Along Came a Spider

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Along Came A Spider
The DVD cover for Along Came a Spider.
Directed by	Lee Tamahori
Produced by	David Brown Joe Wizan Morgan Freeman Marty Hornstein
Written by	James Patterson (Novel) Marc Moss (Screenplay)
Starring	Morgan Freeman Monica Potter Michael Wincott
Music by	Jerry Goldsmith
Cinematography	Matthew F. Leonetti
Editing by	Nicolas De Toth Neil Travis
Distributed by	Paramount Pictures
Release date(s)	April 6, 2001 (USA)
Running time	103 min.
Language	English
Budget	$28,000,000 US (est.)
All Movie Guide profile
IMDb profile

Along Came A Spider is a 2001 American mystery film. The film stars Morgan Freeman and Monica Potter, and it was directed by Lee Tamahori. The story was adapted by Marc Moss from a James Patterson novel.

Tagline:The game is far from over.

Contents 1 Movie Plot 2 Book 3 Notes 4 Cast 5 Trivia 6 External links

[edit] Movie Plot

For the book plot, see below.

Tracie (Jill Teed) is an undercover officer on assignment to bring down Jim, a wanted man for multiple sexual assault charges and murder. Tracie is in the car with the man while being followed by Alex Cross (Morgan Freeman), a police detective and forensic pathologist, who has also followed the case. He is dictating what to say to Tracie as she tries to make him confess on tape. Jim finds Tracie's earpiece while attempting to force her into performing fellatio on him. After a short fight, Jim is killed. The car spins out of control at a dam, flying over the ledge of the bridge. The car gets caught on some wires with only the front bumper keeping the vehicle from plummeting. Jim flies out because he wasn't wearing a seat belt. Tracie is still in the car as help arrives. Alex tells Tracie to hold on. After short lived attempts to hold the car in place, the weight buckles and Tracie drops to her death.

Six months later: Megan Rose, a senator's daughter, is being dropped off at her school. She meets up with Secret Service Agent Jezzie Flannigan (Monica Potter), the agent assigned to protect her. In Mr. Gary Soneji (Michael Wincott)'s class Megan is seen using a special code to contact an admirer, Dimitri Starodubov, the son of the Russian President. Mr. Soneji tells Megan to see him in his office and accuses her of plagiarism. She denies it, and he suddenly, unexpectedly chloroforms her. She passes out. Another teacher enters the room. Soneji tells her that she just collapsed and as the other teacher turns to go for help, Soneji strangles her to death. Jezzie notices that Megan is not at lunch. She is told by a classmate that she's with Mr. Soneji. Jezzie goes to look for her as Megan is being stuffed into a container that looks like tower computers next to each other on the outside. Soneji makes his way outside and into his van at the same time Jezzie finds the dead teacher. Jezzie orders a security lockdown. Ben Divine, one of Megan's bodyguards, runs to the parking lot, but Soneji escapes.

The newsflash hits every news station as Alex Cross keep changing the channels. Alex receives a call from Gary Soneji, his voice distorted. Soneji is revealed to be on a small boat. Alex records the call and sees if he could find an edge to what Soneji is after. Gary quotes a saying from a book, then hints that there's something for Alex in his mailbox. Alex goes outside to find one of Megan's shoes. Alex arrives at the Rose residence and makes a smooth entrance. He meets up with Secret Service Agent Ollie McArthur, the head of the case. Ollie asks Alex if he knew why Sonjei picked him. Alex has no idea. Alex is introduced to Rose's parents.

Alex starts his initial investigation at the crime scene. He soon starts finding clues left behind by Soneji (a missing picture and Charles Lindbergh). Alex finds out Soneji's address which is later raided by the F.B.I.. At Soneji's house, Alex finds a book with the same quote Soneji told him during his phone call: "They say that when I die, the case will die. It will be like a book I close. But the book, it will never close." The last words of Bruno Hauptmann. Bruno Hauptmann allegedly committed "The Crime of the Century" when he was the sole person arrested in the Lindbergh kidnapping. Alex's hypothesis is that Gary Soneji is trying to do the same thing (i.e. commit a new "crime of the century").

Later, Alex and Jezzie converse into "why Megan?" Alex concludes that "Senator Hank Rose is no Charles Lindbergh." Alex asks Jezzie if she knows "who's a bigger fish than Hank Rose?" Alex and Jezzie decide to have a stakeout outside Dimitri Starodubov's residence. Via computer, Soneji is able to communicate with Dimitri posing as Megan convincing him to escape the cameras and come outside to a phone booth. Dimitri falls for the trap. As Soneji walks up to Dimitri, Alex and Jezzie intervene. After some exchanged gunfire, Soneji flees. Back at the boat, Soneji goes to open the door to the compartment Megan is being held in. He opens the door and to his disbelief, Megan is gone.

Back at the Roses, Soneji calls to make a demand for ten million dollars in diamonds. Alex is put in charge running around Washington D.C. trying to keep up with Soneji's demands. On a train, Alex shoots a window open to make the exchange with Soneji outside. Alex can only look out of the train's window as Soneji leaves the scene. At Jezzie's house, the someone knocks on the door. Jezzie answers it only to be electricuted by Soneji. Alex is told he can't kill him because he'll never find Megan. Soneji reveals that he killed his parents when he was fifteen. Alex congratulates Soneji on a well earned $12 million dollars, but Soneji doesn't react at all. Soneji wants Alex to tell him what is on his (Soneji's) mind. After being disappointed, Soneji starts to leave threatening to take Jezzie with him. Alex shoots Soneji dead. The Roses blame Alex for killing the only man who knew where their daughter is.

Alex is reviewing the tapes from the original kidnapping. He times himself tracing Ben Divine's steps. Alex tells Ollie that Divine could have shut the whole place down in the office instead of chasing Soneji. Ollie concures that Divine was in on it with Soneji. Alex says that Soneji worked alone and that Divine was following Soneji's movements. "Soneji was hoodwinked. And so were we." At a farm house, Divine is revealed to be holding Megan now. Jezzie comes in and pretends to place him under arrest, but kisses him almost immediately. She is thus revealed to be the hidden villain. It is revealed that they were responsible for the diamonds demand, about which Soneji knew nothing. In her greed, Jezzie kills Divine. Alex is at Jezzie's house and is trying to get into Jezzie's system. He remembers her talking about the card game. So he tries that as a password to Jezzie's personal computer and it works. Alex learns about Jezzie's role in the whole affair as well as finding the address to the farm house.

At the farm house, Jezzie uses her relationship with Megan as an advantage so Megan can open the door she herself set up in order for Divine not to come in and kill her. Suspicious, Megan asks Jezzie why is she alone. Jezzie orders her to open the door. Megan backs away hiding. Jezzie shoots through the wall multiple times until she runs out of bullets. Megan sees a door and goes through it running through the farm only to be captured by Alex. He tells her to be quiet. Alex confronts Jezzie. Jezzie and Alex have some words. Jezzie asks if he'll kill another partner. Alex replies that she was never "his" partner. After Jezzie points the gun at him, Alex shoots her in the lung and she soon expires. Alex asks Megan if she's okay and takes her back to her parents.

[edit] Book

Along Came A Spider is the first book in a series written by James Patterson featuring detective, psychologist Alex Cross

The book begins with the kidnapping of the Lindbergh baby by a 12 year old boy near Princeton, New Jersey in March 1932.

Then it moves to present time, As a theme that will run thru all the books, of Alex Cross playing his piano from his Washington DC home. The phone rings and it's his partner JOHN SAMPSON, who informs him that there is another murder at Langley Terrace. Alex is the Deputy Chief of Detectives. Alex Cross, an African American Washington D.C. homicide investigator and forensic psychologist who also has a doctorate of Psychology from John Hopkins University. Cross is investigating the brutal murder of 2 prostitutes (Mother & Daughter) as well as an infant 3 year old boy. The women were slashed with a razor, their pubic hair shaved off and their breasts cut off.

At Washington Day School, an exclusive school for the rich and privilaged with twition at $12,000, GARY SONEJI, the math teacher interrupts the class of Ms. VIVIAN KIM. He tells MEGAN (Maggie) ROSE DUNNE and MICHAEL (Shrimpie) GOLDBERG that the Secret Service has received a threatening call and for security reasons the children must be relocated. Goldber is the son of the US Secretary of Treasury. Both kids normally ride together after school, so Soneji says he will take them to the drop off point for the Secret Service. Once inside his mini van he takes a small canister with chloroform. Once asleep, he drives off with the kids.

Alex is trying to understand this twisted and complicated criminal act of the murdered prostitutes when he is pulled of the case by his boss, Chief Pittman, to investigate the kidnapping. Cross is upset and feels that this move was racially motivated and that no one cares about dead black prostitutes.

Reluctantly, Alex and John go to Washington Day and meet CHIEF PITTMAN there. The place is full of FBI and Secret Service Agents. The 2 men do not get along. Their problems started over an article at the Washington Post about Alex Cross. The 2 argue but Pittman reveals the Mayor asked for Cross.

JEZZIE FLANNIGAN arrives on her motorcycle. She is the secret service supervisor. She had been on vacation. She arrives and yells at her 2 agents assigned to protect those 2 children, CHARLIE CHAKELY and MIKE DEVINE. She then goes to see Mr. Goldberg who is with the Mayor, FBI Agent ROGER GRAHAM, Cross and Sampson. By now everyone knows Soneji took the children. MAYOR MUNROE meets with Cross later. Mayor Munroe explain to Alex why he wants him on the case and nothing Alex can say will change his mind.

At night, Soneji's van parks to an old farmhouse where he buries the children alive in special coffins he made for them. Soneji feels real proud of himself. Inside the house Soneji watches the television and loves to see himself. He became upset with what he perceived as disrespect from FBI Agent Roger Graham, as he was interviewed. Gary went to the bathroom and removed the brown, balding wig, then the thick mustache, and finally the contact lenses.

Later that night, FBI Special Agent Roger Graham arrives late at his home when a reporter starts asking him questions. The reporter was Soneji who takes out a knife and stabs Graham. Soneji did not like the spotlight being on Graham.

Later that night Cross, Sampson and the FBI search thru Soneji's apartment, discovering Soneji's obsession with kidnappings. They also discover a note taped to a mirror, Soneji wants to be someone.

Hours later Cross and Pittman get into an altercation, Soneji contacts the FBI tells them he killed Roger Graham.

They also discover Soneji lied about his resume and identity period. Cross meets with Maggie’s parents. They also want him involved. A few months have passed and the body of Michael Goldberg was discovered around Christmas time.

A few days later the Dunnes’ receive a telegram from what they believe was Soneji asking for $10 million . It came from Miami. Cross, Sampson and the FBI head down to Florida to investigate. It was in Florida where Flannigan and Cross start become involved.

At the same that the team is in Florida, Soneji is at a toll booth in Maryland. Soneji is disappointed in the manhunt.

In Miami a message arrives. $10 million to be delivered to Walt Disney World in Orlando. Dr. Cross is to deliver the ransom. Cross wonders how Soneji knows about him or that he was even involved.

Once inside Disney, Alex is approached by a man with a hat and jacket who said he would take him to see Maggie. Once outside the FBI surrounded them. He threatens to have Maggie killed unless they let him go. The man takes Alex with him to the airport.

They board a small airplane. The Man was also the pilot. They took off and landed on a small island. Cross did not know where they were. The pilot waited for night to hit and took off. He headed to North Carolina , landed, took the money and left Alex there. Maggie was never delivered. The FBI shows up soon after.

Cross is removed from the case and sent back to work the prostitutes death.

On the farmhouse where Soneji kept the children, two police officers find the empty graves where Maggie and Michael were once held.

Later Gary returns to his real home, in Wilmington, Delaware where it’s revealed he’s married and has a daughter. We also learn that his real last name is Murphy, not Soneji and he was abused by his stepmother her children.

Cross and Sampson return to Washington DC, they are no longer wanted in the case. They are to work the murder of the dead prostitutes. Here we learn Alex volunteers at St. Anthony’s Soup Kitchen 3 days a week.

By now, it’s been about 6 month since the kidnapping.

Back in Wilmington, We learn that Gary wants to kill his family.

Jezzie visits Alex, to let him know she was sorry he was taking the blame for the ransom gone bad.

In Washington DC, Soneji, dressed as a public utility employee, murders Vivian Kim, the teacher from Washington Day, in hopes of sending a message.

Cross & Sampson are sent to the scene, Ms. Kim has had her breast cut off and pubic hairs shaved, just like the other murders. They also find Maggie’s shoe on the scene. Cross know Soneji is also the murderer he was looking for.

Cross & Sampson are walking the neighborhood where the hookers were murdered. They come across Ms. Scott, an elderly lady who recalls a man driving around the neighborhood several times. Ms. Scott also remembers that same man going door to door selling heating systems. Ms. Scott recalled the company was Atlantic Heating out of Wilmington. Cross & Sampson are going to Wilmington.

In Wilmington, the Murphy’s are having a birthday party for their daughter. Outside are the FBI with Cross & Sampson are on a stakeout. They all decide to move in and rush the house, when they go in Soneji is nowhere to be found. Soneji managed to escape when he went to get pizza at the door from a delivery boy.

Cross and the FBI set up shop at a local hotel, this is where Alex & Jezzie become involved.

A day later Gary walks into a McDonald’s and holds the people inside hostage. When the FBI hears that the man holding the McDonald’s was Soneji, they rush to the scene. A trooper took a shot at Soneji, but Alex saved Soneji as Cross believes Soneji knows where Maggie is. Soneji promises Alex he will regret saving his life.

The trial period lasted about 11 months (January when Soneji was captured & November when his verdict was read.) Alex Cross is brought back to the case when Soneji asks for him. During this time Cross hypnotized Soneji several times speaking with both Murphy and Soneji and he gets inside Soneji/Murphy's head and gets him to tell him of all his terrible little secrets. Murphy was a tender man, Soneji a sadistic, evil monster. After Soneji gets captured and put into prison, Cross and Jezzie fell in love. Despite the defenses best effort at an insanity plea Soneji was found guilty.

After the verdict, Jezzie meets her lover (not Cross) at lake house.

Cross returns to work, questions a woman about Soneji, where she tells Cross that someone had been following Soneji. Someone knew about the kidnapping. Cross wonders about Mike Devine and Charley Chakely.

Cross meets with Soneji, who confirms he may have been followed, Soneji didn’t make the connection until he recognized the man at his trial. Mike Devine.

Cross meets with the FBI, they also had their suspicions and were running an investigation. The FBI believes Mike Devine and Charley Chakely took the ransom money. The pilot from Florida was a drug runner hired by Mike Devine and Charley Chakely that was found dead. The FBI has no proof Mike Devine and Charley Chakely did this but still keep them under surveillance. Then they drop a bomb on Alex. Jezzie was involved with Mike Devine for years and are lovers. They also believe Jezzie was in it from the start. Cross begins to connect the pieces. The FBI was right.

Jezzie and Devine meet. They plan to wait it out.

Cross, Sampson and the FBI begin to plan on getting Jezzie and the guys.

Soneji escape's from prison with the help of a guard that he eventually kills.

Alex takes Jezzie Flannigan on a Caribbean getaway.

In Washington DC, Soneji, dresses as a FedEx employee visits Mike Devine. He tortures Devine to find out that the money was still in DC. Upon retrieving the money Soneji returns and kills Devine.

Alex finally confronts Jezzie and tells her he knows what she did. Since they were both wearing bathing suits, Alex showed her he wasn’t wearing a wire and demanded to know how and why. She explains that Secretary Goldberg was threatened by a Colombian cartel and demanded protection for his family. Devine and Chalkey noticed Soneji making passes at the Goldberg house. Since then they followed Soneji everywhere, including the Maryland Farm. It was Jezzie’s idea to do the ransom, they removed Megan after the Goldberg boy had died. He demanded to know where Megan was, at a distance Sampson, holding a long distance microphone revealed himself. The FBI was there also.

It had been 2 years since the kidnapping. Megan was held by people in Uyuni Bolivia, South America. Uyuni was a village near the Andes Mountains.Megan was finally rescued.

The story was not over yet. Soneji attacks Alex in his home. He planned to kill Nanna and the kids. After a fight, Soneji manages to escape momentarily, but is trapped near the White House. He is holding hostages again, 2 children. Soneji was about to shoot Cross, but Cross is saved by Sampson, who manages to shoot Soneji instead. Gary was wounded…but alive.

Epilogue. Jezzie Flannigan was executed by lethal injection. Six weeks earlier Charlie Chakely had been executed. Soneji was still alive. Due to his mental state he would be held at a mental institution. Soneji leaves Cross a letter. At the end, Cross palys the piano and heads to St. Anthony’s. The peanut butter man lives.

The End

[edit] Notes

• The adventures of Dr. Alex Cross continue in Kiss The Girls.
• This book also introduces FBI Agent Kyle Craig, who becomes an important character in later Cross novels. Craig plays a very small role in the book and only appears in a few chapters.
• The book introduces all of Cross's supporting characters like Nana, his grandmother, John Sampson, his partner, Janelle and Damon, his children.
• Cross severely dislikes his boss, Chief Pittman.
• It reveals Cross' wife, Maria, was murdered in a drive by shooting but her murder was never solved.
• Alex has been best friends with John Sampson since childhood.
• Alex volunteers at St. Andrews soup kitchen where he is known as the Peanut Butter Man.
• The book takes place over a 2 year period.

[edit] Cast

• Morgan Freeman - Alex Cross
• Monica Potter - Jezzie Flannigan
• Michael Wincott - Gary Soneji
• Dylan Baker - Ollie McArthur
• Mika Boorem - Megan Rose
• Anton Yelchin - Dimitri Starodubov
• Kimberly Hawthorne - Agent Hickley
• Jay O. Sanders - Kyle Craig
• Billy Burke - Ben Devine
• Michael Moriarty - Senator Hank Rose
• Penelope Ann Miller - Elizabeth Rose
• Anna Maria Horsford - Vickie
• Scott Heindl - Floyd (The Fisherman)
• Christopher Shyer - Jim
• Jill Teed - Tracie

[edit] Trivia

• The prologue scene where Tracy dies is similar to that of Cliffhanger
• The scene where Alex Cross pays the kidnapper by throwing the bag containing the ransom from the window of a transit train is taken from Akira Kurosawa's thriller Tengoku to jigoku (1963) ("High and Low"), in which a kidnap ransom is paid by throwing the ransom bag from the window of a Japanese Bullet train.
• In the novel, Alex Cross and Jezzie Flanagan are lovers.
• Along Came a Spider (2001) was made after Kiss the Girls (1997). But in the books, Along Came a Spider was set before Kiss the Girls.
• This story takes place over the course of a few days. In the novel that the film is based on, the story takes place over the course of around two years.
• In the book, Alex Cross is 38 years old with two kids, whereas in the film he is in his mid to late fifties (the same age that Morgan Freeman appears to be).
• The ending for the film was re-shot due to poor test audience reception.

• SPOILER: Substantial changes were made from the book on which the movie is based. In the books, the Gary Soneji story arc continues for four books, and he dies under entirely different circumstances. Also, there are two kids kidnapped in the book, one of whom dies, which results in Jezzie's execution.

The book, like the movie is about a crazed school teacher from Washington Day School in Georgetown, Gary Soneji,who kidnaps the daughter () of a famous actress and the son (Michael Goldberg) of the Secretary of the Treasury. The book takes place over a 2 year period. Alex Cross faces more than just the usual problems tracking down Soneji. Along the way he becomes romantically involved with Jezzie Flannigan The Secret Service Supervisor at the school, only to realize later it was one of the biggest mistakes of his life. Gary Soneji is actually Gary Murphy,who has multiple severe personality disorders due to his terrible childhood. As a child Soneji/Murphy would imagine being the kidnapper of the Lindbegh baby. Soneji is a psychopathic serial-kidnapper with a genius-level IQ and an obsession with famous criminals, he doen't want money and he doesn't want political favors. Gary Soneji wants to be somebody, to live on the collective unconscious of America. Soneji is an organized genius so obsessive that he wipes his fingerprints off the pages of books. Soneji succeeds by drugging The children. Accidentally though, the Goldberg boy dies. The kidnapping has the whole D.C. area up in arms, and Alex Cross works day and night to capture Soneji/Murphy in the story, but he doesn't succeed until Soneji kills a few more people in other places. His whole theme is that he "Wants to be Somebody" through this book. He is the master of killing in the D.C. area, and he LOVES this game.

[edit] External links

• Along Came a Spider at the Internet Movie Database
• A short animation about the movie/book by Bryan Bernard