---
title: "Shattered"
year: 1991
kind: "film"
canonical: "https://film.one/film/shattered"
fi1m_id: "shattered"
imdb_id: "tt0102900"
tmdb_id: 2071
wikidata_id: "Q492558"
fi1m_score: 58
critics_score: 64
critics_reviews: 7
published: "2026-10-05T00:49:27.743920+00:00"
updated: "2026-10-05T00:49:28.298979+00:00"
region: "VN"
licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL."
---

# Shattered (1991)

Directed by Wolfgang Petersen · 1h 38m · Mystery, Thriller

## Identity

Shattered

- **Canonical:** https://film.one/film/shattered
- **Type:** Film
- **Fi1m ID:** shattered
- **IMDb ID:** tt0102900
- **TMDB ID:** 2071
- **Wikidata ID:** Q492558
- **Same entity:** https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0102900/, https://www.themoviedb.org/movie/2071, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q492558

**Fi1m score: 58** · Critics 64 from 7 reviews

*In a sentence:* Tom Berenger gets a new face and no memory; Bob Hoskins gets the only lines worth remembering

> Wolfgang Petersen’s amnesia thriller is handsomely shot, briskly cut and lifted by Bob Hoskins every time he walks in. But it spends ninety minutes building towards a twist we did not believe for a second, and a good deal of what came before falls over with it.

## Synopsis

Dan Merrick (Tom Berenger) drives off a cliff with his wife Judith (Greta Scacchi) in the passenger seat. She walks away from the wreck. He wakes in hospital with his face rebuilt by surgeons, his bones pinned and his memory gone, and Judith takes him home to a hillside house and a life he has to learn from photographs. Jeb Scott (Corbin Bernsen) wants him back on his feet and back at work; Jenny Scott (Joanne Whalley) watches him more closely than a friend should. Then Dan finds pictures of Judith with another man, and a private detective, Gus Klein (Bob Hoskins), arrives with questions Dan cannot answer about the months before the crash.

## Review

Ten years after [*Das Boot*](https://film.one/film/das-boot) (1981), Wolfgang Petersen makes an American thriller out of a Richard Neely novel, writing the screenplay himself. A man goes over a cliff, comes back with a new face and no memory, and spends 98 minutes finding out who he was and whether anyone around him is telling the truth. It is well made and well acted for most of its length, and it is undone by where it decides to arrive. Up to that point it is a decent evening. After it we were laughing, and not where the film wanted us to.

László Kovács shoots the crash at night, the car turning over in its own headlights before the drop, and then shoots the rest of the film in a soft grey, fog in the windows, white light in the hospital. Berenger plays the first stretch behind bandages and does his acting with his eyes, which turns out to be the right way to play a man who does not recognise his own reflection. Gregg Fonseca’s house for the Merricks is all pale surfaces and hard edges, a place a stranger would be nervous to sit down in, which is the point. Erica Edell Phillips puts Scacchi in cream and silk, so that Judith looks like something Dan has been given rather than someone he married.

Alan Silvestri’s score is a low synthesiser pulse under nearly everything, with strings that rise whenever a secret is about to be found, whether or not one is. Glenn Farr and Hannes Nikel cut the film tight; scenes end a line early, which keeps it moving and also keeps us from looking too hard at any of them. For an hour that pace works. The clues come on schedule, a photograph, a stranger who greets Dan by his old name, a wife whose patience is a little too complete, and we were leaning forward.

Then Hoskins arrives and the film gets better and worse at once. Gus Klein is a private detective, and Hoskins plays him as a cheerful man in a cheap jacket who has seen all this before and finds it mildly funny. Every scene he is in has air in it. We perked up each time he came through a door, and we noticed how badly the film needed him, because without him it is two handsome people being tense in a nice house.

Scacchi has the harder job and does it well: Judith’s every kindness has to read two ways, and she manages it without winking. Whalley is given almost nothing beyond looking as if she knows something, and does that. Bernsen plays Jeb as a man who slaps backs for a living. Berenger holds the centre, bewildered and increasingly frightened, though the script gives Dan no quality beyond his confusion, so there is no one in particular for us to want restored.

The second half takes a turn we will not describe. We can say that Petersen plays fair with his clues, which is to his credit, and that fair is not the same as believable. The reveal needs several people to have behaved for months in ways no one would, and once it lands, the scenes we had admired look like a set of mirrors arranged for one trick. We sat up for it, as the film intended, and then we laughed out loud, which it did not, and the laugh was at the mechanism rather than with it.

*Das Boot* shut forty men in a tube and never once let the plot do work that fear and tiredness should have done. [*In the Line of Fire*](https://film.one/film/in-the-line-of-fire) (1993), two years after this, showed Petersen could run a Hollywood thriller on character and still deliver the set pieces. *Shattered* sits between them and shows the join. It is better looking than most films of its kind and it trusts its gimmick far more than its people.

Watch it on a wet afternoon with someone who enjoys groaning at endings, and treat the ending as part of the entertainment rather than the payoff. Hoskins alone justifies the first hour. The last ten minutes are easier to forgive for anyone who enjoys being had.

*Fi1m score 58, published 5 October 2026.*

## What the critics say

Most critics take Shattered as a competent Hitchcock-flavoured thriller that works in spite of a far-fetched plot. The praise clusters on Petersen’s handling of the twists and red herrings, and on the final reveal, which several reviews consider the film’s strongest card. The warmest notices call it sleek, amusing and entertaining; the cooler ones still allow that it grips, and that its clues are planted with some care.

The reservations gather around plausibility and the sheer number of bluffs. Radio Times finds the double-bluffing exhausting, even while admiring the ending that causes it. The one outright dissent comes from Variety, which judges the film emotionally uninvolving and its implausibilities fatal to the suspense, reserving its approval for Bob Hoskins’s lively private detective. The spread is wide for so few reviews, running from a strong recommendation down to a dismissal, and two of the seven cannot be read closely enough to place with confidence.

## Straight answers

**Is Shattered worth watching?**

*Shattered* is a mixed thriller, handsomely shot and briskly cut, and we scored it 58. Tom Berenger and Greta Scacchi play it straight and Bob Hoskins lifts every scene he enters, but the whole film builds to a twist we did not believe for a second. Best for a wet afternoon with someone who enjoys groaning at endings.

**How long is Shattered, and what is it rated?**

*Shattered* runs 1h 38m. It is a mystery and thriller film.

**Where can I watch Shattered in Vietnam?**

*Shattered* is not on any streaming or rental service in Vietnam at the moment. It is available in 6 other countries; change your country at the top of the page to see where. Availability is checked daily.

**How violent or frightening is Shattered, and is it suitable for children?**

*Shattered* has no UK certificate and carries an R rating in the United States, so it is a film for adults and older teenagers rather than children. It opens with a night-time car crash and a man waking in hospital with his face rebuilt, and runs on unease and suspicion rather than gore. The squeamish should manage it; the very young will be bored or confused.

**How does Shattered compare to Vertigo?**

[*Vertigo*](https://film.one/film/vertigo) is the better film by some distance, and *Shattered* is one of the many thrillers quoting it: San Francisco, an obsessed man, a woman remade. Hitchcock takes his time and lets Stewart and Novak carry a far-fetched mystery on conviction alone. Petersen moves faster and trusts his gimmick more than his people, so the earlier film rewards patience and the later one rewards low expectations.

**Is Shattered based on a true story or a book?**

*Shattered* is based on a novel by Richard Neely, not on a true story, and Wolfgang Petersen wrote the screenplay himself. We cannot say how closely the film follows the book, and nothing in it requires you to have read it. The plot is a pure mechanism of clues and reveals, and knowing the source would only spoil the one trick it has.

**What should I watch after Shattered?**

After *Shattered*, try [*Vertigo*](https://film.one/film/vertigo) (1958, Fi1m 92): San Francisco, an obsessed man and a woman remade; the film every amnesia thriller is quoting. Then [*Dead Again*](https://film.one/film/dead-again) (1991, Fi1m 78): Branagh’s past-lives thriller from the same year, sillier and happier about it; and [*Memento*](https://film.one/film/memento) (2000, Fi1m 88): Amnesia built into the structure rather than bolted on; the trick is the film.

### Reviews we read (7)

- **Los Angeles Times**, Kevin Thomas (85/100, inferred): Thomas finds the thriller sleek, amusing, and highly entertaining despite its far-fetched plot. He particularly praises Petersen’s energetic direction, visual panache, and execution of the surprise twist. [Read](https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1991-10-11-ca-76-story.html)
- **Empire**, William Thomas (75/100, inferred): Thomas finds the thriller neat and satisfying, with silly moments that do not derail its suspense. He praises Petersen’s control of the twists and red herrings, which build to an effective reveal. [Read](https://www.empireonline.com/movies/reviews/shattered-review/)
- **Time Out**, NF (70/100, inferred): The review describes the film as a credible, gripping thriller. It praises the use of ambiguous clues and a complex approach, though the available description is truncated. [Read](https://www.timeout.com/movies/shattered-1)
- **RogerEbert.com** (64/100, inferred): The page content is blocked, so the critic’s verdict cannot be determined. No praise or complaint can be reliably identified from the available text. [Read](https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/shattered-1991)
- **The New York Times** (64/100, inferred): The page returned only an access error, so the critic’s verdict cannot be verified. No specific praise or complaint is available from the provided text. [Read](https://www.nytimes.com/1991/10/11/movies/review-film-trying-to-rebuild-one-s-past.html)
- **Radio Times**, John Ferguson (3/5): Ferguson finds the thriller more successful than most Hitchcock tributes, though its many bluffs and double bluffs become exhausting. He singles out the neat ending twist for praise, while noting it also contributes to the problem. [Read](https://www.radiotimes.com/movie-guide/b-2szris/shattered/)
- **Variety**, Variety Staff (30/100, inferred): The critic finds the thriller far-fetched and emotionally uninvolving, with implausibilities undermining its attempt at suspense. The review singles out Bob Hoskins’s lively private detective as an enlivening presence. [Read](https://variety.com/1990/film/reviews/shattered-2-1200428757/)

## Details

- **Director:** Wolfgang Petersen
- **Director:** Wolfgang Petersen
- **Screenplay:** Wolfgang Petersen
- **Novel:** Richard Neely
- **Cinematography:** László Kovács
- **Editor:** Glenn Farr, Hannes Nikel
- **Music:** Alan Silvestri
- **Production design:** Gregg Fonseca
- **Costume design:** Erica Edell Phillips
- **Producer:** David Korda, Wolfgang Petersen, John Davis
- **Cast:** Tom Berenger as Dan Merrick; Bob Hoskins as Gus Klein; Greta Scacchi as Judith Merrick; Joanne Whalley as Jenny Scott; Corbin Bernsen as Jeb Scott; Debi A. Monahan as Nancy Mercer; Bert Rosario as Rudy Costa; Jedda Jones as Sadie
- **Runtime:** 1h 38m
- **First release (the US):** 11 October 1991
- **Genres:** Mystery, Thriller
- **Budget:** $22 million
- **Box office:** $12 million

## Where to watch in Vietnam

Not streaming, renting or buying in Vietnam at the last check.

Also available in: BE, CA, GB, IE, NL, US. Add `?region=XX` to this URL for another country.

## If you liked this

- *Vertigo* (1958), Fi1m 92: San Francisco, an obsessed man and a woman remade; the film every amnesia thriller is quoting — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/vertigo.md)
- *Dead Again* (1991), Fi1m 78: Branagh’s past-lives thriller from the same year, sillier and happier about it — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/dead-again.md)
- *Mirage* (1965): Gregory Peck loses two years in a Manhattan blackout; lean, grey and sharp
- *Memento* (2000), Fi1m 88: Amnesia built into the structure rather than bolted on; the trick is the film — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/memento.md)
- *Les Diaboliques* (1955): Clouzot’s wife, mistress and body in the pool; the twist the genre still chases

---
© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/film/shattered