Nikita (film)

For the 1990s television series, see La Femme Nikita. For the 2010 television series, see Nikita (TV series).

Nikita
215px Original film poster
Directed by	Luc Besson
Produced by	Patrice Ledoux Luc Besson Claude Besson Vittorio Cecchi Gori Mario Cecchi Gori
Written by	Luc Besson
Starring	Anne Parillaud Jean-Hugues Anglade Jean Reno Tchéky Karyo
Music by	Éric Serra
Cinematography	Thierry Arbogast
Edited by	Olivier Mauffroy
Production company	Gaumont Film Company Les Films Du Loup Cecchi Gori Group Tiger Cinematografica
Distributed by	The Samuel Goldwyn Company (USA & Canada) Touchstone Pictures (International)
Release dates	February 21, 1990 (1990-02-21) (France) August 17, 1990 (1990-08-17) (Italy)
Running time	117 minutes
Country	France Italy
Language	French Italian
Budget	50 million FF
Box office	US$5,017,971 (US) €37,214,655

Nikita, also called La Femme Nikita (French pronunciation: ​[la fam nikita], "The Woman Nikita"), is a 1990 Franco-Italian action thriller film written and directed by Luc Besson.

Nikita (Anne Parillaud) is a teen who robs a pharmacy and murders a policeman. She is sentenced to life in prison, where her captors fake her death, and she is given the choice of becoming an assassin, or being killed. After training, she becomes a talented killer. Her career as an assassin goes well until a mission in an embassy goes awry.

Plot

Nikita (Anne Parillaud) is a teenage junkie who participates in the robbery of a pharmacy owned by a friend's parents. The robbery goes awry, erupting into a gunfight with local police, during which her accomplices are killed. Suffering severe withdrawal symptoms, she murders a policeman. Nikita is arrested, tried, and convicted of murder and is sentenced to life in prison.

In prison, her captors fake her death, making it appear that she has committed suicide via a tranquilizer overdose. She awakens in a nondescript room, where a well-dressed but hard-looking man named Bob (Tchéky Karyo) tells her that, although officially dead and buried, she is in the custody of a shadowy government agency known as "the Centre" (possibly part of the DGSE). She is given the choice of becoming an assassin, or of actually occupying "row 8, plot 30", her fake grave. After some resistance, she chooses the former and proves to be a talented killer. She is taught computer skills, martial arts, and firearms. One of her trainers, Amande (Jeanne Moreau), transforms her from a degenerate drug addict to a femme fatale. Amande implies that she was also rescued and trained by the Centre.

Her initial mission, killing a foreign diplomat in a crowded restaurant and escaping back to the Centre from his well-armed bodyguards, doubles as the final test in her training. She graduates and begins life as a sleeper agent in Paris (under the name Marie). She meets Marco (Jean-Hugues Anglade) in a supermarket, and he becomes her boyfriend, knowing nothing of her real profession. Marco is curious about her past and why she has no family or other friends. Nikita then invites Bob to dinner as "Uncle Bob." Bob tells stories about "Marie"'s imaginary childhood, and gives the couple tickets for a trip to Venice as an engagement gift.

Nikita and Marco go on the trip and during their preparation to make love, the phone rings. She thinks it's the room service they just ordered, but it is instructions for her next job. She goes to the bathroom and as she prepares the rifle, Marco is attempting to talk to her though the door. The instructions on who to shoot take longer than expected and she can't answer him. She finally gets the instructions and takes out her target. She is barely able to conceal the rifle before Marco walks in, against her wishes. By then, she is distraught because she has ignored and hurt him due to her job.

Still, her career as an assassin goes well until a document-theft mission in an embassy goes awry. The Centre sends in Victor "The Cleaner" (Jean Reno), a ruthless operative, to salvage the mission and destroy all the evidence of the foul-up. When one of the operatives turns on him, Nikita is forced to take his place. They make it most of the way through the mission when it goes bad. The gate is closed and he takes on a bunch of guards before being fatally wounded, but drives them to safety before succumbing to his wounds. Marco reveals that he has discovered Nikita's secret life, and, concerned over how her activities are affecting her psychologically, persuades her to disappear. Upon discovering that she abandoned the Centre, Bob goes to their apartment where he meets with Marco. Bob says she can't be out of danger because she still has the documents, after which Marco hands them over. They agree that they will both miss her.

Cast

File:Anne Parillaud Cannes.jpg

Anne Parillaud stars as Nikita, a young female assassin

• Anne Parillaud as Nikita
• Jean-Hugues Anglade as Marco
• Tchéky Karyo as Bob
• Jeanne Moreau as Amande
• Jean Reno as Victor "The Cleaner"
• Jacques Boudet as The Chemist

Reception

Nikita received mixed reviews by critics both in France and abroad. On Metacritic, the overall rating by the critics is 56%. However, on Rotten Tomatoes the film has a rating of 87%. A number of critics, including Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert, positively reviewed the film.

The film was a box office hit in France getting 3,787,845 admissions becoming the 8th highest grossing film of the year in France.

Legacy

Remake

Main article: Point of No Return (1993 film)

In 1993, Warner Bros. remade Nikita in English as Point of No Return (The Assassin), directed by John Badham and starring Bridget Fonda. Nikita also inspired the 1991 Hong Kong action film Black Cat, which closely follows the original film’s storyline.

TV series

Main articles: La Femme Nikita and Nikita (TV series)

A TV series based on the film, titled La Femme Nikita, was created in 1997. It was produced in Canada by Warner Bros. and Fireworks Entertainment. The series ran for five seasons on USA Network, and generated a sizable cult following of its own. It was created by Joel Surnow, who later co-created 24 with fellow La Femme Nikita executive consultant Robert Cochran. It starred Peta Wilson as Nikita and Roy Dupuis.

In 2010, the CW network picked up a new series, Nikita, with Maggie Q as a Nikita who has gone rogue.

Popular culture

A Berts ytterligare betraktelser illustration shows a poster for the film, depicting Niktia holding a pistol while sitting next to a building, and the text "Niktia" appearing above, as Bert in mid-October accidentally drops Nadja into the floor at the cinema lobby room.

See also

• Assassinations in fiction
• Girls with guns
• List of neo-noir titles

External links

• Nikita at IMDb
• Nikita at AllMovie
• Nikita at Box Office Mojo
• Nikita at Rotten Tomatoes
• Nikita at Metacritic