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The Town (2010 film)
The Town is a 2010 American crime drama film co-written, directed by and starring Ben Affleck,
adapted from Chuck Hogan's novel Prince of Thieves. It also stars Rebecca Hall, Jon Hamm,
Jeremy Renner, Blake Lively, Titus Welliver, Pete Postlethwaite and Chris Cooper
and follows a group of Boston bank robbers who set out to get one final score
by robbing Fenway Park. The film premiered on September 8, 2010
at the Venice Film Festival before being released in the United States on September 17, 2010
to positive reviews. Renner was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor
for his performance, while Postlethwaite was posthumously nominated for the BAFTA Award
for Best Supporting Actor.
 Plot 
Four lifelong friends from the Boston neighborhood of Charlestown, Douglas "Doug" MacRay, James
"Jem" Coughlin, Albert "Gloansy" MacGloan, and Desmond "Dez" Elden, rob a bank.
They take the manager, Claire Keesey, hostage, but release her unharmed.
When they find out Claire lives in their neighborhood, Doug begins to follow her
to find out how much she has told the authorities, and
to make sure that Jem does not eliminate her as a witness. Soon a romance grows between them,
which Doug hides from the gang. As they grow closer, Doug tells Claire of his search
for his long-lost mother, whom he believes went to live with his aunt in Tangerine, Florida.
He also recounts his chance to be a professional hockey player which he threw away
for a life of crime, following in his father's footsteps.
She in turn tells Doug that she saw a tattoo on one of the robbers,
and he realizes that she can identify Jem and send them all to jail.
He knows that Jem will kill her if he discovers the truth,
so he persuades her that the authorities cannot protect her, and she decides not
to tell the police. After Claire tells Doug about being harassed and her car vandalized by Alex,
a local thug, Doug enlists Jem for a favor, which they can never talk about. Doug
and Jem don hockey masks and violently assault the offenders without Jem knowing the true reason
for the favor is to protect Claire. FBI Agent Adam Frawley surveils the gang
and recognizes their ties to local crime lord Fergus "Fergie" Colm,
who has another robbery planned for them. During a visit to his father Stephen in prison,
Doug reveals his plans to leave Boston and go to Florida.
The gang's next robbery in the North End goes awry, and the gang barely escapes.
The gang is interrogated by Frawley, but he fails to get any confessions and is forced
to release them. Doug asks Claire if she will go away with him, and she agrees.
When Frawley learns that Claire quit her job, he wiretaps her phone, and threatens
to prosecute her as an accomplice after realizing that she is seeing Doug. Shocked
to discover that her lover was one of her assailants, she is forced to cooperate with the FBI
and breaks up with Doug. Meanwhile, Fergie and Jem are pressuring Doug about the next heist,
but Doug is determined to get out. Fergie threatens to kill Claire if Doug does not go through
with the job, and reveals to Doug how he controlled his father by making his mother an addict,
which led to her suicide. Doug gives in, but swears that he will kill Fergie if anything happens
to Claire. At Fenway Park, Doug and Jem enter disguised as Boston police officers,
steal $3,500,000 in gate cash, and prepare to escape in an ambulance disguised as paramedics.
Doug's ex-girlfriend and Jem's sister Krista, threatened by Frawley and heartbroken
by Doug's going away without her, reveals enough for the FBI
to surround Fenway before the gang can get out. The gang is caught in a firefight with FBI SWAT,
and Dez and Gloansy are killed. Frawley spots Jem and they exchange gunfire. Jem, determined not
to go back to prison and out of ammunition, commits suicide by cop by running out of cover
with his guns unloaded and is killed. Knowing that Claire is in danger
and that he will never escape as long as Fergie is alive, Doug murders Fergie and his bodyguard
and calls Claire. Watching from across the street via binoculars, Doug sees that the FBI are
with Claire as she tells him to come over, he at first thinks she means to betray him,
but eventually she gives him a clue to warn him away, which he picks up on. So Doug flees instead,
donning an MBTA uniform and escaping on a train; having left a note on Frawley's car for him to
"Go Fuck Yourself". Later, whilst gardening,
Claire finds a bag buried containing the stolen money, a tangerine, and a note from Doug,
suggesting that she can make better use of the money than he can,
and that they'll hopefully see each other again. Claire donates the money,
in memory of Doug's mother, to refurbish the local ice hockey arena where Doug once played.
From the deck of a small house, Doug looks out over the water, forlorn and alone,
but seemingly safe in Florida.
 Pre-production 
In 2006, director Adrian Lyne brought Chuck Hogan's novel Prince of Thieves
to producer Graham King. King in turn showed it to Warner Bros. studio, who agreed
to make an adaptation directed by Lyne and written by Sheldon Turner. Given screenwriting attempts
by Turner, Hogan himself and screenwriter Peter Craig did not manage
to build a script that fit Warner's requirement for a standard two-hour length movie
with a $37 million budget. By 2008, The Town was decided as the title and Ben Affleck,
fresh off his directorial debut in Gone Baby Gone, was brought in to serve as star, director
and co-writer. Affleck wanted to direct a movie "I personally researched and understood",
inviting high school classmate Aaron Stockard to work with him on the script, and travelling
to Boston to research on the subject. While Affleck had grown up in Cambridge, Massachusetts,
he barely heard of Charlestown before joining the project. Affleck
and Stockard conducted many interviews with the Charlestown community,
as well as the FBI Violent Crimes Task Force in Boston.
Later the film's actors also researched within the community to make for more believable characters
and performances. Charlestown locals also joined the cast, mostly as extras.
Thank you
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