It can be easy to forget that before the Mission: Impossiblesequels kicked into high gear, Tom Cruiseexperienced a brief decline in his career amidst the failures of Lions for Lambs and Valkyrie. Cruise had an interest in appearing in a major action film that would also show his talents as a chameleonic actor, which is why he began working with screenwriter Kurt Wimmer on an espionage thriller about a spy accused of being a double agent for the Russian government. While director Phillip Noyce eventually took control of the project after Terry George and Peter Berg had dropped out, Cruise decided to set the film aside, as he feared it had grown too similar to his Mission: Impossiblerole of Ethan Hunt. Upon the suggestion of Amy Pascal, Cruise’s part was rewritten to be a female character, allowing Angelina Jolieto play the titular role in Salt.
While Jolie had a longstanding desire to appear in a spy franchise, she wasn’t interested in the opportunity to appear as a “Bond girl” in one of the 007 sequels, as her interest was in playing the lead protagonist. After screenwriter Brian Helgeland came to rewrite the script in order to accommodate the gender change, Salt became a modern espionage thriller that dealt with relevant concerns about the United States’ standstill with Russia. Even if Cruise had grown concerned that it would be derivative of Mission: Impossible, Salt became a completely original look at how fungible the lines between good and evil are in such an intense political conflict.
What Is ‘Salt’ About?
Jolie stars as the CIA operative Evelyn Salt, who is tasked with interrogating the Russian defector Oleg Vasilyevich Orlov (Daniel Olbrychski) alongside her colleagues Ted Winter (Liev Schreiber) and Darryl Peabody (Chiwetel Ejiofor). Although they pressure him to reveal information about Russian espionage activity, Orlov surprisingly admits that there is a double agent in the CIA who is planning to kill the Russian President Boris Matveyev (Aleksander Krupa), who will be attending the upcoming funeral of the U.S. vice president. As far-fetched as the conspiracy sounds, the situation grows more confusing when Orlove identifies Salt as the double agent, forcing her to go on the run. Although it appears that Salt is part of a larger conspiracy, it becomes clear that she is just the scapegoat for a far more personal attack on democracy.
Although the action scenes are surprisingly brutal, especially for a PG-13 film, Salt creates genuine suspense surrounding the affiliations of different characters, underlining the fact that there isn’t a political plot that isn’t completely cut-and-dry. While it is revealed that Salt has Russian heritage and took part in a training program, her actions show that she is trying to create a situation in which lives will be saved; regardless of her feelings about Matveyev, his death would spark ramifications that could embolden radicals to lash out. There’s also a surprisingly emotional storyline involving the arachnologist Mike Krause (August Diehl), who became Salt’s husband after she was freed from detainment in North Korea. Even though identities, loyalties, and motivations seem to shift all the time, the romance between Mike and Salt always feels real, as Diehl and Jolie have excellent chemistry whenever they are allowed to share the screen with one another.
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‘Salt’ Proved Angelina Jolie’s Merit as an Action Star
Salt was the best use of Jolie as an action star, as it allowed her to perform the sorts of physically laborious stunts that are generally reserved for male actors. While both Lara Croft: Tomb Raider and its sequel were very popular, they didn’t offer Jolie the opportunity to play a complex character that the viewer could grow invested in; similarly, films like Wanted and Mr. & Mrs. Smith was so aggressively stylized that it was harder to discern her talent as an action star. While Salt is a compelling conspiracy thriller that shows Jolie’s expertise in applying various forms of combat in dangerous situations, it’s also a genuinely emotional story about a woman facing accusations by a peer group that consists entirely of men. The key to any great action hero is vulnerability, and Jolie’s performance has the realism, emotion, and commitment that Cruise would have likely approved of.
Salt turned out better than anyone expected, as it earned almost $300 million at the global box office, received praise from critics like Roger Ebert, and earned an Academy Award nomination for Best Sound Mixing. Although Noyce isn’t always a filmmaker who receives the respect he deserves, Salt was a reminder that he was still the same director behind beloved spy films like Patriot Games, Clear and Present Danger, and The Saint. The only disappointing aspect of Salt is that the final moments tease a sequel that never came to fruition; while the film was already satisfying on its own, it would have been nice to see a female-led action franchise when the genre has been so dominated by men.
