Shooter (film)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Shooter
Directed by	Antoine Fuqua
Produced by	Lorenzo di Bonaventura
Written by	Stephen Hunter (novel) Jonathan Lemkin (screenplay)
Starring	Mark Wahlberg Danny Glover Ned Beatty Michael Peña Tate Donovan Kate Mara Rade Šerbedžija
Music by	Mark Mancina
Cinematography	Peter Menzies
Distributed by	Paramount Pictures
Release date(s)	March 23, 2007
Running time	124 min.
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	~$60 million[1]
Gross revenue	$95,696,996[2]
Official website
Allmovie profile
IMDb profile

Shooter is a 2007 action/conspiracy thriller directed by Antoine Fuqua. The film is based on the novel Point of Impact by Stephen Hunter. Shooter was released on March 23, 2007. The film's DVD was released on June 26, 2007, reaching the top of the sales charts.^[3]

Contents 1 Synopsis 2 Plot 3 Differences between the novel and the screenplay 4 Sniper weapons, tactics, and technical accuracy 5 Music 6 Cast 7 See also 8 References 9 External links

[edit] Synopsis

Bob Lee Swagger (Mark Wahlberg) is a retired United States Marine Corps Scout Sniper who left the Marines after a betrayal by the CIA which left his best friend and spotter, Donnie Fenn, dead. A group that leads him to believe they are federal agents approaches him to help entrap a potential assassin, who may attempt to shoot the President at one of three possible locations. Swagger is framed, and afterwards every law enforcement agency is after him, and he is forced to use his military training so that justice prevails.

Shooter was filmed mainly in British Columbia, Canada.

[edit] Plot

Bob Lee Swagger (Wahlberg), retired USMC Force Recon Marine Sniper, is one of the few snipers in the world whose sharpshooting abilities allow him to "take out a target from a mile away." He reluctantly leaves a self-imposed exile from his isolated Wyoming mountain home at the request of Colonel Isaac Johnson (Glover) and a team of agents. Johnson appeals to his expertise and patriotism to help track down a purported presidential assassin who plans on shooting the president from a great distance with a high powered rifle. Johnson gives him a list of 3 sites where the President is scheduled to visit so Swagger could determine if an attempt could be made at any of them.

Swagger assesses each of the locations given to him by Johnson and determines that a site in Philadelphia would be most conducive to a long range assassination attempt. He passes this information to Johnson, who purportedly arranges for a response.

This turns out to be a set-up: while Swagger is working with Johnson's agents—including a local police officer—to find the rumored assassin, the Ethiopian archbishop is instead assassinated while standing next to the president. Swagger is shot by the officer, but manages to escape.

The agents tell the police and public that Swagger is the shooter, and stage a massive manhunt for the injured sniper. However, Swagger has a stroke of luck—he meets rookie FBI agent Nick Memphis (Peña), disables him and steals his car. He is thus able to use the first aid supplies in the car to staunch his wounds and escape by driving into the river after an extended chase. He then takes refuge with Donnie Fenn's widow Sarah Fenn (Mara). She saves his life by cleaning and stitching Swagger's gunshot wounds, and a healing Swagger later convinces her to help him contact Memphis with information on the conspiracy. Memphis is blamed for allowing Swagger's escape, and is disciplined for negligence. However, he has independently learned that Swagger may have been framed for the assassination by noticing several inconsistancies with the data and witness accounts given to the FBI by an unnamed federal agency.

Once the rogue agents realize their secret has been compromised, they kidnap Memphis and attempt to stage his faked suicide. Swagger tails the agents and kills Memphis' captors with a .22 and a homemade silencer. Swagger and Memphis then join forces against the rogue agents and visit a firearms expert living in Athens, Tennessee. Together they plot to capture who they think is the real assassin, an ex-sniper allied with Colonel Johnson. Once they find him in Lynchburg, Virginia, he commits suicide after revealing that the archbishop was actually the real target of the assassins, and he was murdered in order to prevent him from speaking out against U.S. involvement in the genocide of an Ethiopian village. The genocide occurred in order to advance the aims of a consortium of American corporate oil interests headed by corrupt U.S. Senator Charles Meachum (Beatty). Swagger records the ex-sniper's confession as proof of the involvement in the African genocide, then with Memphis's assistance is able to escape from the trap set to ensnare them by killing all 24 mercenaries.

Meanwhile, other rogue mercenaries have kidnapped Sarah Fenn in order to entrap Swagger. With his new evidence and cat-and-mouse strategy, Swagger and Memphis are able to rescue her when Colonel Johnson and Senator Meachum arrange a meeting to exchange their hostage for Swagger's evidence of their wrongdoing. After killing several enemy snipers in an isolated mountain range and rescuing Sarah, Swagger and Memphis finally surrender to the FBI.

Later appearing in a closed meeting with the head of the FBI and the United States Attorney General present, he clears his name by loading a rifle round (supplied by Memphis) into his rifle (which is present as evidence as it was supposedly used in the killing), aiming it at the Colonel and pulling the trigger—which fails to fire the round. Swagger explains that every time he leaves his house, he replaces the firing pins from all his rifles with slightly shorter pins, rendering them unable to fire until he replaces them again. Unfortunately, although Swagger is exonerated, Colonel Johnson takes advantage of a legal loophole—the Ethiopian genocide is outside American legal jurisdiction—and walks free. The attorney general approaches Swagger and states that as a law enforcement official, he must abide by the law—and Swagger is seen considering that statement.

Afterwards, the Colonel and the Senator plan their next power play in the Senator's vacation house—only to be interrupted by Swagger attacking the house. He kills both conspirators, one of the Colonel's aides and two bodyguards, then breaks open a gas valve before leaving. The fire in the fireplace ignites the gas, blowing up the house. The final scene shows Swagger getting into a car with Fenn and driving away.

[edit] Differences between the novel and the screenplay

The greatest difference between Point of Impact and Shooter is that Swagger in the novel is in his 40s, a veteran of the war in Vietnam, while in the film Swagger was a younger veteran of 1990s combat in Ethiopia. Sarah is likewise much younger.

Otherwise, the film largely follows the novel, though several subplots are eliminated or modified for the sake of brevity. The character of Nick Memphis is reduced from a major, well-developed character (also a trained sniper) to a sidekick, and his relationships with supervisor Howard D. Utey and a female coworker are barely addressed. Utey's last name is even changed, eliminating the "Howdy Duty" plot line. In the novel, Utey was connected to the conspiracy, and attempts to influence Memphis' testimony in the climactic trial. In the film, Howard is little more than a bit part. Dobbins (Dobbler in the novel), the psychologist, loses all depth of character—he is killed in the "final comeuppance" scene. In the novel, the Colonel is killed during the fight on the mountaintop, as is the wheelchair-bound sniper.

The ultimate climax in the novel is Swagger's very public trial, in which Swagger's innocence is proven the same way, but in front of a media-packed courtroom (with Howard D. Utey being the big loser). The film features a secret hearing, with the climax taking place in the Senator's cabin.

[edit] Sniper weapons, tactics, and technical accuracy

Shooter features some of the most realistic sniper tactics displayed in a movie at the time of its release. The filmmakers employed former U.S. Marine scout sniper Patrick Garrity, in order to train Mark Wahlberg in accurate sniper tactics. As Wahlberg was already in excellent physical condition, Garrity submitted him to a very rigorous and realistic sniper training. Crucial to the movie was for Wahlberg to learn shooting both left and right-handed (the actor is left-handed), as he had to switch shooting posture throughout the movie, due to Swagger's sustained injuries. He was also trained to adjust a weapon's scope, judge effects of wind to a shot, master rapid bolt manipulation and develop special breathing skills. His training concluded with extreme distance shooting (up to 1,100 yards), and the use of ghillie suits. Following the success of Wahlberg's training, Fuqua was impressed enough to appoint Garrity as the film's military technical advisor.^[4]

Throughout the film Swagger uses an array of sniper weapons, among which are the USMC M40A3 rifle^[5] and Barrett M107^[6] sniper rifles and Donnie Fenn used an M4 with a M203 grenade launcher and optics in the African opening sequences, Cheyenne Tactical M-200 Intervention in .408 CheyTac^[7][8] used to shoot the Dinty Moore stew can, and Remington 700P in .300 Winchester Magnum.^[9] Handguns used by Swagger include a Beretta 92 and a commandeered M4 carbine, in the fight against the 24 mercenaries and a Colt M1911-A1 in the final shootout scene.^{[citation needed]}

The level of technical accuracy in the film is high. Such things as the use of sugar and other supermarket supplies for Swagger's medical care were portrayed in a realistic manner. When saving Memphis, Swagger makes a field-expedient sound suppressor by mounting an empty plastic bottle on the rifle muzzle. The depiction of the cut off trigger finger of the glove is also accurate.

Despite the hight level of technical and tactical accuracy, there are a few kinks in the film. For example, when Swagger and Donnie are on duty in Ethiopia, they wear ACUPAT, which is for the Army, instead of MARPAT, which is in use with the USMC. Also, the Barrett M107 is a semi-automatic Special Application Scoped Rifle, but Swagger operates the bolt after every shot. This is because he was firing blanks, which don't have a strong enough recoil to complete a cycle. Swagger's camouflage on the Ethiopia mission was also incomplete. It should have extended to cover the rifle and some sort of draping to eliminate shadows caused by the edge of the ghillie suit.

[edit] Music

The score to the film was composed by Mark Mancina, who recorded the music at the Todd-AO Scoring Stage in Studio City, CA using a 77-piece orchestra conducted by Don Harper.^[10] A score soundtrack was released by Lakeshore Records on March 27, 2007.

[edit] Cast

• Mark Wahlberg – GySgt. Bob Lee Swagger
• Lane Garrison – LCpl. Donnie Fenn
• Michael Peña – Special Agent Nick Memphis
• Danny Glover – Col. Isaac Johnson
• Kate Mara – Sarah Fenn
• Elias Koteas – Jack Payne
• Rhona Mitra – Special Agent Alourdes Galindo
• Jonathan Walker – Louis Dobbler
• Justin Louis – Special Agent Howard Purnell
• Tate Donovan – Russ Turner
• Rade Šerbedžija – Michael Sandor
• Ned Beatty – Senator Charles F. Meachum
• Alan C. Peterson – Off. Stanley Timmons
• Brian Markinson – Attorney General Russert
• Levon Helm – Mr. Rate

[edit] See also

• Sniper
• Assassinations in fiction
• 2007 in film

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Shooter official website
• Shooter at the Internet Movie Database
• Shooter at Rotten Tomatoes
• Shooter at Metacritic
• Shooter at Box Office Mojo
• Scoring Session Photo Gallery at ScoringSessions.com

v • d • e Films directed by Antoine Fuqua The Replacement Killers (1998) • Bait (2000) • Training Day (2001) • Tears of the Sun (2003) • King Arthur (2004) • Shooter (2007) • Brooklyn's Finest (2008) • Escobar (2009)