Man on Fire
Short description
John Creasy, a former CIA operative worn down by his past, takes a bodyguard job in Mexico City with little enthusiasm. His assignment is Lupita "Pita" Ramos, the young daughter of a wealthy industrialist, at a time when kidnappings of children from affluent families have become alarmingly common in the city. Creasy keeps his distance at first, but the girl's openness gradually breaks through his defenses, and the two form a close bond that gives him a sense of purpose he had lost. When Pita is abducted, Creasy is severely wounded in the attack, yet he recovers and sets out after those responsible, determined to bring her back.
Tony Scott directed the film, the twelfth of the sixteen features he made in chronological order, following Spy Game and preceding Domino. Brian Helgeland wrote the screenplay, and the large production involved 77 credited cast members and 192 credited crew. Denzel Washington plays Creasy, Dakota Fanning plays Pita, and Christopher Walken, Radha Mitchell, Marc Anthony and Giancarlo Giannini appear in supporting roles.
Made for a budget of 70 million dollars, the film took about 130 million dollars worldwide, a solid return. On IMDb it holds 7.7 out of 10 from roughly 417,000 votes, and on TMDB 7.5 out of 10 from a much smaller pool of about 5,900. A film critics' rating of 5.4 out of 10 from 166 reviews is noticeably lower than either audience figure, so the film fared better with viewers than with reviewers.
What's left behind the scenes
- Michael Bay and Antoine Fuqua were considered for the director's position.
- Robert De Niro, Will Smith, and Bruce Willis were considered for the role of Creasy.
- The idea of unusual subtitles, appearing from time to time in the film, was borrowed from old kung fu movies.
- Several Mercedes-Benz S-Class cars were specifically purchased for the film and were wrecked during filming.
- The scene in Pity's room where Pity questions Crisi about his women is almost entirely improvised by the two actors.
- Two erotic scenes were cut from the film: the first between Crisi and Lisa, the second between Lisa and her husband.
- Crisi's watch is a "Casio Pathfinder 227".
- The film is based on A.J. Quinnell's novel 'Man on Fire' (1981).
- Tony Scott could very well have directed the original 'Man on Fire' project in the mid-80s, but the studio decided to forgo his services, as the director had no major hits to his name at the time, and they simply feared he wouldn't be able to see the project through to completion.
- Denzel Washington landed the role quite by chance. He happened to be going to the doctor and, to his surprise, met Tony Scott in the same hospital. The two men sat in the waiting room, had a pleasant conversation, and concluded that they would enjoy working together.
- Before Creasy enters the nightclub, attentive viewers may notice that the music briefly stops and a rather familiar phrase sounds: “We got a winner!”. It belongs to none other than Christopher McDonald, who played the television host Tabby Tibbons in 'Requiem for a Dream' (2000).
- In A.J. Quinnell's novel, Dakota Fanning's character was named Pinta. In early versions of the script, she was named Puta. But after Tony Scott learned that 'Puta' means 'whore' in Spanish, he changed the name to Pita. The girl's full name is Lupita, or Lupe.
- As part of preparing for her role, Dakota Fanning took lessons in playing the piano, swimming, and the Spanish language.
- The actor who played Aurelio (Jero Camilo) does not speak English.
- The film's screenwriter, Brian Helgeland, first saw the original film, "The Bodyguard" (1987), in the late 1980s. He rented the film from a video store where Quentin Tarantino worked at the time. Brian couldn't decide what to watch and asked Quentin, "What do you have that’s interesting?" Tarantino recommended this film to him.
- On the first day of filming, Dakota Fanning filmed a scene where Crisi drives Pete to school.
- Originally, Christopher Walken was supposed to play the role of Samuel Ramos's lawyer, Jordan Kauffman (the role eventually went to Mickey Rourke), but Walken didn't want to play another villain. He agreed to appear in the film only if he had a positive character, so Walken played Reiben.
- In the film, the main character says: "Let God grant them [the kidnappers] forgiveness, and I will arrange a meeting for them." This is a reference to a famous quote by Al Capone: "Can you forgive an enemy? God will forgive! Our job is to arrange their meeting."
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