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| cinematography = [[Matthew F. Leonetti]]
| cinematography = [[Matthew F. Leonetti]]
| editing = [[Neil Travis]]
| editing = [[Neil Travis]]
| studio = {{Plainlist|
| studio = {{Unbulleted list|Phase 1 Productions|[[Revelations Entertainment]]}}
* Phase 1 Productions
* [[Revelations Entertainment]]
}}
| distributor = [[Paramount Pictures]]
| distributor = [[Paramount Pictures]]
| released = {{Film date|2001|04|06}}
| released = {{Film date|2001|04|06}}
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| gross = $105.2 million<ref name="mojo" />
| gross = $105.2 million<ref name="mojo" />
}}
}}

'''''Along Came a Spider''''' is a 2001 American [[neo-noir]] [[psychological thriller|psychological thriller film]] directed by [[Lee Tamahori]]. It is the second installment in the [[Alex Cross (film series)|''Alex Cross'' film series]] and a sequel to the 1997 film ''[[Kiss the Girls (1997 film)|Kiss the Girls]]'', with [[Morgan Freeman]] and [[Jay O. Sanders]] reprising their roles as detective [[Alex Cross]] and FBI-agent Kyle Craig. The screenplay by Marc Moss was adapted from the [[Along Came a Spider (novel)|1993 novel of the same title]] by [[James Patterson]], but many of the key plot elements of the book were eliminated. The film was a box office success, although receiving mixed reviews from critics.
'''''Along Came a Spider''''' is a 2001 American [[neo-noir]] [[psychological thriller|psychological thriller film]] directed by [[Lee Tamahori]]. It is the second installment in the [[Alex Cross (film series)|''Alex Cross'' film series]] and a sequel to the 1997 film ''[[Kiss the Girls (1997 film)|Kiss the Girls]]'', with [[Morgan Freeman]] and [[Jay O. Sanders]] reprising their roles as detective [[Alex Cross]] and FBI-agent Kyle Craig. The screenplay by Marc Moss was adapted from the [[Along Came a Spider (novel)|1993 novel of the same title]] by [[James Patterson]], but many of the key plot elements of the book were eliminated. The film was a box office success, although receiving mixed reviews from critics.


==Plot==
==Plot==
After [[Washington, D.C.]] detective, [[Forensic psychology|forensic psychologist]] and [[author]] [[Alex Cross]] loses control of a sting operation, resulting in the death of his partner, he retires from the force. He is drawn back to police work when Megan Rose, the daughter of a [[United States Senate|United States senator]], is kidnapped from her exclusive private school by Gary Soneji, a [[computer science]] teacher. [[United States Secret Service|US Secret Service]] Special Agent Jezzie Flannigan, held responsible for the breach in security, joins forces with Cross to find the missing girl.
After [[Washington, D.C.]], detective in [[homicide]] investigator and [[forensic psychologist]] [[Alex Cross]] investigates the brutal murders of two black prostitutes and an infant. Then, at an exclusive private school, math teacher Gary Soneji kidnaps Maggie Rose Dunne and Michael Goldberg. Cross is pulled off the murder case to investigate the kidnapping instead. Angry because he feels everyone cares more about two rich white children than three dead black people, he meets Jezzie Flannagan, the head of the children's [[United States Secret Service|Secret Service]] detail. At an old farmhouse, Soneji buries the children alive in a specially made coffin. Angered by FBI agent Roger Graham's contemptuous comments about him on TV, Soneji later impersonates a reporter and kills Graham. Meanwhile, Cross, his partner John Sampson and the FBI search Soneji's apartment, discovering his obsession with kidnappings, particularly that of the [[Lindbergh baby]], and his desire to become a world-famous criminal.


Soneji contacts Cross by phone and alerts him to the fact one of Megan's [[sneakers]] is in the detective's mailbox, proving that Soneji is the kidnapper. Cross deduces that the man is obsessed with the 1932 [[Lindbergh kidnapping|Charles A. Lindbergh Jr. kidnapping]] and hopes to become as infamous as [[Bruno Hauptmann]] by committing a new "Crime of the Century", which might be explored by Cross in one of his true crime books.
Some time later, Michael Goldberg's corpse is discovered, and the Dunnes receive a telegram demanding $10 million. Cross, Sampson and the FBI investigate, and Cross begins an affair with Jezzie Flannagan. He is ordered to deliver the money to [[Walt Disney World]] in [[Orlando, Florida|Orlando]], wondering how Soneji knows about his involvement. A man takes him on a plane, flying to a small island and taking the money, but never delivering Maggie Rose. At the old farmhouse, police officers find the empty graves where the children were held. Soneji returns to his home in [[Wilmington, Delaware]], where it is revealed he has a wife and a daughter.


Megan's kidnapping proves to be only part of Soneji's real plan: to kidnap Dimitri Starodubov, the son of the [[President of Russia|Russian president]], and guarantee greater infamy for himself.
In Washington DC, Soneji, dressed as a public utility employee, murders a teacher from the private school. Cross and Sampson are sent to the scene and, seeing the way he mutilated the body, quickly realize that Soneji is also behind the killings they investigated before and after the kidnapping. In the murdered prostitutes' neighborhood, an elderly woman recalls a man going door to door selling heating systems. They soon find out that a man named Gary Murphy works for the company, and put observation on his family home in Wilmington, but Soneji manages to escape. A day later, he walks into a [[McDonald's]] and holds several people hostage. Soneji is almost killed, but Cross saves him, as he believes Soneji knows where Maggie is. The criminal promises Cross will regret saving his life.


After Cross and Flannigan foil his second kidnapping plot, a supposed call from the kidnapper demands that Cross deliver a ransom of $10 million in diamonds. He must follow an intricate maze of calls made to public [[phone booth]]s scattered throughout the city. Following the ransom directions, Cross ultimately tosses the gems out the window of a rapidly moving [[Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority|Metro]] train to a figure standing by the tracks.
The trial of Gary Soneji lasts eleven months. Cross hypnotizes him several times, learning he seems to have a [[Dissociative identity disorder|split personality]]; Gary Murphy, his everyday persona, is a gentle family man, while Gary Soneji is a vicious [[antisocial personality disorder|sociopath]]. Despite the defense's best effort at an [[Insanity defense|insanity plea]], Soneji is imprisoned. Meanwhile, Cross learns that someone was following Soneji and knew about the kidnapping. Cross suspects Mike Devine and Charley Chakely, the Secret Service agents in charge of protecting Maggie Rose and Michael when they were kidnapped. He meets with Soneji, who confirms he may have been followed. He did not make the connection until he recognized the man at his trial: Mike Devine.


Soneji later arrives at Flannigan's home and confronts Cross after disabling Flannigan with a [[taser]]. As Soneji has not reacted to Cross's verbal comment about receiving the ransom amount (which was incorrect), the detective realizes that the kidnapper is unaware of the ransom demand and delivery. Soneji tries to leave with Flannigan, but Cross kills him.
Cross meets with the FBI, who have believed for some time that Devine and Chakely took the ransom money, hiring and later murdering the pilot from Florida. Cross also learns that none other than Jezzie Flannagan masterminded the kidnapping using her lover, Devine, as a pawn. Around the same time, Soneji escapes from prison and goes to Washington, where he tortures Devine to find out where the ransom money is. After retrieving the money, he kills Devine.


Cross becomes suspicious and realizes that someone else discovered Soneji long before his plot came to fruition. After searching Flannigan's [[personal computer]], he finds enough evidence to prove that Flannigan and her fellow Secret Service agent Ben Devine used Soneji as a pawn in their own plot to collect a ransom for Megan.
Cross takes Flannagan on a [[Caribbean]] getaway, and confronts her about her actions. She explains that Devine and Chakely noticed Soneji driving by the Goldberg house, and followed him. The ransom was her idea, and they removed Maggie Rose after Michael died accidentally. Flannagan is arrested based on a recording Sampson made of the conversation, and Maggie Rose is found with a family in South America, where she had been living for the past two years.


Cross tracks them down to a secluded farmhouse, where Flannigan has murdered Devine and is now intent on killing Megan. He stops her by shooting her in the heart. Cross then takes Megan to her parents.
Shortly after this, Soneji attacks Cross at his Washington home, attempting to kill his grandmother and children. Losing the fight, Soneji is hunted through the capital and eventually cornered on [[Pennsylvania Avenue (Washington, D.C.)|Pennsylvania Avenue]], where he takes two children hostage. Soneji is about to shoot Cross, but Sampson shoots Soneji first, wounding him. Some time later, Charley Chakely and Jezzie Flannagan are executed for their crimes, while Soneji is locked up in a mental institution. He writes a last taunting letter to Cross and bribes a guard to leave it on Cross' windshield. Disturbed but unwilling to let Soneji disrupt his life any further, Cross returns home to spend time with his family.

This is the plot of the book, not the film


==Cast==
==Cast==
{{cast listing|
{{cast listing|
* [[Morgan Freeman]] as [[Alex Cross|Detective Alex Cross]]
* [[Morgan Freeman]] as Dr. [[Alex Cross]]
* [[Monica Potter]] as Secret Service Agent Jezzie Flannigan
* [[Monica Potter]] as Secret Service Agent Jezzie Flannigan
* [[Michael Wincott]] as Gary "The Spider" Sonjei / Jonathan Mercucio
* [[Michael Wincott]] as Gary 'The Spider' Sonjei / Jonathan Mercucio
* [[Dylan Baker]] as Federal Bureau of Investigation Special Agent-In-Charge Ollie McArthur
* [[Dylan Baker]] as FBI Special Agent-In-Charge Ollie McArthur
* [[Mika Boorem]] as Megan Ann Rose
* [[Mika Boorem]] as Megan Ann Rose
* [[Billy Burke (actor)|Billy Burke]] as Secret Service Agent Ben Devine
* [[Billy Burke (actor)|Billy Burke]] as Secret Service Agent Ben Devine
* [[Anton Yelchin]] as Dimitri Starodubov
* [[Anton Yelchin]] as Dimitri Starodubov
* [[Jay O. Sanders]] as [[Kyle Craig|Federal Bureau of Investigation Agent Kyle Craig]]
* [[Jay O. Sanders]] as FBI Agent [[Kyle Craig]]
* [[Michael Moriarty]] as Senator Hank Rose
* [[Michael Moriarty]] as Senator Hank Rose
* [[Penelope Ann Miller]] as Elizabeth Rose
* [[Penelope Ann Miller]] as Elizabeth Rose
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* [[Ocean Hellman]] as Amy Masterson
* [[Ocean Hellman]] as Amy Masterson
* [[Samantha Ferris]] as Mrs. Hume
* [[Samantha Ferris]] as Mrs. Hume
* [[Kim Hawthorne]] as Federal Bureau of Investigation Agent Hickley
* [[Kim Hawthorne]] as FBI Agent Hickley
* [[Jill Teed]] as Detective Tracie Fisher
* [[Jill Teed]] as Detective Tracie Fisher
* [[Tom McBeath]] as Chief Cabell
* [[Tom McBeath]] as Chief Cabell
Line 83: Line 77:


==Production==
==Production==

===Writing===
===Writing===
One of the primary elements of the book screenwriter Marc Moss eliminated from his script was that Soneji is actually a mild-mannered suburban husband and father suffering from [[dissociative identity disorder]] resulting from having been abused as a child. After a lengthy trial for kidnapping and several murders not included in the film, he is found guilty but remanded to a [[Psychiatric hospital|mental institution]] to serve his sentence. Also missing from the film is a romantic relationship shared by Cross and Jezzie, her trial and eventual execution by [[lethal injection]], and the discovery of Megan (Maggie as she is known in the book), hidden away with a native [[Bolivia]]n family near the [[Andes Mountains]], two years after her kidnapping.
One of the primary elements of the book screenwriter Marc Moss eliminated from his script was that Soneji is actually a mild-mannered suburban husband and father suffering from [[dissociative identity disorder]] resulting from having been abused as a child. After a lengthy trial for kidnapping and several murders not included in the film, he is found guilty but remanded to a [[Psychiatric hospital|mental institution]] to serve his sentence. Also missing from the film is a romantic relationship shared by Cross and Jezzie, her trial and eventual execution by [[lethal injection]], and the discovery of Megan (Maggie as she is known in the book), hidden away with a native [[Bolivia]]n family near the [[Andes Mountains]], two years after her kidnapping.
Line 90: Line 83:


==Reception==
==Reception==

===Box office===
===Box office===
Box office receipts totaled [[United States dollar|US$]]105,178,561, of which $74,078,174 was from the United States having earned US$16,712,407 in its opening weekend at 2,530 theaters.<ref name="mojo">{{cite web |title=Along Came a Spider |url=https://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=alongcameaspider.htm |work=[[Box Office Mojo]] |publisher=IMDb.com, Inc |access-date=20 September 2020}}</ref>
Box office receipts totaled [[United States dollar|US$]]105,178,561, of which $74,078,174 was from the United States having earned US$16,712,407 in its opening weekend at 2,530 theaters.<ref name="mojo">{{cite web |title=Along Came a Spider |url=https://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=alongcameaspider.htm |work=[[Box Office Mojo]] |publisher=IMDb.com, Inc |access-date=20 September 2020}}</ref>

Revision as of 00:10, 29 August 2023

Along Came a Spider
Theatrical release poster
Directed byLee Tamahori
Screenplay byMarc Moss
Based onAlong Came a Spider
by James Patterson
Produced by
Starring
CinematographyMatthew F. Leonetti
Edited byNeil Travis
Music byJerry Goldsmith
Production
companies
Distributed byParamount Pictures
Release date
  • April 6, 2001 (2001-04-06)
Running time
103 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$28 million[1]
Box office$105.2 million[1]

Along Came a Spider is a 2001 American neo-noir psychological thriller film directed by Lee Tamahori. It is the second installment in the Alex Cross film series and a sequel to the 1997 film Kiss the Girls, with Morgan Freeman and Jay O. Sanders reprising their roles as detective Alex Cross and FBI-agent Kyle Craig. The screenplay by Marc Moss was adapted from the 1993 novel of the same title by James Patterson, but many of the key plot elements of the book were eliminated. The film was a box office success, although receiving mixed reviews from critics.

Plot

After Washington, D.C. detective, forensic psychologist and author Alex Cross loses control of a sting operation, resulting in the death of his partner, he retires from the force. He is drawn back to police work when Megan Rose, the daughter of a United States senator, is kidnapped from her exclusive private school by Gary Soneji, a computer science teacher. US Secret Service Special Agent Jezzie Flannigan, held responsible for the breach in security, joins forces with Cross to find the missing girl.

Soneji contacts Cross by phone and alerts him to the fact one of Megan's sneakers is in the detective's mailbox, proving that Soneji is the kidnapper. Cross deduces that the man is obsessed with the 1932 Charles A. Lindbergh Jr. kidnapping and hopes to become as infamous as Bruno Hauptmann by committing a new "Crime of the Century", which might be explored by Cross in one of his true crime books.

Megan's kidnapping proves to be only part of Soneji's real plan: to kidnap Dimitri Starodubov, the son of the Russian president, and guarantee greater infamy for himself.

After Cross and Flannigan foil his second kidnapping plot, a supposed call from the kidnapper demands that Cross deliver a ransom of $10 million in diamonds. He must follow an intricate maze of calls made to public phone booths scattered throughout the city. Following the ransom directions, Cross ultimately tosses the gems out the window of a rapidly moving Metro train to a figure standing by the tracks.

Soneji later arrives at Flannigan's home and confronts Cross after disabling Flannigan with a taser. As Soneji has not reacted to Cross's verbal comment about receiving the ransom amount (which was incorrect), the detective realizes that the kidnapper is unaware of the ransom demand and delivery. Soneji tries to leave with Flannigan, but Cross kills him.

Cross becomes suspicious and realizes that someone else discovered Soneji long before his plot came to fruition. After searching Flannigan's personal computer, he finds enough evidence to prove that Flannigan and her fellow Secret Service agent Ben Devine used Soneji as a pawn in their own plot to collect a ransom for Megan.

Cross tracks them down to a secluded farmhouse, where Flannigan has murdered Devine and is now intent on killing Megan. He stops her by shooting her in the heart. Cross then takes Megan to her parents.

Cast

Production

Writing

One of the primary elements of the book screenwriter Marc Moss eliminated from his script was that Soneji is actually a mild-mannered suburban husband and father suffering from dissociative identity disorder resulting from having been abused as a child. After a lengthy trial for kidnapping and several murders not included in the film, he is found guilty but remanded to a mental institution to serve his sentence. Also missing from the film is a romantic relationship shared by Cross and Jezzie, her trial and eventual execution by lethal injection, and the discovery of Megan (Maggie as she is known in the book), hidden away with a native Bolivian family near the Andes Mountains, two years after her kidnapping.

A few other minor differences from the original book include: Dimitri (Michael "Shrimpie" Goldberg as referred to in the book) being kidnapped at the same time as Megan (Maggie); Megan's (Maggie's) mother was the more famous of her parents, being a popular actress; when the children are kidnapped they are sprayed with chloroform spray.

Reception

Box office

Box office receipts totaled US$105,178,561, of which $74,078,174 was from the United States having earned US$16,712,407 in its opening weekend at 2,530 theaters.[1]

Critical response

On Rotten Tomatoes the film has an approval rating of 32% based on reviews from 126 critics. The site's critics consensus was: "Derivative and contains too many implausible situations".[2] On Metacritic the film has a score of 42% based on reviews from 31 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".[3]

Elvis Mitchell of The New York Times called the film an "overplotted, hollow thriller, which crams in so much exposition that characters speak in fetid hunks for what seems like minutes at a time ... But Spider couldn't be better served than it is by Mr. Freeman, whose prickly smarts and silken impatience bring believability to a classless, underdeveloped thriller ... Still, he is wasted in this impersonal, almost inept thriller".[4]

Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times gave the film a mixed 2 out of 4 stars, calling it "loophole-riddled, verging on the nonsensical". He wrote: "I'm wondering, since Dr. Alex Cross is so brilliant, how come he doesn't notice yawning logical holes in the very fabric of the story he's occupying?" Nonetheless, Ebert thought that Freeman's performance was commendable: "Maybe actors should be given Oscars, not for the good films they triumph in, but for the weak films they survive".[5]

Robert Koehler of Variety felt "the very characteristics that have made Cross so appealing, particularly his mind-tickling abilities to assess and outmaneuver his criminal opponents, are reduced here to the most fundamental and predictable level ... As reliable as any actor in Hollywood, Freeman delivers the requisite gravitas, but the bland script curtails any personal touches he might have inserted were his sleuth character unraveling a truly vexing mystery".[6]

However, critic Harvey O'Brien weighed in with the sentiment that "unlike, for example, the overblown kidnap movie Ransom, Along Came a Spider plays down its sensational elements. It favours the procedural aspects of Cross' investigation which, though infected with the usual 'Eureka' factor of brilliant discoveries by the leading man at regular intervals just when it looked like he was stumped, are largely delivered with sincerity. Freeman has such a strong grip on this kind of determined, middle aged, everyman character by now that he can easily take the audience along for the ride. The film itself is otherwise sincere in general, with no real attempt at smarmy black humour or winks to the audience. It draws you in to a (relatively) realistic depiction of a tense situation in which people behave less like action heroes and more like human beings".[7]

Compuserve's Harvey Karten argued: "Some critics will tell you that despite Lee Tamahori's overplotting of Marc Moss's adaptation of James Patterson's novel, Along Came a Spider is one of those thrillers that allow you to check your brains at the door. Not true. Did the journalists all go for popcorn when Detective Alex Cross and Special Agent Jezzie Flannigan (nice spelling) engaged first in a discussion of psychology and then of philosophy? This may have been Phil 101, but imagine the interest that must have been aroused in the audience with a product placement for university education. Says Cross in discussing what makes us choose our careers: 'You do what you are'. 'Not so', replies Jezzie, every hair in place, not one gram of makeup disturbed, despite the excitement of the discussion... 'You are what you do'".[8]

Accolades

Jerry Goldsmith won the BMI Film & TV Award for his original score, and Morgan Freeman was nominated for the NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Actor in a Motion Picture but lost to Denzel Washington for Training Day.

Series reboot

Main article: Alex Cross (film)

There were no further sequels, but the character of Alex Cross was rebooted with a 2012 film adaptation of the novel Cross under the title Alex Cross starring Tyler Perry in the titular role.

See also

References

  1. ^ a b c "Along Came a Spider". Box Office Mojo. IMDb.com, Inc. Retrieved 20 September 2020.
  2. ^ "Along Came a Spider (2001)". Rotten Tomatoes. Fandango Media. Retrieved October 10, 2020.
  3. ^ "Along Came a Spider". Metacritic. Retrieved 2020-05-04.
  4. ^ Mitchell, Elvis (6 April 2001). "FILM REVIEW; Weaving an Intricate Web To Trap a Wily Kidnapper". The New York Times. Retrieved 20 September 2012.
  5. ^ Ebert, Roger (April 6, 2001). "Along Came A Spider". Chicago Sun-Times. Chicago, Illinois: Sun-Times Media Group. Retrieved October 10, 2020 – via RogerEbert.com.
  6. ^ Koehler, Robert (March 31, 2001). "Along Came a Spider". Variety. Los Angeles, California: Penske Media Corporation. Retrieved September 20, 2020.
  7. ^ "Along Came a Spider".
  8. ^ "Review for Along Came a Spider (2001)". IMDb. Archived from the original on 2016-03-10. Retrieved 2022-06-10.
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