MIB: Men In Black (1997)

USA - July 2nd 1997, Holland - July 24th 1997, UK - August 1st 1997, Australia - September 18th 1997

MEN IN BLACK features almost 250 visual effects from Industrial Light & Magic and makeup and creature effects supervised

by Rick Baker. The film stars Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones as top secret "immigration" cops chasing aliens on Earth.

Smith talking on his character (Agent J) in Men In Black:

"J is the kind of character who enjoys life and experiencing new things. He also thinks he's the smartest person in the world, so becoming a MiB is the ultimate challenge. Adapting to this new world really drives this character, and the same thing that made him want to be a police officer, to be the guy who serves and protects, is now what makes him want to join the ultimate police force."
It doesn't take long for J to realize he's also met the ultimate challenge in his new partner K.
"J looks at K as kind of a grump. You know, it's like, Dude, lighten up. I understand we have a job to do, but can't we enjoy doing it, just a little bit? "

Mega-Star Smith In 'Black'

Giselle Fernandez sits down with actor Will Smith, star of this year’s sci-fi spectacular Men In Black. With the phenomenal success of last year's blockbuster "Independence Day", Smith is now a major Hollywood player, reportedly commanding up to $15 million per movie.

Today Smith has found love again with actress Jada Pinkett. They've been an item now for two years. 'Is Jada the one?’ Fernandez asks. "You know, I don't want to go, oh yes, this is the one, we're going to be together forever...but you know, I'm very happy and we really enjoy one another" Smith replies. He’s also enjoying the hype surrounding his new movie. With the help of partner Tommy Lee Jones, the two play alien experts who have a high-tech gismo to erase memory of humans who have had close encounters. 'In real life, if you had such a gismo, what would you erase if you could?’ Laughing, Smith replies, "I don't know. I think I'm just happy with my life. I'm happy with the way things are and there's really nothing that I would want to erase. All of those things make me who I am. They add to the collage we call me." Men In Black opened July 1 on 2,500 screens across the country and to date has already grossed over $100 million.

cop. Access Hollywood

Smith's Close Encounter

The Tonight Show with Jay Leno - The Weekly - June 26, 1997

Powerhouse Men in Black star Will Smith showed up to a standing ovation from the studio audience. As soon as he sat down, all the "Fresh Prince" could say was "I like that." Feeling comfortable on Jay’s new furniture, Smith complimented Jay on his choice of star covered cushions. Apparently, last night was the big premiere of this summer’s most anticipated film, Men in Black. Will brought in a picture of his son from the premiere, who is currently in training to be a "kid in black." In the photo, the little "KIB" was decked out in his black suit and black sunglasses. According to Smith, the fourth of July for his son isn’t a day for independence, barbecues and fireworks. Rather, that’s the day that daddy’s movies come out. Reliving past Independence Days, Smith shared a story about when he was a kid and one of his friends put a lit firecracker in his hand. Hopefully, he’ll be able keep pumping out fourth of July films so that his son won’t be so unfortunate. Although Will wasn’t always a tough street kid, he claims that he was always attractive. Jay let the audience decide this claim by showing a picture of Will from his high school graduation. The audience roared. In high school, he was always silly, so people used to beat him up. However, he claims that he never moved in on another guy’s girlfriend and further claims that he is a monogamous, one woman man. Jay pointed out that even though all the women in the studio audience believe him, the guys were telling him to "shut up." Jay, who told Will that he thought MIB was a great movie, apparently called Will the day after he saw it to compliment him on how great it was. Being the big sci-fi star of the nineties, Will definitely believes that there is other life in the galaxy. Over the disbelief of the crowd, Will shared a story of an encounter he had while driving down a dark road in Las Vegas. Immediately, Jay pointed out that there is a lot of military bases around Las Vegas, but Will stated that it was moving much too fast to be anything from our military. Hypothetically, Jay asked Will the question of whether or not he would fly out in space with aliens if they asked him to come with them. Will answered Jay by simply stating, "I’m too important down here."

Summary by Matt Stefiuk:

It starts off with Kay and his partener Dee somewhere in Texas in their black '86 Ford LTD. Then some officers from a division that i think keeps illegal immigrants from getting into the U.S. called INS caputre some Mexicans trying to sneak in. Kay sees INS written on the side of one of their trucks and uses a morphing badge to read INS-division six. Kay & his partener step out of the car and claim they are from division six. Kay speaks to the mexicans in their language and when he gets to the end of the line of them he comes across a man who obviously doesn't speak the language considering what Kay says to him. Then Kay tells all of the immigrants and INS agents to leave him and the immigrant and Dee alone. The immigrant unzipps his skin and turns out to be the alien Mikey, trying to sneak back on the planet. Then an INS agent sees the alien and screams out. Mikey then charges at him but Kay blasts him with his gun and blue goo splatters everywhere. The INS agents can't beleive what is going on. Kay then uses this pen shaped object on the agents that makes them forget everything that has happened, it zaps their memory. Kay calls a Men in Black clean up crew to make sure this event goes undiscovered. The story then turns to Jay(James Darrel Edwards) a New York cop) chasing a perp who seems to run really really fast and is able to almost scale walls. Jay tackles him down and discovers that he is not human, he has two sets of eye lids, like gills. "I've failed" says the perp, He is going to kill me!.

Then he jumps off the roof and kills himself. Jay trys to explain what happened to his police cheif but doesn't beleive him. Dr. Laurel Weaver is introduced as a morgue worker. Jay speaks to Laurel and they can't figure out what is going on with this body, it's not human!. Kay comes in the door zaps Laurel with the memory device, forgetting all about her encouter with Kay and Jay. Jay tells Kay about the alien perp and Kay takes him to Jack Jeebs, weapons seller, and alien. Jeebs shows his arsenal of alien weapons and Jay picks out the one he saw the perp holding. Kay convinces Jay to join the Men in Black, shortening his name from James Darrel Edwards to Jay. Then the alien terrorist arrives on Earth, his name is Kerb. There seems to be a lot of aliens leaving Earth and Kay wants to know what is going on. There are these papers called Hot Sheets which are really newspaper tabloids like the inquirer. Kay read one of the titles that reads-- FARM WIFE SAYS "ALIEN STOLE MY HUSBANDS SKIN!" SPACESHIP CRUSHES FAMILY TRUCK AND HUSBAND VANISHES. Kay and Jay visit the farm and scan the area and eventually conclude that they are dealing with a alien species referred to as "bugs". It appers the alien Kerb, or Edgar has come to earth to assasinate two ambassadors ( the Arquillian and Baltian) who are trying to make a peace treaty. Edgar kills them both in a Chinese restaurant. The bodies of the two ambassadors goes to Dr.Laurel Weaver, who soon finds out that the bodies are infact aliens. Kay and Jay arrive claiming to be from the Department of Public Health. One of the bodies face opens up and there is a little alien inside of the skull who is struggling to say his last words which are something along the lines of--Must prevent war, find galaxy on Orions belt. It is not really clear what this galaxy thing is but it appears that one of the ambassadors placed it on a bell on his pet cat. Edgar finds out that the cat was brought to Laurel with the dead ambassadors. Jay and Kay know this as well and there is a battle at the morgue with Edgar and the two Mib agents. Edgar manages to run off with the galaxy and Laurel. Kay and Jay must hurry and stop Edgar because it appears that outside Earth's orbit is two hovering battle ships, one that belongs to the Arquillians and the other belonging to the Baltians.

Since Earth does not have a good track record of being trustworthy the A's think that Earth is in cahoots with the B's and vice versa. Kay and Jay want answers. They go to an alien pug dog named Frank. Frank explains that the Arquillians and Baltians were at war for a long time, and the peace conferrence was going to be the B's giving the A's the galaxy. The bug's colony has been living off of this war for centuries and didn't want the war to end, that is why the assasination on Edgar's (Kerb) part. Kay and Jay find Edgar and shoot his fleeing ship down with this big ass guns. Laurel escapes and Edgar faces Jay and Kay. Edgar then transforms into a giant bug with a huge thorax hind legs and basically an insect body. Edgar swallows their guns along with Kay. Jay is getting his ass kicked by Edgar. Kay is still alive in Edgar's stomach and finds his gun and blows a hole from the inside out in Edgar. Then suddenly one half of Edgar comes alive, trying to regenerate but Laurel picks up one of the guns and blasts him away. In the end the galaxy is returned and Laurel becomes a Man in Black, or a Women in Black. Kay asks Jay to use the memory erasing device on him to forget all about the MiBs. Kay wants to lead a normal life and be reunited with his sweetie from way back, because if a person decides to become a MiB they cannot have an outside life. Then it goes to Jay reading a Hot Sheet (newstand tabloid) and one of the headlines is --MAN AWAKENS FROM THIRTY YEAR COMMA!! RETURNS TO GIRL HE LEFT BEHIND--, I guess this is Kay. Jay and Elle (formerly Laurel) are know parteners in the MiB organization. It then goes to a shot of them driving away, to a shot of New York, to a shot of the Earth and then untill the Earth is shown only as a blue marble resting on a patch of red sand, and a hand flicking the marble, rolling untill it stops and rests along a group of other coloured marbles.

Moviequotes:

Will Smith as Agent J. in Men In Black:

- "I feel like I'm gonna break this damn thing!"

- "Hey ...Wassup?"

- "You know the difference between you and me? I make this look good!"

- "I'm telling ya, that man does not look stable."

- "Step away from your busted-ass vehicle and put your hands on your head!"

95101402@student.sem.hhs.nl