It stars an ensemble cast consisting of Robert De Niro, Jean Reno, Natascha McElhone, Stellan Skarsgård, Sean Bean, and Jonathan Pryce.

The film is about a team of former special operatives hired to steal a mysterious, heavily guarded briefcase while navigating a maze of shifting loyalties.

Frankenheimer signed to direct Zeik's screenplay, which Mamet rewrote to expand De Niro's role and develop plot details, in 1997.

Professional racing car drivers coordinated and performed the vehicle stunts, and Elia Cmiral scored the film, his first for a major studio.

Amid the ensuing chaos from Natacha's shooting, Sam and Vincent leave the arena just in time to see Seamus kill Mikhi and steal the case.

A radio broadcast announces that a peace agreement between Sinn Féin and the British government has been reached, partially as a result of Seamus's death.

[20] Frankenheimer told the magazine he chose the project because it had a "very good script" and was "the kind of movie I'd love to go see ... What I like is, it's a character-driven action picture, and I have done those before, with Black Sunday and French Connection II.

[20] According to Frankenheimer, French authorities helped him circumvent a strict Paris ordinance that prohibited film productions from firing guns in the city.

[11] Writer John David Zeik, a newcomer to film,[22] conceived the idea for Ronin after reading James Clavell's novel Shōgun at the age of 15.

According to Zeik's attorney, Playwright David Mamet was brought in shortly before production to expand De Niro's role and add a female love interest.

[25] Production was suspended for Christmas on December 19 and resumed on January 5, 1998, at Épinay, where the crew built two interior sets on sound stages; one for the bistro in Montmartre and another for the rural farmhouse,[25] both of which also have exterior location shots.

[11] The climactic scene with a panicked crowd at Le Zénith required about 2,000 extras, who were supervised by French casting director Margot Capelier.

[28] Frankenheimer's affinity for deep depth of field led him to shoot the film entirely with wide-angle lenses ranging in focal length from 18 to 35 mm using the Super 35 format, both of which allow more of the scene to be included in each shot as well as the freedom to reframe the movie for Full Screen presentation.

[11][30] For the final chase scene, which used 300 stunt drivers,[11] the production team bought four BMW 535is and five Peugeot 406s;[a] one of each was cut in half and towed by a Mercedes-Benz 500 E while the actors were inside them.

[11] Right-hand drive versions of the cars were also purchased; a dummy steering wheel was installed on the left side while the stunt drivers drove the speeding vehicles.

[34] Cmíral attended a private screening of the film's final version and considered its main theme, which at Frankenheimer's behest would incorporate qualities of "sadness, loneliness, and heroism".

[36] For AllMusic, Jason Ankeny rated the album 4.5 out of 5 and called it a "profoundly visceral listening experience, illustrating an expert grasp of pacing and atmosphere".

[45] The film's action scenes, particularly the car chases, were generally praised;[2][16] Janet Maslin in The New York Times called them "nothing short of sensational".

[46] Some reviewers singled out the espionage scene in which De Niro and Natascha McElhone pose as tourists and photograph their targets at a Cannes hotel as one of the film's best.

Its aesthetic of realism places it with Grand Prix, The Train, and The Gypsy Moths, and its minimalist conception of character and narrative detail bonds it to those productions as well.

Ronin is smart, sharp, and witty, and it shows a greater facility for visual storytelling than most films made today, by younger directors, can muster.

[7]In February 1999, MGM Home Entertainment released Ronin as a double-sided DVD that contained versions in widescreen and full screen formats, and Dolby Digital 5.1 sound.

[51] In August 2017, Arrow Video released a special edition Blu-ray with a 4K resolution restoration from the original camera negative that was supervised and approved by cinematographer Robert Fraisse.

[52] Arrow's Blu-ray also includes archival bonus features that originally appeared on the MGM special edition DVD,[53] together with Fraisse talking about his early cinematography career and his involvement with Ronin.

[54] The film's title was derived from the Japanese legend of rōnin, samurai whose leader was killed and left them with no one to serve, and roamed the countryside as mercenaries and bandits to regain a sense of purpose.

[13][46] Chicago Sun-Times critic Roger Ebert wrote that its content is identical to that of the equally-mysterious case in Quentin Tarantino's Pulp Fiction (1994),[43] also a MacGuffin.

[58] Michael Wilmington of the Chicago Tribune called Ronin an homage to The French Connection (1971), The Parallax View (1974), and Three Days of the Condor (1975); thriller films known for their lack of visual effects.

[46] Maitland McDonagh of TV Guide also compared the film to The Day of the Jackal (1973)[14] and noted similarities between Ronin's opening scene and that of Tarantino's Reservoir Dogs (1992), in which a group of professional killers who have not met before assemble.

On the film's DVD audio commentary, Frankenheimer notes a wipe during the opening scenes made by two extras walking across the frame, which becomes a tracking shot of Jean Reno entering the bistro.

The website's consensus reads: "Ronin earns comparisons to The French Connection with strong action, dynamic road chase scenes, and solid performances.