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==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.
Alex Cross had been a detective, forensic psychologist and author in Washington, D.C. for many years, and although he had a lot of successes, he was recently involved in a sting operation that ended in the death of his partner. In response, he decided to retire from the force. However, his departure was short-lived when Megan Rose, the daughter of a US senator, was kidnapped from her private school by Gary Soneji, a computer science teacher. To make matters worse, US Secret Service Special Agent Jezzie Flannigan was held responsible for the breach in security that allowed Soneji to take the girl. In response, Alex Cross and Jezzie Flannigan joined forces to track down Soneji and find Megan Rose. With Cross's detective skills, and Flannigan's connections in the Secret Service, the two of them were determined to find the missing girl, and bring the kidnapper to justice.


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.
After Cross receives the phone call from Soneji, he is struck with horror and panic when he finds a small sneaker in his mailbox. He had been investigating the abduction of six year-old Megan Rose, and upon discovering that one of her shoes was in his mailbox, he instantly knows that Soneji is the one behind it. Cross realizes that this mysterious figure is trying to emulate the notorious 1932 Charles A. Lindbergh Jr. kidnapping, a crime so infamous that it became known as the Crime of the Century. With the knowledge that Soneji is trying to make a name for himself in the same way as kidnapping perpetrator Bruno Hauptmann, Cross is even more determined to bring Soneji to justice and get Megan back safely, which he posits is a storyline worthy of one of his true crime books.


After Megan's dramatic rescue from the kidnapper, the notorious villain, Gary Soneji, is revealed to be the instigator of the terrible event. Despite his now-public identity, the FBI is unable to capture Soneji until Cross secretly tracks his calls and locations. Unbeknownst to Cross and Flannigan, Soneji's abduction of Megan is only a small part of his elaborate plan to secure greater fame. His wonderfully coordinated kidnap plot is then revealed to center around the son of the President of Russia, Dimitri Starodubov. With a well-crafted and pre-planned strategy, Soneji is able to capture the young boy without absolute management from police and security guards.
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.


However, before he is able to transport the boy to his destination, Soneji's location is exposed with the help of Cross and Flannigan. In hopes of escaping with his grand prize, Soneji gives Cross a ransom note asking for $10 million in diamonds from the president. If Cross fails to comply, Soneji will have no further reason to reach an agreement and the prince will be killed. Knowing there is no other recourse, Cross complies and follows a set of directions to a number of public phone-booths spread out throughout the city where he will make deliveries and collect further instructions. Each time the diamonds are dropped, Cross is given a new and more arduous challenge to complete. Cross is able to outsmart the kidnapper's logic and locate the leader of the plan. The ransom is delivered and Cross and Flannigan are able to rescue Dimitri Starodubov before any more harm is done. Thanks to the quick thinking of Cross and Flannigan, the prince is returned and Soneji is put behind bars.
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.


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.
Michael Soneji had arrived at Flannigan's home with one sole purpose in mind: to take Flannigan and all of his money and leave. But, after arriving and disabling Flannigan with a taser, Soneji was soon to realize that something was very wrong. Detective Cross was present and knew the truth - that Soneji had been completely unaware of the ransom demand that Cross had earlier delivered. In an effort to make the kidnapper aware of what was happening, the detective had made a verbal comment about receiving the ransom amount, but Soneji had not reacted at all. At this point, Cross knew that the kidnapper was completely unaware of the ransom demand and had no knowledge of the payment being made by Cross. The kidnapper, realizing he was out of options, tried to make a quick escape with Flannigan as his hostage, but Cross quickly put an end to that plan by shooting Soneji dead. Cross had earned a casualty, but he had saved the innocent Flannigan and the ransom money had been reclaimed. Flannigan had, fortunately, escaped his ordeal in one piece.


Cross begins to become suspicious when he and the other agents involved in the Soneji case discover a file on Flannigan's personal computer. It contained all the details of the Soneji plot leading up to the kidnapping of Megan, including his information, timelines, and plans. Upon further investigation, Cross and the others come to the realization that Flannigan had known about Soneji for some time now, and had used him as a pawn in her own plot to collect a ransom from Megan's family. She and her fellow Secret Service agent Ben Devine had crafted a plan together to do just that, and had been slowly gathering Soneji's information to use when the time was right. Cross realizes that someone had discovered Soneji long before his plot became active, and can't help but think that Flannigan has been playing them all along. With a heavy heart, Cross knows that he must take action to uncover the full truth if he and his team are going to save Megan and put an end to this disastrous situation.
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.
Cross is relentless in his pursuit of Flannigan. After a long and dangerous chase, chasing Flannigan all the way across the state, Cross eventually tracks him down to a secluded farmhouse. Here, Flannigan's horrific crime spree comes to an end; he has brutally murdered Devine and is now intent on killing Megan. Cross gets the better of Flannigan though and arrives in time to prevent another tragedy. He takes aim and with a single shot, stops Flannigan from taking Megan's life and puts an end to his reign of terror. Cross then takes Megan to safety, delivering her back to her parents and a sense of closure to a traumatic ordeal. Megan and her family now have the opportunity to move on with their lives, thanks to Cross' brave and valiant actions.


==Cast==
==Cast==

Revision as of 19:15, 25 September 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

Alex Cross had been a detective, forensic psychologist and author in Washington, D.C. for many years, and although he had a lot of successes, he was recently involved in a sting operation that ended in the death of his partner. In response, he decided to retire from the force. However, his departure was short-lived when Megan Rose, the daughter of a US senator, was kidnapped from her private school by Gary Soneji, a computer science teacher. To make matters worse, US Secret Service Special Agent Jezzie Flannigan was held responsible for the breach in security that allowed Soneji to take the girl. In response, Alex Cross and Jezzie Flannigan joined forces to track down Soneji and find Megan Rose. With Cross's detective skills, and Flannigan's connections in the Secret Service, the two of them were determined to find the missing girl, and bring the kidnapper to justice.

After Cross receives the phone call from Soneji, he is struck with horror and panic when he finds a small sneaker in his mailbox. He had been investigating the abduction of six year-old Megan Rose, and upon discovering that one of her shoes was in his mailbox, he instantly knows that Soneji is the one behind it. Cross realizes that this mysterious figure is trying to emulate the notorious 1932 Charles A. Lindbergh Jr. kidnapping, a crime so infamous that it became known as the Crime of the Century. With the knowledge that Soneji is trying to make a name for himself in the same way as kidnapping perpetrator Bruno Hauptmann, Cross is even more determined to bring Soneji to justice and get Megan back safely, which he posits is a storyline worthy of one of his true crime books.

After Megan's dramatic rescue from the kidnapper, the notorious villain, Gary Soneji, is revealed to be the instigator of the terrible event. Despite his now-public identity, the FBI is unable to capture Soneji until Cross secretly tracks his calls and locations. Unbeknownst to Cross and Flannigan, Soneji's abduction of Megan is only a small part of his elaborate plan to secure greater fame. His wonderfully coordinated kidnap plot is then revealed to center around the son of the President of Russia, Dimitri Starodubov. With a well-crafted and pre-planned strategy, Soneji is able to capture the young boy without absolute management from police and security guards.

However, before he is able to transport the boy to his destination, Soneji's location is exposed with the help of Cross and Flannigan. In hopes of escaping with his grand prize, Soneji gives Cross a ransom note asking for $10 million in diamonds from the president. If Cross fails to comply, Soneji will have no further reason to reach an agreement and the prince will be killed. Knowing there is no other recourse, Cross complies and follows a set of directions to a number of public phone-booths spread out throughout the city where he will make deliveries and collect further instructions. Each time the diamonds are dropped, Cross is given a new and more arduous challenge to complete. Cross is able to outsmart the kidnapper's logic and locate the leader of the plan. The ransom is delivered and Cross and Flannigan are able to rescue Dimitri Starodubov before any more harm is done. Thanks to the quick thinking of Cross and Flannigan, the prince is returned and Soneji is put behind bars.

Michael Soneji had arrived at Flannigan's home with one sole purpose in mind: to take Flannigan and all of his money and leave. But, after arriving and disabling Flannigan with a taser, Soneji was soon to realize that something was very wrong. Detective Cross was present and knew the truth - that Soneji had been completely unaware of the ransom demand that Cross had earlier delivered. In an effort to make the kidnapper aware of what was happening, the detective had made a verbal comment about receiving the ransom amount, but Soneji had not reacted at all. At this point, Cross knew that the kidnapper was completely unaware of the ransom demand and had no knowledge of the payment being made by Cross. The kidnapper, realizing he was out of options, tried to make a quick escape with Flannigan as his hostage, but Cross quickly put an end to that plan by shooting Soneji dead. Cross had earned a casualty, but he had saved the innocent Flannigan and the ransom money had been reclaimed. Flannigan had, fortunately, escaped his ordeal in one piece.

Cross begins to become suspicious when he and the other agents involved in the Soneji case discover a file on Flannigan's personal computer. It contained all the details of the Soneji plot leading up to the kidnapping of Megan, including his information, timelines, and plans. Upon further investigation, Cross and the others come to the realization that Flannigan had known about Soneji for some time now, and had used him as a pawn in her own plot to collect a ransom from Megan's family. She and her fellow Secret Service agent Ben Devine had crafted a plan together to do just that, and had been slowly gathering Soneji's information to use when the time was right. Cross realizes that someone had discovered Soneji long before his plot became active, and can't help but think that Flannigan has been playing them all along. With a heavy heart, Cross knows that he must take action to uncover the full truth if he and his team are going to save Megan and put an end to this disastrous situation.

Cross is relentless in his pursuit of Flannigan. After a long and dangerous chase, chasing Flannigan all the way across the state, Cross eventually tracks him down to a secluded farmhouse. Here, Flannigan's horrific crime spree comes to an end; he has brutally murdered Devine and is now intent on killing Megan. Cross gets the better of Flannigan though and arrives in time to prevent another tragedy. He takes aim and with a single shot, stops Flannigan from taking Megan's life and puts an end to his reign of terror. Cross then takes Megan to safety, delivering her back to her parents and a sense of closure to a traumatic ordeal. Megan and her family now have the opportunity to move on with their lives, thanks to Cross' brave and valiant actions.

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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