In the Line of Fire (1993)
Average Rating: 7.8/10
Reviews Counted: 64
Fresh: 61 | Rotten: 3
A straightforward thriller of the highest order, In the Line of Fire benefits from Wolfgang Peterson's taut direction and charismatic performances from Clint Eastwood and John Malkovich.
Average Rating: 8.2/10
Critic Reviews: 18
Fresh: 16 | Rotten: 2
A straightforward thriller of the highest order, In the Line of Fire benefits from Wolfgang Peterson's taut direction and charismatic performances from Clint Eastwood and John Malkovich.
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Average Rating: 3.4/5
User Ratings: 53,309
Movie Info
Clint Eastwood delivers one of his finest performances, as a secret service agent haunted by his past in Wolfgang Petersen's taut thriller In the Line of Fire. Eastwood plays Frank Horrigan, a secret service agent who keeps thinking back to November 22, 1963, when, as an agent hand-picked by President Kennedy, he became one of the few agents to have lost a president to an assassin. Decades later, psychotic Mitch Leary (John Malkovich) is stalking another president (Jim Curley) running for
Jul 9, 1993 Wide
Apr 29, 1997
Sony Pictures Home Entertainment
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Cast
-
Clint Eastwood
Frank Horrigan -
John Malkovich
Mitch Leary -
Rene Russo
Lilly Raines -
Dylan McDermott
Al D'Andrea -
Gary Cole
Bill Watts -
Fred Dalton Thompson
Harry Sargent -
John Mahoney
Sam Campagna -
Jim Curley
President -
Sally Hughes
First Lady -
Clyde Kusatsu
Jack Okura -
Steve Hytner
Tony Conducci -
Tobin Bell
Mendoza -
Patrika Darbo
Pam Magnus -
John Heard
Professor Riger -
Robert Alan Beuth
Man at Bank -
Eric Bruskotter
Young Agent -
Richard G. Camphuis
Party Fat Cat -
Carl Ciarfalio
CIA Agent Collins -
Cylk Cozart
Agent Cozart -
Ryan Cutrona
LAPDBrass -
Susan Lee Hoffman
Woman at Bank -
Rick Hurst
Bartender -
Tyde Kierney
Police Captain Howar... -
Brian Libby
FBI Supervisor -
Lawrence Lowe
FBI Technician -
Walt MacPherson
Hunter -
Joshua Malina
Agent Chavez -
Anthony Peck
FBI Official -
Elsa Raven
Leary's Landlady -
William G. Schilling
Sanford Riggs -
Bob Schott
Jimmy Hendrickson -
Arthur Senzy
Paramedic -
Gregory Alan William...
Matt Wilder -
Alan Toy
Walter Wickland -
Donna Hamilton
Reporter at Dulles -
-
-
Juan A. Riojas
Raul -
Aaron Michael Lacey
Police Officer -
Robert Peters
Hunter -
Michael Kirk
Computer Technician/...
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All Critics (64) | Top Critics (18) | Fresh (61) | Rotten (3) | DVD (23)
Petersen directs his film in a straightforward, workmanlike fashion-few surprises here -- and, curiously, for most of the film is better at establishing a kind of amiability than a hard tension.
Top CriticDirector Wolfgang Petersen moves the story along, but his real job is to simply stay out of the way of his two racehorse lead actors. And he does.
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.
The movie has a clear, simple thriller logic that's far more satisfying than the static variations-on-a-massacre construction of Eastwood's Dirty Harry pictures and spaghetti Westerns.
Despite the presence of all these action-flick cliches, In the Line of Fire works. Sure, it's no more than a formula movie, but it's an effective formula movie.
Between them, director Petersen and screenwriter Jeff Maguire do a memorable job developing their characters in this story of personal and professional redemption.
It just builds, relationship by relationship, detail by detail, clever stroke by clever stroke, taking you in and making you its own. It ought to wear a sign: Danger. Professionals At Work.
What separates In The Line Of Fire from the rest of the bog-standard good-guy/bad-guy set-up is the clear implication throughout that these two sworn enemies have more in common than they may think.
Eerie assassin and protector are perfectly balanced in this classy entertainment.
Preposterous but still thoroughly involving, this tense, kinetic, ingenious thriller is the thinking fan's action movie.
How fitting that in this summer of dinosaurs, Clint Eastwood has again emerged as the most interesting thing on screen.
[Peterson] keeps his new film hopping at a lively pace, and he shows sensitivity to the look and feel of American politics.
Petersen piles on the suspense with ruthless skill, while Eastwood reveals the same vulnerability that made his performance in Unforgiven so compelling and convincing.
Feverish suspense is at work in In the Line of Fire, a film of surprising depth for an action thriller. The felicitous interweaving of humor and high drama is another hallmark of this tense story of wits.
[A] shallow but well assembled thriller.
In the Line of Fire explores this intriguing premise with subtlety and suspense, particularly during several phone conversations between a gloating, you-can't-stop-me Leary and a visibly shaken Horrigan.
One of the more rugged and enjoyable examples of how early-'90s mainstream cinema worked when it was being made sensibly and effectively.
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Foreign Titles
- Die zweite Chance (DE)
- Dans la ligne de mire (FR)
