Salt | Hollywood Spy Movie | English Film Reviews

Spy movies always fascinate a majority of people. The entire series of James Bond movie to take an example of. And when the thrill is there (and of course it is always :)) they are sometimes unavoidable. The team behind the Salt movie decided to make such a film. With the plot of Russia-USA cold-war. Tom cruise was final as the protagonist Edwin Salt. But he was also doing a similar movie titled “Knight and day” co-starring Cameron Diaz. So he thought not to do two similar films at a time and hence role of the protagonist is changed from Edwin to Evelyn Salt. The protagonist here is played by Angelina Jolie, whose action movies like Lara Craft series, Mr. and Mrs. Smith etc. are well received. Let us look at the movie material from our angle!

It all starts at a North Korea prison where a lady (we later know that she is the protagonist – Evelyn Salt) is being tortured. She was suspected of being an American Spy. With the die-hard efforts of her boyfriend (who became her husband later) a renowned arachnologist (who researches various species of spiders in rain forests; she got released as a part of a prisoner exchange! Informed the stuff behind her release by her CIA colleague Ted Winter, she then admits to Michael that she is a spy, and it is not safe for him to be associated with her. Due to his true love however Michael affirms that he wants to live rest of his life with her.

A few years later, Salt found doing mostly office duties rather than field work in CIA. It was her wedding anniversary day. When she was leaving the office with Winter, they got a message and had to back to interrogation room where a Russian defector named Oleg Vasilyevich Orlov was waiting. Salt is asked to talk him. She learn from him that the president of Russia is all set to be assassinated in USA when attending the funeral of US vice president. In their terminology they says that it is to be Day-X, when a war between Russia and USA will be started. Salt also learn the the agent who is going to kill the Russian president is KA-12 and the name of the agent is Evelyn Salt! Salt got shocked. The CIA on one hand was not ready to let her leave the head quarters as now she is being suspected as Russian spy. However she was given a chance to talk to her husband and inform him to take safety precautions.

Oleg escaped from CIA head quarters under tight security and worried for her husband Salt also found her way to escape. When she reached home, she found that her husband was kidnapped! She took some arms and a poisonous spider from her husband’s lab and escape. In a thrilling chase she was able to escape from CIA followers.

After escaping from CIA headquarters and left behind the CIA searching team, Salt reaches the New York city where she checks into a hotel. In the hotel room she verifies all her weapons and prepares a syringe by extracting venom from the spider. Here the president of Russia came to pay respect to the late vice president of USA at his funeral. All the security agencies are at their best to make the event secure. Though we see Salt single handedly able to reach to her target in a series of event. What we see at last is she is in front of president of Russia at her mercy. And she fires!!! So was she really a Russian agent as claimed by Oleg? She then went visit Oleg and we learn she is one of the spies prepared by him since early age!

In the series of event she needs to see her husband dieing in front of her to prover her trustworthiness for Oleg. Now the next step is to kill the president of USA. So a war between the countries start. It will then lead to nuclear weapons and all.

So will the deadly battle happen? What is the truth about Salt? Is there anyone else who is a double agent? Will Salt be captured by Russian/US government? What will be her fate?

The movie was received overall positive reviews. Though sometimes we cannot attach with the incidents in the film emotionally. The fear is not seen where it has to be. But overall a movie you can watch in your free time for sure.