The Tournament (2009

[Custodio Groves]

TheTournament is a 2009 British independent action thriller film,[3] marking the directorial debut of Scott Mann. The film was conceived by Jonathan Frank and Nick Rowntree while at the University of Teesside with Mann. The script was written by Gary Young, Jonathan Frank, and Nick Rowntree.

The Tournament was partially filmed in Bulgaria, and numerous locations around Northern England (where the film is set) and Merseyside. The film stars Robert Carlyle, Ving Rhames, Kelly Hu, Sbastien Foucan, Liam Cunningham, Scott Adkins, Camilla Power and Ian Somerhalder. The film received additional funding internationally, from Sherezade Film Development, Storitel Production and others, earning the film a budget of just under 4,000,000, and the film also features an international ensemble cast.

A group of the world's wealthiest and most powerful men, who are themselves tied into law enforcement agencies and criminal underworlds alike, and who also control the international media with their billions, have devised the ultimate entertainment for themselves, simply referred to as "The Tournament", which takes place at intervals of every seven or ten years in an unspecified location, usually a large city.

"Contestants" volunteer, but due to the nature of the tournament are some of the toughest or craziest individuals on the planet. They are expected to kill and only the last surviving combatant will win the cash prize of $10 million. The men and women running the tournament not only view it as entertainment but also bet high stakes on the outcome as a huge gambling tournament, serving as the source of excitement also for the millionaires.

For each tournament, combatants are selected from the world's special forces, serial killers, athletes, trained contract killers, and assassins. The last combatant standing receives not only the cash prize, but also the glory and reputation of having the title of World's Number 1, which carries the legendary "million-dollar-a-bullet" contract killing price tag. Each of the contestants carries a tracking device, embedded under their skin, allowing the observers to monitor their movements, and the contestants to track each other. The tournament lasts twenty-four hours, and if no one has won, the tracking devices will explode.

The mayhem that takes place is passed off as natural disasters, terrorist outrages, accidents, or put down to rampages committed by lone madmen. The unsuspecting towns where the tournament takes place are randomly selected, and the public never knows of its existence. This year, the latest tournament has come to Middlesbrough, a town in the United Kingdom - the country with the most prevalent mass surveillance in the world so that the events of the tournament can be easily followed and recorded through the ever-present CCTV as well as satellite surveillance. They also jam the communications of the emergency services, completely taking over the electronic infrastructure, and the stage is set.

The current tournament becomes complex due to the actions of the organizers and competitors. Not only has Joshua Harlow, the winner of the last Tournament, been convinced to return because his wife was murdered and he's informed that the killer is in the Tournament, but another contestant, the Frenchman Anton Bogart, manages to remove his tracking chip, dropping it in a cup of coffee just in time for Father Joseph MacAvoy, a priest struggling with alcoholism and a crisis of faith, to drink it. With his only ally assassin Lai Lai Zhen, seeking to escape the game after her last kill, MacAvoy must race to survive before the timer runs down.

Joshua Harlow finds out in the course of the film who murdered his wife. It was Lai Lai Zhen, who had been commissioned by the organizer, Powers, with Zhen's decision to 'retire' if she wins the Tournament due to the knowledge that Harlow's wife was the first target she had who genuinely didn't know why anyone would want her dead. Removing Zhen's tracker while the two are off-camera, Harlow confronts Powers and learns that he killed Harlow's wife to provoke Harlow to return to the Tournament, reasoning that he was the kind of man who 'should' die on the battlefield. Having received his answer, Harlow forces Zhen's tracker down Powers' throat, blowing them both up in the middle of the conference room of the watching millionaires. Lai Lai Zhen and Father MacAvoy are the only survivors of the game. At the end of the film, it is shown that Father MacAvoy is once again working as a priest and has defeated his alcohol addiction.

In July 2007, Entertainment Film Distributors acquired UK rights to distribute The Tournament by first-time director Scott Mann. Filming began in Bulgaria on 11 July 2007.[4] The Tournament was also filmed in the United Kingdom in Manchester and on Teesside in the town of Middlesbrough and the surrounding area, including Newton Aycliffe and Billingham the rooftop scenes are filmed in the town St.Helens.[5] Like most independent movies, The Tournament has not been without hardship. Despite running out of money twice, once leaving the director stranded in Bulgaria, it eventually got enough funding to finish filming completely and finally complete post-production.[6]

Laura Karpman composed the musical score, with additional music by George Acogny, John Hunter and James Edward Barker. The film also contained music from: Ruth Jacott, Fabian "R-CANE" Schlosser, Kevin Hissink, and El Rod.[citation needed]

Staci Layne Wilson, of Horror.com, gave a positive review for the film, noting that despite the plot and script lacking originality, it could be compared to films such as Smokin' Aces and The Running Man. She wrote: "[The Tournament] truly lives up to its "non-stop action" premise... ...the only other two recently released movies I can think of to top it in that arena would be the Crank films and the absolutely awesome Shoot 'Em Up."[8]

One year after all four No. 1 seeds made the Final Four for the first time ever, the 2009 NCAA tournament was another tournament where the top seeds thrived. The 2009 Final Four featured No. 1 seeds North Carolina and UConn, No. 2 seed Michigan State and No. 3 seed Villanova. Two of the four regions featured a Sweet 16 with the No. 1, No. 2, No. 3 and No. 4 seeds, while another included the No. 1, No. 2, No. 3 and No. 5 seed.

The 2009 NCAA tournament saw some other changes and firsts, like the "last 12 games" evaluation criteria being removed from the selection process. President Barack Obama became the first president to fill out his bracket on national TV and he correctly picked North Carolina to win the national championship. The Big East became the first conference to produce three No. 1 seeds, as well as the first to have five teams in the Sweet 16.

Weather: Thursday: Sunny and mild in the morning with temperatures in the lower 70s. Afternoon high reached 77 degrees with NNE winds 5-10 mph. Friday: Mostly sunny with a morning low of 58 degrees. Continued sun in the afternoon with a high of 77 degrees and NNE winds 10-15 mph. Saturday: Sunny skies with morning lows in the mid 50s. Mostly sunny in the afternoon with highs in the upper 70s and NNE winds 10-15. Sunday: Mostly sunny with a morning low of 58 degrees. Partly cloudy in the afternoon with a high of 84 degrees. Winds SSW 5-10 mph.

Just like that, Tiger Woods broke out of a four-way tie and won the Memorial Tournament on Sunday with a 7-under 65 to cap off a high-charged comeback. And just as suddenly, he silenced the skeptics who wondered if he was ready to defend his title in the U.S. Open in two weeks at Bethpage Black.

"I knew I could do this," Woods said after birdies on the final two holes gave him a one-shot victory. "I was close to winning, but the game wasn't quite there when I really needed it on Sunday. I rectified that."

First came a 9-iron at No. 17 that Woods launched as high as he could, allowing the ball to land softly on the top shelf of a rock-hard green for a 9-foot birdie putt. More brilliance followed on the 18th, when Woods hit a 7-iron from 183 yards that stopped a foot from the hole, wrapping up his fourth title at Muirfield Village and moving him to fourth in the FedExCup standings.

"I suspect No. 15 will come for Tiger Woods in about two weeks," Nicklaus said at the trophy presentation. "If he drives the ball this way, and plays this way, I'm sure it will. And if not, it will surprise me greatly."

He hit the ball where he was aiming and found every fairway in the final round, the first time he had done that on the PGA TOUR in more than five years. He missed only five fairways all week, his best performance off the tee since the 1998 Masters.

Jim Furyk, part of the four-way tie on the back nine, made a 20-foot birdie putt on the final hole that gave him a 69 and allowed him to finish alone in second. Furyk is close friends with Woods, and had been hearing the speculation that Woods was not the same.

Woods finished at 12-under 276 and won for the 67th time in his career. The timing could not have been better. He was within one shot of the lead going in to the back nine at the Quail Hollow Championship and made nothing better than par for a 72. He played in the final group at THE PLAYERS Championship, couldn't find a fairway and closed with a 73.

"It wasn't just the last two holes, it was all week," Woods said. "I felt comfortable hitting it left-to-right, right-to-left. Didn't have a problem taking the ball up in the air or bringing it down. That's what I was looking for. That's what I was able to do at home in my practice sessions, and now it's just a matter of carrying it out here onto a tournament venue and doing it."

Byrd had the best chance to catch Woods. Two shots behind, he hit his approach to 4 feet on the 17th, but missed the birdie putt. Byrd finished with a meaningless double bogey for a 72 and tied for third with Mark Wilson (73).

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