View source for In the Line of Fire

{{short description|1993 political action thriller film by Wolfgang Petersen}}
{{other uses}}
{{Use American English|date=January 2025}}
{{Infobox film
| name           = In the Line of Fire
| image          = In the line of fireposter.jpg
| caption        = Theatrical release poster
| alt            = An older man running alongside a limousine
| director       = [[Wolfgang Petersen]]
| producer       = Jeff Apple
| writer         = [[Jeff Maguire]]
| starring       = {{Plainlist|
* [[Clint Eastwood]]
* [[John Malkovich]]
* [[Rene Russo]]
* [[Dylan McDermott]]
* [[Gary Cole]]
* [[Fred Thompson|Fred Dalton Thompson]]
* [[John Mahoney]]
}}
| cinematography = [[John Bailey (cinematographer)|John Bailey]]
| editing        = [[Anne V. Coates]]
| music          = [[Ennio Morricone]]
| studio         = {{Plainlist|
* [[Castle Rock Entertainment]]
* Apple-Rose Productions
}}
| distributor    = [[Columbia Pictures]]
| released       = {{Film date|1993|07|09}}
| runtime        = 128 minutes
| country        = United States
| language       = English
| budget         = $40 million<ref name="Hughes80">Hughes, p. 80</ref><ref name="Galbraith" />
| gross          = $187 million<ref name="numbers" />
}}

'''''In the Line of Fire''''' is a 1993 American [[Political cinema|political]] [[action thriller film]] directed by [[Wolfgang Petersen]] and starring [[Clint Eastwood]], [[John Malkovich]] and [[Rene Russo]].<ref>{{cite news|last=Eller |first=Claudia | title=In the Line of Fire: Whose Movie Is It, Anyway? |website=Los Angeles Times |date=July 13, 1993 |url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1993-07-13-ca-12681-story.html |access-date=December 27, 2010}}</ref> Written by [[Jeff Maguire]], the film is about a disillusioned and obsessed former [[Central Intelligence Agency|CIA]] agent who plans to [[Assassination|assassinate]] the [[President of the United States]] and the [[United States Secret Service|Secret Service]] agent who is tracking him. Eastwood's character is the sole remaining active-duty Secret Service agent from the detail that was guarding [[John F. Kennedy]] in [[Dallas]], [[Texas]] at the time of his [[John F. Kennedy assassination|assassination]] in 1963. The film also stars [[Dylan McDermott]], [[Gary Cole]], [[John Mahoney]], and [[Fred Thompson|Fred Dalton Thompson]].

''In the Line of Fire'' was co-produced by [[Columbia Pictures]] and [[Castle Rock Entertainment]], with Columbia handling distribution. The film was a critical and commercial success. It grossed $187 million against a $40 million production budget and earned three nominations at the [[66th Academy Awards]].

==Plot==
Secret Service agents, Frank Horrigan and Al D'Andrea, meet with members of a counterfeiting group at a marina. The group's leader, Mendoza, tells Horrigan that he has identified D'Andrea as an undercover agent, and forces Horrigan to prove his loyalty by putting a gun to D'Andrea's head and pulling the trigger. When the gun just clicks, Horrigan then shoots and kills Mendoza's men, identifies himself as a [[United States Secret Service]] agent, and arrests Mendoza.

Horrigan investigates a complaint from a landlady about an apartment's absent tenant, Joseph McCrawley. He finds a collage of photographs and newspaper articles on famous assassinations, a model-building magazine, and a ''[[Time (magazine)|Time]]'' cover with the President's head, on which a gunsight-crosshairs has been drawn in red marker. When Horrigan and D'Andrea return with a search warrant, only one photograph remains, which shows a much younger Horrigan (with his face circled in red) standing behind [[John F. Kennedy]] in [[Dallas]] in 1963, on the day [[Assassination of John F. Kennedy|Kennedy is assassinated]]. Horrigan is the only remaining active agent who was guarding the President that day, and is wracked with guilt over his failure to react quickly enough to the first shot to shield Kennedy from the subsequent fatal bullet. The guilt drove Horrigan to drink excessively, and his family left him.

Horrigan receives a phone call from McCrawley, who calls himself "Booth". He tells Horrigan that, like [[John Wilkes Booth]] and [[Lee Harvey Oswald]], he plans to kill the [[President of the United States]], who is running for reelection and is making many public appearances around the country. Horrigan, despite his age, asks to return to the [[Presidential Protective Division]], where he begins a relationship with fellow agent, Lilly Raines.

McCrawley, posing as Jim Carney, opens an account with Southwest Savings Bank of Los Angeles, intending to use the account to make campaign contributions. When a bank employee named Pam seems suspicious, he follows her to her home and murders her, and her roommate, Sally.

Booth continues to call Horrigan as part of his "game," even though he knows that his calls are being traced. He mocks Horrigan's failure to protect Kennedy but calls him a "friend." Booth escapes Horrigan and D'Andrea after one such call from [[Lafayette Square, Washington, D.C.|Lafayette Park]], but inadvertently leaves a palm print on a passing car. The [[Federal Bureau of Investigation]] matches the print, but because the person's identity is classified, the agency cannot disclose it to the Secret Service. The FBI does notify the [[Central Intelligence Agency]].

At a campaign event in [[Chicago]], Booth pops a decorative balloon. Horrigan, who is groggy from the flu, mistakes the pop for a gunshot and overreacts. Because of the error, he is removed from the protective detail by [[White House Chief of Staff]] Harry Sargent and head of security detail, Bill Watts, but retains the Booth case. Horrigan and D'Andrea follow a lead from the model-building magazine to a Phoenix home belonging to Mitch Leary. Upon entering, the two agents subdue an unknown individual, revealed to be a CIA agent working with Leary's associate. The CIA reveals that “McCrawley” is a pseudonym used by Leary, a former agency assassin who suffered a mental breakdown and is now a "predator," seeking revenge on his former masters. Leary, who has already killed several people as he prepares for the assassination, uses his model-making skills to mould a [[Improvised firearm|zip gun]] out of [[composite material]] to evade metal detectors.

D'Andrea confides to Horrigan that he plans to leave the Secret Service immediately because of nightmares about the Mendoza incident, but Horrigan dissuades him from doing so. After Leary taunts Horrigan about the President facing danger in California, Horrigan and D'Andrea chase him across Washington rooftops, where Leary shoots and kills D'Andrea but saves Horrigan from falling to his death as he clings to the side of the building. Horrigan asks Raines to reassign him to the protective detail when the President visits Los Angeles, but a television crew films him mistaking a bellboy at the hotel for a security threat, and Watts and Sargent again force Horrigan to leave the detail.

Horrigan connects Leary to Pam's murder and determines that Leary, who has made several large campaign contributions, is among the guests at a campaign dinner at the hotel. He sees the President approaching Leary and jumps into the path of the assassin's bullet, saving the President's life. As the Secret Service quickly removes the President, Leary uses Horrigan, who is wearing a bulletproof vest, as a hostage to escape in the hotel's glass elevator. Horrigan uses his earpiece to tell Raines and sharpshooters where to aim; although they miss Leary, Horrigan defeats him in hand-to-hand combat, leaving him hanging from the edge. Though Horrigan offers to pull him up to safety, declaring that he would only save him because it's his job, Leary ultimately commits suicide by letting go and falling to his death.

Upon returning home to Washington, and now a widely publicized hero, Horrigan announces his retirement. Horrigan shows Raines into his apartment, where an unexpected farewell message from Leary is found on Horrigan's answering machine. They play the message, in which Leary begins to commend Horrigan on his character, but Horrigan and Raines leave the apartment before the message ends. The film ends with Horrigan and Raines enjoying a romantic interlude at the [[Lincoln Memorial]], where they had previously shared a moment together.

==Cast==
{{Cast listing|
* [[Clint Eastwood]] as Secret Service Agent Frank Horrigan
* [[John Malkovich]] as Mitch Leary /  Joseph McCrawley / James Carney / Booth
* [[Rene Russo]] as Secret Service Agent Lilly Raines
* [[Dylan McDermott]] as Secret Service Agent Al D'Andrea
* [[Gary Cole]] as Secret Service Agent Bill Watts
* [[Fred Thompson|Fred Dalton Thompson]] as White House Chief of Staff Harry Sargent
* [[John Mahoney]] as Secret Service Director Sam Campagna
* [[Gregory Alan Williams]] as Secret Service Agent Matt Wilder
* Jim Curley as The President / Traveller
* Sally Hughes as The First Lady
* [[Tobin Bell]] as Marty Mendoza
* [[William G. Schilling]] as Sanford Riggs
* [[Cylk Cozart]] as Secret Service Agent Cozart
* [[Clyde Kusatsu]] as Secret Service Agent Jack Okura
* [[Steve Hytner]] as Secret Service Agent Tony Carducci
* [[Patrika Darbo]] as Pam Magnus
* [[John Heard (actor)|John Heard]] as Professor Riger
* [[Joshua Malina]] as Secret Service Agent Chavez
* [[Walt MacPherson]] as Hunter
}}

==Production==
[[File:Bonaventurehotel.jpg|thumb|220px|The climax of the film occurs at the [[Westin Bonaventure Hotel|Bonaventure Hotel]], Los Angeles]]

Producer Jeff Apple began developing ''In the Line of Fire'' in the mid-1980s. He had planned on making a movie about a Secret Service Agent on detail during the Kennedy assassination since his boyhood. Apple was inspired and intrigued by a vivid early childhood memory of meeting Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson in person, surrounded by Secret Service Agents with earpieces in dark suits and sunglasses. The concept later struck Apple as an adolescent watching televised replays of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.

After another writer's efforts fell short,<ref name=hwr>{{cite news|url=https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-news/clint-eastwood-in-the-line-of-fire-1235953283/ |title=Hollywood Flashback: When Clint Eastwood Saved the Day |work=[[The Hollywood Reporter]] |first=Ryan |last=Gajewski |date=July 29, 2024}}</ref> Jeff Maguire came aboard in 1991 and completed the script that would become the movie.<ref name="Turan">{{cite news |date=July 9, 1993 |last=Turan |first=Kenneth |author-link=Kenneth Turan |title='Fire' lines up a worthy villain for Clint |newspaper=[[Los Angeles Times]] |url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1993-07-09-ca-12845-story.html |access-date=February 23, 2021 }}</ref> Disney rejected a treatment for television starring [[Tom Selleck]], and after a bidding war [[Castle Rock Entertainment]] bought the script for $1.4 million in April 1992.<ref name=hwr/><ref name="Eller">{{cite web |date=13 July 1993 |author=Claudia Eller |title='In the Line of Fire': Whose Movie Is It, Anyway? : Movies: Columbia Pictures bankrolled the Castle Rock production, but there is disagreement over just how much creative credit the studio can claim. |url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1993-07-13-ca-12681-story.html |website=[[Los Angeles Times]] }}</ref>

[[Clint Eastwood]] and [[Wolfgang Petersen]] offered the role of Leary to [[Robert De Niro]], who turned it down due to scheduling conflicts with ''[[A Bronx Tale]]''.<ref>{{cite web |last=Crocker |first=John |title=MOVIE FEATURE: 10 THINGS YOU DIDN'T KNOW ABOUT... ROBERT DE NIRO |date=22 September 2011 |publisher=[[Red Bull]] |url=http://www.redbull.com/cs/Satellite/en_INT/Article/10-Things-You-Might-Not-Know-About...-Robert-De-Niro-021243089465344 |access-date=15 June 2015 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150530133348/http://www.redbull.com/cs/Satellite/en_INT/Article/10-Things-You-Might-Not-Know-About...-Robert-De-Niro-021243089465344 |archive-date=May 30, 2015 }}</ref>

Filming began in late 1992 in Washington, D.C.<ref name="Hughes80"/> Scenes in the White House were filmed on an existing set, while an [[Air Force One]] interior set had to be built at a cost of $250,000.<ref name="Hughes80"/> The film's climactic scenes were shot inside the lobby and elevators of the Los Angeles [[Bonaventure Hotel]], while earlier scenes of Frank and Lilly sharing intimate moments were filmed in the nearby [[Millennium Biltmore Hotel|Los Angeles Biltmore Hotel]].

A subplot of the film is the President's re-election campaign. For the scenes of campaign rallies, the filmmakers used digitally altered footage from the campaign events of President [[George H. W. Bush]] and then-Governor [[Bill Clinton]].<ref name="Hughes80"/><ref name="Galbraith" />{{r|usss2}}

The movie also inserted digitized images from 1960s Clint Eastwood movies into the Kennedy assassination scenes. As Jeff Apple described it to the ''Los Angeles Times'', Eastwood "gets the world's first digital haircut".<ref name="Galbraith">{{cite news |date=July 11, 1993 |last=Galbraith |first=Jane |title=A look inside Hollywood and the movies 'Line of Fire' Gives Crowd Control a New Meaning |newspaper=[[Los Angeles Times]] |url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1993-07-11-ca-11951-story.html |quote=special effects on the film, and were estimated to cost as much as 10% of the movie’s $40-million production budget |access-date=February 13, 2021 }}</ref>

The Secret Service cooperated with the production. An agency public affairs official said, "the project would have been done anyway ... We decided that it would be better for us to have some kind of control".<ref name="usss2">{{Cite report |url=https://www.governmentattic.org/58docs/USSSmovieInTheLineOfFireNoDate.pdf |title=The Making of "In the Line of Fire" |pages=18–23 |access-date=2025-05-01 |via=governmentattic.org FOIA request}}</ref> The agency did not cooperate with contemporary films ''[[Dave (film)|Dave]]'' and ''[[Guarding Tess]]'', describing the former as "whimsical".<ref name="usss1">{{Cite report |url=https://www.governmentattic.org/58docs/USSSmovieInTheLineOfFireNoDate.pdf |title=The U.S. Secret Service -- Have We "Gone Hollywood?" |pages=12–17 |access-date=2025-05-01 |via=governmentattic.org FOIA request}}</ref> For ''In the Line of Fire'', in addition to helping the [[second unit filming]] of the Bush and Clinton campaigns, Secret Service agents on the set helped scenes' authenticity. The agency concluded that "the project has been a great success. The Secret Service was able to ... make certain that our portrayal on the big screen was a positive one", and hoped that it would help in recruiting akin to "what ''[[Top Gun]]'' did for the Navy". Retired Assistant Director of the Secret Service Robert R. Snow said, "It's a story told through the eyes of an agent, his problems, and his experiences".{{r|usss2}}

In an interview with Larry King, President Bill Clinton praised the film. Unsure if this endorsement would help or hurt the film, Petersen decided against using his quotes to market the film.<ref name="afi" /><ref>{{cite web |date=July 25, 1993 |title=CLINTON GETS CLIPPED AS FILM CRITIC |url=https://buffalonews.com/1993/07/25/clinton-gets-clipped-as-film-critic/ |website=The Buffalo News |quote=I thought Eastwood was terrific. . . . I liked the movie very much. . . . I think it was as realistic as it could be and still be a real rip-roaring thriller. }}</ref>

==Release==
''In the Line of Fire'' was released in United States theaters in July 1993. It was one of the first films to have a [[Trailer (promotion)|trailer]] for the film made available [[online]]. Offered via [[AOL]], the trailer was downloaded 170 times in a week and a half.<ref>{{cite magazine |magazine=[[Daily Variety]] |date=July 20, 1993 |page=3 |url=https://variety.com/1993/digital/news/studios-go-online-to-woo-audiences-108856/ |access-date=February 3, 2021 |title=Studios go on-line to woo audiences |first=Matt |last=Rothman }}</ref>

===Box office===
The film earned $15 million in its opening weekend.<ref>{{cite web |date=15 July 1993 |title=Movie Weekend Gross Screens/Avg. Weeks (National ranking)... |url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1993-07-15-ol-13854-story.html |website=Los Angeles Times }}</ref> It earned over $102 million in North America and $85 million in other territories, for a total of $187,343,874 worldwide,<ref name="numbers">{{cite web |title=In the Line of Fire (1993) - Financial Information |url=https://www.the-numbers.com/movie/In-the-Line-of-Fire#tab=summary |website=[[The Numbers (website)|The Numbers]] }}</ref>  against a budget of approximately $40 million.<ref name="Galbraith" />

===Critical response===
On [[Rotten Tomatoes]], ''In the Line of Fire'' has a 96% rating based on 73 reviews, with an average rating of 7.7/10. The site's consensus states: "A straightforward thriller of the highest order, ''In the Line of Fire'' benefits from Wolfgang Petersen's taut direction and charismatic performances from Clint Eastwood and John Malkovich."<ref>{{cite web| title=In the Line of Fire |publisher= Fandango Media |work= [[Rotten Tomatoes]] |url= https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/in_the_line_of_fire/ |access-date= January 25, 2023 }}</ref> On [[Metacritic]], it has a score of 74 out of 100 based on reviews from 16.<ref>{{cite web |title=In the Line of Fire |url=https://www.metacritic.com/movie/in-the-line-of-fire |website=[[Metacritic]] }}</ref> Audiences polled by [[CinemaScore]] gave the film an average grade of "A" on an A+ to F scale.<ref name="CinemaScore">{{cite web |url= https://www.cinemascore.com/publicsearch/index/title/ |title= CinemaScore  |url-status= dead |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20181220122629/https://www.cinemascore.com/publicsearch/index/title/ |archive-date= 2018-12-20 }}</ref>

[[Vincent Canby]] of ''[[The New York Times]]'' wrote: "It's movie making of the high, smooth, commercial order that Hollywood prides itself on but achieves with singular infrequency."<ref name="Canby">{{cite web |date=9 July 1993 |last=Canby |first=Vincent |author-link=Vincent Canby |title=Review/Film: In The Line of Fire; Eastwood Slips Easily Into Town (Published 1993) |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1993/07/09/movies/review-film-in-the-line-of-fire-eastwood-slips-easily-into-town.html |website=[[The New York Times]] }}</ref>
[[Roger Ebert]] gave the film three and a half out of four, writing: "Most thrillers these days are about stunts and action. ''In the Line of Fire'' has a mind."<ref name="Ebert">{{cite news |date=July 9, 1993 |last=Ebert |first=Roger |author-link= Roger Ebert |title=In the Line of Fire |website= [[Chicago Sun-Times]] |url=https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/in-the-line-of-fire-1993 |access-date=March 13, 2012 }}</ref>

[[Kenneth Turan]] of the ''[[Los Angeles Times]]'' called the film "crisply entertaining". He praised the casting, "Malkovich’s insinuating, carefully thought out delivery is in the same way an ideal foil for Eastwood’s bluntly straightforward habits", and Eastwood "every part of this film trades so heavily on Eastwood’s presence that it is impossible to imagine it with anyone else in the starring role".<ref name="Turan" /><ref>{{cite web |date=6 July 1993 |last=McCarthy |first=Todd |author-link=Todd McCarthy |title=In the Line of Fire |url=https://variety.com/1993/film/reviews/in-the-line-of-fire-2-1200432811/ |website=[[Variety (magazine)|Variety]] }}</ref>

===Accolades===
{{Anchor|Awards|Accolades}}

====[[66th Academy Awards]]====
* ''Nominated'': [[Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor|Best Supporting Actor]] ([[John Malkovich]])
* ''Nominated'': [[Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay|Best Original Screenplay]] ([[Jeff Maguire]])
* ''Nominated'': [[Academy Award for Best Film Editing|Best Film Editing]] ([[Anne V. Coates]])

====[[47th British Academy Film Awards|47th BAFTA Awards]]====
* ''Nominated'': Best Actor in a Supporting Role (John Malkovich)
* ''Nominated'': Best Editing (Anne V. Coates)
* ''Nominated'': Best Original Screenplay (Jeff Maguire)

====Other awards====
* 1994 [[Chicago Film Critics Association]] Award Nomination for Best Supporting Actor (John Malkovich)
* 1994 [[Golden Globe Award]] Nomination for Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role (John Malkovich)
* 1994 [[MTV Movie Award]] Nomination for Best Villain (John Malkovich)<ref name="afi">{{cite web |title=The 50 greatest heroes and the 50 greatest villains of all time |publisher=American Film Institute |url=http://connect.afi.com/site/DocServer/handv400.pdf?docID=245 |access-date=March 13, 2012 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110807135603/http://connect.afi.com/site/DocServer/handv400.pdf?docID=245 |archive-date=August 7, 2011 }}</ref>
* [[AFI's 100 Years...100 Heroes and Villains]] (2003):
** Mitch Leary – Nominated Villain

==Novelization==
A [[novelization]] of the film was published by [[Jove Books]]. Author [[Max Allan Collins]] wrote the book in nine days.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2014/08/movie-novelizations-still-exist|title=Yes, People Still Read Movie Novelizations . . . And Write Them, Too|author=Suskind, Alex|date=27 August 2014|publisher=vanityfair.com|accessdate=22 January 2022}}</ref>

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==Bibliography==
{{Refbegin}}
* {{cite book|last=Hughes|first=Howard|title=Aim for the Heart|publisher=[[I.B. Tauris]]|location=London|year=2009|isbn=9781845119027}}
{{Refend}}

==External links==
{{Wikiquote}}
* {{IMDb title|107206}}
* {{TCMDb title|79135}}
* {{AFI film|59560}}

{{Wolfgang Petersen}}

[[Category:1993 films]]
[[Category:1993 action thriller films]]
[[Category:1990s American films]]
[[Category:1990s English-language films]]
[[Category:1990s political thriller films]]
[[Category:American action thriller films]]
[[Category:American political thriller films]]
[[Category:American mystery thriller films]]
[[Category:American mystery drama films]]
[[Category:American neo-noir films]]
[[Category:American chase films]]
[[Category:American techno-thriller films]]
[[Category:Techno-thriller films]]
[[Category:American crime thriller films]]
[[Category:American crime drama films]]
[[Category:American psychological thriller films]]
[[Category:English-language crime drama films]]
[[Category:English-language mystery thriller films]]
[[Category:Castle Rock Entertainment films]]
[[Category:Columbia Pictures films]]
[[Category:Warner Bros. films]]
[[Category:Films about assassinations]]
[[Category:Films about elections]]
[[Category:Films about conspiracy theories]]
[[Category:Films about the Central Intelligence Agency]]
[[Category:Films about the United States Secret Service]]
[[Category:Films directed by Wolfgang Petersen]]
[[Category:Films scored by Ennio Morricone]]
[[Category:Films set in Los Angeles]]
[[Category:Films set in Washington, D.C.]]
[[Category:Films shot in Los Angeles]]
[[Category:Films shot in Washington, D.C.]]
[[Category:American political action films]]
[[Category:English-language action thriller films]]