True Lies (1994)

Director:

James Cameron

Writers (WGA):

Claude Zidi (screenplay) and
Simon Michaël (screenplay) ...

Release Date:

15 July 1994 (USA)

Genre:

Action | Comedy | Romance | Thriller

Tagline:

When he said I do, he never said what he did.

Plot:

When a secret agent learns of his wife's extra-marital affair, he pursues her and uses his intelligence resources in a job he kept secret from her.

Plot Keywords:

Terrorist | Secret | Agent | Secret Agent | Mission

Awards:

Nominated for Oscar. Another 6 wins & 14 nominations

US TV Schedule:

Sat. Dec. 26	5:00 PM	AETV
Sun. Dec. 27	12:00 PM	AETV

Cast

Arnold Schwarzenegger	...	Harry Tasker
Jamie Lee Curtis	...	Helen Tasker
Tom Arnold	...	Albert Gibson
Bill Paxton	...	Simon
Charlton Heston	...	Spencer Trilby
Tia Carrere	...	Juno Skinner
Art Malik	...	Salim Abu Aziz
Eliza Dushku	...	Dana Tasker
Grant Heslov	...	Faisil
Marshall Manesh	...	Jamal Khaled
James Allen	...	Colonel
Dieter Rauter	...	Boathouse Guard (as Deiter Rauter)
Jane Morris	...	Janice
Katsy Chappell	...	Allison
Crystina Wyler	...	Charlene

Also Known As:

Mentiras verdaderas (Argentina) (Peru) (Uruguay) (Venezuela) [es]
Правдивая ложь (Russia) [ru]
A Verdade da Mentira (Portugal) [pt]
Ausad valed (Estonia) [et]
Két tüz között (Hungary) [hu]
Livsfarlig løgn (Denmark) [da]
Mentiras arriesgadas (Spain) [es]
Pravdivé lzi (Slovakia) [sk]
Pravdivé lzi (Czech Republic) [cs]
Prawdziwe klamstwa (Poland) [pl]
Resnicne lazi (Slovenia) [sl]
Sanne løgner (Norway) [no]
Tosi valheita (Finland) [fi]
True Lies (France) [fr]
True Lies (Brazil) [pt]
True Lies (Austria) [de]
True Lies - Wahre Lügen (Germany) [de]
True lies, le caméléon (France) [fr]
Vrai mensonge (Canada: French title) (TV title) [fr]

Runtime:

141 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English | French | Arabic | German

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

70 mm 6-Track (70 mm prints) | Dolby Digital (35 mm prints)

Certification:

Finland:K-16 (original rating) | Iceland:14 (original rating) | Iceland:16 (video rating) | Hungary:16 | New Zealand:M | Brazil:14 | Portugal:M/12 | France:U | Netherlands:12 | South Korea:12 (cable rating) | Argentina:16 | Australia:M | Canada:13+ (Quebec) | Canada:14 (Nova Scotia) | Canada:AA (Ontario) | Canada:PG (Manitoba) | Chile:14 | Denmark:15 | Finland:K-14 | Germany:16 | Netherlands:16 (original rating) (cinema release) | Norway:18 | Peru:14 | Singapore:PG | South Korea:15 | Spain:18 | Sweden:15 | USA:R | UK:15 (cut)

Filming Locations:

Ambassador Hotel - 3400 Wilshire Boulevard, Los Angeles, California, USA

Company:

Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corporation

Trivia:

When Arnold Schwarzenegger rescues wife Jamie Lee Curtis from an airborne chopper, he grasps her by her arm just as the chopper heads out over the water. The woman you see dangling below the chopper skid is no body double, but Curtis doing her very own stunt work. At her insistence, director James Cameron agreed to let her perform this scary spectacle. According to Jamie Lee Curtis, on the TV special promoting "True Lies", it was Cameron's idea for her to do the helicopter work; she said, "Oh, yeah. And just where are you going to be while I'm dangling way up there in the air, Jim?" And, according to her, he said, "Hanging out the door filming you with a hand-held camera." So she decided that if he was willing to do that to get the shot, she could stand to do it, too.

Goofs:

Audio/visual unsynchronized: When Aziz and Dana are on the crane, Dana slips and you can hear her say "Someone help me" but her lips aren't moving

Quotes:

[Harry returns to the van after escaping the castle]
Harry: Hi guys.
Gib: Well that worked real good. Right out the old front gate.
Harry: Can you lean back a second...
[Harry shoots two remaining pursuers]

Movie Connections:

Referenced in "Psych: Truer Lies (#3.14)" (2009)

Soundtrack:

Edelweiss

Arnold, James and Bill. How can you go wrong?

When a film has extravagant special effects, robust action, dazzling direction, wicked comedy and a cast of great actors like Schwarzenegger and Curtis and Arnold and Paxton, how can you go wrong? You can't.

True Lies is one of the best action films to come out, ever. I don't think James Cameron knows how to make a bad film and that may be because he knows a winning team. He has teamed up with these same players before and the results have been the biggest grossing film ever, a soon to be trilogy that started his and the big guy's career and a scary film about extra-terrestrials. Well True Lies is just one more amazing film in Cameron's gold mine repertoire. This really is a terrific film and it is one of the best pure action films I've ever seen. And it is wickedly funny, " Did you kill anyone? "

" Yea, but they were all bad. " Priceless.

Here we have three separate issues happening simultaneously. Arnold and Arnold play two agents that are reminiscent to Bond type characters. They infiltrate castles and steel secrets and blow things up. They are very good at what they do and as perfect as they are at their job, Schwartzenegger's home life suffers from it. His wife ( played with amazing sexuality buy Jamie Lee Curtis ) loves him unconditionally, but she is a little bored because he is gone half the time and when he is home he tells her about boring computer meetings and how he wowed his clientelle with the latest micro-chips, when in reality he is running through a snow covered field with a tuxedo on while being chased by men on skis carrying Uzis. But she of course isn't allowed to know about that, something in the name of national security. Hence we have Simon. Simon is played for laughs brilliantly by Bill Paxton. He is the kind of guy that has a normal life but preys on women that may be missing excitement from their life. This is where he meets Mrs. Tasker. And he puts the moves on her, seeing the sexiness underneath all of her facades and insecurities. Paxton and Schwartz. play well off one another and here is no exception as they meet when Arnold goes to his car lot and pretends he wants to buy a car. Paxton innadvertently tells the man who's wife he is trying to with, that there is this hot little fox that he is almost in with. Simon laughs like a slob and Harry has a vision of breaking his nose. It is played for laughs but it is here that Schwartz. gets to show some of this best acting abilities.

The third story is the actual bad guys that want to detonate nuclear warheads in New York for some sort of revenge. Somehow the three stories mesh perfectly together as Curtis gets mixed up by accident with the terrorists thinking that Simon is being chased by them and so on. There is so much energy in this film, so much comedy, so much of everything for everyone that I really can't see how anyone could not like this film.

True Lies is one of the best action films ever and this is probably Arnie's best acting. Cameron and Arnie work well together, and Cameron works well with Paxton and hell Arnie and Paxton work well together ( Commando, Terminator and this one). It would almost be impossible for this film not be great. And that it certainly is. You should have no problem popping this one in the DVD or VCR and getting lost in excitement for two hours.