MINDHUNTERS
US, 2004, 106 minutes, Colour.
Jonny Lee Miller, Christian Slater, L.L. Cool J, Eion Bailey, Clifton Collins Jr, Will Kemp, Val Kilmer, Kathryn Morris, Patricia Velasquez.
Directed by Renny Harlin.
Mindhunters is one of those ‘and then there were none’ kind of murder mysteries. This time the focus is on agents in training, their capacity for reading situations, their capacity for reading each other’s characters. Val Kilmer is the trainer for one of these programs. The group then is taken to an isolated location, asked to make a report, but find themselves being murdered one by one. The trick is used in Agatha Christie’s Ten Little Indians/And Then There Were None films.
The film has a group of young actors, strutting their stuff, interacting melodramatically then being killed. The film was written by Wayne Kramer, who made an impact with directing such films as The Cooler, Running Scared, Crossing Over. The film was directed by Finnish director, Renny Harlin, director of many action films including a Nightmare on Elm Street film, a Die Hard film, The Long Kiss Goodnight.
1. An entertaining thriller? FBI, training, agents? The Agatha Christie device for the murder mystery?
2. The opening, the two agents, their failing? The FBI and simulations? Offices, bars? The island, the equipment, real and unreal? Stylised? The musical score?
3. The action, the opening with J.D. Reston and Sara Moore? Their working together? Their decisions, the house, going into action, their mistakes? Harris and his supervision?
4. Harris, his job, self-important? His attitudes towards the agents? The documents and failures? The setup? Audience suspicion of him – until he is found dead?
5. The meetings, the training, the transport to the island, the introduction to Gabe, his job, the truth, suspicions?
6. The characters, their weaknesses, clues, traps and their effect?
7. The issue of profiles, the skills for making profiles, the opening, the bar and the bets? The later use of the flaws for destroying the agents?
8. The town, the scenario, the meetings, sleep, rooms, the banter, tensions?
9. The process of elimination, audience suspicions, recognising clues?
10. J.D. Reston and his capacity as leader, the dry ice, his death?
11. The decapitations, the testing of equipment and death?
12. The whole group collapsing, the letters – and this providing a time for the setups for the further killings?
13. Nicole, her moves, distrust, the cigarettes as her flaw?
14. Lucas Harper, his capacity with guns, his death, his re-emerging, the survival with Sara, the clash with Gabe? His overreaching himself?
15. Gabe, suspicions, his being tied up, his work with Vince, the chair, turning off the power, audience suspicions of him – but his being the hero?
16. Vince, the gun, going into the elevator, his death?
17. Sara and Gabe remaining, the mutual suspicions, handling the tension?
18. Lucas and his reappearance, his explanations about himself, his motivations, fighting Sara, Gabe and the confrontation and death?
19. Popular ingredients for a popular mystery in an action context?
