The Saint
Simon Templar has no real family, no real home and Simon Templar isn’t even his real name. Yet Simon Templar …
- Director: Phillip Noyce
- Genre:Action / Romance / Sci-Fi / Thriller
- Runtime:116 minutes
Cast
Val Kilmer : Simon Templar
Elisabeth Shue : Dr. Emma Russell
Rade Serbedzija : Ivan Tretiak
Valeri Nikolayev: Ilya Tretiak (as Valery Nikolaev)
Henry Goodman : Dr. Lev Botvin
The film begins showing a young orphan Simon Templar living at the St. Ignatius Orphanage in the Far East, with other orphans. The orphanage is run by a strict priest who doesn’t care for the orphans. After the priest punishes the orphans because Templar wouldn’t say his given saint name, Templar and the boys rescue the girls who were locked away. Templar plans to run away from the orphanage. Before he can escape, Templar tries to kiss his first love, but she dies after the priest’s dogs push her over a railing and she falls.
Fast forward to present day, where an adult Simon Templar (Val Kilmer) is a professional thief nicknamed “The Saint”. To throw off law enforcement, he assumes the names of various saints. Templar’s usual modus operandi is mentioning that he was named after a saint.
Templar is in Moscow, Russia, where he plans to steal a microchip during a political rally from Ivan Petrovich Tretiak (Rade Šerbedžija) at the Tretiak Gas and Oil Industries building. Tretiak is an ex-communist-turned-billionaire who dominates the gas and oil industry. Tretiak, who has his own political party, has his eyes on the presidency of the Russian Federation and is gaining support from the public. Tretiak is good friends with several generals of the Russian Army.
Templar manages to break into a restricted and heavily secured area of the building to steal a chip. However, he is stopped by Tretiak’s son Ilya (Valeri Nikolayev). Templar manages to get away from Ilya and his henchman with the chip. Templar escapes to London, England with the chip. Templar plans to get up to $50,000,000 in his Swiss account and then retire from stealing. He is later contacted by Tretiak to arrange a meeting. Templar in a German disguise meets with Tretiak and his son at the Tempelhof transit lounge in Berlin, Germany.
During the meeting, Tretiak hires Templar to steal the formula for cold fusion from the eccentric American scientist Dr. Emma Russell (Elizabeth Shue). Theoretically, cold fusion could create heat and energy from open air, and it would be cleaner than petroleum and safer than nuclear power. And it would be much less expensive. Tretiak wants to get the formula so he can create heat for the Russian people, who are freezing because of a heating oil shortage. The deal would put Templar at the $50 million mark in his Swiss bank accounts, the amount he wants to retire with from the life of thievery. (This plot point comes from the Charteris novella “The Melancholy Journey of Mr. Teal” in the collection The Holy Terror, in which Templar strives to top up his bank account and retire at 100,000 pounds sterling.)
Templar, in the guise of Thomas More, has become attracted to Dr. Russell, but he reluctantly steals her formula in order to stop Tretiak from killing her, a threat that arose when Simon said he wouldn’t do it. So he ultimately ends up turning it over to Tretiak. However, the formula is incomplete, and Tretiak becomes intent on capturing both Templar and Russell in order to force her to complete it. However, Templar, normally a loner, and Dr. Russell have fallen in love with each other. Templar then has to save both of them while simultaneously exposing Tretiak as a criminal. Read more
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