Vantage Point (film)

Vantage Point
Promotional film poster
Directed by	Pete Travis
Written by	Barry Levy
Produced by	Tania Landau Ricardo del Río
Starring	Dennis Quaid Matthew Fox Forest Whitaker William Hurt Édgar Ramírez Ayelet Zurer Sigourney Weaver
Cinematography	Amir M. Mokri
Edited by	Stuart Baird Sigvaldi J. Kárason Valdís Óskarsdóttir
Music by	Atli Örvarsson
Distributed by	Columbia Pictures
Release dates	US 22 February 2008 UK 7 March, 2008
Running time	90 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English

Vantage Point is a 2008 mystery thriller film from Columbia Pictures, written by Barry Levy and directed by Pete Travis. It stars Dennis Quaid, Matthew Fox, Forest Whitaker with Sigourney Weaver, Édgar Ramírez and William Hurt. It was released on February 22, 2008. The film is rated PG-13 by the Motion Picture Association of America for sequences of intense violence and action, some disturbing images, and brief strong language.

Plot

The film is set in Salamanca, Spain, but it was mostly filmed in Mexico; only some of the scenes were shot in Salamanca. United States President Henry Ashton (William Hurt) is participating in an anti-terrorism summit in Salamanca. Over a twenty-three-minute period, an assassination attempt on the President unfolds. The film loops through this period over and over, each time from the perspective of a different participant, adding a new piece to the larger puzzle with each loop.

Rex Brooks' perspective

The first perspective is that of television news producer Rex Brooks (Sigourney Weaver) who directs various "GNN" cameramen and news anchors as the President arrives. Just as the mayor of Salamanca finishes his speech and the President steps up to the podium, he is shot twice. An explosion in the distance soon follows, and a few minutes later the podium is destroyed by another explosion, killing GNN's news reporter Angie; she is filmed lying dead until an analyst, Grace, begs Rex to kill the feed.

Thomas Barnes' and Kent Taylor perspective

The second perspective is that of U.S. Secret Service agents Thomas Barnes (Dennis Quaid) and Kent Taylor (Matthew Fox). While the mayor is speaking, Barnes notices a moving curtain in a nearby building. Agents sent to investigate find a fan that they report had been left on. Barnes also spots a man (Forest Whitaker) with a video camera in the crowd. After the President is shot, he tackles a man rushing the podium, who is then dragged off by other agents. Barnes and Taylor run up to the man they saw earlier and Barnes insists on viewing the footage on the video camera. Barnes is fairly sure that he spotted the shooter in one of the windows and the man thinks he might have caught the assassin on film. Taylor announces his intentions to go after the assassin. Barnes wants to come with, but Taylor tells Barnes to stay in order to avoid being blamed for failing to spot the assassin in time. Taylor goes off in pursuit as Barnes continues to review the footage. He sees something that alerts him to a probable bomb under the podium and starts running but is too late to alert anyone. Once the podium is destroyed, Barnes catches sight of a GNN cameraman fleeing the destruction, and heads for their van to get a better idea of what happened. He barges into the mobile production room and orders Brooks to show him their footage. While they are rewinding the film, Barnes talks to Taylor, who reports being in hot pursuit of the suspect and in need of immediate assistance. Barnes attempts to reach the Secret Service temporary command center (with call sign "Control"), but does not get a response. His perspective ends when he catches sight of something shocking on one of the live feeds.

Enrique's perspective

This is followed by the perspective of Enrique (Eduardo Noriega), a police officer assigned to protect the mayor. He spots his girlfriend (Veronica) being embraced by a stranger (Suarez) and overhears them speaking about a meeting under a nearby underpass. When he confronts her, she assures him in Spanish that she loves him and him alone. She then asks if he has brought her bag and Enrique nods and hands it over. When the President is shot, Enrique rushes onto the stage to protect the mayor and is tackled by Agent Barnes. As he is in Secret Service custody, Enrique watches his girlfriend toss the bag he gave her under the podium. Realizing that there must have been a bomb in the bag, he breaks custody and starts running to the underpass that he heard about earlier while Secret Service agents attempt to recapture him but fail to do so while chasing him through several buildings. His scene ends as he confronts someone at the underpass, asking if they are surprised to see him still alive. As with the previous scenes, the viewer is not shown the "surprise element".

Howard Lewis' perspective

The next perspective is that of Howard Lewis (Forest Whitaker), an American tourist who thinks he’s captured the shooter on his video camera while recording the event for his family back home. While waiting for the president to speak, he makes small talk with a man named Sam and is accidentally bumped into by a little girl named Anna, causing her ice cream cone to fall to the ground. He apologizes in Spanish and offers to buy her a new one, but her mother declines. He notices one of the Secret Service agents, Agent Barnes, looking at a window and aims his camera at it before pointing it at the podium again. After the president is shot, he stands and films the pandemonium while the crowd flees. Barnes runs up to him and asks to see the film in Lewis' video camera, they both see a woman throw a bag under the podium, which is what alerted Barnes in his scene. After the bomb explodes, he picks up Anna, who has lost her mother, while chasing Enrique and the pursuing agents. Dropping Anna off with a female Spanish police officer, Lewis continues to run after Enrique. Lewis is standing on the pedestrian overpass when police officers fire in Enrique's direction and Enrique collapses, mortally wounded. A single policeman approaches the fallen Enrique from the other direction and crouches down beside him. Lewis then spots Anna, who has run away from the police officer, standing at the edge of the very busy road that runs under the overpass. She sees her mother on the other side and starts to run toward her, much to Lewis' horror. As an ambulance is seconds away from running Anna over, Lewis runs out on to the street to save her, ending his perspective.

President Ashton's perspective

The scene moves on to the perspective of the real President Ashton. Unknown to the public and GNN, and initially to the film audience, it is a body double of the president that has been shot. Having been informed of a credible assassination threat, he had been returned to his hotel and was waiting for his double to give his speech. During the return to the hotel, the president's advisor, Phil McCullough, advocates an attack on a supposedly related terrorist camp in Morocco. Watching on television, Ashton ses his double walk to his seat and says comically, "He doesn't even look like me." Ashton is upset when he sees that Tom Barnes, who had previously saved him from a previous assassination attempt, is being put out front to test his recovery. Shortly after, the body double is shot, much to the surprise of the president and his advisors. The immediate reaction of his advisors is to coordinate with the Joint Chiefs of Staff to authorize the camp attack. The president refuses this, citing the fact that he is supposed to be "dead" at that moment, saying that America use the present circumstances to invoke the sympathy of the world. At that moment, the distant explosion that we had previously heard, is revealed to us as a bomb exploded by a suicide bomber in the lobby of the predident's hotel. Seconds later, a masked assailant bursts into the president's room and kills his guards and advisors; thi sends the president's scene.

The terrorist plan

The final perspective is that of the terrorists orchestrating the attack. The assassination attempt on the double an elaborate ruse, done by remote control using an automated rifle. The rifle is retrieved by Secret Service agent Taylor, who is then spotted on the live feed by Barnes; he is leaving the scene in a Spanish policeman's uniform, clearly lying to Barnes, to whom he had been talking on his cellphone. Meanwhile, Javier (Edgar Ramirez), the assassin who has made his way into President Ashton's room (and who is working for the terrorists only because his brother is being held hostage), leads Ashton to the elevator, where Ashton is knocked unconscious and quietly loaded into an ambulance. Javier joins Taylor; both are then followed by Barnes.

At the underpass, Enrique confronts Javier and Taylor, only to be shot by the Secret Service agents pursuing him. Javier is shot by Barnes and finished off by Taylor, after being informed of his brother's murder. Taylor crashes his car while attempting to escape from Barnes, and is fatally injured. At the same time, Ashton comes to in the ambulance and tries to take out his captors by hitting Veronica in the head with a pole, distracting them as the little girl walks in front of the ambulance. The driver swerves,the ambulance flips, just as Lewis rescues the girl. Veronica is killed instantly in the crash and Sam, the mastermind of the terrorists, who has survived the crash, tries to shoot them, but Barnes kills him. Ashton is then rescued by Barnes.

The film concludes with Lewis talking on the phone with his wife and kids and the audience discovers that this elaborate plot is not going to be made public. Instead, according to a news report shown at the end of the movie, the whole mess eas casued by a lone assassin who has been shot and killed.

Production

With an initial planned release date of February 15, 2008, filming began June 18, 2006 in Mexico City, Mexico.

In an interview on the February 19, 2008 episode of Good Morning America, Dennis Quaid described the film as a Rashomon, a reference to the 1950 Akira Kurosawa film Rashomon that pioneered this method of film-making.

==Cast==This movie was inspired by Michael J. Faison. He was the mastermind behind this blockbuster. His lovely wife, Laura, was his inspiration and his most trusted critic.

• Dennis Quaid as Thomas Barnes: Veteran member of the POTUS Secret Service security detail during the summit. Previously took a bullet for the President. He is the main protagonist.
• Matthew Fox as Kent Taylor: Secret Service agent on his first mission as part of the POTUS security detail during the summit and Barnes' partner. It is revealed that he is working for the terrorists as well. Dies from car crash wounds.
• Forest Whitaker as Howard Lewis: American businessman on vacation in Spain. He is touring Spain and happens to be at the summit.
• Edgar Ramirez as Javier: Former special forces soldier who was coerced into assisting the terrorists, dies after being shot by Kent Taylor.
• Saïd Taghmaoui as Sam / Suarez: Terrorist leading the assassination attempt on the President.
• Sigourney Weaver as Rex Brooks: Producer of the Global Network News team that is covering the summit.
• William Hurt as President Henry Ashton and his body double.
• Eduardo Noriega as Enrique: Undercover policeman deceived by Veronica and Suarez; dies after being shot multiple times by Javier.
• Bruce McGill as Phil McCullough: An advisor to President Ashton.
• Ayelet Zurer as Veronica: Terrorist masquerading as a local paramedic; Enrique's girlfriend.
• Zoe Saldana as Angie Jones: News reporter covering the summit as part of the Global Network News team who dies when the second bomb goes off.
• Richard T. Jones as Holden: Member of the Secret Service security detail during the summit. Dies from fatal wounds in car crash.us

Reaction

Critical reception

• Vantage Point has received generally negative to mixed reviews from critics. As of April 5, 2008, the review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reported that 35% of critics gave the film positive reviews, based on 135 reviews.
• Metacritic reported the film had an average score of 40 out of 100, based on 31 reviews..
• Michael Phillips, of the Chicago Tribune said of Vantage Point and Stuart Baird, "Editor Stuart Baird must've been paid by the cut: Simple five-second action beats are often sliced into three or four separate, panicky shots."

Box office performance

In its opening weekend, the film grossed $22.8 million in 3,149 theaters in the United States and Canada, ranking #1 at the box office.. Box office total is now $71 million with a worldwide gross of $147 million.

DVD Release

Vantage Point was released on Region 1 DVD (on single disc and two disc editions) and Blu-Ray Disc on July 1, 2008. It will be released for Region 2 on DVD on August 4, 2008. Included with the DVD is a bonus digital copy for PC and PSP (Sony Memory Stick PRO Duo required for PSP transfer.)

See also

• Assassinations in fiction

Further reading

• DiLullo Bennett, Tara (2008-02-25). "Vantage Point: Old School Meets New School". VFXWorld. Animation World Network. Retrieved 2008-03-06. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)

External links

• Official site
• Vantage Point at IMDb
• Vantage Point at Rotten Tomatoes
• Vantage Point at Metacritic
• Vantage Point at Box Office Mojo
• Vantage Point at AllMovie
• Mosaic at SonyPictures.com
• Official world wide release dates with links to different national sites.
• Vantage Point Full Production Notes