''Shattered'' is a 1991

American American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, pe ...

psychological thriller Psychological thriller is a genre combining the thriller and psychological fiction genres. It is commonly used to describe literature or films that deal with psychological narratives in a thriller or thrilling setting. In terms of context and c ...

film written and directed by

Wolfgang Petersen Wolfgang Petersen (14 March 1941 – 12 August 2022) was a German film director, screenwriter, and producer. He was nominated for two Academy Awards for the World War II submarine warfare film '' Das Boot'' (1981). His other films include '' The ...

, based on the novel by Richard Neely. The film stars

Tom Berenger Tom Berenger (born Thomas Michael Moore; May 31, 1949) is an American actor. He was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his portrayal of Staff Sergeant Bob Barnes in ''Platoon'' (1986). He is also known for playing Jake ...

Greta Scacchi Greta Scacchi, OMRI (; born 18 February 1960) is an Italian-Australian actress. She holds dual Italian and Australian citizenship. She is best known for her roles in the films '' White Mischief'' (1987), '' Presumed Innocent'' (1990), '' The Pl ...

Bob Hoskins Robert William Hoskins (26 October 1942 – 29 April 2014) was an English actor. His work included lead roles in films and television series such as '' Pennies from Heaven'' (1978), ''The Long Good Friday'' (1980), ''Mona Lisa'' (1986), ''Who ...

Joanne Whalley Joanne Whalley (born 25 August 1961) is an English actress who began her career in 1974. She has appeared primarily on television, but also in nearly 30 feature films, including '' Dance with a Stranger'' (1985), ''Willow'' (1988), ''Scandal'' ( ...

and

Corbin Bernsen Corbin Dean Bernsen (born September 7, 1954) is an American actor and film director. He appeared as divorce attorney Arnold Becker on the NBC drama series '' L.A. Law'',

Plot

While driving at night along the

northern California Northern California (colloquially known as NorCal) is a geographic and cultural region that generally comprises the northern portion of the U.S. state of California. Spanning the state's northernmost 48 counties, its main population centers incl ...

coast, architect Dan Merrick and his wife Judith are involved in a

car wreck A car or automobile is a motor vehicle with wheels. Most definitions of ''cars'' say that they run primarily on roads, seat one to eight people, have four wheels, and mainly transport people instead of goods. The year 1886 is regarded as t ...

. Dan suffers major injuries and brain trauma, resulting in psychogenic amnesia. After extensive plastic surgery, Dan returns home in Judith's care. Dan relies on those close to him to help him restore his past, including his business partner Jeb Scott and Jeb's wife, Jenny. Dan has frequent flashbacks he believes to be events that led up to the car crash. Dan finds discrepancies in the stories about his former self. He stumbles upon photographs of Judith sleeping with another man. Dan finds an expensive bill to a pet store and follows up with its proprietor, Gus Klein. Gus says the payment was for services provided as a

private investigator A private investigator (often abbreviated to PI and informally called a private eye), a private detective, or inquiry agent is a person who can be hired by individuals or groups to undertake investigatory law services. Private investigators of ...

to follow Judith, and it revealed she was cheating with Jack Stanton. Judith arranges a meeting with Stanton and Dan follows her. Judith stops at an old

shipwreck A shipwreck is the wreckage of a ship that is located either beached on land or sunken to the bottom of a body of water. Shipwrecking may be intentional or unintentional. Angela Croome reported in January 1999 that there were approximately ...

slated for removal by Dan's company. Assuming the wreck is a key in remembering his past, Dan has its removal postponed. Jenny accuses Judith of planning the accident to eliminate Dan. As he works with Gus to keep tabs on his wife with a

wiretap Telephone tapping (also wire tapping or wiretapping in American English) is the monitoring of telephone and Internet-based conversations by a third party, often by covert means. The wire tap received its name because, historically, the monitorin ...

, Dan tails her to a hotel where she and Stanton are to meet, but Stanton leaves and a chase ensues through a wooded area. After gunshots are fired from Stanton's car, Dan and Gus crash while Stanton escapes. That night at home, Dan arms himself and lies in wait. At gunpoint, an intruder is revealed as Judith disguised as Stanton. She explains that Stanton is actually dead, killed by Dan on the night of the accident. Judith had intended to stop the affair with Stanton. Judith says she and Dan covered up the murder by disposing of Stanton's body in the shipwreck. When Dan reveals he postponed the ship's removal, Judith becomes hysterical and suggests they should flee. Dan receives a phone call from Jenny imploring him to see her, but when Dan arrives, he finds Jenny dead. He is confronted at gunpoint by Gus, who followed him, thinking Dan must have murdered Stanton. Pleading for his life, Dan convinces Gus to visit the shipwreck, where they find a chemical storage container. Dan dredges up a body of a man who looks exactly like himself. Dan realizes he is not Dan Merrick at all; he is actually Jack Stanton. In a flashback, it is revealed that an abusive Dan confronted his wife Judith with evidence of her

infidelity Infidelity (synonyms include cheating, straying, adultery, being unfaithful, two-timing, or having an affair) is a violation of a couple's emotional and/or sexual exclusivity that commonly results in feelings of anger, sexual jealousy, and ri ...

. She called for help and Jack raced to her home, arriving too late to prevent her from shooting her husband in the head. Jack wanted to go to the police, but Judith convinced him to cover up the murder and hide Dan's body. After doing so, Jack told Judith he wanted out of the relationship. This angered and distracted Judith, who drove into the car wreck. Judith had banked on the chemical dissolving Dan's body, but because it was actually

formaldehyde Formaldehyde ( , ) ( systematic name methanal) is a naturally occurring organic compound with the formula and structure . The pure compound is a pungent, colourless gas that polymerises spontaneously into paraformaldehyde (refer to section ...

, she had preserved it. Gus is shot by Judith and falls into the water. Judith forces Jack to leave with her. She drives erratically down the same stretch of road from the night of the accident, confessing to the murder of Jenny, saying she had figured everything out and had to be killed. She hid the facts from Jack so he would have

plausible deniability Plausible deniability is the ability of people, typically senior officials in a formal or informal chain of command, to denial, deny knowledge of or responsibility for any damnable actions committed by members of their organizational hierarchy. Th ...

. After the crash, she told the

plastic surgeon Plastic surgery is a surgical specialty involving the restoration, reconstruction or alteration of the human body. It can be divided into two main categories: reconstructive surgery and cosmetic surgery. Reconstructive surgery includes craniof ...

s that the man she was with was her husband Dan. Distracted by a police helicopter, Judith loses control of the gun, and Jack grabs it, demanding she stop the car. Judith decides to kill them in a murder-suicide car crash. Jack, at the last second, rolls out, while she plummets to her death. The police helicopter lands, and an injured Gus Klein emerges. Gus survived his plunge into the water after being shot thanks to his asthma inhaler. The two board the helicopter, with Gus referring to Jack as Dan, presumably securing Merrick's fortune for him. The helicopter lifts off, flying over the burning car at the bottom of the cliff.

Cast

as Dan Merrick *

as Judith Merrick *

as Gus Klein *

(Joanne Whalley-Kilmer) as Jenny Scott *

Corbin Bernsen Corbin Dean Bernsen (born September 7, 1954) is an American actor and film director. He appeared as divorce attorney Arnold Becker on the NBC drama series '' L.A. Law'',

as Jeb Scott * Scott Getlin as Jack Stanton * Judi Maddison as Mary Wilson * Bert Rosario as Rudy Costa * Jedda Jones as Sadie * Kellye Nakahara as Lydia * Dierk Torsek as Dr. Benton *

Theodore Bikel Theodore Meir Bikel ( ; May 2, 1924 – July 21, 2015) was an Austrian-American actor, folk singer, musician, composer, unionist, and political activist. He appeared in films, including '' The African Queen'' (1951), ''Moulin Rouge'' (1952), ' ...

as Dr. Berkus

Production

Filming took place during 1990 in Culver City, San Francisco and on the northern

Oregon Oregon () is a U.S. state, state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. The Columbia River delineates much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington (state), Washington, while the Snake River delineates much of it ...

coast.

Reception

Critical response

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wan ...

, the film has an approval rating of 33% based on reviews from 15 critics, with an average rating of 5.1/10. Audiences polled by

CinemaScore CinemaScore is a market research firm based in Las Vegas. It surveys film audiences to rate their viewing experiences with letter grades, reports the results, and forecasts box office receipts based on the data. Background Ed Mintz founded Ci ...

gave the film an average grade of "B+" on an A+ to F scale. The film's twist ending has caused a division among the responses given by critics. Several critics find the revelation too ridiculous to accept, while others find it inventive and clever.

Roger Ebert Roger Joseph Ebert (; June 18, 1942 – April 4, 2013) was an American film critic, film historian, journalist, screenwriter, and author. He was a film critic for the ''Chicago Sun-Times'' from 1967 until his death in 2013. In 1975, Ebert beca ...

falls into the former category, stating that the film's resolution is "inconceivably implausible", and that the "screenplay is too clever by half". However, he goes on to say that this quality "is always sort of fun." About.com falls into the latter category, calling the finale "a killer twist ending!" and ''

The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large n ...

'' says, "It would be disastrous to even hint at the movie's denouement; a critic could get lynched for giving away an ending as shockingly unexpected as the one here. Let's just say that it blows the top of your head off." Despite this division, critics generally hold the film's surprise denouement as unexpected and startling.

Technical notes

* Awards:

Deauville Film Festival The Deauville American Film Festival (french: Festival du cinéma américain de Deauville, link=no) is a yearly film festival devoted to American cinema, which has taken place since 1975 in Deauville, France. It was established by Lionel Ch ...

- Nominated - Critics Award. * Film Locations: ** ''Oregon:'' Nehalem, Tillamook County; Oswald West State Park; Neahkahnie Mountain. ** ''California:'' Mount Tamalpais State Park, Marin County; City and County of San Francisco; Sausalito, Marin County. * Release Date: October 11, 1991 * Box Office: ** ''Opening Weekend:'' $3,457,105 (1,286 theaters, $2,688 average) ** ''Total Gross:'' $11,511,031 * Songs Used: ** ''

Nights in White Satin "Nights in White Satin" is a song by the Moody Blues, written and composed by Justin Hayward. It was first featured as the segment "The Night" on the album '' Days of Future Passed''. When first released as a single in 1967, it reached number ...

'' by

The Moody Blues The Moody Blues were an English rock music, rock band formed in Birmingham in 1964, initially consisting of keyboardist Mike Pinder, multi-instrumentalist Ray Thomas, guitarist Denny Laine, drummer Graeme Edge and bassist Clint Warwick. The g ...

** ''Hacienda Source'' by Ashley Irwin

References

External links

* * {{Wolfgang Petersen 1991 films 1991 independent films 1990s mystery drama films 1990s mystery thriller films 1990s psychological thriller films 1990s thriller drama films Adultery in films American independent films American mystery drama films American mystery thriller films American psychological thriller films American thriller drama films Davis Entertainment films Films about amnesia Films about road accidents and incidents Films based on mystery novels Films directed by Wolfgang Petersen Films scored by Alan Silvestri Films set in the San Francisco Bay Area Films shot in Oregon Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer films American neo-noir films 1991 drama films 1990s English-language films 1990s American films