Continuity mistake: When Tom Cruise first encounters Gene Hackman, Gene is nonchalantly leaning in a doorway with both hands in his pockets. In the next shot, Gene is holding a briefcase that wasn't there before. It's a good thing the briefcase arrived, since Gene makes mention of it immediately after. (00:17:00)
The Firm (1993)
Plot summary
Directed by: Sydney Pollack
Starring: Gene Hackman, Tom Cruise, Ed Harris, Hal Holbrook, Jeanne Tripplehorn
Harvard Law School grad, Mitch McDeere, is made an offer he can’t refuse. To recruit Mitch, a prestigious Memphis law firm dangles a lucrative salary, a Mercedes, and paying off his college loans as incentives. Haunted by his humble beginnings and a family secret, Mitch seizes the opportunity. His wife, Abby, is reluctant, however. Mitch soon discovers things seem a bit peculiar. The firm takes an abnormal interest in their employees’ private lives, and Mitch leans that no one ever quits. In fact, the only ones who left the firm died shortly after.
Mitch is contacted by an FBI agent who tells him that the majority of the firm’s clients are Mafia whose money is laundered into offshore accounts. New lawyers at the firm are unaware of the Mafia connection, but they are gradually coerced into the illegal activities and forced to stay. Anyone attempting to leave is murdered. The FBI wants Mitch’s help.
Mitch wants out, but he is being squeezed by the firm, who suspect he may know their secret, and also the FBI, who blackmail him for his assistance. Mitch is unknowingly tied to illegal activities at the firm, and the FBI threatens to have him disbarred if he doesn’t cooperate. To save his law career and escape the firm, Mitch agrees to help the FBI, but he insists that his brother, Ray, who was convicted on trumped-up charges, be released from prison.
Ray West
More mistakes in The Firm
McKnight: He lied about his brother.
Avery Tolar: Wouldn't you lie about having a felon in the family to get a job like this?
Bill DeVasher: He ought to be kept on a short leash.
Avery Tolar: Why? You've got nothing to be suspicious about.
Bill DeVasher: I get paid to be suspicious when I've got nothing to be suspicious about.
Trivia: Holly Hunter's role is one of the shortest Oscar nominated performances. She only appears on screen for about six minutes total.
Question: Every time I watch this movie I wonder what happened to the beer that Tom spilled while discovering the boxes of files in the Grand Caymen condo?
Answer: I've wondered about that, too. Avery appears to have somehow overlooked it, though it was in a highly visible and in a sensitive place (the locked closet). He probably returned late that night, and by the next day, the maid could have cleaned most of it up before he noticed anything. Also, on that particular trip, Avery may have had no reason to look inside the locked closet, so he would not have seen the broken glass. The spilled liquid outside the door would have dried quickly.
raywest ★