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Salt (2010 film)

Salt is a 2010 American action thriller film directed by Phillip Noyce, written by Kurt Wimmer, and starring Angelina Jolie, Liev Schreiber, Daniel Olbrychski, August Diehl and Chiwetel Ejiofor. Jolie plays Evelyn Salt, who is accused of being a Russian sleeper agent and goes on the run to try to clear her name.

Salt

  • July 19, 2010 (2010-07-19) (Hollywood)
  • July 23, 2010 (2010-07-23) (United States)

104 minutes

United States

English

$110–130 million[1][2][3]

$293.5 million[2]

Originally written with a male protagonist, with Tom Cruise initially secured for the lead, the script was ultimately rewritten by Brian Helgeland for Jolie. Filming took place on location in Washington, D.C., New York City, and Albany, 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 at the San Diego Comic-Con on July 22 and was released in North America on July 23, 2010, and in the United Kingdom on August 18, 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 providing different endings for the film.


Salt was nominated for Best Sound Mixing at the 83rd Academy Awards.

Plot[edit]

Evelyn Salt is in prison in North Korea, suspected of being a U.S. spy. The CIA arranges a prisoner 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 CIA counterintelligence officer Darryl Peabody observing. Orlov claims that on "Day X", Russian sleeper agents known as "KAs" will destroy the USA, and that Agent "KA-12" will assassinate Russian President Boris Matveyev at the impending funeral of the US vice president. He says KA-12's name is Evelyn Salt.


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 flashback she recalls her childhood in the Soviet 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 a Czech - NATO liaison officer.


Disguised as Shnaider's male attaché, Salt accompanies him into the White 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 its nuclear arsenal in response to President Matveyev's assassination. So, US 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 at Mecca and Tehran to incite a billion Muslims against the US. 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 realises Salt is not on his side and reveals that she is to be the patsy for the nuclear attacks. She breaks into the bunker and, after a fight, aborts the missile launch. Reinforcements arrive and Salt is arrested as 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 hadn't shot him earlier. Salt's fingerprints are found on the barge, convincing Peabody, who allows her to jump from the helicopter into the Potomac River.

Production[edit]

Development and writing[edit]

The early development of the script began while Kurt Wimmer was doing interviews promoting Equilibrium. In a November 2002 interview, he discussed on which scripts he was working. He stated, "I have several scripts – foremost of which is one called The Far-Reaching Philosophy of Edwin A. Salt – kind of a high-action spy thriller..."[6] In another interview, Wimmer described the project as "very much about me and my wife".[7] The plot incorporated many elements from Equilibrium, with an oppressive and paranoid political system of brainwashing that gets overthrown by one of its high-ranking members, who rebels due to an emotional transformation.[8] With the shortened title Edwin A. Salt, the script was sold to Columbia Pictures in January 2007.[9] By July 2007, the script had attracted the attention of Tom Cruise.[10]


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.[11][12] A year later, Phillip Noyce was confirmed to direct.[13] Noyce was attracted to Salt for its espionage themes, which are present in most of his filmography,[14] as well as the tension of a character who tries to prove his innocence, yet also does what he was previously accused of.[15]

Salt: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack

June 20, 2010 (2010-06-20) (iTunes)
August 11, 2010 (2010-08-11) (CD)

2010

59:10

James Newton Howard

Reception[edit]

Box office[edit]

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 beat Inception for the number-one spot at the box office.[46] 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 behind Inception, which made $42.7 million in its second weekend. Salt also grossed $15 million from 19 international markets.[47][48] in its second weekend, it declined in ticket sales by 45.9% making $19.5 million and placed number three behind Inception and Dinner for Schmucks.[49] It was released in 29 countries that same weekend, and grossed $25.4 million.[50][51]

Critical response[edit]

Salt received generally positive reviews from critics.[52] Review aggregation website Rotten 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 save Salt from its predictable and ludicrous plot."[53] Metacritic assigned the film a weighted average score of 65 out of 100 based on 42 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".[52] Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B+" on an A+ to F scale.[54][55]

Official website

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