| Salt | |
|---|---|
 Theatrical release poster | |
| Directed by | Phillip Noyce |
| Written by | Kurt Wimmer |
| Produced by |
|
| Starring | |
| Cinematography | Robert Elswit |
| Edited by | |
| Music by | James Newton Howard |
Production companies | |
| Distributed by | Sony Pictures Releasing |
Release dates |
|
Running time | 100 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $110–130 million[1][2][3] |
| Box office | $293.5 million[2] |
Salt is a 2010 Americanaction thriller film directed byPhillip Noyce and written byKurt Wimmer. It starsAngelina Jolie,Liev Schreiber,Daniel Olbrychski,August Diehl, andChiwetel Ejiofor. Jolie playsCIA operative Evelyn Salt, who is accused of being aRussiansleeper agent and goes on the run to try to clear her name.
Originally written with a male protagonist, withTom Cruise initially secured for the lead, the script was ultimately rewritten byBrian Helgeland for Jolie. Filming took place on location inWashington, D.C.,New York City, andAlbany, New York, between March and June 2009, with reshoots in January 2010. Action scenes were primarily performed with practical stunts,computer-generated imagery being used mostly for creating digital environments.
The film had a panel atSan Diego Comic-Con on July 22 and was released in North America on July 23, 2010.Salt grossed $294 million at the worldwide box office and received generally positive reviews, with praise for the action scenes and Jolie's performance, but drawing criticism on the writing, with reviewers finding the plot implausible and convoluted. The DVD and Blu-ray discs were released on December 21, 2010, and featured two alternate cuts providingdifferent endings for the film.
Salt was nominated forBest Sound Mixing at the83rd Academy Awards.
Evelyn Salt is in prison inNorth Korea, suspected of being a U.S. spy. TheCIA arranges aprisoner exchange to stifle the publicity her boyfriend,arachnologist Mike Krause, is bringing to her case. He proposes marriage despite her admission that she is a CIA operative.
Two years later, Salt interrogates Russian defector Oleg Vasilyevich Orlov, with CIA colleague Ted Winter and counterintelligence officer Darryl Peabody observing. Orlov claims that on "Day X", Russiansleeper agents known as "KAs" will destroy the U.S., and that Agent "KA-12" will assassinateRussian President Boris Matveyev at the impending funeral of theU.S. vice president. He says KA-12's name is Evelyn Salt. Because of this, Peabody orders Salt to be detained, while Orlov kills two agents and escapes. She also escapes and tries to phone her husband Mike while traveling to their home and evading the pursuing CIA and police. Mike has been kidnapped. Salt gathers supplies including weapons and a spider in a jar.
Salt shoots Matveyev at the vice president's funeral and surrenders to Peabody instead of taking the opportunity to kill him. Matveyev is pronounced dead. Salt escapes to a barge where Orlov is waiting with other sleeper agents. In aflashback she recalls her childhood in theSoviet Union, being trained with other children and assuming the identity of the real Evelyn Salt, an American girl who died with her parents in a car crash in the Soviet Union.
Orlov tests Salt by reuniting her with Mike only to immediately have him killed in front of her. Her lack of reaction convinces him, so he says she and another KA will assassinate U.S. president Howard Lewis. Salt kills Orlov and the other agents and leaves to meet with the KA Shnaider in his cover as aCzech -NATO liaison officer.
Disguised as Shnaider's male attaché, Salt accompanies him into theWhite House, where Shnaider launches a suicide attack, driving the president into a secure underground bunker, accompanied by Winter and other agents. Salt manages to enter the outer bunker before it is sealed.
Russia mobilizes itsnuclear arsenal in response to President Matveyev's assassination; U.S. President Lewis orders preparations for retaliation. Upon realizing Salt has entered the outer bunker, Winter kills everyone in the inner bunker except the president, revealing himself to be KA Nikolai Tarkovsky.
Incapacitating the president, Tarkovsky begins targeting missiles atMecca andTehran to incite a billion Muslims against the U.S. Salt professes admiration and nearly persuades him to let her join him in the inner bunker when a broadcast reports that President Matveyev is alive, his vital signs having been merely suppressed by spider venom.
Tarkovsky soon realizes Salt is not on his side and reveals that she is to be thepatsy for the nuclear attacks. She breaks into the bunker and, after a fight, aborts the missile launch. Reinforcements arrive and Salt is arrested as Winter/Tarkovsky identifies himself as CIA.
As Salt is being led out in chains, Tarkovsky grabs a pair of scissors. As she is led past him, she throws her chain around his neck and jumps over the railing, killing him.
Alone with Peabody in a helicopter, Salt explains her actions to him, promising to hunt down the remaining KA agents if freed, pointing out that Matveyev is alive and that she had not shot him earlier. Salt's fingerprints are found on the barge, convincing Peabody, who allows her to jump from the helicopter into thePotomac River.
The early development of the script began while Kurt Wimmer was doing interviews promotingEquilibrium. In a November 2002 interview, he discussed on which scripts he was working. He stated, "I have several scripts – foremost of which is one calledThe Far-Reaching Philosophy of Edwin A. Salt – kind of a high-action spy thriller..."[8] In another interview, Wimmer described the project as "very much about me and my wife".[9] The plot incorporated many elements fromEquilibrium, with an oppressive andparanoid political system ofbrainwashing that gets overthrown by one of its high-ranking members, who rebels due to an emotional transformation.[10] With the shortened titleEdwin A. Salt, the script was sold toColumbia Pictures in January 2007.[11] By July 2007, the script had attracted the attention ofTom Cruise.[12]
Terry George was the first director to join the project, and he also did some revisions to the script, but he soon left the project.Peter Berg was the next director to consider, but he, too, eventually dropped out for undisclosed reasons.[13][14] A year later,Phillip Noyce was confirmed to direct.[15] Noyce was attracted toSalt for its espionage themes, which are present in most of his filmography,[16] as well as the tension of a character who tries to prove his innocence, yet also does what he was previously accused of.[17]
Initial discussions took place in 2008 between Cruise and Noyce about Cruise playing Edwin A. Salt. These discussions were going on for more than a year between the pair and their representatives. Cruise decided he was unable to commit to the script because he feared that the character was too close to hisMission: Impossible characterEthan Hunt.[18] Cruise decided to work onKnight and Day, instead. The filmmakers tried to differentiate the character from Hunt, but eventually came to accept they were too similar and decided not to change the characteristics of Salt. Noyce said, "But, you know, he had a valid point. It was kind of returning to an offshoot of a character that he'd already played. It's like playing the brother, or the cousin, of somebody that you played in another movie."[18]
Columbia Pictures executiveAmy Pascal suggestedAngelina Jolie to Noyce, who had often spoken to Jolie in the past about a desire to create a femalespy franchise.[18] Pascal even invited Jolie for aBond girl role, but the actress replied that she was more interested in playingJames Bond herself, instead.[19] Jolie was sentSalt's script in September 2008 and liked it. Wimmer, Noyce, and producerLorenzo di Bonaventura went to visit Jolie at her home inFrance to discuss a possible script and character change. WriterBrian Helgeland helped with the character development and dialogue of the script based on the notes that came out of those discussions with Jolie and to accompany the gender change, the title character's name was changed to Evelyn Salt.[18]
One of Jolie's requests was to rework the third act, which originally had Salt rescue his wife and son from a coalition of villains because she did not believe a mother would neglect her child in this kind of situation. Wimmer decided then to make Salt more crucial to the villain's schemes, and add a sequence where Salt breaks into "a place harder thanFort Knox" – after consideringCamp David, Wimmer settled on the White House.[17] When asked if the script written for Cruise was the same for Jolie, he said, "I think that it's just been a continual process, obviously accelerating by changing the central character, but the ideas, the locomotive of ideas that drive the film, are the same. An undercover CIA operative is accused of being a Russianmole, and has to go on the run to defend himself. That's been the same since day one. The tone of the film has changed in this evolution. In the same way, I guess, as – you know – action thrillers have changed along the lines of theBond films and theBourne films".[18][20]
On February 19, 2009, Liev Schreiber was reported to play the role of Ted Winter, Evelyn Salt's friend and colleague in the CIA.[21] Three days later, Chiwetel Ejiofor was named as CIA Officer Peabody, who is in pursuit of Salt.[22] Noyce said Ejiofor, whom he first saw inDirty Pretty Things, seemed to have the "intelligence and disarming sort of obsessiveness" that acounter-intelligence officer would need.[17]August Diehl, who played Salt's husband Mike Krause, came after a recommendation from Jolie's partnerBrad Pitt, who had worked with Diehl inInglourious Basterds, andDaniel Olbrychski was chosen for Orlov becauseAndrei Konchalovsky told Noyce that such an evil Russian character could only be played by a Polish actor.[17]
On a budget of $130 million,[a]principal photography took place mostly on location in New York City and Washington, D.C.[1][23] from March to June 2009.[24][25][26] Noyce decided to avoid "typical postcard views of Washington, D.C." to reflect "the more day-to-day environment of massive federal buildings inhabited by the typical bureaucrat".[19] The opening sequence in North Korea was shot at theFloyd Bennett Field, with an extra who had experience withprisoner exchanges acting as a consultant. Salt's rendezvous with Orlov was shot on theFrying Pan, a former lighthouse ship, now moored in the Hudson River, at 26th Street in New York. The outside of the KA training facility was theMakaryev Monastery in Russia,[17] while the interior was theRussian OrthodoxCathedral of the Holy Virgin Protection in New York'sEast Village, where the funeral was also shot.[19] Filming for a chase sequence took place on Water Street inAlbany, New York, near theInterstate 787 ramp, between April and May.[27] Studio production took place atGrumman Studios inBethpage, New York.[28][29]Steven Zaillian was brought for uncredited rewrites.[30] Filming also took place on 157th St and Riverside Drive in the upper Manhattan neighborhood ofWashington Heights. Some scenes were also filmed outside of Manhattan, includingthe Bronx,Queens, andStaten Island, and inWestchester County.
After Jolie had just given birth to twins,[31] she spent time training before filming to get fit to perform almost all of the stunts herself. Bonaventura said, "She is so prepared and so ready and gung-ho, she'll do any stunt. We had her jumping out of helicopters, shooting, jumping off of all sorts of things and infiltrating places that are impossible to infiltrate".[32] Salt's fighting style was described as a mixture ofMuay Thai,Shaolin Kung-Fu, andJeet Kune Do, which was considered by the stunt team the most suitable for Jolie's physique, andKrav Maga, for its rawness and aggressiveness. Noyce wanted to film the scene where Salt hangs from the edge of the building in a studio withchroma key, but Jolie insisted on doing it herself in the actual location.[31] On May 29, 2009, filming was temporarily halted after Jolie suffered a minor head injury while filming an action scene. She was taken to a hospital as a precautionary measure and released on the same day with no serious injuries, allowing filming to resume.[33] Salt's escape after being captured in St. Bartholomew's originally involved her jumping off a building into a window-cleaning machine, but budgetary constraints caused the scene to be changed into a car chase.[17]
Computer-generated imagery (CGI) was used extensively throughout the film to create environments and elements, such as bullet holes and flames. More dangerous objects such as ataser or the handcuffs used to strangle Winter were also made from CGI. Five companies were responsible forvisual effects. The two most involved wereCIS Vancouver andFramestore. CIS Vancouver recreated the White House since the crew did not have permission to shoot in the building, and made a digital elevator shaft for the scene where Salt goes down into the White House bunker. Framestore was responsible for the assassination attempt on the Russian president, which combined actual shots of St. Bartholomew's Church, a digital recreation of the church's interior, and scenes with actor Olek Krupa falling down a collapsing floor.[34][35]
Female CIA officers were consulted about the creation of disguises, leading to the scene where Salt undergoes subtle changes to disguise herself as a Czech. The "sweet and caring" blonde Salt dyeing her hair black would represent the shift to Chenkov, the menacing Russian agent. For the scene where Salt disguises herself as a major, pictures of Angelina Jolie were treated onAdobe Photoshop to create a believable male version, with the resulting image being used by the make-up team as an inspiration for theprosthetics.[36]
The film's test screenings were poor. Sony brought in producer and slate co-financier Joseph M. Singer, former head of Universal's Motion Picture Group, to oversee a rewrite and reshoots. Jolie said he made the film "more comprehensible" to moviegoers. Singer was paid an exorbitant price at the time, $2 million, for two months of work. Subsequently, he praised Noyce and di Bonaventura, stating his contributions were minimal.
Director Phillip Noyce has said that, due to the extensive usage of flashbacks, "there was always going to be a mountain of alternative material that would not fit into the theatrical version".[37] The film ended up having two extra versions, the director's cut, and the extended cut – which Noyce refers to in hisaudio commentary as the film's original cut – both included on theDVD andBlu-ray disc deluxe editions.[38]
The director's cut was described by Noyce as "my own personal take on the material, free from the politics and restrictions of producers, studio, or censorship ratings".[37] Four minutes of film were added, leading to a running time of 104 minutes.[38] More flashbacks were added, and the violence was amped up, for example, Mike being drowned rather than shot to death.[39] The ending is also different; in the bunker scene, Winter kills the president instead of only knocking him unconscious.[17][37] Noyce has described this ending as "an ending yet just a beginning – and it's an ending that turns the whole story on its head."[39]
The extended cut increases the running time by only one minute, but rewrites the plot by removing, rearranging, and adding scenes.[38]
Salt: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack was released on July 20, 2010, oniTunes and on August 10, 2010, as an on-demandCD-R fromAmazon.com. The music was composed byJames Newton Howard and released byMadison Gate Records.[40] The song "Orlov's Story" includes a Russian lullaby that music editor Joe E. Rand found atAmoeba Music, and which served as inspiration for the choir heard in other tracks – but the chants in the rest of the score are only random syllables, as Rand and Howard thought actual Russian words would be a spoil about Salt's allegiance.[41]
The film's marketing campaign included a panel at San Diego Comic-Con on July 22, 2010,[42] and anepisodicadvergame titled "Day X Exists", where players watchedwebisodes and performed missions to unveil the terrorist plot.[43] It was released in the United States on July 23, 2010. It was released on August 18 in the United Kingdom, despite poster advertisements suggesting it would be released on August 20.[44][45] The deluxe unrated-edition Blu-ray disc and DVD were released on December 21, 2010, bySony Pictures Home Entertainment. It includes three versions of the film – the original theatrical film and two additional unrated extended cuts not seen in theaters with two alternate endings. A theatrical-edition DVD was also released.[46] In the home video charts,Salt debuted at first in the rentals and third in sales.[47]
Salt grossed $118.3 million in the United States and Canada, and $175.2 million in other countries, for a worldwide total of $293.5 million.[2]
Sony predicted an opening-weekend take in the low-$30 million range, while commentators thought it would come in closer to $40 million and possibly beatInception for the number-one spot at the box office.[48]Salt opened in 3,612 theaters, with a first-day gross of $12.5 million and an opening weekend total of $36.0 million, finishing behindInception, which made $42.7 million in its second weekend.Salt also grossed $15 million from 19 international markets.[49][50] in its second weekend, it declined in ticket sales by 45.9% making $19.5 million and placed number three behindInception andDinner for Schmucks.[51] It was released in 29 countries that same weekend, and grossed $25.4 million.[52][53]
Salt received generally positive reviews from critics.[54]Review aggregation websiteRotten Tomatoes gives the film an approval rating of 62% based on 250 reviews, with an average rating of 6.00/10. The site's critical consensus reads: "Angelina Jolie gives it her all in the title role, and her seasoned performance is almost enough to saveSalt from its predictable and ludicrous plot."[55]Metacritic assigned the film a weighted average score of 65 out of 100 based on 42 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".[54] Audiences polled byCinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B+" on an A+ to F scale.[56][57]
Many reviewers highlighted the coincidence ofSalt's release shortly after the revelation of real Russian sleeper agents in theIllegals Program,[59][60][61] with some comparing Salt to one of the agents,Anna Chapman.[62][63] Kirk Honeycutt ofThe Hollywood Reporter said that, "While preposterous at every turn,Salt is a better Bond movie than most recent Bond movies, as its makers keep the stunts real and severely limit CGI gimmickry".[64] Justin Chang ofVariety said Jolie was "in her element, submitting gamely to the mayhem and hitting crucial emotional notes with effective understatement", and called the film a "brisk, professionally assembled, but finally shrug-inducing thriller."[58]Chicago Sun-Times criticRoger Ebert gave the film four stars (his maximum), saying "Salt is a damn fine thriller. ... It's gloriously absurd. This movie has holes in it big enough to drive the whole movie through. The laws of physics seem to be suspended here the same way as in aRoad Runner cartoon."[65]
Time magazine reviewer Richard Corliss praised the action scenes and Noyce's persistence in keeping a serious tone – "he ignores the story's preposterous elements and lets the audience decide whether to laugh, shudder, or both".[62]Empire's William Thomas praised Jolie's performance, remarking, "when it comes to selling incredible, crazy, death-defying antics, Jolie has few peers in the action business",[61] andThe Village Voice'sKarina Longworth considered that original star Tom Cruise would never express the protagonist's ambiguity as well as Jolie.[59]
Among negative responses,The New Yorker's David Denby saidSalt "is as impersonal an action thriller as we've seen in years", finding the supporting cast underexplored – "the tricky plot locks them into purely functional responses".[66] Claudia Puig of theUSA Today considered the film a "by-the-book thriller" with Jolie's performance as the only distinguishing feature.[63] Lawrence Toppman ofThe Charlotte Observer described the film as absurd, overplotted, and incoherent, and said the villainous schemes "would have been called off 20 years ago at the latest when the Soviet Union dissolved".[67] Steven Rea ofThe Philadelphia Inquirer describedSalt as "commendably swift and progressively inane", saying the script was a "sloppy concoction of story elements from '70s espionage classics" that ended up not working right with its "nonsensical setups and wildly illogical twists".[68]James Berardinelli of Reelviews considered that, while the film was fast-paced and the action scenes competently shot, the plot was predictable and "the spy aspects, which are, by far, the most intriguing elements of the movie, are shunted aside in favor of spectacular stunts and long chases".[69]
Salt received oneAcademy Award nomination, forBest Sound Mixing (Jeffrey J. Haboush,Greg P. Russell,Scott Millan andWilliam Sarokin), which it lost toInception.[70] The film wonBest Action/Adventure Film at theSaturn Awards, with Angelina Jolie being nominated for Best Actress, and the Deluxe Unrated Edition being nominated for Best DVD Special Edition.[71] At theTaurus World Stunt Awards, stuntwoman Janene Carleton's jump on a moving truck won Best Overall Stunt by a Stunt Woman, and the film was nominated for Best Stunt Coordinator and/or 2nd Unit Director.[72] It was also nominated forSatellite Awards for Cinematography and Original Score,[73] aGolden Reel Award for Sound Effects and Foley,[74] aPeople's Choice Award for Favorite Action Movie,[75] and twoTeen Choice Awards.[76] The film was nominated for aVisual Effects Society Award forOutstanding Supporting Visual Effects in a Feature Motion Picture but lost toHereafter.[77]
Director Phillip Noyce was optimistic about a sequel, saying "Hopefully within a couple of years, we'll have another one. Angelina's so great in this part. When audiences see the movie they're going to feel like it's only just the beginning."[78] Producer Lorenzo di Bonaventura also expressed further interest: "Angie, I know, loved that character, and would love to explore the character some more first and foremost."[79]
Noyce later said he had other projects and would not participate. "Those 3 Blu-ray disc cuts represent just about everything I have to offer on Evelyn Salt. If there ever is a sequel, better it's directed by someone with a completely fresh take on what I believe could be a totally entertaining and complex series of stories."[37]
On June 6, 2011, Wimmer was announced as a screenwriter, but Jolie equivocated, "if it comes together right".[80] She rejected Wimmer's first draft for "Salt 2" in early 2012.[81] On December 10, 2012, Sony Pictures announced hiring screenwriterBecky Johnston[82][83] (known forThe Prince of Tides,Seven Years in Tibet, andArthur Newman),[84] as well as producers Lorenzo di Bonaventura and Sunil Perkash.[85] The project ultimately died.[86] Sony was said to be developing aSalt TV series as an alternative in 2016, but it also never came to fruition.[86]
beating Salt's 56% rotten rating (critics are tough on action movies) and B+ Cinemascore.
Pic scored a B+ CinemaScore rating and played slightly better with older female auds.
...the project quietly died due to lack of traction and financial success.