Plot
Evelyn Salt (Jolie), a CIA agent, interrogates a Russian defector, Orlov (Olbrychski). He tells her about "Day X", an operation organized by a powerful Russian since the Cold War, which will lead to the destruction of the United States. Orlov also mentions that at the funeral of the late Vice President in New York City, the visiting Russian President will be killed by a trained Russian spy. The last thing he mentions is that the name of the Russian spy is Evelyn Salt. From brain scans performed during the interrogation, Ted Winter (Schreiber), Peabody (Ejiofor), and other CIA officials all see that Orlov is telling the truth.
Salt, who is shaken up after the accusation, under the supervision of the other agents, attempts to contact her husband Mike (Diehl) an arachnologist, fearing that he would be in danger. At the same time, Orlov escapes and Salt proceeds to escape herself, causing the CIA to think she is a spy. She goes back to her apartment to try and find her husband and takes her essentials (including a venomous spider), while escaping the CIA once more, and goes into hiding. The CIA realizes that if Orlov's words are correct, Salt will be the one who kills the Russian President. Salt assumes a new disguise and takes a bus, reaching New York City.
The next day, she sneaks into the heavily guarded St. Bartholomew's Church where the Vice President's funeral is being held. Salt creates havoc and shoots the Russian President. She encounters Peabody, but instead of killing him, she turns herself in. The NYPD escorts her out, but during the ride on the highway, she escapes.
There are a series of flashbacks that show Salt growing up in the Soviet Union where Orlov taught her and many other children to obey him and ingratiate themselves into the American government. Then, when it came to Day X, he would command them to strike from various positions in the US. Salt meets Orlov who congratulates her on her killing. He brings her to a river barge, where to test her allegiance, has another agent kill Salt's kidnapped husband in front of her. Salt appears to be unaffected by this, thus passing Orlov's test. He then tells her Part Two of Day X, which would involve controlling the nuclear weapons of the United States. Salt, who had gone to Orlov to discover his plans, then kills Orlov and everyone else on the barge. She then goes to the rendezvous set up by Orlov to meet a NATO mole.
The two go to the White House, with Salt disguised as a male NATO officer. Her NATO counterpart, without telling Salt his role, suddenly starts shooting at Secret Service agents and detonates a bomb on his body. The Secret Service rush the President to the lower bunker of the White House. Ted Winter is among them, and realizes that Salt might be in pursuit. Meanwhile, the President, believing Russia is preparing a nuclear strike against the US, begins to transmit the launch codes from the nuclear football. Salt infiltrates the bunker and dispatches the bodyguards. Just as she seems stuck outside of the room the President is in, Ted Winter suddenly picks up a gun and kills everyone but the President, whom he knocks unconscious.
He explains to an astonished Salt that he was part of Orlov's plan all along. Winter then uses the nuclear football to start the sequence for launching nuclear missiles at the Muslim cities of Mecca and Tehran, intending to enrage the world's one billion Muslims against the United States. Salt asks Winter to let her in, but Winter discovers from a playing news program that the Russian President is not dead, only placed in a near death state from spider venom. He realizes that Salt is not on his side and is planning to sabotage him. Winter reveals he convinced Orlov to break her cover and planned to kill Orlov himself when it was over. He tells her that she has done the dirty work, and, while she will take the fall as the villain after Day X, he will be the hero. He also confesses that he was the one who advised Orlov to kidnap and kill her husband. Salt, seeing a weak point behind the controls for the door lock, manages to get into the secured room and confronts Winter in combat. She succeeds in knocking him down, and the Secret Service along with CIA is heard about to enter the room. Just after she is able to abort the nuclear missile launch set up by Winter, she is arrested and Winter is able to keep his cover as the hero, so long as he can kill the President, the sole witness, undetected.
As Salt is being escorted out, she pushes aside her escorts and kills Winter by choking him to death with her handcuffs. She is put on a helicopter with Peabody, and she explains everything to him. Peabody figures she is telling the truth, after confirming her betrayal of Orlov via an SMS saying that her fingerprints were found at the barge. They both know that there are other moles out there, and Peabody agrees to let her escape, so she can find and kill them. He uncuffs her and remarks, "Go get 'em!" as Salt jumps into the river below, free once more...
Cast
Angelina Jolie as the film's main protagonist Evelyn Salt, a CIA officer accused of being a KGB sleeper agent
Liev Schreiber as Ted Winter, Salt's friend and colleague and antagonist conspiring with Orlov's agents.
Chiwetel Ejiofor as Peabody, an ONCIX agent in pursuit of Salt
Daniel Olbrychski as Orlov, a Russian defector
August Diehl as Mike Krause, Salt's husband.
Olek Krupa as Russian President Matveyev
Hunt Block as United States President Lewis
Delelopment , writing and casting
In 2007 it was reported that Terry George and Peter Berg would direct, but both dropped out for undisclosed reasons.[2][3] A year later it was confirmed that Phillip Noyce would direct.[4] In 2007, Tom Cruise had been approached by Noyce to play Edwin A. Salt from the script written by Kurt Wimmer. Cruise was unable to commit to the script because of other commitments to projects and feared that the character was too close to his Mission Impossible character Ethan Hunt.[5] The filmmakers tried to differentiate the character from Hunt, but eventually came to accept they were too similar and decided not to change the characteristics of Salt. Noyce said "But, you know, he had a valid point. It was kind of returning to an offshoot of a character that he’d already played. It’s like playing the brother, or the cousin, of somebody that you played in another movie".[5]
Columbia Pictures executive Amy Pascal suggested Angelina Jolie to Noyce, who had often spoken to Jolie in the past about a desire to create a female spy franchise. Jolie was sent the script in September of that year and liked it. Wimmer, Noyce, and producer Lorenzo di Bonaventura went to visit Jolie at her home in France to discuss a possible script and character change. Writer Brian Helgeland helped with the character development and dialogue of the script based on the notes that came out of those discussions with Jolie and to accompany the gender change, the title character's name was changed to Evelyn Salt.[5] When asked if the script written for Cruise was the same for Jolie, he said "I think that it’s just been a continual process, obviously accelerating by changing the central character. But the ideas — the locomotive of ideas that drive the movie are the same. An undercover CIA operative is accused of being a Russian mole, and has to go on the run to defend themselves [sic]. That’s been the same since day one. The tone of the film has changed in this evolution. In the same way, I guess, as — you know — action thrillers have changed along the lines of the Bond films and the Bourne films".[5][6]
On February 19, 2009, it was confirmed that Liev Schreiber would play the role of Ted Winter, Evelyn Salt's friend and colleague in the CIA.[7] Three days later Variety reported that Chiwetel Ejiofor would play Peabody, who is in pursuit of Salt.[8] Yara Shahidi was cast as Cleo, a girl living in the same building as Salt.[9]
Filming
On a budget of $130 million ($110 million after tax credits), principal photography took place mostly on location in New York and Washington, DC[10][11] from March to June 2009, while re-shoots were done in December 2009.[12][13][14] Filming for a chase sequence took place in Albany on Water Street near the Interstate 787 ramp between April and May.[15]
Jolie spent time training before filming to perform almost all of the stunts herself. Bonaventura said "She is so prepared and so ready and gung-ho, she'll do any stunt. We had her jumping out of helicopters, shooting, jumping off of all sorts of things and infiltrating places that are impossible to infiltrate".[16] On May 29, 2009, filming was temporarily halted after Jolie suffered a minor head injury during filming an action scene. She was taken to hospital as a "precautionary measure"; she was released on the same day with no serious injuries and filming was resumed.[17]
Release
The film was featured at San Diego Comic-Con on July 22, 2010.[18] It was released in North America on July 23, 2010. It will be released on August 20 in the United Kingdom.[19][20]
Directed by Phillip Noyce
Produced by Lorenzo di Bonaventura
Sunil Perkash
Written by Kurt Wimmer
Brian Helgeland
Starring Angelina Jolie
Liev Schreiber
Chiwetel Ejiofor
Music by James Newton Howard
Cinematography Robert Elswit
Editing by Stuart Baird
John Gilroy
Studio Relativity Media
Distributed by Columbia Pictures
Release date(s) July 23, 2010 (2010-07-23)
Running time 100 minutes
Country United States
Language English
Budget $110 million
Gross revenue $49,822,720[1]
