American Assassin (2017)

American Assassin is a 2017 American action thriller film directed by Michael Cuesta and starring Dylan O’Brien, Michael Keaton, Sanaa Lathan, Shiva Negar, and Taylor Kitsch. It was written by Stephen Schiff, Michael Finch, Edward Zwick, and Marshall Herskovitz. Nominally based on Vince Flynn’s 2010 novel of the same name, the story is centered on young CIA black ops recruit Mitch Rapp, who helps a Cold War veteran try to stop the detonation of a rogue nuclear weapon. The film was released in the United States on September 15, 2017, and grossed over $67 million worldwide. It received mixed reviews from critics, who described the plot as clichéd and lacking thrills.

Plot.

Mitch Rapp and his girlfriend Katrina Harper are on vacation in Ibiza, Spain. Moments after Katrina accepts Mitch’s proposal of marriage, a jihadist cell lands on the beach and begins to attack the civilians with rifles. Amid the carnage, Rapp frantically attempts to find Katrina, but his fiancée is killed by the terrorists. Eighteen months later, Rapp, now consumed by his desire for vengeance, trains himself intensively in martial arts and marksmanship and frequents an internet message board where the terrorist responsible for his girlfriend’s murder quizzes Rapp on aspects of Islam and jihad. Having secured an invitation to meet him face to face in Libya, Rapp prepares to take his vengeance on

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the man responsible for his girlfriend’s death, but before he can kill the terrorist, the cell is suddenly ambushed by U.S. Special Forces. Upset over the perception that he has been denied his vengeance, Rapp repeatedly stabs the terrorist he was after, who is already dead from the ambush, before being dragged out by the U.S. forces. In a CIA facility Rapp undergoes 30 days of debriefing before being offered a chance by CIA Deputy Director Irene Kennedy to join a black operations unit code-named Orion. Its head, Stan Hurley, is a former U.S. Navy SEAL and a Cold War veteran who trains Rapp and the other potential recruits in asymmetric warfare. Meanwhile, word comes down through intelligence channels that

weapons grade nuclear material has disappeared from a decommissioned Russian nuclear facility. The material in question appears to be heading to Iranian hardliners, who are upset with the Iranian government’s nuclear deal with the U.S. While verifying the sale of the nuclear material in Poland the plutonium is intercepted by a third party, who eliminates the sellers before vanishing into the crowd. In Virginia, Hurley sees news reports about the incident in Poland and tentatively identifies the perpetrator as a former Navy SEAL and Orion operative believed to have been killed in action and now going by the code-name “Ghost”. Hurley’s team is sent into Turkey to intercept the buyer Ghost is working for.

Casting.

On October 10, 2012, Chris Hemsworth was believed to have been offered $10 million to play the lead, Mitch Rapp. However, a month later, it was revealed Hemsworth had turned down the role due to scheduling issues. On May 10, 2016, after being “courted for months”, Dylan O’Brien was cast in the lead role with the “idea that O’Brien’s Mitch Rapp is college aged, and the hope is the actor grows as the series progresses.” Bruce Willis was in talks to star as Stan Hurley in September 2012, but Michael Keaton was cast as Rapp’s mentor on March 9, 2016. Taylor Kitsch joined the cast on August 18, 2016, as the “villainous operative.” On September 7, 2016, Shiva Negar and Sanaa Lathan joined the cast, Negar in a key role as an agent who teams up with Rapp and Hurley, and Lathan as CIA Deputy Director Irene Kennedy, who is to the Flynn novels what M is to James Bond.

Filming, Marketing

Principal photography took place between September and December 2016 in London, Rome, and Phuket, with additional filming in Valletta Barry (Wales) and Birmingham. A first picture of Dylan O’Brien as Mitch Rapp was released on September 12, 2016. On November 2, 2016, production stills of the cast were published. A first trailer was shown to exhibitors at the Lionsgate panel in CinemaCon in March 2017. The first poster and teaser trailer were released online in April 2017. On June 20, the red band trailer was released.

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Box office.

American Assassin grossed $36.2 million in the United States and Canada, and $30.9 million in other territories, for a worldwide total of $67.2 million, against a production budget of $33 million. In North America, the film was released alongside Mother!, and was projected to gross $12–14 million from 3,154 theaters in its opening weekend. It made $915,000 from Thursday night previews at 2,400 theaters and $5.8 million on its opening day. It went on to debut to $14.8 million, finishing second at the box office, behind holdover It. In its second weekend, the film made $6.3 million, dropping to 4th.