Taglines: Seeing is Deceiving.
Snake Eyes movie storyline. Ricky Santoro is a flamboyant and corrupt Atlantic City cop with a dream: become so well connected that he can become mayor. In lieu of that, he’ll settle for keeping his comfortable lifestyle. On the night of the heavyweight boxing championship, Rick becomes mixed up in the assassination of the Secretary of Defense, an assassination involving his best friend. Becoming the investigating officer in the case, Rick soon uncovers a conspiracy to kill the Secretary and a mysterious woman in white. The conspiracy was shocking, but not half as shocking as the identity of its mastermind.
Snake Eyes is a 1998 American conspiracy thriller film directed by Brian De Palma, featuring his trademark use of long tracking shots and split screens. It starred Nicolas Cage, Gary Sinise and Carla Gugino. The film was written by David Koepp and De Palma, and was released to theaters on August 7, 1998. It costed an estimated $73 million to produce and returned $103 million worldwide, but received mixed to negative reviews from critics.
About the Story
On a dark and stormy night, corrupt, flamboyant Atlantic City police detective Rick Santoro (Nicolas Cage) attends a boxing match at Gilbert Powell’s (John Heard) Atlantic City Arena between heavyweight champion Lincoln Tyler (Stan Shaw) and challenger Jose Pacifico Ruiz. He meets up with his best friend since childhood, Kevin Dunne (Gary Sinise), who is a U.S. Navy Commander working with the Department of Defense to escort Defense Secretary Charles Kirkland (Joel Fabiani) and Powell at the fight after a trip to Norfolk, Virginia.
As the first round begins, Kevin is distracted by an attractive redhead named Serena (Jayne Heitmeyer) who wears a ruby ring, and leaves his seat, which is then taken by Julia Costello (Carla Gugino), a mysterious woman with platinum blonde hair and a white satin suit. When Tyler is unexpectedly knocked out by Ruiz, gunshots ring out, mortally wounding Kirkland and grazing Julia, who loses her glasses and blonde wig, revealing her naturally dark hair. Kevin kills the sniper and Rick orders the arena to be locked down. Despite the lockdown, Julia escapes into the casino, covers her wounds in pieces of cloth from her blouse and, after stealing a black satin jacket, disguises herself as a hooker.
Rick notices that the “knocked out” Tyler woke up instantly when the shots rang out and, after studying the fight tape, realizes the knockout punch didn’t connect. Tyler confesses that he threw the fight in order to pay gambling debts, but he was never told that anyone would be killed and reveals that he was paid to take a dive by Serena, the redhead who tricked Kevin into leaving his post.
With the involvement of Tyler, Serena and the sniper – in addition to the man who signaled Tyler to go down and whoever gave him the go-ahead – Rick suspects a conspiracy and reveals everything he has learned to Kevin. The commander confesses that the trip to Norfolk was for a test of the AirGuard missile defense system, which Powell’s company was backing. He deduces that the sniper, a known Palestinian terrorist named Tariq Rabat, assassinated Kirkland in order to stop the sale of the system to the U.S. government.
Snake Eyes (1998)
Directed by: Brian De Palma
Starring: Nicolas Cage, Gary Sinise, John Heard, Carla Gugino, Stan Shaw, Kevin Dunn, Michael Rispoli, Joel Fabiani, Tamara Tunie, David Anthony Higgins
Screenplay by: David Koepp
Production Design by: Anne Pritchard
Cinematography by: Stephen H. Burum
Film Editing by: Bill Pankow
Costume Design by: Odette Gadoury
Set Decoration by: Daniel Carpentier
Art Direction by: James Fox, Isabelle Guay, Réal Proulx
Music by: Ryuichi Sakamoto
MPAA Rating: R for some violence.
Distributed by: Paramount Pictures (North America), Buena Vista Pictures (International)
Release Date: August 7, 1998
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