THE HUNTED

Year: 2003
USA: Paramount
UK: Redbus (Helkon SK)
Cast: Tommy Lee Jones, Benicio Del Toro, Connie Nielsen, Jenna Boyd, Leslie Stefanson, Robert Blanche, Aaron Brounstein, Ron Canada, Caitlin Clements, Steve Enfield, John Finn, Erin Michael, Carrick O'Quinn, Mark Pellegrino, Patti Pelton, Zoran Radanovich, Devon Walker, Tara Walker, Mike White, Jose Zúniga
Director: William Friedkin
Country: USA
USA & UK: 94 mins
USA Rated: R for strong bloody violence and some language
UK Certificate: 15 Contains strong bloody violence and language
USA Release Date: 14 March 2003
UK Release Date: 6 June 2003


Synopsis

Revealing the bond between these two men almost entirely without words, Friedkin first introduces Aaron Hallam (Benicio Del Toro) in 1999, during the bloodiest of the fighting in Kosovo. Serbian soldiers are carrying out scores of atrocities against Albanian civilians, while US Special Forces operate covertly nearby. Aaron - at this time a soldier in good standing - penetrates a demolished building and slips unseen past guards silently killing the Serbian officer who has ordered all this butchery. Awarded the Silver Star for valor for this murder, Aaron feels no honor as he lies awake, tormented by nightmares.

In 2003, light years away from what happened in Kosovo, we meet L.T. Bonham (Tommy Lee Jones) tracking an injured wolf through the bright white snows of northernmost British Columbia, which he rescues and then marches into the nearest tavern and gives a beating to the man who set the trap.

A thousand miles to the south, in the green woods of Silver Falls, Oregon, L.T.'s former student Aaron Hallam - now AWOL from the Special Forces - keeps his own brand of wildlife vigil. Aaron has been viciously killing hunters in the area. The FBI, led by Special Agent Abby Durrell (Connie Nielsen), desperate to track down the killer, call in the one man who can bring him down - L.T.

Snug on retirement, L.T. resists the mission every way he can. He knows the killer is a man he has trained. Accepting the assignment on the condition he works alone, L.T. walks into the woods - unarmed, as if tracking another wounded wolf. For L.T. is only who can get close to Aaron. Even as they go into their final combat against each other, neither can say with certainty who is 'hunted' and who is the 'hunter'... and who will ultimately emerge as a victor.