
  13. ^ Sequel talk true or lies?
  14. ^ "Cameron Doubtful for TL2 but Hopeful for Another! Tom Arnold Claims Another Project with "Lies" Team!". TheArnoldFans.com. 8-5-2009. Retrieved 6 April 2010. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  15. ^ "James Cameron Adapting 'True Lies' For TV". Deadline.com. 9-13-2010. Retrieved 13 September 2010. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)

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