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ALONG
CAME A SPIDER
"You
do what you are born with, a gift. What you're good at, you don't
take for granted. If you do, you betray yourself"
-Alex Cross
-Review by David Bruce
and Kim Yarmuch
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ALONG CAME A SPIDER
(2001)
This page was created on April 10, 2001
This page was last updated on May 21, 2005 |
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Directed by Lee Tamahori
Screenplay by Marc Moss
Novel by James Patterson
Morgan
Freeman .... Detective Alex Cross
Monica Potter .... Special Agent Jezzie Flannigan
Michael Wincott .... Gary Soneji
Jay O. Sanders .... Detective Kyle Craig
Dylan Baker .... Mayor Carl Monroe
Raoul Ganeev .... Agent Charles Chakley
Billy Burke .... Agent Michael Devine
Penelope Ann Miller .... Katherine Rose Dunne
Mika Boorem .... Megan Rose Dunne
Anton Yelchin .... Thomas Dunne
Michael Moriarty .... George Pittman
Kimberly Hawthorne .... Janelle Cross
Produced by David Brown (producer), Morgan Freeman (executive producer),
Marty Hornstein (co-producer), Joe Wizan (producer)
Original
music by Jerry Goldsmith and Mark Isham
Cinematography by Matthew F. Leonetti
Film Editing by Nicolas De Toth and Neil Travis
Rated
R for violence and language.
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RealVideo
Trailer
Clip
Quick
Time
20
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9
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4
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Along Came A Spider SOUNDTRACK
Various Artists - 2001
1. Night Talk 2. Testing 3. Alone 4. Megan's Abduction 5. Megan
Overboard 6. Cop Killer 7. Ransom, The 8. Profiling 9. Not My Partner
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I
am living proof that a mind is a terrible thing.
The game is far from over.
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STUDIO
SYNOPSIS:
 Morgan
Freeman reprises his role as Alex Cross, the Washington, D.C. police
detective and forensic psychologist, on the trail of what could
be the most puzzling criminal mind he's encountered yet. The film
is an adaptation of James Patterson's highly acclaimed first novel
in the Alex Cross series.
?
2001 Paramount Pictures.
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REVIEW
The Truth About Human Nature
By David Bruce
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In
the opening credits we hear the lines: "I
believe in Human Nature. People are basically good."
The film then puts that statement to the test and explores the realities
of human nature. Can we truly trust it.
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 In
the first scene we see an innocent policewoman plunge to her death
because of the inhumanity of another. The film introduces a new thought:
"Inhumanity towards other leads to death." |
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In
other words,
1.
People are basically good, and
2. Inhumanity toward others is wrong.
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 Now,
the film takes us on an exploration of those two assumptions.  And
by the end of the film it discredits the first statement and holds
firm to the second. Nonetheless, it underscores the value of loving
human relationships. It is a clever film that teaches some valuable
lessons about human nature, assumptions, trust, loyalty, and truth. |
LIGHT
PENETRATING DARKNESS
Because the film explores the very nature of good and evil several
scenes feature a contrast between light and darkness. |
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| Opposite
types of people are placed together. |
  In
one of the opening scenes a strong confident woman, dressed in black,
is placed next to an emotional woman dressed in white. |
  The
film also teams an older black experienced man with a young white
inexperienced woman with blonde hair. They are very different and
as the film progresses that difference becomes even more obvious. |
  The
kidnapper in the story uses disguises. He goes from bearded and longhaired
to clean-shaven and shorthaired. He turns from school teacher (child
lover) to kidnapper (child hater). The contrasts of opposites dominate
the film. So, in terms of the plot, be prepared for lots of surprising
contrasting twists. |
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 As
the film explores the mind of the child kidnapper the filmmakers
use dark atmospheric night scenes in the rain. It sets a tone that
seems to suggest the dark side of human nature.
The
kidnapper speaks a very key line in the film. For years we have
heard the motto: "The mind is a terrible thing to waste."
In the film the phrase is shorted to the more blunt: "The mind
is a terrible thing."
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 Special
Agent Jezzie Flannigan asked Detective
Alex Cross what he sees when he when he looks at her face.
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DECEPTION
AND BETRAYAL
"you
do what you are born with, a gift. What you're good at, you don't
take for granted. If you do, you betray yourself."
-Review by Kim Yarmuch
A technical writer living in
Canada.
kimyarmuch@hotmail.com
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 A
bit about spiders: spider venom paralyzes or kills its prey. Spiders
are best known for their intricate webs. Spiders use camouflage
to blend in with colors and patterns.
Along
Came a Spider,
and sat down beside her,
frightening Miss Muffet away.
But Miss Muffet saw the spider.
What if you don't see the spider?
You're gonna get stung.
 Spiders
are creepy in that they usually appear so subtly. Suddenly one is
in your shower, slinking across your living room, or crawling up
your arm. Often the cracks a spider uses to get in are too small
for us to notice. Unfortunately for Megan (Mika Boorem), the spiders
are getting in through the cracks of deception, disguise and betrayal.
And no one is noticing.
 Along
Came a Spider has a lot of cracks, but trust me, you won't notice
them until it's too late. Suddenly, the spider is there, and it's
creepy. Deception and betrayal: each containing enough venom to
severely numb the human heart, mind and soul, and together, deadly.
This movie will give you the creeps because at some point, in some
big or small way, all of us have been deceived, all of us betrayed.
We recoil because we know the sting of it too well.
 The
most lethal cracks we fall into aren't the most obvious (nor are
they in Along Came a Spider). The spider is there in the crack,
waiting to bite, leaving its sting. I see the deception game in
this movie as parallel to the game of the master deceiver, the one
the Bible calls Satan. Evil lures us in until we're tangled and
unable to escape; we're trapped. Detective Alex Cross (Morgan Freeman)
provides Megan's escape, and Jesus came to provide ours. In that,
Cross is a Christ figure in this film.
 The
nature of humans and the use of gifts is another biblical theme
in Along Came a Spider. The Bible says we're all born with a gift,
but the spider of sin can mess it up for us. Cross says to Special
Agent Jezzie Flannagin (Monica Potter) - who constantly questions
her own failings - "you do what you are born with, a gift. What
you're good at, you don't take for granted. If you do, you betray
yourself." Well said. Who's betraying whom in this movie?
Satan
is no cartoon in red tights, nor does he often show up in completely
obvious evil, but he'd love it if you thought so. He's a deceiver,
and most of the time he remains remarkably well hidden. A spider's
victims don't see it either, until they're being devoured. Exactly
like how?, well, I can't tell you. That would ruin the story.
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OFFICIAL
SITE
Along Came A Spider ?
2001 Paramount Pictures. All Rights
Reserved.
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