''Man on a Ledge'' is a 2012 American

action thriller film Action film is a film genre in which the protagonist is thrust into a series of events that typically involve violence and physical feats. The genre tends to feature a mostly resourceful hero struggling against incredible odds, which include life ...

directed by Asger Leth, starring Sam Worthington, Jamie Bell,

Elizabeth Banks Elizabeth Banks (born Elizabeth Irene Mitchell; February 10, 1974) is an American actress and filmmaker. She is known for playing Effie Trinket in ''The Hunger Games'' film series (2012–2015) and Gail Abernathy-McKadden in the ''Pitch Perf ...

Edward Burns Edward Fitzgerald Burns (born January 29, 1968) is an American actor, producer, writer, and director best known for appearing in several films including ''Saving Private Ryan'' (1998), '' 15 Minutes'' (2001), ''Life or Something Like It'' (200 ...

Anthony Mackie Anthony Dwane Mackie (born September 23, 1978) is an American actor. Mackie made his acting debut starring in the semi-biographical drama film '' 8 Mile'' (2002). He was later nominated for the Independent Spirit Award for Best Actor for his pe ...

, Genesis Rodriguez, and

Ed Harris Edward Allen Harris (born November 28, 1950) is an American actor and filmmaker. His performances in ''Apollo 13'' (1995), '' The Truman Show'' (1998), '' Pollock'' (2000), and '' The Hours'' (2002) earned him critical acclaim and Academy Award ...

. Filming took place in New York City on top of the Roosevelt Hotel. The film received generally negative reviews from critics and grossed $47 million against its $42 million budget.

Plot

Joe Walker checks into The Roosevelt Hotel, enters his hotel room on the 21st floor, and climbs on the ledge, apparently ready to commit suicide. The crowd below calls the police. Dante Marcus controls the crowd, while Jack Dougherty talks with Walker. Walker will only speak to negotiator Lydia Mercer, who is on a leave of absence after failing to save a suicidal policeman. Mercer arrives at the hotel room and acquires Walker's fingerprints from a shared cigarette. Dougherty has them analyzed and discovers that "Walker" is Nick Cassidy, an ex-policeman who was jailed for stealing a diamond from businessman David Englander. Nick was given a 25-year sentence but escaped one month earlier during his father's funeral. Nick maintains his innocence and claims that Englander has framed him, as Englander lost his fortune in a bad business deal and was too proud to sell the diamond. Nick distracts the police while his brother, Joey, and Joey's girlfriend, Angie, break into Englander's vault across the street to recover the diamond and prove his innocence. Cassidy must use

double entendre A double entendre (plural double entendres) is a figure of speech or a particular way of wording that is devised to have a double meaning, of which one is typically obvious, whereas the other often conveys a message that would be too socially ...

s to provide instructions to Joey and Angie through an earpiece while speaking to Mercer. Dougherty informs Marcus of Nick's identity, and Marcus orders the jewelry store's security to check the vault. Joey and Angie evade them but do not find the diamond. They deliberately set off an alarm, trick Englander into retrieving the diamond, and ambush him in his office, where they steal the diamond at gunpoint. Nick's ex-partner, Mike Ackerman, arrives at the hotel with evidence that Nick is planning something and demands to be allowed into the hotel room. Mercer distrusts him, and Dougherty backs her up. Ackerman claims he has found bomb schematics in a storage unit Nick rented and is convinced that he will detonate an explosive somewhere. While the crowd is evacuated by the

bomb squad Bomb disposal is an explosives engineering profession using the process by which hazardous explosive devices are rendered safe. ''Bomb disposal'' is an all-encompassing term to describe the separate, but interrelated functions in the milit ...

, Mercer, believing in Nick's innocence, calls internal affairs and discovers that three of the cops employed by Englander were suspected of being corrupt: Ackerman, Marcus, and a deceased officer called Joe Walker. Joey and Angie enter the hotel and hand the bag containing the diamond to the hotel concierge. The concierge pockets the diamond while placing the bag onto the rack. Englander calls Marcus, one of the corrupt cops who helped him frame Nick, and has him capture Joey and Angie as they reach the street. Nick attempts to escape through the hotel, pursued by a tactical team. The concierge aids him by handing him a disguise containing the diamond. Marcus chases Nick to the roof, where he has Mercer arrested for obstruction to clear the roof. Englander brings Joey and Angie, threatening to kill Joey unless Nick gives him the diamond. Nick turns it over, and Englander leaves. Mercer escapes custody in an elevator and rushes back to the roof. Marcus demands Nick jump off the roof. Ackerman arrives, shoots Marcus, and is shot in return. Ackerman apologizes to Nick and says he did not know Englander would frame him. Marcus' bulletproof vest saves him. As he prepares to kill Nick, Mercer arrives and shoots him. Englander mocks Nick as he leaves the area. Nick jumps from the roof onto an airbag set up earlier by the police and catches up to Englander. With the assistance of a crowd member, Nick evades capture and pulls the diamond from Englander's jacket, publicly proving his innocence. Nick is cleared of all charges and released from custody. He meets Joey, Angie, and Mercer at a bar owned by Nick's father, Frank Cassidy, who had faked his death and pretended to be the hotel concierge. Mercer asks Nick to "explain everything" to her as Joey proposes to Angie with a diamond ring, presumably stolen from Englander's vault. She accepts, and they all celebrate together.

Cast

* Sam Worthington as Nick Cassidy / Joe Walker"Elizabeth Banks and Sam Worthington to Star in Man on a Ledge"
''BuzzSugar.com''. Retrieved 2011-08-01. * Jamie Bell as Joey CassidyFleming, Mike (2010-09-02)
"Jamie Bell Joins Thriller 'Man On A Ledge'"
''Deadline.com''. Retrieved 2011-08-01. *

as Lydia Mercer *

as David Englander"‘Man On A Ledge’ Adds Ed Harris and Titus Welliver"
''Deadline.com''. Retrieved 2011-05-07.(2010-10-29)
"Ed Harris joins Summit's 'Man on a Ledge'"
. ''AllVoices.com''. Retrieved 2011-08-01. *

as Mike Ackerman * Genesis Rodriguez as Angie María López *

Kyra Sedgwick Kyra Minturn Sedgwick (; born August 19, 1965) is an American actress, producer and director. For her starring role as Deputy Chief Brenda Leigh Johnson on the TNT crime drama ''The Closer'', she won a Golden Globe Award in 2007 and an Emmy Awa ...

as Suzanne "Suzie" MoralesChitwood, Adam (2010-11-05)
"Kyra Sedgwick Joins Sam Worthington Thriller MAN ON A LEDGE"
''Collider.com''. Retrieved 2011-08-01. *

as Jack Dougherty *

Titus Welliver Titus B. Welliver (born March 12, 1962) is an American actor. He is best known for his portrayals of the Man in Black in ''Lost'', Silas Adams in '' Deadwood'', Jimmy O’Phelan in ''Sons of Anarchy'', and the title role in the television seri ...

as Dante Marcus * Felix Solis as Nestor * William Sadler as the hotel concierge, later revealed to be Frank Cassidy * Pooja Kumar as Nina, Englander's assistant

Development

On September 3, 2010, it was confirmed that Jamie Bell had joined the cast. Filming began on October 30 in New York City. On November 1,

and

were confirmed to have joined the cast. The first image from the set was revealed on November 2, 2010. The first teaser poster for the film was released on November 5, 2010. The first trailer was released by Summit Entertainment on September 22, 2011.Good, Ben (2012-02-02)
"Trailer Tuesday: Man on a Ledge"
. ''Clapperboardblog.com''. Retrieved 2012-02-02. The film was distributed by Summit Entertainment and

E1 Entertainment E1, E01, E.I or E-1 may refer to: Transportation Aircraft * Azcárate E-1, a Mexican sesquiplane trainer * Fokker E.I, a German fighter aircraft * Grumman E-1 Tracer, an American airborne early warning aircraft * Hydra Technologies E1 Gavilá ...

(UK). During development, a large, on-rails prop was used to make the Roosevelt hotel seem taller, so that the hotel would remain consistent with the shots filmed in-studio instead of on the hotel itself. During the scenes where Nick is running along the sides of the hotel, extra floors were added during post-production to save the need for a second attachment. In post-production, crowds were edited in from other shots so that the crowds would appear consistent throughout the film. The lead actor, Sam Worthington, admitted during interviews that he had a fear of heights that he had to tackle during recording of the film.

Release

Box office

''Man on a Ledge'' grossed $18.6 million in the United States and Canada, and $29 million in other territories, for a worldwide total of $47.6 million. The film placed fifth in the box office with $8 million gross on its opening weekend, and made $4.4 million in its second, falling to ninth.

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 holds an approval rating of 31% based on 162 reviews and an average score of 4.8/10. The website's critics consensus reads: "Uninspired acting and preposterous plotlines defuse ''Man on a Ledge''s mildly intriguing premise." 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 ...

, it has a weighted average score of 40 out of 100 based on reviews from 32 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.

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 ...

of the ''

Chicago Sun-Times The ''Chicago Sun-Times'' is a daily newspaper published in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Since 2022, it is the flagship paper of Chicago Public Media, and has the second largest circulation among Chicago newspapers, after the '' Chicago ...

'' said, "The movie cuts back and forth between two preposterous plot lines and uses the man on the ledge as a device to pump up the tension." According to Ebert, too much depends on Nick securing a leave from prison, escaping from two armed guards, reaching Manhattan, checking into the correct hotel room on the correct floor and not falling off prematurely. Anna Smith felt that the film "embrace its own lunacy readily enough", but criticized the "ridiculous ending". Similarly,

The New Zealand Herald ''The New Zealand Herald'' is a daily newspaper published in Auckland, New Zealand, owned by New Zealand Media and Entertainment, and considered a newspaper of record for New Zealand. It has the largest newspaper circulation of all newspape ...

considered the film "a missed opportunity" that doesn't live up to its potential", pointing at the "limited" location Sam Worthington had to work with, praising how he still appeared "suitably terrified".

Home media

The DVD and Blu-ray Disc was released in the United States on May 29, 2012 after being absorbed by Lionsgate. The disc contains a 20-minute

featurette In the American film industry, a featurette is a kind of film that is shorter than a full-length feature, but longer than a short film. The term may refer to either of two types of content: a shorter film or a companion film. Medium-length fil ...

, which shows behind-the-scenes footage, with an explanation of how various shots or effects were achieved. For instance, producer Lorenzo explains how shots of the crowd were composited onto a green

chroma key Chroma key compositing, or chroma keying, is a visual-effects and post-production technique for compositing (layering) two images or video streams together based on colour hues ( chroma range). The technique has been used in many fields to ...

ing carpet, laid down underneath the fake ledge used for shots recorded in-studio. A version of the film with voiceover is included for the visually impaired. The Steelbook version of the film does not have menus, so is missing the special features present in the DVD and Blu-ray releases. The 4K UHD Blu-ray was released in April 2019.

Music

The soundtrack to ''Man on a Ledge'' was released on January 27, 2012. James Southall commented that while "there is occasionally some reasonably tense action music", he found most of the score "very tired-sounding". Jørn Tillnes of Soundtrackgeek.com described it as "succeed ngin almost every way", but that he "would prefer more variation", as he found that "as a complete listening experience, you get bored with it".

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Man on a Ledge 2012 films 2012 action thriller films 2010s crime thriller films American action thriller films American crime thriller films American heist films Di Bonaventura Pictures films Fictional portrayals of the New York City Police Department Films about brothers Films about suicide Films about the New York City Police Department Films produced by Lorenzo di Bonaventura Films scored by Henry Jackman Films set in hotels Films set in Manhattan Films shot in New York City Lionsgate films Summit Entertainment films 2010s English-language films 2010s American films