Synopsis

Jerry Fletcher is a New York City taxi driver who fills a newsletter with theories about government plots, secret experiments, and political manipulation. Most people dismiss him as paranoid, including Justice Department attorney Alice Sutton, whom he quietly adores. When one of his theories proves real, Jerry is abducted and hunted by a covert agency, forcing Alice to reconsider both his warnings and her own family's past.

Factoids & Trivia

• The film draws on the real CIA program MKUltra, which involved research into mind control, drugs, and interrogation techniques. The program operated from 1953 until 1973, and surviving records were later made public.

• Mel Gibson reportedly improvised portions of the opening scenes in which Jerry launches into rapid-fire conspiracy theories while driving passengers around New York.

• Although the story is set in New York City, production also used Los Angeles locations. The Orpheum Theatre in downtown Los Angeles appears as a New York movie theater.

• The movie was released in the United States on August 8, 1997. It was produced on an estimated $75 million budget and earned approximately $137 million worldwide.

• Contemporary criticism often singled out Jerry's eccentric monologues and street-level cabdriver scenes as the film's most distinctive material, while finding the large-scale action and romantic elements less convincing.