Daily Archives: February 8th, 2025

Bean there, done that: Ronin (1998)

I have absolutely no idea when I watched this film. I wouldn’t have seen it at the cinema, so it will have been at home sometime… something like two decades ago??

So, it’s a heist…

  • Sean Bean is Spence, one of the men employed to retrieve a case.
    • He seems to be ex-military, and calls himself “a weapons man.” Pretty sure that’s not an innuendo. At least, not in this context.
  • (It’s a pretty great cast: I am indifferent towards De Niro, myself, but that’s a very young Stellan Skarsgard, and I often love Jean Reno. I recognise Natascha McElhone but I have no idea from where. And Elliot Carver Jonathan Pryce. )
  • He’s English, and has short hair again (I approve). He’s also super nervy, and likes to big-note himself.
  • Suddenly Spence is taking over the gun-buying operation? And he’s very jumpy. This seems like a very bad idea.
    • It was. Sniper on the bridge, everybody shooting… Spence is very cranky. Absolutely no self-control.
    • And then, when they’re back in the car, he’s manic: pleased and excited way out of proportion.
    • And then he vomits. Is he high?
  • I had completely forgotten how epic the driving is in this film. I know it’s what the film is known for, but knowing is different from seeing.
  • Spence then tries to take over the briefing… but Sam / De Niro calls him, and there’s a scuffle, out of which Spence looks very poor. It’s beginning to sound like Spence isn’t the military man he claims to be.
    • And so he is let go. With a stark warning about needing to forget the people he was working for.
    • Wait, is that the end of Sean Bean in this film??

Oh well. Bean has left the building.

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