![]() Facing the hard choice, Weston runs out the back door with Frost and their slow bonding begins. ![]() Without too much effort, the attackers gain the upper hand. Fortunately, he does not have time to intervene because the house proves unsafe and comes under attack. not much subtlety is on display.įrom the outset, Matt Weston realises there are ethical issues to consider as Frost is waterboarded as soon as he arrives in the safe house. From the outset, it’s fairly obvious how to separate these senior people into eggs and apples, i.e. They are Catherine Linklater ( Vera Farmiga), David Barlow ( Brendan Gleeson) and Harlan Whitford ( Sam Shepard). There are three “bosses” back in Langley who head the response to Frost’s appearance. ![]() Several hours later, that lands him in the safe house. It rapidly becomes apparent his only refuge is the US Consulate. When Frost’s meeting with an ex-MI6 agent is compromised, he goes on the run. After years on the run, he suddenly turns up in South Africa where Matt Weston ( Ryan Reynolds) is responsible for the safe house in Cape Town. He plays Tobin Frost, the CIA-goto-guy with a great reputation until he suddenly starts leaking secrets and killing people. So congratulations to Denzel Washington who really does have the star power to convert a sow’s ear into a reasonably silky purse. Not a bad return on a production budget of $85 million. Perhaps not surprisingly, this proved a reliable prediction with the box office total worldwide reported as $208 million. Everyone else would bank on the theory that this star’s name on the film posters would guarantee an audience even if the film was second-rate. Unless, of course, it was the decision of one person to both accept the lead and hold the joint post of executive producer. I can’t quite understand what would persuade such a quality cast to participate. After one TV movie, this is his first script accepted for Hollywood production. The brave soul whose name appears on the credits as “writer” is David Guggenheim. This is a triumph! Well, in the minds of those going through the Plot 101 Course.ĭenzel Washington giving a restrained performanceĪs an example of this plot actually brought to the big screen, we have Safe House (2012). The audience in every cinema leaps to their collective feet, cheering and clapping when the bad egg (or rotten apple) is unmasked in Langley (or the White House). Naturally our boy scout thinks the declared traitor should be shipped back to Langley but, after shots are fired and there have been enough car chases and explosions to convince him not everything is strictly kosher, they bond and as a partnership, stand up for truth, justice and the American way. So the scriptwriter must contrive a situation which forces this pair to meet. The second is the man of myth who, years before this film begins, went off reservation, was branded a traitor, and has been on the run ever since. He’s actually highly competent but never given the chance to show it. He’s been stranded in a low-activity station not because he’s incompetent. One is the underappreciated guy whose face doesn’t fit in the CIA hierarchy. ![]() These wannabe screenwriters are tabula rasa for Plot 101. They will have insufficient background in thrillers to appreciate what might represent a reasonably novel approach. These students will not know or understand what constitutes a cliché. I suppose the poor saps who draw the short straw for teaching How to Write a CIA Thriller are comforted by the near certainty that all but a few of those enrolling on their courses are likely to be incapable of original thought.
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