Seven hours of fear

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Movie
German title Seven hours of fear
Original title Seven Hours To Judgment
Country of production United States
original language English
Publishing year 1988
length 87 minutes
Rod
Director Beau Bridges
script Walter Halsey Davis ,
Elliot Stephens
production Mort Abrahams
music John Debney
camera Hanania Baer
cut Bill Butler
occupation

Seven Hours of Fear is an American thriller from 1988. Directed by Beau Bridges, who also played the lead role.

Since an important piece of evidence, a handbag, could not be brought by the prosecutor before the trial, Judge John Eden found himself compelled to acquit members of a gang who were accused of throwing a woman in front of an incoming subway train. David Reardon, the victim's husband, kidnaps the judge in revenge and forces him to obtain the missing evidence within 7 hours with the threat of murdering his wife, who was also kidnapped. To save the life of his wife, John Eden goes into the criminal underworld, which is so strange to him, in search of the evidence. Under time pressure and experienced humiliation, he manages to find the bag. But Reardon is not satisfied with that, he plays a game of life and death with his two kidnapping victims.

action

Judge John Eden feels compelled to acquit the members of the well-known Icemen gang of the charges of murder on the basis of the facts. The specific case involved the murder of a woman in a subway station. The prosecution was unable to provide sufficient evidence in the indictment that the gang members deliberately pushed the woman in front of an incoming train. Eden made this decision against his own inner will, however, as it disgusts him himself to speak criminals freely just to meet the requirement to pronounce his judgments correctly according to laws and paragraphs.

Shortly before the trial, Judge Eden received a visit to his office from David Reardon, husband of the seriously injured (and later deceased) victim. Reardon asked Judge Eden to postpone the trial to give him time to gather important evidence for the prosecution. However, in an effort to be formally correct, Judge Eden does not address Reardon's concerns.

David Reardon, an electronics technician and audio / video business owner, begins his vengeance against Judge Eden after the trial. Tormented by the death of his wife and with anger at the judge, who "lets the scum of society run away", he implements his plan to let Judge Eden move deep into the milieu of the criminal lower class so that he can obtain the evidence that is important to him can. To this end, he first kidnaps Lisa Eden, the judge's wife, and a little later, during a guest reception, also John Eden.

When Judge Eden wakes up in an unknown room after his kidnapping, he fails to knock down his kidnapper, who is in the next room, with a hard object. Rather, Reardon lets the judge know through a video presentation that his wife is also under his control. Judge Eden is given exactly seven hours (and three minutes) from Reardon to locate the evidence he has already mentioned at an address given by him and to hand it over to him, otherwise he would murder his wife.

Assuming that his wife is being held in the same building, Eden does not respond to Reardon's request for the time being, but tries to find his wife in the building. A little later, however, Eden realizes that the video images showing Reardon and Eden's wife in the picture are only a deception, as the images of Lisa Eden were transmitted from another building somewhere in the city.

Eden follows his fate and sets out to go to the address given to him. In a completely alien environment, he has to endure various humiliations. He is attacked by a taxi driver with a pepper spray, since he has no money for the trip. Arrived on foot at the address given, he was insulted and humiliated by members of another gang, the “Grichtings” in the men's room, and when asked about the promised proof, he was given the name and address of another person to whom he should turn.

John Eden then telephones his friend, the psychiatrist Danny Larwin, from a public telephone. Since Eden feels threatened by two men running up, this conversation only lasts a few seconds. Troubled by Eden's confused words, Larwin goes to the Eden's apartment. There he meets Reardon, whom Larwin sneakily shoots.

Change of scene: Lisa Eden wakes up from her faint caused by the kidnapping. Still a little dazed, she tries to escape from the demolished house, a former hotel, but is prevented from doing so by Ira Martin, the tall and strong, but mentally retarded helper of Reardon. Shortly thereafter, Reardon reveals himself to Lisa Eden as her kidnapper.

In the morning hours, John Eden reaches the address of a junk shop given to him after an odyssey through underground tunnels, neglected streets and a trip hidden as a “stowaway” in a garbage truck. Its owner, Eddie, demands a “reward” of a thousand dollars for the surrender of the “evidence”, the women's handbag of the subway victim. Since Eden cannot pay, there is a fight between the two men in which Eden overpowers his opponent and takes the bag into custody.

When Eden leaves the junk shop, Reardon watches him from his white motor home, in which Ira and the captured Lisa Eden are. By means of a video message, recorded in the motorhome and transmitted to the television sets on display in the window of a shop, he lets Eden know that he has less than an hour until the end of the countdown. Reardon, however, now calls Chino, the leader of the "Icemen gang" anonymously, and lets him know that the judge, carrying the bag that is important as evidence, is about to go to the "18th Street subway station" . In the subway, Eden suddenly sees four members of the "Icemens". Eden escapes the subway at the next stop, but is pursued by the "Icemens" and arrested by Doc, one of the gang members. When a train approaches the two of them, Eden manages to leave the rail shaft at the last second, in contrast to Doc, who is captured frontally.

After a wild chase between two taxis, Eden can shake off his pursuers for the time being and reach the property on time, from which he set out 7 hours ago. In the building complex, which is completely under video surveillance by Reardon, Eden has to face further harassment from his tormentor. With Kiki and Chino, two members of the "Icemen gang" were able to get into the building at the last second in front of the closing gate. The big showdown takes place. At first Kiki is touched a little hard by Ira Martin, but later Ira Martin is stabbed in the back by Chino with a knife. When the kidnapping victim Lisa Eden succeeds in an unguarded moment in destroying the computer that controls the entire surveillance electronics, Reardon loses control of what is going on in the building, so that John Eden can find his wife and free her from her bondage. In desperation, Reardon tries to use the curfews he has prepared to prevent the two of them from leaving the building. When the Edens are threatened by Chino, he is gunned down by Reardon. It comes to a head-to-head fight between Judge Eden and Reardon, in the course of which Reardon is pushed over a railing by Eden and fatally impaled on impact.

Details about the film

  • The shooting took place in Seattle .

Reviews

  • The internet platform cinema rates the film as untrustworthy, but continuously exciting until the action-packed finale.

Web links

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  1. ↑ Location of the film on the Internet Movie Database
  2. ↑ film review on cinema.de