True Lies

This article is about the film. For the video game, see True Lies (video game). For the album, see True Lies (album).

True Lies
File:True lies poster.jpg Promotional poster for True Lies.
Directed by	James Cameron
Written by	Screenplay: James Cameron Screen story: James Cameron Randall Frakes Original screenplay: Claude Zidi Simon Michaël Didier Kaminka
Produced by	James Cameron Stephanie Austin
Starring	Arnold Schwarzenegger Jamie Lee Curtis Tom Arnold Bill Paxton Art Malik Tia Carrere Eliza Dushku
Cinematography	Russell Carpenter
Edited by	Conrad Buff Mark Goldblatt Richard A. Harris
Music by	Brad Fiedel
Production company	Lightstorm Entertainment
Distributed by	20th Century Fox Universal Studios (select countries)
Release date	July 15, 1994
Running time	141 min.
Country	United States
Languages	English Arabic French German
Budget	$110,000,000 (estimated)
Box office	$378,882,411 (worldwide)

True Lies is a 1994 action-comedy film directed by James Cameron and starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, Jamie Lee Curtis, Tom Arnold, Bill Paxton, Tia Carrere, Charlton Heston, and Art Malik. Eliza Dushku also appears in the film in one of her first major film roles. True Lies is an extended remake of the 1991 French film La Totale!, which was directed by Claude Zidi and starred Thierry Lhermitte and Miou-Miou. The film was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Visual Effects and Curtis won a Golden Globe for her comedic portrayal of Helen Tasker.

True Lies was the first Lightstorm Entertainment project to be distributed under Cameron's multimillion dollar production deal with 20th Century Fox, as well as the first major production for the visual effects company Digital Domain, which was co-founded by Cameron. True Lies was the only feature film collaboration outside of the Terminator series to feature Cameron, Schwarzenegger, and Brad Fiedel as director, actor, and music composer respectively.

Upon its release, True Lies was the most expensive movie ever made (not adjusted for inflation), costing anywhere from $110 to $120 million.

Plot

Harry Tasker aka "Harry Renquist" (Arnold Schwarzenegger) leads a double life, performing dangerous covert missions for the United States Government's counter-terrorism agency The Omega Sector ("The last line of defense") with his support team of Albert "Gib" Gibson (Tom Arnold) and Faisil (Grant Heslov). Spencer Trilby (Charlton Heston) is their boss. His wife Helen (Jamie Lee Curtis), and daughter Dana (Eliza Dushku), believe him to be a boring computer salesman with Tektel Systems (which is a cover company for Omega Sector) who does a lot of corporate travel. Harry is unable to spend quality time with his family due to his secret identity, causing Helen to believe that he doesn't appreciate her, and Dana to disrespect him.

Harry's latest missions to Switzerland leads him to the trail of an Islamic terrorist organization known as "The Crimson Jihad", led by Salim Abu Aziz (Art Malik) aka "The Sand Spider". Harry suspects that an antiques dealer named Juno Skinner (Tia Carrere) has ties to Aziz, and after visiting her under the Renquist identity, he finds himself on a chase through the Georgetown Park shopping mall and the Marriott Marquis Hotel (actually filmed at the Westin Bonaventure Hotel ) from Aziz's men on the night of his birthday party, making Helen believe he is having an affair.

When Harry tries to surprise her the next day at her office to take her to lunch, he overhears a conversation she has with a coworker about her talking about "Simon" (Bill Paxton), a man she is seeing. This causes Harry to worry about her fidelity and their marriage. Using the Omega Sector's resources (including a GPS tracker and wireless microphone hidden in her purse), he tracks down "Simon", who turns out to be a car salesman posing as a spy to lure Helen; the irony is that Harry is a spy pretending to be a salesman. Helen is captured at "Simon"'s trailer and then taken into a room with a one way mirror with Harry and Gib on the other side. Harry questions her using a voice distorter about her relationship with "Simon" and about their marriage. She says that she wanted to have adventure in her life for once, since Harry never gave her that. Helen is then told that she can either go on a "mission" or be sent to prison. She chooses the "mission" and told that she will be contacted using the codename "Doris". Gib, using a voice distorter, calls Helen and tells her to pose as a prostitute named Michelle. She is to go to the Hotel Marquis and meet a suspected arms dealer and plant a bug by his phone. The suspected arms dealer is actually Harry and the room at the Marquis is used by the Omega Sector for their operations.

As Helen is about to plant the bug, she discovers it is Harry. No sooner had she realized that the man was her husband than Aziz's men burst into the hotel room, taking both Helen and Harry hostage. They are taken to a private jet with Juno Skinner on board. They are then given a tranquilizer and flown down to the terrorist hideout in the Florida Keys.

Aziz reveals he possesses nuclear warheads hidden inside antique statues shipped by Juno, and plans to detonate one to demonstrate his force to the United States. Harry is forced, under the effects of a truth serum, to reveal his covert identity much to Helen's shock. Harry uses the opportunity to free both of them. Harry, while fighting Aziz' troops, appears to be killed in a gas tanker explosion, and Helen is captured and taken with Aziz, Juno, and the rest of his forces as they leave the island, the warhead soon to go off. Thanks to the GPS tracking device Harry had previously placed in Helen's purse, Gib is able to help locate and rescue Harry. Harry arranges for the help of two Marine AV-8B Harrier jets to attack Aziz' convoy as they cross the Overseas Highway bridges, and Harry is able to make a daring rescue of Helen from Juno's limo into a helicopter before the limo falls over part of the damaged bridge. Regrouping on the mainland out of the blast radius, Harry and Helen fall into a deep kiss as the nuclear explosion goes off in the distance.

Harry soon learns that Aziz, having arrived much earlier, has taken his daughter Dana hostage (having gotten Harry's home address and Dana's picture from Helen's purse) and has holed up in an office building in downtown Miami with one of the warheads. Harry borrows one the Harriers to go to his daughter's rescue. Faisil sneaks into the building as part of the requested news crew, and is able to provide a distraction to allow Dana to steal the ignition key and escape up to the cranes on top of the building, Aziz following her. Faisil kills three of the terrorists with a hidden gun and Harry eliminates most of the rest with the Harrier's machine gun while the rest board a helicopter. Harry arrives in time to catch Dana as she falls from the cranes, as well as Aziz, who eventually gets hung up by his clothes on one of the Harrier's AIM-9 Sidewinder missiles. Harry grins, looks at Aziz and says "You're fired!", he then fires the missile with Aziz still hanging from it, sending it through the building and into the terrorists' helicopter on the opposite side, killing them all.

A year later, the Tasker family have strengthened their bonds after the events in Florida, though now Harry and Helen are partners as operatives in Omega Sector, with Gib and Faisil as their support team with Gib berating both of them for being stuck in the truck for years. Meanwhile, Harry and Helen encounter Simon again and after scaring him, dance the Tango.

Cast

• Arnold Schwarzenegger as Harry Tasker
• Jamie Lee Curtis as Helen Tasker
• Eliza Dushku as Dana Tasker
• Tom Arnold as Albert "Gib" Gibson
• Grant Heslov as Faisil
• Tia Carrere as Juno Skinner
• Bill Paxton as Simon
• Art Malik as Salim Abu Aziz
• Charlton Heston as Spencer Trilby
• Ofer Samra as Yusif

Reception

Upon its release in 1994, the film garnered mostly positive reviews. Based on 37 reviews collected by Rotten Tomatoes, True Lies has a 68% fresh rating and a weighted average of 6.3/10. James Berardinelli from Reelviews gave the film 3.5 stars out of 4, saying,

"I have yet to decide whether True Lies is a better comedy or action film. It contains heavy elements of both, and plays them equally well. Unlike such failed attempts as Hudson Hawk and Last Action Hero, however, True Lies is a big, grandiose movie that has an immense amount of fun while never taking itself too seriously... Speed (which was released in the same year) and True Lies deliver a summer one-two punch that will leave viewers squirming with excitement and gasping for breath."

The film relies heavily on stunts, often performed by Schwarzenegger and Curtis themselves. The film earned $146 million domestically and $232.6 million abroad, making it third best-grossing movie of 1994, and also a comeback for Schwarzenegger following the disastrous Last Action Hero of the previous summer. For her performance, Jamie Lee Curtis received a 1994 Golden Globe for Best Actress in a Musical/Comedy.

The film was criticized as sexist, or even misogynistic, for its treatment of female characters, such as the hero using his agency's resources to stalk and frighten his wife. Others perceived it as conveying a strong anti-Arab or anti-Muslim prejudice.

Possible sequel

In 2002, online news reports quoted Eliza Dushku as saying there would be a sequel reuniting the original cast with the writer/director James Cameron. Cameron originally planned to make a sequel sometime in 2002, but he put his plans on hold once the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks occurred in New York City, saying terrorism was no longer something to be taken lightly. In the film The Kid & I, Tom Arnold plays a fictional character based on himself. In that film, the character had starred in True Lies and is pursued, by a fan, to make a sequel; Schwarzenegger and Curtis cameo as themselves. In an interview, James Cameron stated there are no plans for a True Lies sequel, but he and Schwarzenegger had spoken about possibly working on a new project together once Schwarzenegger leaves office.

Soundtrack

Untitled

Track list

No.	Title	Music	Length
1.	"Sunshine Of Your Love"	Living Colour
2.	"Darkness, Darkness"	Screaming Trees
3.	"Alone In The Dark"	John Hiatt
4.	"Entity"	Mother Tongue
5.	"Sunshine Of Your Love (The Adrian Sherwood & Skip McDonald Remix)"	Living Colour
6.	"Main Title/Harry Makes His Entrance"
7.	"Escape From The Chateau"
8.	"Harry's Sweet Home"
9.	"Harry Rides Again"
10.	"Spying On Helen"
11.	"Juno's Place"
12.	"Caught In The Act"
13.	"Shadow Lover"
14.	"Island Suite"
15.	"Causeway/Helicopter Rescue"
16.	"Nuclear Kiss"
17.	"Harry Saves The Day"

Songs appearing in the film not included with the release of the soundtrack

• "I Never Thought I'd See The Day" - Performed by Sade
• "More Than a Woman" - Performed by The Bee Gees
• "The Blue Danube" - Performed by the Philadelphia Orchestra
• "Por una Cabeza" - Argentinean tango, performed by The Tango Project

External links

• True Lies at IMDb
• Template:Amg movie
• True Lies at Box Office Mojo
• True Lies at Rotten Tomatoes
• True Lies at Metacritic