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American Made

2017, Comedy/Drama, 1h 55m

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Critics Consensus

American Made 's fast-and-loose attitude with its real-life story mirrors the cavalier -- and delightfully watchable -- energy Tom Cruise gives off in the leading role. Read critic reviews

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Barry Seal, a TWA pilot, is recruited by the CIA to provide reconnaissance on the burgeoning communist threat in Central America and soon finds himself in charge of one of the biggest covert CIA operations in the history of the United States. The operation spawns the birth of the Medellin cartel and almost brings down the Reagan White House.

Rating: R (Some Sexuality/Nudity|Language Throughout)

Genre: Comedy, Drama, Adventure

Original Language: English

Director: Doug Liman

Producer: Brian Grazer , Brian Oliver , Doug Davison , Kim Roth , Ray Angelic , Tyler Thompson

Writer: Gary Spinelli

Release Date (Theaters): Sep 29, 2017 wide

Release Date (Streaming): Dec 19, 2017

Box Office (Gross USA): $51.3M

Runtime: 1h 55m

Distributor: Universal Pictures

Production Co: Hercules Film Fund, Brian Grazer, Vendian Entertainment, Quadrant Pictures

Sound Mix: Dolby Atmos, Dolby Digital

Aspect Ratio: Flat (1.85:1)

Cast & Crew

Domhnall Gleeson

Monty "Schafer"

Sarah Wright

Jesse Plemons

Sheriff Downing

Caleb Landry Jones

Dana Sibota

Judy Downing

E. Roger Mitchell

Agent Craig McCall

Alejandro Edda

Jorge Ochoa

Benito Martinez

James Rangel

Louis Finkle

Gary Spinelli

Screenwriter

Brian Grazer

Brian Oliver

Doug Davison

Ray Angelic

Tyler Thompson

Paris Kassidokostas-Latsis

Executive Producer

Terry Dougas

Brandt Andersen

Eric Greenfeld

Michael Finley

Michael Bassick

César Charlone

Cinematographer

Andrew Mondshein

Film Editing

Dylan Tichenor

Christophe Beck

Original Music

News & Interviews for American Made

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Critic Reviews for American Made

Audience reviews for american made.

The combo of director Doug Liman, writer Gary Spinelli and actor Tom Cruise all deliver huge in a film that serves as entertainment and a peek inside the corruption factory of the Reagan presidency.

American Made is a fascinating biopic about Barry Seal, a commercial pilot who worked with the CIA to run drugs and guns in South America. Set in the early 1980s, to combat the spread of communism the CIA recruits Pan Am pilot Barry Seal to fly recon missions in South America and eventually to run guns to the Contras; but things soon start to spiral out of the control. Tom Cruise gives a pretty strong performance, and director Doug Liman does a good job at giving the film a unique style; blending a political thriller with a crime drama, with some lighthearted comedy mixed in. Also, the sets, costumes, and soundtrack are all well-done, giving an authentic early '80s look and feel. Entertaining and fun, American Made is an interesting look at a little known chapter of the Cold War.

It's a pretty poor imitation of Scorsese, mostly because of the overly frantic editing and the fact that we just don't get a good sense of who Barry Seal is.

Say what you will of Tom Cruise as I'm fully aware that some don't take to him at all but, personally, I've always been a fan. That said, it's been some years since I've fully embraced a film of his as nothing has really showcased his abilities. As good as they were, I turned a little cold on the Mission: Impossible series where Cruise seemingly focused on being an action star for a while. American Made, however, sees him return to what he does best. This is a tailor made role for the likes of Cruise's cocksure mannerisms and shit-kicking grin. In fact, the film thrives on him in the lead which makes this very enjoyable entertainment. Plot: In 1978, skilled airline pilot Barry Seal (Tom Cruise) is contacted by CIA agent Monty Schafer (Domhnall Gleason), who employs him to photograph communist facilities over Central America. Barry accepts but it's not long before he's contacted by the Medellin Cartel to transport drugs back to the USA. Before he knows it, Barry is making millions in drug and gun-running which involves everyone from the FBI, the ATF, the CIA and the the Contras in Nicaragua. The longer it goes on, however, the harder it becomes for Barry to get out. I've now lost count of the amount of films that portray a character that spirals out of control once involved in some drug running or criminal activity. Tv's Breaking Bad became a critically acclaimed phenomenon for a start but the ones that spring to mind, when comparing American Made to anything, are the 70's set Johnny Depp film Blow and, in terms of its style and vibrancy, Scorsese's Goodfellas. Now, I wouldn't put this in the same class as Scorsese's masterpiece but it's equally as good as (if not better than) the aforementioned Ted Demme film. There's a lot of style and pizazz to Doug Liman's portrayal of this very interesting time in American history. He gleefully exposes the political machinations behind the events and doesn't pull punches in indicting President Ronald Reagan, Governor Bill Clinton and the CIA in there involvement with such a huge drug running cartel and their intentions to quash a South American uprising from the Sandinistas. Put simply, everyone had their fingers in a lot of pies at this time in America and Barry Seal happened to be "the gringo that always delivered". It's serious stuff but what makes it so enjoyable is because Cruise injects such a tongue-in-cheek zaniness to the whole affair while Liman confidently handles the material with a great eye for the 70's and 80's period detail and intercuts the film with news footage of the events as and when they came to public knowledge. It's a good case of truth being stranger than fiction and that's what grabs your attention as you roll with the ridiculously over-the-top scenarios. Cruise is hugely appealing here. His southern accent adds another dimension and character to his resumé that's refreshing to see. He can play these characters in his sleep but it's been a while since we've seen it. It feels like old school Cruise and it's a pleasure to have him return. Mark Walker

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American Made

The story of Barry Seal, an American pilot who became a drug-runner for the CIA in the 1980s in a clandestine operation that would be exposed as the Iran-Contra Affair.
Barry Seal was just an ordinary pilot who worked for TWA before he was recruited by the CIA in 1978. His work in South America eventually caught the eye of the Medellín Cartel, associated with Pablo Escobar, who needed a man with his skill set. Barry became a drug trafficker, gun smuggler and money launderer. Soon acquiring the title, 'The gringo that always delivers'. — Viir khubchandani
In 1978, the skilled and ambitious TWA pilot Barry Seal smuggles Cuban cigars to increase his income. Out of the blue, he is contacted by the CIA agent Monty Schafer, who asks him to work for the CIA photographing facilities over Central America using a state-of-art small plane. Soon Barry contacts General Noriega as a courier for the CIA and is contacted by the Medellin Cartel that wants him to transport drugs to the USA. Then Schafer asks Barry to carry weapons for the Contras in Nicaragua. Barry invites pilots that are his friends and plots routes to smuggle drugs for the cartel. The CIA closes eyes to the scheme and Barry becomes richer and richer. He uses the Arkansas town Mena to launder his money. But the DEA and the FBI are tracking him down. When the CIA shuts down the scheme, Barry is left alone and arrested by the agencies. What will happen to his family and him? — Claudio Carvalho, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
1978. Barry Seal, an airline pilot, is recruited by the CIA to fly special transport missions in Central America. Initially it is a matter of information-for-supplies but ultimately he ends up being a drug transporter for Pablo Escobar and the Medellin Cartel and supplying anti-Communist groups, including the Nicaraguan Contras, with weapons. — grantss
Knowing that he smuggles Cuban cigars into the United States as a profitable side hustle, CIA agent, Monty Schafer, recruits the daredevil TWA pilot, Barry Seal, to take aerial photographs of Sandinista bases in 1978. Before long, with Barry acting as a liaison, delivering money to General Manuel Noriega in exchange for information, Pablo Escobar 's infamous Medellín Cartel enters the picture, with its co-founders, Jorge Ochoa and Carlos Lehder, wanting to have a piece of the action. Now, Seal finds himself leading a peril-laden, cocaine-dusted triple life, and Schafer, as greedy as ever, keeps assigning increasingly dangerous tasks to his thrill-seeking go-getter, including flying guns to the Nicaraguan Contras, leading to the late 1980s Iran/Contra scandal, during the second term of the Ronald Reagan Administration. — Nick Riganas
Set in the year 1978, Barry Seal (Tom Cruise) works as a pilot for Trans World Airlines. He is married to Lucy (Sarah Wright) and has two children with her, with a third on the way. While at a bar one night, Barry is found by a man saying his name is Monty Schafer (Domhnall Gleeson). He is familiar with Barry's work as a pilot, but Schafer offers him a chance to make better money by taking on reconnaissance missions for the CIA in a smaller plane with cameras just south of the border. Schafer convinces Barry that he would be working for the good guys, but it would have to be kept completely secret, even from his own family. He then lets Barry take the plane out for a ride. As he begins his new job, Barry starts making tapes documenting his travels and exploits. He flies over countries like Guatemala, El Salvador, and Honduras. Schafer is so impressed with the photos that Barry brings back to him, that he assigns Barry a new task of being a bag man between the CIA and General Manuel Noriega (Alberto Ospino) in Panama. On his mission, Barry meets the Medellin Cartel - Jorge Ochoa (Alejandro Edda), Carlos Lehder (Fredy Yate Escobar), and Pablo Escobar (Mauricio Mejia). They want to get their drugs into the United States, but the runway for the planes is too risky for most pilots. Barry takes his plane for a ride and almost crashes into the trees but manages to pull up and continue his flight with ease and get back to the U.S. without getting in trouble. Barry now has the trust of the cartel. However, the DEA raid one of their compounds, and Barry is arrested. Schafer finds him in his cell and tells him that his house will get raided, and Lucy will most likely be brought in for questioning and be kept overnight. When Barry gets out, he goes home and urges Lucy and the kids to pack up their things so they can move. Despite Lucy's questioning, Barry insists he cannot tell her a thing, leading her to lose trust in him. The Seals move to Mena, AR. Barry is then given the assignment to move guns for the Contras, even being allowed to own his own airport and planes for the job. His first flight to meet with the Contras ends with them robbing his stuff instead of taking his guns. Barry calls Schafer to let him know that the Contras aren't interested in the guns. On his second trip, he meets with a cartel leader to negotiate sending the guns to the cartel instead. Barry brings guns to the cartel and ships their drugs to the U.S. and the Contras while trying his hardest to avoid being detected by the law. Barry gets four other men to help him on his trips when he realizes the workload is too much for one guy to pull off. They fly separate planes on their missions. Schafer then asks Barry to bring back some of the Contras to the U.S. for the CIA's newly-established training base. Upon arrival, however, some of the men run away. As Barry's business grows, he starts to contribute to the community and provide even more for his family while also shamelessly indulging in his wealth and setting up fronts to hide all the money. Eventually, the Seals are visited by Lucy's freeloading brother JB (Caleb Landry Jones), whom Barry is not fond of. When Lucy tells JB to get a job, Barry sets him up working at the airport. JB ends up taking some money that Barry was hiding in the hangar, using it to buy himself a new car and to pick up an underage girl. The DEA starts to go after the pilots. On one mission, Barry crash-lands and loses a significant portion of the drugs. Meanwhile, the cartel runs into trouble when Escobar declares war on the government, and the cartel gets kicked out of Colombia. Barry must meet with them to sort out the issues. At the same time, JB gets arrested by the sheriff after he is caught carrying a suitcase full of money. After bailing JB out, Barry drives him to a separate car so that he can leave and never return. JB curses Barry and drives away, only to be blown up by a car bomb. Barry gets rid of the car by dumping it in the woods. Barry and Schafer meet to discuss what's been going on. Schafer says the Contras left since they just weren't fighting. The CIA then starts to get rid of anything involving Barry. Barry attempts to move the stash of products out of the airport, but he is found by FBI, DEA, and other law enforcement agents, and he is arrested. Barry meets with a prosecutor, Dana Sibota (Jayma Mays), who is hellbent on getting Barry locked up. As he waits outside while she speaks to a lawyer on the phone, Barry tries to bribe the agents with caddies while also insisting he will walk away scot-free. Sibota comes out and confirms that Barry is free to go. Barry is given a task under Ronald Reagan's administration to gather dirt on the Sandinistas, all of whom are believed to be drug traffickers. They set up cameras in a plane for Barry to get photos as proof. Barry returns to meet with Ochoa and the rest of the Medellin Cartel. As he still has their trust, Barry engages in business with them, moving products into the plane where the photos are taken. The White House later releases the photos as propaganda, and Barry is seen in the photos. He is told that they were not supposed to be released to the public until after the cartel members were caught. The DEA go through Barry's house looking for evidence. Lucy takes the kids to Baton Rouge. Barry is convicted and is sentenced to 1,000 hours of community service. He moves from hotel to hotel each night. On one such night, he is approached in his car by hit-men sent by Escobar, and he is subsequently murdered. The final text states that "Schafer" got promoted after suggesting they get the Iranians to arm the Contras. One of Barry's guys went on to become a pastor in Alabama after he was set free. The rest of the pilots weren't seen after that. The CIA continued to use Barry's plane to arm the Contras until one of the planes was shot down over Nicaragua. The ensuing scandal was known as the Iran-Contra Affair. Lucy returned to Louisiana with the kids. The last thing we see is her working as a cashier at a coffee shop, still wearing a bracelet that Barry gave her.

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The True Story Behind the Movie American Made

American Made , the new Tom Cruise crime drama out Sept. 29, has all the makings of a romp: drug running and arms smuggling. An FBI sting. Enough cold, hard cash to make the phenomenon of raining money a plausible ecological scenario. And a sex scene in the cockpit of a plane. That’s flying through the air. With one participant being the pilot. Did we mention it’s Tom Cruise?

If it sounds like an exercise in screenwriting excess, it’s not entirely — the film takes as its inspiration the true story of Adler Berriman “Barry” Seal, a TWA pilot who became a drug smuggler for the Medellín Cartel and, later, an informant for the DEA. It’s an ideal vehicle for Cruise, a.k.a. Maverick , whose mischievous swagger is accented here (literally) with a Louisiana drawl.

The movie hardly purports to be a documentary — director Doug Liman, who reteams with Cruise after Edge of Tomorrow , has referred to it as “a fun lie based on a true story.” And perhaps its looseness with the facts is for the best, as conflicting accounts make it difficult to get a clear picture on certain aspects of Seal’s seemingly made-for-the-movies life. It’s a thorny story that takes place against the backdrop of the Reagan-era War on Drugs and the notorious Iran-Contra affair , with Seal never hesitating to do business with opposing sides, so long as the payout was prodigious.

Here’s what we know about Seal — and what’s still up for debate.

MORE: Review: American Made Lets a Smug Tom Cruise Just Be Tom Cruise

Fact: Seal was an unusually talented young pilot.

According to Smuggler’s End: The Life and Death of Barry Seal — written by retired FBI agent Del Hahn, who worked on the task force that went after Seal in the ’80s — Seal obtained his student pilot license at 15 and became fully licensed at 16. His instructor was so impressed by his natural talent that he allowed him to fly solo after only eight hours of training. After serving in the National Guard and Army Reserve, he became a pilot with TWA, among the youngest command pilots to operate a Boeing 707.

Fact: He had a colorful personality.

As Cruise plays him, Seal was a blend of balls and braggadocio, fond of stunts and rarely registering the possibilities of danger or failure. According to Hahn, Seal’s high school yearbook photo was accompanied by the inscription, “Full of fun, full of folly.” His flight instructor described him as wild and fearless and generally unconcerned with the consequences of his actions. In an interview with Vice , Hahn says Seal was personable but “not as smart and clever as he thought he was.”

Partly Fiction: He was married to a woman named Lucy and they had three kids.

Sarah Wright plays Seal’s delightfully foul-mouthed wife in the movie, alternately exasperated by his schemes and enthralled by the riches they bring. In reality, Seal was married three times and had five children. He had a son and daughter with first wife Barbara Bottoms, whom he married in 1963 and subsequently divorced. He then married Linda McGarrh Ross in 1971, divorcing a year later, before marrying Deborah Ann DuBois, with whom he would go on to have three children, in 1974.

Fiction: The government first took notice of his smuggling when he was transporting Cuban cigars.

While the film depicts Seal’s foray into smuggling as beginning with Cuban cigars, his first documented run-in with the law for a smuggling offense took place in 1972 when he was one of eight people arrested for a plot to smuggle explosives out of the U.S. Though he wasn’t convicted, he lost his job with TWA. By 1976, according to Hahn, he had moved onto marijuana, and within a couple of years graduated to cocaine, which was less bulky, less sniffable by dogs and generally more profitable.

Fact: He smuggled drugs in through the Louisiana coast.

Seal and the pilots he recruited — including one he met in jail and his first wife’s brother — trafficked drugs over the border of his home state. As in the movie, he sometimes delivered them by pushing packed duffel bags out of his plane and into the Atchafalaya basin, to be retrieved by partners on the ground.

Mostly Fiction: Seal was chummy with the leaders of Colombia’s Medellín Cartel, including Pablo Escobar and the Ochoa brothers.

In the movie, Seal meets the cartel big wigs early on. In reality, Hahn writes, he did not deal with them directly, and they referred to him only as “El Gordo,” or “The Fat Man.” He finally met with them in April 1984 when he was working with the DEA on a sting operation intended to lead to their capture. (That operation would go awry when Seal’s status as an informant was revealed in a Washington Times cover story months later.)

Fact: Seal offered to cooperate with the DEA to stay out of prison.

The DEA was onto Seal for a long time before securing an indictment against him in March 1983 on several counts, including conspiracy to distribute methaqualone and possession with intent to distribute Quaaludes. As the movie suggests, there was some confusion among government agencies intent on taking him down.

His initial attempt to make a deal with a U.S. attorney, offering information on the Ochoa family, was rejected. But in March 1984, he traveled to Washington to the office of the Vice President’s Drug Task Force and cut a deal on the strength of his intel on and connections to the cartel.

Contested: He worked for many years alongside the CIA.

The film has Seal’s involvement with the CIA beginning in the late 1970s, relatively early on in his smuggling career. Under the handling of an agent played by Domhnall Gleeson, Cruise’s Seal gathers intelligence by flying low over Guatemala and Nicaragua and snapping photos from his plane. Later, the CIA turns a blind eye to his drug smuggling in exchange for his delivery of arms to the Contras in Nicaragua, who the U.S. government was attempting to mobilize against the leftist Sandinistas, who controlled the government. The movie even suggests that the CIA helped set Seal up with his very own airport in the small town of Mena, Ark.

According to Hahn’s book, rumors of Seal’s involvement with the CIA anytime before 1984 were just that — rumors. The only confirmed connection between Seal and the CIA turned up by Hahn’s research was in 1984, after Seal had begun working as an informant for the DEA. The CIA placed a hidden camera in a cargo plane Seal flew to pick up a cocaine shipment in Colombia. He and his copilot were able to obtain photographs that proved a link between the Sandinistas and the cartel, key intelligence for the Reagan administration in its plans to help overthrow the Sandinistas’ regime. But the final piece of the operation — a celebration of the successful cocaine transport, at which the Ochoas and Escobar were to be arrested all at once — never happened because of the revelation of Seal’s status as an informant.

Fact: Seal was assassinated in 1986.

Jorge Ochoa reportedly ordered a hit on Seal early in 1986. At the time, Seal was living in a Baton Rouge Salvation Army facility. Charges against him had not been fully erased as a result of his cooperation with the government, and he was sentenced to probation and six months residing at the treatment center. On the evening of Feb. 19, just after he parked his Cadillac, he was killed by two Colombian hitmen armed with machine guns.

Thanks in part to several witnesses, both men and four additional men who conspired in the killing were arrested within two days. Seal would go down as a legendary criminal, one of the most important witnesses in DEA history and — in Hollywood’s estimation, at least — a classic American story fit for only our most American onscreen hero.

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Wild bunch: Domhnall Gleeson and Tom Cruise in American Made.

American Made review – maverick Tom Cruise feels the need for speed in flashy thriller

A grinning Cruise is back in Top Gun territory in Doug Liman’s sort-of-true story about a bored pilot who starts working for a Colombian cartel and the CIA

You’d need a heart of stone not to indulge Tom Cruise’s midlife return to Top Gun antics in this flashy, entertaining crime thriller by director Doug Liman, featuring Tom with blindingly toothy grin and sunglasses whizzing around in his light aircraft with US Customs agents riding his tail ( to quote Roger Avary ).

It’s based on the sort-of-true-ish story of a former TWA pilot who in 1984 was arrested for gun-running, money-laundering and carrying drugs in his plane for Colombia’s Medellín Cartel. He cut a deal to incriminate bigger players and claimed he had been involved with government intelligence agencies from the outset – this movie sportingly takes him at his word.

Cruise plays Barry Seal, competent but bored airline pilot and impeccable husband to super-hot wife Lucy (Sarah Wright). He is very excited to be approached by shadowy CIA man Schafer (Domhnall Gleeson) and asked to fly a spy plane over Central America to photograph communist insurgents. His roistering antics catch the attention of Pablo Escobar’s drug barons who force him to fly their cocaine to the US. Then he is bullied by Schafer with a new plan: fly guns to Nicaragua’s anti-communist rebels, the contras, who are actually more interested in selling the drugs that the Colombians had given them in exchange for these guns – a murky setup which the movie suggests laid the foundations for the Iran-Contra deal.

It’s a salacious war-story picture that leans heavily on the voiceover-flashback style pioneered in GoodFellas, and it reminded me a little of Ted Demme’s tiresome coke history Blow (2001), or more recently something like Todd Phillips’s War Dogs (2016). But the beamingly ingenuous Cruise, whose character is not burdened with any doubts or an inner life, somehow sells it to you.

Action and adventure films
Domhnall Gleeson

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The makers of the based-on-a-true-story black comedy "American Made" fail to satisfactorily answer one pressing question: why is CIA operative and Colombia drug-runner Barry Seal's story being told as a movie and not a book? What's being shown in this film that couldn't also be expressed in prose?

In telling the true story of American airplane pilot Barry Seal ( Tom Cruise ), writer Gary Spinelli and director Doug Liman ("Edge of Tomorrow ," " Jumper ") choose to overstimulate viewers rather than challenge them. They emphasize Barry's charm, the exotic nature of his South American trade routes, and the rapid escalation of events that ultimately led to his downfall. Cruise's smile is, in this context, deployed like a weapon in Liman and Spinelli's overwhelming charm offensive. You don't get a lot of psychological insight into Barry's character, or learn why he was so determined to make more money than he could spend, despite conflicting pressures from Pablo Escobar's drug cartel and the American government to either quit or collude.

But you do get a lot of shots of Cruise grinning from behind aviator glasses in extreme close-ups, many of which are lensed with hand-held digital cameras that show you the wilds of Nicaragua and Colombia through an Instagram-cheap green/yellow filter. "American Made" may be superficially a condemnation of the hypocritical American impulse to take drug suppliers' money with one hand and chastise users with the other. But it's mostly a sensational, sub-"Wolf of Wall Street"-style true crime story that attempts to seduce you, then abandon you.

The alarming pace of Barry's narrative, designed to put Cruise’s charisma front and center, keeps viewers disoriented. It's often hard to understand Barry's motives beyond caricature-broad assumptions about his (lack of) character. In 1977, Barry agrees to fly over South American countries and take photos of suspected communist groups using a spy plane provided by shadowy CIA pencil-pusher Schafer ( Domhnall Gleeson ). Barry is impulsive, or so we're meant to think based on an incident where he wakes up a sleeping co-pilot by abruptly sending a commercial airliner into a nosedive. This scene may explain why Barry grins like a lunatic as he explains to his wife Lucy ( Sarah Wright ) that he'll figure out a way to pay out of pocket for his family's health insurance once he opens an independent shipping company called "IAC" (Get it? IAC - CIA?).

Barry's impetuousness does not, however, explain why he flies so low to land when he takes his photographs. Or why he doesn't immediately reach out to Schafer when he's kidnapped and forced by Escobar (Mauricio Mejia) and his Cartel associates to deliver hundreds of pounds of cocaine to the United States. Or why Barry thinks so little of his wife and kids that he packs their Louisiana house up one night without explanation, and moves them to a safe-house in Arkansas. There's character-defining insanity, and then there's "this barely makes sense in the moment when it is happening" crazy. Barry often appears to be the latter kind of nutbar.

There are two types of people in "American Made": the kind that work and the kind that get worked over. It's easy to tell the two apart based on how much screen-time Spinelli and Liman devote to each character. Schafer, for example, is defined by the taunts he suffers from a fellow cubicle drone and his own tendency to over-promise. Schafer doesn't do real work—not in the filmmakers' eyes. The same is true of Escobar and his fellow dealers, who are treated as lawless salesmen of an unsavory product. And don't get me started on JB ( Caleb Landry Jones ), Lucy's lazy, Gremlin-driving, under-age-girl-dating, Confederate-flag-waving redneck brother.

But what about Lucy? She keeps Barry's family together, but her feelings are often taken for granted, even when she calls Barry out for abandoning her suddenly in order to meet up with Schafer. Barry responds by throwing bundles of cash at his wife's feet. The argument, and the scene end just like that, like a smug joke whose punchline might as well be, There's no problem that a ton of cash can't solve .

"American Made" sells a toxic, shallow, anti-American Dream bill of goods for anybody looking to shake their head about exceptionalism without seriously considering what conditions enable that mentality. Spinelli and Liman don't say anything except, Look at how far a determined charmer can go if he's greedy and determined enough . They respect Barry too much to be thoughtfully critical of him. And they barely disguise their fascination with broad jokes that tease Barry's team of hard-working good ol' boys and put down everyone else.

Sure, it's important to note that Barry ultimately meets a just end, one that's been prescribed to thousands of other would-be movie gangsters. But you can easily shrug off a little finger-wagging at the end of a movie that treats you to two hours of Tom Cruise charming representatives of every imaginable US institution (they don't call in the Girl Scouts, the Golden Girls or the Hulk-busters, but I'm sure they're in a director's cut). If there is a reason, good or bad, that "American Made" is a movie, it's that you can't be seduced by the star of " Top Gun " in a book.

Simon Abrams

Simon Abrams is a native New Yorker and freelance film critic whose work has been featured in The New York Times , Vanity Fair , The Village Voice, and elsewhere.

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American Made (2017)

Rated R for language throughout and some sexuality/nudity.

115 minutes

Tom Cruise as Barry Seal

Domhnall Gleeson as Monty 'Schafer'

Sarah Wright as Lucy Seal

Jesse Plemons as Sheriff Downing

Caleb Landry Jones as JB

Lola Kirke as Judy Downing

Jayma Mays as Dana Sibota

Gary Spinelli

Cinematographer

César Charlone
Andrew Mondshein
Christophe Beck

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‘American Made’ Ending Explained: What Happened to Barry Seal?

What happens to Seal after he becomes an informant for the DEA?

The Big Picture

American Made is a true story about Barry Seal, a commercial pilot who becomes involved with government agencies and drug cartels in the '70s and '80s.
Tom Cruise delivers a wonderful performance in a movie that initially flew under the radar.
The film tackles complex themes such as the Iran-Contra affair and the Sandanista government coup in Venezuela.

The 2017 Tom Cruise film American Made is an unlikely true story, to say the least. Cruise plays Barry Seal, a real-life commercial pilot who ends up being recruited by multiple government agencies to infiltrate the South American drug cartels in the late '70s into the early '80s. And his on-again, off-again Southern drawl aside, it's a wonderful performance from the Mission: Impossible star in a movie that flew under the radar upon its initial release. And because the events depicted in American Made are taken directly from a true story, it makes it an even more fascinating story of how a commercial airline pilot ended up dealing with the likes of Pablo Escobar and the dangerous Medellín drug cartel in Colombia. Let's break down an ending that gets a little convoluted as just about every United States agency is involved at some point along with tie-ins to some political events unfolding at the same time including the Iran-Contra affair and the Sandanista government coup in Venezuela.

American Made

The story of Barry Seal, an American pilot who became a drug-runner for the CIA in the 1980s in a clandestine operation that would be exposed as the Iran-Contra Affair.

What Is 'American Made About'?

Directed by Doug Liman , American Made is the true story of Barry Seal who was a commercial pilot for TWA , a now-defunct airline, back in the late 70s when he was busted for smuggling illegal contraband into the United States aboard the jets he was flying. He is then given a choice to face jail time or become an informant for the CIA and Agent Monty Schafer ( Domhnall Gleeson ). He chooses the latter and within just a few months finds himself as a contract CIA employee running guns for the US government and both trafficking and providing intelligence for the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) on the boon of illegal drugs flowing out of South America. He does this while trying to maintain a normal family life with his wife Lucy ( Sarah Wright ) and a couple of kids living in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. It's a harrowing tale of a man who risks his own life and his family to avoid the wrath of the government and the FBI. Given Cruise's fascination with flying in both the Top Gun movies and the Mission Impossible franchise, it turned out to be a perfect fit for the amateur aviator and ultimate thrill seeker .

How Long Had Barry Seal Worked For the CIA in 'American Made'?

Once Ronald Reagan took office in 1980, American involvement in Central and South America grew exponentially as Reagan had promised to take a more hard-line approach to calamitous regimes that were popping up throughout the more unstable countries of the region. Seal began smuggling small amounts of marijuana into the country dating back to 1976. By 1978, he graduated to importing large amounts of cocaine from countries like Ecuador and Honduras.

By the early '80s, Barry Seal was running large amounts of drugs for the infamous Medellín cartel and the most notorious drug kingpin of the era, Pablo Escobar, from Colombia into the United States via the Gulf of Mexico. The DEA became aware of Seal's activity in 1981 and after several years of legal wrangling and indictments, Seal officially started contract work for the Central Intelligence Agency in 1983 until his death in February 1986 at just 46 years of age.

What Leads to Barry Seal's Demise in 'American Made'?

The final scenes in American Made are dedicated to a large cocaine haul that involved Pablo Escobar and several high-ranking members of his cartel. On what turns out to be Barry Seal's final run for the Medellín cartel, he agrees with his handler at the DEA, James Rangel ( Benito Martinez ) to install a hidden camera within the cargo of the fuselage of his plane. This camera captures Seal along with several Medellín lieutenants along with members of the controversial Venezuelan Sandanista government loading palettes of drugs into the plane. The pictures are supposed to be classified, but in the days that follow, they are aired when President Reagan goes on the air to expose what is happening in South America and Barry can be seen prominently in the photos. This is the beginning of the end for Barry as Escobar will surely be targeting him for betraying him which means certain death. He decides to stay away from his family so they won't be in danger when the retaliation comes.

Tom Cruise Made a Blink-and-You-Miss-It Cameo in a Brat Pack Western

Once Escobar knows that Barry has betrayed him and is working for the government, Barry is obviously concerned for his own well-being as Escobar has killed more important men than him for less. He goes into hiding moving from motel to motel on a daily basis to elude what he assumes are Medellín cartel members looking to assassinate him. He makes a series of video journal entries detailing some of his exploits as a sort of memoir. During this time, he is also serving a probation period of 6 months in Arkansas for being found in possession of a warehouse full of drugs and guns. So he spends half of the day in a halfway house and the other half hiding from Escobar's hitmen. Eventually, Barry's luck runs out, and while sitting outside the Arkansas halfway house one afternoon, two Medellín cartel assassins approach him as he is seated in his car and shoot him dead .

'American Made's Satirical CIA Ending and Final Shot Explained

After Barry's cover is blown when Reagan goes on TV and shows the photos of him engaged with the Medellín cartel and Sandanista regime, DEA agents celebrate with a toast of champagne while CIA Agent Monty Schafer frantically walks through the office telling his employees to get rid of anything and everything that has Barry Seal's name on it. They need to erase Barry from ever being involved with any CIA activity. In a tongue-in-cheek final line, Shafer has an epiphany and decides that they will say that the Iranians sold arm the Contras to explain away their involvement with Barry who had also been running guns down to the Contras who were fighting the oppressive and illegitimate Sandinista government in Venezuela. As he posits this idea to a colleague there is a caption below him that reads, "Schafer got a promotion."

This was what started the infamous Iran-Contra affair in the mid-1980s that brought down Colonel Oliver North . There is also a sequence that describes how, even after Barry's assassination, the CIA continued to use his plane to run guns to the Contras in Venezuela until it was shot down over Nicaragua. The last scene of American Made shows Lucy back behind the counter of a fast food restaurant working the cash register showing that he has come full circle on her wild ride with Barry. Doug Liman emphasizes the final shot of the nice bracelet on her wrist as she extends her arm to give a customer their order. One final ode to the wild ride that was the life of Barry Seal.

American Made is available to rent on Amazon Prime Video in the U.S.

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DVD & Streaming

American Made

Comedy , Drama

Content Caution

In Theaters

September 29, 2017
Tom Cruise as Barry Seal; Domhnall Gleeson as Schafer; Sarah Wright as Lucy Seal; Alejandro Edda as Jorge Ochoa; Mauricio Mejía as Pablo Escobar; Fredy Yate Escobar as Carlos Ledher; Robert Farrior as Oliver North; Caleb Landry Jones as JB; E. Roger Mitchell as Agent Craig McCall

Home Release Date

January 2, 2018

Distributor

Movie review.

Cigars. It all started with cigars.

It’s 1978. Hotshot TWA pilot Barry Seal rakes in extra cash on the side smuggling Cuban cigars from Canada to the States.

Until the day Schafer shows up.

Schafer—a CIA agent with a fat file on Barry’s cigar smuggling scheme—nevertheless recognizes the pilot’s undeniable entrepreneurial bent, his willingness to take risks. Barry’s the kind of guy, he figures, who’d jump at the chance to trade his boring commercial pilot job for something a little more jazzy. A little more dangerous. Like, say, flying the world’s fastest prop plane over various countries in Central America and taking spy photos of suspected Communist operatives there. Countries like Nicaragua. El Salvador. Guatemala. Honduras. Columbia.

Barry’s intrigued. Plus there’s that fat file in Schafer’s hand. How can he say no?

And, well, it turns out the word no isn’t really in Barry Seal’s vocabulary anyway. So when he’s abducted in Columbia by ascending drug kingpins Jorge Ochoa, Carlos Ledher and Pablo Escobar, he responds to their “request” for him to fly their white powdery product back to the States in exactly the same way he did to Schafer’s request. After all, how can he say no? They’ve got guns. They’ve got his plane. And they’re willing to pay him $2,000 per kilo of cocaine he flies north.

And Barry can pack a lot of kilos in his plane.

Surveillance on the way down. Drug-running on the way back. Lots of cash for Barry’s pretty, mostly in-the-dark wife, Lucy.

Then Schafer ups the ante: The CIA wants Barry to start carrying illegal Russian AK-47s to the Contra rebels in Nicaragua. Oh, and to bring some of those freedom fighters back to the U.S. (Barry and his wife have been moved by the CIA to a remote area outside of Mena, Ark.) for training.

How can Barry say no? Especially when he’s making so much money that he’s literally run out of places to stash it.

Plus, what could possibly go wrong for a man who’s spying, running drugs and guns as well as illegally trafficking Nicaraguan rebels?

Positive Elements

Barry Seal doesn’t have much of a moral core to speak of. But by film’s end, his unlikely story does deliver a cautionary message: You can only break the rules and live outside the law so long before the consequences catch up with you.

No, Barry’s not a particularly moral man, but he does love and care for his wife, Lucy, and their three children. He wants to provide for them (and, boy, does he!), and he wants them to be safe. (That last desire gets increasingly difficult for Barry to make good on as the stakes rise violently near the end of the film.) Lucy, for her part, also wants to protect her children—perhaps more so than Barry himself does.

Spiritual Elements

Barry gets detained by a trio of drug lords in Columbia. The main one he deals with is Jorge Ochoa. Jorge brags about the burgeoning cocaine business in Columbia, saying, “Now God above has blessed this country with new riches, Mr. Seal.” When Barry’s nervous about his drug-laden plane’s ability to take off from a short, high-altitude runaway in the Columbian jungle, Jorge gives him a crucifix and says, “Christ will keep you safe.” Barry takes the cross, rubs it (as if for good luck) and hangs it from some controls in his plane’s cockpit.

Throughout the film, the camera occasionally focuses on the cross, perhaps implying that at some point, Barry’s spiritual “good luck charm” may not be potent enough to keep him alive.

We see nuns and priests in the background of a couple of scenes in Columbia. Before the closing credits, we learn that one of Barry’s former associates “found God” and became a preacher.

Sexual Content

Lucy often waits for Barry to get home to have sex with him. She greets him in skimpy negligee once. Several scenes picture them having sex (including one quick-cut montage that shows them making love in three different places). One sex scene takes place while Barry is flying. Movements and noises are explicit in each of these scenes, though nudity is strategically avoided. We also see Barry in bed, shirtless, with his wife lying next to him.

Lucy wears revealing outfits, and we see her in a bikini. Barry likes to moon his family as a joke, and we see his bare rear a couple of times. Lucy grabs his (clothed) backside once.

One of Barry’s fellow TWA coworkers says that when women in hotels see a man in a pilot’s uniform, their “panties come off.” Barry gives pornographic magazines to men in a rough part of Central America to keep them from beating him up and stealing his clothes.

Violent Content

Barry knows no fear behind the stick of his plane. But things get hairy more than once. He tears through the upper canopies of trees in Columbia, barely making it above the forest on takeoff because his plane is so loaded down with coke. In another scene, he zooms into a residential neighborhood to land (trying to avoid DEA agents), and his plane’s wings get shredded before what’s left of the vehicle comes to a halt in someone’s front yard.

Barry is repeatedly shot at by military forces of the governments he’s spying upon. At one point, an engine gets hit and explodes, but Barry just laughs. He also gets beat up badly (mostly offscreen) in Columbia. We later see that he’s lost a tooth, and his face is bloodied as well.

A man is killed when a bomb unexpectedly blows up his car. [ Spoiler Warning ] The government eventually compels Barry to film the Columbian drug dealers he’s been working with (in order to avoid prison). When those men discover they’ve been betrayed, they send assassins to kill Barry. (We see only two men approaching either side of a car that Barry’s sitting in, and we hear that he’s been murdered.)

Crude or Profane Language

About 60 f-words, including at least five combined with “mother.” More than 25 s-words. God’s name is taken in vain at least 15 times, about half of those uses paired with “d–n.” Jesus’ name is taken in vain once. We hear about 10 instances of “h—,” and four of “d–n.” Other vulgarities include one use of the c-word, and one or two utterances each of “b–ch,” “a–,” “a–hole,” “p-ss,” “p–sies” and “pr–k.”

Drug and Alcohol Content

Barry smuggles cocaine for the Columbian cartel on a massive level, transporting so much of the illegal drug that he hires four other pilots to fly missions with him. We learn that Barry shipped billions of dollars of the stuff singlehandedly.

Accordingly, we see myriad plastic wrapped bricks of coke. Barry devises a way to drop them from the bottom of his plane, and we see him “bombing” recipients who wait in Louisiana’s swamps to collect the narcotic parcels. When Barry crawls out of his plane after that rough residential landing, he’s covered with the cocaine that’s accidentally erupted in the process. We also see an older woman with many kilos of cocaine taped to her body after she’s arrested.

Various characters smoke cigarettes and drink different kinds of alcohol throughout the film. We see boxes of the illegal Cuban cigars Barry is smuggling.

Other Negative Elements

Schafer is clearly aware Barry’s smuggling drugs. So he gives Barry detailed maps of all the places other federal agencies will be operating, so that the smuggler can successfully evade them.

Barry is eventually arrested after being pursued by three different federal agencies. The Arkansas attorney general is about to put him away for life when she gets a call from then-governor Bill Clinton (and the former politician’s name is used by her in the film) telling them to release Barry.

Though it’s clear that at least some people in the government know Barry has been smuggling enormous quantities of cocaine, they apparently turn a blind eye to those activities. Simultaneously, we see newsreel footage of Ronald and Nancy Reagan talking about the perils of drug use. The intended message is unmistakeable: that the Reagan administration was deeply hypocritical when it came to the supposed War on Drugs. Even as Nancy admonishes, “Just say no,” Barry’s delivering tons of coke with the CIA’s knowledge and tacit consent.

At one point, Barry says incredulously to Schafer, “All this is legal?” The CIA agent responds, “Yeah, if you’re doing it for the good guys.” Barry’s wife is skeptical at first, but he works hard to convince her, saying, “This is gonna be good for us.” It’s not clear if he ever completely comes clean with her about what’s happening. No wonder when he asks her later, “Do you trust me?” she responds with an emphatic, “No!”

Early in the film, Barry is annoyed that his co-pilot—on a commercial flight—is sleeping. So he takes the plane off autopilot and puts into a dive just to wake his coworker up. People are screaming in the cabin, luggage is falling. But Barry? He’s just laughing.

We hear verbal references to the businesses Barry establishes to launder the vast amounts of cash he’s being paid. We see a man urinating (from behind, nothing critical is shown) in a jail cell. Another person, who thinks he’s about to be shot, wets himself.

If you’re already cynical about alleged government deception and corruption, American Made won’t help matters much.

Oh, Tom Cruise is likeable at times as a brash rogue pilot whose devil-may-care approach to his incredibly risky business certainly makes for a compelling story. And this profanity-laden hard R-rated caper about smuggling—drugs, guns, human beings—would seem outlandishly beyond the realm of reality if it weren’t based at least somewhat on a true story. Which we’re dutifully told at the outset that it is.

But how much truth is actually here? National Review’ s Kyle Smith suggests an answer: not much. “ American Made could have been called American Made-Up . It amounts to an enormously contrived effort by Doug Liman, the son of the Senate’s lead counsel in the Iran-Contra hearings, to reshape the tangle of that scandal into a larkish Tom Cruise adventure. Truth was not an impediment.” Smith even notes that Liman has described the story as a “fun lie.”

But given the amount of profanity, sex and often consequence-free recklessness we see on display here, it might be more accurate to drop the “fun” descriptor and just call it a lie.

Adam R. Holz

After serving as an associate editor at NavPress’ Discipleship Journal and consulting editor for Current Thoughts and Trends, Adam now oversees the editing and publishing of Plugged In’s reviews as the site’s director. He and his wife, Jennifer, have three children. In their free time, the Holzes enjoy playing games, a variety of musical instruments, swimming and … watching movies.

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Screen Rant

American made ending explained: what happened to barry seal.

American Made dramatizes the stranger-than-fiction story of drug-smuggling pilot Barry Seal but ultimately builds up to an alarming ending.

American Made exposes the behind-the-scenes politics of the drug trade in the 1980s, shedding light on the complex bigger picture.
Barry Seal's death is believed to have been orchestrated by the drug cartel for revealing sensitive information to the DEA, but conspiracy theories also suggest CIA involvement.
The ending of American Made hints at the Iran-Contra scandal, showcasing how the CIA funded right-wing militants through selling American firearms in Iran.

American Made recreates the dramatic true story of Barry Seal, a commercial pilot who smuggled pile-loads of million-dollar drugs, only to become a DEA informant and then meet an unfortunate end. Tom Cruise reunited with Edge of Tomorrow filmmaker Doug Liman to play Seal in the 2017 biopic. Earning positive reactions from critics and audiences alike, American Made had its fair share of creative liberties, but it still did a faithful job of exposing the behind-the-scenes politics of the drug trade in the 1980s. While Seal did make a fortune out of his high-profile drug operations, he was just a part of the more complex bigger picture.

The American Made ending exemplifies the socio-political realities of the era by not only delving into Seal’s untimely death but also the steps that the American government took in its aftermath. From Moby’s goosebumps-inducing “Extreme Ways” establishing a Bourne movie tradition in The Bourne Identity to John Newman’s rousing ballad “Love Me Again” closing Edge of Tomorrow , Doug Liman’s best movies end with iconic tracks. American Made is no exception as its climatic events play in the backdrop of The Heavy’s power anthem “What Makes A Good Man.” Even though the song is a 2012 release, the ending reveals some era-defining moments of the' 80s.

Why Is Barry Seal Killed?

After years of flying stealth-heavy missions for the CIA and later smuggling drugs for Pablo Escobar’s Medellin Cartel, Barry Seal is at his wit’s end by American Made ’s third act. Following a desperate attempt to crash-land a plan to evade arrest from the DEA, Seal gives himself up to the authorities. In the tradition of classic crime movie finales like the ending of Goodfellas or The Wolf of Wall Street , Seal willingly gives up his information and contacts to the DEA in exchange for protection. For his illicit operations, the ever-smiling aviator is still punished. Serving his sentence of 1,000 hours of community service, all seems to be fine for Seal.

This is, of course, until he gets mysteriously shot dead. The American Made ending suggests that the cartel had him murdered for revealing sensitive information to the DEA. More or less, this is the general theory that is accepted to explain Seal’s death even as conspiracy theories on the Internet suggest that his murder might have been orchestrated by the CIA itself. In fact, Seal’s widow Deborah DuBois Seal even told The Daily Mail in 2017 that the US government didn’t do much to protect her husband after he came clean as an informant. She adds that even she doesn’t know who exactly might have been behind Seal’s assassination.

Why The CIA Destroyed All Connections With Seal

Even though the CIA’s involvement in hiring Barry Seal subsequently became public knowledge, American Made suggests that the secret agency immediately destroyed all evidence connecting it with the infamous aviator after he was murdered. While there is no concrete evidence to support how the CIA hid such evidence, it is probably standard agency protocol to hide all connections after a major drug supplier like Seal died. Even before he got involved with the Cartel, the CIA’s instructions to Seal to conduct aerial surveillance over Central America were always meant to be a hushed-up affair. However, it must be noted that Monty Schafer, the CIA officer who recruited Seal, was fictional.

How The CIA Funded The Contras

While Domhnall Gleeson’s character Monty Schafer wasn’t real and was just created to represent the collective state of CIA at the time, Monty’s actions at the very end of American Made are of utmost importance in American history. Moments after Barry Seal’s death, an elated Monty is found suggesting to his seniors to fund the Nicaraguan right-wing militant group Contras through all the funds that the Agency can secure by selling American firearms in Iran. This strategy did work as a perfect way to replace the funds that were otherwise raised by Seal’s constant drug-smuggling operations. Hence, within just a matter of seconds, American Made hints at the Iran-Contra scandal.

To make the ending more realistic, the final seconds also feature actual archival footage of then-President Ronald Reagan and then-Vice President George Bush being questioned about claims of America arming Iranian terrorists to wage war elsewhere in Latin American countries. Both leaders are shown dodging journalists’ questions even though it’s left for the viewer to deduce what actually happened. By now, it’s common knowledge that the Iran-Contra affair was an effort by the Reagan administration to oust the left-leaving government in Nicaragua at a time when the Cold War was still in effect. As for Barry Seal, he was unfortunately just a pawn who was forgotten after his death.

What Happened To Lucy Seal?

Barry Seal’s wife Lucy is played by Sarah Wright in American Made , the character being a dramatized version of Seal’s third wife Deborah DuBois Seal . The final scene of American Made features Lucy and her three children resettling in Baton Rouge where she works as a waitress. Following her husband’s death, it’s clear that she picked up a job at a fast-food restaurant to make ends meet. This is in stark contrast with the upscale life she led earlier, thanks to Seal’s million-dollar missions. But as the camera zooms in on an expensive-looking bracelet on Lucy’s wrist, the ending suggests that maybe, she hasn’t parted from all her wealth.

The real-life fate of Deborah Seal was similar as she told The Daily Mail that she and her children had to struggle financially following her husband’s death. In the same interview, she also revealed that she had actually crossed paths with Barry first when she was working as a waitress. It’s only an ill-fated irony that the American Made ending finds Deborah’s on-screen version Lucy picking up a waitressing job. It’s unclear how much Deborah Seal paid by the movie’s producers to secure the rights to her husband’s life story, but she did add that she had been living only a modest life for the past few decades.

The Real Meaning Of American Made's Ending

Some of Tom Cruise’s best movies have offered introspective critiques of the military and the government. Born on the Fourth of July , A Few Good Men and Lions for Lambs are some cases in point. One way or the other, American Made continues this tradition for Cruise, and it exposes how America’s militaristic hegemony can influence global geopolitics at a concerning level. Doug Liman doesn’t rely on any preachy discourse to criticize the corruption behind the drug trade as the ending of American Made shows, the director crafts an entertaining yet alarming attempt to satirize the inner workings of an infamous secret agency.

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Zookeeper's Wife, The

American Made vs. the True Story of Barry Seal

Had barry seal really been a commercial airline pilot for twa.

Yes. Like in the American Made movie, the real Barry Seal earned a living as a commercial airline pilot for several years. He was hired by Trans World Airlines (TWA) in 1964 and at age 26 became one of the youngest Captains operating a Boeing 707. He had already been flying planes for nearly half his life, earning his student pilot's license at age 15 and pilot's license at 16. Embracing his entrepreneurial spirit as a teenager, he started a small business flying ads from his airplane. In 1961, he joined the Louisiana Army National Guard and served with the 20th Special Forces Group for six years. -Daily Mail Online Like in the movie, the real Barry Seal was a former TWA pilot.

Was Barry Seal recruited by the CIA while he worked for TWA?

No, in real life, it happened earlier. In the American Made movie, Barry Seal's boredom with piloting commercial flights leads him to perform stunts that cause the oxygen masks to fall and frighten passengers. This draws the attention of the CIA. Operative Monty Schafer (Domhnall Gleeson) approaches Barry Seal (Tom Cruise) and tells him, "We need you to deliver stuff for us." The real Barry Seal claimed that he started running covert operations for various government agencies as early as the late 1950s, while he was a member of the Civil Air Patrol in New Orleans, well before he became a TWA pilot. Seal said that he started by doing things like flying guns for the CIA to revolution fighters in Cuba in the late 1950s and flying operations for U.S. Army Special Forces in Laos just prior to the Vietnam War. -Daily Mail Online

Did Barry Seal resign as a TWA pilot to carry out covert operations for the CIA?

No. Barry Seal was fired from TWA in 1974 for falsely citing medical leave when he was actually off trafficking weapons. He had been arrested in 1972 by the U.S. Customs Service for trying to fly 1,350 pounds of plastic explosives to anti-Castro Cubans via Mexico. -Smuggler's End: The Life and Death of Barry Seal

Is Domhnall Gleeson's character, Monty Schafer, based on a real CIA agent?

No. Fact-checking American Made revealed that Monty Schafer is a fictional character created to represent Barry Seal's contacts at the CIA. There is no real-life Monty. Domhnall Gleeson as fictional CIA agent Monty Schafer in American Made .

Did Barry Seal meet Lee Harvey Oswald?

Yes. An interesting fact we learned while researching the true story was that while training for the Civil Air Patrol in Baton Rouge, Barry Seal met President John F. Kennedy's assassin, Lee Harvey Oswald. - Refinery29

Is Barry Seal's wife in the movie based on a real person?

Yes. However, her real name is Debbie, not Lucy. She is a brunette, not a blond like Sarah Wright's character in the movie. Barry met Debbie while he was on his way to a hearing after he was caught in 1972 trying to smuggle military explosives out of the country. The explosives were supposedly going to anti-Castro Cuban fighters. Debbie, who was 21 at the time, met Barry, 33, while working as a cashier at a restaurant. "He stopped in there and, just like that, he asked me out," Debbie told Daily Mail Online . "He would tell me all these wild stories about the missions he had flown. I was young and it was impressive." They married in 1974. Debbie became Barry's third wife. He had previously been married to Barbara Bottoms (m. 1963-1971) and Lynn Ross (m. 1971-1972).

Was Barry Seal really working for both the CIA and Pablo Escobar in the early 1980s?

The extent of Barry Seal's involvement with the CIA in the 1980s has provided fuel for speculation and conspiracy theories. As author Del Hahn states in his book about Barry Seal's life, Smuggler's End: The Life and Death of Barry Seal , there is no evidence to support claims that Barry Seal worked for the CIA. Hahn was part of the task force that pursued Seal in the 1980s. In his book, he uses case documents and first-person accounts to dispel this idea and other half-truths about Seal. However, some still allege the opposite, that the government turned a blind eye to Seal's drug running in order to use him to deliver weapons to the Nicaraguan rebels. Basically, Seal would fly over the guns and smuggle back drugs on his return trip. It's certainly possible and it's what the movie proposes. Yet, it's also certainly possible that Seal had no involvement with the CIA in the early 1980s at all, given there is nothing to support the claim but rumors. In the least, his exploits with the CIA and agent Monty Schafer in the movie are largely fictional and based on speculation. In his research for the book, the only confirmed connection Hahn could make between the CIA and Barry Seal was in 1984, after Seal had started working as an informant for the DEA. What is certain is that Barry Seal did work for Pablo Escobar and the Ochoas as a drug smuggler for the Medellín Cartel and single-handedly had one of the largest impacts on the cocaine epidemic in the U.S. in the early 1980s. Seal made an estimated $60 million off smuggling drugs into the country and became one of the richest people in America. Executing secret missions for the government in the movie might add a sort of patriotism and redeeming quality to his character, but in real life Barry Seal was a drug smuggler first and foremost. That aspect of who he was has never been disputed. Del Hahn's book "Smuggler's End: The Life and Death of Barry Seal" attempts to dispel the rumors and half-truths associated with Barry Seal, including his work for the CIA.

What was the Iran-Contra affair?

As stated in the previous question, there is no strong evidence to confirm that Barry Seal was working with the CIA prior to becoming an informant after his arrest in 1983. Yet, some believe that Seal was working for the CIA in the 1980s to fly guns and money to Nicaraguan rebels, a detail that the movie embraces. During the Iran-Contra affair of the 1980s, the U.S. plotted to secretly help the rebels (Contras) overthrow Nicaragua's Communist Sandinista government. Money from the sale of weapons to Iran was used to help fund the rebels in Nicaragua. However, the U.S. needed a way to covertly get the funds and weapons to the rebels. Using pilots like Barry Seal was a means to an end. -Daily Mail Online

When did Barry Seal begin smuggling drugs?

The movie proposes that Barry Seal's first foray into smuggling drugs happened in 1980 after he was kidnapped while refueling his plane in Colombia. In the film, his abductors take him to a secret airstrip in the Colombian jungle where three businessmen, including Pablo Escobar, make him an offer he can't pass up. Upset that he has lost his pension and healthcare at TWA, he embraces the idea of making $2,000 per kilo of cocaine smuggled into the United States. This doesn't add up with the American Made true story. According to The Independent , Barry's widow, Deborah Seal, says that he began smuggling drugs in 1975, first focusing mainly on marijuana. Seal's Drug Enforcement Administration file also supports this, noting that he was smuggling marijuana as early as 1976, then adding cocaine to his resume in 1978.

How did Barry Seal become a drug smuggler for the Medellín Cartel?

In the movie, Barry Seal (Tom Cruise) starts working for the Medellín Cartel after they abduct him while he is refueling his plane and then make him an offer he can't refuse. In real life, his first encounter with the Medellín Cartel happened less dramatically. After being caught in Honduras with 40 kilograms of cocaine in 1979, Barry spent nine months in a Honduran jail. While there, he had a chance meeting with Jorge Ochoa's New Orleans business manager. The Ochoa Family, along with Pablo Escobar and others, were the founders of the Medellín Cartel. Still unknown at the time, the cartel would go on to make hundreds of millions from the explosion of cocaine use in the U.S. Barry Seal, who became known as "El Gordo" (The Fat Man), ended up being an integral part of that success. -Daily Mail Online This undercover photo taken from a secret camera mounted in Barry Seal's plane shows Pablo Escobar (left) and Barry Seal (right) on a tarmac in Nicaragua, where drugs were loaded onto Seal's plane.

Did Barry Seal deal directly with Pablo Escobar and the other leaders of Colombia's Medellín Cartel?

No. According to Del Hahn's book Smuggler's End , Barry Seal was not chummy with the cartel bosses. He didn't meet Pablo Escobar and the Ochoa brothers in person until 1984, after his arrest when he was working as an informant for the DEA on an undercover operation.

Did Barry Seal have three children?

No. According to TIME , in real life, he had five children and was married three times. The real Barry Seal and his wife Debbie had three children (Aaron, Dean and Christina). Barry also had a daughter and a son not shown in the movie, Lisa and Alder, with his first wife Barbara Bottoms.

Did Barry Seal really crash land a plane full of cocaine in a suburban neighborhood?

No. In the American Made movie , Barry Seal (Tom Cruise) crash lands a plane in a suburban neighborhood in an effort to escape the DEA who ordered him to land. Barry emerges from the plane covered in cocaine. He hands wads of cash to a kid on a bike, telling the boy, "You never saw me." The memorable scene never happened in real life. No evidence has been found to support that Barry Seal ever crash landed a plane in a suburban neighborhood, a story that surely would have made the news.

Did Barry really move his operation from Louisiana to Arkansas?

Yes. Barry Seal's smuggling operation began in Louisiana, and like in the American Made movie, he sometimes pushed packed duffel bags full of drugs out of his plane and into the Atchafalaya basin, to be collected by associates on the ground. A Baton Rouge, Louisiana native, Barry Seal was eventually forced to move his drug smuggling operation after he drew the attention of Louisiana authorities. He relocated to a small regional airport in Mena, Arkansas, which had a population of only 5,000. He carried out his smuggling operation under the nose of then-Arkansas governor Bill Clinton. -TIME

How much money did Barry make smuggling drugs into the U.S.?

As a drug smuggler for Colombia's Medellín Cartel, Barry Seal earned as much as $500,000 per flight smuggling cocaine into the United States. By 1983, his earnings totaled $60 million, making him one of the wealthiest people in America. In total, he had illegally imported $3 to $5 billion worth of drugs and an estimated 56 tons of cocaine into the U.S., making over 100 flights. -Daily Mail Online By 1983, Barry Seal had made $60 million flying illegal drugs into the U.S.

Why was the movie's title changed from Mena to American Made ?

"Mena" refers to the small town in Arkansas where Barry Seal moved his operation, smuggling in drugs to a clandestine airfield under the nose of then-Governor Bill Clinton. Per The Hollywood Reporter , the movie's title was changed to put less emphasis on the Arkansas connection, including the possibility that Bill Clinton was aware of what was going on.

Did Barry Seal's wife know that he was a drug smuggler?

Debbie Seal insists that she was unaware of what her husband was up to. She says that she thought he was an airplane broker and also that he rented out old anti-aircraft lighting for various promotional events. Her character in the American Made movie is much more aware and suspicious of her husband's activities, stating that she flat out doesn't trust him, which is the opposite of Seal's real-life wife. "I trusted him so I didn't ask questions," says Debbie. "He would tell me, 'I'm going to such and such places,' and I wouldn't see him for days. I never saw drugs, that's for sure." -Daily Mail Online

Did the zero-gravity love scene really happen?

No. The scene was actually inspired by something that happened while director Doug Liman and Tom Cruise were training for the movie. "Tom did all his own flying in the movie," Liman told Vulture . "He put the airplane into a parabolic arc and pinned me against the ceiling, and right in that moment, I had this inspiration. ... Wouldn't it be fun if they were fooling around in a plane and the plane went into the same kind of parabolic arc and they got pinned against the ceiling?" The movie's zero-g love scene never happened.

Did the cartel really kill Barry Seal's brother-in-law with a car bomb?

No. In the movie, Lucy's brother JB (Caleb Landry Jones) steals money from Barry (Tom Cruise). He carries it around and begins spending it, which attracts the attention of the local authorities. The cartel tells Barry that they'll deal with JB, a suggestion that Barry opposes. Soon after, JB is killed by a car bomb. JB is fictional. The real Barry Seal never had a brother-in-law who was killed by a car bomb.

Is American Made a biopic?

No. "You know, we're not making a biopic," said director Doug Liman. "Tom Cruise doesn't look like Barry Seal. His character is inspired by the stories we learned about Barry." The movie's loose interpretation of the truth is echoed in the trailer when a voice-over by Tom Cruise as Barry Seal tells us that only "some of this sh*t really happened." Liman has referred to the film as "a fun lie based on a true story" ( TIME ). American Made starring Tom Cruise was inspired by various tales about Barry Seal, but the film is not a biopic.

Was Barry Seal as likable as Tom Cruise's American Made character?

Yes, at least according to his wife and others who knew him. "The DEA agents who worked with Barry loved him," said director Doug Liman. "We're talking about one of the largest drug smugglers in America, and these agents loved him." While the filmmakers were shooting the movie in South America, a local pilot who was working with them said that he had met Barry. When asked how, he replied, "Oh, Barry stole an airplane from me. He took it out for a test flight and never came back." It turns out Barry flew the plane all the way back to the United States. The man said that despite the incident, he was still very fond of Barry. -Vulture.com Barry Seal was a ballsy and confident risk taker, who rarely acknowledged the possibility of failure, and that's just how Tom Cruise portrays him in the American Made movie. According to author Del Hahn, who wrote the book Smuggler's End , next to Barry's yearbook photo was the description, "Full of fun, full of folly" ( TIME ). Hahn told Vice that Barry was likable but "not as smart and clever as he thought he was."

Does Tom Cruise look like Barry Seal?

No. Fact-checking American Made immediately revealed that Tom Cruise looks nothing like the real Barry Seal, who weighed around 280lbs and was nicknamed "El Gordo" (The Fat Man) by his bosses. -Daily Mail Online The real Barry Seal (left and inset) and actor Tom Cruise (right) look nothing alike.

How was Barry Seal caught?

In researching the American Made true story, we learned that Barry Seal was arrested by customs officers in Fort Lauderdale, Florida in 1983 as he tried to smuggle 200,000 units of Quaalude, a recreational drug, into the country. The DEA had been onto him for a long time. If he had in fact been working for the CIA at the time, his connections didn't get him off the hook.

Did Barry Seal offer to become a federal informant to avoid prison time?

Yes. In an effort to reduce or altogether avoid his 10-year prison sentence, Seal first tried to make a deal with a U.S. attorney, volunteering to give up information on the Ochoa family, but the deal was rejected. He then was able to get a meeting with Vice President George H.W. Bush's anti-drug task force in hopes of convincing them of his value as an informant. They referred him to the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA). The DEA eventually took him up on his offer because of his knowledge and connections to the cartel. Seal became a federal informant in March 1984. His cooperation led to many convictions, as well as indictments against Pablo Escobar and Jorge Ochoa, two of the founding members of the Medellín Cartel. Ochoa was arrested in Spain on a U.S. warrant, but due to pressure from the cartel was never extradited to the U.S. -Court Documents (STATE of Louisiana v. Miguel VELEZ, Bernardo Vasquez, and Luis Carlos Quintero-Cruz)

As an informant, did Barry Seal really bring back photos and drugs as part of his undercover work?

Yes. Like in the American Made movie, Barry Seal was allowed to fly out of the country and return with illegal drugs that the feds made sure never reached their targets. Concurrently, they had to make sure not to raise the suspicions of the ruthless Colombian drug lords. Undercover cameras installed on Seal's plane captured photos on the tarmac of a Nicaraguan airport. Images like the one earlier on this page show Medellín Cartel boss Pablo Escobar with Sandinista government officials and soldiers, who were loading cocaine onto Seal's plane, nicknamed the Fat Lady. Other photos like the one below show Federico Vaughan (center, striped shirt), a man that Seal claimed was a top aide of Tomas Borge, the Sandinista Minister of the Interior. The White House saw the pictures as proof of the communist Sandinista government's corruption and believed that the photos would help to convince the public of the need to support and arm the rebels (Contras) in Nicaragua. Later, after Seal's cover was suspiciously blown, President Reagan used the photo shown below in a 1986 television address to the nation . -The Independent President Ronald Reagan referenced this photo in a 1986 address to the nation. At center in the striped shirt helping to load drugs onto Seal's plane is Federico Vaughan, believed to be an aide to the Interior Minister of Nicaragua's Sandinista government.

Did Col. Oliver North inadvertently get Barry Seal killed?

Not likely. No other name is perhaps more associated with the Iran-Contra affair than Oliver North, but his involvement in exposing Barry Seal's mission and blowing his cover is unknown and entirely speculation. A July 17, 1984 front-page Washington Times article by Edmund Jacoby described a link between Nicaragua's Sandinista government and the Medellín drug cartel. Jacoby mentioned Seal's mission as evidence, which effectively outed Seal as a government agent. When asked who his source was, Jacoby implied that it was "an aide in the White House" and that Oliver North had the most motivation to release the information. Despite the movie attempting to pin it on North, Jacoby later said that North was not his source and that it was a deceased Special Forces and CIA guy named Ted Lunger, who at the time worked as a staff member for Representative Dan Daniel. "I can state absolutely that Oliver North had nothing to do with my story as far as I knew, or as far as I know today," said Jacoby. Regardless, Jacoby's article led to the abandonment of the final piece of Barry Seal's undercover operation. Pablo Escobar and the Ochoas were going to be arrested at a celebration of Seal's successful cocaine transport. The arrests never happened since Seal's cover was blown. -Smuggler's End: The Life and Death of Barry Seal

Did the cartel put a contract out on Barry Seal?

Yes. "One day Barry came in and said there was a contract on him - half a million dead, a million alive," says widow Debbie Seal. "He thought we had more time. I guess he also thought Colombians would stick out like a sore thumb in Louisiana and they wouldn't come here." It is believed that the Colombians put a hit out on Barry after they learned he was going to help the feds with the extradition of Jorge Ochoa from Spain, one of the heads of the Medellín Cartel. Barry and his wife talked about going into witness protection, but like in the movie, he decided against it. -Daily Mail Online

Why wasn't Barry Seal forced into witness protection?

Author Del Hahn, a former FBI agent who wrote the book about Seal titled Smuggler's End: The Life and Death of Barry Seal , told Vice , "Seal thought he was smarter and cleverer than the Ochoas," who are one of the founding families of the Medellín Cartel. He wasn't. Barry Seal's widow, Debbie Seal, and others have wondered why the government didn't do more to protect Seal, whether he wanted the protection or not. Conspiracy theorists have gone as far as suggesting that the government ordered the hit on Seal, not the cartel, a suggestion that has never been supported by any proof.

Was Barry Seal assassinated in a parking lot?

Yes. The assassination happened on February 19, 1986 in the parking lot in front of the Salvation Army building on Airline Highway (U.S. 61) in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. As part of his reduced sentence, the judge had ordered Barry to spend his nights, from 6 p.m. to 6 a.m., at a Salvation Army halfway house for six months. Barry arrived that evening at approximately 6 p.m. and backed his white Cadillac into a parking space. He was unaware that a Colombian assassin was hiding behind one of the donation drop boxes. As Barry opened the driver's side door to get out of the car, the gunman rushed from behind the drop box and fired a .45 caliber Mac-10 machine gun, hitting Barry in the head and body several times. The gunman hurried into a waiting Buick, which sped away. The gunman was later identified as Luis Carlos Quintero-Cruz. Miguel Velez was the man driving the getaway car. Three Colombians supposedly sent by the Ochoas, including Cruz and Velez, were later arrested at the airport. They were all sentenced to life in prison. -Court Documents The 2016 Bryan Cranston movie The Infiltrator also depicts Barry Seal's assassination, but it is historically inaccurate. That film finds Seal (portrayed by Michael Paré) being assassinated in a motorcycle drive-by shooting while he is driving and Robert Mazur (Cranston) is his passenger.

Does director Doug Liman have ties to the true story?

Yes. While exploring the real-life story behind the movie, we discovered that Doug Liman's father, lawyer Arthur L. Liman, ran the Senate investigation into Iran-Contra. Arthur, the chief council, investigated the CIA and questioned Col. Oliver North, who is depicted in American Made . Doug Liman had previously modeled Chris Cooper's villain in The Bourne Identity after North, which reveals Liman's feelings about the controversial figure North. -Vulture.com

Did Tom Cruise do all of his own flying in the movie?

Yes. "Tom did all his own flying in the movie," says director Doug Liman, who is a pilot himself ( Vulture.com ). Tom Cruise got his pilot's license in 1994. "I fly airplanes. I'm a multi-engine, instrument-rated commercial pilot," Cruise said in a Wired interview. "Doug and I are both aviators, so we both love to fly."

How does Barry Seal's family feel about the movie?

Not all of Barry Seal's heirs were happy with the making of the movie. Lisa Seal Frigon, Barry's daughter from his first marriage, sued Universal, claiming that the studio should have purchased Barry's life rights from her, not his third wife Deborah who they paid $350,000. In her suit, Lisa, who is not depicted in the movie, also claimed that there were factual inaccuracies in the script, including the fact that Barry had five children, not three, and that the movie falsely suggests he was an alcoholic and a reckless pilot.

Were two pilots killed during the making of American Made ?

Yes. Just prior to the movie's release, news broke that the family of deceased stunt pilot Alan Purwin was suing American Made 's producers for wrongful death. Purwin was a passenger in a plane that went down, killing both Purwin and Venezuelan pilot Carlos Berl. The accident didn't happen during filming. The lawsuit claims that the pilots were overworked and that the crash happened after a 12-hour workday. In court documents, the family alleged that "lapses in planning, coordinating, scheduling, and flight safety" contributed to the fatal crash in the mountains of Colombia. They also claimed that the pilot who died lacked the necessary experience for the flight. -Good Morning America

Watch an interview with the real Barry Seal where he discusses his undercover mission, and listen to President Ronald Reagan talk about the photos Seal obtained on the mission. Also, view a news story about Barry Seal's death.

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Deleted Scenes

Jb goes to church, tv delivery, plane auction, barry crashes into sheriff's station, schafer in cia meeting, featurettes, american storytellers, cruise & liman: a conversation, in the wings, shooting american made, flying high, the real barry seal, theatrical trailer, rotten tomatoes® score.

American Made might push Cruise further along his evolution to more interesting, character-based roles. One doesn’t expect an immediate return to iconic roles like Vincent Lauria or T.J. Mackey, but hopefully Barry Seal is just the start.

"American Made" is southern-fried Scorsese Lite, a gumbo of decadent deviance masking over a sharp spice of potentially fatal risks.

Regardless of its exciting story and sharp ending, the film contains almost no lasting consequence and feels more like an adventure than the story of a real-world scandal, rather troublingly so.

[The movie] is phenomenal. ... This is brilliant casting ... It's Gleeson's performance as the institutional representative that sells the film's recklessly excessive 80s vibe.

There's more character work in any episode of Breaking Bad or Narcos than American Made's entire 115 minute running time but Cruise's movie does have a sense of humour about itself that makes for an amiable, if not memorable, watch.

Despite a strong Tom Cruise performance, the movie is as generic as its title.

There was a time when I looked forward to a Tom Cruise motion picture.

It just sort of putts along, rough around the edges and unjustifiably confident in itself, like a rich guy wasted on cocaine.

Worth watching to see Tom Cruise as good as he's been in years.

American Made is one of the best kinds of biopics: A tale that makes me want to explore the story further and find out more about its subject. Even if only half of this film is true to life, it's still 100% crazy.

Additional Info

Genre : Action, Comedy
Release Date : September 29, 2017
Languages : English, Spanish
Captions : English
Audio Format : 5.1

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American Made: All Locations Where The Tom Cruise Starrer Was Filmed

Known for his action-packed thrillers with serious character development, ‘ American Made ’ sees visionary auteur Doug Liman team up with Tom Cruise following their collaboration in ‘ Edge of Tomorrow .’ The action-comedy drama film provides a fictionalized account of true political events of the late 1970s and 80s, especially the Iran-Contra scandal. It follows the story of Barry Seal, an enigmatic personality who was central to the affair, and the consequences of actions this adventurous spirit couldn’t handle.

Starting off as a playful pilot, Seal has a family he needs to care for while being away all the time to work for the CIA. Cruise is joined by Domhnall Gleeson, Jesse Plemons, Sarah Wright, and Jayma Mays in this adventure to depict Seal’s lifestyle. The film provides an adrenalin rush on land and in the air, where there are plenty of scenic moments, which were performed by Cruise himself as a licensed pilot. Since the movie is based in different parts of the country, it naturally raises questions about where it was taped.

American Made Filming Locations

‘American Made’ was filmed in several locations in Georgia, Colombia, and Louisiana, specifically in Atlanta, Medellin, and New Orleans. While principal photography commenced on May 18, 2015, in Georgia, it took significant time to film different parts of the movie in plenty of specific locations. With the Georgia locations wrapped up by July 12, 2015, the team moved its filming to Colombia, where Tom Cruise and Liman decided to be adventurous and explored the jungles to scout locations ideal for the shoot.

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After a decision was made, the part of the filming in Colombia began on August 26, 2015, and concluded on September 11, 2015, coinciding with a real-life tragedy where two people were killed in a plane crash when the crew members of the production team were returning to Medellin. After this incident, the filming resumed much later on February 3, 2016, in Louisiana and wrapped up just a few days later by February 11, 2016. The filming process post mostly involved reshoots back in Georgia in 2017 from January to February. Let’s learn more about the specific locations where the film was taped.

Cherokee County, Georgia

Most of the filming for ‘American Made’ took place in Georgia, with a very crucial part shot in Ball Ground in Cherokee County. In the movie, the Seal family had to flee their house in Louisiana for a safer home in Mena, Arkansas. The filming for all the scenes set in Mena was actually done in Ball Ground, at Gilmer Ferry Road, where the set for the ranch house was prepared.

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The set decoration team progressed in its efficiency along with the plot, adding plenty of renovations and additions to the set to depict the result of Seal’s financial success from his dealings with the cartel. Even the streets of the area were modified slightly to provide the feel of the 80s era, including the installation of plenty of payphones that Seal had to keep using. Even the Nicaraguan airstrip, from where Seal conducts his operations, was shot at the Cherooke airport, located at 1350 Bishop Rd, Ball Ground, GA 30107.

Atlanta, Georgia

Many other scenes for the film were shot in and around Atlanta, the capital city of Georgia. A lot of scenes show Seal on a plane, especially in Atlanta, which were shot at Atlanta Media Campus at 6305 Crescent Drive in Norcross. Close to Atlanta, the scene where the CIA operative gives Seal a private aircraft to fly at a hangar is shot in Candler Field, Williamson. Another training facility was prepared within two days just north of Atlanta in Roswell, where an empty field was chosen as the filming spot.

Interestingly, the scenes set in Louisiana’s Baton Rouge, where the Seal family initially lives, were actually shot in Roswell, too, on the first day of filming. These were exactly taped at 640 Brickleberry Court. Plenty of other scenes and sets had to be located in different parts of Atlanta and some surrounding areas that were chosen within Georgia, such as Clayton, DeKalb, Fulton, and Gwinnett. Other locations that were a part of the film were Morgan, Madison, and Pickens within Georgia. The sets like the CIA office and even offices for George Bush and Olive North had to be built from scratch.

Medellin, Colombia

View this post on Instagram A post shared by Doug Liman (@dougliman)

Since a friendship between Seal and Pablo Escobar’s Medellin Cartel is depicted in the film, some scenes were also shot in Colombia, especially in Medellin. However, due to the unfortunate incident with the production crew, the shooting was wrapped up in a few days. Some parts were also filmed in Santa Marta in Colombia, where the scenic locations proved to be ideal, especially for the flying scenes. A few scenes were likely lensed at Aeroparque Juan Pablo II, a famous waterpark at Cra. 70 #16, Guayabal in Medellín. Nonetheless, all the shooting in these areas was wrapped up within a couple of days before resuming the reshoots in Georgia.

New Orleans, Louisiana

The initial part of ‘American Made’ is based in Baton Rouge, which is a few miles away from New Orleans in Louisiana. This part depicts the time in the lives of the Seal family before they shifted to Arkansas. It showcases the members residing in their suburban home when Seal is still a commercial pilot. As per reports, the shooting period in Louisiana was very brief, with a few aerial shots over Bayou State and one scene in the film at the airport where a vintage New Orleans poster is visible.

Read More: American Made Review: Tom Cruise Delivers

Kirsten Dunst Still Gets the Famous Tom Cruise Cake 30 Years After 'Interview With the Vampire' (Exclusive)

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Just like a vampire's lifespan, Tom Cruise 's famous holiday coconut cake is eternal! Kirsten Dunst sat down with ET's Kevin Frazier to reflect on the 30th anniversary of her hit film, Interview With a Vampire , where the subject of her co-star, Cruise, came up.

"Still getting that cake," Dunst, 41, revealed to ET.

She added of her husband and frequent co-star Jesse Plemons , "Jesse gets the cakes so we double up on our cakes."

Plemons and Cruise co-starred in 2017's American Made .

Cruise's holiday cake gift is the dessert of legends with the A-lister reportedly sending the cake to a long list of fellow celebrities each year.

As for Dunst's thoughts on the classic 1994 vampire film, which also co-starred Brad Pitt and Antonio Banderas , she has nothing but positive associations with the film.

"When I think back I have fond memories. It was a production like nothing I have experienced to this day. The costumes and the sets. It changed the course of my life," she shared.

These days, Dunst is tackling another kind of horror film with her dystopian flick, Civil War . In the movie, Dunst plays Lee, a photojournalist documenting a civil war happening within modern-day America. Plemons appears opposite his wife and the mother of his two children, playing an extremist militia member.

"He wouldn't have played a part like this if I wasn't in the film," Dunst shared. "He did a favor for us because that is a really disturbing role to play."

The couple has teamed up on several projects together, including their turn on Fargo , the show where they met.

Civil War is in theaters April 12.

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Suri Cruise turns 18 and is still estranged from Tom: ‘Not a Scientologist, never will be’

Suri Cruise was once the most famous baby in America.

The arrival of Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes’ daughter on April 18, 2006, sparked a global frenzy for the first glimpse of the A-list infant.

But it wasn’t until five months after her birth that she made her debut — on the cover of Vanity Fair, wrapped in the arms of her doting parents, in glossy photos taken by photographer to the stars, Annie Leibovitz.

Now she turns 18 on Thursday and faces a choice: Whether to return to the level of fame she had as a kid — when there were blogs devoted to her fashion — or maintain the carefully-guarded life Holmes has built for her since she blindsided Cruise by filing for divorce.

The dark-haired teen has grown up in Manhattan largely shielded from the spotlight by her loving and highly protective mom, 45, far removed from her 60-year-old father’s Church of Scientology.

As Page Six revealed last year, Suri is estranged from her famous father and the pair have no relationship.

An industry source told us this week that the “Mission: Impossible” star has not seen Suri since 2012. “Katie has safeguarded Suri and she’s a devoted mom,” the source said.

“This is a girl who is a private citizen. She hasn’t lived her life in public.”

Holmes told Glamour magazine in 2023 that she likes to “protect” Suri from the public eye “because she was so visible at a young age.”

“I’m very grateful to be a parent, to be her parent. She’s an incredible person. She’s my heart,” she added.

Being the only daughter of a protective single parent is a stark contrast to how Suri’s life began, of course.

“My whole life I always wanted to be a father,” Cruise gushed to VF back in 2006.

“I always said to myself that my children would be able to depend on me and I would always be there for them and love them — that I’d never make a promise to my kids that I couldn’t keep.

“I’m not one of those people who believe you can spoil a child with too much love. You can never give a child too much love. There’s just no way.”

He already had two adopted children, Bella, now 31, and Connor, now 29, from his marriage to Nicole Kidman and after her Vanity Fair debut was happy to parade Suri for the paparazzi.

Cruise had famously declared their romance by jumping up and down on Oprah Winfrey’s couch in May 2005, yelling “I’m in love!”

But when Suri was just 6, Holmes filed for divorce after six years of marriage with the help of her dad, Martin Holmes, a fierce attorney, and through a secret plan that entailed using burner phones.

Cruise was taken completely by surprise by the filing while he was on the set of “Oblivion” in Iceland in June 2012.

He and Suri were last seen together at Disney World in the summer of 2012.

In November 2013, during a deposition in his $50 million court battle against a pair of tabloid magazines, the “Top Gun” star admitted that Holmes had filed for divorce “to protect Suri from Scientology,” court documents revealed.

Despite not having a relationship; as per their divorce agreement, Cruise, who has an estimated $600 million fortune, agreed to pay Holmes $400,000 a year until Suri turns 18 as well as future “medical, dental, insurance, education, college and other extracurricular costs”.

Scientology lies at the heart of the question over Suri’s future.

Holmes, who rose to fame in the TV hit, “Dawson’s Creek,” is believed to have signed multiple non-disclosure documents that will prevent her from ever talking about her marriage to Cruise — and her time inside Scientology.

But when Suri turns 18, NY state declares that she is at the age of majority, when an individual is legally considered an adult.

That would allow her to speak about her father, his beliefs and their rift.

Tony Ortega, who has covered Scientology in depth for decades, told Page Six, “Suri would have been too young to sign any agreement, but she will now be free to talk if she wants to and it’s going to be really interesting if she has something to say.”

We have reached out to reps for Cruise, Holmes and the Church of Scientology.

“Part of why Katie left when she did when Suri was 6 was that Katie would have seen Isabella and Connor going through Scientology,” said Ortega.

Cruise is of course Scientology’s most famous follower and seen as one of its most powerful figures, possibly second only to its leader, David Miscavige.

That power has led Ortega and former Scientologists to question what action Miscavige and other top Scientologists may have taken against Holmes and her daughter.

Regular members who quit are declared “suppressive persons (SP)” and those who stay in Scientology are told to completely cut them off.

“We don’t know for sure if Katie was ever declared an SP,” Ortega said.

“If you are a regular church member you could be told to disconnect from your wife and daughter, but because Tom is a celebrity — he’s the top celebrity — he gets to ignore all this stuff.

“Your average member would be kicked out, but David Miscavige can’t do that with Tom.”

Both Mike Rinder and Jeff Augustine, two high-profile former Scientologists, agreed with this claim.

Augustine is married to Karen de la Carriere, who was one of the highest-ranking church leaders until she left in 2010 and told Page Six, “The situation with Suri is a larger story about Scientology and the subject of how they make people no longer useful to them or threats to them non-persons.

“It’s like they cease to exist and that’s what happened to Suri.”

Back in August 2020, Leah Remini — one of the most famous celebrities to leave and speak out against Scientology — told us that she believed Cruise, who now lives mainly in the UK , was waiting until Suri is older so he could indoctrinate her into Scientology.

Remini, who attended Cruise and Holmes’ November 2006 Italian wedding at the 15th-century Odescalchi Castle, said, “I’m sure his master plan is to wait until Suri gets older so that he can lure her into Scientology and away from her mother.”

Suri has tiptoed very gently into her parents’ showbusiness world while attending her exclusive Manhattan day school, singing “Blue Moon” in the opening credits of Holmes’ 2022 movie, “Alone Together.”

“I always want the highest level of talent,” Holmes said. “So I asked her! She’s very, very talented. She said she would do it and she recorded it, and I let her do her thing.”

Suri also sang in the film “Rare Objects,” which Holmes also directed.

Holmes will this year return to Broadway in a revival of Thornton Wilder’s “Our Town”.

She has not remarried but had a six-year romance with actor Jamie Foxx which she kept under the radar before their split in August 2019 and went on to have a brief fling with Nolita restaurateur Emilio Vitolo Jr. in 2021.

Holmes is careful not to speak out too much about her daughter, who is now preparing for college, once saying, “She came out very strong — she’s always been a strong personality.”

But she is now getting ready for her daughter to leave the nest.

“You want them to stay with you forever, but they’re these amazing beings, and you have to do everything you can to give them what they need — and then they’re going to go,” she told Town & Country in 2017.

“And that’s going to be very, very sad for me.”

As for the future, former Scientology spokesperson Mike Rinder, who has not seen his own two eldest children since he quit the organization, told Page Six, “Suri is not a Scientologist and never will be…she deserves love and sympathy.”

Suri Cruise turns 18 and is still estranged from Tom: ‘Not a Scientologist, never will be’

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Tom Cruise Is Back in American Made! Let’s Enjoy It While It Lasts
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'American Made' Official Trailer (2017)
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COMMENTS

American Made (film)
American Made is a 2017 American action comedy film directed by Doug Liman, written by Gary Spinelli, and starring Tom Cruise, Domhnall Gleeson, Sarah Wright, Alejandro Edda, Mauricio Mejía, Caleb Landry Jones, and Jesse Plemons. It is inspired by the life of Barry Seal, a former TWA pilot who flew missions for the CIA, and became a drug smuggler for the Medellín Cartel in the 1980s.
American Made (2017)
Tom Cruise stars as Barry Seal, a pilot who became a drug-runner for the CIA in the 1980s in this action comedy crime film. Directed by Doug Liman and based on a true story, the film explores Seal's involvement in the Iran-Contra Affair and his dealings with Pablo Escobar.
American Made
Guns. Drugs. Money laundering. Based on an unbelievable true story, watch the #AmericanMade trailer, in theaters September 29.Song: "The Devil You Know" by X...
American Made
American Made's fast-and-loose attitude with its real-life story mirrors the cavalier -- and delightfully watchable -- energy Tom Cruise gives off in the leading role. Read critic reviews.
American Made (2017)
Tom Cruise plays Barry Seal, a pilot who becomes a drug-runner for the CIA and the Medellín Cartel in the 1980s. The film follows his dangerous and double life, his involvement in the Iran-Contra affair, and his downfall.
Watch American Made
The notorious real-life drug smuggler Barry Seal inspired this wild story of an airline pilot who decides he's willing to fly for the highest bidder. Watch trailers & learn more.
American Made Official Trailer #1 (2017) Tom Cruise Thriller Movie HD
Tom Cruise stars as a daring pilot who gets involved in a covert operation that spans the globe in this thrilling movie based on a true story. Watch the official trailer of American Made and see ...
American Made: True Story Behind Tom Cruise-Barry Seal Movie
7 minute read. American Made, the new Tom Cruise crime drama out Sept. 29, has all the makings of a romp: drug running and arms smuggling. An FBI sting. Enough cold, hard cash to make the ...
'American Made' Official Trailer (2017)
Watch the official trailer for thriller "American Made," starring Tom Cruise, Sarah Wright, Domhnall Gleeson, Jesse Plemons, Caleb Landry Jones, Jayma Mays, ...
American Made
American Made. In Universal Pictures' American Made, Tom Cruise reunites with his Edge of Tomorrow director, Doug Liman (The Bourne Identity, Mr. and Mrs. Smith), in this international escapade based on the outrageous (and real) exploits of a hustler and pilot unexpectedly recruited by the CIA to run one of the biggest covert operations in U ...
American Made review
A grinning Cruise is back in Top Gun territory in Doug Liman's sort-of-true story about a bored pilot who starts working for a Colombian cartel and the CIA Peter Bradshaw Wed 23 Aug 2017 11.00 ...
'American Made'
R. Action. Crime. Comedy. The story of Barry Seal, an American pilot who became a drug-runner for the CIA in the 1980s in a clandestine operation that would be exposed as the Iran-Contra Affair ...
American Made movie review & film summary (2017)
Tom Cruise stars as Barry Seal, a CIA operative and drug runner in South America, in this based-on-a-true-story comedy. The film is criticized for its shallow characterization, sensationalism, and lack of insight into Seal's motives.
Watch American Made
American Made. Pilot Barry Seal transports contraband for the CIA and the Medellin cartel in the 1980s. 20,045 IMDb 7.1 25min 2017. X-Ray HDR UHD R ... Tom Cruise, Domhnall Gleeson, Sarah Wright Olsen Studio Universal Pictures. Other formats. DVD from $6.95. Blu-ray from $11.66.
'American Made' Ending Explained: What Happened to Barry Seal?
American Made is a true story about Barry Seal, a commercial pilot who becomes involved with government agencies and drug cartels in the '70s and '80s.; Tom Cruise delivers a wonderful performance ...
American Made
Tom Cruise reunites with his "Edge of Tomorrow" director, Doug Liman, in this thriller based on the outrageous true story of Barry Seal, a hustler and pilot ...
American Made
"American Made could have been called American Made-Up. It amounts to an enormously contrived effort by Doug Liman, the son of the Senate's lead counsel in the Iran-Contra hearings, to reshape the tangle of that scandal into a larkish Tom Cruise adventure. Truth was not an impediment."
American Made Ending Explained: What Happened To Barry Seal
American Made recreates the dramatic true story of Barry Seal, a commercial pilot who smuggled pile-loads of million-dollar drugs, only to become a DEA informant and then meet an unfortunate end. Tom Cruise reunited with Edge of Tomorrow filmmaker Doug Liman to play Seal in the 2017 biopic. Earning positive reactions from critics and audiences alike, American Made had its fair share of ...
American Made vs. the True Story of Barry Seal
In the American Made movie, Barry Seal (Tom Cruise) crash lands a plane in a suburban neighborhood in an effort to escape the DEA who ordered him to land. Barry emerges from the plane covered in cocaine. He hands wads of cash to a kid on a bike, telling the boy, "You never saw me." The memorable scene never happened in real life.
American Made
Purchase American Made on digital and stream instantly or download offline. Tom Cruise reunites with his "Edge of Tomorrow" director, Doug Liman, in this thriller based on the outrageous true story of Barry Seal, a hustler and pilot unexpectedly recruited by the CIA to run one of the biggest covert operations in U.S. history. "American Made" costars Domhnall Gleeson, Sarah Wright, Jesse ...
American Made
Guns. Drugs. Money laundering. Based on an unbelievable true story, watch the #AmericanMade trailer. In Universal Pictures' American Made, Tom Cruise reunite...
American Made: All Locations Where The Tom Cruise Starrer Was Filmed
Known for his action-packed thrillers with serious character development, 'American Made' sees visionary auteur Doug Liman team up with Tom Cruise following their collaboration in 'Edge of Tomorrow.' The action-comedy drama film provides a fictionalized account of true political events of the late 1970s and 80s, especially the Iran-Contra scandal. It follows the story of […]
Kirsten Dunst Still Gets the Famous Tom Cruise Cake 30 Years After
Plemons and Cruise co-starred in 2017's American Made. Cruise's holiday cake gift is the dessert of legends with the A-lister reportedly sending the cake to a long list of fellow celebrities each ...
AMERICAN MADE
AMERICAN MADE - In Theatres September 29 In Universal Pictures' American Made, Tom Cruise reunites with his Edge of Tomorrow director, Doug Liman (The Bourne...
Suri Cruise turns 18 and is still estranged from Tom: 'Not a ...
Suri Cruise was once the most famous baby in America. The arrival of Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes' daughter on April 18, 2006, sparked a global frenzy for the first glimpse of the A-list infant.

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The True Story Behind the Movie American Made

Fact: Seal was an unusually talented young pilot.

Fact: He had a colorful personality.

Partly Fiction: He was married to a woman named Lucy and they had three kids.

Fiction: The government first took notice of his smuggling when he was transporting Cuban cigars.

Fact: He smuggled drugs in through the Louisiana coast.

Mostly Fiction: Seal was chummy with the leaders of Colombia’s Medellín Cartel, including Pablo Escobar and the Ochoa brothers.

Fact: Seal offered to cooperate with the DEA to stay out of prison.

Contested: He worked for many years alongside the CIA.

Fact: Seal was assassinated in 1986.

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