Salt

Plot synopsis:
In 2003 Evelyn Salt (Angelia Jolie) is tortured by North Korean soldiers who accuse her of espionage. She is soon traded for a North Korean prisoner and escorted to safety by her boss Ted Winter (Liev Schreiber). While walking towards the border, she asks why she was set free, and it is explained that her boyfriend Mike (seen staring at her from the other side of the border) was petitioning everyone in the government for her to be set free. Thus, in order for them to stop him from stirring up more unneeded publicity, they agreed to make an exchange.In present day, Salt is watching her now husband Mike working at the breakfast table with his bugs (he is an arachnologist, meaning he studies spiders for a living). After he notices her standing there, he says happy anniversary. She offers to cook him breakfast, but he passes, mocking her cooking. The scene then cuts to her at work, learning online how to fold a napkin into a certain pattern so that the anniversary dinner she has planned is perfect. Winter interrupts, they chat for a while, and then get ready to head out as its close to the end of the workday. As they are leaving, another agent chases them and finally tells them that a defector has come in and wishes to give them information. Wanting to see if the Russian has any useful information, Salt and Winter head back upstairs. Neural scans are set up in order to determine if the defector is lying, and Salt enters the room and begins the interview.The defector begins by saying that his name is Orlov and proceeds by telling her a story about a Russian espionage program set up during the Cold War in which children of American families were kidnapped then replaced with Russian children that had been trained to be sleeper cell spies by a Russian official in hopes of restoring Russia's dominance one day. These agents are called K-12s, and are supposedly a myth. They would assume the child's identity until Day X, the undisclosed date of action in which they would strike. Day X is apparently coming, and its events will apparently begin with the murder of the Russian President at the U.S. Vice President's funeral the next day in Manhattan and will finish with the U.S. President's assassination a day later.Winter tells her to wrap up the interview, as they do not believe him. As she is leaving, he explains that the agent that will murder the President is Evelyn Salt. Salt leaves the room and is visibly upset. As she walks into the viewing room where her colleagues are, it is determined by the neural scan that he was being truthful throughout the interview. She begins speaking to the Counter Intelligence officer named Peabody and Winter, claiming her innocence. Winter is believing her and begins speaking to Peabody about how to proceed. Orlov is escorted out by two agents and goes into an elevator with them. Salt is given her phone in order to contact Mike as, when the cover of an agent is blown, often their whole fake life is in danger. She is told to wait in the interrogation room while they attempt to figure out how to proceed. As she watches Winter and Peabody argue, she realizes that she is in danger.Cut to Orlov in the elevator. A blade comes out of his shoe, and he proceeds to kill both guards with him and escape. Winters and Peabody are alerted to Orlov's escape, giving Salt the opportunity to escape the room and attempt to get out of the building. As the security of the building begins to tighten, she finds herself cornered in the interrogation room again where she rigs up an explosive device to fire at the SWAT team. She fires it, knocking them unconscious and is able to steal a gun in the process. She then uses the gun to break a window and proceeds to climb onto the roof then onto the street. She gets into a taxi, attempts to call Mike again and hangs up after again getting their apartment's voicemail. She breaks her SIM card and then gets out of the taxi cab at her apartment building. As she walks in, she notices Mike's chair has been knocked over and how his sandwich is half eaten. There has obviously been a struggle, and he has been kidnapped.As Salt packs her bag and takes some of Mike's spiders, Winters and Peabody are assembling a SWAT team to go to her apartment to see if she is there. They arrive just as she is climbing out of her window. She narrowly escapes and climbs into a neighbor's apartment. As she speaks to the child in the apartment and changes her clothes, she flashes back again to her husband and parts of their lives together. She escapes and while walking away from the building, is spotted by Winter. Another chase ensues, and Salt is cornered when she then jumps onto a semi truck passing under the overpass that she is on. The agents follow her and shoot as she jumps from one truck to another then finally lands on the ground. She then steals a motorcycle and manages to outmanoeuvre them and escape.At this point, Salt heads to a bar. While in the bathroom, she steals the coat and ID of a fellow patron, takes a bus to New York City. Upon arrival, Salt uses the stolen ID to rent a small hotel room. There, she dyes her hair and steals clothes. She then begins to plan out how to get into the cathedral and prints a subway map.At this point, another flashback shows us that Evelyn Salt is indeed a Russian implant spy. She was born and grew up in Russia and was taken in at a young age with a group of other young boys to become sleeper spies as part of the K-12 group. They were tought to speak English at a young age as well as learn the society and ways, customs and laws of the USA.The next day, she boards a subway train and plants a smoke device. While everyone is distracted, she gets off the train and into the tunnels beneath the cathedral. As she gets into position, the funeral begins taking place in the church. As the Russian President gets up to deliver a speech, Salt throws an explosive device onto the roof (which is directly under where the president is standing) and the floor crumbles below him, causing him to fall on to her level. Panic ensues and she presumably shoots the Russian president. Peabody comes in, and she surrenders despite having the opportunity to shoot him.As she is taken away, Winter screams that he hopes she rots in jail for what she has done. She is put into an SUV and is transported in a caravan through the city. She then manages to eject both of her guards from the car and stun the driver, causing him to wreck the police cars ahead of and behind them. To escape, the other police now swarming around her, she drives the SUV over the guardrail and into the street below, wrecking the car. As the public come to see if everyone inside is all right, Salt escapes.The news is, at this point, covering the death of the Russian President and the riots that are now happening across Moscow. Salt is then seen on a ferry boat, and heads to a scrap metal yard. There, she meets with Orlov and embraces him. It is revealed that he is the man who took her in and trained her to become a Russian spy. She is then taken to a ship in the Hudson that serves as the Russian spies' home base. There, she is told that the next step of their plan is to seize nuclear weapons and begin a large-scale war between Russia and the USA to destroy the world. After being taken into the hull of the ship, she sees Mike being held hostage. To see whether or not she is loyal, Orlov drowns him and watches her reaction. When she fails to react, he introduces her to her fellow brother spies and then escorts her into his office to divulge more details about the plan. Once hearing that she is to meet with a spy disguised as a NATO officer the next morning and travel with him to Washington, DC, Salt pours them both a drink, and then she suddenly smashes the wine bottle and rams it into Orlov's neck. She then grabs his bodyguard's gun and uses it to shoot both Orlov and the bodyguard. Salt then uses a grenade to kill all of the Russian sleeper agents on the boat. Afterwords, Salt leaves the boat and goes to the rendezvous point to meet with her contact NATO officer.After he arrives and boards the plane, she recognizes him as one of her fellow classmates and flashes back to more of her spy training as a child in the former USSR. They talk about their lives and their childhood. It is revealed that Salt was the best in her class and how she will finish first in this plan as well. He reveals that the plan will be to kill the US President while he is in his security bunker at the White House. Upon their arrival in Washington, he gives her a new ID and is disguised as a fellow NATO officer. After getting into the White House, he reveals that he is going to sacrifice himself by threatening the President by blowing himself up as a suicide bomber so that he will flee to the bunker where Salt is to kill him. Winter is among the group of men around the President and fleeing with him to the bunker. As they all get into the elevator to head down to the bunker, Salt is above them, jumping from floor to floor in the elevator shaft framework. Once on the bunker's level, she proceeds to kill the guards outside and pass safely into the bunker.In the bunker, the President is raising the terror alert in the country to Def-CON 2 as Russia is apparently preparing to fire nuclear weapons at the US in retaliation for what they see as an act of war (the killing of their President by a CIA agent). After the level is raised, Winter stands up and suddenly begins killing all those in the room. Finally, it is just him and the President. (In this out-of-the-blue twist, Ted Winter is another Russian spy just like Evelyn Salt.)After telling the President to activate strategic nuclear deployment strategies and being denied, he hits the President and knocks him unconscious. Salt has witnessed all of this. She approaches the bulletproof window and beckons Winter to use the President's hand to reauthorize and activate the strategic strike on Mecca and Tehran. She begins speaking to him through the glass, appealing to him by asking why he never told her that he too was a spy. She begs him to let her join him and finally he relents. As Winter is turning to go to the door to let her in, the news flashes on the television, saying that the Russian President is not dead as previously thought and had merely been given a paralytic. Realizing that Salt used venom from Mike's spiders so that it appeared that she had killed him, Winter says that he didn't trust her after she came back from North Korea. He knew from the start that she had fallen for Mike and was not the same person that she had been. That was why Ted Winter told Orlov to kidnap and kill Mike, as well as why she was being made into the patsy and why Winter would be seen as the hero. Salt is enraged at this point and attempts to fire her gun through the glass. When this fails, she sees the access box next to the door on the other side of the room. She goes to it on the other side, firing her gun at it until the wall behind it is exposed. She then rewires the box so that she can get into the bunker conference room.In the room, Salt and Winters fight. The activation of the weapons is almost complete, but at the last minute, the secret service arrives and overpowers them. Instead of giving herself up, Salt jumps to pull the plug on the computer, cancelling the weapon strike activation and is shot in the process. Both she and Winter are escorted out, and as she is wearing a vest, Salt is unharmed. As she is being led up from the bunker as a prisoner, she sees Winter getting his wounds treated next to the stairs. She jumps toward him, wrapping her handcuffs around his neck and jumping over the balcony to strangle him. By the time she is pulled up, he is dead after neck has been broken and she is handed over to Peabody.They board a helicopter, and he asks her why she killed Winter. Her reply is "someone had to". She then explains her side of the story, and Peabody begins to believe her but points out that no one else will. She says that there are more Russian sleeper spies out there that will stop at nothing to interfere. She convinces him to let her go as they have taken everything from her and she will stop at nothing until all of the spies of K-12 are dead. He then undoes her cuffs and she jumps from the chopper, escaping into the Potomac River.(Director's Cut) As she reaches land and is running away, a news report voice over states that the new President, Stevens paused to lay flowers for a plane crash in 1974 killing his parents and sister, while in a tour of Russia.

Tags: suspenseful, mystery, murder, boring, violence, intrigue, flashback, psychedelic, action, romantic, revenge

Review:
While I can't say that I was awaiting Angelina Jolie's latest outing with bated breath, I was intrigued by the fact that Salt was originally intended to be a Tom Cruise vehicle.Tom's waning box office pulling-power aside, this sex-swap was a smart move by writer Kurt Wimmer (Equilibrium) as it gives Jolie the chance to prove that she can lay the smack-down on just as many henchmen as the boys can.
The question of where Salt's loyalties lie is the true source of tension and Jolie plays it cool, gaining and dismissing the audience's trust several times over.Schreiber and Ejiofor draw the short straws in terms of dialogue and simply run after Jolie for the entire movie without doing anything of significance.
If that wasn't enough, she also flies down an elevator shaft by leaping from wall to wall – it was a silly effect but added a cheesy, fanciful element to what would have been an entirely too serious movie.Consequently the first 40 minutes are fast and furious as Salt evades her fellow agents by any means necessary but not to be outdone, the rest of the film takes a left turn and continues to surprise with some serious fisticuffs, gun-play and high-speed car chases.
Aside from this minor gripe, Salt is a well-directed action movie that delivers us a potential new franchise, an intriguing lead character and an exciting close to a lacklustre summer..
In "Salt", when Angelina Jolie jumps consecutively onto six moving trucks on the freeway, she's flying right up and instantly running at Olympic record pace, sort of like the original Terminator except sporting lipstick.
I guess the point of this movie: don't try this at home.The essential plot I think is quite compelling, and I don't want to give too much away but only to say that nothing is at it seems until the very end.
There are flashbacks to a greater story but a lot of it was more confusing than insightful.After a brief prelude in which Jolie is interrogated and tortured by North Korean military agents, the movie begins, presumably about a year later, with a Russian requesting asylum with the United States via the CIA.
The non-stop action begins here, fueled by several plots and subplots.I think Salt is a decent film but not a great one.
This film has great over the top action scenes, an entertaining plot with some unexpected twists and a good looking star.
The film has it's share of shortcomings, but manages to sail safely.Angelina Jolie stars as Salt a CIA agent, who is accused of being a double agent.
Now, when I did seen this I absolutely loved it, I own it on DVD and have enjoyed it ever since.Angelina Jolie is a bad ass chick in this film and I loved it, I hope she will do a sequel to this soon since the movie is left open ended.I love spy thrillers and when done well they are fun, but I also like them as action films too.
I think people forget that it's an action film and not a documentary.there are bound to be unrealistic moments but if you were thinking you'd learn your Russian/American history from this movie you're going to be very disappointed.
I enjoyed the premise of the film and some of the plot twists, but the script is so full of holes, you'd think Evelyn Salt had blasted it with a machine gun!
That's an average of 7, which makes "SALT" a tasty action movie worth watching..
This movie isn't about the harmonious tabletop condiments, but a sleeper agent who awakens.While cross-examining a Russian turncoat, CIA agent Evelyn Salt (Angelina Jolie) is made aware that she has been planted in America to assassinate the visiting Russian president.Sought by her own agency as a traitor, Evelyn must go on the lam to clear her name.
And for those who relished in a good time of shoving popcorn in their mouth while watching her go gun-blazing in the action thriller 'Wanted' back in 2008, this one makes a sound, if slightly lesser option.
This spy action thriller, helmed from director Phillip Noyce who brought his work to the screen with two Jack Ryan adaptations 'Patriot Games' and 'Clear and Present Danger', is just another one of your average trips to the land of Angelina Jolie wielding her action skills against the baddies as she fights her way through the sporadic blemishes in the script written by Kurt Wimmer.
Unlike 'Wanted', this flick proceeds with a slightly more political agenda at hand, primarily the corruption uprooted from Russia since the beginning of their fallout with the United States during the Cold War. This film focuses on Evelyn Salt (played by Angelina Jolie), a CIA operative who is a living a peaceful life with her German boyfriend Michael Krause (played by August Diehl) and being held as one of the most respectable agents at her job.
Salt is a good movie with a very enjoyable,albeit very predictable storyline,and a pretty impressive performance from Angelina Jolie.It didn't surprise or shock me once,I found everything was going to happen extremely predictable,but I did enjoy the great action sequences in this movie and Angelina Jolie suited Evelyn Salt perfectly.I heard rumors about a sequel and if one was made I would go see it because the ending made a continuation very seem very promising.The movie is a fun ride and I would recommend it to action movie fans,but don't be expecting a very good movie,just some good action.Evelyn Salt (Angelina Jolie),a CIA agent,has to flee when a Russian defector claims she's a sleeper agent about to commit an act of terrorism..
Salt is a very good action movie and the plot actually scared me somewhat.
But this movie also proves why Angelina Jolie is the best female action star in the movie business.
Liev Schreiber did a pretty good job as well.This movie is just one of those action movies with a great plot twist.
Extraordinary casting , all of whom give admirable acting as starring Angelina Jolie who plays perfectly as dynamic double agent , Chiwetel Ejiofor as agent Peabody , and of course the Leiv Schreiver's interpretation who steals the show as Salt's partner .
As a matter of production, if Salt is especially written for Angelina Jolie to play the lead, Phillip Noyce isn't a bad choice at all to direct the movie; but I could still have preferred Kurt Wimmer to direct it, as he did the Equilibrium.
Angelina Jolie's first action was Cyborg-2(1993), in which she showed the white feather for a thrill to be created out of a bad Jean-Claude Van Damme sequel; and she was pretty good at that.
It is either the director or herself that makes the movie seems like it's been done before with same look of scenes from Tomb Raider or Tom Cruise's Mission Impossible and the likes of them.As a whole, Salt is well worth to see and enjoy with suspense-action-thriller type of storyline.
Action packed and fast paced, Salt is an equal to the Bourne movies in my opinion.
Salt (2010) *** (out of 4) CIA Agent Evelyn Salt (Angelina Jolie) is accused of being a spy for Russia with plans on killing the Russian president to set off a world war.
Evelyn Salt." This movie has so many crazy scenes yet director Noyce holds all of them together with some nice style and of course we get a strong performance by Jolie who sells every bit of craziness.
Fantastic film , action packed and Angelina Jolie at her best !.
Although action movies are not my favourite ones, the fact I liked "Salt", suggests to me it is a good movie, at least entertaining, thrilling, and being able to keep me watching, almost holding my breath, till the end.
It's a movie full of energy, running, chase sequences: the heroine, Angelina Jolie, is really a portent of physical endurance, pure energy beyond all human credibility, she overcomes any obstacle, and makes you feel that energy and strength.The plot is obviously full of holes, almost absurd, but I guess plot is not so much important in this genre, being it is just a pretext in the service of action.
The action sequences are not totally realistic sometimes, but still much more realistic than many other movies and they did a great a decision on not using CGI all the time (actually, i don't remember any scene with CGI, maybe the explosion on the white house, but that's OK).
Do not walk, or worse, stop to read reviews, but run instead to the nearest movie theater and watch Salt.I say don't read the reviews because a lot of what the movie critics say may deter you from seeing what is truly not only an exciting summer movie but a movie which is sure to pave the way for other female actresses to play similar lead action hero roles in the future.The critics may be right in saying that the plot (like a thousand other action movies before it) has plenty of holes and is filled with one unrealistic chase scene after another.
And that is: Angelina Jolie delivers an Oscar-worthy portrayal of CIA Agent, Salt, who may or may not be a Russian spy.
But, best of all, by the end of the movie, she made me find myself holding in my breath for a few seconds and crying a bit because I realized what Jolie has really accomplished by this role.Jolie has undeniably pulled off a first in history: She more than capably held her own as an action hero lead, a character which was originally written with a man in mind (Tom Cruise).
Without Jolie, Salt would be just another ordinary action-packed movie.
After audiences see SALT there will be no denying that Angelina Jolie is ultimate female action star.
Look for some cool action sequences, and especially be on the lookout for what she does with a pair of cuffs.Overall if you're looking for a good time at the movies and nothing too serious, check out Salt.
You'll see that Salt starring Angelina Jolie IS THE BEST MOVIE IN HISTORY.
Because of this, SALT succeeds in almost every level.Star Angelina Jolie actually brings the film on another level.
Let's not forget the light use of CGI and camera shakiness, making the experience a whole lot better than it already is.Overall, SALT shows us that Angelina Jolie is still the great action star that she always was and that action flicks can still be well made.
Given in mind the very low level of the average intelligence in America, peoples around there can easily be duped to believe the Russians are still their biggest enemies, while it is their Government instead (remember 9/11, dudes, and do not ever forget who started the fire, oh, no, it wasn't Saddam or bin Laden, it was good old Bush Jr. instead!) Having been in Russia I've seen there with my very eyes a beggar who knows some of Pushkin's poems by heart; tell me how many Americans can cite, say, Mark Twain, or Sellinger, or Hemingway for example?
Today I managed to see the first show of Angelina Jolie's latest action flick, 'Salt'.
No other actors stood out except Liev Schreiber who gave a nice twist to the plot.Final words, give 'Salt' a watch because of Jolie and its well performed action sequences.
Salt is a sore attempt to re-up the Russian spy action movie genre.
A female version of Jason Bourne, mixed in with a "24"-style storyline and old cold-war movie nostalgia and some good plot twists made this action film great to watch.
Salt is pure action fluff meant only to fill the theatre seats with naive kids, waiting to see their over hyped super star Angelina Jolie kick some ass.
Also, Angelina Jolie is excellent in the action side of her role, although her acting was (for me) at best wooden despite the disguising of emotion being an integral part of the character.However, the thoroughly implausible story, ridiculous characters, unnecessary female bashing, and similarity to plots in earlier films cited above rob this film of any classic attributes and will make it date quickly.
Pretty much that was the only unpredictable factor in a movie with a climax that will go down in history as one of the most foreshadowed "twists" from minute one in the film.Aside from the literal laugh-out-loud final 20 minutes, I don't think there was a scene in Salt that was crafted to invoke any laughter.
Anyone who complains about the plot holes in the new Angelina Jolie film Salt, or calls the story ridiculous or asks if the director thinks that we are idiots is missing the point completely.
Living in the moment is the action/thriller film's friend and it works well in Salt, making it fun and quite urgent while you are watching it.
Of course a lot of it doesn't make sense and normally I would be the first to call nonsense on such a film, but somehow Salt makes it work.Having a banner star is essential and, although I'm not a fan of Jolie, she does have a screen presence (quite how considering how stick thin she is, but she does it).
The rest of the cast are solid enough but the presence of Andre Braugher is a mystery to me – such a good actor and well-known face but yet here he is on screen for a few seconds and barely two sentences to say.Salt is not a brilliant film by any means and the sequel-friendly ending didn't have me excited to see the character more, but yet I enjoyed the film while I watched it.
Unfortunately, the routine section of the film is actually the better movie, as the plot twists become more and more ridiculous and don't hold together, and ultimately we are left caring nothing about any of the characters.Writer Kurt Wimmer has come up with a great concept, but a poor screenplay.
Director Phillip Noyce tries, but there's only so much he can do with the material, and his only sillier tendencies also get in the way.In the end, "Salt" is barely worth a look, but it's actually the least satisfying of the major action films of summer 2010.
When I watched the movie last weekend and in my opinion it was one of Angelina Jolie's best performances!
It was action packed, great and it kept you thinking the question that was on your mind from the moment you saw the trailer: "Who is Salt?" The ending was extremely unexpected, I can easily guess endings in movies but Salt was just like Shutter Island for me, not expecting the ending.
For once not too long as most movies these days.The plot was surprising and I never was able to figure out who was good or bad until the end.The action scenes were some of the best I have seen for awhile because they seemed humanly possible unlike a lot of the fantastic scenes from other movies that could never happen in real life.The key here is enjoyable and fun..
The stunts and action of this movie were pretty good, although the fighting was not great.
A benefit for both ends of the stick and there is no doubt that Jolie will not give such a performance for a film with a premise like this.The title is based on the main character, Evelyn Salt (Angelina Jolie), a CIA agent who is revealed to be a Russian spy sent on a mission with several other Russian spies to overthrow the United States of America.
Perhaps Howard missed these points in the film.With Angelina Jolie back in her action boots, there's bound to be plenty of fun.
Salt has some pretty good suspense and some great action scenes as well.
The movie gets much worse from there and while the effects, explosions and car crashes are good, it is as believable as a tourist walking into the Kremilin and assassinating the Russian President.If you need to watch this because it's Jolie, do so with a grain of Salt....
I'll freely admit that I (an average looking guy) am attracted to movies where the gorgeous woman is devoted to such a guy.Jolie is accused of being a "sleeper" KGB agent and the movie unfolds to reveal what happens next.And what happens next involves amazing chase scenes, satisfying action sequences, and enough plot twists to make sure that even a non-Angelina fan will remain enthralled and intrigued.
If you expect your action movies to actually make some sense then watch this one only if you are a Jolie fan..
Problem is that Jolie has grown to like America and she's determined to stop the plot which concerns killing the Russian Federation President and starting a nuclear war.If you believe in the deepest of conspiracies, Salt is the film for you.
If you want LOTS of action,twists and turns in a plot that is totally improbable, you'll love this movie.
Because of this and because of the fact that the writing gives us good insight into her back story, I found myself more enmeshed with this character than with Bourne (don't get me wrong – Damon did a great job – it is just that I liked the overall "taste" of Salt more).Even though the action sequences are extreme, they were surprisingly not over the top for me.
In the end, I really liked the Salt character and would prefer her to another Bourne movie, though I think the two are quite comparable overall..
Of course, there were some decent action sequences but without Angelina Jolie it would have been a B- movie.
I never expected to much of Angelina Jolie but wow she was great in this movie.
If you can let this thought leave your mind, you will thoroughly enjoy "Salt." The story was decent, most of the twists caught me by surprise, the action was amazing, and the acting was great.