Released 2010
Directed by: Phillip Noyce
Written by: Kurt Wimmer
Starring: Angelina Jolie, Live Schreiber, Chiwetel Ejiofor
Very brief summary:
The film is about a CIA agent by the name of Evelyn Salt who is accused, by a Russian defector, of being a Russian sleeper agent. The defector says that her mission is to kill the Russian President who will be in New York for the funeral of the US Vice President. Salt fears for the safety of her husband and so breaks out of custody and sets out to find him. CIA agent Ted Winter, Salts boss, at first refuses to believe the she is a mole but her actions begin to raise doubt.
Salt appears to kill the Russian president and then goes to Russia where she makes connections with the Defector and we discover that she was in fact a sleeper agent. Once there she sees her husband killed by the people she is supposed to have been working for. She obtains the plans for the next step of her mission and then kills them all. She meets up with another sleeper agent and they travel together to Washington where the plan is that they kill the American president.
The American president believes that Russia is about to launch a nuclear attack after the fallout from the death of their president on
American soil and when the president is attacked within the white house he is taken down to a secure bunker where he orders the nuclear launch codes in case an attack is made. Salt infiltrates the bunker where she discovers that her CIA boss, Winter, is actually a sleeper agent trying to complete his mission which is to launch a nuclear attack on Tehran and Mecca in the hopes of inciting the Middle East to attack America.
Salt manages to kill Winter after being arrested by CIA agents that break in and arrest her but she is set free by a homeland security agent who has discovered the truth about her. She sets out to locate and kill the other sleeper agents.
My Opinion:
In terms of an action movie it was great, even if a few of the scenes were a little unrealistic, i.e. jumping from truck to truck at high speeds on a freeway. As is the case with many movies that are adapted from books I think they tried to squeeze too much into it which left the storyline a little bare. The Salt character was explored as much as she could be within the short time frame through the use of memory flashbacks which were worked into the story. In terms of the political struggle and the aim of, what could only be described as a Russian terrorist cell, I think there should have been more depth. It is a great concept, that a Russian spy who had played
a big role within the Soviet Union would be unhappy with the state of the country, and the new relationship with the United states, though the movie failed to convince me that in a short time this defector could have trained and brainwashed a bunch of children to live in the US and wait for decades to complete a mission that had been dreamed up decades before. I also struggled to understand how the sleeper agents could be so comfortable with the thought of massive nuclear action and beginning world war three – I am just not sure their objectives were made clear in terms of why they had chosen that particular path instead of another option – what exactly were they trying to achieve or gain from that?
I would also liked to have known a little more about the other characters in the story and where they came from, it seemed that there was very little character development done, though again perhaps that was because it was aiming more at being an action film than a political thriller. I guess it depends on what you wanted out of the film as to whether or not you were satisfied with what you got!
In general though the action sequences were fun, Angelina Jolie is always good to watch and this movie was no exception, she keeps her face carefully blank and unreadable which makes it hard to guess in the beginning about whether or not she is who she says she is. The twists in the film do keep you guessing about who she is almost to the end of the movie. Salt’s costume changes and hairstyle changes are also fun and very traditional elements of any kind of spy film. The film was also left in such a way that it could be easily set up for a sequel.
Overall I enjoyed the film but I would have liked to see a little more of the back story.
Directed by: Phillip Noyce
Written by: Kurt Wimmer
Starring: Angelina Jolie, Live Schreiber, Chiwetel Ejiofor
Very brief summary:
The film is about a CIA agent by the name of Evelyn Salt who is accused, by a Russian defector, of being a Russian sleeper agent. The defector says that her mission is to kill the Russian President who will be in New York for the funeral of the US Vice President. Salt fears for the safety of her husband and so breaks out of custody and sets out to find him. CIA agent Ted Winter, Salts boss, at first refuses to believe the she is a mole but her actions begin to raise doubt.
Salt appears to kill the Russian president and then goes to Russia where she makes connections with the Defector and we discover that she was in fact a sleeper agent. Once there she sees her husband killed by the people she is supposed to have been working for. She obtains the plans for the next step of her mission and then kills them all. She meets up with another sleeper agent and they travel together to Washington where the plan is that they kill the American president.
The American president believes that Russia is about to launch a nuclear attack after the fallout from the death of their president on
American soil and when the president is attacked within the white house he is taken down to a secure bunker where he orders the nuclear launch codes in case an attack is made. Salt infiltrates the bunker where she discovers that her CIA boss, Winter, is actually a sleeper agent trying to complete his mission which is to launch a nuclear attack on Tehran and Mecca in the hopes of inciting the Middle East to attack America.Salt manages to kill Winter after being arrested by CIA agents that break in and arrest her but she is set free by a homeland security agent who has discovered the truth about her. She sets out to locate and kill the other sleeper agents.
My Opinion:
In terms of an action movie it was great, even if a few of the scenes were a little unrealistic, i.e. jumping from truck to truck at high speeds on a freeway. As is the case with many movies that are adapted from books I think they tried to squeeze too much into it which left the storyline a little bare. The Salt character was explored as much as she could be within the short time frame through the use of memory flashbacks which were worked into the story. In terms of the political struggle and the aim of, what could only be described as a Russian terrorist cell, I think there should have been more depth. It is a great concept, that a Russian spy who had played
a big role within the Soviet Union would be unhappy with the state of the country, and the new relationship with the United states, though the movie failed to convince me that in a short time this defector could have trained and brainwashed a bunch of children to live in the US and wait for decades to complete a mission that had been dreamed up decades before. I also struggled to understand how the sleeper agents could be so comfortable with the thought of massive nuclear action and beginning world war three – I am just not sure their objectives were made clear in terms of why they had chosen that particular path instead of another option – what exactly were they trying to achieve or gain from that?I would also liked to have known a little more about the other characters in the story and where they came from, it seemed that there was very little character development done, though again perhaps that was because it was aiming more at being an action film than a political thriller. I guess it depends on what you wanted out of the film as to whether or not you were satisfied with what you got!
In general though the action sequences were fun, Angelina Jolie is always good to watch and this movie was no exception, she keeps her face carefully blank and unreadable which makes it hard to guess in the beginning about whether or not she is who she says she is. The twists in the film do keep you guessing about who she is almost to the end of the movie. Salt’s costume changes and hairstyle changes are also fun and very traditional elements of any kind of spy film. The film was also left in such a way that it could be easily set up for a sequel.
Overall I enjoyed the film but I would have liked to see a little more of the back story.
