Tag

The film came out of a January 2013 Wall Street Journal piece by Russell Adams. The group in it was ten men who graduated from Gonzaga Preparatory School in Spokane. They play only during February, whoever is it when the month ends stays it for a year, and Patrick Schultheis, the lawyer among them, wrote the rules in 1990. One player is a Catholic priest who once flew 800 miles and hid in a car boot to make a tag. Jeff Tomsic’s adaptation cuts ten players to five, moves the game from February to May and adds its own central idea, the player who has never been tagged. No real participant held such a run. The frame is true, the goal is invented. Jeremy Renner broke his right elbow and left wrist falling during a stunt in the first days of shooting. He kept working, wore green screen casts where his arms were exposed, and they were removed digitally afterwards. Footage of the real group, who are still playing, runs over the closing credits. A good fit if you like knowing the arms of a character built around never being caught are partly computer generated, and want to hunt the seam. Not for viewers expecting a faithful adaptation, since half the group was cut and the undefeated player added.