IMDb RATING
6.5/10
6.7K
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A TV program selects people at random to kill one another for fame and their freedom.A TV program selects people at random to kill one another for fame and their freedom.A TV program selects people at random to kill one another for fame and their freedom.
- Awards
- 3 wins & 4 nominations
- Director
- Writer
- All cast & crew
- Production, box office & more at IMDbPro
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaWriter/Director Daniel Minahan's childhood friend, Dawn Lagarto, is given a "Special Thanks" credit. He originally wrote the story using her name for the main character. When it came time to start filming the producers had legal concerns regarding the use of a real person's name, but actress Brooke Smith felt an affinity for the name and wanted to retain it for her character. Minahan called the real Dawn Lagarto and got her blessing to use the name. The real Dawn Lagarto is not an unwed mother, has never participated in a reality TV series, and has never killed anyone.
- GoofsThe truck Tony drives off with the baby in is a Ford Ranger (a mid-size truck). The stock footage of a chase from a helicopter shows a truck that is supposed to be Tony's, but is now a full-sized Chevy. Back in the close-ups, it's a Ford Ranger again.
- Quotes
[After taking a movie audience hostage]
Dawn Lagarto: Bring my baby here or else innocent people are gonna die!
[Audience members applaud and cheer.]
Dawn Lagarto: That means YOU, ASSHOLES!
[Audience shuts up.]
- Crazy creditsAfter the title credits, a warning appears "Due to the graphic nature of this program, viewer discretion is advised."
- Alternate versionsThe DVD version includes deleted scenes that are viewed seperately. They include:
- The reunion with Dawn's family is extended.
- A scene of Franklin refusing the radio/GPS rig and explaining why he lives in a lead-lined shack.
- A scene where Franklin is looking in the mirror and mentally preparing himself before he receives the note.
- Franklin's speech in the mall is extended.
- A scene with Connie's priest, where he explains in an interview that he's a fan of the show, that he recognized Connie's voice in the confessional, and that he hopes that she confesses for the two murders before she herself dies.
- 'Man-on-the-street' interviews.
- The 'real' ending, which we are told in the film that the footage was destroyed and then are presented a dramatization of the events. The 'real' ending is, when presented with the choice of killing one another, Jeff and Dawn put the guns down, run out of the theatre, were they meet a crowd of disgruntled fans. The fans give chase after them and, after catching them entering their SUV, begin beating them, presumably to death. This explains why, at the end of the film, Doria is proclaiming that she's been framed and why Jeff survived.
- An interview with Laura with Dawn's baby, where she renames the baby Dawn and says she's proud of her sister.
- A PSA from Doria about checking for testicular cancer.
- SoundtracksMeet The Contenders
Written and Performed by Girls Against Boys
Published by Action Collar Music/EMI/Blackwood Music/BMI
Copyright 2000 Geffen Records;
Girls Against Boys appears courtesy of Geffen Records
Featured review
Only A Matter of Time Until Actual Reality Shows Go This Far...
SERIES 7: THE CONTENDERS is both a taut thriller and a deft satire on the outlandish lengths TV networks will go to in order to lure viewers. Set in the near future, SERIES 7 is cleverly constructed as a marathon of seventh-season episodes of "The Contenders," a hit reality show in which contestants are selected via state lotteries and given guns with which they're expected to hunt down and kill their fellow contestants (although they're free to use their own weapons and be inventive). The object: to stay alive. The prize: whoever remains alive after 3 Contenders seasons wins his/her freedom from the high-rated program/ordeal. The champ is Dawn Lagarto (Brooke Smith of SILENCE OF THE LAMBS), a pregnant, troubled but essentially decent drifter. Trapped in the program for the past two seasons, Dawn's reluctantly willed herself into becoming a frighteningly efficient killing machine to keep herself and her unborn baby alive. For her third and final season, "The Contenders" sends Dawn to her hometown of Newbury, Connecticut. Her fellow contestants/adversaries include prim but ruthless ER nurse Connie (Marylouise Burke of MUST LOVE DOGS and A PRAIRIE HOME COMPANION); teenage Lindsay, whose well-meaning but overbearing parents (Mom is played by Donna Hanover, TV personality and Rudy Giuliani's ex!) coach her for the show as if she were trying out for an athletic competition; unemployed asbestos-removal worker Tony, who's trying to use this cruel TV twist of fate to unite his family; crazed conspiracy theorist Franklin; and Jeff, an artist who's dying of testicular cancer -- and who also happens to be Dawn's high school sweetheart. The lingering flames of love and resentment between these two, and the reactions of Jeff's long-suffering wife, provide the film's most poignant and suspenseful moments, as well as one of its funniest: clips of the low-budget student film they made in high school, including every 1980s video cliché imaginable and Joy Division's technodirge "Love Will Tear Us Apart" on the soundtrack. SERIES 7's authentically television-like feel is augmented by its story being told entirely through such TV conventions as bumpers, interviews, voiceovers, cutaway footage, dramatic re-enactments of events by doubles, and exciting tag lines ("Real people...in real danger...in a fight for their lives!"). We even meet most of the characters as they're notified of their selection for "The Contenders" on-camera, as the show's masked, armed minions come to the new contestants' homes like sinister Publishers Clearing House representatives. These TV gimmicks create deliciously satirical overtones in and of themselves, and yet the movie's irony and gallows humor works precisely because it's all played absolutely straight, not with the "nudge nudge wink wink" air that too many recent thrillers have overdone in their attempts to be edgy and postmodern. But the film's brilliant craftsmanship wouldn't be nearly as effective without the power of the fine cast's performances, particularly Brooke Smith; her riveting performance makes Dawn the emotional center of SERIES 7: THE CONTENDERS. That said, the film also chillingly portrays the way fear and self-preservation can turn even the most decent human being into a stone-cold killer. This sharp, smart, exhilarating thriller works on so many levels, and it's got one of the niftiest twist endings in ages, too! Somehow, I suspect it's only a matter of time before a real-life reality show figures out a way to go this far... :-)
helpful•146
- dtb
- Jul 20, 2006
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Details
Box office
- Gross US & Canada
- $195,065
- Opening weekend US & Canada
- $28,844
- Mar 4, 2001
- Gross worldwide
- $300,086
- Runtime1 hour 26 minutes
- Color
- Sound mix
- Aspect ratio
- 1.85 : 1
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By what name was Series 7: The Contenders (2001) officially released in Canada in English?
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