Disclosure (film)
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| Disclosure | |
|---|---|
| Image:Disclosure ver2.jpg Disclosure promotional movie poster | |
| Directed by | Barry Levinson |
| Produced by | Michael Crichton Barry Levinson |
| Written by | Michael Crichton (novel) Paul Attanasio |
| Starring | Michael Douglas Demi Moore Donald Sutherland |
| Music by | Ennio Morricone |
| Distributed by | Warner Bros. |
| Release date(s) | December 9, 1994 |
| Running time | 128 min |
| Country | Image:Flag of the United States.svg United States |
| Language | English |
| All Movie Guide profile | |
| IMDb profile | |
Disclosure is a 1994 thriller based on Michael Crichton's novel of the same name. The movie stars Michael Douglas and Demi Moore and is directed by Barry Levinson.
Contents |
[edit] Plot
| The plot summary in this article or section is too long compared to the rest of the article. Please edit the article to focus on discussing the work rather than merely reiterating the plot. |
Tom Sanders (Douglas) is a vice-president of production for a key product line at Digicom Corporation, a large computer company. The group he manages is heavily male-oriented. All of Tom's employees are men except for his secretary and one engineer. The men on his team frequently make sexually-oriented jokes and comments about women. Tom finds these antics rather juvenile as he's happily married with two young children, but goes along for the sake of group harmony. However, Tom, himself, engages in sexually-suggestive activities with his secretary (rubbing her shoulders, patting her behind) without seeming to realize that these behaviors are inappropriate and make his secretary uncomfortable.
Tom has high hopes for a promotion to the head of his entire division in Seattle, Washington. Instead the company president, Bob Garvin (Donald Sutherland), unexpectedly gives the job to another executive from company headquarters. This turns out to be Meredith Johnson (Moore), Tom's seductive ex-girlfriend. Somehow Tom takes it with a grain of salt, until a personal meeting turns into a night of seduction when Meredith decides to relive her sexual fantasy and pick up from where they left off. Tom refuses and shoves her away, leaving Meredith rejected, frustrated and furious. Tom decides to keep this encounter with Meredith to himself, but the next morning, discovers that Meredith has accused him of sexual harassment. He tries to convince people that it was the other way round, only to find that everyone in the company believes him to be the guilty party. Even Tom's wife refuses to believe his story. Meanwhile, mysterious defects that did not exist in the prototype are found in the production versions of the product Tom manages. Tom's engineering team, however is reluctant to help him uncover the source of the defects because of the sexual harassment charges against him.
Garvin wants to keep the sexual harassment incident under wraps to avoid spoiling an upcoming acquisition that will net Garvin a substantial amount of money if it is successfully completed. To this end, he pressures Sanders to transfer to another division in Texas. The transfer, however, will cause Sanders to forfeit valuable stock options. Moreover, his wife does not want to leave her job or the family home. The result leaves Tom seemingly helplessly stranded between a rock and a hard place with no viable options. If he stays in Seattle, he's likely to get fired as no one in the Seattle division will work with him because they think he's a sexual harasser. If he moves to Texas, however, he will lose his career and his family. Tom's only ray of hope comes in the form of an e-mail from a mysterious stranger who identifies himself only as "A Friend". The e-mail refers Tom to a newspaper article about a female attorney in Seattle who has made something of a name for herself helping male employees file sexual harassment suits. Emboldened (and with no other options), Tom hires the female attorney and countersues both Meredith and Digicomm alleging that she harassed him.
Both Garvin and Meredith are enraged by Tom's lawsuit -- he because the lawsuit has the potential to ruin the merger and she because of Tom's audacity in charging her with sexual harassment. Garvin and Meredith retaliate with the full force of the company, stopping just short of firing Tom or cutting his pay. They eliminate any meaningful duties from his position, clean out his desk and revoke all his computer privileges, essentially reducing him to the rank of an entry-level employee. They then move to mediate the sexual harassment suit to keep it out of court (and therefore out of public record so that the acquiring company won't find out about it). They call Tom's secretary and colleagues to testify at the hearing about behaviors they observed that suggest a pattern of sexual harassment. Meanwhile, Tom gets more cryptic messages from "A Friend" suggesting that there is more going on that meets the eye. But, neither Tom, nor his legal team can fathom what the messages mean and Tom cannot investigate because of the revocation of his computer privileges.
Tom's lawyer discovers that the identity of "A Friend" is Arthur Friend (A. Friend), a geology professor at the University of Washington. She also discovers, however, that Professor Friend is on sabbatical in Nepal, leaving it a mystery who is actually sending the messages. She also manages to get the upper hand in the mediation. She obtains damaging evidence against Garvin and Meredith that convinces them Tom is likely to win if the case goes to trial. Faced with this evidence, Garvin and Meredith agree to settle. Tom is given a new contract with a large pay raise and promises that his rank and privileges will be restored and the entire incident forgotten. Tom thinks he's won a great victory. But then, he receives another e-mail from "A Friend" warning him that "it's not over" and exhorting him to "solve the problem". Tom figures out that the defects in the product are the result of design changes at the overseas plant that Meredith had ordered without telling him. Since the production line is Tom's responsibility he realizes he's being set up to be humiliated at the acquisition announcement meeting the next morning, laying a case to fire him for incompetence. The only way he can avoid the trap is to prove that Meredith ordered the changes without consulting him. But, Meredith hasn't yet restored the computer privileges he needs to access the computer files to make his case. Over the course of a frantic night, Tom manages to get the files through the back door - sneaking into the hotel room of the acquiring company's executives to access the central computer from a demonstration machine and getting document copies faxed to him from a friend at the plant who owes him a favor. Armed with this information, Tom turns the tables on Meredith at the meeting, exposing her duplicity and getting her fired.
In the aftermath of the affair, Garvin calls a meeting of the Seattle division where he awards Meredith's position to the company's low-key Chief Financial Officer (another woman). After the meeting, the CFO introduces Tom to her son, a freshman at the University of Washington. Tom realizes that the son is the one who had been sending him the cryptic messages when the son reveals that he is Professor Friend's research assistant. The CFO had been using her son as a conduit to get information to Tom without Garvin or Meredith finding out - saving Tom's career and family in the process, but also cleverly setting the stage for her to get the promotion. Tom graciously admits defeat, realizing that he has a loving family and that this is more important than climbing the corporate ladder.
[edit] Cast
- Michael Douglas - Tom Sanders
- Demi Moore - Meredith Johnson
- Donald Sutherland - Bob Garvin
- Caroline Goodall - Susan Hendler
- Roma Maffia - Catherine Alvarez
- Dylan Baker - Philip Blackburn
- Rosemary Forsyth - Stephanie Kaplan
- Dennis Miller - Mark Lewyn
- Suzie Plakson - Mary Anne Hunter
- Nicholas Sadler - Don Cherry
- Jacqueline Kim - Cindy Chang
- Joe Urla - John Conley Jr
- Donal Logue - Chance Geer
[edit] Trivia
| Trivia sections are discouraged under Wikipedia guidelines. The article could be improved by integrating relevant items and removing inappropriate ones. |
- Barry Levinson's Director Trademark: Ralph Tabakin (Elevator Attendant) has appeared in every Levinson picture from Diner (1982) to Liberty Heights (1999).
- Michael Crichton sold the movie rights for $1 million before the novel was published.
- Michael Crichton wrote the character Mark Lewyn for the film specifically with Dennis Miller in mind and the character in the book was somewhat modified for the screenplay to fit Miller's personality.
[edit] External links
Films directed by Barry Levinson |
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Diner (1982) • The Natural (1984) • Young Sherlock Holmes (1985) • Tin Men (1987) • Good Morning, Vietnam (1987) • Rain Man (1988) • Avalon (1990) • Bugsy (1991) • Toys (1992) • Jimmy Hollywood (1994) • Disclosure (1994) • Sleepers (1996) • Wag the Dog (1997) • Sphere (1998) • Liberty Heights (1999) • An Everlasting Piece (2000) • Bandits (2001) • Envy (2004) • Man of the Year (2006) |
es:Disclosure ru:Разоблачение (фильм, 1994)
