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The Assignment

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Christian Duguay

Aidan Quinn

Lt. Cmdr. Annibal Ramirez

Donald Sutherland

Ben Kingsley

Claudia Ferri

Maura Ramirez

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The Assignment (1997)

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Produced by, the assignment (1997), directed by christian duguay.

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Synopsis by Mark Deming

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The assignment.

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Jack Shaw (Donald Sutherland) has experienced the terror first-hand. He's a top CIA agent who's tracked international killer-for-hire Carlos "The Jackal" Sanchez for over twenty years and barely survived Carlos' devastating bombing of a Parisian cafe. Now, he finally gets a break when he discovers Carlos' dead ringer: American naval officer and dedicated family man Annibal Ramirez (Aidan Quinn). With the aid of his Israeli Intelligence counterpart, Amos (Ben Kingsley), Jack trains Annibal to impersonate Carlos through a series of harrowing physical and psychological exercises and draw the real killer out of hiding and into an elaborate trap.

© 1997 Allegro Film Productions V Inc. All Rights Reserved.

© 2024 Sony Pictures Digital Productions Inc.   All rights reserved

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Tv/streaming, collections, great movies, chaz's journal, contributors, the assignment.

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"The Assignment'' is a canny, tricky thriller that could serve as an illustration of what this week's similar release, "The Peacemaker,'' is not. Both films involve an international hunt for a dangerous terrorist, but "The Peacemaker'' is a cartoon and "The Assignment'' is intelligent and gripping--and it has a third act! Instead of an action orgy, it has more than enough story to see it through to the end and keep us absorbed the whole way. Yes, it ends with a deadly struggle, but as the setting for another stage of the movie's web of deceit.

The film is centered on a CIA plot to discredit and kill Carlos, the feared terrorist who operated for years, despite the best efforts of the free world's security agencies to capture him. Donald Sutherland plays Fields, the CIA agent for whom Carlos has become an obsession, and when he finds a U.S. Navy officer named Ramirez ( Aidan Quinn ) who's a dead-ringer for the terrorist, he devises a risky scheme: He'll train Ramirez to impersonate Carlos, then use the double to convince the KGB that their attack dog is disloyal. As a result, Carlos will either be dead or, almost as good, discredited in the eyes of his sponsors.

Fields works with an Israeli named Amos ( Ben Kingsley ) in training Ramirez, after first using psychological tactics to persuade the reluctant Navy man to leave his wife and family and become a counter-terrorist. (The scene where Fields shows Ramirez a dying child in a hospital is a direct echo of " The Third Man ".) Then the false Carlos, is sent into the field to work the deception, which I will not describe.

"The Assignment'' is fascinating because its characters can be believed, because there is at least a tiny nugget of truth in the story, and because from the deceptive opening credits, this is a film that creates the right world for these characters to inhabit. Sutherland's CIA man is especially well drawn: "I don't have any family,'' he says, "and I don't have any friends. The only people I've ever cared about were the ones I've killed.'' Quinn plays a dual role, as Ramirez and Carlos, and has some tricky scenes, especially one in which a former lover of Carlos helps train him sexually so that he will be a convincing bedmate for another of the terrorist's lovers.

The screenplay, by Dan Gordon and Sabi H. Shabtai , has action scenes that grow from the story and are not simply set pieces for their own sake. It's impressive the way so many different story threads come together all at once near the end.

The director, Christian Duguay , is new to me. What he has is a tactile love of film, of images. He and the cinematographer, David Franco, don't use locations so much as occupy them; we visit Jerusalem, Paris, Vienna, Washington, Tripoli and Moscow (or sets and effects that look like them) and yet the movie's not a travelogue but a story hurtling ahead.

I have seen so many lazy thrillers. They share the same characteristics: Most of the scenes involve the overpriced star, the villain is underwritten, and the plot is merely a set-up for the special effects, the chases and the final action climax. "The Assignment'' gives us ensemble work by fine actors, it has a villain of great complexity (developed through the process of imitating him), and at the end there is a tantalizing situation for us to unravel as we leave the theater.

Roger Ebert

Roger Ebert was the film critic of the Chicago Sun-Times from 1967 until his death in 2013. In 1975, he won the Pulitzer Prize for distinguished criticism.

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Film credits.

The Assignment (1997)

Rated R For Strong Violence, Sexuality and Language

115 minutes

Claudia Ferri as Maura Ramirez

Aidan Quinn as Annibal Ramirez/Carlos

Ben Kingsley as Amos

Celine Bonnier as Carla

Directed by

• Christian Duguay
• Sabi H. Shabtai

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The Assignment

Film details, brief synopsis, cast & crew, christian duguay, aidan quinn, donald sutherland, ben kingsley, claudia ferri, celine bonnier, technical specs.

Cuban-American navel officer Annibal Ramirez is a dead ringer for Carlos "The Jackal" Sanchez. His features are so close to those of Sanchez that he is brutally interrogated as a terrorist while on vacation in Israel. American counter-intellegence agent Jack Shaw and his Israeli counterpart Amos realize they can use Ramirez as bait for "The Jackal." Wanting to serve his country, Ramirez is unsure he can survive the physical and psychological trials he must endure to become like Sanchez. By the end of the training, however, Ramirez knows Sanchez better than anyone alive and enters the world as "The Jackal."

Vlasta Vrana

Liliana komorowska, mitchell david rothpan, gregory hlady, gabriel marian oseciuc, frederic desager, kliment denchev, yonathan gordon, ndiouga sarr, manuel aranguiz, leni parker, jacques lavallée, david francis, daniel pilon, richard jutras, hisham zayed, ted whittall, francis del vecchio, lisa wegner, lucie laurier, neil kroetsch, matthew dupuis, paul stewart, claude genest, michael caloz, david franco, heinz becker, louis bouchard, mark knoeffel, andres lange, martin morf, marcello adatto, benoit alarie, francois allard, pierre allard, alec anderson, michael annett, georges archambault, itzik ben aroya, henri aubertin, jean-paul auclair, nancy auclair, cheryl bainum, mihaly balasko, sandor balo, gyula balogh, itzhak bareli, krisztina barkoczky, franco battista, marc h beaulieu, louise bedard, benoit begin, marc bélanger, novek belanger, richard belanger, caroline beliveau, jocelyne bellemare, christian bergeron, sylvain bergevin, josee bernard, jacques f bernier, michel bernier, mickey binyamini, brian black, andras bogdan, jean boivin, michel bolduc, michel b bordeleau, philippe bosse, diane boucher, virginie boudreau, claude boulet, mary bradley, anderson chet bradshaw, cecile braemer, karoly braunner, michel brohez, michel brouillette, joseph lang browns, joseanne brunelle, frances calder, andrew d campbell, jean-francois campeau, helene canse, alain caporicci, johanne caporicci, annie carignan, claudine carpentier, tim j carroll, denis caspar, yves castonguay, jason cavalier, michel cerro, guylaine chagnon, stephane charron, jean chasse, jozsef cirko, steve clark, steven clark, alain clouatre, guy cloutier, gary coates, joseph n cohen, didier communaux, stephane connolly, sam coppola, normand corbeil, ryal cosgrove, francis covan, mike cozons, donna croce, gabor csakovics, zsolt csutak, denise d'amours, francois daignault, louis dandonneau, gary daprato, james darling, luc deguise, jean-yves denis, louise deschenes, marc desourdy, melina dicristo, robert ditchburn, kristen dolenko, jacques dorion, marion doucet, pascal dufaux, gina duhamel, paul dupont, yanick dusseault, john dykstra, bram eisenthal, shimon elimelech, zsolt feher, attila feherhegyi, bruno ferland, deak ferrand, natalie fleurant, raoul fortin, martin fournier, charlene francique, sassi franco, monika frankl, mario fraser, rene frechette, michel frenette, zoltan fulop, yiftach gabai, daniel gagnon, francine gagnon, sylvie gagnon, paul-emile gallant, gilbert garcia, jean-francois garcia, patrick garcia, benoit gauthier, francois gauthier, michel gauvin, sebastien gervais, nimi getter, michel ghorayeb, michel ghoyareb, stephen gilbert, natalie ginat, suzanne gingras, manon girard, moshe gissis, johnny goar, shai goldenberg, francois gosselin, melany goudreau, anne grandbois, jennifer-lys grenier, naama halperin, johnny harkala, avidan hatuka, terry hawkins, claude hazanavicius, simon hebert, r j henning, roger hewett, mark hoffman, julie houle, monika hufnagel, daniel huysman, france hyman, silvi imbeault, yehuda sar israel, pierric jouvante, michael joy, daniel juneau, boaz katzenelson, nick kerridge, shabtai kimhi, yaacov kimmelfeld, bobe kiraly, attila kiss, pini klavir, michael konydes, daria korolus, agota kovacs, balazs kovacs, gabor kovacs, tamas krausz, yohannan kredo, maurice krouche, brigitte labelle, helene lafrance, eric lafrance st-pierre, stephen laidlaw, miscellaneous notes.

Released in United States Fall September 26, 1997

Limited Release in United States September 26, 1997

Released in United States on Video March 17, 1998

Based upon a true story.

Completed shooting June 27, 1996.

Began shooting February 11, 1996.

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The Assignment (1997)

Genre: crime / thriller, duration: 114 minuten, country: canada, directed by: christian duguay, stars: aidan quinn , donald sutherland and ben kingsley, imdb score: 6,8  (9.970), releasedate: 28 september 1997.

The Assignment plot

An American naval officer is hired by the government to pass as the world's most notorious terrorist. In this way he must try to catch him. But is everything as it seems?

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Annibal Ramirez / Carlos

Jack Shaw / Henry Fields

Maura Ramirez

KGB Head Officer

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• 11638 messages

Was een leuke film. Met een geschiedenis over een terrorist. Die Aidan Quinn acteerde prima als Annibal maar niet als Carlos. Mooie locaties ook. 4,5

Was a fun movie. With a history about a terrorist.

That Aidan Quinn acted fine as Annibal but not as Carlos.

Nice locations too.

• 9621 messages

We beginnen met een terroristische aanslag met een handgranaat (!), waardoor de hele voorkant van een pitoresk Frans café'tje eruit wordt geblazen. Een opvallende start waar ik al zo mijn twijfels bij had. Als vervolgens een zelfde soort granaat bij een politieke bijeenkomst niet meer dan een flinke stofwolk oplevert had ik het eigenlijk al gehad, en had ik al zo'n vermoeden waar ik aan begonnen was.. Dit werd bevestigd door een standaard-achtervolging in smalle steegjes. In de loop van de film bleek ook niets erop te wijzen dat er ooit een motief voor de terrorist 'Carlos' gegeven zal worden. Mjaaa toch wel, hij is gewoon in en in slecht. Een verschrikkelijk simplistisch gegeven.. Nadat de film wat voortkabbelde met een Spartaanse training , leek hij toch weer wat te verbeteren. Het gegeven van een dubbelganger is best intressant wat mij betreft, en dat blijkt ook wat intressante situaties op te leveren. Desalniettemin bevestigt de film aan het einde al wat ik bij de start vermoedde, met het vreselijk makkelijke en voorspelbare slot, en dan met name het neerschieten van de verkeerde 'Carlos' . Verder dan 2* wil ik dan ook niet gaan.

We start with a terrorist attack with a hand grenade (!), which blows out the entire front of a picturesque French cafe. A striking start that I already had my doubts about. If the same kind of grenade subsequently produces no more than a large cloud of dust at a political meeting, I would have had it already, and I already had such a suspicion what I had started .. This was confirmed by a standard chase in narrow alleys. In the course of the film nothing appeared to indicate that a motive for the terrorist 'Carlos' will ever be given. Well, he's just in and in bad. A terribly simplistic fact.. After the film dragged on with some Spartan training , it seemed to improve again. The fact of a doppelganger is quite interesting as far as I'm concerned, and that also turns out to lead to some interesting situations. Nevertheless, at the end the film confirms everything I suspected at the start, with the terribly easy and predictable ending, especially the shooting of the wrong 'Carlos' . I don't want to go further than 2*.

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Rotten Tomatoes® Score

In its low-rent way, it aims for every frisson, reversal and shock-tactic -- and mostly succeeds.

Like for most action pics, character development is the first casualty.

Stylish spy flick with a surprisingly good cast.

A non-formula spy thriller without the glitz and romanticism usually associated with this genre.

If there's a small saving grace to this crude thriller, it is the work of Montreal-born director Christian Duguay, who shows flashes of real flare.

The plot raises the keenly important question of whether professionals who fight evil may be corrupted by the ruthless means they employ; but the movie takes too much pleasure in sensationalistic digressions to explore this issue very thoroughly.

Quinn is excellent in the dual roles of Jackal and Ramirez.

Additional Info

• Genre : Thriller, Action
• Release Date : September 26, 1997
• Languages : English
• Captions : English, Spanish
• Audio Format : 5.1

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The Assignment

Jack Shaw has experienced the terror first-hand.

The Assignment (1997) - Full Cast & Crew

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Jack Shaw has experienced the terror first-hand. He's a top CIA agent who's tracked international killer-for-hire Carlos "The Jackal" Sanchez for over twenty years and barely survived Carlos' devastating bombing of a Parisian cafe. Now, he finally gets a break when he discovers Carlos' dead ringer: American naval officer and dedicated family man Annibal Ramirez.

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The True Story Behind Under the Bridge : What Happened to Reena Virk?

Reena Virk was 14 when she disappeared in 1997

Jessica Sager is a contributing writer at PEOPLE. She has been working at PEOPLE since 2023. Her work has previously appeared in Parade, The New York Post, Seventeen, PopCrush and more.

Bettina Strauss/Hulu

The Hulu limited series Under the Bridge , starring Oscar nominee Lily Gladstone and Riley Keough , examines what happened to Reena Virk.

The true story behind the drama sent shockwaves throughout Canada and inspired the 2005 book by Rebecca Godfrey, which the show is based on. Reena was 14 years old when a group of her peers, nicknamed the "Shoreline Six," invited her to a party under a bridge in Saanich, a suburb of Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, in November 1997.

During the get-together, the group beat her severely — and after she tried escaping, two of them followed and killed her. Over the next week, details of that Friday night began to emerge, and the information stunned authorities as they tried to understand what had taken place.

"Every time new information came to light, it opened your eyes a little wider and it was shocking," retired Victoria Police Sgt. Rob Dibden told the Vancouver Sun . "Even as police officers, I think most of us were taken aback by the savagery of it and the absolute senselessness of it."

Read about the true story behind Under the Bridge and what happened to Reena Virk — and her killers — in real life.

Who was Reena Virk?

Darko Sikman/Hulu

Reena Virk was 14 years old when she went missing from Saanich on Vancouver Island in British Columbia.

She had a troubled relationship with her parents and lived in a foster home at the time, according to Real Crime . Reena's father, Manjit Virk, emigrated to Canada from India. The family were Jehovah's Witnesses, the way Reena's mother, Suman, was raised, making them a minority in their neighborhood, which consisted of mostly Sikh Indian Canadians.

In an article written for Vice in 2017, Godfrey details that Reena, a fan of East Coast hip-hop and blue nail polish, rebelled against her parents frequently. She'd run away from home more than once and reportedly falsely accused Manjit of sexual abuse so she could stay at a group home, per CBC News . Reena later recanted the statement, and the teenager kept in touch with them.

Why was Reena Virk bullied?

Scott Green, a constable of the Saanich Police, said on Real Crime that Reena tried hard to fit in and was sometimes accused of lying about her parents and her life to peers.

According to the Associated Press (via The New York Times ), at least one person accused Reena of spreading rumors about one of the girls who bullied her.

Those rumors were detailed further in Under the Bridge , which alleged that Reena stole a phonebook from Nicole Cook and called her friends, telling them that Cook had fake breasts, wore colored contact lenses and had AIDS. In MSNBC News' special, Bloodlust Under the Bridge , Cook said she believed Reena was jealous of her.

The Globe and Mail reported that Reena was also rumored to be involved with one of the girls' boyfriends. In Under the Bridge , Reena was described as being in a relationship with the boy in question and wearing his black-and-white Adidas jacket.

What happened to Reena Virk?

On Nov. 14, 1997, Reena was invited to a party under the Gorge Waterway bridge, per the Associated Press. Cook and a group of six other teens — since nicknamed the "Shoreline Six" — were also at the event. One of them was Missy Pleich, whom Reena and Cook met while in foster care, according to Bloodlust Under the Bridge .

Once there, Cook confronted Reena, asking why she was spreading rumors about her. Cook claimed in Bloodlust Under the Bridge that Reena called her "a bitch," prompting Cook to put a cigarette out on Reena's forehead. Cook and Pleich said that Cook's best friend, Kelly Ellard, and Pleich both began hitting and kicking Reena and then the rest of the group, including Warren Glowatski, joined in.

Ellard, then 15, and Glowatski, then 16, followed Reena when she staggered away from the group and kept attacking her. The Globe and Mail reported that Glowatski testified that Ellard held Reena underwater until Reena drowned. A coroner's report obtained by Vice indicated that Reena sustained multiple blows throughout her body and suffered a "convulsion injury as often seen in car crash victims."

Investigators said on Real Crime that because of Reena's history of running away from home, it wasn't necessarily unusual for her to not arrive back at her foster home in time for her curfew on Friday night. But by Monday, rumors began circulating at her school, and police started investigating the case more seriously.

Police found Reena's body on Nov. 22, 1997, eight days after she was killed. Initially, Cook refused to answer police questions about Ellard's involvement in the killing, while Ellard claimed Cook was the likely culprit and said she was being used as a scapegoat.

According to Godfrey's piece for Vice , police found Reena's jacket in Ellard's closet with saltwater stains on it consistent with water from the Gorge where Reena's body was found, but Ellard claimed it was her own.

Several other teens told police that Ellard and Glowatski were the ones who ultimately killed Reena, and eventually, Glowatski confessed to the slaying.

What happened to Reena Virk's killers?

Glowatski was convicted of second-degree murder in 1999 and sentenced to life in prison with a chance at parole after seven years served, CBC News reported .

He openly expressed remorse and participated in restorative justice programs, including one in which he apologized in person to Reena's parents. Suman told reporters at the time, "We would have hoped that somebody would have learned something from this whole thing, and so far, it looks like Warren has done that. Out of all the accused in this whole process, he's the only one that's done that."

Glowatski was granted day parole in 2007 and full parole in 2010, The Globe and Mail reports .

Ellard, like Glowatski, was charged with second-degree murder. In 2000, she was convicted in adult criminal court, CBC News reported , but the verdict was overturned on appeal. A second trial ended in a mistrial, followed by a third trial in which Ellard was convicted again. Her subsequent appeal attempts were overturned, and she began serving her prison sentence in 2005.

Fast forward, Ellard was denied day parole at a May 2016 hearing, which The Globe and Mail reported that was the first time she acknowledged responsibility for Reena's death. In October 2016, Vancouver Sun reported that Ellard conceived a child with another convicted criminal while she was in prison.

In November 2017, Ellard was granted day parole and in the years following, she reportedly changed her name to Kerry Sim. She rejected a chance at full parole in May 2022, telling the Parole Board of Canada that she was "situationally ... not ready" for freedom, according to Victoria News .

The remaining members of the "Shoreline Six" — Cook, Pleisch, Gail Ooms, Courtney Keith and Nicole Patterson — all pleaded guilty to assault but denied involvement with or responsibility for her killing. They reportedly left the bridge after the initial attack.

What happened to Reena Virk's parents?

After Reena's death, her parents worked in anti-bullying initiatives throughout Canada.

In 2008, Manjit wrote a book about their experience titled Reena: A Father's Story , in which he criticized the legal system for removing Reena from the family home amid her false sexual abuse allegations, as well as the trials following her death.

"I think people have to also see that any normal family, no matter how they try hard to keep their family intact, they can be derailed by this system," he told CBC News. "I think that's what has happened here and I hope others can find something about the book that they can use in their lives."

In June 2018, Suman died at the age of 58 after choking while eating at a cafe, according to the Vancouver Sun . Before her death, she told the Victoria Times Colonist in 2009 that she had processed Reena's murder by connecting with Glowatski.

"You don’t really want to sit down and talk to the person who has taken your child’s life," she said. "Seeing what he had to say for himself, it doesn’t make things right or take away the pain, but you can let go of the questions you have and put it behind you. It gave us a voice to say whatever we needed to."

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