https://wiki.sarg.dev/api.php?action=feedcontributions&feedformat=atom&user=140.177.102.213Vero - Wikipedia - User contributions [en]2026-08-08T06:48:09ZUser contributionsMediaWiki 1.44.2https://wiki.sarg.dev/index.php?title=The_Falcon_and_the_Snowman&diff=786993The Falcon and the Snowman2025-10-11T12:20:56Z<p>140.177.102.213: /* Captain Midnight intrusion */He was a hacker not a hijacker</p>
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<div>{{short description|1985 film by John Schlesinger}}<br />
{{Other uses|Falcon and Snowman (disambiguation)}}<br />
{{Use American English|date=January 2025}}<br />
{{More citations needed|date=May 2020}}<br />
{{Infobox film<br />
| name = The Falcon and the Snowman<br />
| image = Falcon and the snowman ver3.jpg<br />
<br />
| caption = Theatrical release poster<br />
| director = [[John Schlesinger]]<br />
| producer = {{plainlist|<br />
* [[Gabriel Katzka]]<br />
* John Schlesinger<br />
}}<br />
| screenplay = [[Steven Zaillian]]<br />
| based_on = {{based on|''The Falcon and the Snowman: A True Story of Friendship and Espionage''|[[Robert Lindsey (journalist)|Robert Lindsey]]}}<br />
| starring = {{plainlist|<br />
* [[Timothy Hutton]]<br />
* [[Sean Penn]]<br />
}}<br />
| music = {{plainlist|<br />
* [[Lyle Mays]]<br />
* [[Pat Metheny]]<br />
}}<br />
| cinematography = [[Allen Daviau]]<br />
| editing = Richard Marden<br />
| studio = [[Hemdale Film Corporation]]<br />
| distributor = [[Orion Pictures]]<br />
| released = {{Film date|1985|1|25|United States}}<br />
| runtime = 131 minutes<br />
| country = United States<br />
| language = English<br />
| budget = $12 million<br />
| gross = $17 million<br />
}}<br />
<br />
'''''The Falcon and the Snowman''''' is a 1985 American [[Spy film|spy]] [[Drama (film and television)|drama]] film directed by [[John Schlesinger]]. The screenplay by [[Steven Zaillian]] is based on the 1979 book ''The Falcon and the Snowman: A True Story of Friendship and Espionage'' by [[Robert Lindsey (journalist)|Robert Lindsey]], and tells the true story of two young American men, [[Christopher John Boyce|Christopher Boyce]] ([[Timothy Hutton]]) and [[Andrew Daulton Lee]] ([[Sean Penn]]), who sold security secrets to the Soviet Union.<br />
<br />
The film's original music was performed by the [[Pat Metheny Group]], and featured singer [[David Bowie]] on "[[This Is Not America]]".<br />
<br />
The film received positive reviews from critics, particularly for the performances of Penn and Hutton.<br />
<br />
==Plot==<br />
Christopher Boyce, an expert in the sport of [[falconry]] and the son of a former [[Federal Bureau of Investigation|FBI]] special agent, gets a job as a civilian defense contractor working in the so-called "Black Vault," a secure communication facility through which flows information on some of the most classified US operations in the world. Boyce becomes disillusioned with the US government through his new position, especially after reading a misrouted communiqué dealing with the [[Central Intelligence Agency|CIA]]'s plan to [[1975 Australian constitutional crisis|depose the Prime Minister of Australia]]. Frustrated by this duplicity, Boyce decides to repay his government by passing classified secrets to the Soviets.<br />
<br />
Daulton Lee is Boyce's childhood friend, a drug addict and minor cocaine smuggler nicknamed "The Snowman", who has frustrated and alienated his family. Lee agrees to contact and deal with the [[KGB]]'s agents in Mexico on Boyce's behalf, motivated not by idealism but by what he perceives as an opportunity to make money with plans to settle in Costa Rica, a nation that at that time had no [[List of United States extradition treaties|extradition treaty]] with the United States.<br />
<br />
As the pair become increasingly involved with espionage, Lee's ambition to create a major espionage business coupled with his excessive drug use begins to strain the two from each other. Alex, their Soviet handler, becomes increasingly reluctant to deal with Lee as the middleman because of Lee's periods of irrationality. Above all, Boyce wants to end the espionage so that he can resume a normal life with his girlfriend Lana and attend college. Boyce meets with Lee's KGB handler to explain the situation. Meanwhile, Lee is desperate to regain the Soviets' regard after realizing that the KGB no longer needs him as a courier. Lee is observed tossing a note over the fence at the Soviet embassy in [[Mexico City]] and is arrested by Mexican police and a [[United States Foreign Service|US Foreign Service]] officer accompanies him to the police station.<br />
<br />
When the police search his pockets and find film from a [[Minox]] camera Boyce used to photograph documents along with a postcard used by the Soviets to show Lee the location of a drop zone, they produce pictures of the same location that was on the postcard, showing officers surrounding a dead policeman on the street. The Foreign Service officer explains that the Mexican police are trying to implicate him with the murder of the policeman. The police then take Lee away and interrogate him violently.<br />
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Hours later, Lee reveals that he is a [[Soviet spy]]. Told by the Mexican police that he will be deported, Lee is offered a choice of where to be sent. Lee suggests Costa Rica, where he owns a house paid for with drug money, but the choice is merely between the Soviet Union and the United States. Lee reluctantly agrees to go back to America and is arrested as he walks across the border.<br />
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Realizing that he too will soon be captured, Boyce releases his pet falcon, Fawkes, and then sits down to wait. Moments later, US Marshals and FBI agents surround him. In the closing scene, Lee and Boyce are seen being escorted to prison.<br />
<br />
==Cast==<br />
<!--- [[WP:NOTDATABASE]] - cast and order per Main Cast [[Motion picture credits#Opening credits]], roles per closing credits scroll ---><br />
{{Cast listing|<br />
* [[Timothy Hutton]] as [[Christopher John Boyce|Christopher Boyce]]<br />
* [[Sean Penn]] as [[Andrew Daulton Lee|Daulton Lee]]<br />
* [[Richard Dysart]] as Dr. Lee<br />
* [[Pat Hingle]] as Mr. Boyce<br />
* [[Lori Singer]] as Lana<br />
* [[Dorian Harewood]] as Gene<br />
* [[Chris Makepeace]] as David Lee<br />
* [[Macon McCalman]] as Larry Rogers<br />
* [[Joyce Van Patten]] as Mrs. Boyce<br />
* [[Priscilla Pointer]] as Mrs. Lee<br />
* [[Nicholas Pryor]] as Eddie<br />
* [[David Suchet]] as Alex<br />
* Sam Ingraffia as Kenny Kahn<br />
* Mady Kaplan as Laurie<br />
* [[Boris Leskin]] as Mikhael<br />
* [[Daniel McDonald (actor)|Daniel McDonald]] as Clay<br />
* Marvin McIntyre as Ike<br />
* [[Jennifer Runyon]] as Carole<br />
}}<br />
<br />
==Reception==<br />
===Critical reception===<br />
{{RT prose|{{RT data|score}}|{{RT data|average}}|{{RT data|count}}|Stranger than fiction and improbably entertaining, ''The Falcon and the Snowman'' shows how easily idealism can be twisted into treason.|ref=yes|access-date=2023-07-09}} {{MC film|68|15|ref=yes|access-date=2023-07-09}}<br />
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Film critic [[Roger Ebert]] gave it a perfect four-star rating, citing one of the many strengths as that "it succeeds, in an admirably matter-of-fact way, in showing us exactly how these two young men got in way over their heads. This is a movie about spies, but it is not a thriller in any routine sense of the word. It's just the meticulously observant record of how naiveté, inexperience, misplaced idealism and greed led to one of the most peculiar cases of treason in American history."<ref>{{Cite web |last=Ebert |first=Roger |title=The Falcon and the Snowman movie review (1985) {{!}} Roger Ebert |url=https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/the-falcon-and-the-snowman-1985 |access-date=2022-06-12 |website=rogerebert.com/ |language=en}}</ref><br />
<br />
Film critic [[Gene Siskel]] of the ''[[Chicago Tribune]]'' also gave the film four stars and hailed Hutton and Penn's work in the film, writing that "it's tough to spot Penn in this new role" and calling Penn's performance rare because it "neither patronizes nor celebrates drug use; instead, it's absolutely lifelike, and for a film based on a true story, there is no greater compliment." Siskel also noted that the two lead characters formed an odd couple that made "a terrific formula for a movie, creating at least three stories: The plight of each man, their joint effort to accomplish their goal and the changing dynamic of their relationship as the story progresses. As if that weren't enough, 'The Falcon and the Snowman' also turns into a 'how-to' movie with a fine sense of detail for the worlds of espionage and drugs."<ref>{{cite news |first=Gene |last=Siskel |title=The Falcon and the Snowman : John Schlesinger Triumphs with First Fine Film of 1985 |work=[[Chicago Tribune]] |page=4 |date=January 25, 1985 }}</ref> Siskel would go on to include the film in his ranked list of top ten films of 1985 on At The Movies. <br />
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===Box office===<br />
In the United States and Canada, ''The Falcon and The Snowman'' grossed $17.1{{nbsp}}million at the box office,<ref name=BOM>{{Cite Box Office Mojo |access-date=2023-07-10}}</ref> against a budget of $12{{nbsp}}million.<ref>{{Cite web |title=The Falcon and the Snowman (1985) |work=[[AFI Catalog of Feature Films]] |url=http://catalog.afi.com/Film/57677-THE-FALCON-AND-THE-SNOWMAN |access-date=2019-01-02 |quote=According to the 12 May 1983 ''HR'', Orion Pictures had taken over the $12 million picture…}}</ref><br />
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==Captain Midnight intrusion==<br />
{{Main|Captain Midnight broadcast signal intrusion}}<br />
On April 27, 1986, a broadcast of the film by [[Home Box Office|HBO]] was interrupted for 4.5 minutes by a pirate broadcast featuring a message protesting the network's introduction of signal scrambling and higher charges for satellite dish owners. The incident made national headlines;<ref name="Time">{{cite web|url=http://www.signaltonoise.net/library/captmidn.htm|title=The Story of Captain Midnight|work=Signal to Noise|access-date=August 3, 2007|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20070128101239/http://www.signaltonoise.net/library/captmidn.htm|archive-date=January 28, 2007}}</ref> the hacker, electrical engineer John MacDougall, was eventually arrested and fined $5,000.<br />
<br />
==Music==<br />
{{Main|The Falcon and the Snowman (album)}}<br />
<br />
==References==<br />
{{reflist}}<br />
<br />
==External links==<br />
* {{IMDb title}}<br />
* {{Rotten Tomatoes|2=The Falcon and the Snowman}}<br />
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20010527074327/http://www.raptorrehab.org/raptors/lucy.htm ''Lucy''], the Peregrine Falcon used in the movie.<br />
* [http://film.virtual-history.com/film.php?filmid=8572 Movie stills] at Virtual History<br />
<br />
{{John Schlesinger}}<br />
{{Steven Zaillian}}<br />
<br />
{{DEFAULTSORT:Falcon And The Snowman, The}}<br />
[[Category:1980s spy drama films]]<br />
[[Category:1985 crime drama films]]<br />
[[Category:1985 films]]<br />
[[Category:American crime drama films]]<br />
[[Category:American spy drama films]]<br />
[[Category:Cold War spy films]]<br />
[[Category:American docudrama films]]<br />
[[Category:Films directed by John Schlesinger]]<br />
[[Category:Films set in Mexico]]<br />
[[Category:Films set in Mexico City]]<br />
[[Category:Films set in the 1970s]]<br />
[[Category:Films with screenplays by Steven Zaillian]]<br />
[[Category:Orion Pictures films]]<br />
[[Category:Spy films based on actual events]]<br />
[[Category:1980s English-language films]]<br />
[[Category:1980s American films]]<br />
[[Category:English-language crime drama films]]<br />
[[Category:English-language spy drama films]]</div>140.177.102.213