Lord of War

In the early 1980s, Yuri Orlov, the eldest son of a family of Ukrainian refugees, is visiting a Brighton Beach, Brooklyn, New York, restaurant where he witnesses a Russian mobster kill two would-be assassins holding Kalashnikov rifles. The incident inspires him to go into the arms trade. After completing his first sale of an Uzi sub-machine gun to a local mobster, Yuri convinces his younger brother Vitaly to become his partner.

The two brothers get their first big break during the 1982 Lebanon War, where they sell weapons to both Israeli and Lebanese troops despite seeing the weapons used to commit atrocities. As Yuri begins to prosper by exploiting his growing network of business connections, he comes to the attention of idealistic Interpol agent Jack Valentine, with whom he crosses paths on multiple occasions. Valentine represents a unique threat to Yuri because he is after recognition, not money, and cannot be bought.

Vitaly becomes addicted to cocaine after a Colombian drug lord forces the brothers to accept it as payment. Yuri checks Vitaly into a drug rehabilitation clinic and continues his business alone. He uses his profits to seduce his favorite model, Ava Fontaine, and they get married and have a son.

Following the dissolution of the Soviet Union, Yuri flies to Ukraine and illegally buys Soviet military hardware through his uncle, a former Soviet general who is overseeing the distribution of weapons to the newly-formed Ukrainian Army. His uncle dies in a car bombing by Yuri's rival, arms dealer Simeon Weisz. Yuri expands his business to Africa, where he supplies Andre Baptiste Sr., a bloody Liberian dictator. When Interpol has one of Yuri's shipments intercepted over Uganda, he lands on a rural highway and disposes of the evidence by giving the weapons away to the locals. Baptiste surprises Yuri at his hotel and offers him a captive Weisz to kill in revenge. Yuri refuses, but Baptiste places the gun in his hand and pulls the trigger for him.

Valentine tells Ava her husband is an arms dealer, prompting her to confront him. Yuri starts trading timbers and oil to please her but soon becomes frustrated with the difficulties and lower earnings of honest work. When Baptiste visits him in person and offers him the largest payday of his career, a stash of valuable blood diamonds, Yuri goes back to crime. Ava follows him, unaware that Interpol is following her, and discovers the shipping container that contains his arms-dealing office.

Yuri picks up Vitaly to assist him with a deal in Sierra Leone, where a militia force allied with Baptiste is preparing to destroy a refugee camp. Vitaly pleads with Yuri to abandon the deal, but Yuri refuses knowing that Baptiste's men would kill them. Vitaly steals a pair of grenades and uses one to destroy a truck full of weapons, also killing Baptiste's son, before he is gunned down by the militia. Yuri is spared but receives only half of the diamonds for the remaining truckload. He watches callously as the militia massacres the refugees. Yuri pays a doctor to forge Vitaly's death certificate and remove the bullets from his body before it is shipped back to the United States, but a remaining bullet is found in customs and Yuri is arrested. When he tries to reconcile with his parents, they disown him.

Valentine detains Yuri in anticipation of his trial and conviction, but Yuri is unfazed. He tells Valentine that, in a matter of minutes, a high-ranking U.S. Army officer will arrive and insist on his release. He explains that while he may be a criminal, his crime sometimes serves the interests of the U.S. government. Valentine hears a knock at the door, considers what Yuri has said, and rebukes him.

Yuri is released and soon returns to the arms trade, claiming that it's what he does best. The film concludes with a statement that the five largest arms producers in the world—the United States, United Kingdom, Russia, China, and France—are also the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council.

• Nicolas Cage as Yuri Orlov (largely based on the exploits of international arms dealer Viktor Bout)
• Ethan Hawke as Jack Valentine
• Jared Leto as Vitaly Orlov
• Bridget Moynahan as Ava Fontaine
• Eamonn Walker as André Baptiste Sr. (largely based on former President of Liberia, Charles Taylor)[11]
• Sammi Rotibi as André Baptiste Jr. (largely based on Charles Taylor's son Chuckie)
• Ian Holm as Simeon Weisz (mostly based on Sarkis Soghanalian)
• Eugene Lazarev as General Dmitri Volkov
• David Harman / Neil Tweddle / Donald Sutherland (voice) as Colonel Southern, Yuri's U.S. government contact (a nod to Lt. Col. Oliver North)

Producer Philippe Rousselet found American studios unwilling to fund the film, which required filming in 12 different countries and raised politically troubling themes during the Iraq War. Instead he had to assemble a variety of tax incentives, bank loans and distribution agreements, covering the rest of the budget with his own money.[12]

Some of the Russian language dialogues in the film (mostly those by Eugene Lazarev as Gen. Volkov) contain obscene Russian mat wording translated to softer expressions in the original English subtitles.

A scene in the film featured 50 tanks, which were provided by a Czech source. The tanks were only available until December of the year of filming, as the dealer needed them to sell in Libya.[13] The production team bought 3,000 real SA Vz. 58 rifles to stand in for AK-47s because they were cheaper than mass-producing prop guns.[14]

Lord of War was released on Blu-ray, DVD, and VHS on January 18, 2006.[19]

The UK DVD release of Lord of War includes, prior to the film, an advertisement for Amnesty International, showing the AK-47 being sold on a shopping channel of the style popular on cable networks.

The American DVD release includes a bonus feature that shows the various weapons used in the film, allowing viewers to click on each weapon to get statistics about their physical dimensions and histories. The DVD bonus section also contains a public service announcement from Nicolas Cage that addresses the issue of illicit arms sales.

A 4K UHD Blu-ray transfer of Lord of War was released on March 19, 2019.[20]

A sequel to Lord of War has been developed and is scheduled to begin filming in the fall of 2023. In the sequel, also written and directed by Niccol, Orlov's son has followed him into the arms business. Cage will return as Orlov with Bill Skarsgård playing his son and producing the film.[21]

• While There's War There's Hope (1974 film), Italian film directed and starring Alberto Sordi; a film with similar subject and topic coverage
• War Dogs (2016 film), biopic about international arms dealers

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• Official website
• Lord of War at IMDb
• Lord of War at the TCM Movie Database
• Lord of War at AllMovie
• Lord of War at JustWatch