The Contract (2006 film)

Infobox Film
name = The Contract


image_size = 200px
caption = Film poster
director = Bruce Beresford
producer = Boaz Davidson
Randall Emmett
George Furla
Andreas Grosch
Avi Lerner
Danny Lerner
Andreas Schmid
Les Weldon
writer = Stephen Katz
John Darrouzet
narrator =
starring = Morgan Freeman
John Cusack
Jamie Anderson
Alice Krige
Megan Dodds
Bill Smitrovich
Ned Bellamy
music = Normand Corbeil
cinematography = Dante Spinotti
editing = Mark Warner
distributor = First Look International
released = flagicon|Israel October 9, 2006 (Haifa Film Festival)
flagicon|Sweden May 9, 2007 (DVD premiere)
flagicon|France June 9, 2007 (Cognac Film Festival)
flagicon|UK July 9, 2007 (DVD premiere)
flagicon|USA July 24, 2007 (DVD premiere)
runtime = 97 min
country = U.S.
Germany
language = English
budget = $25,000,000
gross = $1,578,317
preceded_by =
followed_by =
website =
amg_id = 321046
imdb_id = 0445946

"The Contract" is a 2006 film directed by Bruce Beresford and written by late television scribe Stephen Katz and John Darrouzet. A cat-and-mouse thriller, "The Contract" stars Oscar-winner Morgan Freeman as assassin Frank Carden, and John Cusack as mild-mannered teacher Ray Keene. Released directly to video in the United States and most of Europe, "The Contract" received little critical notice, despite its high-profile cast.

Plot

Morgan Freeman is Frank Carden, a professional assassin who has been hired to kill a reclusive billionaire named Lydell Hammond, Sr. Carden's plan goes awry when he gets injured in a random car accident and ends up in the hospital. Upon seeing the gun he carries, the hospital staff calls in the local police who are able to peel away his false identity and call for the Federal Marshals to come pick him up.

John Cusack is Ray Keene, a high-school gym teacher, ex-cop, and well-intentioned but not very able dad to Chris (Jamie Anderson), a teen who's gone downhill behavior-wise since the death of his mother from cancer. Ray belatedly realizes the need to bond with his son when the latter gets caught smoking pot, and therefore takes him hiking in the wilderness. Carden is being driven through that same wilderness by the Marshals, but his men stage a rescue attempt and most of the Marshals end up dead; the last remaining one lives long enough for their car to go off the road, down a steep embankment, and into the river, from which Keene pulls him and Carden just in time for the Marshal to ask Keene to take the prisoner to the authorities before dying of his injuries. Ray and Chris have to get Carden out of the wilderness and handed over to the authorities before his men, highly-skilled ex-military thugs, can track them down, rescue Carden and kill the Keenes.

Production

The film was shot almost exclusively in Bulgaria and the DSK Bank central headquarters () served as one of the main sets.

Cast

* John Cusack as Ray Keene
* Jamie Anderson as Chris Keene
* Morgan Freeman as Frank Carden
* Megan Dodds as Sandra
* Jonathan Hyde as Turner
* Corey Johnson as Davis
* Alice Krige as Miles
* Ian Shaw as Michaels

External links

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