Introduction
“Salt” is a feature film by Phillip Noyce in the genre of action. Kurt Wimmer and Brian Helgeland wrote the script of the film. The main role — Evelyn Salt, suspected of working for Russian intelligence, is played by Angelina Jolie. She miraculously manages to escape prison: her own agency is making accusations against her that she is a spy. The main motive of the plot is that the main character needs to restore her reputation. It should be noted that the main human experience that is revealed in this film is the motive of the search for identity. This is manifested in the fact that Salt strives to understand his own past and draw the right conclusions in order not to make a mistake. However, it is worth noting that this aspect is revealed in this film rather poorly, which indicates a negative component that does not allow the audience to familiarize and immerse themselves in the development of the main character of this film.
Element of the Human Experience
Evelyn Salt, an undercover CIA special agent, is captured in North Korea. Having steadfastly withstood the most severe tortures and tortures, she, with the support of her boyfriend Mike, and the head of her unit Ted Whitner, returned home (Salt 00:05:20). Two years later, Evelyn works as a full-time agent in Washington (Salt 00:07:51). On the day of her anniversary, Evelyn is going home early to celebrate this holiday with her beloved when a Russian spy named Orlov enters their head building and declares that he wants to surrender.
Dying of cancer before his death, in order to clear his conscience, he wanted to share essential information with the US authorities. As a negotiation specialist, Evelyn is instructed to interview Orlov to establish whether he has such valuable data (Marah Boune). Orlov says that in the United States, for a considerable time, an underground network of Russian agents was being prepared, whose activities were aimed at undermining the foundations of American life in order to strengthen Russia’s influence on the world stage (Salt 00:10:00). However, most importantly, one of the agents is assigned a mission to eliminate the US president at the funeral of the recently deceased vice president. Moreover, the name of this agent is Evelyn Salt.
Consequently, such life events radically change the reality of the main character. Thus, Salt later performs actions that confuse viewers about who she is. The main aspect of the film focuses on this mystery, symbolized by the main character’s misunderstanding of her identity (Johnson). This human experience is significant, as it determines the motives and principles of making life decisions. The same is faced by Salt, who begins to perform sometimes inconsistent and illogical actions related to the fact that she seeks to determine her purpose. However, the problem is that the film does not reveal this aspect in enough detail. This is explained by focusing on various action scenes, not on the main character’s psychological struggle. Consequently, the necessary directing decisions were not taken that would allow the audience to experience the state of Salt fully.
Conclusion
Summing up, it should be noted that the film sought to analyze the motive of the search for identity. Salt is faced with various events that provoke her to make decisions that cast doubt on all memories and life principles. Consequently, the directors sought to demonstrate that everyone has the opportunity to define their identity, corresponding to ideals and values. However, the film does not use enough artistic techniques to allow the audience to become more familiar with the main character in more detail and depth.
Works Cited
Johnson, Paul. “Salt: The Feminist Action Franchise That Wasn’t.”25YL, 2025. Web.
Marah Boune, Sylvia. “The Ending of Salt Explained.”Looper, 2022. Web.
Salt. Directed by Phillip Noyce, Columbia Pictures, 2010.