Taglines: Who is Salt?
As a CIA officer, Evelyn Salt swore an oath to duty, honor and country. Her loyalty will be tested when a defector accuses her of being a Russian spy. Salt goes on the run, using all her skills and years of experience as a covert operative to elude capture. Salt’s efforts to prove her innocence only serve to cast doubt on her motives, as the hunt to uncover the truth behind her identity continues and the question remains: “Who Is Salt?”
A Russian calling himself Orlov and claiming to be FSB walks into undercover CIA offices in Washington DC wanting to defect. He says that he has information on a Russian sleeper cell, whose members were trained since they were children. Their mission is to infiltrate the American system by being one of them, ultimately with the goal of bringing down the United States starting on a specified day – code “Day X” – which will begin with the assassination of the current Russian President in New York City at the upcoming funeral of the American Vice-President.
The CIA interrogator deems Orlov a crackpot until he names the agent tasked with killing the Russian president: Evelyn Salt. The importance of this last piece of information is that Evelyn Salt is the CIA operative currently in the room with him as his CIA interrogator, her name which he does and should not know in the current context. Darryl Peabody with CIA counter-intelligence, who is monitoring the interrogation, feels he needs to question Evelyn before she leaves the building as a matter of proper protocol.
Evelyn, denying all accusations, decides instead to make a run for it, she states all in an effort to save her husband, German arachnologist Mike Krause, who she believes has been targeted as part of the Russian plot against her. Beyond love, her devotion to Mike is largely because he, before knowing of her work as a CIA agent, helped negotiate her release from North Korean captivity two years earlier when she was in special ops in the field, that captivity which included torture.
The longer Evelyn is on the run, the more she looks guilty to the American authorities pursuing her. Although helping Peabody and his team try to capture Evelyn, Ted Winter, her CIA colleague, is the only person seemingly who believes she is innocent of the accusations. There may be others in the Russian cell in positions of American authority who may be part of the plot if Orlov’s story in the general sense is to be believed, they who may be trying to help or stop Evelyn, depending if she is truly part of the cell.
Salt is a 2010 American action thriller film directed by Phillip Noyce, written by Kurt Wimmer, and starring Angelina Jolie, Liev Schreiber, Daniel Olbrychski, August Diehl, and Chiwetel Ejiofor. Jolie plays Evelyn Salt, who is accused of being a Russian sleeper agent and goes on the run to try to clear her name.
Originally written with a male protagonist, with Tom Cruise initially secured for the lead, the script was ultimately rewritten by Brian Helgeland for Jolie. Filming took place on location in Washington, D.C., the New York City area, and Albany, New York, between March and June 2009, with reshoots in January 2010. Action scenes were primarily performed with practical stunts, computer-generated imagery being used mostly for creating digital environments.
Sony predicted an opening weekend take in the low-$30-million range, while commentators thought it would come in closer to $40 million and beat Inception for the number one spot at the box office. Salt opened in 3,612 theaters, with an opening day gross of US$12,532,333 – $3,470 per theater – and on its opening weekend, $36,011,243 – $9,970 per theater – behind only Inception, which made $42,725,012 in its second weekend.
Salt also grossed $15 million from 19 minor international markets. On its second weekend, it declined in ticket sales by 45.9% making $19,471,355 – $5,391 per theater and placed number three behind Dinner for Schmucks, but by opening in 29 countries that same weekend, it grossed $25.4 million internationally. Salt ended up grossing $118,311,368 in the United States and Canada and $175,191,986 in other countries, for a worldwide total of $293,503,354.
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Salt (2010)
Directed by: Phillip Noyce
Starring: Angelina Jolie, Liev Schreiber, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Daniel Olbrychski, August Diehl, Daniel Pearce, Cassidy Hinkle, Olya Zueva, Olya Zueva, Cassidy Hinkle, Kevin O’Donnell, Gaius Charles
Screenplay by: Kurt Wimmer
Production Design by: Scott Chambliss
Cinematography by: Robert Elswit
Film Editing by: Stuart Baird, John Gilroy
Costume Design by: Sarah Edwards
Set Decoration by: Leslie E. Rollins
Art Direction by: Teresa Carriker-Thayer
Music by: James Newton Howard
MPAA Rating: PG-13 for intense sequences of violence and action.
Distributed by: Columbia Pictures
Release Date: July 23, 2010