Three-time Oscar-winning filmmaker Oliver Stone returns to the screen with the ferocious thriller Savages, featuring the all-star ensemble cast of Taylor Kitsch (Battleship), Blake Lively (The Town), Aaron Taylor-Johnson (Kick-Ass), john travolta (Pulp Fiction), Benicio Del Toro (Traffic), Salma Hayek (Frida), Emile Hirsch (Into the Wild) and DEMIÁN BICHIR (A Better Life). The film is based on Don Winslow’s best-selling crime novel that was named one of The New York Times’ Top 10 Books of 2010.

Laguna Beach, that glittering seaside resort in Orange County, California, is home to the privileged and the bored: Teens with too much free time and disposable income, as well as men and women kept perpetually young by an ample supply of plastic surgeons—all making a weekly pilgrimage to that suburban mecca, the high-end shopping mall. The temperate climate and the sparkling Pacific Coast give it all a faux laid-back sheen. O (Lively) knows all about that. She’s a lovely local who is certainly familiar with her hometown’s homegrown foibles and charms.

O is short for Ophelia…she has her reasons. She’s a unique spirit, as are her housemates—Laguna Beach entrepreneurs Ben (Johnson) and Chon (Kitsch)—an extraordinary trio who share a one-of-a-kind love. Ben, a peaceful, charitable botanist aspires to save the world. His closest friend, Chon, a former Navy Seal and ex-mercenary, isn’t sure the world is worth saving. Ben, Chon and O keep to themselves and share a special bond…a postmodern family. They enjoy a quiet, well-appointed, free and easy lifestyle, made possible by Ben and Chon’s lucrative business: raising some of the best marijuana ever developed. Independent, fair-minded impresarios with a mind-blowing product, they are local heroes providing a product that people want.

Ben and Chon’s company, naturally, does not remain off the grid for long. Their legendary weed and innovative business model have attracted the keen interest of the Mexican Baja Cartel, headed by the merciless Elena “La Reina” (Hayek), her brutal enforcer, Lado (Del Toro), and her unscrupulous head attorney, Alex (Bichir). Elena demands a partnership with Ben and Chon, and nobody refuses La Reina without sacrificing something they hold dear.

But the Cartel underestimates the unbreakable bond among these three remarkable friends. Ben, Chon and, in her own way, O, wage a seemingly unwinnable war against the drug empire with the reluctant assistance of a dirty DEA agent named Dennis (Travolta) and a crafty accountant called Spin (Hirsch). And so begins a series of increasingly vicious ploys and high-stakes brinksmanship in a savage battle of wills.      

Based on the novel by Don Winslow (“The Kings of Cool: Prequel to Savages,” “The Power of the Dog”) and from a screenplay by Shane Salerno (Armageddon, Shaft) & Don Winslow & Oliver Stone, Savages is produced by longtime Stone collaborators Moritz Borman (W., Alexander, World Trade Center) & Eric Kopeloff (W., Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps).

 

Classification 18

 

Distributed by KRS