Strange Days is a 1995 American science fiction thriller film directed by Kathryn Bigelow, from a screenplay by James Cameron and Jay Cocks based on a story by Cameron. The film stars Ralph Fiennes, Angela Bassett, Juliette Lewis, Tom Sizemore, Michael Wincott, Brigitte Bako, and Vincent D'Onofrio. Set in a dystopian version of Los Angeles on the last two days of 1999, the film follows Lenny Nero (Fiennes), a black marketeer of an electronic device that allows a user to experience the recorded memories and physical sensations of other people, and Lornette "Mace" Mason (Bassett), a bodyguard and limousine driver, as they are drawn into a criminal conspiracy involving Nero's ex-girlfriend Faith Justin (Lewis) and friend Iris (Bako).
Blending science fiction with film noir conventions, Strange Days explores themes such as racism, abuse of power, rape and voyeurism. Although Cameron began work on the story around 1986, the film incorporates high-profile incidents from the early 1990s, such as the police violence against Rodney King and the 1992 Los Angeles riots. Principal photography began in Los Angeles on June 6, 1994, and concluded on October 14. Several of the film's scenes, which offer a point-of-view shot, required multi-faceted cameras and considerable technical preparation.
A major commercial failure, Strange Days nearly derailed Bigelow's career, grossing only $17 million against its $42 million budget. The film polarized critics upon release; while some praised the cinematography, visual style, and performances of the cast, others criticized its portrayal of rape and violence. Its critical standing has improved over the years, gaining a cult following. At the 22nd Saturn Awards, where the film received five nominations, Bassett won Best Actress and Bigelow became the first woman to win Best Director.
Plot As 1999 nears its end, Los Angeles has become a dangerous war zone. A Chinese restaurant is robbed by a group of criminals, with one recording the event with a SQUID (Superconducting QUantum Interference Device), an illegal electronic device that records memories and physical sensations directly from the wearer's cerebral cortex onto a MiniDisc-like storage device.
Lenny Nero, a former LAPD officer turned black marketeer of SQUID recordings, buys the robbery clip from his main supplier Tick. Elsewhere, Iris, a prostitute and former friend of Faith Justin (Lenny's ex-girlfriend), is chased by LAPD officers Burton Steckler and Dwayne Engelman. Iris escapes on a subway car, but Engelman pulls off her wig, revealing a SQUID recorder headset.
Lenny pines for Faith and relies on emotional support from his two best friends—Max Peltier, a private investigator, and Lornette "Mace" Mason, a bodyguard and limousine driver. Mace has unrequited feelings for Lenny from when he was still a cop and acted as a father figure for her son after her boyfriend was arrested on drug charges, but disapproves of his SQUID-dealing business. While Lenny and Max are drinking at a bar, Iris drops a SQUID disc through the sunroof of Lenny's car before it is towed away. Mace picks Lenny up and takes him to a nightclub where Faith is going to sing. There, Lenny receives a SQUID disc from an anonymous contact and unsuccessfully tries to get Faith away from her new boyfriend, Philo Gant. Philo is a music industry mogul who managed the recently murdered rapper Jeriko One.
While in the car with Mace, Lenny plays the disc the contact gave him and watches as Iris is brutally raped and murdered by an attacker at the Sunset Regent hotel. As they approach the hotel, Iris's body is taken out on a stretcher. The next day, they take the disc to Tick, who cannot identify the source of the recording, but recalls that Iris was looking for Lenny. Deducing Iris may have left something in Lenny's car, Mace and Lenny go to the impound and find Iris's disc. Steckler and Engelman appear and demand the disc at gunpoint, but Lenny and Mace escape in her bullet-resistant car before being forced to stop at a dock. Steckler pours gasoline on the car and sets it on fire, but Mace drives it into the harbor, extinguishing the flames. When they reach the surface, the cops have left.
Mace takes Lenny to her brother's house, and they watch Iris's disc, showing Iris was with Jeriko One when Steckler and Engelman pulled him over and murdered him, because his anti-police lyrics and activism incited protests against the LAPD. The two return to Tick, who Max explains has been rendered brain-dead from forceful exposure to amplified SQUID signals. Lenny fears Iris's attacker covered his tracks by "killing" Tick and will come after Faith. Back at the nightclub, Lenny and Mace confront Faith, who reveals that Philo is afraid Iris's disc would reveal that he kept his artists under surveillance. Lenny and Mace disagree over whether to trade the disc to Philo for Faith's freedom or release it publicly, which could incite a citywide riot. As midnight approaches, Lenny and Mace sneak into a private party that Philo is hosting at the Westin Bonaventure Hotel for the city's wealthy elite. Lenny has a change of heart and tells Mace to give the disc to deputy police commissioner Palmer Strickland.
In Philo's penthouse suite, Lenny finds Philo brain-dead on the floor and another disc, revealing Faith's affair with Max, who "fried" Philo's brain with an amplified recording of them feigning rape. Pointing a gun at Lenny, Max explains that Philo hired him to kill Iris, but when Philo wanted Faith dead as part of the coverup, he decided to frame Lenny for the murders. Lenny and Max struggle in a fight, Faith intervenes and pulls off Max's wig with a SQUID inside - assuring a confession - and Max stabs Lenny in the back. The fight culminates with Lenny on the balcony with Max hanging over; Lenny pulls the knife from his back to cut his necktie and drop Max to his death. Lenny goes downstairs to find Mace, leaving Faith standing alone on the balcony.
Meanwhile, on the crowded streets, Mace subdues Steckler and Engelman with baton and taser, but other officers take down Mace. The crowd moves in, in support of Mace, and a major riot seems inevitable. Strickland, who has viewed Iris's disc, arrives and orders Mace's release and the arrest of Steckler and Engelman for murder. Engelman commits suicide; Steckler threatens Mace, but the officers gun him down. Lenny finds Mace, and the two share a hug before she gets in Strickland's car. Then Lenny drags her out, and they share a kiss as the crowd celebrates the turn of the new millennium.
Cast
Production Development
Producer James Cameron began work on the story of Strange Days around 1985. He wrote with Kathryn Bigelow in mind to direct the film, and when he presented it to her she "thought it was tremendous". According to her, "These two characters on the eve of the millennium, with one character trying to get the woman who loves him to help him save the woman he loves. It's this great emotional matrix." After a series of dialogues, Cameron and Bigelow developed the film's political elements. Cameron focused more on the romantic side, while Bigelow centered more on "the edginess, the grit" part of the film. Cameron later wrote a 90-page treatment based on these dialogues, stating that it was "practically a novel, but it was unwieldy; it needed structure". The treatment was then presented to screenwriter Jay Cocks, who turned it into a script. Cameron felt that the resulting script was very well structured and only did a dialogue polish on top of it. The script was completed in 1992.
Bigelow's work on Strange Days was influenced by the 1992 Los Angeles riots that followed the Rodney King verdict. She noted, "I was involved in the downtown cleanup, and I was very moved by that experience. You got a palpable sense of the anger and frustration and economic disparity in which we live." She worked with Jay Cocks, co-writer of the script with James Cameron, in particular on the development of the character of Mace and on the "complexity of the rape sequences". Both Strange Days and Cameron's 1994 action film True Lies were part of a multimillion-dollar production deal between Lightstorm Entertainment and 20th Century Fox. However, the financing was unevenly divided between the two films, with Strange Days being initially budgeted at $30 million and True Lies at $70 million.
Casting Angela Bassett was attached to the film from its early stages, after Bigelow sent her the treatment document and Bassett accepted the role. In January 1994, it was reported that Andy Garcia was close to being cast as Lenny. However, on February 3, 1994, The Hollywood Reporter revealed that Ralph Fiennes had been cast instead and that he was wrapping up negotiations to play the role. Fiennes' breakthrough role in Schindler's List, for which he was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor just days later, impressed Bigelow enough to cast him as Lenny. She stated that the role "required somebody who had a tremendous amount of intelligence, complexity, depth, a series of qualities that I really felt only Ralph could supply". Cameron, however, initially felt that a "glibber and slicker" actor would be better for the role, but admitted that Fiennes made Lenny "a sexier character — a guy you can care about very much".
The Hollywood Reporter also announced that Bono was expected to join Fiennes and Bassett in the role of Faith's love interest and manager Philo Gant. In March 1994, columnist Army Archerd reported in Variety that Bono was still being sought for the role, which would eventually be played by Michael Wincott. In May 1994, Juliette Lewis, was cast alongside Fiennes and Bassett. The fact that Lewis was able to sing was important because the producers wanted to avoid lip-synching.
Filming Filming of Strange Days was originally slated to begin on May 12, 1994, but that date was delayed to June 6, as the cast needed to be finalized. Bigelow said that the O. J. Simpson murder trial "[echoed] the film events", adding that Strange Days was filmed during the summer and fall of that year. The film was entirely shot in Los Angeles over a period of 77 nights. Producer Steven-Charles Jaffe said that the city was generally very cooperative, except for the subway scene, as the team only had four hours a night to film it. Jaffe, however, remarked that Bigelow "was so well prepared that what would have taken another director several weeks to do, she did in a matter of days". The production team also received permission from the West Hollywood film commission to film on Sunset Boulevard for a two-day period, which required the shutdown of several lanes of traffic.
The scene where the crowd celebrates the turn of the new millennium at the end of the film was shot at the corner of the 5th and Flower streets, between the Westin Bonaventure Hotel and the Los Angeles Public Library. Over 50 off-duty police officers were hired to control an assembled crowd of 10,000 people, who had to pay $10 in advance to attend the event. The filmmakers also hired rave promoters Moss Jacobs and Philip Blaine to produce performances featuring Aphex Twin, Deee-Lite, as well as "all the cyber-techno bands they could garner". It was reported that a total of $750,000 was spent on the event, which included the rental of half of the 1,300 rooms in the Bonaventure. The event started at 9p.m. on Saturday, September 17, 1994, and ended shortly before its scheduled end at 4a.m. the next morning, as five people were hospitalized for suffering overdoses of ecstasy.