Poster © Sony Pictures Releasing. Shown at reduced size for review and commentary.
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GenreAction & Thriller
RatedPG-13
Runtime1 hr 40 mins
ReleasedJuly 23, 2010
StreamingSee Where to Watch
DirectorPhillip Noyce
StarringAngelina Jolie, Liev Schreiber, Chiwetel Ejiofor
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Salt (2010)
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| Salt's Details | |
| Genre | Action & Thriller |
| Rated | PG-13 |
| Released | 07/19/2010 (Hollywood); 07/23/2010 (United States) |
| Streaming | See Where to Watch on this page. |
| Running Time | 1 hr 40 mins |
| Budget | $110–130M (reported) |
| Box Office | Updated daily from Box Office Mojo. See the numbers below. |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Salt's Interests | |
| General | Spiders, fire extinguishers, rooftop leaps, highway truck hopping, disguises, a ticking clock. |
| Music | James Newton Howard. Cold War nerves in a modern spy chase. |
| Movies | The Bourne Identity (2002). Another agent on the run from their own side. |
| Television | Alias. Another agent with a thousand wigs and zero trust. |
| Heroes | Evelyn Salt. Hops from truck to truck on the highway like it's her daily commute. |
| Salt's Crew | |
| Director | Phillip Noyce |
| Writers | Kurt Wimmer |
| Producers | Lorenzo di Bonaventura, Sunil Perkash |
| Cinematography | Robert Elswit |
| Music | James Newton Howard |
| Edited By | Stuart Baird, John Gilroy |
| Production | Columbia Pictures, Di Bonaventura Pictures, Relativity Media |
| Distributed By | Sony Pictures Releasing |
By the halfway mark of Salt, you’ll stop wondering whether Evelyn is a Russian spy and start wondering whether gravity applies to her. She hops from truck roof to truck roof on a highway, builds a homemade rocket out of a table leg and some cleaning chemicals, and walks away from crashes that would total a tank. The double crosses stack so high the plot turns into a coin toss. Angelina Jolie sells all of it with total, unblinking conviction, and her quick disguise changes are fun in a cheesy airport-novel way. Chiwetel Ejiofor plays the agent chasing her and mostly stares at monitors. Her spider-scientist husband deserved a bigger part. At 100 minutes it’s lean, and it made $293.5 million worldwide on a budget reported as high as $130M. A 5.5 because Jolie is great and the twists only fool you if you blink. $35.52 says you drive under a highway overpass this month and size up which truck roof you’d land on.
What works: Angelina Jolie’s ferocious commitment, a lean runtime, and a few inventive stunts, especially the highway truck jumps.
What doesn’t: The twists are easy to spot, the supporting cast is wasted, and the action ignores physics so often that the tension drains away.
Who it’s for: Fans of lean spy thrillers who want a star carrying the whole thing, and anyone who enjoys a quick disguise change.
Spoilers
Salt really was raised as a Russian sleeper agent, but she turned on her handlers after they killed her husband. Ted Winter turns out to be the real mole, she stops him from launching nuclear missiles from the White House bunker, and Peabody lets her escape to hunt down the rest of the sleepers.
Evelyn Salt (Angelina Jolie) is a CIA officer with a solid record, a husband who studies spiders, and a normal-looking day ahead. Then a Russian defector named Orlov (Daniel Olbrychski) walks in, sits down for questioning, and says a Russian sleeper agent is about to assassinate the Russian president at an upcoming state funeral. He even names the agent: Evelyn Salt. Her colleague Ted Winter (Liev Schreiber) can't believe it. Counterintelligence officer Darryl Peabody (Chiwetel Ejiofor) wants her locked up. Salt decides not to stick around. Phillip Noyce directs. One hundred minutes, and she is always one jump ahead.
Spy fans who like their trust issues served cold. Who is Salt? Good question.
Theodore "Ted" Winter / Nikolai Tarkovskyphoto: PRESIDENT OF UKRAINE VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY Official website, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
| Angelina Jolie | Evelyn Salt |
| Liev Schreiber | Theodore "Ted" Winter / Nikolai Tarkovsky |
| Chiwetel Ejiofor | Darryl Peabody |
| Daniel Olbrychski | Oleg Vassily Orlov |
| August Diehl | Mike Krause |
| Tika Sumpter | Front deskwoman |
| Olek Krupa | Boris Matveyev |
| Hunt Block | Howard Lewis |
| Corey Stoll | Shnaider |
| Andre Braugher | Secretary of Defense |
| Gaius Charles | CIA officer |
| Zoe Lister-Jones | CIA Security Hub tech |
| Jeremy Davidson | President's Secret Service agent |
| Jeb Brown | bunker technician |
| Vitali Baganov | new Russian President |
| Victoria Cartagena | Portico Checkpoint agent |
| Kamar de los Reyes | Secret Service agent |
| Victor Slezak | One-Star General |
| Alex Garfin | the youngest Chenkov |
- (cur | prev) 14:30, 18 October 2026 DataBot +40 Numbers refreshed: IMDb users 6.5 / 10 (345,386 votes) → 6.5 / 10 (345,389 votes).
- (cur | prev) 14:30, 17 October 2026 DataBot +480 Numbers refreshed: Worldwide box office $293.5M; Domestic box office $118.3M; Opening weekend $36M; Profit / loss (est.) -$33.2M; Rotten Tomatoes 62%; CinemaScore B+; box office chart updated; Rotten Tomatoes critics 62% (250 reviews); Metacritic 65 / 100; CinemaScore B+; IMDb users 6.5 / 10 (345,386 votes); movie.guru score 5.2.
- (cur | prev) 12:00, 17 October 2026 DataBot +2,000 Profile created from Wikipedia and Box Office Mojo: cast, crew, release dates, budget, official trailer.