Conspiracy Theory
Jerry Fletcher is a man who sees conspiracies everywhere. But if you keep doing that long enough, sooner or later you’re going to get one right…
- Director:Richard Donner
- Genre:Mystery / Romance / Thriller
- Runtime:130 minutes
Cast
Mel Gibson : Jerry FletcherJulia Roberts : Alice SuttonPatrick Stewart: Dr. Jonas Cylk Cozart : Agent Lowry Steve Kahan : Mr. Wilson (as Stephen Kahan)
Jerry Fletcher (Mel Gibson) is a mentally unstable New York City taxi driver who lectures his passengers on various conspiracy theories. Jerry loves a girl but hasn’t told her – he says “I have some problems…” One night as he is driving, the strobing lights of warning signals and a worker’s arc welder trigger mysterious memories in Jerry’s head (involving a mysterious doctor, a long needle, lights flashing on and off very fast, and “Chow Hound” clips) – Jerry goes crazy and almost crashes the cab. Jerry parks near the girl’s apartment and watches her running on her treadmill while singing, finds the same radio station, and sings along. When he leaves, he stops to buy a stack of newspapers from Flip, a crippled Vietnam veteran. Jerry then parks by using his cab to shove another car away from a parking space and enters his apartment via a devious route. Jerry goes to work clipping and filing news articles and publishing a newsletter titled “Conspiracy Theory.” The next morning he mails out the newsletter one copy at a time via letter boxes.
Jerry goes to the Justice Department, to visit the girl, Alice Sutton (Julia Roberts) who works for the DA. She is also trying to solve her father’s murder, which had taken place some years earlier. Jerry tells her that NASA is trying to kill the President using a secret weapon on the Space Shuttle that can trigger earthquakes. Alice is patient with him but throws him out when he asks her out for a date.
Jerry IDs some men on the street as CIA, follows them into a building, and is captured by them. He wakes up in an unidentified building bound to a wheelchair with duct tape. A doctor (Patrick Stewart) tapes his eyes open, injects him with a drug he calls “Gravy for the brain” (LSD), and interrogates him using strobe lights and water torture. He wants to know who Jerry’s been talking to. As the LSD kicks in Jerry remembers many previous sessions, which he sees as terrifying cartoons complete with very scary music (the “Chow Hound” bulldog is seen again in this harrowing scene). As the doctor leans closer, Jerry bites the doctor’s nose and makes an amazing escape, still bound to the wheelchair. He crashes down stairs, breaking the wheelchair, which impales him with one of its parts. He shuts himself in a laundry truck, and as it drives away we see a sign that indicates that the building is a mental hospital. Jerry goes to Alice’s office again and grabs a guard’s gun, collapses in Alice’s arms after babbling incoherently about biting off someone’s nose. Read more
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