From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article or section is in need of attention from an expert on the subject. WikiProject Films may be able to help recruit one. If a more appropriate WikiProject or portal exists, please adjust this template accordingly.

Conspiracy Theory
Film poster for Conspiracy Theory
Directed by	Richard Donner
Produced by	Richard Donner Joel Silver
Written by	Brian Helgeland
Starring	Mel Gibson Julia Roberts Patrick Stewart
Music by	Carter Burwell
Cinematography	John Schwartzman
Editing by	Kevin Stitt Frank J. Urioste
Distributed by	Warner Bros.
Release date(s)	8 August 1997 (USA)
Running time	135 min.
Language	English
Budget	$75,000,000
IMDb profile

Conspiracy Theory is a 1997 thriller directed by Richard Donner. It stars Mel Gibson as Jerry Fletcher, an eccentric taxi driver who believes that many world events are actually government conspiracies.

• Mel Gibson ... Jerry Fletcher
• Julia Roberts ... Alice Sutton
• Patrick Stewart ... Dr. Jonas
• Cylk Cozart ... Agent Lowry

Jerry (Gibson) is a mentally unstable New York City cab driver who is obsessed with conspiracy theories. For example, Jerry believes that NASA is trying to kill the President with a shuttle-mounted seismic weapon. He is infatuated with an assistant district attorney named Alice Sutton (Roberts), frequently maurading into her office to explain one of his conspiracy theories to her. Alice herself is a competent professional with an anti-authoritarian streak, who continues to investigate her father's mysterious murder in her free time, despite her boss's wishes. Although she does not believe Jerry's conspiracy theories, she believes he is a harmless eccentric who once rescued her from a mugging, and does not have the heart to throw him out or end his visits.

One day, Jerry arrives injured and in a state of distress and it appears that he is involved in something—one of his theories has turned out to be fact. At the hospital, he begs Alice to switch his chart with the other patient in the room, as he is convinced that he will otherwise be dead by morning. Despite her skepticism, Alice does so. The next morning, Alice arrived to find that the other patient has died of a heart attack and a mysterious scientist named Dr Jonas (Patrick Stewart) and numerous government agents have arrived, anxious to apprehend Jerry's body. Jerry escapes and goes on the run, with Alice's grudging help.

It becomes apparent that Dr Jonas was involved in a CIA program called MKULTRA and used it to program Jerry as a Manchurian Candidate-style assassin. Evidence mounts linking Jerry to the murder of Alice's father.

Later in the movie, an earthquake occurs in a region of the world the President is visiting, and he narrowly escapes—just as Jerry's earlier conspiracy theory had predicted.

Mel Gibson is rumored to be a conspiracy buff^{[citation needed]}. At the beginning of Conspiracy Theory, Jerry Fletcher is expounding on a number of his theories to a succession of taxi passengers. On the DVD's audio commentary track, director Richard Donner revealed that these scenes were ad-libbed by Gibson to extras acting as passengers who were not told of what Gibson was going to say because they wanted realistic reactions from them. It was widely speculated that these were, in fact, Gibson's personal views. Arguably, the most controversial comment Gibson made was when he told two nuns that the Vatican was a "festering scab that needs to be lifted." In reality, Mel Gibson is a devout traditionalist Catholic who (like his father, Hutton Gibson) is a vocal critic of the modern Roman Catholic Church. They belong to a small sect that operates independently of Vatican influence and denounces many of the new rules implemented during the Second Vatican Council.

There is also a reference to the Seven Sisters conspiracy, in which the world's seven largest oil companies were actually in cahoots to monopolize the industry — in essence, it was one company under seven different names.

In the 1981 film The Road Warrior, which also starred Gibson, the words "Seven Sisters Oil" were painted on the side of an 18-wheeled tanker.

Trivia sections are discouraged under Wikipedia guidelines. The article could be improved by integrating relevant items and removing inappropriate ones.

• The role of Alice Sutton was initially offered to Jodie Foster who starred in the 1976 movie Taxi Driver with another Taxi driver political assassin Robert De Niro.
• Winona Ryder was turned down for the role of "Alice" because the producers claimed she was "too young". Julia Roberts took over the role.
• Jerry runs into a theater showing Ladyhawke (1985), also directed by Richard Donner who also directed all four Lethal Weapon films starring Gibson.
• Mark David Chapman, the assassin of ex-Beatle John Lennon, had a paperback book, J.D. Salinger's The Catcher in the Rye in his possession when the police arrived and found him standing "very calmly" where he had been. In the movie, Jerry's programming drives him to buy the book whenever he can, and this allows Dr. Jonas to track him.
• When escaping from Dr. Jonas at the hospital, Jerry disguises himself in medical scrubs. He then introduces himself to a doctor at the hospital as Dr. Fine, a reference to the Three Stooges film Men in Black. Mel Gibson is a huge fan of the Three Stooges, even executive producing a biopic called The Three Stooges that aired on the ABC network in 2000.
• Jerry explained his feelings for Alice through the lyrics of The Police song Every Little Thing She Does is Magic.
• Main character Jerry believes that NASA is trying to kill the President with a shuttle-mounted seismic weapon. Later in the movie, an earthquake occurs in Turkey while the President is visiting, and he narrowly escapes. As a strange coincidence, in real life, Turkey suffered a large earthquake shortly after the film released there. Bill Clinton's official visit has been delayed for 3 weeks; he then visited Turkey. He also visited the epicenter region, along with Hillary Clinton.

• Conspiracy thriller
• The Catcher in the Rye

• Conspiracy Theory at the Internet Movie Database