Shooter (2007)
Shooter is a 2007 American action thriller film directed by Antoine Fuqua and written by Jonathan Lemkin, based on the 1993 novel Point of Impact by Stephen Hunter.It was also majorly inspired from the 1992 Blockbuster Indian Tamil Film Suriyean. The film follows Force Recon Marine Scout Sniper veteran Bob Lee Swagger (Mark Wahlberg), who is framed for murder by a rogue unit of personnel operating for a private military firm. The film also stars Michael Peña, Danny Glover, Kate Mara, Levon Helm, and Ned Beatty. It was produced by Lorenzo di Bonaventura through Di Bonaventura Pictures, and released by Paramount Pictures in the United States on March 23, 2007. It grossed $95.7 million on a $61 million budget.
Plot.
While on a mission in Ethiopia, Force Recon sniper Gunnery Sergeant Bob Lee Swagger and his spotter Corporal Donnie Fenn are abandoned by their CIA support team, resulting in Fenn’s death. Three years later, Swagger lives in isolation in the mountains of Wyoming. One day he is approached by Isaac Johnson, a retired U.S. Army colonel, and his associates Payne and Dobbler. They appeal to Swagger’s sense of duty and patriotism in an effort to recruit his skills and expertise in hopes of thwarting an attempt on the President’s life that intelligence sources were able to uncover. Swagger agrees, helps them determine that the attempt will be made in Philadelphia as well as how it will likely unfold. On the day, Swagger accompanies Johnson and his men to a room overlooking the site. However, the situation turns out to be a setup: The shot is fired according to Swagger’s plan, but it kills the President’s guest, Ethiopian Archbishop Desmond Mutumbo. Swagger is shot twice by a corrupt Philadelphia police officer on Johnson’s payroll, and one of his rifles and ammunition are left at the scene to frame him for the assassination.RELATED:
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Swagger narrowly escapes, incapacitating rookie FBI Agent Nick Memphis and stealing his bureau vehicle. He is pursued by the police and FBI until his car is disabled and he drives into the Delaware River, where he escapes by hitching a ride on a barge heading downriver.
Swagger manages to stay alive long enough to track down Fenn’s widow Sarah and enlists her help treating his wounds. She reluctantly agrees, despite choosing teaching as a career path rather than nursing like Fenn had originally wanted. After recovering, Swagger goes after Johnson and his associates. Agent Memphis, who had been skeptical of Swagger’s guilt from the beginning after doing a deep dive on Swagger’s background and the circumstances surrounding the shooting, is abducted by Johnson’s men and tortured for information. Before the men can kill Memphis, Swagger kills them, frees Memphis and asks for his help.
Development.
The novel Point of Impact was in development first at Universal and later at Paramount for twelve years, with seven screenwriters attempting many adaptations. The author Stephen Hunter also tried to adapt the book but was put off by the experience and disconnected himself from the process. Jonathan Lemkin read the book and some of the previous drafts and was able to avoid repeating some of the same mistakes. Lemkin updated the story away from the original post Vietnam setting, and restructured the story bringing the main event to the end of the first act, and to cut the multiple plot lines down to just the A story. His page 1 rewrite of the screenplay attracted Wahlberg and Fuqua, and on his second draft, the film got the green light to go into production. Unusually for a screenplay with such a long development process and multiple rewrites, Lemkin retained sole credit after Writers Guild of America arbitration.
Locations.
Most of the film was shot on location in New Westminster, Kamloops, Mission, Ashcroft and Cache Creek in British Columbia, Canada. For example, Swagger’s escape was filmed in New Westminster along the Fraser River, standing in for the Delaware River. The car chase that ends when it plunged into the river was filmed down 6th Street and off the Westminster Quay. The following scene of Swagger clinging to the side of a dredger was also filmed on the Fraser River near the Pattullo Bridge. The assassination scenes were filmed in Independence National Historical Park in front of Independence Hall in Philadelphia. The sniper location was created from using the exteriors of the church steeple at the junction of New Street and North 4th Street and combining them with an elevated view from another building to create a fictional vista of the park. The final scene was in Mammoth Lakes, California, in the lakes basin. The mountaintop confrontation was shot on the glaciers of Rainbow Mountain, near the resort town of Whistler, British Columbia.