Bastille Day (film)

Bastille Day
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	James Watkins
Produced by	Bard Dorros Fabrice Gianfermi Steve Golin David Kanter Philippe Rousselet
Written by	Andrew Baldwin James Watkins
Starring	Idris Elba Richard Madden Charlotte Le Bon Eriq Ebouaney José Garcia
Music by	Alex Heffes
Cinematography	Tim Maurice-Jones
Edited by	Jon Harris
Production company	Anonymous Content Vendôme Pictures StudioCanal TF1 Films Production
Distributed by	StudioCanal (France, Luxembourg)[1] High Top Releasing (United States)
Release dates	22 April 2016 (2016-04-22) (United Kingdom) 13 July 2016 (2016-07-13) (France) 18 November 2016 (2016-11-18) (United States)
Running time	92 minutes[1]
Country	Luxembourg France United States
Language	English
Box office	$14.3 million[2]

Bastille Day (released as The Take in North America and on international home release) is a 2016 action film directed and co-written by James Watkins. It is a Luxembourgian, French and American venture^[3] produced by Anonymous Content, Vendôme Pictures, TF1 Films Production and StudioCanal. The film stars Idris Elba, Richard Madden, Charlotte Le Bon, Eriq Ebouaney and José Garcia. The film was released in the United Kingdom on 22 April 2016 and 13 July 2016 in France, and is scheduled for release in the United States on 18 November 2016.

Plot

On the eve of Bastille Day in Paris, an American conman Michael Mason, steals a woman's handbag with a teddy bear inside, unaware that the teddy bear is rigged with explosives. After disposing of the handbag, it explodes, killing four people. The bomb was intended to go off in an empty office block but it fails due to the presence of the employees. Mason is subsequently tagged as the terrorist by the French authorities as well as the CIA surveillance in Paris.

Learning of Mason's whereabouts, CIA agent Sean Briar goes to pursue Mason and a chase ensues around his apartment. Briar eventually captures Mason and heads to the secret interrogation room. Mason explains that he didn't know that the bag he stole contained a bomb, and that he got the name of a woman named Zoe through the call log of the phone that Zoe had left in the bag. Meanwhile, Zoe, with the help of the man whom she knew as Jean, blames herself for the deaths of the four people. The explosion was actually set up by a group of mercenaries led by Rafi Bernard, who told them to plant the bomb at the office. Upon learning from the man who blew the bomb, Jean allows Zoe to escape, realizing that the group will come to kill her. The group tracks the location of Zoe's phone. Briar engage a fight with the group members, and they subdue Briar, while Mason escapes. Rafi and the group set up another attack by planting the evidence of the bomb at the mosque. They discuss that if the group follows the plan and spread the chaos, they will have a half-billion dollar transfer from a bank into their encrypted drive. French Interior Minister Victor Gamieux reveals himself as the leader of the mercenary group. Thus, making the people in the mosque falsely accused for being the bombers.

After being chased by the authorities and Rafi's forces, Mason is picked by Briar and heads to the safe house of Zoe's friend named Paul and his group of men, moments after Zoe arrives. Upon interrogating about Zoe's whereabouts, Zoe and her friends escape and burn their car. Mason and Briar are forced to steal someone's car and heads to the bar where Paul is working. Mason successfully got the ID card of Paul after he staged a brawl in the bar. The ID card contains the address of Zoe. Mason and Briar heads to the apartment where Zoe lives. Upon entering the room, Zoe breaks out and takes Mason hostage with aiming her knife onto his neck. Briar then interrogates Zoe where the bomb occurs next, and ask who made that bomb. Zoe tells him that man she knew is Jean, who is having a relationship with her, and discloses his address. While the three heading to Jean's, they are being ambushed by Rafi and his henchman but manage to escape. Upon arriving, they discover that Jean was hanged to death by someone. Zoe is shocked to see this while Briar discovers his ID showing that Jean is actually the police undercover Fibbert Pascal. Briar then calls his fellow CIA officer Karen Dacre, telling her that someone set up the riots in the city and asking her to send someone to pick the three up.

Karen meets Victor Gamieux - her primary contact back in Libya, discussing that the attack in the mosque was a set-up. Learning that Karen has the witness, Gamieux kills Karen by shooting her at point blank range and he calls Rafi to pick them up. As they are picked up, Zoe realizes that one of the two inside the van is one of Rafi's henchmen. When they are about to kill them, they engage a fight between the three and the henchmen and manage to kill all of them in the van. Meanwhile, Rafi's forces are planning to attack the bank. Mason, Briar and Zoe head to the bank. Briar realizes that Gamieux killed Karen and discovers his corrupt plans. As the three arrive at the bank with the number of protestors gathered at the front of bank, Briar poses as a cop in order to infiltrate the bank while Mason and Zoe stay. Inside the vault, Rafi makes a transfer of $500 million onto the hard drive. Briar exchanges gunfire with the henchmen. When Mason and Zoe realize that Briar is being overwhelmed, they get out of the van and run through the policemen along with the protestors, making Briar to infiltrate the vault.

At the vault, Briar engages a gunfight with Rafi and the henchman, killing the henchman but Rafi manages to escape. Learning that his men are overwhelmed, Gamieux calls Rafi to abort the transfer but he refuses. Gamieux tells him he would not help him anymore and Rafi threatens to take down on him for the attack that they made if Rafi is apprehended. When Rafi gets out of the vault, Mason stealthily takes his hard drive upon Briar's orders. Rafi then takes Zoe as hostage and threatens to kill her and Mason if he did not give his hard drive. When Rafi is about to shoot Mason, Briar tackles Mason out but, upon Gamieux orders, the policemen opens fire to Rafi killing him. While Briar is recovering from his gunshot wounds, Mason escapes.

Some time later, Mason meets Gamieux at the church, asking for the passport, plane tickets for Brazil and $100,000 cash in exchange for the hard drive. After Mason handed the hard drive onto Gamieux, they headed to the tunnel where the supposed $100,000 cash would be. As they got into, Gamieux aims his gun at Mason but Briar arrives, aiming his gun at Gamieux too, then he shoots Mason. The other authorities arrive and arrest Gamieux, and Mason reveals that he is wearing a bulletproof vest and the hard drive that he gave to him is fake. He then hands over the real hard drive to Briar. Clearing his name, Briar tells Mason that he got a job.

Cast

• Idris Elba as Sean Briar
• Richard Madden as Michael Mason
• Charlotte Le Bon as Zoe Neville
• Kelly Reilly as Karen Dacre
• José Garcia as Victor Gamieux
• Anatol Yusef as Tom Luddy
• Eriq Ebouaney as Baba

Production

On 11 November 2013, Idris Elba joined the cast of the film.^[4] On 2 October 2014, Richard Madden joined the cast.^[5] On 18 May 2014, Focus Features acquired the rights to distribute the film in North America.^[6] Principal photography began on 13 October 2014 in Paris, and ended on 17 December 2014.^[7][8]

Release

The film was scheduled to be released on 19 February 2016 in the United Kingdom. However, following the terrorist attacks in Paris in November 2015, the film was delayed.^[9] Bastille Day was released simultaneously in the United Kingdom, Ireland and Sweden on 22 April 2016. In France, the film was released on 13 July 2016 to coincide with the dates in the story. Following the 2016 Nice attack, Studiocanal pulled the film from theatres on 17 July 2016, citing it as a "sign of respect for the victims and their families."^[10][11]

Reception

Bastille Day received mixed reviews from critics. On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has a rating of 45%, based on 64 reviews, with a rating of 5.2/10.^[12] On Metacritic, the film has a score of 49 out of 100, based on 8 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".^[13]

References

External links

• Official website  United States
• Bastille Day at the Internet Movie Database