In the Line of Fire

In the Line of Fire

1993 "An assassin on the loose. A president in danger. Only one man stands between them…"
In the Line of Fire
In the Line of Fire

In the Line of Fire

7.2 | 2h8m | R | en | Drama

Veteran Secret Service agent Frank Horrigan is a man haunted by his failure to save President Kennedy while serving protection detail in Dallas. Thirty years later, a man calling himself "Booth" threatens the life of the current President, forcing Horrigan to come back to protection detail to confront the ghosts from his past.

View More
Rent / Buy
amazon
Buy from $16.29 Rent from $3.59
AD

WATCH FREEFOR 30 DAYS

All Prime Video
Cancel anytime

Watch Now
7.2 | 2h8m | R | en | Drama , Action , Thriller | More Info
Released: July. 08,1993 | Released Producted By: Columbia Pictures , Castle Rock Entertainment Country: United States of America Budget: 0 Revenue: 0 Official Website:
Synopsis

Veteran Secret Service agent Frank Horrigan is a man haunted by his failure to save President Kennedy while serving protection detail in Dallas. Thirty years later, a man calling himself "Booth" threatens the life of the current President, forcing Horrigan to come back to protection detail to confront the ghosts from his past.

...... View More
Stream Online

The movie is currently not available onine

Cast

Clint Eastwood , John Malkovich , Rene Russo

Director

John Warnke

Producted By

Columbia Pictures , Castle Rock Entertainment

AD

Watch Free for 30 Days

All Prime Video Movies and TV Shows. Cancel anytime.

Watch Now

Trailers & Images

Reviews

Bhargav Annigeri What a brilliant film. Seriously, I commend everyone involved in the production of this movie. Great performances and overall hard work all around. This movie has everything going for it. An awesome screenplay, a captivating, stunning performance from John Malkovich, and a creepy yet thrilling aura surrounding every scene. This movie could have easily catapulted into one of my favorites ever. It is a very entertaining movie.Of course, it does have its flaws. The biggest flaw to this movie is Rene Russo's character. Now I recognize the need for strong female characters. But she's not exactly a strong character at all. In fact, her character is never really significant throughout the entire film. I respect Russo as an actress, and I'm sure if the screenplay was further refined, her character could have been developed further. Still, I recommend it. It makes for a fun movie night, and it's ever enjoyable despite some flaws, which you can easily get over by paying attention to how awesome Eastwood and Malkovich's battle of wits really is.
Mr-Fusion It's amazing what 20 years will do for a movie's impact, because I remembered IN THE LINE OF FIRE being a lot more . . . thrilling. Aside from Malkovich's off-the-scales creepiness, this movie's fairly by-the- numbers for most of its runtime. But it's in the last thirty minutes or so that things finally heat up. The case gets cracked, the assassin makes his attempt, there's a hostage standoff in and around the Bonaventure hotel (nice to see it like this in a movie) and Eastwood - who up until this point was best at scowling and slamming phones - actually becomes a sympathetic character.I don't know if I want to sit through it again, but all that back-end action is enough to leave me (almost) satisfied.6/10
romanorum1 Frank Horrigan (Clint Eastwood), a veteran US secret service agent, has never recovered from that fateful day (22 November 1963) when President John F. Kennedy was shot by Lee Harvey Oswald at his watch. Blaming himself for not reacting sooner and taking the fateful bullet, Horrigan became occasionally brooding and turned to liquor, actions that drove away his wife and daughter. He stayed in the bureaucracy though and requests an assignment to protect the latest president thirty years after the Catastrophe in Dallas. Now in his early sixties, the grizzled and intense Horrigan questions his own decision and forms doubts whether he still has the physical vigor to stand up to the job demands. Secret Service Director Sam Campagna (John Mahoney) backs him and grants his request, but Assistant Director Bill Watts (Gary Cole), although reluctantly agreeing to the new assignment, is so strongly against Horrigan that he revels in his apparent faux pas (like running out of breath while running alongside the presidential vehicle). Chief of Staff Harry Sargent (Fred Dalton Thompson) is similarly not in Horrigan's corner. The president is facing a very difficult reelection campaign, and Sargent does not want him to look awkwardly or cowardly in the face of potential danger.Mitch Leary (John Malcovitch), a trained operative for the CIA who was laid off, claims he was double-crossed by the US government and wants revenge. What is this loose cannon's plan? He longs to kill the current president (Jim Curley, code name "Traveler"). Calling himself "Booth" (after you know whom) he takes the offensive and continually torments Horrigan on the telephone, explaining exactly what he intends to do. Booth had studied Frank Horrigan for years, and is so clever and conditioned and twisted that he is able to burrow deeply into the latter's mind. A master of disguise, Booth continually toys with Horrigan, recounting parallels in their life experiences. At other times, he creates bummers. For example, consider the scene when President Curley is holding an AFL-CIO rally in Chicago. Booth uses pins to pop display balloons, badgering Horrigan into believing that gunshots are being fired. Horrigan's actions caused disruption and humiliated the president, although the agent did show his self-assurance and quick reaction, and was even willing to take a hit for "Traveler." Now Frank has a partner, Al D'Andrea (Dylan McDermott), and the two of them had undermined a deadly band of Phoenix counterfeiters early in the film. D'Andrea, though, is fated for a different destiny even though for more than two-thirds of the film Horrigan and he tail Leary. The psychopath divulges that he could have killed Horrigan many times but left him alone ("I have allowed you to live so you show me some g**damn respect!"). And at one point the aging Horrigan nearly perishes from a rooftop fall. Now when the denouement eventually arrives, will he have the efficacy to save the president? Malcovitch's acting is always of high quality. He is just so believable as a creep that one almost begins to hate him. Rene Russo may have come late to Hollywood (in her later thirties), but she already had polished acting tools and looks to match. Her role here is Lilly Raines, a capable and strong agent herself who is on presidential protection detail; later she becomes Horrigan's younger lover. Of course the beginning was rocky, especially after Horrigan made several offensive statements. But Raines eventually saw his masculine sensitivity, charm, and his real respect for her, and she shows her own capacity to fall in love.This movie is a nice vehicle for Eastwood, a good actor who easily handles similar roles. Director Wolfgang Petersen created a competent film with a novel idea of a man obsessed with his inability to save a past president from a real, historical assassination. Those pictures and footages (digital effects) of a young Horrigan inserted into actual pictures of Kennedy are believable. Also, the sets are convincing (White House, Air Force One, police escort, rallies). The only drawback may be that the movie runs a few minutes too long. Recommended.
LeonLouisRicci If you can stand the Hollywood Conceit of Romance with Sloppy kissing and groping between a Geezer and a Thirty-Something Hottie you might give this one a Pass because it is an Above Average Thriller with a Venomous Villain. If you can believe Clint Eastwood as a Jazz Pianist you might give this a Pass because it has much more going for it.There are a number of Suspenseful Set-Pieces and John Malkovich without doubt steals the Film from the One-Note Eastwood who really struggles delivering Lines at times and is unwatchable as He exchanges Loving Stares with Rene Russo. Overall, this is kept from sinking to Cringe inducing Territory by a Multi-Faced Malkovich that is as Creepy as they come. It moves along at a brisk pace and it needs too as it moves quickly from badly Written exchanges and exposition Scenes among Good Ol Boy Ballbusting and a predictable Sub-Plot with a Partner that is never fleshed out and comes across as totally Contrived.A Watchable Film that tries just a little too hard to be Heady, and the best of it outweighs those excruciating Filler bits and delivers an Entertaining, but Puffed-Up Piece of Product.