Enemy of the State



Enemy of the State is a 1998 spy-thriller film directed by Tony Scott, written by David Marconi, and produced by Jerry Bruckheimer. The film stars Will Smith, Gene Hackman, Jon Voight, Lisa Bonet and Regina King.

A group of rogue operatives from the National Security Agency kill a congressman who would interfere with a bill to expand the government's authority for covert surveillance, but are caught in the act by a wildlife researcher's hidden camera. The NSA finds out about the researcher's tape, and the expanding cloud of coverups, murder and surveillance sucks in Dean (Will Smith), a labor lawyer who unwittingly has the tape passed on to him. The NSA agents proceed to bug Dean's house and belongings, ruin his marriage, and destroy his life to get him to surrender the tape. Soon, the only friend he has is the retired NSA agent "Brill" (Gene Hackman), who's learned how paranoid you have to be in this kind of world...


 * Action Survivor: Dean has to be this if he wants to beat his enemies.
 * Actor Allusion: a photo of Hackman in The Conversation is used for Brill's file.
 * An Asskicking Christmas
 * Badass Grandpa: Brill
 * Batman Gambit:
 * Berserk Button:
 * Big Brother Is Watching: Basically the whole premise of the movie.
 * Black Helicopter
 * Blast Out:.
 * Chekhov's Gunman:
 * Conspiracy Thriller
 * Defector From Decadence: Brill
 * Enemy Mine
 * Engineered Public Confession:
 * Extreme Graphical Representation along with Enhance Button
 * Faking and Entering: Dean pretends to be a deliveryman to enter an hotel room and delay his pursuit.
 * Foot Chase with a Side Order of Chef
 * Government Conspiracy
 * He Knows Too Much
 * Hero Stole My Bike: Daniel's attempt at escape.
 * Insistent Terminology: Sizemore's mafia character refers to Dean as a "shyster" lawyer. Dean politely corrects him, saying that "shyster" is for Jewish people, and as a person of African-American descent, he would be an "eggplant". This is, in fact, a term used by people of Italian descent to refer to people of color.
 * Ironic Echo: "You're either incredibly smart or incredibly stupid."
 * I'm Dying, Please Take My MacGuffin: The wildlife researcher who dumps the video onto Dean.
 * Lingerie Scene: Both models in a lingerie shop and Dean's wife.
 * Look Both Ways : Zavitz, the wildlife researcher.
 * The Mafia
 * Magical Security Cam
 * Malicious Slander
 * Mexican Standoff:
 * One Dialogue, Two Conversations:.
 * Plot Coupon: The disk with the murder.
 * Properly Paranoid : Brill. Then again, used to be a spook as well.
 * Revealing Coverup
 * Sinister Surveillance
 * Spies in a Van: At a certain point, Dean decides to shoot 'em back by calling the cops about "a van in front of my house, possibly trafficking drugs!" Hilarity Ensues.
 * The Spook
 * Spotting the Thread : Dean becomes suspicious of due to a verbal slip up.
 * Spy Satellites
 * Take Off Your Clothes: Brill asks this to Dean in order to search for bugs. Eventually he does... to the enjoyment of an Asian lady.
 * Television Geography: The Baltimore and DC locations change pretty quickly...
 * Train Escape
 * Training Accident: Or at least that was how they planned it to look like.
 * Wrongfully Accused