USMC Force ReconScout SniperGySgt Bob Lee Swagger and his spotter Donnie Fenn provide armed overwatch for a mission in Ethiopia. The mission goes awry when an enemy militia assaults Swagger and Fenn's position with helicopter support. The CIA officer supervising the operation burns the mission, resulting in Fenn's death.
Three years later, Swagger is retired and living in the Wind River Range with his dog. Swagger is approached by U.S. Army Colonel Isaac Johnson and his associates, Payne and Dobbler, to enlist his aid in thwarting a potential assassination attempt on the President during a public speaking event. Reluctantly, Swagger agrees to help. He assesses the only viable location is Philadelphia. On the day of the speech, Swagger accompanies Johnson to an overwatch position. The shot is made, but is revealed to be a setup: the President's guest, Ethiopian Archbishop Desmond Mutumbo is killed, and Swagger is shot by a Philadelphia police officer on Johnson's payroll. Swagger escapes, disarms rookie FBI Special Agent Nick Memphis, and flees into the Delaware River.
Swagger travels to Kentucky and meets Fenn's widow, Sarah, who treats his injuries. Using Memphis as bait, who was skeptical of the shooting, Sarah and Swagger feed Memphis information which he uses to investigate the shooting to force Johnson out of hiding. Suspecting they may be compromised, Johnson orders his men to capture Memphis and kill him. Before they can kill Memphis however, they are killed by Swagger. Swagger releases Memphis and requests his help bringing down Johnson.
The two travel to Tennessee, and meet with firearms expert Mr. Rate, who explains paper patching. Rate deduces the wheelchair-bound Serbian sniper Mikhaylo Sczerbiak would be the only other sniper alive capable of making such a shot. Swagger concludes he unwittingly conducted Sczerbiak's recon to ensure the assassination's success, and the two travel to Virginia to confront him. At the same time, Sarah's connection to Swagger is uncovered, and Johnson orders Payne to abduct her to be used as leverage.
Swagger and Memphis infiltrate Sczerbiak's estate, where the latter reveals Johnson works for MontanaSenator Charles Meachum, on behalf of oil conglomerates exploiting developing nations for profit. Sczerbiak confesses that, acting on Johnson's orders, he assassinated Mutumbo to prevent information about crimes against humanity carried out by Johnson's mercenaries from going public, which include the massacre of a northern Ethiopian village on the Eritrea–Ethiopia border. Sczerbiak informs Swagger that he and Fenn had unknowingly covered the retreat of the contractors who carried out that mission and were supposed to be killed to cover it up. Upon revealing Sarah's abduction, he commits suicide. Swagger records the confession, escapes with Memphis, and kills the mercenaries sent to eliminate them. The pair escape to Montana, tip off the FBI and arrange a meeting with Meachum and Johnson.
Johnson, Meachum, and Payne arrive, with Sarah held at gunpoint. With Memphis acting as a decoy, Swagger eliminates Johnson's counter-snipers and disarms Payne, whom Sarah kills shortly after. With Sczerbiak's recorded confession in hand, Swagger and Memphis confront the pair.
Meachum cryptically implies he is not the only politician who works for the oil companies. Deducing the proof will get them killed, Swagger destroys the recording as the FBI arrives to take him into custody. He is granted audience with US Attorney General Russert, and with Memphis' help, proves that his rifle was not used to take the shot that killed the Ethiopian Archbishop. Memphis provides evidence to Russert cataloging Johnson's involvement in the humanitarian crimes carried out by Johnson's mercenaries. Russert laments that Johnson's crimes are outside US jurisdiction and beyond their control. Privately, Russert confides in Swagger that extrajudicial measures may be necessary to end the corruption, and orders Swagger's release.
Sometime later, Meachum, Johnson, and their associates discuss an operation in Ecuador, which is cut short when Swagger kills them. He ruptures the gas line, and flees as the house is destroyed in a massive gas explosion. Swagger returns to Sarah in a waiting car, and the two drive off.
The novel Point of Impact was in development first at Universal and later at Paramount for twelve years, with seven screenwriters attempting many adaptations. The author Stephen Hunter also tried to adapt the book but was put off by the experience and disconnected himself from the process.[1] In 2000, William Friedkin agreed to direct the film with Tommy Lee Jones starring as Bob Lee Swagger.[6] However, the writers were unable to complete a script, and Friedkin and Jones to decide to make The Hunted (2003) instead. That film incorporated many of Friedkin’s ideas for Shooter, and its protagonist L.T. Bonham was also based on Jones’s planned portrayal of Swagger. Friedkin expressed interest in additionally directing Shooter as a sequel to The Hunted, but ultimately did not.[7]
Jonathan Lemkin read the book and some of the previous drafts and was able to avoid repeating some of the same mistakes. Lemkin updated the story away from the original post Vietnam setting, and restructured the story bringing the main event to the end of the first act, and to cut the multiple plot lines down to just the A story. His page 1 rewrite of the screenplay attracted Wahlberg and Fuqua, and on his second draft, the film got the green light to go into production. Unusual for a screenplay with such a long development process and multiple rewrites, Lemkin retained sole credit after Writers Guild of America arbitration.[1]
Locations
Most of the film was shot on location in New Westminster, Kamloops, Mission, Ashcroft and Cache Creek in British Columbia, Canada.[8] For example, Swagger's escape was filmed in New Westminster along the Fraser River, standing in for the Delaware River. The car chase that ends when it plunged into the river was filmed down 6th Street and off the Westminster Quay. The following scene of Swagger clinging to the side of a dredger was also filmed on the Fraser River near the Pattullo Bridge.
The assassination scenes were filmed in Independence National Historical Park in front of Independence Hall in Philadelphia. The sniper location was created from using the exteriors of the church steeple at the junction of New Street and North 4th Street and combining them with an elevated view from another building to create a fictional vista of the park. The final scene was in Mammoth Lakes, California, in the lakes basin.
Shooter depicts a number of sniper tactics, thanks to the guidance of former US Marine scout sniper Patrick Garrity, who trained Mark Wahlberg for the film. Garrity taught Wahlberg to shoot both left- and right-handed (the actor is left-handed), as he had to switch shooting posture throughout the movie, due to Swagger's sustained injuries. He was also trained to adjust a weapon's scope, judge effects of wind on a shot, do rapid bolt manipulation, and develop special breathing skills. His training included extreme distance shooting (up to 1,100 yards (1.0 km), and the use of camouflage ghillie suits. Fuqua appointed Garrity as the film's military-technical advisor.[10]
In the special features of the DVD, Garrity is interviewed pointing out that the shot fired in the assassination would not have hit the archbishop straight on, as in the film. When a round is fired it will fall from 30 to 40 feet (9 to 10 m) depending on the distance of the shot. To compensate, the round is fired at an arc calibrated by how far the round is going to fall, the distance of the shot, temperature, humidity, and wind. In his interview, Garrity said "At 2 yards (1.8 m), because of the hydrostatic shock that follows a large-caliber, high-velocity round such as the .408 Chey Tac (which is used in the shot), the target would literally be peeled apart and limbs would be flying 200 feet (60 m) away." The exit wound on the archbishop's head would have been too extreme to show in movie theaters. Instead, the movie depicts a much less graphic representation of the assassination.
The score to the film was composed by Mark Mancina, who recorded the music at the Todd-AO Scoring Stage in Studio City, Los Angeles, using a 77-piece orchestra conducted by Don Harper.[13][14] A score soundtrack was released by Lakeshore Records and co-published by Shoelace Music[15] on March 27, 2007. The song "Nasty Letter" by Otis Taylor plays over the end of the film and credits.
Reception
Box office
Shooter grossed $47 million in the US and Canada and $48.7 million in other territories, for a total gross of $95.7 million against its $61 million production budget.[3]
The film grossed $14.5 million in its opening weekend, finishing in 3rd at the box office behind TMNT ($24.3 million) and 300 ($19.9 million).
Critical response
On Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 47% based on 147 reviews and an average rating of 5.6/10. The site's critics consensus reads, "With an implausible story and numerous plot holes, Shooter fails to distinguish itself from other mindless action-thrillers."[16]Metacritic assigns the film a weighted average score of 53 out of 100, based on 33 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".[17] Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B+" on an A+ to F scale.[18]
Manohla Dargis of The New York Times called the film "a thoroughly reprehensible, satisfyingly violent entertainment about men and guns and things that go boom." Dargis described director Fuqua's technique as overshot and overedited, but said he has a knack for chaos and the result is "pretty enjoyable."[19]
Kirk Honeycutt of The Hollywood Reporter gave a positive review but was critical of the weak characterization: "If the movie only lavished as much thought and care on its characters as it does on each intricate set piece, Shooter might have been a classic." Honeycutt says the problem is the screenplay by Jonathan Lemkin, and the source novel Point of Impact by film critic and author Stephen Hunter. He highlighted Peña for his performance, and praised the technical aspects of the film, particularly the stunt work, and the camera work of Peter Menzies Jr.[20]
Tony Horkins of Empire magazine praised the movie: "The sequel-ready Swagger challenges Bourne's supremacy with an impressive shoot-'em-up, work-it-out action drama".[21]
The DVD was released on June 26, 2007, reaching the top of the US sales charts.[25] The film earned $57.6 million in DVD sales in the North America.[26] Paramount Movies released the film on 4k Ultra HD Blu-ray on March 15, 2022.[27]
