Wild Wild West

Wild Wild West
Directed by	Barry Sonnenfeld
Written by	Jim Thomas John Thomas S.S. Wilson Brent Maddock Jeffrey Price Peter S. Seaman
Produced by	Jon Peters Barry Sonnenfeld
Starring	Will Smith Kevin Kline Kenneth Branagh Salma Hayek
Distributed by	Warner Bros.
Release date	June 30 1999 (USA)
Running time	107 min.
Language	English
Budget	$170,000,000 US (est.)

For the 1960s television series, see The Wild Wild West.

Wild Wild West (1999) is a film directed by Barry Sonnenfeld, starring Will Smith, Kevin Kline (in two roles, Artemus Gordon and President Ulysses S. Grant), Kenneth Branagh and Salma Hayek. It was inspired by the 1960s television program of the same name, and may be described as a science fiction Western (steampunk).

In the spirit of the original TV series, the film features highly advanced steampunk technology and many bizarre mechanical inventions, including innumerable inventions of the mechanological geniuses Artemus Gordon and Arliss Loveless, including nitroglycerine-powered penny-farthing bicycles, spring-loaded notebooks, bulletproof chainmail, flying machines, steam tanks, and of course Loveless's giant steampunk mechanical spider.

Plot

The film opens at a railroad water station in West Virginia in 1869. Trigger-happy Capt. Jim West (Will Smith), one of the main protagonists, is hiding in the water tower, spying on the actions of a group of ex-Confederate soldiers working under General "Bloodbath" McGrath, a personal nemesis of West. Following a runaway ride on a wagon filled with bottles of nitroglycerine, West arrives at a saloon where General McGrath and his rag-tag band of rebel soldiers are enjoying a raucous party. McGrath, whose head is fitted with a small swivelling trumpet to replace a missing ear, is seduced by an unlikely prostitute who, having seen McGrath's men carrying a man out of the building, attempts to hypnotize the general and learn his plans for the kidnapped man. West breaks in and attempts to kill McGrath, but is stopped by the prostitute, allowing McGrath to escape. West fights off a number of McGrath's men, and finds himself in a Mexican standoff with the prostitute, who unmasks his disguise to reveal himself as the second protagonist, gadget-obsessed master of disguise U.S. Marshal Artemus Gordon (Kevin Kline). The two escape from the saloon as the wagon-load of nitroglycerin tumbles down a nearby slope, destroying the building.

In Washington, D.C., West and Gordon meet at the White House with President Ulysses S. Grant, who informs them of the disappearance of America's key scientists. Grant charges the two with finding the scientists within one week, before he inaugurates the first transcontinental railroad at Promontory, Utah. En route to New Orleans on board The Wanderer, a luxury train fitted with an array of bizarre gadgets, West and Gordon come to blows before putting aside their differences. Pursuing a lead, the two arrive in New Orleans at the mansion of Dr. Arliss Loveless — a brilliant ex-Confederate scientist confined to a steam-powered wheelchair — who is hosting a party for the elite of Southern society. West mistakes a guest for Gordon in disguise, making a comic error that results in the guests leading West out for a lynching. Using this as a distraction, Gordon (in disguise) roams the mansion and comes across the film's main female character, Rita Escobar (Hayek), rescuing her from the house. West, trying to talk his way out of being lynched, is saved by one of Gordon's inventions (an elastic lynching rope) and escapes with Gordon and Rita on the Wanderer.

On board his armoured steam-powered gunboat, Loveless, hosting a reception for foreign dignitaries, demonstrates his newest weapon — a steam-powered tank. The tank crew uses General McGrath's soldiers as target practice, infuriating McGrath. McGrath tries to shoot Loveless, but Loveless shoots him first, with a gun concealed within his wheelchair. Loveless explains to the assembled ambassadors the immense power of his new mechanised forces and invites the dignitaries to a reception at his laboratory to explain his future plans. Gordon, West, and Rita arrive at the scene of the massacre just as Loveless and his tank leave. The trio finds the dying McGrath, who reveals one of Loveless's past crimes: Loveless had used the tank to massacre a settlement of displaced slaves, including West's family (an attack for which West had held McGrath responsible). Loveless boards his armored train (based on his tank) and heads towards Utah, pursued by Gordon, West, and Rita on board The Wanderer. Using his advanced mechanical devices, Loveless relocates his own train behind The Wanderer. West, making use of one of Gordon's inventions, disables Loveless's train, but not before Loveless uses a locomotive-mounted cannon to stop The Wanderer. Rita, afraid of being recaptured by Loveless, accidentally releases sleeping gas, knocking them out.

West and Gordon wake up as Loveless (with a recaptured Rita) pulls away in The Wanderer, informing them (by steam-powered megaphone) of his intentions to capture President Grant at the "golden spike" ceremony. They find themselves incarcerated in a strange prison, fitted with metal collars and enclosed only by a wire strung at ground level. West, ignoring Gordon's advice, crosses the wire, triggering a nearby steam-powered machine which releases two lethal flying disks. West and Gordon attempt to run away, but soon realize the disks are attracted to the collars' magnetic fields. Following a panicked dash through a field of maize, the two leap into a mud-filled pit, escaping the discs. A comic scene follows in which Gordon loses his temper with West and accidentally reverses the polarity of their magnets, causing the two collars to stick to each other. Eventually, Gordon removes their collars and the two stumble across Loveless's private railroad track, which leads them to The Wanderer and Loveless' industrial complex. Here, they witness Loveless's ultimate weapon — a gargantuan steam-powered mechanical spider, bristling with cannon, steam-assisted Gatling guns, and a powerful explosive flamethrower. Loveless, driving the spider, captures Gordon and President Grant from the railroad inauguration ceremony at Promontory Point, whilst West is apparently killed by one of Loveless's bodyguards.

At his industrial complex, an euphoric Loveless reveals his plan to destroy the United States with his mechanised forces unless President Grant agrees to carve up the United States between Great Britain, France, Spain, Mexico, Native Americans, and himself. Loveless demands that President Grant sign a surrender treaty, but when Grant refuses, Loveless threatens to execute Gordon. Before he can do so, he is interrupted by a belly-dancer, who turns out to be West in disguise. West, it is revealed, had escaped death when a concealed layer of bulletproof chain mail in his jacket (another of Gordon's inventions) stopped the bullet fired at him. Using the belly-dancer disguise which he had found in the remains of the Wanderer, West had planned to infiltrate Loveless' lair and rescue the hostages. However, when West's brassiere is revealed to be a flamethrower (yet another of Gordon's inventions), Loveless' complex is set ablaze, creating enough of a distraction for Loveless to escape to his mechanical spider with an unconscious Grant.

Gordon and West, using a flying machine developed by Gordon, catch up with the spider and bomb it with nitroglycerin before crashing into it. Loveless offers the two their lives in exchange for working for him; West refuses and is dropped into the engine room to defend himself against the spider's crew, all of whom are fitted with bizarre prosthetics. After West defeats the crew, Loveless himself descends into the engine room; in his absence, Gordon and Grant defeat Loveless' bodyguards and take over the spider's control bridge. Loveless, making use of four hydraulic mechanical legs concealed within his wheelchair, pins West to the floor and stomps on him until Gordon damages and incapacitates the walking apparatus. Pleading for his life, Loveless drags himself back to his wheelchair frame as the spider approaches a canyon. Loveless attempts to shoot West with the gun concealed in his wheelchair, but he hits the control lines of the spider instead, bringing it to a sudden halt just before it plunges into the canyon. The sudden stop sends West and Loveless spinning towards the edge of the deck, where they become wedged by the wheelchair. West releases the wheelchair, sending both Loveless and himself plummeting into the canyon; however, as they fall, West is able to grab a chain and so saves himself.

At the second ceremony at Promontory, Grant promotes Gordon and West to the first two agents of his newly-formed U.S. Secret Service. The film ends with a typically clichéd scene of Western films, with Gordon and West seemingly riding through a typical Western landscape on horseback. The camera pans out to reveal that they are actually piloting the immense steam-spider into the sunset (towards Washington, D.C., a minor inconsistency since that city lies east of Utah).

Reviews

File:Wild Wild West DVD.jpg

DVD cover with addition of Salma Hayek.

Wild Wild West was criticized for excessive marketing and poor quality, as well as jaw-dropping implausibility and historical inaccuracy, and was generally seen to have gone too far in putting surface appearances and special effects ahead of plot and character, even for a summer blockbuster. It had an extraordinarily large budget, approximately $170 million, and was widely perceived as a box office flop. (For contrast, the budget for Men in Black, a blockbuster success starring Smith and directed by Sonnenfeld in 1997, was $90 million.) While some moviegoers grumbled at the notion of Will Smith, a black actor, playing an established white character, most were simply put off at the anachronistic way in which he portrayed West in the film. (In the Wold Newton universe, there are actually two Jim Wests--the white original, and a black spy who took "Jim West" as his code name. Similarly, there are also two Artemus Gordons.)

The movie won five Razzies: Worst Film, Director, Screenplay, Couple (Smith and Kline) and Song ("Wild Wild West").

In the documentary An Evening with Kevin Smith, director Kevin Smith claims that the giant mechanical spider was the idea of producer Jon Peters, who wanted Smith to include a giant spider in his screenplay for a prospective Superman film.

Will Smith reportedly passed on the role of Neo in The Matrix in order to make this movie instead. Smith considers this the worst movie he has starred in, and admits passing on The Matrix was a "big mistake", claiming the only upside was being able to work with Kevin Kline. The role instead went to Keanu Reeves and The Matrix, along with its sequels The Matrix Reloaded and The Matrix Revolutions, went on to be the highest grossing R-rated movie franchise of all time. Interestingly, Smith's wife, Jada Pinkett, would go on to to appear in the aforementioned sequels to The Matrix.

Soundtrack

Like most of Will Smith's films during this period, a hip hop single by the rapper/actor served as the theme song for the film, despite its inconsistency with the Western tone of the film. "Wild Wild West", anchored by a sample from Stevie Wonder's 1977 hit "I Wish", was a #1 hit on the U.S. pop charts. It featured the chorus "Wiki-wiki-wiki-wiki-Wild Wild West". The song features guest vocals from R&B group Dru Hill, and was a star-making vehicle for Dru Hill lead singer Sisqó. Old school rapper Kool Moe Dee had recorded a "Wild Wild West" single of his own in 1987, and re-performs the chorus to his "Wild Wild West" as the chorus of this "Wild Wild West". The song also won a Razzie Award. The song Bailamos, sung by Enrique Iglesias, was also featured on the soundtrack and DVD, as was "Bad Guys Always Die," a collaboration between Dr. Dre and Eminem.

Trivia

• President Grant did not actually attend the "golden spike" ceremony at Promontory, Utah as is portrayed in the film.
• The film's plot has heavy similarities to that of an episode of Batman: The Animated Series, Showdown, which originally aired on September 12th, 1995. It is unconfirmed whether this was intentional or mere coincidence.

External links

• Wild Wild West at IMDb
• Wild Wild West at Rotten Tomatoes
• Wild Wild West at Box Office Mojo