If you thought that the James Bond movies were fantastic with all of the fancy cars, cool gadgets, and action-packed fight scenes, Angelina Jolie’s new action packed film is the movie for you. The movie Salt brings out the versatility of Angelina Jolie’s light and dark side, when she plays an uncover Russian spy. She brings a lot of energy, effort, and enthusiasm to this part.
Evelyn Salt, played by (Jolie), is a CIA officer who has sworn an oath to honor and protect her country. In the beginning part of the film, Salt was in North Korea being tortured to death. She yelled to her torturers, “I am not a spy.” She repeated this after every gruesome blow that she had to endure and even after gasoline was forced down her throat.
Salt is quite devious to some people until the day a Russian defector arrives and accuses her of being Russian spy in the interrogation room. Ted Winter, Salt’s fellow agent, played by Liev Schreiber (X-Men Origins: Wolverine, Hamlet) and Peabody, Salt’s righteous, persistent tracker, played by (Chiwetel Ejiofor), go berserk and question Salt’s judgment. They send out a police force to kill her and end the threat.
What the viewer does understand is that Salt was once part of a Russian experiment in which children were trained to become spies and wage war on the world to bring back the diminished power of Russia. However, she fell in love with Mike Krause played by (August Diehl, Inglourious Basterds), who later becomes her husband. Being very interested in spiders, Krause had created his own spider venom.
Salt’s co-workers do not take kind to Salt’s actions of trying to assassinate both the Russian President and the President of the United States, in a short amount of time. The Russian president, Matveyev, played by (Olek Krupa) is only paralyzed by the spider venom she inserted into his body. Once that was over, Salt goes back to Russia and eliminates all of the Russian KA Agents, later heading back to the United States to find out that there was another mole in the agency.
The ugly fistfight and shooting battle between Jolie and Schreiber was a smashing success in the film. Ted Winter was a Russian KA Agent all along and responsible for the launch of Day X, a reenactment of the Cold War. Winter assassinates the U.S. President Lewis, played by Hunt Block, who meets his own death in the control room. Winter was trying to transport missiles from Siberia to the United States to bring the U.S. down and have it beg for mercy. This was the defining moment for Salt. The question was whether she would help out the Russians and realize their dream by making the United States a marked territory, or would she put an end to the Russian’s roots of evil by eliminating her former friend/second lover?
Philip Noyce, the director of Salt (Rabbit-Proof Fence, Clear and Present Danger) made the viewers rattle their brains by trying to figure out who Salt was exactly? If you enjoy spy movies with tons of suspense and bloodshed, then, Salt is right up your alley.
