The Kingdom is a 2007 film directed by
Peter BergPeter Berg is an American actor, film director, producer and writer. He is known for directing films such as Friday Night Lights, The Kingdom, The Rundown, Hancock and Battleship. He also developed the television series Friday Night Lights, which was adapted from the film he directed. As an actor...
and starring
Jamie FoxxEric Marlon Bishop , professionally known as Jamie Foxx, is an American actor, singer-songwriter, stand-up comedian, and talk radio host. As an actor, his work in the film Ray earned him the Academy Award and BAFTA Award for Best Actor as well as the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor in a...
,
Chris CooperChristopher W. "Chris" Cooper is an American film actor. He became well known in the late 1990s. He has appeared in supporting performances in several major Hollywood films, including The Bourne Identity, American Beauty, Capote, The Town, The Kingdom, Syriana, October Sky, Seabiscuit, and...
,
Jennifer GarnerJennifer Anne Affleck , better known as Jennifer Garner, is an American actress and film producer. Garner gained recognition on television for her performance as CIA agent Sydney Bristow in the thriller drama series Alias, which aired on ABC for five seasons from 2001 to 2006...
,
Jason BatemanJason Kent Bateman is an American television and film actor. After appearing in several 1980s and 1990s sitcoms including It's Your Move, and The Hogan Family, Bateman came to prominence in the early 2000s for playing Michael Bluth on Arrested Development, for which he won a TV Land, a Golden...
,
Ashraf BarhomAshraf Barhom is a Palestinian actor from Tarshiha, which is in Galilee. He has starred in Paradise Now and The Syrian Bride. In 2007, he gained critical recognition for appearing alongside Jamie Foxx in the movie The Kingdom as Col. Faris Al-Ghazi. He has since appeared in Israeli films such as...
, with
Kyle ChandlerKyle Martin Chandler is an American film and television actor best known for his roles in the television shows Early Edition as Gary Hobson, Deputy Jackson Lamb in the film Super 8, and as Coach Eric Taylor in Friday Night Lights, for which he won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead...
,
Jeremy PivenJeremy Samuel Piven is an American film producer and actor best known for his role as Ari Gold in the television series Entourage for which he has won three Emmy Awards as well as several other nominations for Best Supporting Actor....
and
Ali Suliman-Career:He starred in Paradise Now, which won the Golden Globe award for Best Foreign Film. In 2007, he appeared in the movie The Kingdom alongside Jamie Foxx. In the movie Lemon Tree he plays a lawyer, and the role of Omar Sadiki in the movie Body of Lies....
.
The film is fictional, but inspired by bombings at the
Riyadh compoundThe Riyadh compound bombings took place on May 12, 2003, in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Altogether, 35 people were killed, and over 160 wounded. A smaller campaign of insurgency in Saudi Arabia had started in November 2000 when car bombings were carried out targeting and killing individual expatriates in...
on May 12, 2003 and the
Khobar housing complexThe Khobar Towers bombing was a terrorist attack on part of a housing complex in the city of Khobar, Saudi Arabia, located near the national oil company headquarters of Dhahran. In 1996, Khobar Towers was being used to house foreign military personnel.Al-Qaeda has incorrectly been described by...
on June 26, 1996, in the kingdom of
Saudi ArabiaThe Kingdom of Saudi Arabia , commonly known in British English as Saudi Arabia and in Arabic as as-Sa‘ūdiyyah , is the largest state in Western Asia by land area, constituting the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula, and the second-largest in the Arab World...
. The story follows a team of
FBIThe 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...
agents who investigate the bombing of a foreign-workers facility in Saudi Arabia. Screenwriter
Matthew Michael CarnahanMatthew Michael Carnahan is an American screenwriter who wrote the feature films The Kingdom , Lions for Lambs and the film adaptation of both the hit BBC television drama serial State of Play and the novel White Jazz. Carnahan wrote the screenplay for Lions for Lambs for United Artists...
has summarised the plot as "What would a murder investigation look like on Mars?”
The film was screened at the
Edinburgh International Film FestivalThe Edinburgh International Film Festival is an annual fortnight of cinema screenings and related events taking place each June. Established in 1947, it is the world's oldest continually running film festival...
as its yearly 'Surprise Movie' on 22 August 2007.
Opening sequence
The opening title credits of "The Kingdom", which is normally a formality quickly dispensed with in most big budget Hollywood films, has been lauded as among the most innovative in recent fictional Hollywood productions. The film, which takes place in Saudi Arabia, needed to quickly educate the audience on the recent history of "The Kingdom." (Saudi Arabia's official name is ´The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia´.) By employing a melange of historical footage, audio clips, alongside slick animations and
CGIComputer-generated imagery is the application of the field of computer graphics or, more specifically, 3D computer graphics to special effects in art, video games, films, television programs, commercials, simulators and simulation generally, and printed media...
, the opening credits set the stage for the ensuing story. The sequence has been lauded as revolutionary, and has directly influenced the opening title credits of several recent films that rely on a basic historical understanding for the viewer to comprehend the ensuing plot. Although "The Kingdom" was fictional, one clear imitation is the opening sequence of
Back Door Channels: The Price of PeaceBack Door Channels: The Price of Peace, directed by Harry Hunkele,and produced by Arick Wierson, Donald Tanselle, and Matthew Tollin, is an American documentary film about the interplay between the official government channels and the men who acted largely behind the scenes during the course of...
, a 2009/2010 documentary featuring
Jimmy CarterJames Earl "Jimmy" Carter, Jr. is an American politician who served as the 39th President of the United States and was the recipient of the 2002 Nobel Peace Prize, the only U.S. President to have received the Prize after leaving office...
and his efforts to forge a lasting peace between Israel and Egypt. One of the film's executive producers,
Arick WiersonArick Wierson is an American-born media executive and entrepreneur. His has business interests that span television and film production, political consultancy, and a variety of business interests in the Middle East, Latin America, Europe and Africa...
, has credited "The Kingdom" and director
Peter BergPeter Berg is an American actor, film director, producer and writer. He is known for directing films such as Friday Night Lights, The Kingdom, The Rundown, Hancock and Battleship. He also developed the television series Friday Night Lights, which was adapted from the film he directed. As an actor...
as the direct inspiration for the opening sequence in the documentary.
Plot
The opening scene of the movie explains the origins of U.S.-Saudi diplomatic relations and how energy exploitation has transformed the Middle East through a timeline sequence. It portrays the conflicts that have risen since the late 1940s for the rightful ownership of the oil industry. This includes the Persian Gulf War in Iraq and
al-QaedaAl-Qaeda is a global broad-based militant Islamist terrorist organization founded by Osama bin Laden sometime between August 1988 and late 1989. It operates as a network comprising both a multinational, stateless army and a radical Sunni Muslim movement calling for global Jihad...
's growing network of terrorism. Eventually, it explains the 9/11 terrorist attacks and how the majority of the hijackers were Saudis. This raises serious questions on the relationship between Saudi Arabia and the United States. The plot begins with the current struggle of Saudi Arabia and the kingdom's efforts to stand control of their country against terrorist extremists.
During a softball game at an American oil company housing compound in
RiyadhRiyadh is the capital and largest city of Saudi Arabia. It is also the capital of Riyadh Province, and belongs to the historical regions of Najd and Al-Yamama. It is situated in the center of the Arabian Peninsula on a large plateau, and is home to 5,254,560 people, and the urban center of a...
,
Saudi ArabiaThe Kingdom of Saudi Arabia , commonly known in British English as Saudi Arabia and in Arabic as as-Sa‘ūdiyyah , is the largest state in Western Asia by land area, constituting the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula, and the second-largest in the Arab World...
,
al-QaedaAl-Qaeda is a global broad-based militant Islamist terrorist organization founded by Osama bin Laden sometime between August 1988 and late 1989. It operates as a network comprising both a multinational, stateless army and a radical Sunni Muslim movement calling for global Jihad...
terrorists set off a bomb, killing many Americans and Saudis in the process. The terrorists impersonate members of the Saudi State Police. While one team hijacks a car and shoots at the residents of the area, another runs out onto the softball diamond, pretending to aid the Americans, but then reveals that he is a suicide bomber and blows himself up, killing everyone near him. Sergeant Haytham (
Ali Suliman-Career:He starred in Paradise Now, which won the Golden Globe award for Best Foreign Film. In 2007, he appeared in the movie The Kingdom alongside Jamie Foxx. In the movie Lemon Tree he plays a lawyer, and the role of Omar Sadiki in the movie Body of Lies....
) of the Saudi state police, disables the stolen Saudi Police vehicle and kills the terrorists. A short time later, the FBI Legal Attaché in Saudi Arabia, Special Agent Francis Manner (
Kyle ChandlerKyle Martin Chandler is an American film and television actor best known for his roles in the television shows Early Edition as Gary Hobson, Deputy Jackson Lamb in the film Super 8, and as Coach Eric Taylor in Friday Night Lights, for which he won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead...
), calls up his colleague Special Agent Ronald Fleury (
Jamie FoxxEric Marlon Bishop , professionally known as Jamie Foxx, is an American actor, singer-songwriter, stand-up comedian, and talk radio host. As an actor, his work in the film Ray earned him the Academy Award and BAFTA Award for Best Actor as well as the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor in a...
) to tell him about the attack. Shortly afterwards, a second bomb explodes in the compound killing Manner and more people.
At FBI Headquarters in
Washington, D.C.Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....
, Fleury briefs his rapid deployment team on the attack and casualties. During the briefing, Special Agent Janet Mayes (
Jennifer GarnerJennifer Anne Affleck , better known as Jennifer Garner, is an American actress and film producer. Garner gained recognition on television for her performance as CIA agent Sydney Bristow in the thriller drama series Alias, which aired on ABC for five seasons from 2001 to 2006...
), a forensic examiner, breaks down in tears upon hearing of Francis' death. Fleury whispers something into her ear which causes her to control her emotions. While the U.S. Justice Department and the U.S. State Department hinder FBI efforts to investigate the attack, Fleury blackmails the Saudi ambassador into allowing an FBI investigative team into Saudi Arabia. Departing from
Andrews Air Force BaseJoint Base Andrews is a United States military facility located in Prince George's County, Maryland. The facility is under the jurisdiction of the United States Air Force 11th Wing, Air Force District of Washington ....
, Fleury and his team of Mayes, Adam Leavitt (
Jason BatemanJason Kent Bateman is an American television and film actor. After appearing in several 1980s and 1990s sitcoms including It's Your Move, and The Hogan Family, Bateman came to prominence in the early 2000s for playing Michael Bluth on Arrested Development, for which he won a TV Land, a Golden...
), an intelligence analyst, and Special Agent Grant Sykes (
Chris CooperChristopher W. "Chris" Cooper is an American film actor. He became well known in the late 1990s. He has appeared in supporting performances in several major Hollywood films, including The Bourne Identity, American Beauty, Capote, The Town, The Kingdom, Syriana, October Sky, Seabiscuit, and...
), a bomb technician, go to Saudi Arabia. Arriving at
Prince Sultan Air BasePrince Sultan Air Base is an air base located at Al Kharj, Saudi Arabia.There was formerly a large United States presence there during Operations Southern Watch, Enduring Freedom and Iraqi Freedom. The U.S. presence was predominantly that of multiple U.S. Air Force flying units, augmented by a...
, they are met by Colonel Faris al-Ghazi (
Ashraf BarhomAshraf Barhom is a Palestinian actor from Tarshiha, which is in Galilee. He has starred in Paradise Now and The Syrian Bride. In 2007, he gained critical recognition for appearing alongside Jamie Foxx in the movie The Kingdom as Col. Faris Al-Ghazi. He has since appeared in Israeli films such as...
), the commander of the Saudi State Police Force providing security at the compound. Fleury soon realizes that Colonel al-Ghazi is not in charge of running the investigation. In actuality, the investigation is being run by General Al Abdulmalik (Mahmoud Said) of the Saudi National Guard, who does not give Fleury and his team permission to investigate. Rather, they are to observe the Saudi investigation.
When the FBI team is invited to the palace of Saudi Prince Ahmed bin Khaled (
Omar BerdouniOmar Berdouni is a Moroccan actor now residing in London.After attending the American School of Tangier, he moved to London and graduated from the Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Art in 2003. He has starred in a number of feature films including The Hamburg Cell, United 93, "The Situation", The...
) for a dinner, Mayes is excluded because of her gender. While at the palace, Fleury persuades the Prince that Colonel al-Ghazi is a natural detective and should be allowed to lead the investigation. With this new change in leadership, the Americans are allowed a more hands-on approach to the crime scene. While searching for evidence, Sergeant Haytham and Sykes discover that the second bomb was detonated in an ambulance, using marbles as projectiles. Fleury learns that the brother of one of the dead terrorists had access to ambulances and police uniforms. Colonel al-Ghazi orders a
SWATA SWAT team is an elite tactical unit in various national law enforcement departments. They are trained to perform high-risk operations that fall outside of the abilities of regular officers...
team to raid the house, managing to kill a few heavily armed terrorists. Following the raid, the team discovers valuable intelligence, including multiple photos of the U.S. and other Western embassies in
RiyadhRiyadh is the capital and largest city of Saudi Arabia. It is also the capital of Riyadh Province, and belongs to the historical regions of Najd and Al-Yamama. It is situated in the center of the Arabian Peninsula on a large plateau, and is home to 5,254,560 people, and the urban center of a...
. Soon afterwards, Fleury and his team are notified by the U.S. Embassy Deputy Chief of Mission Damon Schmidt (
Jeremy PivenJeremy Samuel Piven is an American film producer and actor best known for his role as Ari Gold in the television series Entourage for which he has won three Emmy Awards as well as several other nominations for Best Supporting Actor....
) that they have been ordered to return to the United States. However, Fleury and al-Ghazi both believed that the men that they had just killed were just amateur fighters and were not the real planners behind the attacks.
On their way to
King Khalid International AirportKing Khalid International Airport is located north of Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, designed by the architectural firm HOK.The airport includes the terminals, mosque, the control tower and two parallel runways, each long...
, Fleury notices a youth watching their convoy from an overpass, and then sees that the last SUV of their convoy has slowed down falling far behind. He then notices a speeding car coming towards them and grabs the wheel from Sergeant Haytham, which allows them to partially evade the collision that occurs when the speeding car runs into the first SUV of their convoy, setting off a trunk full of explosives. Their SUV, the third one in their convoy, hits the first SUV, killing the men inside. The fourth SUV finally drives up and the men inside pull out Leavitt, throw him into the back and drive away while a second car drives by to shoot the surviving Americans. Fleury manages to wound one attacker, and al-Ghazi commandeers a civilian vehicle to chase the fourth SUV and the other car into the dangerous Suweidi neighborhood of Riyadh. As they pull up, a gunman launches rocket-propelled grenades at them and a fierce firefight starts. Inside the complex, Leavitt is tied up and gagged while his attackers prepare to film a tape of them executing him.
After having killed their attackers, al-Ghazi decides that three of them must enter and find Leavitt and two must stay behind and cover the entrance. While Sykes and Haytham watch the entrance, al-Ghazi, Fleury and Mayes enter the building, following a blood trail and manage to finish off many other gunmen inside. Mayes, separate from the other two, scares a little girl in an apartment, and she enters to find a family with little children, their mother and grandfather. She yells at them to stay put and goes across the hall to another apartment to find Leavitt and his attackers. She kills the remaining insurgents, and al-Ghazi and the team start to leave. However, Mayes feels unsettled about the little girl, and walks in to give the girl a lollipop. In return, the girl gives her a marble, matching the ones pieced together earlier from the bomb scene. Fleury then realises that there is a trail of blood leading to the back of the apartment, and al-Ghazi sees the grandfather, suspects something and asks to help him up in order to inspect his hand. When the old man gives him his hand, al-Ghazi sees that the man is missing the fingers that are missing in the terrorist group's many videos and confirms his idea that the grandfather is the terrorist leader. Abu Hamza's teenage grandson walks out of the bedroom and manages to shoot al-Ghazi in the neck twice with a pistol before it jams, then he begins to point his gun at Mayes, prompting Fleury to kill him. Abu Hamza then feebly pulls out an assault rifle and Haytham puts three shots in his chest. As Abu Hamza dies, another grandson hugs him and Abu Hamza whispers something into his ear to calm the child down. Al-Ghazi dies in Fleury's arms.
At Al-Ghazi's house, Fleury and Haytham meet his family. Fleury tells his son that al-Ghazi was his good friend, mirroring a similar scene earlier in the movie where he comforted Special Agent Manner's son. Fleury and his team return to the U.S., where they are commended by FBI Director James Grace (
Richard JenkinsRichard Dale Jenkins is an American stage, film, and television actor. After beginning his career in theatre, Jenkins made his film debut in 1974, and appeared in supporting roles in numerous film productions in the 1980s and the 1990s. His breakthrough came in the 2000s for playing the deceased...
) for their outstanding work. Afterwards, Leavitt asks Fleury what he had whispered to Mayes (earlier in the film) to calm her down. The scene cuts to Abu Hamza's daughter asking her own son what his grandfather whispered to him as he was dying. Fleury recalls saying, "We're gonna kill them all," while the grandson tells her mother, "Don't fear them, my child. We are going to kill them all.", implying a never-ending, vicious cycle resulted from the war.
Cast
- Jamie Foxx
Eric Marlon Bishop , professionally known as Jamie Foxx, is an American actor, singer-songwriter, stand-up comedian, and talk radio host. As an actor, his work in the film Ray earned him the Academy Award and BAFTA Award for Best Actor as well as the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor in a...
as Special Agent Ronald Fleury, Team Leader
- Chris Cooper
Christopher W. "Chris" Cooper is an American film actor. He became well known in the late 1990s. He has appeared in supporting performances in several major Hollywood films, including The Bourne Identity, American Beauty, Capote, The Town, The Kingdom, Syriana, October Sky, Seabiscuit, and...
as Special Agent Grant Sykes, Bomb Technician
- Jennifer Garner
Jennifer Anne Affleck , better known as Jennifer Garner, is an American actress and film producer. Garner gained recognition on television for her performance as CIA agent Sydney Bristow in the thriller drama series Alias, which aired on ABC for five seasons from 2001 to 2006...
as Special Agent Janet Mayes, ForensicForensic science is the application of a broad spectrum of sciences to answer questions of interest to a legal system. This may be in relation to a crime or a civil action...
Examiner
- Jason Bateman
Jason Kent Bateman is an American television and film actor. After appearing in several 1980s and 1990s sitcoms including It's Your Move, and The Hogan Family, Bateman came to prominence in the early 2000s for playing Michael Bluth on Arrested Development, for which he won a TV Land, a Golden...
as Special Agent Adam Leavitt, IntelligenceIntelligence assessment is the development of forecasts of behaviour or recommended courses of action to the leadership of an organization, based on a wide range of available information sources both overt and covert. Assessments are developed in response to requirements declared by the leadership...
Analyst
- Ashraf Barhom
Ashraf Barhom is a Palestinian actor from Tarshiha, which is in Galilee. He has starred in Paradise Now and The Syrian Bride. In 2007, he gained critical recognition for appearing alongside Jamie Foxx in the movie The Kingdom as Col. Faris Al-Ghazi. He has since appeared in Israeli films such as...
as Colonel Faris Al-Ghazi, Saudi State Police
- Ali Suliman
-Career:He starred in Paradise Now, which won the Golden Globe award for Best Foreign Film. In 2007, he appeared in the movie The Kingdom alongside Jamie Foxx. In the movie Lemon Tree he plays a lawyer, and the role of Omar Sadiki in the movie Body of Lies....
as Sergeant Haytham, Saudi State Police
- Jeremy Piven
Jeremy Samuel Piven is an American film producer and actor best known for his role as Ari Gold in the television series Entourage for which he has won three Emmy Awards as well as several other nominations for Best Supporting Actor....
as Damon Schmidt, Deputy Chief of Mission, U.S. Embassy
- Richard Jenkins
Richard Dale Jenkins is an American stage, film, and television actor. After beginning his career in theatre, Jenkins made his film debut in 1974, and appeared in supporting roles in numerous film productions in the 1980s and the 1990s. His breakthrough came in the 2000s for playing the deceased...
as Robert Grace, FBI Director
- Tim McGraw
Samuel Timothy "Tim" McGraw is an American country singer and actor. Many of McGraw's albums and singles have topped the country music charts with total album sales in excess of 40 million units in the US, making him the eighth best-selling artist, and the third best-selling country singer, in the...
as Aaron Jackson
- Kyle Chandler
Kyle Martin Chandler is an American film and television actor best known for his roles in the television shows Early Edition as Gary Hobson, Deputy Jackson Lamb in the film Super 8, and as Coach Eric Taylor in Friday Night Lights, for which he won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead...
as Special Agent Francis Manner, Legal Attaché
- Frances Fisher
Frances Fisher is a British actress. She is known for her work on television, in theater and in films, including roles as Strawberry Alice, the madame prostitute in Unforgiven , and Ruth DeWitt Bukater, the mother of Kate Winslet's character in Titanic .- Early life and education :Fisher was born...
as Elaine Flowers, Investigative Reporter, Washington PostThe Washington Post is Washington, D.C.'s largest newspaper and its oldest still-existing paper, founded in 1877. Located in the capital of the United States, The Post has a particular emphasis on national politics. D.C., Maryland, and Virginia editions are printed for daily circulation...
- Danny Huston
-Early life:Huston was born in Rome, Italy. He hails from the illustrious Huston acting and filmmaking dynasty. He is the son of legendary director John Huston, half-brother of actress Anjelica Huston and screenwriter Tony Huston, uncle of actor Jack Huston, stepbrother of Allegra Huston, and...
as Gideon Young, US Attorney General
- Kelly AuCoin
Kelly AuCoin is an American actor who has appeared in film, television and theatre. He has appeared in episodes of several American television series, including Gossip Girl and The Good Wife, and has had supporting roles in the films The Kingdom and Julie & Julia.-Early life:AuCoin was born in the...
as Ellis Leach
- Anna Deavere Smith
Anna Deavere Smith is an American actress, playwright, and professor. She is currently the artist in residence at the Center for American Progress.-Early life:...
as Maricella Canavesio, Deputy National Security Advisor
- Minka Kelly
Minka Dumont Kelly is an American actress. She starred in the NBC series Friday Night Lights as Lyla Garrity from 2006 to 2009 and has also had roles in The Roommate and the reboot series Charlie's Angels.-Early life:Kelly was born in Los Angeles...
as Miss Ross
- Amy Hunter
Amy Hunter is an American actress and model. She has had roles on a number of television series and daytime soaps, co-hosted The Comedy Channel's Night After Night, and went on location for ESPN's Women in Sports. Amy was a special guest host on Soul Train, the weekly series where she met her...
as Lyla Fleury
- T.J. Burnett as Kevin Fleury
- Omar Berdouni
Omar Berdouni is a Moroccan actor now residing in London.After attending the American School of Tangier, he moved to London and graduated from the Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Art in 2003. He has starred in a number of feature films including The Hamburg Cell, United 93, "The Situation", The...
as Prince Ahmed bin Khaled
- Raad Rawi as Prince Thamer, Ambassador of Saudi Arabia
- Mahmoud Said as Brigadier General Al Abdulmalik, Saudi Arabian National Guard
- Trevor St. John
Trevor Marshall St. John is an American actor. He portrayed Todd Manning/Victor Lord Jr. on the ABC daytime drama One Life to Live, and has starred in various prime time shows and film.-Career:...
as Earl Ripon
- Ashley Scott
Ashley McCall Scott is an American actress. She is known for her work on television and in film including her roles in the television series Birds of Prey, Dark Angel and Jericho.-Acting career:...
as Janine Ripon
Production
Prior to filming, director
Peter BergPeter Berg is an American actor, film director, producer and writer. He is known for directing films such as Friday Night Lights, The Kingdom, The Rundown, Hancock and Battleship. He also developed the television series Friday Night Lights, which was adapted from the film he directed. As an actor...
spent two weeks in Saudi Arabia doing research for the film. Filming commenced July 10, 2006, on the west side of the old Maricopa County Courthouse in
Phoenix, ArizonaPhoenix is the capital, and largest city, of the U.S. state of Arizona, as well as the sixth most populated city in the United States. Phoenix is home to 1,445,632 people according to the official 2010 U.S. Census Bureau data...
. Additional scenes were being filmed concurrently in
Mesa, ArizonaAccording to the 2010 Census, the racial composition of Mesa was as follows:* White: 77.1% * Hispanic or Latino : 26.54%* Black or African American: 3.5%* Two or more races: 3.4%* Native American: 2.4%...
; the scenes at the American compound were shot at the
Polytechnic campusArizona State University at the Polytechnic campus is one of four campuses of Arizona State University. Founded originally as ASU East, the campus opened in fall 1996 on the former Williams Air Force Base in southeast Mesa, Arizona.-History:...
of
Arizona State UniversityArizona State University is a public research university located in the Phoenix Metropolitan Area of the State of Arizona...
. In some of the
trailerA trailer or preview is an advertisement or a commercial for a feature film that will be exhibited in the future at a cinema. The term "trailer" comes from their having originally been shown at the end of a feature film screening. That practice did not last long, because patrons tended to leave the...
frames, saguaro cacti not native to Saudi Arabia are visible in the background. The scenes in the men's locker room at the beginning of the film were filmed in the men's locker room and detention area of the
Gilbert-Demographics:As of July 1, 2009, Maricopa Association of Governments, Census 2000. United States Census Bureau. there were 217,521 people, 74,147 housing units, and 3.01 persons per household....
Police Department. The FBI briefing scene was filmed in the media amphitheater/classroom in the same police building. The high speed driving scenes were filmed on
Highway 202State Route 202, or Loop 202, is the beltway encompassing the eastern Phoenix, Arizona, United States Metropolitan area. It navigates and surrounds the cities of Tempe, Mesa, Chandler, and Gilbert, making it very vital to the area freeway system...
which runs through Mesa and Gilbert, just prior to its opening for public use only a few miles from the ASU campus.
While shooting on location in Mesa, Berg was involved in a fatal accident that resulted in the death of another member of the production team. The SUV he was riding in collided with a
GatorThe John Deere Gator is a family of small all-terrain utility vehicles produced by the John Deere Corporation. They typically feature a box bed, similar in function to a pickup truck, and have been made in a variety of configurations, ranging from 4 to 6 wheels. The Gator line of vehicles are...
all-terrain vehicleAn all-terrain vehicle , also known as a quad, quad bike, three wheeler, or four wheeler, is defined by the American National Standards Institute as a vehicle that travels on low pressure tires, with a seat that is straddled by the operator, along with handlebars for steering control...
driven by Nick Papac. Papac died three hours later. On August 8, 2008, Papac's parents Michael Papac and Michele Bell filed a lawsuit against the director, a driver and the production company. The lawsuit was dropped in 2008. Filming resumed one day after the incident.
On-location filming took place in
Abu DhabiAbu Dhabi , literally Father of Gazelle, is the capital and the second largest city of the United Arab Emirates in terms of population and the largest of the seven member emirates of the United Arab Emirates. Abu Dhabi lies on a T-shaped island jutting into the Persian Gulf from the central western...
,
United Arab EmiratesThe United Arab Emirates, abbreviated as the UAE, or shortened to "the Emirates", is a state situated in the southeast of the Arabian Peninsula in Western Asia on the Persian Gulf, bordering Oman, and Saudi Arabia, and sharing sea borders with Iraq, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, and Iran.The UAE is a...
for two weeks in mid-September. Since
Universal Pictures-1920:* White Youth* The Flaming Disc* Am I Dreaming?* The Dragon's Net* The Adorable Savage* Putting It Over* The Line Runners-1921:* The Fire Eater* A Battle of Wits* Dream Girl* The Millionaire...
does not have an office in the Middle East, the production was facilitated by a local production firm called Filmworks, based in
DubaiDubai is a city and emirate in the United Arab Emirates . The emirate is located south of the Persian Gulf on the Arabian Peninsula and has the largest population with the second-largest land territory by area of all the emirates, after Abu Dhabi...
. Filming also took place at the
Emirates PalaceThe Emirates Palace is a luxury hotel located in the United Arab Emirates city of Abu Dhabi.-Construction:The building was designed by renowned architect, John Elliott RIBA, who was Senior Vice President at Wimberly, Allison, Tong and Goo, an international firm specialising in Luxury Hotels.It...
hotel in Abu Dhabi.
The film's production cost $80 million.
The Kingdom was released on DVD December 20, 2007.
Western reception
The film received moderate reviews from critics. Review aggregator
Rotten TomatoesRotten 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...
reports that 51% of 180 critics have given the film a positive review, with a
rating averageThe weighted mean is similar to an arithmetic mean , where instead of each of the data points contributing equally to the final average, some data points contribute more than others...
of 5.8 out of 10. Among Rotten Tomatoes' "Top Critics", which consists of popular and notable critics from the top newspapers, websites, television and radio programs, the film holds an overall approval rating of 45%, based on a sample of 40 reviews. The site's general consensus is that "While providing several top-notch action scenes,
The Kingdom ultimately collapses under the weight of formula and muddled politics."
MetacriticMetacritic.com is a website that collates reviews of music albums, games, movies, TV shows and DVDs. For each product, a numerical score from each review is obtained and the total is averaged. An excerpt of each review is provided along with a hyperlink to the source. Three colour codes of Green,...
, which assigns a
normalizedIn statistics, a standard score indicates how many standard deviations an observation or datum is above or below the mean. It is a dimensionless quantity derived by subtracting the population mean from an individual raw score and then dividing the difference by the population standard deviation...
rating out of 0—100 reviews from film critics, has a rating score of 56 based on 37 reviews.
Weekly Standard columnist
John PodhoretzJohn Podhoretz is an American neoconservative columnist for the New York Post, the editor of Commentary magazine, the author of several books on politics, and a former presidential speechwriter.-Life and career:...
called the film "perfectly paced" and "remarkably crisp and satisfying", arguing that it evokes the films
The Taking of Pelham One Two Three,
Dog Day AfternoonDog Day Afternoon is a 1975 drama film directed by Sidney Lumet, written by Frank Pierson, and produced by Martin Bregman. The film stars Al Pacino, John Cazale, Charles Durning, Chris Sarandon, Penny Allen, James Broderick, and Carol Kane. The title refers to the "dog days of summer".The film was...
, and
The New CenturionsThe New Centurions is a 1972 crime drama film based on the novel by policeman turned author Joseph Wambaugh.It stars George C. Scott, Stacy Keach, Scott Wilson, Jane Alexander, Erik Estrada and James Sikking and was directed by Richard Fleischer....
.
New York Times critic A.O. Scott called it "a slick, brutishly effective genre movie". He also stated that "Just as
RamboRambo: First Blood Part II is a 1985 action film. A sequel to 1982's First Blood, it is the second installment in the Rambo series starring Sylvester Stallone, who reprises his role as Vietnam veteran John Rambo...
offered the fantasy of do-over on Vietnam,
The Kingdom can be seen as a wishful
revisionist scenarioIn historiography, historical revisionism is the reinterpretation of orthodox views on evidence, motivations, and decision-making processes surrounding a historical event...
for the American response to Islamic fundamentalist terrorism." Evan Williams of
The AustralianThe Australian is a broadsheet newspaper published in Australia from Monday to Saturday each week since 14 July 1964. The editor in chief is Chris Mitchell, the editor is Clive Mathieson and the 'editor-at-large' is Paul Kelly....
called it "an excellent thriller" and stated that it "may be the first Hollywood film to confront Saudi involvement in international terrorism."
New York PostThe New York Post is the 13th-oldest newspaper published in the United States and is generally acknowledged as the oldest to have been published continuously as a daily, although – as is the case with most other papers – its publication has been periodically interrupted by labor actions...
critic Lou Lumenick stated that "Hollywood provides the Islamic world another reason to hate America with
The Kingdom," calling it "xenophobic" and "pandering." Lisa Schwarzbaum of
Entertainment WeeklyEntertainment Weekly is an American magazine, published by the Time division of Time Warner, that covers film, television, music, broadway theatre, books and popular culture...
accused the film of "treating its audience like cash-dispensing machines". Kenneth Turan of
The Los Angeles Times called it "a slick excuse for efficient mayhem that's not half as smart as it would like to be." He added that "the film's thematic similarity to those
jingoisticJingoism is defined in the Oxford English Dictionary as extreme patriotism in the form of aggressive foreign policy. In practice, it is a country's advocation of the use of threats or actual force against other countries in order to safeguard what it perceives as its national interests...
World War II-era '
Yellow PerilYellow Peril was a colour metaphor for race that originated in the late nineteenth century with immigration of Chinese laborers to various Western countries, notably the United States, and later associated with the Japanese during the mid 20th century, due to Japanese military expansion.The term...
' films makes it hard not to feel your humanity being diminished."
Middle Eastern reception
Kaveh L Afrasiabi of
Asia Times OnlineAsia Times Online is a bilingual English‒Chinese, Internet-based newspaper covering geopolitics, politics, economics and business "from an Asian perspective"...
called it "a pseudo-realist action movie that succeeds only if we degrade ourselves to adolescent Americans' perception of world affairs" and "non-stop nonsense from beginning to end." He accused the film of "FBI-worship", "Saudi-bashing", and "
IslamophobiaIslamophobia describes prejudice against, hatred or irrational fear of Islam or MuslimsThe term dates back to the late 1980s or early 1990s, but came into common usage after the September 11, 2001 attacks in the United States....
".
Faisal Abbas, media editor of the London-based international Arabic journal
Asharq Al Awsat, wrote on the newspaper's English website that "despite some aspects which might be perceived by some as negative, many might be pleasantly surprised after watching this film, bearing in mind that Arabs have for a long time been among Hollywood's favorite villains." Faisal concluded that "In all cases, the film is definitely action-packed, and perhaps Saudis and Arabs may enjoy it more than Americans, as events are depicted as taking place in the Saudi capital…and it is not every day that you watch a Hollywood-style car chase happening on the streets of
RiyadhRiyadh is the capital and largest city of Saudi Arabia. It is also the capital of Riyadh Province, and belongs to the historical regions of Najd and Al-Yamama. It is situated in the center of the Arabian Peninsula on a large plateau, and is home to 5,254,560 people, and the urban center of a...
. For Westerners, the movie might be an interesting “insight” to a culture that is very different to their own."
Box office performance
The film grossed $17.1 million in 2,733 theaters in the United States and Canada on its opening weekend, ranking #2 at the box office. It also grossed £919,537 in the
United KingdomThe United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
, about $1.9 million. As of December 15, 2007, the film has grossed an estimated $47,536,778 in the United States and $39,042,352 at the foreign box office with a worldwide gross of $86,579,130.
The film has been extremely successful in the rental market, grossing $77.4 million in the United States as of April 13, 2008.
The movie had been banned in several Arabic countries for claims of being biased against Saudi treatment with terrorism.
See also
- Insurgency in Saudi Arabia
Terrorism in Saudi Arabia is unleashed by radical Islamic fighters. Their targets include foreign civilians—mainly Westerners affiliated with its oil-based economy—as well as Saudi civilians and security forces. Anti-Western attacks have occurred in Saudi Arabia dating back to 1995.-Background:The...
- Counter-terrorism
Counter-terrorism is the practices, tactics, techniques, and strategies that governments, militaries, police departments and corporations adopt to prevent or in response to terrorist threats and/or acts, both real and imputed.The tactic of terrorism is available to insurgents and governments...
- War on Terror
The War on Terror is a term commonly applied to an international military campaign led by the United States and the United Kingdom with the support of other North Atlantic Treaty Organisation as well as non-NATO countries...
External links