Runaway Jury

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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article is about the film. For the novel, see The Runaway Jury.

Runaway Jury
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Gary Fleder
Screenplay by	Brian Koppelman David Levien Rick Cleveland Matthew Chapman
Based on	The Runaway Jury by John Grisham
Produced by	Gary FlederChristopher MankiewiczArnon Milchan
Starring	John Cusack Gene Hackman Dustin Hoffman Rachel Weisz Bruce Davison Bruce McGill Jeremy Piven Nick Searcy
Cinematography	Robert Elswit
Edited by	William SteinkampJeff Williams
Music by	Christopher Young
Production companies	Regency Enterprises New Regency
Distributed by	20th Century Fox
Release date	October 17, 2003
Running time	127 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$60 million
Box office	$80.2 million

Runaway Jury is a 2003 American legal thriller film directed by Gary Fleder and starring John Cusack, Gene Hackman, Dustin Hoffman and Rachel Weisz.

An adaptation of John Grisham‘s 1996 novel The Runaway Jury, the film pits lawyer Wendell Rohr (Hoffman) against shady jury consultant Rankin Fitch (Hackman), who uses unlawful means to stack the jury with people sympathetic to the defense. Meanwhile, a high-stakes cat-and-mouse game begins when juror Nicholas Easter (Cusack) and his girlfriend Marlee (Weisz) appear to be able to sway the jury to deliver any verdict they want in a trial against a gun manufacturer.

The film was released on October 17, 2003. It is Hackman’s penultimate film.^[1]

Plot

[edit]

In New Orleans on an October morning, disgruntled ex-employee, Kevin Peltier walks into the stock brokerage firm and perpetrates a mass shooting. Among those killed was Jacob Wood, a broker at the firm. Two years later, his widow Celeste, along with her attorney Wendall Rohr, sue Vicksburg Firearms for gross negligence that caused her husband’s death. Jury selection for the civil trial against the gun manufacturer begins. During opening statements, it is revealed that eleven people had been killed and five others critically wounded before Peltier then fatally turned the gun on himself.

Nick Easter, who lives in a grungy apartment building, receives a jury notice. He goes to a magic store, appearing to find a hex candle to avoid jury service. At an outdoor table, he and a group of friends discuss entering an online championship game for a $100,000 prize.

During jury selection, jury consultant Rankin Fitch (revealed to have ties with Vicksburg) and his team use electronic surveillance to gather background information on the jury pool. They feed info to defense attorney Durwood Cable while he is in the courtroom.

Nick spots undercover operatives surrounding the outdoor venue where many potential jurors are eating and can be overheard talking. In court, Nick asks to be dismissed so he can participate in the online contest, which takes place at the same time as the trial; Judge Harkin refuses, which is actually what Nick wanted. Nick’s congenial manner gains the attention he wants from the other jurors.

Meanwhile, on his illegal surveillance tape Fitch notices Nick’s photo on the wall behind the Judge’s bench. Later that night, Nick and his girlfriend celebrate his being chosen as a juror. On the bedroom wall, they have a photo board and background on each juror. They discuss their plan to sway the jury and make up to $15 million.

The jury tampering is elaborate as Nick uses tactics and his rising popularity among his fellow jurors to disrupt normal procedures. Elsewhere, someone calling herself Marlee telephones attorneys Fitch and Rohr, respectively for the defense and for the victim. She offers to deliver the desired verdict to the first bidder. Rohr dismisses the offer, assuming it is Fitch’s tactic to obtain a mistrial. Fitch wants proof that she can deliver, which she provides by asking if he “feels patriotic” and then demonstrates her power over the jurors by inducing them to recite the pledge of allegiance spontaneously at the start of the next court session.

By observing the jurors’ behavior through the concealed cameras, Fitch identifies Nick as the influencer and has his apartment searched; nothing is found. Marlee retaliates by getting one of Fitch’s jurors bounced, so Fitch blackmails three jurors.

This leads Rikki Coleman, a juror who wants her abortion kept secret, to attempt suicide. Fitch also sends men to search for a digital storage unit with key juror information known to be hidden in Nick’s apartment. After finding it, they set the apartment on fire. When Nick shows the judge footage of Fitch’s men breaking into his apartment, the jury is sequestered.

Rohr’s key witness, a former Vicksburg employee, does not show up. After confronting Fitch, Rohr decides that he cannot win the case. He asks his firm’s partners for $10 million to pay Marlee. On principle, Rohr refuses to pay, electing to take his chances against Fitch while keeping his conscience clear.

After the CEO of Vicksburg Firearms loses his temper under cross-examination, making a bad impression on the jury, Fitch agrees to pay Marlee to be certain of the verdict. Fitch sends an operative, Janovich, to kidnap Marlee, who fights him off and raises the price to $15 million.

Fitch’s subordinate Doyle, who is investigating Nick, learns that he is actually Jeff Kerr, a law-school dropout from Gardner, Indiana, the hometown of both Jeff and his law-school girlfriend Gabby (aka Marlee).

Doyle travels to Gardner and ingratiates himself into the home of Gabby’s mother. He learns that Gabby’s sister had died in a shooting years before when she was in high school. Afterward, the town of Gardner sued the manufacturer of the guns used, but lost. Fitch had helped the defense win the case. Doyle calls Fitch to warn him that Nick and Marlee’s offer is a setup, but it is too late. The money had already been paid.

After receiving confirmation of the payment, Nick asks the other jurors to review the facts, saying they owe it to Celeste Wood to deliberate. This triggers juror Herrera into a rant against the plaintiff, which undermines any support he had from the other jurors. The gun manufacturer is found liable, with the jury awarding $1 million in special damages and $110 million in general damages to Celeste Wood.

After the trial, Nick and Marlee confront Fitch with a receipt for the $15 million bribe, which they threaten to make public unless he retires. Fitch asks Nick how he got the jury to vote for the plaintiff. Nick replies that he did not, explaining that he stopped Fitch from throwing the trial merely by getting the jury to vote with their hearts. Nick and Marlee inform an indignant Fitch that the $15 million “fee” will benefit the shooting victims in Gardner, leaving Fitch ranting that Nick and Marlee won’t be able to stop and will end up with nothing.

While Rohr is on his way with Celeste and her son to a celebratory meal, he sees Nick and Marlee watching children play. They exchange acknowledging looks, and Rohr smiles. He leaves as Marlee and Nick decide to return to Gardner, their hometown.

Cast

[edit]

John Cusack as Nick Easter
Gene Hackman as Rankin Fitch
Dustin Hoffman as Wendell Rohr
Rachel Weisz as Marlee
Bruce Davison as Cable
Bruce McGill as Judge Harkin
Jeremy Piven as Lawrence Greene
Nick Searcy as Doyle
Stanley Anderson as Henry Jankle
Cliff Curtis as Frank Herrera
Nestor Serrano as Janovich
Leland Orser as Lamb
Jennifer Beals as Vanessa Lembeck
Gerry Bamman as Herman Grimes
Joanna Going as Celeste Wood
Bill Nunn as Lonnie Shaver
Juanita Jennings as Loreen Duke
Marguerite Moreau as Amanda Monroe
Nora Dunn as Stella Hulic
Guy Torry as Eddie Weese
Rusty Schwimmer as Millie Dupree

In addition, Dylan McDermott has an uncredited cameo as Jacob Wood, whose murder sets the plot in motion.

Production

[edit]

The rights to make an adaptation of John Grisham‘s 1996 novel The Runaway Jury,^[2] were purchased in August 1996 by Arnon Milchan and distribution partner Warner Bros. for a record $8 million, including first-look rights to Grisham’s next novel.^[3] Directors slated to helm the picture included Joel Schumacher and Mike Newell, with the lead offered to Edward Norton and Will Smith.^[4] After the release of the 1999 film, The Insider, which, as does the novel, focuses on big tobacco, the studio decided to make the plaintiff sue a gun company instead in the film adaptation.^[4] This is Gene Hackman’s and Dustin Hoffman’s first and only film together. At the Pasadena Playhouse, they were classmates, and were both voted “Least Likely to Succeed.”

Reception

[edit]

Box office

[edit]

Runaway Jury grossed $49.4 million domestically (United States and Canada) and $30.7 million in other territories, for a worldwide total of $80.2 million, against a budget of $60 million.^[5] It opened at No. 3, in its first of four consecutive weeks in the Top 10 at the domestic box office.^[6]

Critical response

[edit]

On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 73% of 161 critics’ reviews are positive, with an average rating of 6.6/10. The website’s consensus reads: “An implausible but entertaining legal thriller.”^[7] Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 61 out of 100, based on 38 critics, indicating “generally favorable” reviews.^[8]

Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times gave the film three stars out of four, and stated that the plot to sell the jury to the highest-bidding party was the most ingenious device in the story, because it avoided pitting the “evil” and the “good” protagonists directly against each other in a stereotypical manner, but it plunged both of them into a moral abyss.^[9]