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''The Recruit'' is a 2003 American
spy thriller Spy fiction is a genre of literature involving espionage as an important context or plot device. It emerged in the early twentieth century, inspired by rivalries and intrigues between the major powers, and the establishment of modern intelligen ...
film, directed by
Roger Donaldson Roger Lindsey Donaldson (born 15 November 1945) is an Australian-born List of New Zealand film makers, New Zealand film director, producer and writer whose films include the 1981 relationship drama ''Smash Palace'', and a run of titles shot in ...
and starring
Al Pacino Alfredo James Pacino (; ; born April 25, 1940) is an American actor. Considered one of the most influential actors of the 20th century, he has received numerous accolades: including an Academy Award, two Tony Awards, and two Primetime Emmy ...
,
Colin Farrell Colin James Farrell (; born 31 May 1976) is an Irish actor. A leading man in projects across various genres in both blockbuster and independent films since the 2000s, he has received numerous accolades including a Golden Globe Award. ''The I ...
, and
Bridget Moynahan Kathryn Bridget Moynahan (born April 28, 1971) is an American actress and model. Moynahan is best known for her role as Erin Reagan in the police drama '' Blue Bloods''. She graduated from Longmeadow High School in Massachusetts in 1989 and be ...
. It was produced by Epsilon Motion Pictures and released in North America by
Touchstone Pictures Touchstone Pictures, Inc. was an American film production label of Walt Disney Studios, founded and owned by The Walt Disney Company. Feature films released under the Touchstone label were produced and financed by Walt Disney Studios, and featu ...
on January 31, 2003, receiving mixed reviews from critics and grossing $101 million worldwide.


Plot

James Clayton is a prodigious programmer studying nonlinear cryptography at
MIT The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private land-grant research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Established in 1861, MIT has played a key role in the development of modern technology and science, and is one of the m ...
, collaborating with a group of peers to create Spartacus, a surveillance program that can enslave any computer's audiovisual hardware to the master computer via the internet. His group showcases the software to
Dell Dell is an American based technology company. It develops, sells, repairs, and supports computers and related products and services. Dell is owned by its parent company, Dell Technologies. Dell sells personal computers (PCs), servers, data ...
at a campus fair drawing substantial interest in its uses. Later at his night job, James is approached by Walter Burke, a man who claims to have known James’ deceased father and suggests he works for the
Central Intelligence Agency The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA ), known informally as the Agency and historically as the Company, is a civilian foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States, officially tasked with gathering, processing, ...
. After a pitch to recruit James into the agency, James initially declines until he reconsiders it as an opportunity to get answers to his father's mysterious plane crash in Peru several years earlier. James passes the initial security screening and is bussed with the rest of his class to The Farm in rural
Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States, between the Atlantic Coast and the Appalachian Mountains. The geography and climate of the Commonwealth ar ...
where they undergo training as potential operatives. While there, James develops an attraction to Layla Moore and a rivalry with Zack who is James’ competition for top of the class. One night during a training exercise in which James and Layla are paired together to tail a mark, they are abducted by masked assailants and imprisoned where they are tortured psychologically and physically for several days. Their interrogators wish to know what happens at The Farm and the names of those who teach there. After resisting for days, James breaks when he's told about Layla's brutal treatment. He reveals Burke's name, at which point it's revealed that the whole experience was part of the exercise that the class was observing, including Layla, and that James failed by breaking. He is then attritted from the Farm. Later, Burke seeks out a despondent James and informs him that his discharge was part of a cover story because he's been selected as a
non-official cover In espionage, operatives under non-official cover (NOC) are operatives without official ties to the government for which they work who assume covert roles in organizations. This is in contrast to an operative with official cover, where they assum ...
operative, or “NOC”. He gives James a low-level data entry position at the Agency (on the basis that his progress at the Farm was sufficient for this work) so he can get close to Layla who has graduated from the Farm and now holds a higher position than James. Burke explains that Layla is suspected of working with foreign agents to steal CIA secrets, specifically a highly sensitive computer virus called "ICE-9" because it transmits via the electrical grid rather than telecommunications and is easily capable of disabling all electrical devices on the planet instantly, thus behaving similarly to the particle from the
Kurt Vonnegut Kurt Vonnegut Jr. (November 11, 1922 – April 11, 2007) was an American writer known for his satirical and darkly humorous novels. In a career spanning over 50 years, he published fourteen novels, three short-story collections, five plays, and ...
novel ''
Cat's Cradle Cat's cradle is a game involving the creation of various string figures between the fingers, either individually or by passing a loop of string back and forth between two or more players. The true origin of the name is debated, though the fi ...
''. James reunites with Layla and the two begin a romantic relationship. While staying overnight at her home, he checks her laptop for evidence of her crimes and she plants a bug on the lapel of his winter coat. Later, he witnesses her making a
dead drop A dead drop or dead letter box is a method of espionage tradecraft used to pass items or information between two individuals (e.g., a case officer and an agent, or two agents) using a secret location. By avoiding direct meetings, individuals ca ...
at
Union Station A union station (also known as a union terminal, a joint station in Europe, and a joint-use station in Japan) is a railway station at which the tracks and facilities are shared by two or more separate railway companies, allowing passengers to ...
and follows the mysterious agent who retrieves what Layla left behind. The two end up in a shootout on the train tracks and the agent, who is revealed to be Zack, is killed. Believing both of them to be traitors, James confronts Layla who tells him that Zack was the NOC, not him, and that she was tasked with assessing the security protocols of the CIA
headquarters Headquarters (commonly referred to as HQ) denotes the location where most, if not all, of the important functions of an organization are coordinated. In the United States, the corporate headquarters represents the entity at the center or the to ...
because it was feared that someone else was stealing CIA material. James then goes to a meet with Burke wherein he confronts Burke about what's really happening. Burke claims that Zack's death was faked, that the gun Burke gave James is loaded with non-lethal ammunition, and that everyone is intending to rendezvous for debrief momentarily. However, Burke catches James off guard and shoots at him, narrowly missing him but blowing out the rear window of his vehicle in the process, proving that the gun was in fact loaded with live ammunition and therefore Zack is indeed dead. Burke pursues James through the abandoned warehouse they were parked outside of, explaining to James along the way why he set up the elaborate lie to implicate them and cover up his own crimes of selling Agency secrets to foreign governments. James meanwhile has set up a laptop running Spartacus though it failed to connect, however he leads Burke to believe it successfully transmitted his confession back to the Agency and he's now incriminated for everything. Burke angrily destroys the laptop and pursues James outside of the warehouse where a CIA strike team led by Dennis Slayne, another Farm instructor, is waiting. Burke launches into a tirade, airing his grievances against the Agency, believing that he was never appreciated for all the sacrifices he made in his career. Slayne realizes that Burke is the one they're looking for and directs the strike team to target Burke to take into custody, revealing they were originally there to arrest James. Realizing now that he really is incriminated, Burke refuses to be taken into custody and instead raises his empty gun at the strike team who quickly shoot and kill him. Slayne then drives James back to headquarters for a debrief, cryptically mentioning along the way that James was meant to be in that line of work because “it’s in isblood” suggesting his father in fact worked for the agency, despite Burke's earlier denial of such.


Cast

*
Colin Farrell Colin James Farrell (; born 31 May 1976) is an Irish actor. A leading man in projects across various genres in both blockbuster and independent films since the 2000s, he has received numerous accolades including a Golden Globe Award. ''The I ...
as James Douglas Clayton *
Al Pacino Alfredo James Pacino (; ; born April 25, 1940) is an American actor. Considered one of the most influential actors of the 20th century, he has received numerous accolades: including an Academy Award, two Tony Awards, and two Primetime Emmy ...
as CIA Officer Walter Burke *
Bridget Moynahan Kathryn Bridget Moynahan (born April 28, 1971) is an American actress and model. Moynahan is best known for her role as Erin Reagan in the police drama '' Blue Bloods''. She graduated from Longmeadow High School in Massachusetts in 1989 and be ...
as CIA Officer Layla Moore *
Gabriel Macht Gabriel Swann Macht (born January 22, 1972) is an American actor and film producer, known for portraying Harvey Specter in the USA Network series '' Suits'' (2011–2019) and the title character in the 2008 superhero film ''The Spirit''. Earl ...
as CIA Officer Zack * Kenneth Mitchell as Alan *
Karl Pruner Karl Pruner is a Canadian actor whose most notable work is in portraying Canadian Prime Minister John Turner in the 2002 mini-series '' Trudeau''. Career Amongst his other work, he did voice acting as Beta Ray Bill in the short-lived animated ...
as CIA Agent Dennis Slayne * Mike Realba as Ronnie Gibson * Elisa Moolecherry as Lisa Sahadi *
Merwin Mondesir Merwin Mondesir (born February 21, 1976) is a Canadian actor. He is of Saint Lucian descent. He resides in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Selected filmography Film * 1997 '' Critical Care'' as Head Injury * 2000 '' Steal This Movie!'' as Private Ken ...
as Stan * Sam Kalilieh as Elliot * Chris Owens as Art Wallis * Richard Fitzpatrick as Rob Stevens *
Ron Lea Ron Lea is a Canadian actor, best known for his roles in '' Doc'', '' Street Legal'', and '' This is Wonderland''. Lea also served as a director on some episodes of ''Doc''. Filmography Film Television External links *Lea bio {{DEFAUL ...
as Bill Rudolph, Dell Rep. * Tova Smith as Beth * Michael Rubenfeld as Felix


Production

The film was produced by
Gary Barber Gary Barber (born 1957) is a South African-born American film producer. Barber was the chairman and CEO of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. He is also co-founder of Spyglass Entertainment. Biography Barber was born to a Jewish family in Johannesburg, So ...
's and
Roger Birnbaum Roger Birnbaum (born November 14, 1950) is an American film producer who owns the company Spyglass Media Group, and was co-CEO and co-chairman of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. His two greatest box office hits as producer have been ''Rush Hour 2'' and '' T ...
's production company
Spyglass Entertainment Spyglass Media Group, LLC, formerly Spyglass Entertainment, is an American film production company founded by Gary Barber and Roger Birnbaum in 1998. History Spyglass Entertainment On August 21, 1998, Gary Barber, former vice chairman and CO ...
, with financial support from Disney's
Touchstone Pictures Touchstone Pictures, Inc. was an American film production label of Walt Disney Studios, founded and owned by The Walt Disney Company. Feature films released under the Touchstone label were produced and financed by Walt Disney Studios, and featu ...
and German film financing company Epsilon Motion Pictures (which was owned by the
Kirch Group KirchGruppe (KirchGroup) was a German media group founded by Leo Kirch (1926–2011) in the 1960s. By 2000, it controlled a 52.5 percent stake in what would become the country's biggest broadcaster. The group collapsed in 2002 largely due to the ...
at the time). Filming began on December 3, 2001. It was mainly filmed in
Toronto Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the ancho ...
and
Niagara-on-the-Lake Niagara-on-the-Lake is a town in Ontario, Canada. It is located on the Niagara Peninsula at the point where the Niagara River meets Lake Ontario, across the river from New York, United States. Niagara-on-the-Lake is in the Niagara Region of On ...
in Canada, with some
landmark A landmark is a recognizable natural or artificial feature used for navigation, a feature that stands out from its near environment and is often visible from long distances. In modern use, the term can also be applied to smaller structures or f ...
scenes, such as that from the
Iwo Jima Memorial The United States Marine Corps War Memorial (Iwo Jima Memorial) is a national memorial located in Arlington County, Virginia. The memorial was dedicated in 1954 to all Marines who have given their lives in defense of the United States since 177 ...
by the
Arlington National Cemetery Arlington National Cemetery is one of two national cemeteries run by the United States Army. Nearly 400,000 people are buried in its 639 acres (259 ha) in Arlington, Virginia. There are about 30 funerals conducted on weekdays and 7 held on Sa ...
, shot in and around
Washington, D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...
The film's working title was ''The Farm''. James Foley was considered to direct, but was replaced by Donaldson before filming began.


Reception


Box office

The film was released on January 31, 2003, and earned $16.3 million in its first weekend. Its final gross was $52.8 million in the United States and $48.4 million internationally, for a total of $101.2 million.


Critical response

On review aggregator
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 Wang ...
the film holds an approval rating of 43% based on 167 reviews, with an average rating of 5.55/10. The website's critics consensus states: "This polished thriller is engaging until it takes one twist too many into the predictable."
Metacritic Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...
assigned the film a weighted average score of 56 out of 100, based on 36 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". 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.
Owen Gleiberman Owen Gleiberman (born February 24, 1959) is an American film critic who has been chief film critic for ''Variety'' magazine since May 2016, a title he shares with . Previously, Gleiberman wrote for ''Entertainment Weekly'' from 1990 until 2014. ...
of ''
Entertainment Weekly ''Entertainment Weekly'' (sometimes abbreviated as ''EW'') is an American digital-only entertainment magazine based in New York City, published by Dotdash Meredith, that covers film, television, music, Broadway theatre, books, and popular cul ...
'' gave the film a positive review, with a B+ score. He wrote, "From the get-go, ''The Recruit'' is one of those thrillers that delights in pulling the rug out from under you, only to find another rug below that." Carla Meyer of ''
San Francisco Chronicle The ''San Francisco Chronicle'' is a newspaper serving primarily the San Francisco Bay Area of Northern California. It was founded in 1865 as ''The Daily Dramatic Chronicle'' by teenage brothers Charles de Young and M. H. de Young, Michael H. de ...
'' also gave a positive review to the film, stating, "Pacino and Farrell bring a wary curiosity to their early scenes, with Farrell displaying a palpable hunger for praise and Pacino a corresponding mastery of how to hook somebody by parceling out compliments. They're a swarthier version of
Robert Redford Charles Robert Redford Jr. (born August 18, 1936) is an American actor and filmmaker. He is the List of awards and nominations received by Robert Redford, recipient of various accolades, including an Academy Awards, Academy Award from four nomi ...
and
Brad Pitt William Bradley Pitt (born December 18, 1963) is an American actor and film producer. He is the recipient of various accolades, including two Academy Awards, a British Academy Film Award, two Golden Globe Awards, and a Primetime Emmy Award. ...
in ''
Spy Game ''Spy Game'' is a 2001 American action thriller film directed by Tony Scott and starring Robert Redford and Brad Pitt. The film grossed $62 million in the United States and $143 million worldwide on a $115 million budget, and received mostly po ...
''–only ''The Recruit'' is more about mind games."
Todd McCarthy Todd McCarthy (born February 16, 1950) is an American film critic and author. He wrote for ''Variety'' for 31 years as its chief film critic until 2010. In October of that year, he joined ''The Hollywood Reporter'', where he subsequently served ...
of ''
Variety Variety may refer to: Arts and entertainment Entertainment formats * Variety (radio) * Variety show, in theater and television Films * ''Variety'' (1925 film), a German silent film directed by Ewald Andre Dupont * ''Variety'' (1935 film), ...
'' stated, "The whole picture may be hokey, but the first part is agreeably so, the second part not. At the very least, one comes away with a new appreciation of the difficulty of interoffice romance at the CIA." Mike Clark of ''
USA Today ''USA Today'' (stylized in all uppercase) is an American daily middle-market newspaper and news broadcasting company. Founded by Al Neuharth on September 15, 1982, the newspaper operates from Gannett's corporate headquarters in Tysons, Virgini ...
'' gave a mixed review to the film, stating, "Nothing is ever what it seems, but still, nothing's very compelling in ''The Recruit'', a less-than-middling melodrama whose subject matter and talent never click as much as its credits portend."


CIA reaction

In 2009, the movie was reviewed by new CIA employees, who wrote that although "everyone in the Agency believes the movie is ridiculous", the movie is "entertaining" and that "all of the covert service trainees watched the film on the bus going into training" for "comic relief". According to T.J. Waters (a former Farm student), ''The Recruit'' is "a mediocre movie" in which he "recognize a lot of similarities with the real Farm".T.J. Waters,
Class 11: My Story Inside the CIA's First Post-9/11 Spy Class
',


References


External links

* * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Recruit, The 2003 films 2000s spy thriller films American spy thriller films Films about the Central Intelligence Agency Films directed by Roger Donaldson Films produced by Roger Birnbaum Films scored by Klaus Badelt Films shot in Toronto Films shot in Virginia Films with screenplays by Kurt Wimmer Films with screenplays by Mitch Glazer Spyglass Entertainment films Techno-thriller films Touchstone Pictures films 2000s English-language films 2000s American films