''The Contract'' is a 2006 German-American

action thriller The action film is a film genre that predominantly features chase sequences, fights, shootouts, explosions, and stunt work. The specifics of what constitutes an action film has been in scholarly debate since the 1980s. While some scholars such as D ...

film directed by

Bruce Beresford Bruce Beresford (; born 16 August 1940) is an Australian film director, opera director, screenwriter, and producer. He began his career during the Australian New Wave, and has made more than 30 feature films over a 50-year career, both locally ...

and written by television writer Stephen Katz and John Darrouzet. ''The Contract'' stars

Morgan Freeman Morgan Freeman (born June 1, 1937) is an American actor, producer, and narrator. In a career spanning six decades, he has received numerous accolades, including an Academy Award and a Golden Globe Award, as well as a nomination for a Tony ...

as professional assassin Frank Carden and

John Cusack John Paul Cusack ( ; born June 28, 1966)(28 June 1996)Today's birthdays ''Santa Cruz Sentinel'', ("Actors John Cusack is 30") is an American actor. With a career spanning over four decades, he has appeared in over 80 films. He began acting in f ...

as a teacher who gets entangled into his latest assignment during a camp trip with his son. Released direct to video in the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

and Europe, ''The Contract'' received little critical notice despite its high-profile cast.

Plot

Frank Carden is a professional assassin who has been hired to kill a reclusive billionaire named Lydell Hammond Sr., a vocal opponent of

stem cell In multicellular organisms, stem cells are undifferentiated or partially differentiated cells that can change into various types of cells and proliferate indefinitely to produce more of the same stem cell. They are the earliest type of cell ...

research. Carden's plan goes awry when he gets injured in a car accident and ends up in the hospital. When the hospital staff see his gun, they call the police. They are able to peel away his false identity and federal marshals are called in to pick him up. Meanwhile, widower Ray Keene, an awkward high school gym teacher, ex-cop and well-intentioned but not very able dad to Chris, belatedly realizes the need to bond with his son when the latter gets caught smoking

marijuana Cannabis (), commonly known as marijuana (), weed, pot, and ganja, List of slang names for cannabis, among other names, is a non-chemically uniform psychoactive drug from the ''Cannabis'' plant. Native to Central or South Asia, cannabis has ...

and takes him hiking in the wilderness. Carden is being driven through that same wilderness by the marshals but his men stage a rescue attempt. The car is crashed and most of the marshals end up dead. The surviving marshal asks Keene to take the prisoner to the authorities and then dies of his injuries. Ray and Chris have to get Carden out of the wilderness and hand him over to the authorities. Carden's men, highly skilled ex-military thugs, track them down to rescue Carden and kill the Keenes. The pursuit brings a couple, Sandra and Lochlan into the crossfire, with Lochlan being killed by Carden's men. In a tense standoff in a cabin in the woods, Carden's friends turn up and Keene agrees to let Carden go. Just at that moment, one of Carden's thugs bursts in and punches Chris, causing Keene to panic and kill him, while Sandra shoots the other as he enters firing. Carden escapes, taking Chris as a hostage, while the local police rescue Sandra and Keene. Miles, Carden's mission handler, tells Davis, Carden's recent recruit, to kill Carden and Chris and to make it look like Carden did it. She also tells him to kill Keene in case Carden told him anything about his job. Feeling defeated and resting at home, a televised news report echoes an earlier conversation about Carden's job description with the key phrase "exterminating obstacles to progress" which makes Keene aware of Carden's intended target. Keene heads to the funeral of Hammond Jr., to intercept Carden, inadvertently saving Carden from Davis. Carden gets the upper hand on Davis, killing him with his own sniper rifle. However, the battle forces Carden to miss his own window of opportunity to assassinate Hammond Sr. Carden relents in giving Keene a set of keys to a hotel room where Carden locked up Chris, letting father and son reunite while he disappears. In Washington, D.C., Carden intercepts Miles, aware of her role in hiring Davis to kill him. Carden threatens to "come after her" if any harm were to come to the Keene family. Two weeks after the incident, Keene enters a relationship with Sandra and holds a family barbecue, expressing disbelief in hearing a radio news report about Hammond Sr., dying in a "boating accident", realizing that Carden finished his contract killing.

Cast

as Frank Carden *

as Ray Keene * Jamie Anderson as Chris Keene *

Alice Krige Alice Maud Krige (; born June 28, 1954) is a South African actress and producer. Her big break came in 1981, when she starred as the Gilbert and Sullivan singer Sybil Gordon in the British historical film ''Chariots of Fire'', and as Eva Gall ...

as Miles *

Megan Dodds Megan Dodds is an American actress. She played Kate in the 2006 series ''Not Going Out'', alongside Lee Mack and Tim Vine, and has appeared in the series '' Spooks'', ''House'', '' Detroit 1-8-7'', and '' CSI: NY'', and the films '' Ever After'' ...

as Sandra * Corey Johnson as Davis *

Jonathan Hyde Jonathan Stephen Geoffrey King (born 21 May 1948), known professionally as Jonathan Hyde, is an Australian actor. Hyde is perhaps best known for roles as Herbert Arthur Runcible Cadbury in the comedy film '' Richie Rich'' (1994), Samuel Parrish ...

as Turner *

Bill Smitrovich William Stanley Zmitrowicz Jr. (born May 16, 1947), known professionally as Bill Smitrovich ( ), is an American actor. Personal life Smitrovich was born on May 16, 1947, in Bridgeport, Connecticut, the son of Anna (married and maiden names, née ...

as Chief Ed Wainwright * Ned Bellamy as Deputy Evans * Anthony Warren as Royko * Thomas Lockyer as Johnson * Ian Shaw as Michaels * Jonas Talkington as Paramedic * Ryan Spike Dauner as Helicopter Pilot #1 * Mike Diamente as Agent Reyes * Atanas Srebrev as Agent Rodriguez * Maynard Eziashi as Agent Chuck Robbins

Production

Director Bruce Beresford talks extensively about the production of the movie in his memoir ''Josh Hartnett Definitely Wants To do This... True Stories From A Life In The Screen Trade''. The film was shot almost exclusively in

Bulgaria Bulgaria, officially the Republic of Bulgaria, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the eastern portion of the Balkans directly south of the Danube river and west of the Black Sea. Bulgaria is bordered by Greece and Turkey t ...

and the DSK Bank central headquarters served as one of the main sets. The scenes on the large rock were filmed at the Zlatnite Mostove on the

Vitosha Vitosha ( ), the ancient ''Scomius'' or ''Scombrus'', is a mountain massif, on the outskirts of Sofia, the capital of Bulgaria. Vitosha is one of the symbols of Sofia and the closest site for hiking, alpinism and skiing. Convenient bus lines and ...

Mountain by

Sofia Sofia is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Bulgaria, largest city of Bulgaria. It is situated in the Sofia Valley at the foot of the Vitosha mountain, in the western part of the country. The city is built west of the Is ...

, the capital city of

Reception

The film received negative reviews. It has a 0% rating on

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review aggregator, 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 ...

from 6 critics who reviewed it.

Leonard Maltin Leonard Michael Maltin (born December 18, 1950) is an American film critic, film historian, and author. He is known for his book of film capsule reviews, '' Leonard Maltin's Movie Guide'', published from 1969 to 2014. Maltin was the film criti ...

awarded the film two stars.page 283

References

External links

* *
The Contract Review
{{DEFAULTSORT:Contract, The 2006 films Nu Image films 2006 crime thriller films Films directed by Bruce Beresford Films produced by Randall Emmett Films shot in Bulgaria Films scored by Normand Corbeil MoviePass Films films Revelations Entertainment films 2000s English-language films English-language crime thriller films