Arlington Road
Encyclopedia
Arlington Road is a 1999 American drama
/mystery film
, which tells the story of a widowed George Washington University
professor who suspects his new neighbors are involved in terrorism
and becomes obsessed with foiling their terrorist plot. The film stars Jeff Bridges
, Tim Robbins
, Joan Cusack
, and Hope Davis
and is directed by Mark Pellington
. Ehren Kruger
wrote the script, which won the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences
' (AMPAS) Nicholl Fellowship in 1996. The film was to have been originally released by PolyGram Filmed Entertainment
, but was sold to Sony Pictures Entertainment
before it opened. The eventual release was the first title for Screen Gems
while PolyGram (now part of Universal Studios
) handled foreign rights.
) is a college history professor at the George Washington University
who has been raising his nine-year-old son, Grant (Spencer Treat Clark
), since the death of his FBI agent wife, who was killed in the line of duty in a scene loosely based on the real-life Ruby Ridge
incident. Somewhat of a specialist regarding American terrorism
and due to teach a class on terrorism at the university, Michael starts to become suspicious of his new suburban neighbors, Oliver (Tim Robbins
) and Cheryl Lang (Joan Cusack
), whom he's just met after taking their son, Brady (Mason Gamble
), to the emergency room following a reported fireworks
accident.
At first his suspicions are based on little things such as Oliver's architectural blueprints that seem to be for something other than the shopping mall he claims he's building, as well as pieces of mail that contradict where Oliver said he attended college. Neither his girlfriend and former student, Brooke Wolfe (Hope Davis
), nor his wife's former FBI partner, Whit Carver, believe any of his wild theories. After doing some digging, Michael discovered that Oliver's real name is William Fenimore, and that he built a pipe bomb when he was 16. William confronts Michael over his looking into William's past. He reveals that Oliver Lang is the name of his friend, who died in a hunting accident. William's family had owned a farm but it went broke because the government 'appropriated' the river that ran through it 'for other uses'. As a result the crops died and they could not raise any animals. William's dad then killed himself and made it look like a tractor accident so the family could claim the life insurance. He left a note for William explaining everything. He built the pipe bomb to get back at the government. When William's friend Oliver died he took his name the next day to hide his past. This makes Michael think twice about what he had found out.
Michael continues to uncover what could be possible evidence and becomes even more wary of Oliver and Cheryl. Michael's girlfriend, Brooke, casually spots Oliver and follows his car after witnessing a suspicious package delivery in a garage. Her trail ends up in the headquarters of a mail delivery company from where she decides to call Michael and leave a message, finally accepting his fears as founded; unfortunately, after hanging up, she turns around and stumbles on Cheryl, who had obviously heard the whole message. Brooke's murder, which happens off-screen, is covered up by making it look like Brooke died in a car crash. Michael realizes this after finding out, a few days later, that at least two voice messages were left in his answering machine and then erased by someone else. He tells Carver that Lang may have been involved in her death, and is going to get proof by traveling to St. Louis to talk to a terrorist's father, Arthur Scobee. Scobee's son blew up an IRS building 5 years ago, killing himself and eight children in the process. Another clue leads Faraday to suspect that his son may be in danger. Eventually the conspirators use a field trip with a Scouts
-style organization to keep Faraday's son Grant as an unknowing hostage. Faraday rents a car the next day and follows the van his son is in, which eventually leads him to the FBI headquarters. After getting into a fight with Oliver in an old building, he tries to help him understand that killing hundreds of people won't make a difference. When Oliver refuses to call off the bomb, Faraday has to stop it before it's too late.
Faraday forces his car into a secure parking garage of a federal building, only to discover that he has followed the wrong van into the parking garage. Attempting to calm Faraday, Whit informs him that he is the only person not cleared to be in the garage. Realizing his mistake too late, Faraday rushes to the trunk of his rental car, opening it to reveal a hidden bomb just seconds before it explodes, killing Faraday, Whit, and 182 others. Posthumously, he is vilified as a terrorist seeking revenge for his wife's death. The Langs get away, and Grant, now orphaned, ends up living with relatives, not knowing of his father's innocence. After the Langs decide to move out of the neighborhood, Cheryl suggests that they should go "someplace nice, someplace safe", meaning that they might strike again. It becomes obvious that Scobee, another man who was accused of blowing up an IRS building in St. Louis (a thinly veiled version of the Oklahoma City bombing
), was set up similarly to Michael.
, Wild Wild West
s second, Big Daddys third, and Tarzan
and The General's Daughters fourth weekends.
. The DVD was reissued in Superbit
on February 12, 2002 by Columbia TriStar Home Entertainment.
Drama film
A drama film is a film genre that depends mostly on in-depth development of realistic characters dealing with emotional themes. Dramatic themes such as alcoholism, drug addiction, infidelity, moral dilemmas, racial prejudice, religious intolerance, poverty, class divisions, violence against women...
/mystery film
Mystery film
Mystery film is a sub-genre of the more general category of crime film and at times the thriller genre. It focuses on the efforts of the detective, private investigator or amateur sleuth to solve the mysterious circumstances of a crime by means of clues, investigation, and clever deduction.The...
, which tells the story of a widowed George Washington University
George Washington University
The George Washington University is a private, coeducational comprehensive university located in Washington, D.C. in the United States...
professor who suspects his new neighbors are involved in terrorism
Terrorism
Terrorism is the systematic use of terror, especially as a means of coercion. In the international community, however, terrorism has no universally agreed, legally binding, criminal law definition...
and becomes obsessed with foiling their terrorist plot. The film stars Jeff Bridges
Jeff Bridges
Jeffrey Leon "Jeff" Bridges is an American actor and musician. He won the Academy Award for Best Actor for his role as Otis "Bad" Blake in the 2009 film Crazy Heart....
, Tim Robbins
Tim Robbins
Timothy Francis "Tim" Robbins is an American actor, screenwriter, director, producer, activist and musician. He is the former longtime partner of actress Susan Sarandon...
, Joan Cusack
Joan Cusack
Joan Mary Cusack is an American film, stage and television actress. Throughout her career, Cusack has appeared in many films as well as appearing in stage productions....
, and Hope Davis
Hope Davis
Hope Davis is an American actress. She has starred in more than 20 feature films, including About Schmidt, Arlington Road, Flatliners, Mumford, American Splendor, The Lodger and Next Stop Wonderland....
and is directed by Mark Pellington
Mark Pellington
-Life and career:Pellington was born in Baltimore, Maryland. He directed The Mothman Prophecies, a 2002 film starring Richard Gere dealing with mysterious deaths foretold by a strange red-eyed flying creature, Mothman, as well as Arlington Road in 1999 starring Tim Robbins and Jeff Bridges....
. Ehren Kruger
Ehren Kruger
-Life and career:Kruger was raised in Alexandria, Virginia, and attended college at New York University. He attended the Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology, graduating in 1990....
wrote the script, which won the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences
Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences is a professional honorary organization dedicated to the advancement of the arts and sciences of motion pictures...
' (AMPAS) Nicholl Fellowship in 1996. The film was to have been originally released by PolyGram Filmed Entertainment
PolyGram Filmed Entertainment
PolyGram Filmed Entertainment was a film studio, founded in 1979 as a European competitor to Hollywood, but eventually sold and merged with Universal Pictures in 1999....
, but was sold to Sony Pictures Entertainment
Sony Pictures Entertainment
Sony Pictures Entertainment, Inc. is the television and film production/distribution unit of Japanese multinational technology and media conglomerate Sony...
before it opened. The eventual release was the first title for Screen Gems
Screen Gems
Screen Gems is an American movie production company and subsidiary company of Sony Pictures Entertainment's Columbia TriStar Motion Picture Group that has served several different purposes for its parent companies over the decades since its incorporation....
while PolyGram (now part of Universal Studios
Universal Studios
Universal Pictures , a subsidiary of NBCUniversal, is one of the six major movie studios....
) handled foreign rights.
Plot
Michael Faraday (Jeff BridgesJeff Bridges
Jeffrey Leon "Jeff" Bridges is an American actor and musician. He won the Academy Award for Best Actor for his role as Otis "Bad" Blake in the 2009 film Crazy Heart....
) is a college history professor at the George Washington University
George Washington University
The George Washington University is a private, coeducational comprehensive university located in Washington, D.C. in the United States...
who has been raising his nine-year-old son, Grant (Spencer Treat Clark
Spencer Treat Clark
Spencer Treat Clark is an American actor who has appeared in several films, including Gladiator, Mystic River, and Unbreakable.-Life and career:...
), since the death of his FBI agent wife, who was killed in the line of duty in a scene loosely based on the real-life Ruby Ridge
Ruby Ridge
Ruby Ridge was the site of a violent confrontation and siege in northern Idaho in 1992. It involved Randy Weaver, his family, Weaver's friend Kevin Harris, and agents of the United States Marshals Service and Federal Bureau of Investigation...
incident. Somewhat of a specialist regarding American terrorism
Terrorism
Terrorism is the systematic use of terror, especially as a means of coercion. In the international community, however, terrorism has no universally agreed, legally binding, criminal law definition...
and due to teach a class on terrorism at the university, Michael starts to become suspicious of his new suburban neighbors, Oliver (Tim Robbins
Tim Robbins
Timothy Francis "Tim" Robbins is an American actor, screenwriter, director, producer, activist and musician. He is the former longtime partner of actress Susan Sarandon...
) and Cheryl Lang (Joan Cusack
Joan Cusack
Joan Mary Cusack is an American film, stage and television actress. Throughout her career, Cusack has appeared in many films as well as appearing in stage productions....
), whom he's just met after taking their son, Brady (Mason Gamble
Mason Gamble
Mason Wilson Gamble is an American actor known for his portrayal of Dennis Mitchell in the 1993 film Dennis the Menace and as Jason Schwartzman's sidekick, Dirk Calloway, in Wes Anderson and Owen Wilson's critically acclaimed 1998 film Rushmore. He also appeared in Anya's Bell with Della Reese,...
), to the emergency room following a reported fireworks
Fireworks
Fireworks are a class of explosive pyrotechnic devices used for aesthetic and entertainment purposes. The most common use of a firework is as part of a fireworks display. A fireworks event is a display of the effects produced by firework devices...
accident.
At first his suspicions are based on little things such as Oliver's architectural blueprints that seem to be for something other than the shopping mall he claims he's building, as well as pieces of mail that contradict where Oliver said he attended college. Neither his girlfriend and former student, Brooke Wolfe (Hope Davis
Hope Davis
Hope Davis is an American actress. She has starred in more than 20 feature films, including About Schmidt, Arlington Road, Flatliners, Mumford, American Splendor, The Lodger and Next Stop Wonderland....
), nor his wife's former FBI partner, Whit Carver, believe any of his wild theories. After doing some digging, Michael discovered that Oliver's real name is William Fenimore, and that he built a pipe bomb when he was 16. William confronts Michael over his looking into William's past. He reveals that Oliver Lang is the name of his friend, who died in a hunting accident. William's family had owned a farm but it went broke because the government 'appropriated' the river that ran through it 'for other uses'. As a result the crops died and they could not raise any animals. William's dad then killed himself and made it look like a tractor accident so the family could claim the life insurance. He left a note for William explaining everything. He built the pipe bomb to get back at the government. When William's friend Oliver died he took his name the next day to hide his past. This makes Michael think twice about what he had found out.
Michael continues to uncover what could be possible evidence and becomes even more wary of Oliver and Cheryl. Michael's girlfriend, Brooke, casually spots Oliver and follows his car after witnessing a suspicious package delivery in a garage. Her trail ends up in the headquarters of a mail delivery company from where she decides to call Michael and leave a message, finally accepting his fears as founded; unfortunately, after hanging up, she turns around and stumbles on Cheryl, who had obviously heard the whole message. Brooke's murder, which happens off-screen, is covered up by making it look like Brooke died in a car crash. Michael realizes this after finding out, a few days later, that at least two voice messages were left in his answering machine and then erased by someone else. He tells Carver that Lang may have been involved in her death, and is going to get proof by traveling to St. Louis to talk to a terrorist's father, Arthur Scobee. Scobee's son blew up an IRS building 5 years ago, killing himself and eight children in the process. Another clue leads Faraday to suspect that his son may be in danger. Eventually the conspirators use a field trip with a Scouts
Scouting
Scouting, also known as the Scout Movement, is a worldwide youth movement with the stated aim of supporting young people in their physical, mental and spiritual development, that they may play constructive roles in society....
-style organization to keep Faraday's son Grant as an unknowing hostage. Faraday rents a car the next day and follows the van his son is in, which eventually leads him to the FBI headquarters. After getting into a fight with Oliver in an old building, he tries to help him understand that killing hundreds of people won't make a difference. When Oliver refuses to call off the bomb, Faraday has to stop it before it's too late.
Faraday forces his car into a secure parking garage of a federal building, only to discover that he has followed the wrong van into the parking garage. Attempting to calm Faraday, Whit informs him that he is the only person not cleared to be in the garage. Realizing his mistake too late, Faraday rushes to the trunk of his rental car, opening it to reveal a hidden bomb just seconds before it explodes, killing Faraday, Whit, and 182 others. Posthumously, he is vilified as a terrorist seeking revenge for his wife's death. The Langs get away, and Grant, now orphaned, ends up living with relatives, not knowing of his father's innocence. After the Langs decide to move out of the neighborhood, Cheryl suggests that they should go "someplace nice, someplace safe", meaning that they might strike again. It becomes obvious that Scobee, another man who was accused of blowing up an IRS building in St. Louis (a thinly veiled version of the Oklahoma City bombing
Oklahoma City bombing
The Oklahoma City bombing was a terrorist bomb attack on the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in downtown Oklahoma City on April 19, 1995. It was the most destructive act of terrorism on American soil until the September 11, 2001 attacks. The Oklahoma blast claimed 168 lives, including 19...
), was set up similarly to Michael.
Cast
- Jeff BridgesJeff BridgesJeffrey Leon "Jeff" Bridges is an American actor and musician. He won the Academy Award for Best Actor for his role as Otis "Bad" Blake in the 2009 film Crazy Heart....
as Michael Faraday - Tim RobbinsTim RobbinsTimothy Francis "Tim" Robbins is an American actor, screenwriter, director, producer, activist and musician. He is the former longtime partner of actress Susan Sarandon...
as Oliver Lang - Joan CusackJoan CusackJoan Mary Cusack is an American film, stage and television actress. Throughout her career, Cusack has appeared in many films as well as appearing in stage productions....
as Cheryl Lang - Hope DavisHope DavisHope Davis is an American actress. She has starred in more than 20 feature films, including About Schmidt, Arlington Road, Flatliners, Mumford, American Splendor, The Lodger and Next Stop Wonderland....
as Brooke Wolfe - Robert GossettRobert GossettRobert Gossett is an American television, theater, and film actor. Gossett landed his first professional job after he graduated from high school in a production of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. He went on to act in the Broadway production of Lloyd Richard's of Fences, Hal Scott's A Raisin in...
as FBI Agent Whit Carver - Spencer Treat ClarkSpencer Treat ClarkSpencer Treat Clark is an American actor who has appeared in several films, including Gladiator, Mystic River, and Unbreakable.-Life and career:...
as Grant Faraday - Mason GambleMason GambleMason Wilson Gamble is an American actor known for his portrayal of Dennis Mitchell in the 1993 film Dennis the Menace and as Jason Schwartzman's sidekick, Dirk Calloway, in Wes Anderson and Owen Wilson's critically acclaimed 1998 film Rushmore. He also appeared in Anya's Bell with Della Reese,...
as Brady Lang - Stanley AndersonStanley AndersonStanley Anderson is an American actor.-Biography:Anderson was born in Billings, Montana. A Theatre Masters Degree graduate of San Jose State University in the sixties, he began his professional acting career in 1967...
as Dr. Arthur Scobee - Jordan Craig as Victor
Box office
On a $21.5 million budget, the film made a worldwide gross of $41,067,311. It opened at #6 in its opening weekend with $7,515,145 behind American PieAmerican Pie (film)
American Pie is a 1999 teen comedy film written by Adam Herz. American Pie was the directorial film debut of brothers Paul and Chris Weitz, and the first film in the American Pie film series...
, Wild Wild West
Wild Wild West
Wild Wild West is a 1999 American steampunk action-comedy film directed by Barry Sonnenfeld, and starring Will Smith, Kevin Kline , Kenneth Branagh and Salma Hayek.Similar to the original TV series it was based on, The Wild Wild West, the film features a large amount of gadgetry...
s second, Big Daddys third, and Tarzan
Tarzan (1999 film)
Tarzan is a 1999 American animated feature film produced by Walt Disney Feature Animation and released by Walt Disney Pictures on June 18, 1999...
and The General's Daughters fourth weekends.
DVD release
The film was initially released on October 26, 1999 by Columbia TriStar Home VideoSony Pictures Home Entertainment
Sony Pictures Home Entertainment is the home video distribution arm of Sony Pictures Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Corporation. It was established in November 1979 as Columbia Pictures Home Entertainment, releasing 20 titles: The Anderson Tapes, Bell, Book and Candle, Born Free, Breakout,...
. The DVD was reissued in Superbit
Superbit
Superbit was a brand of premium DVD-Video versions of motion pictures from Columbia TriStar Home Video, a division of Sony Pictures Entertainment. Superbit DVDs aimed to improve picture quality over a standard DVD edition of a feature by increasing the bit rate of the encoded video...
on February 12, 2002 by Columbia TriStar Home Entertainment.