Proof of Life

Plot

Alice Bowman (Meg Ryan) moves to the (fictional) South American country of Tecala because her engineer husband, Peter Bowman (David Morse), has been hired to help build a new dam for oil company Quad Carbon. Though Alice is unhappy at this most recent move, she agrees to stay. While driving one morning through the city, Peter is caught in traffic and then ambushed and abducted by guerrilla rebels of the Liberation Army of Tecala (ELT). Believing that Peter is working on Quad Carbon's oil pipeline, ELT soldiers lead him through the jungle.

Terry Thorne (Russell Crowe), a former member of the British Special Air Service, arrives in Tecala fresh from a successful hostage rescue in Chechnya. As an expert negotiator in kidnapping-and-ransom cases, he is assigned by his company, Luthan Risk, to bargain for Peter's safe return. Unfortunately, it is learned that Quad Carbon is on the verge of bankruptcy and takeover, and therefore has no insurance coverage for kidnapping, so they cannot afford Thorne's services. Despite Alice's pleas to stay, Thorne leaves the country. Alice is then assigned a corrupt local hostage negotiator, who immediately urges her to pay the ELT's first ransom demand: a $50,000 "good faith" payment. Not knowing what to do, Alice agrees, but the transaction is stopped by Thorne who (due to his conscience) has returned to help. He is aided by Dino (David Caruso), a competing negotiator and ex–Green Beret. Over the next few months, Thorne uses a radio to speak with an ELT contact, and the two argue over terms for Peter's release—including a ransom payment that Alice can afford. Thorne and Alice bond through the ordeal, forming an implicit attraction. They eventually negotiate a sum of $650,000.

Meanwhile, Peter has become a prisoner at the ELT's jungle base camp. There, he befriends another hostage named Kessler (Gottfried John)—a missionary and former member of the French Foreign Legion—who has lived in the camp for nineteen months. The two concoct an escape plan, but during their attempt they are quickly tracked by the ELT. Kessler falls into a river after being shot in the shoulder and manages to escape, but Peter steps on a trap and is recaptured. Kessler is found and hospitalized. In the hospital he claims he heard a gunshot at the time Peter was recaptured, and thus believes he is dead. Thorne can not believe this, but his ELT contact refuses to respond to his calls. Luckily, one of Alice's young maids recognized his voice over the radio and reveals he is a government official. Thorne goes to a parade ceremony and confronts the contact; he confirms that Peter is indeed alive, but because of the ELT's escalating war with the government and Peter's knowledge of the terrain, the ELT will no longer negotiate.

At Thorne's urging Alice convinces the Tecala government that the ELT is mounting an attack on the pipeline being built through their territory. This forces the government army to mobilize, thus forcing a bulk of the camp's ELT troops to mobilize for a counter-attack. Thorne, Dino, and several associates are then inserted by helicopter and raid the weakened ELT base. They overcome the camp's soldiers, free Peter and another hostage, and then fly back to the city, where Alice happily reunites with her husband. Thorne and Alice share a final intimate moment before the latter departs with Peter on an immediate flight to the U.S.

Background

Although the producers wanted to film in Colombia, due to the dangers that guerrillas posed in that country at the time, the movie was mainly filmed in Ecuador. The large piles of money used to pay for the rescue were sucres, the Ecuadorian national currency at the time of the filming. Tecala's geographic and urban appearance and its political characteristics were based loosely on a mix of several Andean countries.

The ELT's characterization appears to be primarily based on the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC). Coincidentally, Colombia's second largest guerrilla group is the Ejército de Liberación Nacional or ELN.

Control Risks, a risk consulting firm, was hired to provide security for the cast and crew while filming on location. The firm also served as inspiration for kidnap and ransom consulting seen in the film.

The movie end credit and post-script says: "Inspired by the VANITY FAIR article 'Adventures in the Ransom Trade' by William Prochnau and by the book Long March to Freedom by Thomas Hargrove.

Tecala

The Republic of Tecala, where most of Proof of Life is set, is a fictional South American country. Tecala has long been the scene of an internal conflict between its government forces and the Liberation Army of Tecala (ELT). The ELT was originally a Marxist guerrilla group supported by the Soviet Union, but after the Soviet Union's dissolution in 1991, the ELT's primary source of funding fell through, and they began kidnapping people for ransom to fund their operations. A map seen in the film is that of Ecuador. The country's capital Quito was chosen along with the eastern jungle and the nearby city of Baños de Agua Santa in the Ecuadorian Andes.

Release

The film opened in wide release in the United States on December 8, 2000 for 2,705 screens. The opening weekend's gross was $10,207,869 and the total receipts for the U.S. run were $32,598,931. The international box-office receipts were $30,162,074, for total receipts of $62,761,005. The film was in wide release in the U.S. for twelve weeks (eighty days). In its widest release, the film was featured in 2,705 theaters across the country.

Critical response

Stephen Holden, film critic for The New York Times, did not think the film worked well and opined that the actors did not connect. He wrote, "[the film displays] a gaping lack of emotional connection among the characters in a romantic triangle that feels conspicuously unromantic... what ultimately sinks this stylish but heartless film is a flat lead performance by the eternally snippy Meg Ryan... Ms. Ryan expresses no inner conflict, nor much of anything else beyond a mounting tension. Even when her wide blue eyes well up with tears, the pain she conveys is more the frustration of a little girl who has misplaced her doll than any deep, empathetic suffering."

Critic David Ansen gave the film a mixed review, writing,

Taylor Hackford's thriller Proof of Life leaves a lot to be desired, but it's got its hands on a fascinating subject...To be fair, Tony Gilroy's screenplay keeps the romance on the back burner...Thorne is the most compelling aspect of Proof of Life, thanks to Crowe's quiet, hard-bitten charisma. It's a part Bogart once would have played—the amoral tough guy who rises to the moral occasion—and Crowe gives it just the right note of gravel-voiced masculinity. But neither Crowe, Ryan nor the topical subject keeps Proof of Life from feeling recycled. For all the up-to-the-minute research, the movie still gives off the musty scent of Hollywood contrivance.

Review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes gives the film an approval rating of 40% based on 115 reviews; the average rating is 5.3/10. The consensus is: "Despite its promising premise and superstar cast, Proof of Life is just a routine thriller that doesn't offer anything new."

Awards

The film was nominated for four Blockbuster Entertainment Awards; Favorite Actor – Suspense, Favorite Actress - Suspense, Favorite Supporting Actress – Suspense and Favorite Supporting Actress – Suspense. Danny Elfman was also nominated for a Satellite Award for Best Original Score at the 5th Golden Satellite Awards, but lost out to Gladiator (Hans Zimmer).