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Spartan
Directed by	David Mamet
Produced by	David Bergstein Moshe Diamant Art Linson Elie Samaha
Written by	David Mamet
Starring	Val Kilmer Derek Luke William H. Macy
Music by	Mark Isham
Distributed by	Warner Bros.
Release date(s)	March 8, 2004
Running time	106 min.
Language	English
IMDb profile

Spartan is an American political thriller film written and directed by David Mamet and starring Val Kilmer, Derek Luke, William H. Macy, Ed O'Neill, Tia Texada, and Kristen Bell. It was released in America and Canada in March 2004.

Robert Scott (Val Kilmer) is a cold, efficient, emotionless operative training Special Forces recruits for the United States Army, including trainees Curtis (Derek Luke) and knife-fighting instructor Jackie Black (Tia Texada). When Laura Newton (Kristen Bell), a Harvard student and daughter of the President is abducted the Secret Service, intent on keeping the abduction a secret because of the dire political consequences, enlist Scott as their field operative to recover her before the press learns of her disappearance.

During the task force's investigation, reports emerge that Laura Newton's body was discovered aboard a sailboat with a body of her college professor off the coast of Martha's Vineyard. After the task force disbands Scott returns home, only to be approached by Curtis who proves that Newton is still alive. Scott conducts his own investigation and learns the President arrived in Boston to conduct an extramarital affair, and took Laura's Secret Service detail for extra protection, leaving her vulnerable to kidnapping at the hands of a sexual slavery ring run out of Dubai. The Secret Service engineered the press briefing and the announcement of Laura Newton's death to shield him from the political fallout that would result should the press discover his involvement in her kidnapping. Upon learning this, Jackie convinces Scott to go after her.

Without company support and presumed dead by the Secret Service following an assassination attempt, Scott and Jackie fly to Dubai and mount an independent rescue operation. The operation is successful, but as they prepare to take her home, they discover the Secret Service has bugged their equipment and has been tracking them. Scott shoots his way past Secret Service agents and loads Laura onto a journalist's private plane, but Jackie is killed in the gunfight. Days later in London, a stoic Scott watches on television as Laura disembarks from a plane into the waiting arms of her father. He smiles and walks away.

Spartan received mixed but generally good reviews and has a score of 65% on Rotten Tomatoes and 60% on Metacritic. Tim Robey in The Daily Telegraph felt the film was let down by a "botched" finale, "as though Mamet felt obliged to reproduce a standard-issue Tom Clancy climax while knowing that this wasn't the way to go."^[1]

• The title and events in the film allude to Leonidas I, king of Sparta who, when a neighbor state requested military aid, would send one man. As Scott puts it, "One riot, one ranger." Mamet had previously included this line in House of Games. The remark is also part of the lore of the Texas Rangers.

• The film's Dubai settings were actually filmed in Los Angeles, California.

• Eric L. Haney, a career Army non-commissioned officer and member of Delta Force, was a technical advisor and had a small cameo in the film. After Spartan, Haney and Mamet went on to collaborate on The Unit, a television series about a fictional highly secret special forces unit of the United States Army modelled on Delta Force.

• Alexandra Kerry, the daughter of U.S. Senator John Kerry, plays a small role as a bartender in the film.

• Official site
• Spartan at the Internet Movie Database