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Eraser is a 1996 American action film directed by Chuck Russell and starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, Vanessa Williams, James Caan, James Coburn, and Robert Pastorelli. The film follows a U.S. Marshal of WITSEC who protects a senior operative testifying about an illegal arms deal and is forced to fight his former allies when one of the players is revealed to be a mole inside WITSEC.

Eraser
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Chuck Russell
Screenplay by	Tony Puryear Walon Green
Story by	Tony Puryear Walon Green Michael S. Chernuchin
Produced by	Arnold Kopelson Anne Kopelson
Starring	Arnold Schwarzenegger Vanessa Williams James Caan James Coburn Robert Pastorelli
Cinematography	Adam Greenberg
Edited by	Michael Tronick
Music by	Alan Silvestri
Production company	Kopelson Entertainment
Distributed by	Warner Bros.
Release date	June 21, 1996 (1996-06-21)
Running time	114 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$100 million[1]
Box office	$242.3 million[1]

The film was a commercial success, grossing over $242 million against a budget of $100 million. It received mixed reviews from critics, but they praised Williams's and Schwarzenegger's performances, the action sequences and the visual effects. It was released in the United States on June 21, 1996 and was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Sound Effects Editing in 1997. It was also one of the first major films released on DVD, being part of the Japanese launch lineup of Warner Home Video's debut of the format on December 20, 1996.[2]

A direct-to-video reboot of the film titled Eraser: Reborn starring Dominic Sherwood, was released on June 7, 2022.[3][4]

Plot

John Kruger – a top U.S. Marshal for the Witness Security Protection Program (WITSEC) – specializes in "erasing" high-profile witnesses: faking their deaths and setting them up in new identities to protect them from anyone that might silence them before they can testify in court. After erasing mobster-turned-informant Johnny Casteleone and his wife, John is given a new assignment by his superior, Arthur Beller, to protect Lee Cullen, a senior executive at defense contractor Cyrez Corporation. Lee has alerted the FBI that her fellow Cyrez executives have secretly financed the creation of an advanced electromagnetic rifle, which they intend to sell on the black market to enrich themselves.

As part of an FBI sting operation, Lee downloads data from the weapon's development onto two discs: one for the FBI and one for herself. Cyrez Vice President William Donohue detects Lee's intrusion and summons her for a meeting. After finding Lee's hidden camera and threatening her with a revolver, Donohue commits suicide. Lee delivers the disc but refuses John's offer to go into witness protection, believing the FBI was willing to sacrifice her to nail the conspirators. The FBI's disc is secretly replaced with a fake on the orders of Under Secretary of Defense Daniel Harper, the conspiracy's mastermind.

That night, Lee is ambushed in her own home by mercenaries sent by Cyrez CEO Eugene Morehart. John rescues Lee and erases her, setting her up in a new identity and keeping her location a secret even from WITSEC. John learns from his mentor, Marshal Robert DeGuerin, that several witnesses he had previously helped have been murdered due to a mole in WITSEC leaking information, and that the agency is now transferring all protected witnesses to new locations. Accompanied by Marshals Calderon, Schiff, and a new recruit named Monroe, John helps DeGuerin raid a remote cabin and rescue a female witness from a team of assassins, but DeGuerin then discreetly murders the witness as well when she overhears one of her captors reveal that he is the mole.

Flying back to DC, DeGuerin drugs an increasingly suspicious John, who manages to warn Lee before losing consciousness. The warning call is traced to New York City and DeGuerin kills Monroe using John's gun, framing him as the mole. Revealing he, Calderon, and Schiff are corrupt, DeGuerin explains that they are the go-betweens for a wealthy buyer who plans to purchase the rifle, and John escapes from the plane to rescue Lee from the same mercenaries who tried to kill her once before. John and Lee flee through the Central Park Zoo; John releases several alligators to trap and kill the mercenaries.

DeGuerin has John and Lee branded as fugitives. With help from Johnny, they infiltrate Cyrez Corporation and use a mainframe backdoor in Donohue's terminal to decrypt Lee's second disc. The disc reveals that a huge shipment of EM rifles has been stashed at the docks in Baltimore and that the buyer is Russian Mafia boss Sergei Ivanovich Petrofsky, who plans to resell the weapons overseas to terrorists. The company detects the intrusion, pinpoints their whereabouts, and remotely erases the disc; DeGuerin then kidnaps Lee and takes her to the docks as the shipment is being loaded onto Petrofsky's Russian-flagged freighter.

Johnny contacts his mobster cousin, Tony Two-Toes, who controls the docks; angered that he's being cut out of the deal, he has his men assist John. They kill Petrofsky, his henchmen, Calderon, and Schiff. In a struggle atop a shipping container, DeGuerin tries to shoot Lee, but John comes to her aid and destroys the pulley system on the container crane, dropping DeGuerin and the container to the ground and exposing the presence of the EM rifles. John secures the critically wounded DeGuerin, leaving him to be detained by Beller and the authorities and proving his and Lee's innocence. Weeks later, John brings Lee to a hearing for DeGuerin, Harper, and Morehart, who are indicted for treason. However, it quickly becomes clear that without solid evidence, all three men will likely be acquitted in court. Soon after, John fakes his and Lee's deaths in an explosion as they are leaving the courthouse.

In the back of their limousine, DeGuerin congratulates Harper thinking he planned the explosion to get rid of the only witnesses against them but is surprised when Harper replies that he thought DeGuerin planned it. The men are confused, then shocked as their limo stops at a railroad crossing and the driver – a disguised Johnny – locks the doors and exits the vehicle. John calls DeGuerin and tells him, "You've just been erased". Seconds later, a massive freight train plows through the limousine, killing all three men in a staged accident. Driving away, Johnny waves goodbye to John as he walks over to Lee in a waiting car. When Lee asks Kruger what happened he replies: "They caught a train."

Cast

Production

Development and casting

Director Chuck Russell and star Arnold Schwarzenegger were originally working on another project together when Eraser was brought to their attention.[5] Russell was excited about the possibilities the film could bring between actor and the character: "I see Arnold the way a lot of people do – as a mythic, bigger-than-life character – and that's who Kruger is. The character and the scenario are based firmly in reality, but I liked the mythic proportions of this man with a strong sense of duty, a strong sense of honor, who will literally do anything to protect a noble witness. I was excited about doing a film that had heroic proportions."[5] Producer Arnold Kopelson was also keen to cast Schwarzenegger in the role of "The Eraser", having talked with the actor about working on projects before.[5] Vanessa Williams would be cast as the lead female character, Lee Cullen, the key witness Eraser must protect. Williams came to the attention of the Kopelsons when Maria Shriver, the wife of Arnold Schwarzenegger, suggested her for the role.[5] To play the character of DeGuerin (Kruger's mentor and the main sociopathic antagonist), the filmmakers wanted an actor who could "convey intelligence, skill and magnetism – a more mature version of the Kruger character", they would cast James Caan in this role.[5] Before Caan was officially cast, Jonathan Pryce was also considered for the role.[6] The screenplay was initially the work of Tony Puryear, who had a background in advertising and rap videos. Writers Walon Green and Michael S. Chernuchin had previously worked together on the television drama Law & Order.[7] Extensive, uncredited rewrites were made by Frank Darabont and William Wisher Jr. (Terminator 2: Judgment Day).[8] Additional rewrites were made by John Milius as a favor to Schwarzenegger.[9][10][11]

Design

The "rail-gun" featured in the film as a key plot device, Schwarzenegger talks on the subject: "We paid a lot of attention to making the audience feel the danger of this weapon, that anyone can be outside of your house, looking right through the walls. It really leaves you nowhere to hide," he explains. "But, on top of that, we show the sophistication of the weapon in a lot of fun ways: you not only see through a building, you see a person's skeleton and even their heart beating inside. There are some great visual effects there."[5]

Filming

Eraser began principal photography in New York City, locations would include The Harlem Rail Yard in the South Bronx, Central Park's Sheep Meadow and Chinatown.[5] Following shooting in New York production moved to Washington D.C.[5] For the action sequence which takes place in the Reptile House of New York City Zoo, interiors were built on the soundstages of the Warner Bros. Studios in Burbank, California.[5] The screenplay went through numerous drafts with some of the most prominent screenwriters in the business, with a great deal of uncredited script-doctoring work being done by Graham Yost and William Wisher.

One of the most demanding action sequences in the film featured the character of Kruger forced to flee from a jet speeding through the skies at 250 miles (400 km) per hour. Speaking about this scene, director Russell says: "These things are jigsaw puzzle pieces not only within shooting sequence but within each shot. You had elements that were live action, elements that were miniature, sometimes computer-generated, and they're all married together in the final processing."[5] Some of the physical stunts were performed by Schwarzenegger himself. For the "aerial" stunt Arnold was required to fall 65 feet (20 m) in vertical descent and perform a back flip in mid-flight. The shot took seven takes to get right. In the final film, Kruger appears to drop along the length of the fuselage and past the flaming engine of the jet thanks to inventive camera angles and special effects.

Post production

The original name of the Cyrez corporations was "Cyrex". However, Cyrix, a microprocessor corporation and rival of Intel, protested. The name was then changed digitally in any scenes where the name appeared in a fairly costly process for the time, and dialogue redubbed.[12] Some instances of the "Cyrex" logo are still visible in the finished film.

Reception

Box office

Eraser had an opening weekend of $24.5 million in the United States during the summer season of 1996, staying ahead of The Hunchback of Notre Dame.[13] The final US gross was $101.2 million and final worldwide gross was $242.3 million.[1] Eraser was a commercial success in the Philippines, grossing more at the local box office than Twister, Mission: Impossible, and The Rock.[14] The film also had the largest opening for a Warner Bros. film in Malaysia, holding that record for six years until 2002 when it was given to Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets.[15]

Critical response

Based on 53 reviews collected by Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an overall approval rating of 42% and an average score of 5.1/10. The site's consensus reads: "Eraser's shoot-'em-up action might show off some cutting edge weaponry, but its rote story is embarrassingly obsolete".[16] On Metacritic, the film has a score of 56 out of 100 based on reviews from 18 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".[17]

Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A−" on an A+ to F scale.[18]

A more positive review came from Roger Ebert, who gave the film 3 stars out of a possible 4. He wrote that there were so many plot holes that "it helps to have a short attention span", but that Eraser is nonetheless "actually good action fun, with spectacular stunts and special effects" and a spirited performance from Williams "running and jumping and fighting and shooting and kicking and screaming and being tied to chairs and smuggling computer discs and looking great."[19]

Other media

Video game

The PC video game Eraser - Turnabout was released as a follow up to the plot of the film.[20][21]

Reboot

In September 2021, a sequel, which became a remake of the film instead, was announced to be in development with Dominic Sherwood in the lead role.[22] The film co-stars Jacky Lai, and the supporting cast includes McKinley Belcher III and Eddie Ramos. It was filmed secretly in mid-2021, for release through Warner Bros. Home Entertainment.[3] The film was released theatrically in Germany on March 31, 2022, and on Digital, Blu-ray & DVD in United States on June 7, 2022. It will later be available for streaming on HBO Max in fall 2022.[23]

See also

• List of American films of 1996
• Arnold Schwarzenegger filmography

References

External links

• Eraser at IMDb
• Eraser at Box Office Mojo
• Eraser at AllMovie
• Eraser at the TCM Movie Database
• Eraser at the American Film Institute Catalog

На других языках

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[de] Eraser (Film)

Eraser ist ein US-amerikanischer Actionfilm aus dem Jahr 1996. Regie führte Chuck Russell. Die Hauptrollen spielten Arnold Schwarzenegger, James Caan und Vanessa Lynn Williams. Der Film startete am 22. August 1996 in den deutschen Kinos. Er wurde 1997 für den Oscar in der Kategorie Bester Tonschnitt nominiert. Mit Eraser: Reborn wurde 2022 eine Neuverfilmung veröffentlicht, inszeniert von John Pogue.

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- [en] Eraser (film)

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[es] Eraser

Eraser es una película de acción de 1996 dirigida por Chuck Russell. Está protagonizada por Arnold Schwarzenegger, James Caan, Vanessa Williams, James Coburn y Robert Pastorelli en los papeles principales. La banda sonora está compuesta por Alan Silvestri. La película fue nominada en 1996 al Óscar a la mejor edición de sonido.

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[ru] Стиратель

«Стиратель» (англ. Eraser) — кинофильм, боевик режиссёра Чака Рассела. Слоган фильма: «He will erase your past to protect your future» («Он сотрёт ваше прошлое, чтобы защитить ваше будущее»). Мировая премьера состоялась 11 июня 1996 года.

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