The Contract (2006 film)
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| The Contract | |
|---|---|
 Film poster |
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| Directed by | Bruce Beresford |
| Produced by | Boaz Davidson Randall Emmett George Furla Andreas Grosch Avi Lerner Danny Lerner Andreas Schmid Les Weldon |
| Written by | Stephen Katz John Darrouzet |
| Starring | Morgan Freeman John Cusack Jamie Anderson Alice Krige Megan Dodds Bill Smitrovich Ned Bellamy |
| Music by | Normand Corbeil |
| Cinematography | Dante Spinotti |
| Editing by | Mark Warner |
| Distributed by | First Look International |
| Release date(s) |  October 9, 2006 (Haifa Film Festival) May 9, 2007 (DVD premiere) June 9, 2007 (Cognac Film Festival) July 9, 2007 (DVD premiere) July 24, 2007 (DVD premiere) |
| Running time | 97 min |
| Country | U.S. Germany |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $25,000,000 |
| Gross revenue | $1,578,317 |
| Allmovie profile | |
| IMDb profile | |
The Contract is a 2006 film directed by Bruce Beresford and written by late television scribe Stephen Katz. A cat-and-mouse thriller, The Contract stars Oscar-winner Morgan Freeman as assassin Frank Carden, and John Cusack as mild-mannered teacher Ray Keene. Released directly to video in the United States and most of Europe, The Contract received little critical notice, despite its high-profile cast.
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[edit] Plot
Morgan Freeman is Frank Carden, a professional assassin who has been hired to kill a reclusive billionaire named Lydell Hammond, Sr. Carden's plan goes awry when he gets injured in a random car accident and ends up in the hospital. Upon seeing the gun he carries, the hospital staff calls in the local police who are able to peel away his false identity and call for the Federal Marshals to come pick him up.
John Cusack is Ray Keene, a high-school gym teacher, ex-cop, and well-intentioned but not very able dad to Chris (Jamie Anderson), a teen who's gone downhill behavior-wise since the death of his mother from cancer. Ray belatedly realizes the need to bond with his son when the latter gets caught smoking pot, and therefore takes him hiking in the wilderness. Carden is being driven through that same wilderness by the Marshals, but his men stage a rescue attempt and most of the Marshals end up dead; the last remaining one lives long enough for their car to go off the road, down a steep embankment, and into the river, from which Keene pulls him and Carden just in time for the Marshal to ask Keene to take the prisoner to the authorities before dying of his injuries. Ray and Chris have to get Carden out of the wilderness and handed over to the authorities before his men, highly-skilled ex-military thugs, can track them down, rescue Carden and kill the Keenes.
[edit] Production
The film was shot almost exclusively in Bulgaria and the DSK Bank central headquarters (see photo) served as one of the main sets.
[edit] Trivia
John Cusack had previously played an assassin for hire in the film Grosse Pointe Blank.
[edit] Cast
- Jamie Anderson as Chris Keene
- John Cusack as Ray Keene
- Megan Dodds as Sandra
- Morgan Freeman as Frank Carden
- Jonathan Hyde as Turner
- Corey Johnson as Davis
- Alice Krige as Miles
- Ian Shaw as Michaels
