Man on Fire (2004 film)

John W. Creasy (Washington) is former Force Recon Marine and assassin who comes to Mexico to visit his old friend and brother-in-arms, Paul Rayburn (Walken). Rayburn recognizes his friend's poor physical and emotional state and convinces him to take a bodyguard position to give him something to do. Creasy reluctantly agrees, and is later offered the job by Samuel Ramos (Anthony), a wealthy automaker in Mexico City whose young daughter Lupita “Pita” Ramos (Fanning) requires a bodyguard before she can return to school and the kidnapping insurance policy takes effect.

While initially uninterested in befriending Pita, Creasy reaches a low point in his depression and attempts suicide. However, the gun fails to fire, giving Creasy a second chance. He soon bonds with Pita, and his friendship with her imparts a renewed sense of purpose in his life.

One day while waiting for Pita outside of her piano lesson, Creasy notices suspicious activity, including two uniformed Federal Police officers. When Pita emerges from the lesson several men attempt to kidnap her, Creasy attempts to fend off the attackers, killing three and wounding another, though they succeed in taking Pita anyway and critically wounding Creasy.

While he recovering, Rayburn has Creasy relocated to a veterinarian clinic for his protection, believing the corrupt police will want revenge on Creasy. When he comes to, he is questioned by AFI Agent Miguel Manzano (Giannini), though Creasy refuses to divulge any information despite recognizing one of the suspected kidnappers. He then meets reporter Mariana Garcia Guerrero (Ticotin), a reporter for La Reforma, a newspaper that often receives threats for exposing corruption. She offers to help Creasy in his own investigation, knowing how intertwined the kidnapping rings and the police are.

Believing Pita had been killed by her kidnappers after a botched ransom drop, Creasy uses this lead to wage war on the kidnapping ring and police corruption that is responsible for her death. He successfully tracks down the getaway driver, officer Jorge Gonzalez (Zaragosa), followed by “Jersey Boy” who acted as a middle man, Victor Fuentes (Ochoa) who is the head of the anti-kidnapping division with the police and coordinated the ransom drop, and Jordan Kalfus (Rourke) Samuel’s advisor who suggested the kidnapping insurance. When inspecting Kalfus’ residence he discovers a fax with suspicious bank account information leading him back to Samuel.

When Creasy interrogates Samuel, the latter explains that his father left him a ruined auto empire full of debt, and that Kalfus recommended arranging a kidnapping that he could claim the insurance payout for and pay his debts. However, they didn’t intend for Pita to be harmed. Creasy leaves his gun and the bullet that he used to attempt suicide with Samuel, suggesting Samuel atone for his sins.

Creasy then learns from Guerrero that an ATM card he recovered earlier is linked to a man who lives in the barrio on the edge of the city. The man turns out to be the ringleader’s brother Aurelio, who fatally shoots Creasy in the chest. Creasy calls the ringleader, Daniel, to tell him he’s going to kill his entire family. However, Daniel reveals that Pita is still alive, and offers to trade her for his brother and Creasy himself. Creasy agrees to meet Daniel’s men along the highway near Puebla. First, Creasy takes a family photo with Daniel, giving it to Guerrero who runs a front page story in her paper headlined “Fear has a Voice”, revealing Daniel’s face as a serial kidnapper.

He crosses the overpass between them on foot, meeting Pita in the middle. He says goodbye and assures her that he loves her before sending her to her mother waiting for her back by his car. He surrenders to Daniel’s men, but succumbs to his wounds while in transit.

Meanwhile Manzano tracks Daniel to his home where he kills him, officially stating that Daniel died during the course of arrest.

• Denzel Washington as John W. Creasy, mercenary, former CIA operative and Force Recon Marine officer
• Dakota Fanning as Lupita (Pita) Ramos
• Radha Mitchell as Lisa Ramos. Lisa originates from Houston, Texas.[3] Eric Harrison of the Houston Chronicle described Lisa as an "American trophy wife with a Southern accent that seems to come and go."[4]
• Christopher Walken as Paul Rayburn, who runs a security firm in Mexico. Marlon Brando was originally considered for the role, but his poor health (which lead to his death) prevented him from taking the role.
• Marc Anthony as Samuel Ramos
• Giancarlo Giannini as Miguel Manzano, director of the AFI. Tony Scott stated "Giancarlo loves women, as did this character."[5]
• Mickey Rourke as Jordan Kalfus, Samuel Ramos' lawyer. Kalfus and Samuel Ramos's father were best friends, and therefore Kalfus has a close relationship with Samuel. Mickey Rourke stated that Kalfus has "a responsibility to his father, to him, to look out for his well-being."[6] Therefore, Kalfus "[wants] to be there for him" when Ramos "gets his head underwater a little bit".[6]
• Rachel Ticotin as Mariana Garcia Guerrero, a reporter for the Diario Reforma
• Roberto Sosa as Daniel Sanchez,[7] "The Voice". He is based on a real kidnapper, Daniel Arizmendi López.[8]
• Jesús Ochoa as Victor Fuentes, a lieutenant in the Anti-Kidnapping Division of the Federal Judicial Police and the head of the criminal “La Hermandad” syndicate
• Gero Camilo as Aurelio Sanchez. Based on Aurelio Arizmendi López, the brother of Daniel Arizmendi López.[9]
• Mario Zaragoza as Jorge Gonzalez, a Federal Judicial policeman and member of the criminal “La Hermandad” syndicate, who physically kidnaps Pita off the street

Tony Scott, the film's director, had tried to adapt the 1980 source novel, by A. J. Quinnell, into a film in 1983. Journalist Paul Davies theorized that movie producers likely believed that Scott, whose only directorial work was 1983's The Hunger, lacked the experience to direct this as his second film.

The novel was first adapted into the 1987 film Man on Fire, starring Scott Glenn as Creasy. This movie, like the novel, was set in Italy, then a major center of kidnapping.

When a remake was first under consideration, producer Arnon Milchan (who also produced the 1987 version) looked at Michael Bay and Antoine Fuqua to direct, before asking Scott if he was still interested.[10]

20th Century Fox wanted the film to still be set in Italy.[10] An early draft of the script was set in Naples, with early reporting suggesting that the Mexico City filming was an odd stand in for Naples.[11] Scott argued that if the setting would be Italy, then the film would have to be a period piece, since by the 2000s kidnappings became a rare occurrence in Italy.[10] Mexico City became the setting of the 2004 film because Mexico City had a high kidnapping rate,[12] and due to other reasons.[10] As a result, the character Rika Balletto was renamed Lisa Martin Ramos, and Pinta Balletto was renamed Lupita "Pita" Ramos. Ettore Balletto became Samuel Ramos. Robert De Niro was originally offered the role of Creasy.[11] Prior to his death, Marlon Brando was the original choice to play Rayburn.[13]

Man On Fire opened in the U.S. on April 23, 2004 in 2,980 theaters and grossed $22,751,490 with an average of $7,634 and ranking #1 at the box office. The film's widest release was 2,986 theaters and it ended up earning $77,911,774 in North America and $52,381,940 internationally for a total of $130,293,714 worldwide, above its $70 million production budget.[14] The film was successful in the U.S. home video market, grossing more than $123 million in DVD and VHS rentals and sales in U.S.[15]

The film received mixed reviews from critics and has a rating of 39% on Rotten Tomatoes based on 168 reviews with an average rating of 5.2 out of 10. The consensus states "Man on Fire starts out well, but goes over the top in the violent second half."[16] The film also has a score of 47 out of 100 on Metacritic based on 36 reviews.[17]

Paul Davies, a journal article author, said that the critical reception to Man on Fire in the United States was "somewhat less than kind" because critics did not like the vigilantism that Creasy uses. Davies argues that "most critics missed" Creasy not taking "sadistic pleasure" in the killings since he kills to get information to get to all of the people involved in the kidnapping of Pita Ramos, and does not like harming innocent parties.[18]

A. J. Quinnell had a favorable reception to this adaptation, mainly because the film used many of the book's lines.[12] Quinnell said that usually screenwriters "like to leave their mark on the product."[19] Quinnell added that even though he usually dislikes film adaptations of books, the writers "did a good job with Man On Fire and I loved the chemistry between Creasy and the girl" and "When I first heard Denzel was playing the part of Creasy I missed a couple of heartbeats but he played the part brilliantly. The film is violent and if the anger is not portrayed properly, the result can be awful."[19] Kevin Freese of the Foreign Military Studies Office stated that "it appears that the allusion" of the fictional Sánchez brothers with the real Arizmendi brothers "escaped the comprehension of much of the audience."[8]

In 2005, a Hindi remake of the film by director Apoorva Lakhia, called Ek Ajnabee, was released. It starred Amitabh Bachchan as John W. Creasy (renamed Suryaveer "Surya" Singh).[20] The same year, it was also remade in Tamil language as Aanai starring Arjun Sarja.

The cut "Smiling", from the soundtrack composed by Harry Gregson-Williams, has been adopted as the theme of a number of television commercials for Omega Watches in 2012 to 2013. The soundtrack contains 20 tracks, was composed by Harry Gregson-Williams, and was released on July 27, 2004.[21]

• Cinema of the United States
• List of American films of 2004

Wikiquote has quotations related to: Man on Fire (2004 film)

• Man on Fire official website (Archive)
• Man on Fire on IMDb
• Man on Fire at the TCM Movie Database
• Man on Fire at Rotten Tomatoes
• Man on Fire at Box Office Mojo
• Man on Fire at the Internet Movie Firearms Database