The Firm (film)



The Firm is a 1993 legal thriller, based off the 1991 novel by John Grisham, starring Tom Cruise as a young attorney who gets in over his head when he begins working for a law firm with many secrets.

Mitch McDeere (Cruise) is a recent Harvard Law graduate who is offered a prestigious position as a litigator at the law firm Bendini, Lambert & Locke, headed by co-founder Oliver Lambert (Hal Holbrook), and soon finds himself showered with gifts, money and a new car. At the same time, he strikes up a friendship with senior partner Avery Tolar (Gene Hackman) and begins to learn the ins and outs of the law field. Mitch and his wife Abby (Jeanne Tripplehorn) are living the good life - until two associates who worked with the firm are mysteriously murdered. Unaware of what's going on, Mitch is contacted by the FBI, headed by Agent Wayne Tarrance (Ed Harris), and told that the firm is a corrupt group of lawyers with massive influence and connections to the mob. Faced with the prospect of losing his career and his wife, and with more people being murdered, Mitch realizes the only way he'll get out alive is to follow his own plan.

The Firm was the first film adaptation of a Grisham novel, and featured an All-Star Cast of actors. The film was commercially and critically successful (racking up $262 million against a $42 million budget), and led to further adaptations of Grisham's works.

A television series based on the film began airing in January 2012 on NBC, and was developed by Entertainment One Productions. The plot picks up ten years after the events of the movie, with Mitch (played by Josh Lucas) and his family deciding to leave the FBI's Witness Protection Program in order to "take back their lives". After he attempts to start his own law firm in Washington, McDeere is solicited by a bigger firm, Kinross & Clark, who brings him onboard as a litigator. At the same time, the son of one of the mob bosses indicted as a result of Mitch's actions a decade before swears vengeance on the attorney and his family.

The film provides examples of:
"Tarrance: How about you get down on your knees and kiss my ass for not indicting you as a co-conspirator right now, you chickenshit little Harvard cocksucker?
 * Adaptation Distillation: The ending of the book and film are radically different. Whereas Mitch uses his circumstances to skim money from the mob in the book, he breaks the firm and leaves with his integrity and ethics intact (but without much in the way of financial gain) in the film.
 * Affably Evil: The entire firm throughout most of the film, and especially Avery Tolar.
 * Alliterative Name: Mitch McDeere.
 * Amoral Attorney: Every lawyer at Bendini, Lambert & Locke. It's stated by Tarrance that the firm has just enough legit clients (30%) to make it look like an upstanding law firm.
 * Beauty Equals Goodness: Cruise and Tripplehorn are high school sweethearts and generally moral and righteous people. For every other character, the older (and more unattractive) they are, the greater the chance they're corrupt.
 * Book Ends: The film starts with Mitch and Abigail arriving at their new house in Memphis, and leaving the house (in the same car) at the end of the film when they decide to move to Boston.
 * Ceiling Cling: Mitch uses this (hanging onto a pole running across a ceiling) when he's cornered by Devasher and the Nordic Man in the abandoned building.
 * Chekhov's Skill: When Avery Tolar first meets Mitch near the beginning, he makes it very clear that all lawyers should keep a careful eye on what they bill a client, and tells Mitch to remember it well. It comes back at the end of the film when Mitch defrauds the firm by making it look like they overbilled all of their clients (including the mobsters).
 * Elvis Impersonator: Tammy's truck driver ex-husband, who (in the book) had changed his name to Elvis Aaron Hemphill and moved his family to Memphis shortly after the real Elvis' death.
 * Every Man Has His Price: Tarrance tells Mitch about the firm's modus operandi: they "buy" the lawyer's loyalty with money, job security and support for private schooling, while gradually easing the lawyer into shadier activities. If the lawyer refuses to cooperate, the firm can threaten to bankrupt him, and if he persists, they kill him.
 * Excuse Me, Coming Through: When Mitch escapes the assassins trying to kill him, he runs down the "up" escalator in a public square, prompting this statement.
 * Ivy League for Everyone: Played with. Mitch is a Harvard Law grad, and knows how exclusive and in-demand his education was, while people joke about his education (and the fact that he got absurdly high bar exam scores) throughout the film.
 * Jerkass: FBI Agent Wayne Tarrance is cordial to a point with Mitch... until Mitch decides he doesn't want to play ball with the FBI if he's going to be disbarred. Tarrance switches to a arrogant jerk who boldly tries to intimidate him and his wife.
 * Justice by Other Legal Means: Mitch successfully ensnares the firm by using lawyer-client privilege to reach an agreement with the Morolito mob while proving every legal partner was guilty of overbilling their clients, thus allowing him to keep his status as a lawyer.
 * Loophole Abuse: Exhibited by the firm Mitch works for.
 * Murder by Mistake: Devasher kills the Nordic Man (who picked up Mitch's briefcase while the lawyer was hiding, and stood up to face a door) by accident after thinking that the silhouette behind the door was Mitch.
 * Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: Throughout the film, everyone jokes to Mitch about his absurdly high bar exam score. This comes back to bite them in the ass when they inadvertantly give Mitch the idea he needs to take down the firm.
 * No Escape but Down: Mitch has nowhere to go when he attempts to flee the firm's offices, so he breaks a window and leaps several stories down onto a flatbed truck filled with bales of wool.
 * Oh Crap: Tarrance once he realizes that Mitch taped their conversation, in which he overexerted his authority and threatened to destroy Mitch.
 * Peer Pressure Makes You Evil: Averted. Mitch is completely oblivious to the backroom dealings of the law firm until an FBI agent basically smacks him in the face with the evidence that he's working for very corrupt people.
 * Pretty in Mink: Abby gets a fox coat for Christmas when Mitch first joins the firm.
 * Punctuated Pounding: After Mitch dropkicks Devasher when hanging from the ceiling, he repeatedly beats the bigger man with his briefcase and kicks him, while yelling "YOU SICK! SON OF A! BITCH!"
 * Resignations Not Accepted: Up until Mitch escapes, the firm murdered every associate who either tried to leave or tried to alert the authorities as to what was going on.
 * Rewrite: In the movie, Mitch and Abby get to drive away from the firm (and Memphis) In the novel,  they get to spend their lives in exile sailing a yacht around the Caribbean.
 * Shout-Out:
 * The film's tagline is one to The Godfather.
 * At one point, Mitch says (in regards to Tarrance's threats that Mitch must cooperate) that "They don't run me, and you don't run me," a reference to a line spoken by James Caan in 1981's Thief, which featured a hitman facing similar circumstances.
 * Sir Swearsalot: Tarrance.

McDeere: I haven't done anything, and you know it!

Tarrance: Who gives a fuck? I'm a federal agent! You know what that means, you lowlife motherfucker? It means you've got no rights, your life is mine! I could kick your teeth down your throat and yank 'em out your asshole, and I'm not even violating your civil rights!"


 * Swiss Bank Account: Mitch orders Tarrance to provide him with $1.5 million deposited in an offshore bank account in exchange for collaborating with the FBI (prompting the reaction seen in the Sir Swearsalot example).
 * To Be Lawful or Good: The main conflict Mitch faces in the last half of the film - if he takes down the firm, he loses his licence to practice law. Mitch Takes a Third Option, and drives a wedge between the firm and the mob to get out unscathed and protect his career.
 * Unresolved Sexual Tension: Mitch and Tammy.
 * Your Cheating Heart: Subverted. Mitch has a one-night stand with a young woman while on vacation, which prompts the firm (who orchestrated the whole setup in the first place) to use it as leverage to keep it quiet. Unlike the novel, however, Mitch immediately tells his wife what happened, and they resolve to work through their personal issues later.