Agent K (Tommy Lee Jones) is a member of the Men in Black (MIB), a secret non-government agency that polices extraterrestrial aliens seeking refuge on Earth, living normal lives in disguise as humans around New York City. Operating from a base at a Triborough Bridge and Tunnel Authority ventilation station, they fund themselves using patents on alien technologies released to the public and maintain secrecy using neuralyzers to erase memories of alien sightings. K's partner D (Richard Hamilton) is forced into retirement after an incident, and the Agency's leader Agent Zed (Rip Torn) suggests that he should find a new partner. Meanwhile, James Darrell Edwards III (Will Smith) is a rookie police officer pursuing a disguised alien, who commits suicide by leaping from a roof. K arrives at the office and questions Edwards before neuralyzing him and giving him an MIB business card. At the base Edwards competes in tests alongside other potential recruits from other branches of government and law enforcement, and K takes him aside while the others are neuralyzed and offers him the choice to join MIB. Edwards accepts and his identity is erased, becoming Agent J.
Suspicious of extraterrestrials suddenly leaving the planet en masse, the MIB investigate a farmer named Edgar (Vincent D'Onofrio), who was acting strangely after an alien craft crashed on his farm. K determines that Edgar has been killed and his skin is being used for cover by a "Bug", a member of a giant cockroach-like species that are at war with several alien races, including the Arquillians. An Arquillian prince on Earth named Rosenberg is attacked by the Bug, and tells J "the galaxy is on Orion's belt" as he dies. MIB informant Frank the Pug (Tim Blaney) explains that the galaxy is a massive source of sub-atomic energy that would allow the Bugs to destroy the Arquillians, and is housed in a small marble or jewel-like casing that Rosenberg was guarding. The Bug deduces the galaxy is hanging from the collar of Rosenberg's cat Orion, which has been at the morgue taken care of by Dr. Laurel Weaver (Linda Fiorentino) since his death. J makes the same deduction and goes to the morgue as the Bug attacks Weaver, kidnapping her and seizing the galaxy. To prevent the Bugs from getting the galaxy, the Arquillians deliver an ultimatum to MIB to secure the galaxy within an hour, or they will destroy Earth.
The Bug arrives at the site of two concealed alien crafts, the observation towers of the New York State Pavilion at Flushing Meadows, and K and J arrive to confront it, shooting down one of the crafts. The Bug sheds Edgar's corpse disguise and swallows their guns, then swallows K when he antagonizes it and attempts to board the second ship. J lures it back to the ground by crushing cockroaches to anger it, and the Bug is shot in half from the inside by K, who retrieved his gun in the Bug's stomach, and its bisected torso is destroyed by Weaver using J's gun, who had been at the site and witnessed the battle. The three return to MIB headquarters and K tells J that he hasn't been training him as a partner, but as a replacement since he is ready to retire after decades of service. J accepts K's neuralyzer and uses it on K, using a coma cover story to allow him to return to his civilian life. Weaver joins MIB as J's new partner, Agent L.
As they prepare to continue MIB operations, the camera pans out from Earth, showing the solar system and eventually the galaxy, it is revealed that the galaxy is itself in a marble. A pair of alien hands finish playing with it and place it inside a sack with other such galaxies, echoing Frank's statement about size not being important when it comes to galaxies.
| Directed by | Barry Sonnenfeld |
|---|---|
| Produced by | Walter F. Parkes Laurie MacDonald |
| Screenplay by | Ed Solomon |
| Story by | Ed Solomon |
| Based on | The Men in Black by Lowell Cunningham |
| Starring | Tommy Lee Jones Will Smith Linda Fiorentino Vincent D'Onofrio Rip Torn Tony Shalhoub |
| Music by | Danny Elfman |
| Cinematography | Donald Peterman |
| Editing by | Jim Miller |
| Studio | Amblin Entertainment MacDonald/Parkes Productions |
| Distributed by | Columbia Pictures |
| Release date(s) |
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| Running time | 98 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $90 million[1] |
| Box office | $589,390,539[1] |
"Men In Black" (1997) Theatrical Trailer YouTube
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