Escape Clause - Deadly Revenge

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Movie
German title Escape Clause - Deadly Revenge
Original title Escape Clause
Country of production United States
original language English
Publishing year 1996
length 95 minutes
Age rating FSK 16
Rod
Director Brian Trenchard-Smith
script Danilo Bach
production Danilo Bach
music Richard Marvin ,
Ken Thorne
camera Bert Tougas
cut Bill Goddard
occupation

Escape Clause is an American television thriller from 1996.

Police Lieutenant Gil Farrand takes revenge on the family of insurance manager Richard Ramsay, who is responsible for Farrand's suspension of insurance benefits after a traffic accident. For the time being, however, Ramsay himself is suspected of having been involved in the murder of his wife Sarah.

action

Insurance manager Richard Ramsay enjoys his professional success and the theory of the “Ramsay curve” he developed is widely recognized in the industry. In his private life, too, everything seems to be okay, as Ramsay leads a happy family life with his wife Sarah and their two children Teddy and Nora. In the marriage of the two, however, things have crackled more and more since Sarah openly announced that she was tackling her own professional challenge. In addition, Sarah, initially unnoticed by Richard, had a relationship with Lowell Adam Devens.

When Richard Ramsay receives an anonymous phone call in which a man tells him that he (the caller) has been commissioned by his wife to kill him, Richard assumes a macabre blackmail because the blackmailer, in order to prevent him from doing his job, is doing the Asks twice the amount (10,000 US dollars) that his wife allegedly wants to pay for the murder assignment.

Richard Ramsay can track down the blackmailer in a bar and follow him out to a construction site, where Richard is knocked down by the blackmailer in a duel. Richard is now also worried about the life of his family, but he is reassured by his father-in-law Owen Jessop on the phone, because the children are with him and, according to Jessop, Sarah should have taken a room at her new place of work and study. That same night Richard is called by the blackmailer to meet again. When the two meet a little later, Belsen (the blackmailer's name) is shot from an ambush. Richard's fear of his wife's disappearance turns into the sad certainty of her death the following night, when Sarah is found murdered in a forest with traces of torture on her body.

A few weeks later: Lieutenant Gil Farrand is still involved in the investigation into Sara's murder. When talking to Dr. Warren Witzig, Richard Ramsay's general practitioner, gives Farrand a clear indication to his interlocutor that, in his opinion, Richard Ramsay himself could have been the perpetrator. When talking to Owen and Lilian Jessop (Sarah's parents), Farrand tries to put a motive on them too.

In his lonely hours Richard receives moral support from Leslie Bullard, the best friend of the murdered Sarah, who admits to Richard that she herself once fell in love with him.

Richard Ramsay himself has reasons of his own to question the investigative work of Farrand, he could clearly see during the identification of the corpse, contrary to the police autopsy report, that Sarah was tied up and tortured. Richard hires the alcoholic Charles Ives, a former insurance detective, to investigate for him. However, before he could share his findings with Richard, Ives is brutally murdered in a toilet.

For the time being, Richard cannot rule out the fact that his work colleague Abe Shinoda carried out the murder of Sarah, as it does not escape him (secretary discovers porn magazines delivered to Abe / Abe ties up a prostitute while visiting a brothel) that Abe has a sexual preference for tied women.

But Richard himself is increasingly suspected of being involved in the murder of his wife. The weapon with which Belson was shot is found in the apartment of the murdered insurance detective Ives, which for Owen Jessop as well as for Police Lieutenant Gil Farrand is taken as an indication that Richard himself apparently had something to do with the murder of Sarah. With the grounds for this suspicion, Owen Jessop causes a court order that Richard is no longer allowed to see his children.

Richard ultimately suspects Owen Jessop, for the sake of the sum insured, of being the killer of his own daughter. Richard intercepts Owen on his houseboat, in whose duel Richard throws Owen from the boat into the water. Owen Jessop remains unharmed, but now wants to file a complaint against Richard. At Leslie Bullard's encouragement, Richard decides to talk to Lieutenant Gil Farrand himself in order to explain his version of the story to him.

In response to a telephone call from the police station, Richard learns that Lieutenant Gil Farrand is, as always, in a rehabilitation clinic on Friday afternoons. When Richard arrives there, Farrand has already left the building. In conversation with a nurse, Richard learns that it is not Farrand himself as a patient, but his stepson Bobby who is being cared for in the clinic. Richard learns that Farrand's stepson was seriously injured in a traffic accident four years ago when the car driven by Farrand's wife collided on a level crossing with a train composition. Richard realizes that through his work at the insurance company he was responsible for the fact that the insurance benefits were reduced because the driver of the vehicle was grossly negligent. A psychological burden which Farrand's wife could not bear and which also led to her death a year ago.

Richard Ramsay is now absolutely certain that Lieutenant Gil Farrand himself killed his wife Sarah (as well as Belson and Ives) in order to get revenge on him. He telephones Leslie Bullard, who is staying with the Jessop family to inform her of his suspicions, but is horrified to learn that Lieutenant Gil Farrand has offered to take his son Teddy with him in his police car, a drive along the same route, where the accident happened four years ago.

In fact, Gil Farrand is determined to end his campaign of revenge. He manipulates Teddy's seat belts so that they can no longer be opened and parks the vehicle in the middle of the level crossing while the locomotive is already approaching. In the meantime, however, Richard is also on the spot, so that a fraction of a second before the collision he manages to push the police car off the tracks with his vehicle.

Since the locomotive still surrenders Richard's vehicle and the injured Richard first has to free himself from the wreck, Farrand manages to get Teddy out of his vehicle and threatens to shoot him. Shortly afterwards, Farrand lets go of Teddy, and now points his weapon at Richard. When Farrand is briefly distracted by the shouts of the approaching Leslie Bullard, Richard is able to take up his own weapon and kill Farrand with several shots.

Details about the film

  • Before he was recognized by Richard in the bar, the blackmailer Belsen went into the direct vicinity of his "victim" Richard Ramsay several times in the film. For example, Belsen sits in the audience at a lecture by Richard (after 02.30), stands at the airport counter in the same waiting line (after 08.08), and even speaks to him directly at the hotel reception (after 11.15).
  • The “Ramsay curve” mentioned in the film is based on the theory that “the lower the probability of an accident, the greater the probability of the person's own fault, should the event occur anyway”. Correspondingly, insurance benefits can be withdrawn or reduced because the injured party is proven to have acted carelessly, despite obviously clearly proven damage. The term “Ramsay curve” does not exist in legal theory, while the case law speaks of “negligence”.
  • The film is set in Hartford , the capital of the US state Connecticut . The city calls itself the “insurance capital of the world” in real business life. In the film, Sarah goes to Cambridge , Massachusetts , in search of professional independence .
  • In German-speaking countries, the film is also broadcast on TV under the title Bloody Career - Contract with Death .

Reviews

  • The Internet platform Cinema writes of a "bumpy beginning" whereby then "but then pace comes up"
  • The Internet platform Cinefacts.de writes of a “thriller that is excellently produced for television” .

Web links

swell

  1. ↑ film review on cinema.de
  2. ↑ Film review on cinefacts.de