The Saint

The Saint is a 1997 film based on the character of Simon Templar created by Leslie Charteris in 1928 for a series of books published as "The Saint." Aside from the book series, which ran until 1983, the character has also featured in a series of Hollywood movies made between 1938 and 1954, a 1940s radio series starring Vincent Price (and others) as Templar, a popular British television series of the 1960s which starred Roger Moore, and a 1980s series starring Ian Ogilvy.

The film stars Val Kilmer, Elisabeth Shue, and Rade Šerbedžija. It was directed by Phillip Noyce and written by Jonathan Hensleigh and Wesley Strick.

In the movie, Templar is caught trying to steal a microchip from Ivan Tretiak, a, ex-communist-turned-billionaire who dominates the gas and oil market in Moscow. Tretiak hires Templar to steal the formula for cold fusion from an American scientist named Dr. Emma Russell in exchange for the $8 million needed for him to reach $50 million, the amount Templar needs in order to retire from thievery for life. Assuming the identity of Thomas More, Templar locates Dr. Russell and attempts to get close enough to steal the formula, but things get very complicated shortly after he realizes he is falling for her...

In this version, Kilmer's character does not claim to be the Simon Templar created by Charteris. He is, in fact, an orphan who chooses his name, Simon Templar--the first name from Simon Magus, and the last name from his childhood heroes, the Knights Templar. He refers to himself as Templar only during a flashback sequence at the start of the film.


 * Adrenaline Makeover: Emma.
 * Beeping Computers
 * Car Cushion: Used as a means of escape.
 * Character Name Alias: All of Templar's aliases are the names of Catholic saints.
 * Comic Book Movies Don't Use Codenames: Not adapted from a comic book, but in all other ways plays the trope straight.
 * Diplomatic Impunity: Emma ends up making a dead sprint for the US Embassy, with Tretiak close behind her. He gets the gate slammed in his face by a Marine who tells him to take a hike.
 * Engineered Public Confession: used in reverse. Simon Templar convinces the Russian president to confess to a fraudelent cold fusion project. After the president confesses in response to Ivan Tretiak’s accusations, the cold fusion machine works and destroy’s Tretiak’s credibility.
 * Fake Nationality: Rade Šerbedžija, who plays Tretiak.
 * Fake-Out Make-Out: Simon and Emma.
 * Fourth Date Marriage: Well, it took about a week. She was mad at him so they had to take things slow.
 * Go-To Alias: Simon Templar liked to use the alias "Sebastian Tombs".
 * Hollywood Nerd: Emma, who becomes less nerdy the more time she spends in Templar's company.
 * Hot Scientist: Dr. Emma Russell.
 * I Can't Believe a Guy Like You Would Notice Me: Emma, almost word for word.
 * Information Wants to Be Free: Emma has invented cold fusion, thus solving the world's energy problems. Naturally, many folks want this information quashed.
 * Intimate Healing: Emma saving Simon from hypothermia after he is forced to hide from bad guys in a nearly-frozen river and afterwards they both must hole up in an unheated house.
 * Lost in a Crowd
 * Lovable Rogue: Simon Templar.
 * Lzherusskie: Rade Šerbedžija.
 * Master of Disguise: Simon, natch.
 * Not Staying for Breakfast: When Simon bails on Emma (after romancing her, staying the night, and stealing her formula for cold fusion) he leaves behind a bunch of notes reading "I'm sorry".
 * Parental Abandonment: Simon is an orphan.
 * Patron Saint - The titular saint discusses (inaccurately, but we'll let it slide) what it takes to be made a Catholic Saint, and he kinda-sorta manages the "Three Miracles" part, at least.
 * Technical Pacifist: Oddly, the original Saint had no such code (and indeed, periodically shot people).
 * Rule of Cool: Simon's problems could have been solved so easily if he just shot people who got in his way that it would have made the movie a lot less interesting.
 * Themed Aliases: All of Simon Templar's aliases are the names of Catholic saints.

Original Saint Books and Stories:

 * Achievements in Ignorance: In "The Newdick Helicopter", a Con Man sells a mark plans for a 'helicopter' (actually a gyrocopter). When the mark assembles the helicopter, he discovers it cannot take off vertically as he expected it to. Assuming he had put it together wrong, he starts tinkering with it and ends up inventing a fully functioning helicopter. (Note that this story was published in 1933, several years before the first fully functioning helicopter was built.)
 * Go-To Alias: Sebastian Toombs
 * Knight in Shining Armour: In "The Last Hero", one of the earlier Saint novels (1931), Simon Templar takes backstage to his gallant and tragic associate Norman Kent, who falls in love hopelessly with Templar's girlfriend Patricia Holm (who hardly notices him) and at the end of the book sacrifices his life to let Templar and his other comrades-in-arms escape the current villain and fight again another day. A book called "Knights Errant of the Nineeteenth and Early Twentieth Centuries" by Caroline Whitehead and George Mc Leod says it all: "Norman Kent is an archetypal knight-errant. Though formally a man of 20th Century England, he lives (and dies) by the Code of Chivalry. He loves totally his Lady, Patricia Holm - who, like Don Quixote's Dulcinea, is not aware of that love. He is totally loyal to his Liege Lord, Simon Templar. Like Sir Gawain in "Sir Gawain and the Green Knight", Norman Kent takes on the threats to his Lord. Not only physicial threats to life and limb, but also the sometimes inavoidable need to take dishourable acts which would have reflected badly on the reputation of King Arthur/Simon Templar is taken on, wholly and without reservation, by Sir Gawain/Norman Kent."
 * Long Running Book Series
 * Themed Aliases: Simon's aliases often use the initials 'S.T.'