| Assassins | |
| Director: | Richard Donner |
| Story: | The Wachowskis |
| Music: | Mark Mancina |
| Cinematography: | Vilmos Zsigmond |
| Distributor: | Warner Bros. |
| Runtime: | 133 minutes [1] |
| Country: | United States[2] |
| Language: | English |
| Budget: | $50 million |
| Gross: | $83.3 million[3] |
Assassins is a 1995 American action thriller film directed by Richard Donner. It stars Sylvester Stallone, Antonio Banderas, and Julianne Moore. The screenplay was written by The Wachowskis and Brian Helgeland. The Wachowskis stated that their script was completely rewritten by Helgeland and that they tried to remove their names from the film but failed.[4] [5]
Assassin Robert Rath plans to retire, haunted by the memory of murdering his mentor Nicolai several years ago. While Rath is on an assignment, his target is eliminated by Miguel Bain, another assassin. Bain greatly admires Rath but also wants to kill him to establish himself as the world's greatest hitman.
As Rath tries to figure out who sent Bain, his contractor offers him a lucrative job that could allow him to retire: kill a notorious computer hacker named Electra along with four Dutch buyers of a computer disk she possesses, then retrieve the disk. Electra has set up CCTV cameras and an elaborate mechanism for remotely moving items between rooms in the building where she is based.
At the designated location for the buy, Bain locates and eliminates the four Dutchmen, who turn out to be Interpol agents. Realizing Bain is after the same target as he is once again, Rath spares Electra, and the two escape with the disk. Scared by the whole situation, Electra runs away from Rath to her house. Both Bain and Rath separately track her down. During the ensuing fight, Bain kills Electra's neighbors and is about to kill her when Rath intervenes. Realizing Rath does not want to kill her, Electra decides to trust him.
Rath exchanges the disk for his fee, given to him in a briefcase. However, the briefcase contains a bomb planted by his contractor. After surviving the attempt on his life, Rath is told by Electra that she had swapped the disk, unsure if he would come back. Rath demands a greatly increased fee from his contractor for the genuine disk, with the money to be wired to a bank in Puerto Rico. The contractor agrees but also hires Bain to kill Rath.
Rath and Electra travel to the bank, where he concludes that Bain will use an adjacent abandoned hotel as a sniper post. Fifteen years earlier, Rath had shot Nicolai from the same building. Rath sets a trap, managing to both get the money and, with Electra's help, engage Bain in a gunfight. With Bain seemingly dead, Nicolai appears and reveals that he had worn a bulletproof vest when Rath shot him years earlier. Recognizing Nicolai's intention to kill them both, Rath and a surviving Bain both shoot him dead. Despite their brief alliance, Bain draws a gun on Rath, whose back is turned. Electra puts on her sunglasses, allowing Rath to use the reflection to aim a shot backwards through his own jacket, killing Bain.
After Bain's death, Rath and Electra leave together and that their true names are Joseph and Anna.
The original spec script was written by The Wachowskis and sold for $1 million to producer Joel Silver around the same time he bought their script for The Matrix, also for $1 million. The script was similar to the final film, but with a more developed love story between Rath and Electra and a briefer ending without the character of Nicolai. Joel Silver offered Richard Donner $10 million to direct, but Donner insisted the script be rewritten to tone down the violence and make the central character more sympathetic. Donner brought in Brian Helgeland, who did a page-one rewrite and earned a co-screenwriter credit. The Wachowskis attempted to remove their name from the film but were refused by the Writers Guild of America.[6]
The film was shot in Seattle, Washington, San Juan, Puerto Rico, and Portland, Oregon.[7] [8]
Assassins debuted at No. 2 at the box office behind Seven.[9] The film grossed $30.3 million in the US and another $53 million worldwide.[10] [3]
Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B" on an A+ to F scale.[11] The film received mostly negative reviews from critics.[12] [13] [14] [15] Film-review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes gives the film a 16% positive rating based on 49 reviews, with an average rating of 3.8/10.[16] The script was heavily criticized for being confusing and dull. Stallone's performance in the film earned him a Golden Raspberry Award nomination for Worst Actor (also for Judge Dredd), but the award went to Pauly Shore for Jury Duty.
About the poor critical reception, Richard Donner said:
"I thought Stallone did one of the best jobs he's ever done. He underplayed, he was quiet, he found the character and he went with it. I thought Antonio Banderas was wonderful. The picture came out, and it did not do very well at all. Sure, it hurts and you know why you wish it would do better? The studio gave you a lot of money and you want them to make their money back so that other people can make movies (...) Warners have been good to us and gave us money to make that movie. And I thought we did a good job and they thought we did a good job, but the audiences and critics didn't like it. Did I feel bad? Sure. Did it get me down? Nope, nope, nope – too lucky to be in this business to be down in the dumps."[17]