Other mistake: At the end of the film, Dean can see himself in his TV. He looks up to the fire alerter, assuming the camera filming him is up there. The film camera then also pans up to the fire alerter, indicating the camera is there, too. For this angle, the picture in the TV is wrong, as it is taken from the point of view of the TV.
Enemy of the State (1998)
Plot summary
Directed by: Tony Scott
Starring: Gene Hackman, Will Smith, Jon Voight, Lisa Bonet
Robert Clayton Dean (Will Smith) is a lawyer with a wife and family whose happily normal life is turned upside down after a chance meeting with a college buddy (Jason Lee) at a lingerie shop. Unbeknownst to the lawyer, he's just been burdened with a videotape of a congressman's assassination. Hot on the tail of this tape is a ruthless group of National Security Agents commanded by a belligerently ambitious fed named Reynolds (Jon Voight). Using surveillance from satellites, bugs, and other sophisticated snooping devices, the NSA infiltrates every facet of Dean's existence, tracing each physical and digital footprint he leaves. Driven by acute paranoia, Dean enlists the help of a clandestine former NSA operative named Brill (Gene Hackman), and Enemy of the State kicks into high-intensity hyperdrive.
Teaming up once again with producer Jerry Bruckheimer, Top Gun director Tony Scott demonstrates his glossy style with clever cinematography and breakneck pacing. Will Smith proves that there's more to his success than a brash sense of humor, giving a versatile performance that plausibly illustrates a man cracking under the strain of paranoid turmoil. Hackman steals the show by essentially reprising his role from The Conversation--just imagine his memorable character Harry Caul some 20 years later. Most of all, the film's depiction of high-tech surveillance is highly convincing and dramatically compelling, making this a cautionary tale with more substance than you'd normally expect from a Scott-Bruckheimer action extravaganza.
Adrian
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Suggested correction: Dean is only assuming the camera is in the smoke detector since that's one of the places he and Brill hid the other cameras. The shot of the smoke detector is just to show the audience what Dean is looking at, even though his guess is wrong.
Brill: You're transmitting. Get rid of your watch.
Robert Clayton Dean: My wife gave me this watch.
Brill: Then keep it.
Trivia: During the brief occasional shots of the satellite you can hear Morse code. The code translates as CQ, which is amateur radio speak for 'is anybody there?' - hardly spy stuff.
Question: Why does Thomas Reynolds want the telecommunications security and privacy act to be passed into law so bad that he has a congressman killed? To advance his career?
Answer: Yes, and to increase the importance of his agency.
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