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Shooter_(2007_film)

Shooter is a 2007 American action thriller film directed by Antoine Fuqua[4] and written by Jonathan Lemkin, based on the 1993 novel Point of Impact by Stephen Hunter.[5] The film follows Force Recon Marine Scout Sniper veteran Bob Lee Swagger (Mark Wahlberg), who is framed for murder by a mercenary unit operating for a private military firm. The film also stars Michael Peña, Danny Glover, Kate Mara, Levon Helm, and Ned Beatty.[4]

Shooter was produced by Lorenzo di Bonaventura through Di Bonaventura Pictures, and released by Paramount Pictures in the United States on March 23, 2007. The film received mixed reviews and grossed $95.7 million on a $61 million budget.

Plot

Force Recon Scout Snipers Gunnery Sergeant Bob Lee Swagger and his spotter Donnie Fenn provide rearguard overwatch for a black ops mission in Ethiopia. The mission has been successful, but when covering the retreat of friendly forces, enemy militia discover Swagger and Fenn's position and assault them with helicopter gunship, resulting in Fenn's death. The CIA officer supervising the operation disavows the mission and strands them in enemy territory without any backups.

Three years later, Swagger is a retired veteran living in the Wind River Range, Wyoming. Colonel Isaac Johnson seeks Swagger's help to prevent a possible assassination attempt on the President during a speaking event. Reluctantly, Swagger agrees and identifies Philadelphia as the best location, pinpointing likely sniper spots.

Swagger joins Johnson at an overwatch position during the speech. As a sniper kills Ethiopian Archbishop Desmond Mutumbo, the President's guest, a PPD officer on Johnson's payroll shoots Swagger, who survives the shot after falling through a window, escapes after disarming rookie FBI Agent Nick Memphis, jumping into the Delaware River and hitchhiking under a ferry. Soon, news reports and evidence, including Swagger's CheyTac M200 sniper rifle as the murder weapon, emerges to the public, initiating a manhunt. Evading authorities, Swagger travels to Kentucky and meets Fenn's widow, Sarah, who treats his injuries.

Memphis grows suspicious of the unusually rapid conclusions, exacerbated by the PPD officer's odd death off-duty during an alleged mugging, begins his own investigation and realizes that the assassination is actually conducted with a remotely controlled gun. Sarah and Swagger discreetly feed Memphis information, furthering his investigation until he catches Johnson's attention, who orders his men to kidnap and kill Memphis. Before they can stage Memphis' suicide, Swagger kills them, releases Memphis and requests his help bringing down Johnson. The two travel to Tennessee and meet with firearms expert Mr. Rate, who explains paper-patching can be used to confuse ballistic fingerprinting and deduces that the only other person alive capable of making such a long-range shot is the crippled Serbian sniper Mikhaylo Sczerbiak, whom Swagger has unawarely met when working for Johnson. Swagger concludes that he was used to conduct reconnaissance for the wheelchair-using Sczerbiak, who performed the actual assassination remotely. At the same time, Sarah's connection to Swagger is uncovered, and Payne abducts her via home invasion.

In Virginia, Swagger and Memphis infiltrate Sczerbiak's estate, who reveals Johnson works for incumbent U.S. Senator Charles Meachum on behalf of oil conglomerates exploiting developing nations for profit. In the earlier mission, Swagger and Fenn had unknowingly covered the private military contractors who massacred an entire village on the Eritrea–Ethiopia border to make way for pipelines, and were deliberately abandoned so they could be killed in action as part of the planned cover-up. Under Johnson's order, Sczerbiak assassinated Mutumbo, who was going to tell about the massacre during his speech, to prevent Johnson's crimes against humanity from being revealed to the public. Sczerbiak also informs Swagger about Sarah's abduction, and then commits suicide as mercenaries close in on the estate. With Sczerbiak's confession recorded, Swagger and Memphis shoot their way out and escapes to Montana, tips off the FBI, and arranges a private meeting with Meachum and Johnson.

Johnson, Meachum and Payne arrive at the meeting point on a snowy mountaintop, with Sarah held at gunpoint. With Memphis as a decoy, Swagger eliminates Johnson's counter-snipers and disarms Payne, whom Sarah kills shortly after. Meachum cryptically implies he is not the only politician who works for "the Haves" and arrogantly tells Swagger to give up. Deducing that the proof will get them murdered as witnesses, Swagger destroys the recording as the FBI arrives to arrest him.

Swagger requests a plea hearing with US Attorney General Russert. With Memphis's assistance, Swagger discloses that his unattended rifles, including the supposed murder weapon, have all had their firing pins replaced with slightly shorter ones, practically making them unusable dry-firing props. Johnson's men had stolen the rifle (unaware of Swagger's subtle temperings), retrieved a previous fired practice bullet and paper-patched it for the Mutumbo's assassination, as part of the setup to frame Swagger. Swagger's name is cleared, and Memphis also provides Russert with evidence cataloging Johnson's involvement in the village massacre and other crimes, but Johnson cannot be arrested since his crimes fall outside U.S. jurisdiction. Privately, Russert casually hints that extrajudicial measures may be necessary to address the corruption before ordering Swagger's release.

Boasting impunity at a private gathering, Meachum, Johnson and their associates discuss their next operation, but Swagger suddenly attacks the villa and kills them all. He ruptures the house's gas line, frames the dead Johnson as the assailant, and leaves just as the place is engulfed in a massive gas explosion. Swagger and Sarah then drive off together.

Cast

Weapons and tactics

Shooter depicts a number of sniper tactics, thanks to the guidance of former US Marine scout sniper Patrick Garrity, who trained Mark Wahlberg for the film. Garrity taught Wahlberg to shoot both left- and right-handed (the actor is left-handed), as he had to switch shooting posture throughout the movie, due to Swagger's sustained injuries. He was also trained to adjust a weapon's scope, judge effects of wind on a shot, do rapid bolt manipulation, and develop special breathing skills. His training included extreme distance shooting up to 1,100 yards (1,000 m), and the use of camouflage ghillie suits. Fuqua appointed Garrity as the film's military-technical advisor.[10]

In the special features of the DVD, Garrity is interviewed pointing out that the shot fired in the assassination would not have hit the archbishop straight on, as in the film. When a round is fired it will fall from 30 to 40 feet (9 to 10 m) depending on the distance of the shot. To compensate, the round is fired at an arc calibrated by how far the round is going to fall, the distance of the shot, temperature, humidity, and wind. In his interview, Garrity said "At 2 yards (1.8 m), because of the hydrostatic shock that follows a large-caliber, high-velocity round such as the .408 Chey Tac (which is used in the shot), the target would literally be peeled apart and limbs would be flying 200 feet (60 m) away." The exit wound on the archbishop's head would have been too extreme to show in movie theaters. Instead, the movie depicts a much less graphic representation of the assassination.

Throughout the film, Swagger uses an array of sniper rifles, including the USMC M40A3,[11] the CheyTac Intervention,[12] and the Barrett M82.

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Shooter_(2007_film)

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