Arlington Road

Arlington Road is generally a street of wealthy people in Bethesda, Maryland, about five miles from Washington, D.C. Equivalent to Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills.

Arlington Road is a thriller movie, where a George Washington University professor suspects his new neighbors to plan a terrorist attack.

The movie stars Jeff Bridges as a university professor who is an expert on domestic terrorism, and whose wife died in a failed FBI mission some years earlier. He has a young son, a girlfriend, played by Hope Davis, and keeps in touch with his wife's former FBI partner, played by Robert Gossett. One day he begins to suspect his next-door neighbors, played by Tim Robbins and Joan Cusack, to be terrorists, based on a number of incidents that have occurred around them, including their son being hospitalized after an accident involving a firecracker. Nobody will believe him though, finding his ideas crazy and paranoid, pointing the finger at his being unable to recover from the trauma he experienced when his wife died in the manner she did.


 * Batman Gambit: The Big Bad knew Jeff Bridges would try his best to stop him,
 * Big Bad: Tim Robbins could be seen as one since he seems to be the leader of his terrorist cell. It is also implied that he is also subservient to a Bigger Bad, however not directly referenced or mentioned on screen
 * Cassandra Truth: to be fair it is a rather wild accusation and the professor didn't really have any solid evidence.
 * Chase Scene
 * Chessmaster: the villains, particularly Tim Robbins' character as he clearly knows enough about the protagonist to subtly influence his moves.
 * Creepy Child: The terrorist's son to a small is extent this, saying "I'm sorry that's classified information" in a rather militaristic manner, also building a 'soldier's compound' rather then simply a fort, all of which makes the professor suspicious (for good reason) and makes him think there's something wrong.
 * Does This Remind You of Anything?, the terrorist bombing that the professor is lecturing about to his class suspiciously resembles the real life Oklahoma City bombing.
 * Downer Beginning:
 * Downer Ending: and how.
 * Dangerously Genre Savvy: The villains could be seen as this, explicitly stated by the main villain (Tim Robbins) "Do you think we'd leave anything to chance?".
 * Freudian Excuse: the death of the professor's wife during a failed FBI mission is implied to be this in the montage at the end
 * Hostage Situation, the professor's son is kidnapped to force the professor into compliance.
 * Karma Houdini:
 * Killed to Uphold the Masquerade: The professor's new love interest finds out too much. Just before having a convenient fatal car accident, she had left a message on his answering machine regarding her revelation before dying, but this is also erased by the bad guys.
 * Make It Look Like an Accident: The professor's new love interest is killed off in a convenient car 'accident' after discovering too much.
 * Missing Mom, the Professor's wife was revealed to be a former FBI agent killed in the line of duty
 * Really Dead Montage, sort of,
 * Right-Wing Militia Fanatic
 * Scout Out: the Big Bad convinces the professor to enroll his kid into a Scout-like organization that his son is part of.
 * Stepford Smiler:Joan Cusack's character in this is a Type C, played to much creepiness.
 * Trailers Always Spoil: The trailer pretty much gives the entire film away, even the ending. Both director Mark Pellington and lead Jeff Bridges have mentioned it several times in their commentary for the film. The DVD cover is also a bit of a give away too.
 * Too Soon: Was due to come out in the Spring of 1999 but then the Columbine shootings happened and the movie was pushed back.
 * This also led to a distribution change. Initially, Polygram was to have released the film and even had trailers and posters out. After being delayed, Polygram was reorganized (eventually being merged with October Films and later becoming Focus Features) and the film was sold to Screen Gems (who made it their second release ever).
 * Twist Ending
 * Western Terrorists
 * Western Terrorists