The Edge

Director: Lee Tamahori Lee Tamahori

Overview

Billionaire Charles Morse (Anthony Hopkins) accompanies his much-younger wife Mickey (Elle Macpherson) and a fashion photography team headed by Bob Green (Alec Baldwin) to a remote lodge in Alaska. Charles is a quiet, introspective man, fond of accumulating trivia and other facts in his encyclopedic mind; he is also troubled with the idea that Bob and Mickey may be lovers. Even though he suspects the younger man plans to kill him, Charles goes with Bob and his assistant Stephen (Harold Perrineau) on an airplane trip to find a photogenic friend (Gordon Tootoosis) of the lodge owner (L.Q. Jones), but the plane crashes in a lake, killing the pilot. The crash is miles from their planned path, so they can't expect to be spotted by an aerial search; there's only one chance: they have to walk to a more likely spot.Though Robert and Stephan are more physically fit, Charles' calm wit and ingenuity proves the key to their survival, especially after a ferocious bear brutally kills Stephen. Robert and Charles' odyssey becomes more urgent when they discover that the bear is now stalking them.

Product Details

Release Date:	06/04/2002
UPC:	0024543050308
Original Release:	1997
Rating:	R
Source:	20Th Century Fox
Language:	English
Time:	1:57:00
Sales rank:	13,443

Cast & Crew

Performance Credits

Anthony Hopkins	Charles Morse
Alec Baldwin	Robert Green
Elle Macpherson	Mickey Morse
Harold Perrineau	Stephen
L.Q. Jones	Styles
Kathleen Wilhoite	Ginny
David Lindstedt	James
Mark Kiely	Mechanic
Gordon Tootoosis	Jack Hawk
Eli Gabay	Jet Pilot
Larry Musser	Amphibian Pilot
Brian Arnold	Reporter
Kelsa Kinsly	Reporter
Bob Boyd	Reporter
Brian Steele	Bear Double
Bart the Bear	the bear
Jerry Goldsmith	Composer

Technical Credits

David Mamet

Lee Tamahori	Director
David Mamet	Screenwriter
Art Linson	Producer
Kent Houston	Special Effects
Donna Isaacson	Casting
Lloyd Phillips	Executive Producer
Betty Thomas	Stunts
Mike Vezina	Special Effects
Andrea Adams	Special Effects
Paul Apted	Sound Effects
David A. Arnold	Sound Effects
James Ashwill	Sound Effects
Eric Batut	Sound Effects,Sound/Sound Designer
Bill W. Benton	Sound Effects

Editorial Reviews

A visceral thriller set in the rugged Alaskan wilderness, The Edge augments its man-against-nature theme with complications deriving from human fear and treachery. Things get off to a shaky start when middle-aged billionaire Charles Morse (Anthony Hopkins) accompanies his supermodel trophy wife, Mickey (Elle Macpherson), on a shoot staged by smug photographer Robert Green (Alec Baldwin) and his weak-willed assistant, Steven (Harold Perrineau). When their sightseeing trip ends with a plane crash in a dense, remote forest, the three men are forced to rely on each other while finding their way back to civilization -- but distrust rears its ugly head and eventually pits moneybags against shutterbugs. As the bookish intellectual whose superior knowledge makes him a formidable survivalist, Hopkins is perfectly cast and extremely effective. Baldwin, likewise, is well suited to the role of the arrogant photographer. David Mamet’s script isn’t very strong on character motivation, and some of the situations strain credulity, but Mamet’s dialogue is characteristically terse and biting. The muscular direction of Lee Tamahori (Along Came a Spider) keeps things moving at a slam-bang pace and wrings every drop of suspense from the characters’ predicaments -- especially their pursuit by a huge, incensed Kodiak bear. The Edge is well titled: That’s the part of the chair on which you’ll be perched for the duration of this unbearably tense flick.

Barnes & Noble - Ed Hulse

This underrated adventure-thriller is intriguing, entertaining, and features gorgeous panoramic views of its wilderness locations. Combining a tight script by Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright and Oscar-nominated screenwriter David Mamet with the skillful direction of Lee Tamahori, the pacing is on target, the conflicts are provocatively foreshadowed, and the lead characters are realistically flawed, fully fleshed-out human beings. Anthony Hopkins brilliantly portrays an intellectual billionaire juxtaposed to Alec Baldwin's vulnerable performance as a shallow fashion photographer. Mamet's exploration of the moral psychology and mind games between the leads, as well as the sheer physiology of man versus nature, grows delightfully complicated when the men develop a love/hate relationship dependent upon their short-term needs for survival, their fight against a man-eating bear (ferociously played by Bart the Bear), and their desire for the same woman. The story line has its flaws - notably the confusing back story of Baldwin's affair with Hopkins' wife (a supermodel adequately played by Elle Macpherson), and the lack of a satisfying denouement. As photographed by veteran cinematographer Donald McAlpine, The Edge makes full use of the Alaskan setting (actually filmed in Canada) for its majestic and mountainous grandeur, but it's the action scenes and believable intensity between Hopkins and the bear that will put viewers on the edges of their seats.

All Movie Guide

The Edge is like a wilderness adventure movie written by David Mamet, which is not surprising, since it was written by Mamet. It's subtly funny in the way it toys with the cliches of the genre.

Chicago Sun-Times - Roger Ebert