Why a high-profile thriller featuring Morgan Freeman and John Cusack vanished without a trace
In short: The 2006 action film The Contract boasted a star-studded cast and a veteran director, yet it bypassed theaters entirely in the United States and Europe. Despite its pedigree, the project remains largely forgotten, suffering from poor critical reception and a quiet, direct-to-video release that left almost no cultural footprint.
Directed by Bruce Beresford, The Contract follows the collision of two disparate lives: Frank Carden, a professional hitman played by Morgan Freeman, and Ray Keene, a struggling teacher portrayed by John Cusack. The plot centers on a botched assassination attempt against a billionaire opponent of stem cell research. After a car accident lands the assassin in custody, a series of events forces the teacher and his son to transport the prisoner through the wilderness while being hunted by the hitman's former military associates.
The film’s production was an international endeavor, shot primarily in Bulgaria. The capital city of Sofia provided the backdrop for key sequences, with the Zlatnite Mostove on Vitosha Mountain serving as a primary location for the wilderness scenes. The DSK Bank headquarters was also utilized as a major set. Beresford later detailed the behind-the-scenes realities of this production in his personal memoir regarding his experiences in the film industry.
Upon release, the movie faced harsh scrutiny. It holds a 0% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes based on six reviews, and critic Leonard Maltin granted it only two stars. The narrative concludes with the assassin successfully completing his mission following a staged boating accident, but the film itself failed to achieve any similar success. It stands as a curious example of how high-profile talent can occasionally result in a project that disappears from public consciousness almost immediately upon arrival.
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- Summary by Intellect · source: The Contract (2006 film)
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