Wendell Rohr is a torts lawyer taking on the gun lobby. Rankin Fitch is the jury consultant for the Defendants and between them the battle is for the hearts and minds of the jury. But there is someone on the inside. Nicholas Easter is a juror with a girlfriend, Marlee, on the outside. they have a past ..... and their own agenda.
Written by
johnno.r@xtra.co.nz
Plot Synopsis:
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In New Orleans, Louisiana, Celeste Wood's life is changed in a blinding flash when a failed day trader at her husband's stock brokerage firm shows up at his former workplace with a semiautomatic handgun and opens fire on his former colleagues, including Celeste's husband. Two years later, and armed with pro bono attorney Wendell Rohr (Dustin Hoffman), Celeste decides to take the weapon's manufacturer to court, on the grounds that the company's gross negligence led to her husband's death.
As the trial date draws near, jury consultant Rankin Fitch (Gene Hackman) arrives in town. Early in the movie, Fitch proves his incredible talent for reading people when he correctly guesses that his cabbie's mother is ill and in the hospital. Fitch arrives at his destination: the back room of a closed costume shop. In this room are about a dozen people on Fitch's payroll, armed with personal computers and backgrounds on each of the jurors in the jury pool. Also in this room are viewing and listening devices, intended to allow Fitch and his staff to communicate with lead attorney Durwood Cable (Bruce Davison) in the courtroom through electronic surveillance (a highly illegal practice) when they view the jurors and hear the answers to the questions put forth to them.
In the jury pool is Nicholas Easter (John Cusack), a happy-go-lucky video game store clerk who tries to get himself excused from jury duty, even going as far as asking the judge to excuse him so he can compete in a video game challenge with a nominal cash prize. The judge refuses, and Fitch, despite doubts about allowing Easter on the jury, is out of challenges and has no choice but to allow Easter into the jury.
Easter's congenial manner wins him acceptance from his fellow jurors, except Frank Hererra, a hardened former Marine of Cuban descent, who knows that there is a great deal of money at stake. Hererra takes an instant disliking to Easter, which is not alleviated when Easter proposes Herman Grimes - a blind man who displayed the most knowledge of law out of all of them when being selected - as jury foreman instead of Hererra.
However, there is something to Hererra's suspicion that Easter has a hidden agenda. It is soon clear that Easter does have an ulterior motive, which somehow involves his girlfriend Marlee (Rachel Weisz). The two seem to be grifters and try to offer Fitch the verdict he wants - for a steep price. Fitch, clearly not amused, asks for proof that they can do what they say they can do. This they try to give him in a number of different ways; for example, Marlee asks Fitch "feeling patriotic?" and the next day, as an indirect result of a suggestion of Easter's, the jury stands up and leads the entire courtroom in the Pledge of Allegiance.
Angered that an "amateur" may be even better at manipulating the jury than he is, Fitch orders Easter's apartment raided. Marlee counteracts by getting one of Fitch's jurors bounced. The cat and mouse game continues when a hit man tries to kill Marlee in her apartment. She manages to injure the intruder and escapes. She raises her price from $10 to $15 million.
Meanwhile, Marlee is also working on Rohr, also promising to deliver him the same verdict for the same price. Though Rohr knows his case stands little chance against the well-funded defense- indeed, he goes so far as to actually get the money out-, he refuses to pay, going with his conscience.
Fitch finally agrees to pay Marlee the ransom as one of his witnesses blows up on the stand, crippling, but not entirely losing the case. After Easter receives confirmation that Fitch has wired the money to a Cayman Islands bank, he asks jurors to review the facts of the case (trying to deliver a conviction for Celeste), much to the displeasure of his fellow juror Frank. In the meantime, Fitch's henchman, tracking Easter's path to Indiana, calls him frantically, telling him to not wire Easter the money, but it is too late. The henchman also learns that Easter's real name is Jeffrey Kerr, and that he has been tailing gun cases for some time. We also learn that Marlee's real name is Gabrielle Brant.
Obviously Marlee and her sister had been Easter's friends since high school in the fictional rural town of Gardner, Indiana. Marlee's sister died in a school shooting when Easter was unable to protect her, and the town took the gun manufacturer to court in a lawsuit that Fitch himself argued. The town bankrupted its treasury after losing the case to Fitch.
Back in the jury room, Frank calls the lawsuit frivolous, stating that despite the hardship in his own life, he has never asked anyone for a handout. Frank also reveals in a rant that regardless of the case facts, he does not want to deliver a verdict that will make a white upper-middle class woman even richer.
Shocked at Frank's outburst, the jurors agree to review testimony once more. The gun manufacturer is found liable, with a large jury award coming for Celeste Wood. Fitch, defeated, leaves the courthouse and into an area bar. There, he is confronted by Easter and Marlee, who show him a copy of the wire transfer of $15 million. They tell him that he is to retire immediately... or they will fax the transfer document to the IRS, who will be likely concerned over such a large amount of money. Fitch asks what they intend to do with the money, and gets the answer that the $15 million will be given to the town of Gardner, Indiana since they went bankrupt after losing their case.
Outside the bar, they see Wendell Rohr. Rohr recognizes Marlee and knows it's Nick with her. They smile at one another without saying a word. The movie ends with Marlee telling Nick she wants to go home. Nick agrees, knowing their job is done.
This is the 10th movie starring both John Cusack and Jeremy Piven.
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This is Gene Hackman's and Dustin Hoffman's first film together. At the Pasadena Playhouse they were classmates and were both voted "Least Likely to Succeed".
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The much anticipated bathroom scene in Runaway Jury (2003), where Rohr confronts Finch is the first ever dialog in a movie between Dustin Hoffman and Gene Hackman. It was written while the rest of the movie was being filmed, after someone on the crew found out that the two, though they had been friends since 1956, had never starred in a movie together. It was finally shot on a single day at the very end, weeks after both Hackman and Hoffman had finished their other work.
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In the novel, the lawsuit is filed against a tobacco company. This screenplay was in development for several years and, after the release of The Insider (1999), all subsequent scripts involved a lawsuit against a gun manufacturer. Although, the movie contains various references to tobacco. Eg. Nick Easter's advice to the maintenance man at the beginning.
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In Runaway Jury the goth alternate juror who replaces the alcoholic juror who is dismissed is named Lydia Deets (played by Corri English). This is the name of the goth character Lydia Deetz in Beetle Juice, the teen who communicates with the deceased previous owners of the house (played by Winona Ryder).
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In 1997, Edward Norton was originally cast in the role of Nicholas Easter with Joel Schumacher directing. Sean Connery and Gwyneth Paltrow were cast in the roles of Fitch and Marlee, respectively. But when Schumacher dropped out of the project and it was delayed, the actors moved on to other projects. The project was revived in 2001 when Will Smith was in talks to play Nicholas Easter with Jennifer Connelly as Marlee and Mike Newell directing. But Smith dropped out and the project was again stalled.
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According to Dustin Hoffman when he and Gene Hackman filmed the last of their scenes, Hackman said to Hoffman "Let's get drunk."
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Joel Schumacher was originally attached to direct, largely at the insistence of John Grisham. The author had been pleased with the way Schumacher had handled two of his properties - A Time to Kill (1996) and The Client (1994).
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While the notion of infiltrating a jury in the manner of Nicholas Easter is obviously intriguing, various systems exist to prevent it. For example, in most jurisdictions (including New Orelans), prospective jurors are required to have permanently resided within that jurisdiction for at least one year prior to selection.
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Naomi Watts was offered the role of Marlee but turned it due to scheduling conflicts.
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Other notable actresses auditioning for the role of Marlee included Bridget Moynahan and Amanda Peet.
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Gene Hackmans line" And this man doesn't give a single, solitary droplet of shit about truth, justice or your American way." Truth, justice and the American is a line from Superman. Gene Hackman starred in the movie Superman.
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The film cast includes three Oscar winners: Rachel Weisz, Gene Hackman and Dustin Hoffman; and one Oscar nominee: Bruce Davison.
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TheGameTrader is an actual store in the Espalanade Mall right outside of New Orleans.
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After being in development for several years, director Alfonso Cuarn became attached to direct and co-write the film. He ended up leaving the project a few months after that.
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This is the second time the actors Rachel Weisz, Leland Orser, Luis Guzmn, and Dustin Hoffman have starred in a movie together - the first being the movie "Confidence", also in 2003.
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Final film of Don Hood.
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The voice on the radio at the very beginning is Morning show host Rod Ryan. He was at one time based in New Orleans on his own show on The End. At the time the film was released on DVD, he had moved to Houston were he still broadcasts in the morning.
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Jeremy Piven and Leland Orser previously costarred in the 1998 film Very Bad Things. They had no scenes together in this film.
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In the novel, Fitch is attracted to Marlee. This background story can be slightly noticed in the movie.
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Jeremy Piven and Nora Dunn also appeared in several episodes of the HBO series, Entourage (2004-2011).
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This is the third John Grisham film Gene Hackman has starred in the others are The Firm and The Chamber.
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Nick and Marlee meet in a voodoo shop where the Creole shopkeeper only speaks French. The movie conveys the image of the City still being mostly French speaking, but the French-only speaking Creole population in New Orleans is practically extinct.
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The female bailiff says she "baked these muffins myself", but she is clearly holding a tray of brownies.
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During attorney Rohr's closing argument in court he addresses the gun company boss "chief CEO". The word "chief" is redundant since CEO stands for "chief executive officer".
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A witness testifies that the Esplanade Mall would never be robbed because a police station is right across the street. This is wrong. There is no Jefferson Parish police station near the Esplanade Mall.
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Rohr initially describes the shooter in the office rampage as a day trader, then as a broker, then as a day trader again.
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The footage from the video surveillance Nick Easter had set up in his apartment shows a different replay of what actually happened when he walked in on the guy spying on his personal effects.
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As the funds are being received at the Cayman Island Bank, the issuing bank name and address is filled in as "Cayman Islands Reserve Bank", however the printout of the transfer has issuing bank name and address as "Bahamian Reserver Bank" in Nassau, Bahamas.
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When Nick Easter comes down the steps and the old man (Mr Polaski) is cleaning out the water pump, the pump is clear. Moments later, the pump has green weed over it.
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In Nick's first scene he opens a piece of mail at his apartment's mailbox. It is addressed to him at "1619 Chartres St." Later, when his info is brought up on Rankin Fitch's computer screen his address is listed as "617 Chartres St."
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When Nick attacks Fitch's man in the car he swings and smashes the windshield and passenger side window. As the man backs up, the rear window is intact but as he pulls away the rear window is shattered long before Nick throws the pipe at the back of the car.
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When Nick is scribbling on the jury menu form, rain is seen outside the window. When he throws the form outside a few minutes later and it's picked up by Marlee, the rain has stopped and the grass is dry.
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When Rankin Fitch meets the gun company guy who is shooting clay pigeons, near the end of the conversation, the gun company guy starts to put on his safety glasses and says "Pull" before he has time to shoot, but in the next shot, he is fully prepared, and hits the target in the air.
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Nick Easter smashes the burglar's windshield, but when he backs up the windshield is whole again.
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When Fitch grabs hold of Marlee on the trolley, the check changes from his left to right hand multiple times.
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In the first scene when the defense and plaintiff first walk into the courtroom, the defense sets the rigged briefcase on the table as he walks to the table. In the very next shot they show a close-up of him setting the briefcase in place from a sitting position.
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When Marlee is sitting at an outdoor cafe with Wendell, Wendell's shirt collar is repeatedly neatly tucked/sloppily sticking out between shots.
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When the jury enters the court to give the verdict, Millee Dupree enters the juror's box twice.
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In the beginning, a photographer is shooting Nick from a second-floor balcony. However, the black & white stills produced are shot at street level.
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When Fitch meets with the gun company man who is shooting clay discs, near the end of the conversation the man loads his gun and closes it. In the very next shot it's broken open then switches back to closed in the shot after that.
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When Rohr has hired Lawrence, he steps in his car. Lawrence is standing next to the front tire. In the long shot of Rohr pulling out, Lawrence is standing a few feet back and has turned around.
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When Fitch meets the gun company men, a chessboard is shown. The game is already started (the white Queen and the white King are in wrong start position). In the next shots, after some seconds, the chessboard shows the chess pieces in the start position (and the white Queen is finally in the correct square).
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When the menus for the jury's lunch are being handed out, the policewoman enters the room with a stack of menus in her hand and she just starts distributing them. In the next shot, it is shown that everyone in the room has their own menus in their hands. How did she distribute them within one second to everyone?
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When Nick Easter meets Fitch they meet at the Riverwalk near the Crescent City Connection bridge in New Orleans. The jury is sequestered near the Texas border according to one juror's comment when they arrive at the motel for the jurors.
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The American Flag is on the wrong side of Judge Harkin, as it is accorded the place of honor, always positioned to its own right, or the speaker's right and the audience's left, according to the United States Flag Code.
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After the anti-gun juror goes on his tirade, Nick Easter makes a joke. In reality, a tirade like that could actually force the judge to dismiss the entire perspective pool, because the pool would then be considered tainted since the witnessed the tirade.
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When Marlee supposedly jots down her e-mail address for Fitch on the street car, she uses about 2 or 3 pen strokes, which is barely enough for her to write "@" much less an actual e-mail address.
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When Marlee calls Fitch at home and increases her demand to $15 million, he slams the phone's receiver down. The receiver's cord can be seen not to be connected to the phone.
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When Fitch is viewing a video of Nick, we see it paused with embedded timecode paused along with the video. the last two numbers (:39) indicate the frames, not seconds (you can tell this by the speed at which the numbers run and the fact the "tens" number never passes 3) when in play mode. Frame rates for NTSC (north American video) is 30 frames per second, anywhere else in the world it varies, mostly at 25 frames/sec in most of Europe, but no video is more than 30 frames/sec.
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When the sum of 15 million dollars is counted during the bank transfer, the number exceeds 90 million right before it hits 15 million.
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When Fitch is sitting in the bar towards the end of the movie, the amount of drink in his glass increases between shots after Easter and Marlee leave the bar.
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Near the end of the movie, when Doyle is driving a car and talking to Fitch on his cell phone, the antenna is shown in the extended position, but then is retracted by the time he finishes the call and hangs up.
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When the investigator is in Gardner, Indiana speaking to Marlee's mother, the spires of Crescent City Connection, New Orleans are in the background.
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voir dire|watching tv|woman murders a man|french|french quarter new orleans|jury|juror|gun|woman|jury consultant|gun manufacturer|lawyer|widow|death|blood|trial|court trial|court|suitcase of money|judicial system|judicial|courtroom drama|suicide|brawl|fistfight|arms trade|fake identity|assault rifle|man hits a woman|ambush|arms dealer|offscreen killing|bilingual|assistant|revelation|small town|blindness|moral dilemma|skeet shooting|conspiracy|bathroom|cameraman|disguise|cockroach|videotape|cayman islands|money transfer|femme fatale|security guard|female security guard|black and white scene|plaintiff|freeze frame|happy birthday to you|bus|ceo|money|taxi driver|victim|gun violence|alcoholic|death of husband|home movie|taxi|set up|lipstick|fire truck|firefighter|ambulance|job promotion|man fights a woman|attack|media coverage|news report|newscast|realtor|basketball|protestor|machine pistol|mechanic|race against time|gasoline|streetcar|sabotage|black comedy|supermarket|manager|ex marine|wearing a sound wire|wiretapping|apartment|car crash|body landing on a car|heavy rain|double cross|betrayal|deception|revenge|hit with a baseball bat|suspense|knife|home invasion|hidden camera|sleeping pills|drug overdose|bar|cafe|restaurant|foot chase|undercover|southern accent|cincinnati ohio|indiana|newspaper clipping|shopping mall|psychopath|litigation|arrest|judiciary|sex|guard|saxophone player|statue|courtroom outburst|courthouse|video tape|abortion|trolley car|being followed|following someone|waitress|diner|mp3 player|hit with a bottle|home video|blind man|american football|murder suicide|co worker|brokerage firm|water fountain|necktie|black american|african american|flash forward|secretary|song|singing|singer|blackmail|intimidation|birthday cake|happy birthday|birthday|tv crew|umbrella|rain|stockbroker|rigged jury|baseball bat|sense of smell|policeman|democrat|baptist|911|fire|breaking and entering|pursuit|chase|smashing a car window|toilet|church|motel|robbery|entrapment|school shooting|school playground|children|professor|sister sister relationship|pay phone|ex u.s. marine|crucifix|cajun|candle|surveillance|jury summons|mail|cell phone|telephone call|telephone|slow motion scene|prayer|computer|photograph|photographer|camera|montage|asthma|cigarette smoking|street life|beating|fight|drink|drinking|theft|thief|prologue|husband wife relationship|mother son relationship|father son relationship|target practice|rifle|patriotism|pledge of allegiance|eating|gunshot|food|murder|paranoia|cynicism|miscarriage of justice|legal system|lawsuit|gun control|fighting the system|crisis of conscience|suicide attempt|bribery|stabbed in the leg|secret|attempted murder|corruption|abuse of power|ohio|new orleans louisiana|punk rock girl|goth|goth girl|law|jury tampering|attorney|shooting|manipulation|jury room|false identity|courtroom|arson|court case|court hearing|weapon|court of law|judge|jury duty|justice|death of father|based on novel|surprise ending|
Argentina: Tribunal en fuga
Bulgaria (Bulgarian title): Ÿ€иŠда за п€одан
Brazil: O Jri
Canada (French title): Le matre du jeu
Germany: Das Urteil
Germany: Das Urteil - Jeder ist kuflich
Denmark: Juryen
Estonia: Isepine vandekogu
Spain: El jurado
Finland: Valamiehet
France: Le matre du jeu
Greece (transliterated ISO-LATIN-1 title): Oi enorkoi
Greece: Ÿι •νοκοι
Croatia: Odmetnuta porota
Hungary: Az tlet elad
Italy: La giuria
Japan (English title): New Orleans Trial
Peru: Tribunal en fuga
Poland: Lawa przysieglych
Portugal: O Jri
Serbia: Odbegli porotnik
Russia: ’е€дик‚ за денŒги
Sweden: De utvalda
Slovenia: Pobegla porota
Turkey (Turkish title): Jri
Movie Details:
720x306 (23.976 Fps - 1 510 Kbps)
MOVIE
