''Little Nikita'' is a 1988 American thriller film directed by Richard Benjamin and starring River Phoenix and Sidney Poitier. The film marks the first collaboration between Phoenix and Poitier (the second being ''

Sneakers Sneakers (American English, US) or trainers (British English, UK), also known by a #Names, wide variety of other names, are shoes primarily designed for sports or other forms of physical exercise, but are also widely used for everyday casual ...

'' in 1992).

Plot

Jeffrey Nicolas Grant ( River Phoenix), a brash hyperactive

high school A secondary school, high school, or senior school, is an institution that provides secondary education. Some secondary schools provide both ''lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) and ''upper secondary education'' (ages 14 to 18), i.e., ...

student, lives in a

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suburb with his parents, who own a successful garden center. Keen to fly, he has applied for entry to the

Air Force Academy An air force academy or air academy is a national institution that provides initial officer training, possibly including undergraduate level education, to air force officer cadets who are preparing to be commissioned officers in a national air forc ...

. During a routine background check on Jeff,

FBI The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic Intelligence agency, intelligence and Security agency, security service of the United States and Federal law enforcement in the United States, its principal federal law enforcement ag ...

agent Roy Parmenter (Poitier) finds evidence they may be sleeper agents for the

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. Unable to arrest them as they have not done anything illegal, Roy continues his investigation, moves into the house across the street from the Grant family, and worms his way into their confidence. He eventually confronts Jeff with his suspicions and seeks Jeff's cooperation to learn more about his parents. Initially unbelieving, Jeff is soon forced to accept the facts and discovers that even his name is fictitious and that his real name is Nikita. Roy confides to Jeff that twenty years earlier, his partner was killed by a Soviet agent, known only as 'Scuba' ( Richard Lynch), and that he is still at large. 'Scuba' is now a rogue agent, killing

KGB The Committee for State Security (, ), abbreviated as KGB (, ; ) was the main security agency of the Soviet Union from 1954 to 1991. It was the direct successor of preceding Soviet secret police agencies including the Cheka, Joint State Polit ...

agents one by one, including "sleepers". Meanwhile, a Soviet spy-catcher, Konstantin Karpov ( Richard Bradford), has been sent from the Soviet embassy in

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to 'reel in' Scuba. Jeff is captured and held as a hostage at gunpoint by Karpov, as he and 'Scuba' make their way to the Mexican border on the San Diego Trolley. Roy has also confronted them and is holding Karpov at gunpoint. At the border, the situation resolves itself; Karpov and 'Scuba' cross into Mexico, and the Grant family remain in the United States.

Cast

* Sidney Poitier as Roy Parmenter * River Phoenix as Jeff Grant / Nikita *

Richard Jenkins Richard Dale Jenkins (born May 4, 1947) is an American actor. He is well known for his portrayal of deceased patriarch Nathaniel Fisher on the HBO funeral drama series ''Six Feet Under (TV series), Six Feet Under'' (2001–2005). He began his c ...

as Richard Grant * Caroline Kava as Elizabeth Grant * Richard Bradford as Konstantin Karpov * Loretta Devine as Verna McLaughlin * Richard Lynch as Scuba * Lucy Deakins as Barbara Kerry In addition, the film co-starred Jerry Hardin as Brewer, as Bunin, Ronald Guttnan as Spassky and Jacob Vargas as Miguel.

Production

A parade scene was filmed in downtown La Mesa and much of the principal photography occurred throughout

Reception

The movie received mixed reviews and holds a "Rotten" score of 53% 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 a sample of 15 critics. Walter Goodman said that Benjamin's directing strategy in the film "seems to have been to paper over the holes in the plot with routine moves from spy shows past, in hopes of making the improbable passable."

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

awarded the film one and a half stars, suspecting that Poitier and the makers of the film had no idea of how to use a computer, and that "it turns all of the characters into chess pieces, whose relationships depend on the plot, not on human chemistry. Since the plot is absurdly illogical, you're not left with much."

Box office

It grossed $866,398 on its opening weekend. It went on to make $1.7 million in North America.

References

External links

* * * {{Authority control 1988 films 1988 drama films 1980s spy films 1988 thriller films American spy films American thriller films Cold War spy films Films scored by Marvin Hamlisch Films directed by Richard Benjamin Columbia Pictures films Films with screenplays by Bo Goldman Films set in San Diego Films about the Federal Bureau of Investigation 1980s English-language films 1980s American films Films shot in San Diego English-language thriller films