The Hunted (2003 Film)
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''The Hunted'' is a 2003 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
William Friedkin William David Friedkin (; August 29, 1935 – August 7, 2023) was an American film, television and opera director, producer, and screenwriter who was closely identified with the "New Hollywood" movement of the 1970s. Beginning his career in doc ...
. It stars
Tommy Lee Jones Tommy Lee Jones (born September 15, 1946) is an American actor. He has received List of awards and nominations received by Tommy Lee Jones, various accolades including an Academy Award, a Golden Globe Award, a Primetime Emmy Award and two Scre ...
as a retired civilian contractor and SOF Trainer, who is tasked with tracking down a former student of his played by
Benicio del Toro Benicio Monserrate Rafael del Toro Sánchez (; born February 19, 1967) is a Puerto Rico, Puerto Rican actor. List of awards and nominations received by Benicio del Toro, His accolades include an Academy Awards, Academy Award, a British Academy ...
who has gone rogue;
Connie Nielsen Connie Inge-Lise Nielsen (born 3 July 1965) is a Danish actress. She has starred as Lucilla in the films ''Gladiator'' (2000) and ''Gladiator II'' (2024) and as Queen Hippolyta in the DC Extended Universe. She has also starred in films such as ...
also stars. The film was released on March 14, 2003. It received mixed reviews from critics and grossed $46 million against its $55 million budget.


Plot

The movie begins with Aaron Hallam, a SOF operator, fighting as part of a unit in the
war in Kosovo The Kosovo War (; sr-Cyrl-Latn, Косовски рат, Kosovski rat) was an armed conflict in Kosovo that lasted from 28 February 1998 until 11 June 1999. It ...
. Infiltrating a mosque, he successfully assassinates a
genocidal Genocide is violence that targets individuals because of their membership of a group and aims at the destruction of a people. Raphael Lemkin, who first coined the term, defined genocide as "the destruction of a nation or of an ethnic group" b ...
Serbian military leader. Hallam is awarded the
Silver Star The Silver Star Medal (SSM) is the United States Armed Forces' third-highest military decoration for valor in combat. The Silver Star Medal is awarded primarily to members of the United States Armed Forces for gallantry in action against a ...
for this act, but is left
traumatized Psychological trauma (also known as mental trauma, psychiatric trauma, emotional damage, or psychotrauma) is an emotional response caused by severe distressing events, such as bodily injury, sexual violence, or other threats to the life of the ...
by the atrocities he witnessed. In Silver Falls State Park, Oregon, Hallam encounters two apparent deer hunters with expensive high-powered sniper rifles. He accuses them of not being genuine hunters due to their usage of guns and scopes. The two men pursue him, but are no match for his tactics/traps and are brutally murdered. Meanwhile, L.T. Bonham, a former civilian survival and combat instructor for spec ops soldiers, lives in a secluded cabin deep in British Columbia. He finds a white wolf caught in a snare, frees it, treats its injury, then tracks down in a bar the man who set the snare, knocks him out, then warns his buddies not to use them again. Sometime later, Bonham is approached by the FBI, who asks him to help apprehend the perpetrator of the killings. Bonham agrees and joins the FBI task force led by Abby Durrell. Arriving at the crime scene, he proves that one man with a knife was responsible for the hunters’s deaths, not several men with hatchets as previously believed by the agents. Bonham convinces Abby to let him track the killer on his own, but she insists that he take an FBI radio. Bonham discovers Hallam's personal effects in a small cave just before the assassin appears, and recognizes him as one of his students. Hallam asks Bonham why he never answered the letters he sent, but Bonham demands to know why Hallam killed those hunters. His protege explains that he believes the men were “sweepers” sent by the
government A government is the system or group of people governing an organized community, generally a State (polity), state. In the case of its broad associative definition, government normally consists of legislature, executive (government), execu ...
to eliminate him. Bonham fails to talk Hallam into surrendering, and the two of them come to blows before Hallam is tranquilized and taken into custody by the FBI, who tracked his teacher’s radio. During his interrogation, Aaron is uncooperative, rambling about the slaughter of chickens, and how humans would feel if they were in the same position. He only wants to talk to L.T, who urges him not to discuss his covert operations. When questioned by Abby, Bonham admits that his father prevented him from joining the military after his brother was killed during the war in Vietnam to avoid losing another son. L.T followed his father’s footsteps and became a tracker before being contracted by the Armed Forces. The FBI is then forced to hand Hallam over to three of his fellow operators led by Dale Hewitt, who arrives with a letter authorizing them to take Hallam. Hewitt tells them that Hallam lost control during a mission that came after the war in Kosovo, killing numerous innocent civilians, and that he cannot stand trial because his military assignments are classified. While being transported, Aaron, upon learning that he will be
summarily executed In civil and military jurisprudence, summary execution is the putting to death of a person accused of a crime without the benefit of a free and fair trial. The term results from the legal concept of summary justice to punish a summary offense, a ...
to ensure his silence, manages to kill the operatives and escape. Alerted to the incident, Bonham and the FBI search for Hallam. Bonham finds him at the house of his ex-girlfriend and her daughter in Portland, Oregon. The two have a tense stare-down and stand-off, but Hallam flees after Abby arrives to apprehend him. Bonham follows him out of the window, and narrowly dodges a car Aaron stole from the garage. Later, in a wooden compartment, Durell and Bonham find Hallam’s silver star and a letter accusing L.T of sending the aforementioned hunters to kill him, confirming his paranoid mental state. Relentlessly chased by the FBI, his former instructor, and the Portland Police Bureau, Hallam flees into a sewer. There, he ambushes and kills Harry Van Zandt, Abby’s Boss, as well as her partner and friend Bobby Moret, before escaping by boarding a streetcar to blend in. The police block the bridge, and he takes a hostage at knife-point to escape from Bonham. Eventually, Aaron climbs to and then dives off the top of the bridge, fleeing upstream. Abby, devastated and wanting revenge for her fallen colleagues, intends to deploy the full force of the FBI into the woods in search of Hallam. Bonham protests this, asserting that sending more agents after Hallam will only result in further bloodshed, and unsuccessfully argues that he is the only one who can stop the renegade soldier he trained. Resurfacing up the river, Hallam crafts a knife out of reclaimed metal, and Bonham crafts a knife out of stone and enters the wilderness alone to search. Bonham is caught by one of Hallam's traps and is thrown down a waterfall. He meets his student at the bottom, and they engage in hand-to-hand combat. The two sustain severe injuries, and Bonham’s knife is broken, but he gains the upper hand and fatally stabs Hallam with his own knife just as Abby and the FBI arrive. Bonham, mostly recovered, returns to his home in British Columbia. He rereads and then burns Hallam's aforementioned letters that expressed his concerns over the things he witnessed during his military service. Going outside to get more firewood, Bonham spots the same white wolf he saved earlier running through the snow, watches it contemplatively.


Cast


Production

The film was partially filmed in and around
Portland, Oregon Portland ( ) is the List of cities in Oregon, most populous city in the U.S. state of Oregon, located in the Pacific Northwest region. Situated close to northwest Oregon at the confluence of the Willamette River, Willamette and Columbia River, ...
and
Silver Falls State Park Silver Falls State Park is a state park in the U.S. state of Oregon, located near Silverton, Oregon, Silverton, about east-southeast of Salem, Oregon, Salem. It is the largest state park in Oregon with an area of more than , and it includes mo ...
. Portland scenes were filmed in Oxbow Park, the
South Park Blocks The South Park Blocks form a city park in downtown Portland, Oregon. ''The Oregonian'' has called it Portland's "extended family room", as Pioneer Courthouse Square is known as Portland's "living room". Twelve blocks in length, it is intersecte ...
, the
Columbia Blvd Treatment Plant Columbia most often refers to: * Columbia (personification), the historical personification of the United States * Columbia University, a private university in New York City * Columbia Pictures, an American film studio owned by Sony Pictures * Co ...
, and
Tom McCall Waterfront Park Governor Tom McCall Waterfront Park is a park located in downtown Portland, Oregon, along the Willamette River. After the 1974 removal of Harbor Drive, a major milestone in the freeway removal movement, the park was opened to the public in 19 ...
, as well as a chase scene involving a fake
light rail Light rail (or light rail transit, abbreviated to LRT) is a form of passenger urban rail transit that uses rolling stock derived from tram technology National Conference of the Transportation Research Board while also having some features from ...
train on the
Hawthorne Bridge The Hawthorne Bridge is a truss bridge with a vertical lift that spans the Willamette River in Portland, Oregon, joining Hawthorne Boulevard and Madison Street. It is the oldest vertical-lift bridge in operation in the United States and the o ...
. The technical adviser for the film was Tom Brown Jr., an American outdoorsman and wilderness survival expert. The story is partially inspired by a real-life incident involving Brown, who was asked to track down a former pupil and
Special Forces Special forces or special operations forces (SOF) are military units trained to conduct special operations. NATO has defined special operations as "military activities conducted by specially designated, organized, selected, trained and equip ...
sergeant who had evaded capture by authorities. This story is told in Tom's book, ''Case Files Of The Tracker''. Chapter 2 of this book, "My Frankenstein," describes Brown's tracking and fight with a former special operations veteran. The hand-to-hand combat and knife fighting in the film featured Filipino Martial Arts. Thomas Kier and
Rafael Kayanan Rafael Kayanan (born 1962) is a Filipino-born naturalized American comics artist and Filipino martial arts master in the Sayoc Kali system. Biography Comics Rafael Kayanan stated in a 2007 interview that he "grew up with Filipino ''Komiks'' ma ...
of Sayoc Kali were brought in by
Benicio del Toro Benicio Monserrate Rafael del Toro Sánchez (; born February 19, 1967) is a Puerto Rico, Puerto Rican actor. List of awards and nominations received by Benicio del Toro, His accolades include an Academy Awards, Academy Award, a British Academy ...
. They were credited as knife fight choreographers for the film.


Reception


Box office

The
box office A box office or ticket office is a place where ticket (admission), tickets are sold to the public for admission to an event. Patrons may perform the transaction at a countertop, through a hole in a wall or window, or at a Wicket gate, wicket. ...
for the film was less than its reported
production budget Production budget is a term used specifically in film production and, more generally, in business. A "film production budget" determines how much will be spent on the entire film project. This involves identifying the elements and then estimatin ...
of $55 million. ''The Hunted'' opened on March 14, 2003, at #3 in 2,516 theaters across North America and grossed $13.48 million during its opening weekend. It went on to gross $34,244,097 in North America and $11,252,437 internationally markets for a worldwide total of $45,496,534.
Buena Vista International Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures is an American film distributor within the Disney Entertainment division of the Walt Disney Company. It handles theatrical and occasional digital distribution, marketing, and promotion for films produced and ...
handles the distribution in Argentina, Australia, Belgium, Netherlands and parts of Latin America.
Columbia TriStar Film Distributors International Sony Pictures Entertainment Motion Picture Group (formerly known as the Columbia TriStar Motion Picture Group until 2013, and abbreviated as SPMPG) is a division of Sony Pictures Entertainment to manage its motion picture operations. It was laun ...
handles Finnish & Swedish theatrical distribution through its then distribution partner
Nordisk Film Nordisk Film A/S () is a Danish entertainment company involved in film production and distribution and a subsidiary of Egmont Group. The multimedia entertainment company is also involved in television production, cinemas, computer games and ...
. In United Kingdom -
Redbus Film Distribution Lions Gate UK Limited (formerly Redbus Film Distribution, and briefly known as Helkon SK between 2001 and 2003) is the British subsidiary of the American film company, Lionsgate Studios. Founded in 1999 by Simon Franks and Zygi Kamasa, Redbus ...
handles distribution under the name Helkon SK. It was released on 6 June 2003 (despite being renamed to Redbus on 6 May 2003).


Critical response

Audiences polled by
CinemaScore CinemaScore is an American 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 from the data. Background Ed Mintz, who ...
gave the film an average grade of "C" on an A+ to F scale. Many reviewers noted striking similarities to ''
First Blood ''First Blood'' is a 1982 American war action film starring Sylvester Stallone as Vietnam War veteran John Rambo. Directed by Ted Kotcheff, the film was co-written by Michael Kozoll, William Sackheim, and Stallone, deriving from the 1972 no ...
'', with which this film was unfavorably compared. ''
Rolling Stone ''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. The magazine was first known fo ...
'' called it "Just a ''Rambo'' rehash." While there was some praise for the cinematography and the action scenes, much criticism was directed at the thin plot and characterization, and the general implausibility. Rex Reed of the ''
New York Observer New or NEW may refer to: Music * New, singer of K-pop group The Boyz * ''New'' (album), by Paul McCartney, 2013 ** "New" (Paul McCartney song), 2013 * ''New'' (EP), by Regurgitator, 1995 * "New" (Daya song), 2017 * "New" (No Doubt song), 1 ...
'' called it a "Ludicrous, plotless, ho-hum tale of lurid confrontation." The UK magazine, ''
Total Film ''Total Film'' was a British film magazine published 13 times a year (published monthly with a summer issue added, between the July and August issues, every year since issue 91, 2004) by Future Publishing. The magazine was launched in 1997 and of ...
'' said the film was "scarcely exciting to watch." However, the film also received praise from other high-profile critics, particularly for the fact it kept the special effects and stunts restrained. For example,
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 ...
said, "We've seen so many fancy high-tech computer-assisted fight scenes in recent movies that we assume the fighters can fly. They live in a world of gravity-free speed-up. Not so with Friedkin's characters." He reviewed the film on his own site and scored it 3 1/2 out of 4 stars. ''
Time Out London ''Time Out'' is a global magazine published by Time Out Group. ''Time Out'' started as a London-only publication in 1968 and has expanded its editorial recommendations to 333 cities in 59 countries worldwide. In 2012, the London edition becam ...
'' was also positive saying, "Friedkin's lean, mean thriller shows itself more interested in process than context, subtlety and character development pared away in favour of headlong momentum and crunching set pieces."The Hunted Review. Movie Reviews - Film - Time Out London
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References


External links


Official site
* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Hunted, The 2003 films 2003 action thriller films 2003 crime thriller films 2000s survival films American action thriller films American chase films American crime thriller films American survival films English-language action thriller films 2000s English-language films Films about Delta Force Films about the Federal Bureau of Investigation Films about hunting Films directed by William Friedkin Films produced by James Jacks Films scored by Brian Tyler Films set in the 1990s Films set in 2003 Films set in Oregon Films set in Portland, Oregon Films set in Serbia Films shot in Oregon Films shot in Portland, Oregon Lakeshore Entertainment films Paramount Pictures films Films about the Kosovo War Kosovo War in fiction 2000s American films English-language crime thriller films English-language adventure films