Inside Man

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This article is about the 2006 film by Spike Lee starring Denzel Washington. For the Star Trek: Voyager episode, see Inside Man (Voyager episode).
Inside Man

Promotional poster for Inside Man
Directed by Spike Lee
Produced by Brian Grazer
Written by Russell Gewirtz
Starring Denzel Washington
Clive Owen
Jodie Foster
Willem Dafoe
Chiwetel Ejiofor
Christopher Plummer
Music by Terence Blanchard
Cinematography Matthew Libatique
Editing by Barry Alexander Brown
Distributed by Universal (USA)
UIP (International)
Release date(s) March 23, 2006
Running time 129 minutes
Language English
Budget $45,000,000
IMDb profile

Inside Man is a 2006 crime-drama film directed by Spike Lee. It stars Denzel Washington, Clive Owen, Willem Dafoe and Jodie Foster. The film's screenplay is written by Russell Gewirtz and produced by Brian Grazer. It was released in North America and several European markets on March 23 and 24, 2006.

The film was shot on location in New York City and features an expansive and diverse ensemble cast. In addition to being a cerebral action-oriented thriller, the film handles issues of good and evil in unexpected sources, corruption, anti-heroes, prejudice, multiculturalism in America (and New York City in particular) post-September 11, 2001, genocide and leaves several interpretations of right and wrong open to the audience.

The title comes from several different meanings of the term "inside man", and may be considered a use of wordplay.

Contents

[edit] Plot

 The plot summary in this article or section is too long or detailed compared to the rest of the article.
Please edit the article to focus on discussing the work rather than merely reiterating the plot.

Inside Man opens with a closeup of Dalton Russell (Clive Owen) sitting in confinement, though the location of the cell he is in is not revealed. He muses, to the audience, the difference between a cell and a prison and offers to explain to the viewer his "perfect" plan for a bank robbery.[1]

The film flashes back to the robbers gathering in a van to prepare for the heist. (This begins the time frame that will carry most of the film; though there are several flash-backs and flash-forwards within). Led by Russell, the robbers enter a bank disguised as painters. They first use infrared flashlights to knock out security cameras and then brandish firearms and begin taking over the bank. The robbers hold the customers and staff hostage within the building and take their keys and cell phones. The robbers force all of the hostages to don the same clothes as the robbers, hooded coveralls with sunglasses and masks. This makes it difficult to distinguish robber from hostage—a critical part of the robbers' plan.

Meanwhile, the police arrive and surround the bank. Detectives Keith Frazier (Denzel Washington) and Bill Mitchell (Chiwetel Ejiofor) introduce themselves to Captain Darius (Willem Dafoe) and briefly discuss the situation. The scene then shifts to the office of Arthur Case (Christopher Plummer), chairman of the board of directors and founder of the bank, who seems quietly but deeply alarmed of the hostage-taking and the location.

Case hires power broker Madeleine White (Jodie Foster) to try to arrange for the contents of his safe deposit box at the bank to remain secret. White meets with a shockingly profane mayor to gain permission to enter the crime scene, and manipulates Frazier to let her talk to Russell. When she mentions to Russell the special interests she wants to protect, Russell, who had up to this point deliberately refused to make extended contact with anyone, agrees to talk to her. White enters the bank and speaks with Russell. When White requests access to the safe deposit box, Russell shows her a document, which the audience is led to understand indicates that Case had somehow received money from the Nazis during World War II for unspecified services that resulted in Jewish deaths. We learn that Case earned enough to start the bank where the hostage-taking has occurred. After assuring Russell that Case will make him a very wealthy man if he is able to escape the bank with this document, White leaves.

Attempting a bluff, Frazier tells Russell that his plane is ready but he needs to know that all the hostages are safe before he can let them leave. Russell allows him to enter the bank, and Frazier is taken on a tour of the building and checks all the hostages. Upon exiting the bank, Frazier suddenly attempts to aggressively overpower Russell, only to fail when another robber comes to Russell's aid. Intriguingly, Russell still lets Frazier leave unharmed with seemingly no repercussion for his attack. Later, in the police bus, Frazier reveals to his colleagues that he intentionally tried to provoke Russell, but as Russell did not harm him, it proves that Russell is not a killer.

Soon after, the robbers call and direct the police to point their cameras to a specific window on the second floor, where they show the execution of one of the hostages. An enraged Frazier confronts Russell again, demanding to know their true intentions. Russell simply replies that Frazier is "too damn smart to be a cop" and closes the door on him.

The hostage execution prompts the ESU team into action, and they plan to raid the building.They discuss several scenarios and their respective pros and cons. Since they cannot tell hostage from robber, they decide to use rubber bullets and take head shots to simply knock everyone out.

Frazier realizes that the written message Russell had initially sent out (and brought to the police command center) has a transmitter inside it. He orders Captain Darius, in command of police on the scene, to recall his men, but Darius ignores him.

Inside the bank, Russell hears the conversation between Darius and Frazier and is alarmed that the police plan to move in. Before the police can storm the bank, the robbers detonate smoke bombs throughout the bank. A horde of identically dressed robbers and hostages burst out of the bank through the smoke, in a mass of confusion. The police detain and interrogate everyone, but during the robbery, all the robbers (except Russell) had feigned to be hostages at one point, each of them making a scene so that the true hostages would incorrectly identify them as hostages. Thus, during Frazier's interrogations, he could not single out any robbers amongst them except for Russell, who was missing. No money is found missing and no people killed or seriously injured (it was discovered that the hostage execution was faked). No "robbers" were found and even the weapons left behind were merely toy replicas, leaving it as if the incident never occurred, prompting Frazier's boss to bury the case.

Frazier however keeps looking through the bank's records and finds the safe deposit box never appeared on any records since the bank's founding. He obtains a search warrant from a judge to open it. He is then confronted by White, who informs him of Case's dealings with the Nazis. She also tries to convince Frazier to drop his investigation, reminding him that she has held up her end of her deal with him (guaranteeing he would be promoted, and returning money he was implicated in stealing prior to the events of the movie). He refuses again, and points out there was no deal that he agreed to, and using a James Bond-style recording pen to replay the conversation.

White confronts Case about dealings with the Nazis, in which he confesses everything to her. He also reveals that the safe contained diamonds, including a Cartier ring, belonging to a Jewish friend whom he allowed to die at the hands of the Nazis in exchange for money. He is remorseful for what he did, and had thus led a life of philanthropy and humanitarianism to try to assuage his guilt.

In a major plot twist, it is then revealed that Russell hid himself behind a fake wall erected inside the supply room (literally, the "inside man"), where he was narrating from the beginning of the movie. He emerges a week after the "robbery" was committed, deliberately bumping into Frazier (who does not recognize him) along the way. Russell is picked up by his associates, and is presumably never caught. (Russell's associates—who are revealed to include a Jewish expert on The Holocaust who pretended to be one of the victims at the beginning on the movie—pick him up in an expensive Volkswagen SUV, which some viewers note as a possible reference to the protagonists' subtle triumph over Nazism.) Russell's associates ask him for the ring, and Russell reveals it is in good hands, namely Frazier's.

Frazier opens the safe deposit box to find the Cartier ring, a pack of gum (Russell had offered some to him when they first met, as a sign for Frazier that he was already in the safe deposit box), and a message, "Follow the ring." Interpreting this as Russell's desire for him to continue the case, he confronts Case, showing him the ring, and informing him of his desire to investigate it. He then finds White and indicates that he had discovered the ring was linked Case's past. He offers White the pen with the recording, and gives her a card to have the Office of War Crimes Issues at the U.S. State Department look into the situation.

At the end of the movie, it is also revealed that Russell helped Frazier with a personal problem of his own. Frazier had mentioned his girlfriend and how he wanted to propose to her but could not afford a ring. After his final encounter with White, Frazier goes home and finds a diamond in his pocket. He then realizes that it was put there by the man he bumped into in the bank (Russell). As the movie ends, it is implied that Frazier will use the diamond to propose to his girlfriend.

[edit] Production

The entire movie was filmed in 39 days, and Jodie Foster filmed her entire role in only three days. Originally Ron Howard was to direct the movie, but he backed out to do Cinderella Man. Spike Lee, a native New Yorker, was happy to direct a New York based movie.[2]

[edit] Featured cast

[edit] Filming locations

Much of the filming of Inside Man was done in Lower Manhattan at or near 20 Exchange Place, off William Street and Wall Street and just blocks from the New York Stock Exchange and South Street Seaport. Over three-quarters of the film's stage work was completed in New York City, making the production eligible for the city's "Made in New York" incentives program.[3]

[edit] Reviews

Inside Man earned acclaim from several well-known critics. On Rottentomatoes.com, it currently stands with an 87% rating, making it "Certified Fresh".

It was named one of the 10 best films of 2006 by the American Film Institute.

Director Kevin Smith listed Inside Man on his Top Ten List of 2006.

[edit] Soundtrack

Inside Man
Inside Man cover
Film score by Terence Blanchard
Released May 21, 2006
Genre Soundtracks
Film scores
Length 56:16
Label Varese Sarabande
Professional reviews

Inside Man is the film score to the 2006 movie of the same name. It was composed by American jazz musician and composer, Terence Blanchard and Howard Drossin

Track listing

  1. Ten Thirty (1:58)
  2. Thrown a Bone (2:36)
  3. Steve Switcheroo (1:35)
  4. Dalton's World (0:45)
  5. 357 (0:58)
  6. 392 (1:39)
  7. 2nd Floor Window (0:46)
  8. Defend Brooklyn (1:17)
  9. Food Chain (1:11)
  10. Above Your Pay Grade (1:27)
  11. Everything Hunky Dory (1:29)
  12. Frazier's Tour (4:52)
  13. Press Here to Play (1:41)
  14. Nothing Yet (2:06)
  15. Demands In Place (1:00)
  16. Here Lies Peter Hammond (2:34)
  17. Nazis Pay Too Well (3:54)
  18. Nice Talking to You (1:18)
  19. They Bugged Us (1:45)
  20. Hostage Takedown (2:49)
  21. Dr. Phil (1:12)
  22. Photo Ops (2:00)
  23. ESU Search (1:26)
  24. Dalton's Cell (1:11)
  25. Follow the Ring (4:17)
  26. Good and Ready (2:20)
  27. Chaiyya Chaiyya# (6:10)
#composed by A. R. Rahman, sung by Sukhwinder Singh and Sapna Avasthi

[edit] Box office

As of December 21, 2006, the film has grossed a total of US$88,513,495 in the United States and US$183,960,186 Worldwide.[9]

[edit] Sequel

Spike Lee and Brian Grazer are developing a sequel to "Inside Man". Russell Gewirtz, the original writer, has completed the script for the sequel. It has been confirmed that Denzel Washington, Clive Owen and Jodie Foster will return to portray their characters once more.[10]

[edit] Trivia

  • Continuity Error: When Frazier sets the ring down in front of Madeleine at the restaurant, the ring box is shut. The next time it is shown it is open. Madeleine shuts it, then shuts it again. The actual ring box also changes between when Frazier opens the box for the first time and when he shows it to the Mayor and Ms. White. The first time the word "Cartier" appears in the classic text format, when Frazier shows the ring to Ms. White and the Mayor the inside of the box still says "Cartier", however, it is written in the more modern hand-writing style that is featured in the current Cartier logo.
  • When Frazier is talking to Case, near the end of the movie, behind Case there are pictures of George H. W. Bush and Margaret Thatcher. Case also mentions that "these people will vouch for me." This is significant in that it has been alleged, and remains the subject of some debate, that George H. W. Bush's father, Prescott Bush, profited from business enterprises with the Nazis. In addition, George H.W. Bush and Thatcher were each high ranking officials in administrations that sanctioned business enterprises with Saddam Hussein, despite knowledge of his atrocities. In the commentary with Spike Lee, he says that he was unaware of any link between the character of Arthur Case and Prescott Bush.
  • The film contains direct references to several films starring Al Pacino — Serpico, Dog Day Afternoon, and The Godfather's Michael Corleone are all mentioned or discussed.
  • Two actors from Dog Day Afternoon were cast as a homage to that movie, in similar roles. Marcia Jean Kurtz plays a hostage named "Miriam" in both films, and Lionel Pina delivers pizza in both.
  • The mock malt liquor "Da Bomb" from Spike Lee's Bamboozled also shows up at the end of the movie. This liquor was also seen in two other Lee films, "Clockers" and "Sucker Free City"
  • Frazier's girlfriend is reading Gotham Diaries at the end of the film. This book was written by Lee's wife, Tonya Lewis Lee.
  • At one point a picture of Buddy Christ from Dogma can be seen on the wall.
  • The appearance of various branded items in the film may constitute product placement, such as an iPod used to confuse the police, Dell computer boxes covering the entrance to Dalton's 'cell', Madeline White's Apple Cinema Display and Hermès Birkin Bag, the Sony PSP owned by the little boy, the Chevrolet van used to transport the crew to the bank, and the North Face backpack Dalton uses when he leaves the bank. Also, Poland Springs water, Pepsi, and Wrigley's Juicy Fruit were shown.
  • Keith Frazier's name is derived from Spike Lee's love of New York sports teams. Two of New York's greatest sports legends and current sports broadcasters are ex-Met Keith Hernandez and ex-Knick Walt Frazier (the two appear together in an advertisement for Just For Men hair coloring). In the command center scene where Frazier brags to his partner that he is destined to make Detective, First Grade, he recites his soon-to-be rank and name in the elongated speaking fashion of former New York Knicks announcer Marv Albert. In Lee's DVD commentary, he reveals that he intended Frazier's partner to have the last name "Monroe" to honor former Baltimore Bullets and New York Knicks great Earl Monroe, but Washington told him, essentially, that it was overkill.
  • There are numerous references, towards the end, to similar suspense and crime drama films such as The Fugitive, The Usual Suspects and Ocean's Eleven.
  • The end-credits score played in this movie, is the song from the Indian movie, "Dil Se", called "Chaiyya Chaiyya", composed by renowned Indian Composer A.R. Rahman.
  • The pizza boxes that are bugged and delivered to the hostages have the word "Sal's" most likely referring to "Sal's Pizzeria" which is a key setting in Spike Lee's movie Do the Right Thing
  • The DVD Special Edition includes an audio commentary and several deleted scenes. The additional scenes would seem to be making a connection between prejudical addittudes about racial and ethnic minorities with sexism and homophobia.
  • The film features a kid playing an ultra violent video game similar to Grand Theft Auto, and expresses a gangster rapper philosophy of, doing whatever it takes to "get rich or die trying." On the DVD audio commentary Spike comments on how these scenes reflect problems with the popular culture.
  • Portions of the musical score for this film were used in Spike Lee's documentary "When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts".

[edit] References

  1. ^ Inside Man (2006) - Memorable quotes
  2. ^ Inside Man (2006) - Trivia
  3. ^ The Made in New York Incentive Program.
  4. ^ Inside Man. allmovie.com.
  5. ^ Inside Man. Empire.
  6. ^ Inside Man.
  7. ^ Inside Man.
  8. ^ Inside Man.
  9. ^ Box Office Mojo
  10. ^ Inside Man thriller inspires ABC drama | Entertainment | Reuters

[edit] External links

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Preceded by
V for Vendetta		 Box office number-one films of 2006 (USA)
March 26, 2006		 Succeeded by
Ice Age: The Meltdown
v • d • e
Films directed by Spike Lee
1980s
1990s
2000s