'Enemy of the State'
The Ringer's Bill Simmons, Sean Fennessey, and Chris Ryan are on the run after their podcast on Tony Scott's 'Enemy of the State' starring Will Smith, Gene Hackman, and Jon Voight ends up in the wrong hands.
Cast
Will Smith as Robert Clayton Dean
Gene Hackman as Edward 'Brill' Lyle
Jon Voight as Thomas Reynolds
Jason Lee as Daniel Zavitz
Regina King as Carla Dean
Lisa Bonet as Rachel Banks
Barry Pepper as NSA Agent Pratt
Jack Black as Fiedler
Tom Sizemore as Paulie Pintero
Directed by: Tony Scott
Notes
- Considered the 'unofficial sequel' to The Conversation (1974) – Hackman wears the same jacket, has a similar lair, Tony Scott intentionally wanted the connection.
- Aaron Sorkin and Tony Gilroy performed uncredited rewrites on David Marconi's script.
- Tom Cruise originally signed on but dropped out due to 'Eyes Wide Shut' schedule. Mel Gibson and George Clooney also considered.
- Will Smith took the role because he wanted to work with Gene Hackman; took a reduced salary. Picked this over 'Snake Eyes'.
- Gene Hackman turned down the film several times before Tony Scott convinced him. Doesn't appear until the 55-minute mark.
- Thomas Reynolds' (Jon Voight) birthday in the movie is 9/11/1940 – three years before the actual 9/11.
- NSA Director Michael Hayden did a PR campaign after the film because the public's impression of the NSA was being 'formed by the last Will Smith movie.'
- $90 million budget, grossed $250 million. First Will Smith movie done on The Rewatchables.
Categories
Quote from Rog's review:
“By and large, the movie works. The craft and the technical expertise are there, the starring performances by Smith and Hackman are convincing.”
- Bill and Chris: The Jason Lee chase sequence – escapes apartment, rooftops, steals bike, runs through store back doors, ends with iconic bike/truck death. ~7 minutes of peak Tony Scott action.
- Hackman meeting Will Smith and picking bugs off his clothes – the hotel sequence with the Asian couple hiding, Smith climbing balcony to balcony.
- Will Smith crashing the mafia dinner – the 'True Romance 2' scene with Sizemore eating spaghetti.
- Sean: Smith going to Hackman's lair, the building blowing up ('You made a phone call!').
- Lisa Bonet – 'an icon' from the 80s who looks amazing in this, reclaiming her territory. Looks eerily like her daughter Zoe Kravitz.
- The incredible supporting cast – 'one of the best IMDb pages... like 25 people in this movie.'
- The entire premise – government surveillance, NSA spying on citizens. 'Pretty profoundly aging well.' Three years before 9/11 and the Patriot Act.
- Barry Pepper's evil sprinting face.
- Tony Scott's ~2.5-second average shot length creating disorientation.
- The first 20 minutes after the Robards scene drag.
- The satellite technology is absurd – though it turned out the NSA probably could do most of it.
- Scott Caan's hair – a beehive that gets progressively crazier.
- Jon Voight being 'P-whipped' in the second half – his wife (Anna Gunn, 30 years younger) yells at him about milk/eggs.
- Tom Cruise originally signed on but dropped out due to 'Eyes Wide Shut'.
- Mel Gibson and George Clooney also considered for Will Smith's part.
- Sean Connery was the backup choice for Gene Hackman.
Lillo Brancato – 'the guy from 'A Bronx Tale' who's also in The Sopranos and then went to jail.'
- Tom Sizemore – sweating, eating spaghetti, fully committed. 'Epic, probably cocaine-fueled performance.'
- Will Smith in the Philip Baker Hall scene – 'You ever beat off in the shower, Brian?' Yelling at a 19 out of 10.
Lisa Bonet – 'throwing 130 miles an hour' every time she appears. Should have been in more scenes.
Bill: Make Lisa Bonet the lead/hero, Will Smith the person she had the affair with. Chris: You could scramble the entire cast and put every actor in a different part and it would still work.
Post-Cosby Show Lisa Bonet – all three hosts agree. 'Lisa Bonet sponsors this category.'
- Jon Voight attends the assassination of a sitting Congressman in person – insane operational security.
- Barry Pepper nearly keeps up on foot with Jason Lee on a bicycle. Later, Will Smith outruns a Camaro in a tunnel.
- The 270-degree lingerie shop camera rotation – technology the NFL doesn't have in 2020, yet Jack Black deploys it from a van.
- Will Smith sets himself on fire in a locked closet, doesn't immediately die, has no major burns afterward.
Yes – all agree it could be a 10-episode Netflix show. 'Wire-type show with 20 characters.' Essentially a blueprint for 24.
What happened to Tom Sizemore between Heat (1995) and this movie (1998)? Only four years but he looks 27 years older.
Gene Hackman – all three agree. 'As soon as he comes on screen, this is like a B-plus movie, and the plus comes from Hackman. He just makes movies feel important.'
- The portable video game system Will Smith's son uses is a Turbo Express (a Game Boy competitor that failed).
- Hackman's 1986-1998 run compared to Michael Jordan's: 'Hoosiers', 'No Way Out', Mississippi Burning, 'Unforgiven', The Firm, 'Crimson Tide', Get Shorty, The Birdcage, then this.
- Dustin Hoffman, Gene Hackman, and Robert Duvall all lived together in one apartment in New York City for years.