S.W.A.T. (film)

S.W.A.T.
Promotional poster for S.W.A.T
Directed by	Clark Johnson
Written by	Robert Hamner (characters) Ron Mita Jim McClain David Ayer David McKenna
Produced by	Dan Halsted Chris Lee Neal H. Moritz
Starring	Samuel L. Jackson Colin Farrell Michelle Rodriguez LL Cool J Olivier Martinez
Music by	Elliot Goldenthal
Distributed by	Columbia Pictures
Release date	8 August 2003
Running time	117 min.
Languages	English Spanish French
Budget	$80,000,000 US (est.)

S.W.A.T. is a 2003 action crime movie and is a take on the television series of the same name.

Cast

SWAT Team

• Samuel L. Jackson as Sergeant Dan "Hondo" Harrelson. In the beginning of the film, Hondo is an inactive member of SWAT. He is brought back by the Chief of Police to head a new SWAT Team. He is a former Marine. His new team, fully recruited and assembled by himself, is:
• Colin Farrell as Officer Jim Street. He is originally assigned to SWAT, but after an incident with his partner he is removed from the team and placed in the "gun cage." After Hondo sees how well he can shoot, he is recruited for the SWAT team. He is a former Navy SEAL.
• Michelle Rodriguez as Officer Chris Sanchez. She was a frequent applicant to SWAT, however always turned down to the captain's sexism. Hondo persuades him to allow her to be on his team. She excels in hand-to-hand combat.
• LL Cool J as Officer Deacon "Deke" Kay. A former Patrol officer, he is also recruited by Hondo.
• Josh Charles as Officer TJ McCabe. He is a former SWAT officer who has worked with Hondo before.
• Brian Van Holt as Officer Michael Boxer. He is a SWAT officer who also has worked with Hondo before. His sister was involved with Street for a period before the events of the film.

LAPD Command

• Larry Pointdexter as Captain Thomas Fuller. He is chief of SWAT Division and disliked by many SWAT officers.
• Reginald E. Cathey as Lieutenant Greg Valasquez. He is field commander of SWAT Division and old friends with Hondo.
• Denis Arndt as Sergeant Howard, head of another SWAT team.

Enemies

• Olivier Martinez as Alex Montel. He is an international criminal and his family controls a huge drug empire.
• Jeremy Renner as former Officer Brian Gamble. He is Street's former partner who quits LAPD after being demoted due to, while violating a direct order not to engage an enemy, shooting a hostage. Gamble later takes advantage of Montel's offer of reward to anyone who can free him by forming a group of other ex-S.W.A.T. members to free him and then escape to Mexico.

Plot summary

Template:Spoiler The film begins with a hostage shoot out in the streets of Los Angeles. Officer Jim Street, a hot-shot cop from the Los Angeles Police Department and his team of commandos are sent to stop a gang of robbers who have taken over a Bank. When his high tempered partner and close friend Brian Gamble disobeys a direct order from the chief, by accidentally wounding a hostage. Gamble is then fired by the S.W.A.T. team and leaves the Police force in disgust. Street, who is also under questioning, is also punished and taken off the S.W.A.T. team and sent to work in the "gun cage" section where he looks after guns and weapons.

After the Chief of Police calls Sergeant Dan "Hondo" Harrelson to help out re-organized the S.W.A.T. group. Harrelson comes out of retirement and soon puts together an elite S.W.A.T. force made up of high powered street crime fighters, including himself, Jim Street, Chris Sánchez, "Deke" Kay, T.J. McCabe, and Michael Boxer.

Meanwhile a drug lord by the name of Alex Montel, kills his uncle and father for control of the family's drug empire. After the L.A.P.D. discovers Montel as an international fugitive criminal on the run, he is then arrested after an unsuccessful attempt by two police officers to free him and found guilty of murder and the establishment of an international underground drug trade. While being transferred to maximum security, Montel yells out to a group of media personnel and television cameras, and offers to give "$100,000,000.00 to whoever gets (him) out of jail." Multiple plans to break him out of prison are soon unravelled by different notorious groups who want to cashed in and take the money. These groups soon caused havoc in the streets by making enemies against the L.A.P.D. force and the S.W.A.T. team.

Montel is then held in tight protective custody, until he is transferred to a maximum security prison cell in the desert. After escaping from the S.W.A.T. team, he makes a final attempted of freedom with the aid of a group of corrupt S.W.A.T. ex-members led by Gamble and leds them into a chase filled with fierce gunfight battles against the S.W.A.T. team. Montel and Gamble's gang is soon eliminated, Gamble is killed by Street, and Montel is later re-arrested and sent to the maximum security prison.

Box Office

In the film's opening weekend, it earned US$37,062,535. In total, it grossed US$116,934,650 in the United States in 3,220 theaters and US$207,725,639 worldwide.

Trivia

• The tune the SWAT team sings while they celebrate their success after their test is the theme song for the original S.W.A.T. TV series.
• The SWAT officers who deliver the secure phone in the bank robbery scene were actual LAPD SWAT officers who were on scene as technical advisors. They agreed to put on their uniforms and do the scene "for fun".
• One consideration for a location for the plane escape was closing I-405 Highway to land a Learjet on, but that was "out of their reach," so the filming crew shut down the 6th Street Bridge from 6pm to 5am every night for filming. Because landing a Learjet on the 6th Street Bridge was impractical, CGI effects were used for the plane's approach. The scene with the Learjet taking off was actually filmed, with the aircraft equipped with a V8 engine so it could be driven down the bridge.
• The Italian Job, Hollywood Homicide, and S.W.A.T. were all filmed in downtown L.A. at the same time.
• The opening scene was based on an actual 1997 LAPD shootout. In one shot, a man with a camera is clearly visible, taking footage of the action. The man was actually a cameraman for the film who wandered too far into the shot, but director Clark Johnson did not re-shoot the scene because he decided that since the man looked like an actual news reporter, he contributed to the chaos of the situation.
• The bank in the bank robbery scene was an abandoned building scheduled to be torn down, so the film crew was allowed to film it, tear it apart, and do nearly whatever they wished.
• Director Clark Johnson makes a cameo appearance as Officer Deke's partner, who gets hit with a frying pan as Deke chases down a suspect. Johnson asked to be credited as "Deke's handsome partner." In fact in one of the deleted scenes, to be seen on the DVD, Johnson arrives at the birthday party for Sanchez's daughter and introduces himself that way.
• When the film was shown in Spain, the nationality of main villain Alex Montel was changed from Spanish to French. This was the exception to the version shown in Europe. However, his Spanish passport can still be seen in the Airport scene.
• In the version shown in the Americas, Montel was French. It did not cause any undue change since the surname is common to both countries.
• After the first Montel escape attempt he is arrested while lying on top of Alex Trebek's star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Trebek is the voice of the newsman reporting the attempted escape.
• The vehicle used for the SWAT truck was a refurbished fire engine, which proved difficult to work with due to constant malfunctions during production.
• Rod Perry and Steve Forrest, two stars of the original televsion series make cameo appearances in the movie. Perry, who played "Deke" Kay in the TV series, plays the father of the same character in the movie. Forrest plays the officer driving the truck at the end of the movie, perhaps in homage to the uncredited role of the SWAT van driver in the series.
• In the movie the police are clearly identified as LAPD officers, whereas in the tv series they wear insignia of the fictional WCPD.
• There were very few female SWAT officers at the time this was filmed but since then there has been an increase in women being admitted in many major North American cities.

External links

• S.W.A.T. at IMDb
• S.W.A.T. at Rotten Tomatoes