Director: Wolfgang Petersen

Writer: Jeff Maguire

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Frank Horrigan (Clint Eastwood)  is a secret service agent whom was one of  President Kennedy bobyguard back in November 22, 1963 when the President was killed.

Mitch Leary is a  former CIA assassin whom now have plan to kill the current President. Mitch is angry because the government removed him from CIA, and want him killed.

Frank is socked when Mitch tells him about his plan, but he may be the only one who can stop Mitch. And he is determined to do it no matter what it cost. Especially after he found out that Mitch killed his former colleague.

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Trivia provided by The Internet Movie Database:

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• Several of the scenes with the President campaigning were actually taken from the 1992 campaign of President Bill Clinton.
• In the UK release of the film, the scene where Mitch Leary (John Malkovich) kills the bank clerk and her room-mate was edited so the audience did not witness the physical breaking of each of their necks. Malkovich also wanted to include the killing of the dog in this scene but director Wolfgang Petersen thought this was a little too much.
• John Malkovich improvised the scene where he puts the gun into his mouth. Wolfgang Petersen liked it so much he left it in the film.
• The 62-year old Clint Eastwood (with the help of a safety belt) actually did hang six stories above the ground on the ledge scene, although stuntmen did the jump and the fall onto the fire escape.
• The original trailer for the film had “November 22, 1963″ appearing in large letters on the screen. As Leary talked about how he was going to kill the president, a clock ticked away in the background, changing the “1963″ to “1993″, followed by a slam-cut to Horrigan saying “That’s not going to happen”. Bad preview reaction caused this trailer to be dropped.
• The phone number that Horrigan finds under the bed is the phone number for Sony Pictures.
• Three members of the acting troupe from the Steppenwolf Theater Company of Chicago are featured in this film: John Malkovich (who co-founded the company), Gary Cole and John Mahoney.
• Clint Eastwood’s character, Frank Horrigan, chases a killer skilled in making miniature automobiles. In the The Dead Pool (1988) Eastwood’s character, Dirty Harry Callahan pursues a killer who also makes miniature cars, using them as explosive devices.
• The phone number that Agent Chavez gives Horrigan for the San Diego field office is 619-UKELELE. This translates to 619-853-5353. At the time the film was made, the prefix “853″ led to the Time Announcement Service (the current time) in Southern California.
• The picture from 22 November 1963 with Clint Eastwood’s head circled in red ink, is actually an edited, blown-up version of an original photo taken by James ‘Ike’ Altgens. In the original photo, only agent Clint Hill is looking forward.
• This photo has been a controversial point for researchers, as many people say you can see Lee Harvey Oswald in the doorframe of the Book Depository. But, in actuality, the person mistaken for Oswald is fellow Texas Schoolbook Depository worker, Billy Lovelady.
• Glenn Close and Sharon Stone both turned down the role of Lilly Raines.
• Robert De Niro was the first choice for the role of Mitch Leary, but he turned it down due to scheduling conflicts with Cape Fear (1991). ‘Robert Duvall (I)’ and Jack Nicholson were also considered before John Malkovich was cast.
• When Robert Redford, who was originally attached to play Horrigan, left the project, the role was offered to Sean Connery, who turned it down.
• Val Kilmer was also considered to play Horrigan.
• This is so far the last film that Clint Eastwood has starred in without also directing.
• To prepare for his role, John Malkovich lived in almost total seclusion for a month prior to filming to connect with Mitch Leary’s sense of isolation. He didn’t leave his home and wouldn’t talk on the phone. He would also rarely watch any television – if he did, it was news programs.
• The real-life Secret Service served as consultants for the movie.
• The movie makes connections to three of the four historical assassinations of American presidents. 1) Frank Horrigan was on the Secret Service detail of John F. Kennedy. 2) Mitch Leary call himself Booth, the assassin of Abraham Lincoln. 3) Mitch Leary tries to shoot the president with a gun concealed in a handkerchief, which was how Leon Czolgosz assassinated William McKinley. The fourth, James A. Garfield, was assassinated by Charles Julius Guiteau, July 2, 1881.
• The character of Frank Horrigan was inspired by real-life Secret Service agent Clint Hill, who was with President John F. Kennedy in Dallas and who later broke down on national TV during a live 60-minute interview saying that he felt responsible for the President’s death.
• The replica of Air Force One cost $250,000.
• Jeff Maguire’s script had been knocking around Hollywood for over 10 years before it got picked up.
• Dustin Hoffman was originally slated to play Frank Horrigan, with Michael Apted directing. When David Puttnam assumed the mantle of head of Columbia, he killed the project. This is generally thought to be because of his noted animosity towards Hoffman, after they had had a public falling out over the runaway budget of the notorious flop Ishtar (1987).
• Rob Reiner’s Castle Rock Productions secured the rights to Jeff Maguire’s screenplay for $1 million.
• Clint Eastwood personally selected Wolfgang Petersen to direct.
• The digital effects of dropping Clint Eastwood’s face into real-life footage of both George Bush’s and Bill Clinton’s presidential rallies and of matching footage of Eastwood playing “Dirty Harry” Callahan with that of President John F. Kennedy cost $4 million.
• This marks the first time that the Secret Service offered its full cooperation in the making of a film.
• The scene where Clint Eastwood and his partner are going up the stairs into the Secret Service office next to the White House is not the Secret Service building, it’s the main Treasury building. Although Secret Service is part of the Treasury Department, it is not located in the main Treasury building.
• On the phone, Malkovitch quotes from Alan Seeger’s poem “I Have a Rendezvous With Death”.Another connection to President Kennedy: when Leary is testing his composite pistol he shoots a small model boat labeled “Christina”. “Christina” was the name of Aristotle Onassis’ yacht (named after his daughter). After President Kennedy’s murder, Jacqueline Kennedy married Aristotle Onassis.
• Clint Eastwood initially turned down the movie, since he was 62 and his character was only supposed to be about 50.
• The name of the fictional president in the movie is never mentioned.
  
  
  
  
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