The Pelican Brief movie storyline. Two Supreme Court Justices have been killed. Now a college professor, who clerked for one of the two men, who’s also having an affair with one of his students, is given a brief by her, that states who probably, wanted to see these two men dead. He then gives it to one of his friends, who works for the FBI. When the FBI director reads it, he is fascinated by it. One of the president’s men who read it, is afraid that if it ever got out, the president could be smeared.
So, he advises the president to tell the director to drop it, which he does. But later the professor and the girl were out and he was drunk and when he refused to give her the keys she stepped out of the car. When he started it, it blew up. She then discovers that her place has been burglarized and what was taken were her computer and her disks. Obviously, her brief has someone agitated. She then turns to her boyfriend’s friend at the FBI, he agrees to come meet her but before he does someone shoots him and takes his place…
The Pelican Brief is a 1993 American legal political thriller based on the novel of the same name by John Grisham. Directed by Alan J. Pakula, the film stars Julia Roberts in the role of young law student Darby Shaw and Denzel Washington as Washington Herald reporter Gray Grantham. Music was composed by James Horner. This was the last film to feature Pakula as a producer and writer before his death.
About the Story
Two Supreme Court justices are assassinated by the professional assassin “Sam” Khamel. Tulane University Law School student Darby Shaw writes a legal brief detailing her theory on why they were killed and under whose orders. She delivers it to her law professor, mentor and secret lover Thomas Callahan. He gives a copy to his friend Gavin Verheek, attorney and special counsel to the Director of the FBI. Callahan is killed by a car bomb; Darby escapes because she refuses to enter the car with her drunk lover and is subsequently attacked by an unknown assailant. Realizing that her brief was accurate, she goes into hiding and reaches out to Verheek for dire assistance.
Political reporter Gray Grantham is contacted by an informant calling himself “Garcia” with information about the assassinations, yet “Garcia” suddenly disappears, and Darby contacts Grantham, who finds her information is valid and accurate. Darby’s computer, disks, and files have disappeared from her home, where she is also attacked but manages to escape. She contacts Verheek again and they arrange to meet, but Verheek is murdered by Khamel who impersonates his victim and proceeds to the meeting. Before Khamel can kill Darby too, he is shot and killed by an unknown person.
Darby contacts Grantham again and agrees to meet him in New York City, where she gives him the details of her brief that speculates the assassins were loyal to Victor Mattiece, an oil tycoon who intends to drill for it on a Louisiana marshland, a known habitat of an endangered species of brown pelicans. A court appeal to prevent such harm is expected to reach the Supreme Court, before the two slain justices, known for their history of environmentalism. Darby surmised Mattiece, hoping to turn the case in his favor, is behind the Justices’ murder. When Grantham tells her about “Garcia”, they discover that the man is Curtis Morgan, a lawyer at the White & Blazevich oil and gas division in Washington.
Darby visits White & Blazevich, pretending to have an appointment with Morgan, and is told he had been killed. Suspecting that his murder was related to the incriminating information, she and Grantham visit his widow who gives them a key to a safe deposit box. Darby visits the bank to retrieve the contents of the box. After barely escaping death by a car bomb, they reach the Washington Herald building where they review the documents and a videotape recovered from Morgan’s box.
The tape confirms Morgan’s discovery that Mattiece ordered the assassination of the Justices and the documents confirm the accusations. With this evidence, Grantham writes his story. He gives the FBI a chance to comment and FBI Director Voyles confirms the Pelican Brief was delivered to the White House. He reveals the President ordered the FBI to “back off”, CIA agents were investigating Mattiece and one of them killed Khamel to save Darby’s life. A plane is arranged for Darby to flee the country.
The Pelican Brief movie trailer.
The Pelican Brief (1993)
Directed by: Alan J. Pakula
Starring: Julia Roberts, Denzel Washington, Sam Shepard, John Heard, Tony Goldwyn, James B. Sikking, William Atherton, Robert Culp, Stanley Tucci, Hume Cronyn, John Lithgow
Screenplay by: Alan J. Pakula
Production Design by: Philip Rosenberg
Cinematography by: Stephen Goldblatt
Film Editing by: Tom Rolf, Trudy Ship
Costume Design by: Albert Wolsky
Set Decoration by: Lisa Fischer, Rick Simpson
Art Direction by: Robert Guerra
Music by: James Horner
MPAA Rating: PG-13 for momentary language and some violence.
Distributed by: Warner Bros. Pictures
Release Date: December 17, 1993
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