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Ronin
A briefcase with undisclosed contents – sought by Irish terrorists and the Russian mob – makes its way into criminals' hands. An Irish liaison assembles a squad of mercenaries, or 'ronin', and gives them the thorny task of recovering the case.
1998 · Directed by John Frankenheimer · 122 min · Action · Thriller · Crime · Screenplay in the scene database · 17 frames
Tagline
Anyone is an enemy for a price.
Plot
At a bistro in Montmartre, IRA operative Deirdre meets with two Americans, Sam and Larry, and a Frenchman, Vincent. She takes them to a warehouse where Englishman Spence and German Gregor are waiting. Conversations among the men reveal that they are former government and military agents who have become mercenaries. Deirdre briefs the group on their mission: to attack a heavily armed convoy and steal a large, metallic briefcase, whose content is never revealed.
The team's first preparation task is to acquire firearms, which turns into an ambush; the team survives and gets the weapons. Deirdre meets with her handler, Seamus O'Rourke, who tells her that the Russian mafia is bidding on the briefcase and that the team must intervene to prevent them from winning. Spence is exposed as a fraud by Sam; he is dismissed by Deirdre, and the others continue their mission.
Deirdre's team successfully ambushes the convoy at Villefranche-sur-Mer and pursues the survivors to Nice. During the gunfight, Gregor steals the case and replaces it with explosives in an attempt to sabotage the others. He attempts selling it to the Russians, but his contact betrays him; Gregor kills the contact and has Mikhi – the Russian mobster in charge of the deal – agree to another meeting. The team tracks Gregor through one of Sam's old contacts and corners him in the Arles Amphitheatre during his meeting with two of Mikhi's men. Sam chases Gregor, who flees but is caught by Seamus.
Plot summary from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA.
Crew
- Screenplay: J. D. Zeik, David Mamet
- Cinematography: Robert Fraisse
- Edited by: Antony Gibbs
- Music: Elia Cmiral
- Production design: Michael Z. Hanan
- Produced by: Frank Mancuso Jr.
Cast
- Robert De Niro as Sam
- Jean Reno as Vincent
- Natascha McElhone as Deirdre
- Stellan Skarsgård as Gregor
- Skipp Sudduth as Larry
- Jonathan Pryce as Seamus O'Rourke
- Sean Bean as Spence
- Michael Lonsdale as Jean-Pierre
- Féodor Atkine as Mikhi
- Katarina Witt as Natacha Kirilova
Production
- Country: United Kingdom, United States of America
- Language: English, French, Russian
- Studios: United Artists, FGM Entertainment, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, UAC
- Budget: $55,000,000
- Box office: $70,692,101
- Themes: france, paris, france, arms deal, mercenary, suitcase, heist, shootout, impostor, ira (irish republican army), cafe
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