Spies Like Us
Spies Like Us | |
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Directed by | John Landis |
Screenplay by | |
Story by |
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Produced by | |
Starring | |
Cinematography | Robert Paynter |
Edited by | Malcolm Campbell |
Music by | Elmer Bernstein |
Production companies |
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Distributed by | Warner Bros.[1] |
Release date |
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Running time | 109 minutes[1] |
Country | United States[1] |
Language | English |
Budget | $22 million[2] |
Box office | $77.3 million[3] |
Spies Like Us is a 1985 American
Partly filmed on location near
Plot
Austin Millbarge is a code breaker dwelling in the dark basement at the Pentagon who aspires to escape his under-respected job to become a secret agent. Emmett Fitz-Hume, a wisecracking, pencil-pushing son of an envoy, takes the foreign service exam under peer pressure. Millbarge and Fitz-Hume meet during the test, on which Fitz-Hume openly cheats after his attempts to bribe his female supervisor and the test monitor in exchange for the answers both fail. Millbarge was not prepared to take the test, having had only one night to study after his supervisor deliberately withheld a two-weeks notice for the exam, leaving him vulnerable to fail and having to remain in the bowels of the Pentagon.
Needing two expendable covert agents to act as decoys to draw attention away from a more capable team, Ruby and Keyes of the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) decide to enlist Fitz-Hume and Millbarge, promote them to GLG-20 Foreign Service Operatives, rush them through minimal military survival training, and then send them on an undefined mission inside Pakistan and Soviet Central Asia. Meanwhile, the two professional agents are well on their way to carry out the actual objective: the seizure of a mobile SS-50 ICBM launcher in Soviet territory. A member of the main team is killed, while Millbarge and Fitz-Hume manage to escape multiple enemy attacks and eventually encounter Karen Boyer, the surviving operative from the main team.
In the Pamir Mountains of the Tajik Soviet Socialist Republic, the trio disguises themselves in hastily constructed extraterrestrial outfits and tranquilizes the mobile missile guard unit. Following orders in real-time from the intelligence agency (operating from the W.A.M.P. military bunker located deep under an abandoned drive-in theater), they begin to operate the launcher. At the end of their instructions, the vehicle launches the ICBM into space, targeting an unspecified area in the Continental United States. Thinking they have started a nuclear war, the American agents and their Soviet counterparts pair up to have sex before the world is destroyed.
Meanwhile, Ruby and Keyes have joined Generals Sline and Miegs, the two military commanders at W.A.M.P., in the operations bunker. They initiate the conversion of the drive-in theater to expose what is hidden beneath the screens and projection booth: a huge black-op SDI-esque laser and collector/emitter screen. The purpose of sending the agents to launch a Soviet ICBM is exposed as a means to test this anti-ballistic missile system, but the laser malfunctions and fails to intercept the missile. Despite this, Sline and Miegs choose not to inform the President and the US Government that the missile launch was not a nuclear attack initiated by the Soviet Union, revealing to the horrified Ruby and Keyes, a twisted contingency plan of letting the impending thermonuclear war commence to "preserve the American way of life".
Back in the Soviet Union, horrified at the thought of having launched a nuclear missile at their own country, Millbarge realizes that the missile can be diverted. The American spies and Soviet technicians quickly use Millbarge's knowledge of missile guidance systems to transmit instructions that deflect the missile off into space where it harmlessly detonates. Immediately after, the underground W.A.M.P. bunker is located and stormed by U.S. Army Rangers, Ruby, Keyes and the rogue military officials involved in the unauthorized covert operation are all arrested. Millbarge, Fitz-Hume, and Boyer go on to become nuclear disarmament negotiators, playing a nuclear version of Risk-meets-Trivial Pursuit against their new Soviet friends.
Cast
- Chevy Chase as Emmett Fitz-Hume
- Dan Aykroyd as Austin Millbarge
- Donna Dixon as Karen Boyer
- Bruce Davison as Ruby
- William Prince as Keyes
- Bernie Casey as Colonel Rhombus
- Steve Forrest as General Sline
- Tom Hatten as General Miegs
- Frank Oz as Test Monitor
- Charles McKeown as Jerry Hadley
- Terry Gilliam as Dr. Imhaus
- James Daughton as Rob Hodges
- Jim Staahl as Bud Schnelker
- Vanessa Angel, Svetlana Plotnikova, Bjarne Thomsen, Sergei Rousakov, and Garrick Dombrovski as Russian Rocket Crew
- Costa-Gavras and Seva Novgorodtsev as Tadzhik Highway Patrol
- Stephen Hoye as Captain Hefling
- Ray Harryhausen as Dr. Marston
Other actors making appearances in minor roles include
Title song
The title song, "Spies Like Us", was written and performed by Paul McCartney. It peaked at #7 on the singles chart in the United States in early 1986, his last top ten in the US until 2015.[7] It also reached #13 in the UK.[8] John Landis directed a music video for the song where Aykroyd and Chase are performing the song with McCartney (although they didn't actually play on the record).[citation needed]
Landis has stated that he feels "Spies Like Us" is a "a terrible song" but he couldn't say no to McCartney and Warner Bros.[9]
Soundtrack
The film's score was composed by Elmer Bernstein and performed by the Graunke Symphony Orchestra, conducted by the composer. The soundtrack album was released by Varèse Sarabande; it does not contain the Paul McCartney song. The film also features "Soul Finger," by the Bar-Kays, also absent from the soundtrack. In an early scene, Fitz-Hume watches Ronald Reagan, Virginia Mayo and Gene Nelson sing "I'll Still be Loving You" in the 1952 film musical She's Working Her Way Through College.[citation needed]
- "The Ace Tomato Company" (5:06)
- "Off to Spy" (1:52)
- "Russians in the Desert" (2:21)
- "Pass in the Tent" (2:58)
- "Escape" (3:25)
- "To the Bus" (3:14)
- "The Road to Russia" (3:39)
- "Rally 'Round" (2:39)
- "W.A.M.P." (2:48)
- "Martian Act" (3:08)
- "Arrest" (2:21)
- "Recall" (2:38)
- "Winners" (1:16)
Release
Box office
Spies Like Us earned $8.6 million on its US opening weekend and ultimately grossed $60 million in the United States and Canada[3] against a budget of $22 million.[2][10] The film grossed $17.2 million overseas[11] for a worldwide total of $77.3 million.[3]
Critical reception
The
Variety magazine opined in a staff review, "Spies is not very amusing. Though Chase and Aykroyd provide moments, the overall script thinly takes on eccentric espionage and nuclear madness, with nothing new to add."[15] TV Guide published a staff review, stating, "Landis' direction is indulgent, to say the least, with big landscapes, big crashes, big hardware, and big gags filling the screen. What he forgets is character development, that all-important factor that must exist for comedy to work well."[16] David Parkinson, writing for the Radio Times, felt that "Dan Aykroyd and Chevy Chase simply fail to gel, and there's little fun to be had once the boisterous training school gags are exhausted."[17]
Review aggregation website
Legacy
Animated sitcom Family Guy paid tribute to the film with its 2009 episode "Spies Reminiscent of Us", which guest starred Aykroyd and Chase as fictionalized versions of themselves who, according to the series, were made real spies by Ronald Reagan after he saw the film. The episode recreates numerous scenes.[22][23]
References
- ^ a b c d "Spies Like Us (1985)". AFI Catalog of Feature Films. Retrieved March 14, 2023.
- ^ a b David T. Friendly (1986-01-02). "Purple, 'africa' Pace Box Office". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 2012-07-09.
- ^ a b c Spies Like Us at Box Office Mojo
- ^ DeRiso, Nick. "How 'Spies Like Us' Faltered When It Got to the Spy Part". Ultimate Classic Rock. Retrieved 2022-09-21.
- ISSN 0307-1235. Retrieved 2022-09-21.
Favourite film location? We shot some of Spies Like Us in Norway, on the top of a mountain near Sognefjord.
- ^ Davis, Tom (2009). Thirty-Nine Years of Short-Term Memory Loss: The Early Days of SNL. New York: Grove Press. p. 217.
- ^ Trust, Gary (February 4, 2015). "Mark Ronson & Bruno Mars Top Hot 100; Rihanna, Kanye West & Paul McCartney Near Top 10". Billboard. Retrieved May 6, 2023.
- ^ "Paul McCartney". Official Charts. The Official UK Charts Company. Retrieved January 26, 2017.
- ^ John Landis on Paul McCartney's "Spies Like Us" Theme Song. Vimeo. 27 August 2017.
- ^ Jack Matthews (1985-12-25). "A Strong Start for 'Color Purple' in Christmas Box Office Race". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 2012-07-09.
- Daily Variety. p. 1.
- ^ Attanasio, Paul (9 December 1985). "Movies". Retrieved 23 April 2018 – via www.washingtonpost.com.
- ^ Kehr, Dave (26 October 1985). "Spies Like Us". Chicago Reader. Retrieved 23 April 2018.
- ^ Maslin, Janet (6 December 1985). "SCREEN: 'SPIES LIKE US'". The New York Times. Retrieved 23 April 2018.
- ^ "Spies Like Us". 1 January 1985. Retrieved 23 April 2018.
- ^ "Spies Like Us". TVGuide.com. Retrieved 23 April 2018.
- ^ "Spies Like Us – review - cast and crew, movie star rating and where to watch film on TV and online". Radio Times. Retrieved 23 April 2018.
- ^ "Spies Like Us". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved 30 November 2023.
- ^ "Spies Like Us". Metacritic. Retrieved 23 April 2018.
- ^ "Spies Like Us - Movie Review". Retrieved 23 April 2018.
- ^ Jeff Giles (20 July 2010). "FUNNY FARM and SPIES LIKE US Blu-ray Reviews". collider.com. Retrieved 23 April 2018.
- ^ "Family Guy Preview: "Spies Reminiscent of Us"". IGN. October 9, 2009. Retrieved May 17, 2013.
- ^ VanDerWerff, Emily (2009-10-12). ""The Great Wife Hope"/"The One About Friends"/"Spies Reminiscent of Us"/"Home Adrone"". The A.V. Club. Retrieved 2009-11-19.
External links
- Spies Like Us at IMDb
- Spies Like Us at Box Office Mojo
- Spies Like Us at AllMovie