Enemy Mine

Enemy of the State (1998) is one of those paranoid, state-run panopticon thrillers that I am trying to survey (I watched Source Code because I thought it was one of these). Although it's only 20 years old, it seems very old fashioned.

It starts with Jon Voight from the NSA meeting a congressman walking his dog in a secluded park. When the congressman refuses to agree to authorize the NSA's expansive powers, Voight kills him and sends his car into the lake. Little did he know, a birdwatcher has filmed the whole thing.

Meanwhile, we meet high-powered labor lawyer Will Smith is working for union officials to take down some mobsters. The bird watcher bumps into him at an art gallery and, unbeknownst, slips the incriminating video into Smith's bag. The all-seeing security state spots this and kills the bird watcher in a traffic "accident". Now Smith is the target.

He's not exactly a hard target - he's a rich man with a wife and an ex(?)-girlfriend (Lisa Bonnet). He is used to having money, and now all his credit cards and bank accounts are frozen. But he is also a strong, resourceful man, used to high-stakes situations. And, he thinks he's being targetted because he has some incriminating video on the mobsters. He hooks up with a paranoid conspiracy nut or ex-spy, played by Gene Hackman (from The Conversation?), and that gives him a bit of an edge.

I'll spoiler the ending because I thought it was cute. Hackman manages to turn the tables by getting control of some of the surveillance infrastructure, then Smith goes to the mobsters, who he knows are under FBI surveillance. He convinces the mobsters that the NSA are after them and vice versa, and lets the FBI clean up after the gun fight.

All in all, this was fun but not all that deep. I was expecting a lot more clever twists and techno-tricks. It was kind of cute that Smith goes most of the movie thinking it's all about something else, and I liked the turnabout when our heroes start surveilling the bad guys, but that's about it. Maybe this was too early in the cycle to be fully paranoid.