Reindeer Games Information

Reindeer Games (also known as Deception) is a 2000 thriller film, directed by John Frankenheimer and starring Ben Affleck, Gary Sinise, and Charlize Theron. It was Frankenheimer's final theatrically released film and received poor reviews.

Plot

Several unidentified dead men dressed as Santa Claus are shown in various positions. Flash back to six days earlier, Nick and Rudy are cellmates in prison three days away from release; Rudy is incarcerated for grand theft auto. Nick has been corresponding with a young woman named Ashley, who is waiting for him on the outside. When Nick is killed during a prison uprising, saving Rudy's life in the process, Rudy takes his place and lets the beautiful Ashley think he is the one who has been writing her the love letters. Gabriel, the leader of a gang who assaults Rudy and Ashley in their cabin, claims to be Ashley's brother and tells Nick that the gang, with Nick's help, will rob the casino he used to work at. Rudy reveals he is not Nick, but Ashley continues to confirm he is and that she wrote to him knowing Gabriel was going to kidnap and force Rudy to assist in the robbery. Rudy, while furious with Ashley, is reluctantly forced to go along with his ruse since he knows his is worthless to Gabriel as Rudy.

Using the information from the real Nick's prison cell stories, Rudy is able to devise a robbery plan and informs Gabriel that the biggest loot is hidden inside a safe in the manager's office called the "PowWow" safe. On the night of the robbery, Rudy breaks out of his holding in order to find a way to arm himself as he knows Gabriel will kill him after the robbery. He stumbles upon Gabriel and Ashley together and learns that Ashley is in cahoots with Gabriel and is actually his girlfriend.

The group robs the casino, each dressed as Santa Claus. Rudy, forced to take part in the robbery, hides the fact that he knows Ashley's secret. Shots are fired and security guards and Santas are shot. Ashley drives into the Casino killing two policemen who have shown up and lets Nick/Rudy know she is in on the heist. All meeting in the manager's office, Gabriel introduces Rudy to the casino manager as Nick but the manager recognizes that he isn't Nick and Rudy confesses. Gabriel, furious at Rudy's deception, spares him for a moment when he demands to know where the "PowWow" safe is, where Rudy had earlier claimed contained embezzled money. When Rudy correctly guesses it is behind the manager's liquor cabinet, Gabriel has the manager open the safe. When he opens it, the manager grabs guns from inside and kills one of the robbers as the rest flee. Rudy kills another one of the robbers and is then grabbed by Gabriel and Ashley who tie him up in their 18 wheeler truck.

They plan to drive him off the edge of a cliff in a burning vehicle located in the truck with a little of the money so that officials will guess all had been burned. After accidentally revealing too much information during an argument with Rudy, Ashley shoots and kills the now suspicious Gabriel. Shortly after, Nick appears, having staged his death at the prison. Rudy learns that the two had collaborated to rob the casino using Rudy and other thieves. Ashley had known the entire time who Rudy truly was. Nick also informs Rudy that the 6 months of stories were to set him up to take his place.

After they tie Rudy to the steering wheel to drive off the cliff, he produces a knife he had gotten earlier and begins to cut his bindings. He hot wires the car, sets it to reverse and crushes Nick. After Ashley begins firing at him, he rams the car into her and dives out of the vehicle as the car with her on the hood goes over the edge of the cliff. Nick, still alive but seriously injured, tries to convince Rudy that they can share the money, Rudy locks him in the truck and also sends it over the cliff, resulting in an explosion. Rudy picks up the stolen cash and begins distributing it in mailboxes he comes across on the way home.

Cast

• Ben Affleck as Rudy Duncan
• Gary Sinise as Gabriel Mercer
• Charlize Theron as Ashley Mercer
• James Frain as Nick Cassidy
• Dana Stubblefield as The Alamo
• Isaac Hayes as Zook
• Danny Trejo as Jumpy
• Dennis Farina as Jack Bangs
• Clarence Williams III as Merlin
• Ashton Kutcher as College kid
• Ron Jeremy as Prisoner #1 (as Ron Hyatt)
• Jimmy Herman as Bartender
• Donal Logue as Pug

Production

The film was based in Michigan's upper peninsula but was shot in Vancouver and Prince George, British Columbia, Canada.

Reception

Reindeer Games received generally poor reviews and lost expectations at achieving commercial success. The review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes reported that 25% of critics gave the film a positive review, based on a sample of 87 reviews, with an average score of 4.2/10. Metacritic, which assigns a weighted average score out of 100 from reviews by mainstream critics, gave a film rating of 37/100 based on 33 reviews. In 2007, Theron said that she considered it her worst film, saying that "Reindeer Games was not a good movie, but I did it because I loved John Frankenheimer." A CNN review said: "Reindeer Games isn't at the bottom of his creative barrel, but it's close." On a $42 million budget, the film grossed $32,168,970 worldwide.

Trivia

The name of the movie and the main character are a reference to Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer.