YMMV / Enemy of the State

• Aluminum Christmas Trees: Yes, the US government does have all the capabilities shown in the movie (with one exception^note The example under Enhance Button). Well, they did. In 1988.
• Fanon: Some have theorized Brill is Gene Hackman's character, Harry Caul, from The Conversation.
• Harsher in Hindsight:
  • This movie predates the USA PATRIOT Act by almost four years. The harshest part is that the act made everything the NSA did in the movie legal (with cause). Except the murders, of course. Convenient, eh?
  • Brill makes a passing reference to a previous operation supplying weapons to the Afghani rebels fighting against the Soviets.
  • Since the 2013 revelations about the NSA's PRISM operation, the film seems even more darkly prescient.
  • The main antagonist, the man who is pushing for an overweaning security state, was born on 9/11. This movie came out in 1998.
  • One of the flagged words Brill mentions that the government tracks on phone lines is "Allah".
• Hilarious in Hindsight: Will Smith saves a cat while fleeing the destruction of a building. At another point, he also suggests hiding out in Philadelphia.
• Moral Event Horizon: Reynolds and his men have no hesitation to kill a man who was against the NSA project and an innocent girl just to frame Dean for murder.
• Narm: "DID, YOU, MAKE, THE, VIDE-O, TAPE?"
• Narm Charm: The opening title sequence, while trying to portray omnipresent surveillance, ends up looking like a sequence out of Hackers. The location cards also enter in one letter at a time and are accompanied by futuristic beeping noises.
• One-Scene Wonder:
  • Gabriel Byrne as the fake Brill who tries to kidnap Dean before the real deal foils his efforts.
  • Tom Sizemore as mob boss Paulie Pintero, who Dean is representing.
  • Also the old Asian lady who mistook Dean for a male stripper when he stripped down to his underwear (in order to remove the bugs in his clothes) and attempts to tip him.
• Paranoia Fuel: It's the film's entire premise.
• Retroactive Recognition: Features Laura Cayouette (Django Unchained) as Congressman Albert's mistress, Ivana Miličević (Banshee) as one of the models in the lingerie store, Jason Lee (My Name Is Earl) as the biologist who captured the murder evidence, and Anna Gunn (Breaking Bad) as Reynolds's wife.
• Spiritual Successor: To The Conversation, to the point it's not hard to assume that Gene Hackman's characters in both movies are the same person. The scene where Dean and Rachel meet to discuss Brill on a park and the NSA goons try to listen in to their conversation is essentially an updated version of the older film's opening scene.

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