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''The Fan'' is a 1996 American
sports Sport pertains to any form of competitive physical activity or game that aims to use, maintain, or improve physical ability and skills while providing enjoyment to participants and, in some cases, entertainment to spectators. Sports can, ...
psychological thriller film directed by
Tony Scott Anthony David Leighton Scott (21 June 1944 – 19 August 2012) was an English film director and producer. He was known for directing highly successful action and thriller films such as '' Top Gun'' (1986), '' Beverly Hills Cop II'' (1987), ''D ...
, and starring
Robert De Niro Robert Anthony De Niro Jr. ( , ; born August 17, 1943) is an American actor. Known for his collaborations with Martin Scorsese, he is considered to be one of the best actors of his generation. De Niro is the recipient of various accolades ...
and
Wesley Snipes Wesley Trent Snipes (born July 31, 1962) is an American actor, film producer, and martial artist. His prominent film roles include '' Major League'' (1989), ''New Jack City'' (1991), '' White Men Can't Jump'' (1992), '' Passenger 57'' (1992), '' ...
, based on the 1995 novel by
Peter Abrahams Peter Henry Abrahams Deras (3 March 1919 – 18 January 2017), commonly known as Peter Abrahams, was a South African-born novelist, journalist and political commentator who in 1956 settled in Jamaica, where he lived for the rest of his life. Hi ...
. The film received generally negative reviews from critics and was a
box office flop A box-office bomb, or box-office disaster, is a film that is unprofitable or considered highly unsuccessful during its theatrical run. Although any film for which the production, marketing, and distribution costs combined exceed the revenue after ...
. Over time, the direction, the performances and the soundtrack were praised.


Plot

Gil Renard is a troubled
baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each, taking turns batting and fielding. The game occurs over the course of several plays, with each play generally beginning when a player on the fielding t ...
fan whose favorite team, the
San Francisco Giants The San Francisco Giants are an American professional baseball team based in San Francisco, California. The Giants compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) West division. Founded in 1883 as the New Yo ...
, have just signed a $40 million contract with his favorite player, Bobby Rayburn. His ex-wife Ellen obtains a
restraining order A restraining order or protective order, is an order used by a court to protect a person in a situation involving alleged domestic violence, child abuse, assault, harassment, stalking, or sexual assault. Restraining and personal protecti ...
to keep him away from herself and their son after Gil left his son to attend a sales meeting, but finds his client is at a baseball game. Gil is fired from his job as a knife salesman when he threatens a prospective customer. Gil begins obsessing over Rayburn. When Rayburn suffers a chest injury that causes fans to be upset by his underperformance, Gil antagonizes fans that jeer him. Rayburn has also been in an open conflict with teammate Juan Primo due to both men using jersey number 11, and neither wanting to give it up, due to their long histories and connections to the number. Rayburn was instead given number 33, and harshly protested it. This culminates in a fight in the restroom of a bar. Gil, thinking that Primo is to blame for Rayburn's performance, confronts him in a hotel sauna in an attempt to persuade him to let Rayburn have the number. Primo reveals his shoulder, branded with the number 11, and says that it is his number. This eventually leads to a struggle, and Gil stabs Primo to death. Although Rayburn is suspected of the murder, his performance improves, and Gil believes that what he did benefited Rayburn and the team. After feeling guilty about Primo's death, Rayburn starts playing well again. Thinking that Rayburn does not acknowledge his fans, Gil goes to Rayburn's beach house and saves his son Sean from drowning. Gil persuades Rayburn to play a friendly game of catch on the beach. Rayburn says he stopped caring about the game after Primo's death, because he felt there were more important things in life. He mistakenly tells Gil that he has lost respect for the fans, remarking on their fickle nature — when he's hitting, they love him, but when he's not, they hate him. An angered Gil almost hits Rayburn with a fastball and launches into a diatribe. Rayburn is disturbed, especially when Gil takes off his jacket to reveal Rayburn's
uniform A uniform is a variety of clothing worn by members of an organization while participating in that organization's activity. Modern uniforms are most often worn by armed forces and paramilitary organizations such as police, emergency services, ...
underneath and wonders if Rayburn is happy that Primo's not around. Rayburn soon discovers that Gil has
kidnapped Kidnapped may refer to: * subject to the crime of kidnapping Literature * ''Kidnapped'' (novel), an 1886 novel by Robert Louis Stevenson * ''Kidnapped'' (comics), a 2007 graphic novel adaptation of R. L. Stevenson's novel by Alan Grant and Cam ...
Sean and left the piece of Primo's branded shoulder in the freezer. Disillusioned with Rayburn's disrespect toward the fans, Gil spirals further into insanity and acts as though Sean is his own son. He drives to see an old friend, Coop, a catcher that Gil spoke often of playing baseball with in his past. Coop tries to help Sean escape, and reveals that the only time he and Gil ever played together was in
Little League Little League Baseball and Softball (officially, Little League Baseball Inc) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organizationhome run In baseball, a home run (abbreviated HR) is scored when the ball is hit in such a way that the batter is able to circle the bases and reach home plate safely in one play without any errors being committed by the defensive team. A home run i ...
in the upcoming game and dedicate it to Gil, or he will kill his son. With the police on high alert, Gil enters Candlestick Park in the midst of an on-and-off thunderstorm. Rayburn struggles with his emotions while at bat. After several pitches, he finally hits the ball deep into the outfield but not over the fence. Rayburn attempts to score an inside-the-park home run. He is called out, even though he is obviously safe. Rayburn argues with the
umpire An umpire is an official in a variety of sports and competition, responsible for enforcing the rules of the sport, including sportsmanship decisions such as ejection. The term derives from the Old French nonper, ''non'', "not" and ''per' ...
, who turns out to be Gil in disguise. Rayburn knocks Gil to the ground. Dozens of cops and Giants players swarm onto the field and confront Gil. Before the cops arrive, Gil stabs another player, Lanz, who tries to tackle him. Despite warnings from the police, Gil goes into an exaggerated pitching motion with a knife in hand. He asks Rayburn if he cares about baseball, then assumes that he cares "just a little bit." Gil is shot dead as he is about to throw the knife. Police discover Sean at the Little League field, where Gil once played in his childhood. They uncover his obsession with Rayburn, as hundreds of newspaper clippings adorn the deranged fan's hideout. A picture on the wall shows Gil in his past glory, playing Little League baseball and winning a game.


Cast

*
Robert De Niro Robert Anthony De Niro Jr. ( , ; born August 17, 1943) is an American actor. Known for his collaborations with Martin Scorsese, he is considered to be one of the best actors of his generation. De Niro is the recipient of various accolades ...
as Gil Renard / Curly *
Wesley Snipes Wesley Trent Snipes (born July 31, 1962) is an American actor, film producer, and martial artist. His prominent film roles include '' Major League'' (1989), ''New Jack City'' (1991), '' White Men Can't Jump'' (1992), '' Passenger 57'' (1992), '' ...
as Bobby Rayburn *
Benicio del Toro Benicio Monserrate Rafael del Toro Sánchez (born February 19, 1967) is a Puerto Rican actor and producer. He has garnered critical acclaim and numerous accolades, including an Academy Award, a BAFTA Award, a Golden Globe Award, two Screen ...
as Juan Primo *
John Leguizamo John Alberto Leguizamo Peláez (; ; born July 22, 196013:04) is an American actor, comedian, and film producer. He has appeared in over 100 films, produced over 20 films and documentaries, made over 30 television appearances, and has produced ...
as Manny * Patti D'Arbanville as Ellen Renard *
Ellen Barkin Ellen Rona Barkin (born April 16, 1954) is an American actress and a producer. Her breakthrough role was in the 1982 film '' Diner'', and in the following years, she had starring roles in films such as '' Tender Mercies'' (1983), '' Eddie and t ...
as Jewel Stern * Charles Hallahan as Coop * Brandon Hammond as Sean Rayburn * Andrew J. Ferchland as Richie Renard *
Chris Mulkey Chris Mulkey (born May 3, 1948) is an American film and television actor. Career Mulkey played the supporting role of husband to Annie Potts's character in '' Any Day Now'' from 1998 to 2002. He has also appeared in '' Captain Phillips'', '' ...
as Tim (Richie's stepfather) * John Kruk as Lanz, one of Rayburn's teammates *
Dan Butler Daniel Eugene Butler (born December 2, 1954) is an American actor known for his role as Bob "Bulldog" Briscoe on the TV series '' Frasier'' (1993–2004); Art in ''Roseanne'' (1991–1992); for the voice of Mr. Simmons on the ''Nickelodeon'' T ...
as Garrity (Gil's boss) *
Kurt Fuller Kurt Fuller (born September 16, 1953) is an American character actor. He has appeared in a number of television, film, and stage projects. He is best known for his roles in the films ''No Holds Barred'' and ''Ghostbusters II'' (both 1989), ''Wa ...
as Bernie (Jewel's co-worker) * Stanley DeSantis as Stoney * Don S. Davis as Stook, Giants' manager * Michael Jace as a ticket scalper * M. C. Gainey as a Giants fan * Aaron Neville as Himself (opening game singer) *
Jack Black Thomas Jacob Black (born August 28, 1969) is an American actor, comedian, and musician. He is known for his acting roles in the films '' High Fidelity'' (2000), '' Shallow Hal'' (2001), '' Orange County'' (2002), '' School of Rock'' (2003), ' ...
as a radio broadcast technician


Music


Soundtrack

''The Fan'' is the soundtrack to the 1996 film, ''The Fan''. It was released on August 20, 1996 through
TVT Records TVT Records (Tee-Vee Tunes) was an American record label founded by Steve Gottlieb. Over the course of its 24-year history, the label released 25 Gold, Platinum and Multi-Platinum releases. Its roster included Nine Inch Nails, Ja Rule, Lil Jon, ...
and was a combination of electronic and hip hop music. ;Track listing #"Did You Mean What You Said?"- 3:49 (Sovory, Michael Mishaw, Marc Antoine) #"Letting Go"- 5:35 ( Terence Trent D'Arby) #"Unstoppable"- 3:46 ( Mic Geronimo) #"Hymn of the Big Wheel"- 6:34 ( Massive Attack) #"I've Had Enough"- 2:43 ( Kenny Wayne Shepherd) #"Little Bob"- 5:35 ( Black Grape) #"Border Song (Holy Moses)"- 3:37 (Raymond Myles) #"What's Goin' Down"- 4:18 (Honky) #"Deliver Me"- 3:58 (Foreskin 500) #"Forever Ballin'"- 4:24 ( Big Syke & Johnny "J") #"I'm da Man- 5:24 (Jeune) #"Sacrifice"- 19:08 (
Hans Zimmer Hans Florian Zimmer (; born 12 September 1957) is a German film score composer and music producer. He has won two Oscars and four Grammys, and has been nominated for two Emmys and a Tony. Zimmer was also named on the list of Top 100 Living G ...
)


Reception


Box office

The film brought in $18,626,419 in the
United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country Continental United States, primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., ...
and
Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by to ...
. The opening weekend brought in $6,271,406 and then dropped down 47.2% the subsequent weekend.


Critical response

On
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 37% based on reviews from 30 critics. The website's critics' consensus states: "Tony Scott's visceral flash proves to be an ill fit for ''The Fan'', a queasy tale of obsession that succeeds at making audiences uncomfortable, but strikes out when it comes to delivering the thrills." On
Metacritic Metacritic is a website that 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 average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...
, the film has a weighted average score of 32 out of 100 based on reviews from 16 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews." Audiences surveyed 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 a grade "B−" on scale of A+ to F.


See also

*
List of American films of 1996 A list of American films released in 1996. Highest-grossing A B-C D-G H-J K-M N-Q R-S T-Z See also * 1996 in American television * 1996 in the United States Notes References External links * * List of 1996 box office ...


References


External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Fan, The 1996 films 1990s psychological thriller films 1990s sports films American psychological thriller films 1990s English-language films American baseball films Films about fandom Films about stalking Films based on American thriller novels Films directed by Tony Scott Films scored by Hans Zimmer Films set in San Francisco Films set in the San Francisco Bay Area Mandalay Pictures films Films shot in San Francisco San Francisco Giants Scott Free Productions films TriStar Pictures films 1990s American films