The Firm is a 1993 American legal thriller film directed by Sydney Pollack, and starring Tom Cruise, Jeanne Tripplehorn, Gene Hackman, Ed Harris, Holly Hunter, Hal Holbrook, David Strathairn and Gary Busey.

Senior partner Avery Tolar mentors Mitch on the firm's strict culture of loyalty, confidentiality, and high fees.

Although the money and benefits, such as a new house, a Mercedes-Benz, and paid-off student loans have swayed Mitch, Abby resents the firm's meddling in employees' personal lives.

Under Avery's guidance, Mitch discovers the firm's primary work involves helping wealthy clients hide money in offshore shell corporations and other questionable tax-avoidance schemes.

On a work trip to the Cayman Islands, Mitch overhears a client mentioning how the firm's Chicago associates "break legs”.

Meanwhile, the firm's security chief, Bill DeVasher, sends a prostitute to seduce Mitch and uses photos of the assignation to blackmail him into silence.

FBI agents reveal to Mitch that BL&L's top client is the Morolto crime family of the Chicago Outfit, and most of the firm's lawyers are involved in a significant tax fraud and money laundering scheme.

The firm's phone tap records Abby warning Tammy, leading DeVasher's hitmen to pursue them.

Mitch's plans are compromised when a prison guard on the Moroltos' payroll tips off DeVasher about Ray's transfer to FBI custody, forcing him to flee.

Mitch's decision to work with the Moroltos angers the FBI, but he reminds them that the evidence he has provided is enough to make a RICO case and ensure that the firm's senior members go to prison for a long time.

Paramount Pictures initially budgeted the film at $15 million with Charlie Sheen or Jason Patric considered for the lead with a scheduled release date of Christmas 1992.

In the book, Mitch ends up in the Caribbean, hiding from the mob from whom he stole a lot of money; conversely, in the film he comes up with a complicated and risky judicial balancing act, getting neatly out of a very dangerous situation, culminating with him and Abby simply getting into their car and driving back to Boston where he is free to find new employment as a lawyer.

However, it is important to note that the attorney-client privilege is one of an evidentiary nature relating specifically to information sought during pretrial discovery or at trial.

After an extended manhunt involving the police, the firm's lawyers, and hired thugs from the Morolto family, Mitch escapes with Abby (and his brother Ray) to the Cayman Islands.

Mitch's information gives federal prosecutors enough evidence to indict half of the firm's active lawyers right away, as well as several retired partners.

Rather than capitalizing on his circumstances by stealing money from the firm, as in the book, the movie's McDeere ends up battered and bruised, but with his integrity and professional ethics intact.

The volume and frequency meet the criteria for RICO, thereby enabling the FBI to effectively put the firm out of business by seizing its property and equipment and freezing its bank accounts.

That week, Grisham and Michael Crichton evenly divided the top six paperback spots on The New York Times Best Seller list.

The film earned two Academy Award nominations including Best Supporting Actress for Holly Hunter (losing to Anna Paquin for The Piano, though she did win an Oscar at that year's ceremony for Best Actress in the same film as Paquin) and Best Original Score for Dave Grusin (losing to John Williams for Schindler's List).

The site's critics consensus states: "The Firm is a big studio thriller that amusingly tears apart the last of 1980s boardroom culture and the false securities it represented.

[11] Roger Ebert gave The Firm three stars out of four, remarking: "The movie is virtually an anthology of good small character performances.

[...] The large gallery of characters makes The Firm into a convincing canvas [... but] with a screenplay that developed the story more clearly, this might have been a superior movie, instead of just a good one with some fine performances.

"[12] The film earned some negative reviews as well, notably from James Berardinelli, who said that "[v]ery little of what made the written version so enjoyable has been successfully translated to the screen, and what we're left with instead is an overly-long [and] pedantic thriller.