The Contract (2006)

Plot of The Contract: Assassin Frank Carden and his team of villains have a contract to kill a reclusive billionaire, Lyell Hammond. To get a view of the target they throw his son under a bus which will cause him to attend the funeral in a woodland cemetery. However, Frank is in a car crash, and hospitalised is identified and put in transport to a secure location. Meanwhile widower Ray Keene is going on a camping trip in the woods with his son, eager to improve their relationship. Carden’s gang arrange an ambush to get him back but the car in which he is travelling careers off the road and ends up in a river, where Ray rescues him. Thereafter they are trekking through the woods, Ray armed with a pistol retrieved from a dead marshal, Jamie, is son leading the way. They collect a couple of campers on the way. Meanwhile Frank’s heavily armed team are on their tail, and the FBI have set up camp, and their leader is communicating with one of the villains.

Content: No sex, and a rear view of the female camper emerging from the river. Ray and his son argue a bit, he is a former policeman, now a teacher. We see the Hammond son thrown under a bus, but don’t know why. Once in the woods there is a lot of trekking through the trees, including some rock climbing where Frank shows himself to be human being. This much in the style of the 3.10 to Yuma, the prisoner concerned for his captors. Meanwhile the FBI lady is communicating with one of the villains, who is possibly going to kill Frank. There are exchanges of gunfire, and one way or another the villains are gradually picked off.

A View: I struggled to understand precisely what was going on, which was mostly OK, but found out afterwards that the plot did not make sense, so I was relieved. The woods are impressive, containing a number of obstacles to hiking. They are apparently in Bulgaria. There is tension as the villains occasionally get close to Ray and his prisoner, but Ray has a bit of skill, having been a policeman. So despite its many failings, it is a film which you might have on for nothing while doing something else.

Fun Fact: Bruce Beresford finished the film using his own money after the producers had pulled the plug.