The Hunted (film)
Encyclopedia
The Hunted is a 2003 American action thriller film directed by William Friedkin
and starring Tommy Lee Jones
and Benicio del Toro
. Brian Tyler
composed the film's score.
wilderness, two hunters (who are later implied to be CIA
"sweepers") are viciously murdered by Aaron Hallam (Benicio del Toro
), a former 1st SFOD-D operator who is living in the wilderness. North of the Canadian border—in the wilderness of British Columbia
—L.T. Bonham (Tommy Lee Jones
), a former special operations
instructor, is approached and asked to help apprehend Hallam, a former student of his. According to the authorities briefing Bonham, the younger man has gone renegade after suffering severe battle stress from his time in Kosovo
.
Bonham agrees and is assisted in the manhunt by an FBI
task force, led by a special agent-in-charge Abby Durrell (Connie Nielsen). It is Bonham himself, however, who locates and apprehends Hallam after tracking him and finding the subterranean den in which he's been living. After an intense stand-off, the two struggle in a quick fight in which Bonham is injured and Hallam is captured by the arriving agents. During his interrogation, Hallam states that he went AWOL
because the Army now seeks to kill him before he can divulge information regarding the missions he's performed. This story is reinforced when the local authorities and FBI are circumvented by nameless SFOD-D operators with high clearance who arrive and take possession of the prisoner.
While being transported by his former SFOD-D team members in the back of an unmarked truck, Hallam manages to escape and kill the operatives, causing the vehicle to swerve out of control and overturn. Alerted to the accident, Bonham and the FBI team arrive at the scene and the chase begins again. The team tracks Hallam across the country, nearly catching him at his ex-wife's house, but Hallam consistently evades them. Realizing that the FBI's tactics aren't working, Bonham strikes out on his own and the search quickly becomes a personal battle between teacher and student, finally culminating in an intense knife fight among the waterfalls of a national forest. The film ends with Bonham killing Hallam with his own knife by stabbing him in the chest. The FBI team arrives too late, Bonham returns to British Columbia, where he starts burning letters that were sent to him from Hallam.
and Silver Falls State Park
. Portland scenes were filmed in Oxbow Park, the South Park Blocks
, and Tom McCall Waterfront Park
. The technical adviser for the film was Tom Brown, Jr.
, an American outdoorsman and wilderness survival expert. The story is partially inspired by a real-life incident involving Brown, who was asked to track down a former pupil and Special Forces
sergeant who had evaded capture by authorities. This story is told in Tom's book, Case Files Of The Tracker.
with Tom Kier and Rafael Kayanan
of Sayoc Kali
as consultants and is the most acclaimed aspect of the film.
out of 140 reviews. Many reviewers noted striking similarities to First Blood
. Rolling Stone
called it "Just a Rambo rehash," while Rex Reed of the New York Observer
called it a "Ludicrous, plotless, ho-hum tale of lurid confrontation." The UK magazine, Total Film
said the film was "scarcely exciting to watch."
However, the film also received praise from other high profile critics, particularly for the fact it kept the special effects and stunts restrained. For example, Roger Ebert
said, "We've seen so many fancy high-tech computer-assisted fight scenes in recent movies that we assume the fighters can fly. They live in a world of gravity-free speed-up. Not so with Friedkin's characters." He reviewed the film on his own site and scored it 3 and 1/2 stars out of four.
Time Out London was also positive saying; "Friedkin's lean, mean thriller shows itself more interested in process than context, subtlety and character development pared away in favour of headlong momentum and crunching set pieces."
for the film was less than its reported production budget
of $55 million. The Hunted opened on March 14, 2003 at #3 in 2,516 theaters across North America and grossed $13.48 million during its opening weekend. It went on to gross $34,244,097 domestically and $11,252,437 from foreign markets for a worldwide total of $45,496,534.
William Friedkin
William Friedkin is an American film director, producer and screenwriter best known for directing The French Connection in 1971 and The Exorcist in 1973; for the former, he won the Academy Award for Best Director...
and starring Tommy Lee Jones
Tommy Lee Jones
Tommy Lee Jones is an American actor and film director. He has received three Academy Award nominations, winning one as Best Supporting Actor for the 1993 thriller film The Fugitive....
and Benicio del Toro
Benicio del Toro
Benicio Monserrate Rafael del Toro Sánchez is a Puerto Rican and Spanish actor and film producer. He won an Academy Award, a Golden Globe Award, a Screen Actors Guild Award, and a BAFTA Award for his role as Javier Rodríguez in Traffic . He is also known for his roles as Fred Fenster in The Usual...
. Brian Tyler
Brian Tyler (composer)
Brian Tyler is an American composer, producer, conductor, and film producer most known for his scores of Eagle Eye, The Expendables, Battle: Los Angeles, The Final Destination, Rambo, Fast & Furious, Fast Five, and Final Destination 5. Tyler is a symphonic conductor and conducts his own scores....
composed the film's score.
Plot
In the Pacific NorthwestPacific Northwest
The Pacific Northwest is a region in northwestern North America, bounded by the Pacific Ocean to the west and, loosely, by the Rocky Mountains on the east. Definitions of the region vary and there is no commonly agreed upon boundary, even among Pacific Northwesterners. A common concept of the...
wilderness, two hunters (who are later implied to be CIA
Special Activities Division
The Special Activities Division is a division in the United States Central Intelligence Agency's National Clandestine Service responsible for covert operations known as "special activities"...
"sweepers") are viciously murdered by Aaron Hallam (Benicio del Toro
Benicio del Toro
Benicio Monserrate Rafael del Toro Sánchez is a Puerto Rican and Spanish actor and film producer. He won an Academy Award, a Golden Globe Award, a Screen Actors Guild Award, and a BAFTA Award for his role as Javier Rodríguez in Traffic . He is also known for his roles as Fred Fenster in The Usual...
), a former 1st SFOD-D operator who is living in the wilderness. North of the Canadian border—in the wilderness of British Columbia
British Columbia
British Columbia is the westernmost of Canada's provinces and is known for its natural beauty, as reflected in its Latin motto, Splendor sine occasu . Its name was chosen by Queen Victoria in 1858...
—L.T. Bonham (Tommy Lee Jones
Tommy Lee Jones
Tommy Lee Jones is an American actor and film director. He has received three Academy Award nominations, winning one as Best Supporting Actor for the 1993 thriller film The Fugitive....
), a former special operations
United States Special Operations Command
The United States Special Operations Command is the Unified Combatant Command charged with overseeing the various Special Operations Commands of the Army, Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps of the United States Armed Forces. The command is part of the Department of Defense...
instructor, is approached and asked to help apprehend Hallam, a former student of his. According to the authorities briefing Bonham, the younger man has gone renegade after suffering severe battle stress from his time in Kosovo
Kosovo
Kosovo is a region in southeastern Europe. Part of the Ottoman Empire for more than five centuries, later the Autonomous Province of Kosovo and Metohija within Serbia...
.
Bonham agrees and is assisted in the manhunt by an FBI
Federal Bureau of Investigation
The Federal Bureau of Investigation is an agency of the United States Department of Justice that serves as both a federal criminal investigative body and an internal intelligence agency . The FBI has investigative jurisdiction over violations of more than 200 categories of federal crime...
task force, led by a special agent-in-charge Abby Durrell (Connie Nielsen). It is Bonham himself, however, who locates and apprehends Hallam after tracking him and finding the subterranean den in which he's been living. After an intense stand-off, the two struggle in a quick fight in which Bonham is injured and Hallam is captured by the arriving agents. During his interrogation, Hallam states that he went AWOL
Desertion
In military terminology, desertion is the abandonment of a "duty" or post without permission and is done with the intention of not returning...
because the Army now seeks to kill him before he can divulge information regarding the missions he's performed. This story is reinforced when the local authorities and FBI are circumvented by nameless SFOD-D operators with high clearance who arrive and take possession of the prisoner.
While being transported by his former SFOD-D team members in the back of an unmarked truck, Hallam manages to escape and kill the operatives, causing the vehicle to swerve out of control and overturn. Alerted to the accident, Bonham and the FBI team arrive at the scene and the chase begins again. The team tracks Hallam across the country, nearly catching him at his ex-wife's house, but Hallam consistently evades them. Realizing that the FBI's tactics aren't working, Bonham strikes out on his own and the search quickly becomes a personal battle between teacher and student, finally culminating in an intense knife fight among the waterfalls of a national forest. The film ends with Bonham killing Hallam with his own knife by stabbing him in the chest. The FBI team arrives too late, Bonham returns to British Columbia, where he starts burning letters that were sent to him from Hallam.
Cast
- Tommy Lee JonesTommy Lee JonesTommy Lee Jones is an American actor and film director. He has received three Academy Award nominations, winning one as Best Supporting Actor for the 1993 thriller film The Fugitive....
as L.T. Bonham - Benicio del ToroBenicio del ToroBenicio Monserrate Rafael del Toro Sánchez is a Puerto Rican and Spanish actor and film producer. He won an Academy Award, a Golden Globe Award, a Screen Actors Guild Award, and a BAFTA Award for his role as Javier Rodríguez in Traffic . He is also known for his roles as Fred Fenster in The Usual...
as Aaron Hallam - Connie Nielsen as Abby Durrell
- Leslie StefansonLeslie StefansonLeslie Ann Stefanson is an American actress. She is most known for playing the title role as Capt. Elisabeth Campbell in the film The General's Daughter....
as Irene Kravitz - John FinnJohn FinnJohn Finn is an American actor known as one of the leads of the television programs Cold Case and EZ Streets. Finn has also had supporting roles in the films The Hunted , Catch Me If You Can , True Crime , Turbulence , Blown Away , The Pelican Brief , and Glory .TV series that Finn has...
as Ted Chenoweth - José ZúñigaJose ZunigaJosé Zúñiga is an American actor.Zúñiga was born in Honduras. He is best known for his roles in films such as Alive, Ransom, Con Air, Fresh, Crooklyn, Next Stop Wonderland and Twilight...
as Bobby Moret (as Jose Zuniga) - Ron CanadaRon CanadaRon Canada is an American actor. He began as a television newscaster during the 1970s in the Baltimore-Washington area mainly on WBAL-TV Channel 11 in Baltimore, until the early 1980s when he became an actor. He was a tour guide at NBC studios at 30 Rockefeller Plaza...
as Harry Van Zandt - Mark PellegrinoMark PellegrinoMark Ross Pellegrino is an American actor of film and television. He is best known for his work on Lost as Jacob and for playing Lucifer on Supernatural.-Career:...
as Dale Hewitt - Jenna BoydJenna BoydJenna Michelle Boyd is an American teen actress.-Life and career:Jenna Boyd was born in Bedford, Texas and moved with her parents and younger brother Cayden to Los Angeles to pursue her acting career...
as Loretta Kravitz - Aaron DeCone as Stokes (as Aaron Brounstein)
- Carrick O'Quinn as Kohler
- Lonny ChapmanLonny ChapmanLonny Chapman was an American television actor best known for his numerous guest star appearances on detective dramas, including Quincy, M.E., The A-Team, Murder, She Wrote, Matlock, and NYPD Blue...
as Zander - Rex LinnRex LinnRex Maynard Linn is an American film and television actor. He is best known for his role as Frank Tripp in the television series CSI: Miami.-Early life:...
as Powell - Eddie VelezEddie VelezEdwin "Eddie" Velez is a Hispanic-American actor who stars in films and on television.-Early life:Velez began acting while in the United States Air Force, when he was stationed in Sunnyvale, California at the Sunnyvale Air Force base.-Acting career:In 1981, he was honorably discharged from the...
as Richards - Alexander MacKenzieAlexander MacKenzieSir Alexander Mackenzie was a Scottish explorer. He is known for his crossing of Canada to reach the Pacific Ocean in 1793.-Early life:...
as Sheriff - Johnny CashJohnny CashJohn R. "Johnny" Cash was an American singer-songwriter, actor, and author, who has been called one of the most influential musicians of the 20th century...
as Narrator
Production
The film was partially filmed in and around Portland, OregonPortland, Oregon
Portland is a city located in the Pacific Northwest, near the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia rivers in the U.S. state of Oregon. As of the 2010 Census, it had a population of 583,776, making it the 29th most populous city in the United States...
and Silver Falls State Park
Silver Falls State Park
Silver Falls State Park is a state park in the U.S. state of Oregon, located near Silverton, about east-southeast of Salem. It is the largest state park in Oregon with an area of more than , and it includes more than of walking trails, of horse trails, and a bike path...
. Portland scenes were filmed in Oxbow Park, the South Park Blocks
South Park Blocks
The South Park Blocks form a city park in downtown Portland, Oregon. The Oregonian has called it Portland's "extended family room", as Pioneer Courthouse Square is known as Portland's "living room"....
, and Tom McCall Waterfront Park
Tom McCall Waterfront Park
Governor Tom McCall Waterfront Park is a park located on the west bank of the Willamette River in downtown Portland, Oregon. It is , comprising 16 tax lots owned by the City of Portland....
. The technical adviser for the film was Tom Brown, Jr.
Tom Brown (naturalist)
Tom Brown, Jr. is an American naturalist, wilderness tracker and the author of numerous books, including a series of field guides. Brown attributes his tracking skills and his spiritual philosophy to the teachings of a Lipan Apache elder named Stalking Wolf, who instructed Brown during his childhood...
, an American outdoorsman and wilderness survival expert. The story is partially inspired by a real-life incident involving Brown, who was asked to track down a former pupil and Special Forces
Special forces
Special forces, or special operations forces are terms used to describe elite military tactical teams trained to perform high-risk dangerous missions that conventional units cannot perform...
sergeant who had evaded capture by authorities. This story is told in Tom's book, Case Files Of The Tracker.
Fight choreography
Dino Haynes and Hiro Koda were fight director and choreographer for the film. The brutal hand to hand combat and knife fighting in the film featured Filipino Martial ArtsFilipino martial arts
Filipino Martial Arts refers to ancient and newer fighting methods devised in the Philippines, the most popular of which are known as Arnis/Eskrima/Kali. The intrinsic need for self-preservation was the genesis of these systems. Throughout the ages, invaders and evolving local conflict imposed new...
with Tom Kier and Rafael Kayanan
Rafael Kayanan
Rafael Kayanan is a Filipino-born naturalised American comic book artist and Filipino Martial Arts master in the Sayoc Kali system.-Biography:...
of Sayoc Kali
Sayoc Kali
Sayoc Kali is an edged weapon based style of Filipino Martial Arts, founded and created by Christopher Sayoc, Sr. The motto of the style is, "All Blade, All the Time".The Sayoc family lineage links back to General Licerio Topacio, of Cavite...
as consultants and is the most acclaimed aspect of the film.
Reaction
The overall critical reaction to the movie was somewhat negative. It scored a 33% rating on Rotten TomatoesRotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is a website devoted to reviews, information, and news of films—widely known as a film review aggregator. Its name derives from the cliché of audiences throwing tomatoes and other vegetables at a poor stage performance...
out of 140 reviews. Many reviewers noted striking similarities to First Blood
First Blood
First Blood is a 1982 action thriller film directed by Ted Kotcheff. The film stars Sylvester Stallone as John Rambo, a troubled and misunderstood Vietnam War veteran, with Sheriff Will Teasle as his nemesis and Colonel Samuel Trautman as his former commander and only ally...
. Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone is a US-based magazine devoted to music, liberal politics, and popular culture that is published every two weeks. Rolling Stone was founded in San Francisco in 1967 by Jann Wenner and music critic Ralph J...
called it "Just a Rambo rehash," while Rex Reed of the New York Observer
New York Observer
The New York Observer is a weekly newspaper first published in New York City on September 22, 1987, by Arthur L. Carter, a very successful former investment banker with publishing interests. The Observer focuses on the city's culture, real estate, the media, politics and the entertainment and...
called it a "Ludicrous, plotless, ho-hum tale of lurid confrontation." The UK magazine, Total Film
Total Film
Total Film is a British film magazine published 13 times a year by Future Publishing. The magazine was launched in 1997 and offers film, DVD and Blu-ray news, reviews and features...
said the film was "scarcely exciting to watch."
However, the film also received praise from other high profile critics, particularly for the fact it kept the special effects and stunts restrained. For example, Roger Ebert
Roger Ebert
Roger Joseph Ebert is an American film critic and screenwriter. He is the first film critic to win a Pulitzer Prize for Criticism.Ebert is known for his film review column and for the television programs Sneak Previews, At the Movies with Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert, and Siskel and Ebert and The...
said, "We've seen so many fancy high-tech computer-assisted fight scenes in recent movies that we assume the fighters can fly. They live in a world of gravity-free speed-up. Not so with Friedkin's characters." He reviewed the film on his own site and scored it 3 and 1/2 stars out of four.
Time Out London was also positive saying; "Friedkin's lean, mean thriller shows itself more interested in process than context, subtlety and character development pared away in favour of headlong momentum and crunching set pieces."
Box office
The box officeBox office
A box office is a place where tickets are sold to the public for admission to an event. Patrons may perform the transaction at a countertop, through an unblocked hole through a wall or window, or at a wicket....
for the film was less than its reported production budget
Production budget
A film production budget determines how much money will be spent on the entire film project. It involves the identification and estimation of cost items for each phase of filmmaking ....
of $55 million. The Hunted opened on March 14, 2003 at #3 in 2,516 theaters across North America and grossed $13.48 million during its opening weekend. It went on to gross $34,244,097 domestically and $11,252,437 from foreign markets for a worldwide total of $45,496,534.