Sudden Death (film)

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Movie
German title Sudden death
Original title Sudden death
Country of production United States
original language English
Publishing year 1995
length 106 minutes
Age rating FSK 16
Rod
Director Peter Hyams
script Karen Elise Baldwin ,
Gene Quintano
production Howard Baldwin ,
Moshe Diamant
music John Debney
camera Peter Hyams
cut Steven Kemper
occupation

Sudden Death is an American action - thriller from the year 1995 , directed by Peter Hyams with Jean-Claude Van Damme in the lead role. The action takes place in a variation of the "One against all" scenario, already known from Die Hard .

action

Darren McCord, former fire investigation expert of the fire department of Pittsburgh is, after the death of a girl two years ago that he could not save despite traumatized and has quit his job. Without the knowledge of his ex-wife and children, Emily and Tyler, who still consider him a firefighter, he has a job as a janitor in the city's " Civic Arena ". In this position he gets tickets for a very special ice hockey game : the seventh and decisive game in the Stanley Cup final between the Chicago Blackhawks and the local heroes Pittsburgh Penguins . McCord takes Emily and Tyler to the game to get closer to them.

Daniel Bender, Vice President of the United States , is also present as a guest of honor at the sold-out match . The corrupt CIA agent Joshua Foss takes advantage of this. With a heavily armed attack team and using his knowledge of the security devices, Foss penetrates the arena, occupies the VIP box unnoticed by the spectators and takes those present hostage while his people wire the hall with C4 explosives.

The security forces arriving shortly afterwards, led by the responsible security man Hallmark, try to get into the arena by all possible means, but Foss and his people are always one step ahead of them and thwart all countermeasures. In addition, the gangsters with the bombs and the resulting mass panic among the audience all have trumps on their side. Their demands: transferring hidden millions from the US government to accounts of their choice. If the money is not transferred, hostages die at the end of each third of the game.

The only salvation is McCord, who does his duty in the arena. When it comes to an argument between Emily and Tyler, the former runs away crying, whereupon McCord goes in search of her. He gets in the way of Foss' henchmen, who have kidnapped Emily in the meantime, but can defend himself against their attacks through his close combat experience. While Foss unsuspectingly shifts his extorted ransom by computer, McCord decimates his mercenary army one by one, while he also tries to defuse the explosives. He not only informs Hallmark in front of the arena, but also intervenes in the outfit of Brad Tolliver, the star keeper of the Penguins, and goes to a climbing game on the Mellon Arena. As the game (and with it the deadline) draws to a close, the penguins who are behind balance out at the last second. As a result, the game goes into " Sudden Death ", overtime, which leaves the hostages and McCord a little more time.

After unmasking Hallmark as Foss' mole and killing it, McCord manages to get into the VIP box from the roof using a self-made bomb and free the hostages. Foss then detonates the bombs, causing the feared mass panic and allowing him to go into hiding. In the general hustle and bustle, however, Foss is recognized by Emily, whereupon the gangster kidnaps the little girl. McCord follows Foss and Emily into the roof structure, which opens. Here it comes to the final fight between McCord and Foss, who shoots Darren and tries to escape with a helicopter. At the last moment, McCord is able to shoot the pilot, causing the helicopter with Foss trapped in the passenger compartment to fall into the depths and crashing into an explosion on the ice of the Mellon Arena.

The threat has been averted and McCord and his children are reunited.

Reviews

Critics acknowledged the collaboration between director Hyams and leading actor Van Damme as good. Therefore be Sudden Death and Timecop (also in cooperation Directed by Peter Hyams and starring Jean-Claude Van Damme) than the previous best acting performances of the native Belgian viewed. On the Rotten Tomatoes website , 52% of a total of 33 reviews were positive.

Roger Ebert wrote in the Chicago Sun-Times of December 22, 1995 that the film is not about “common sense” but “about the manipulation of action and special effects” with the aim of creating a “tension effect”, what the movie is doing pretty well.

Mick LaSalle of the San Francisco Chronicle said the film was one of the best action thrillers of 1995. He praised Van Damme and Powers Boothe.

The lexicon of international films judged: “An unsuccessful attempt to tie in with common action patterns à la“ Die hard ”. The ingenuity of the film is exhausted in brutality. "

The review from outnow.ch summed up: “ Sudden Death has become a solid and well-produced action film, in which a simple story is told with a lot of boom and beatings. A likeable main character and beautiful action scenes make the film one of the best in Van Damme's filmography. "

Trivia

  • As in almost all of his films, Peter Hyams has named a supporting character "Spota". This time a bald security man.
  • The match reporter is the actual "Penguins" announcer Mike Lange , and the "Penguin" radio presenter Paul Steigerwald is his assessor .
  • Brad Tolliver's goalkeeper outfit and his shirt number 35 come from Tom Barrasso , the actual number 35 of the "Penguins" at the time.
  • During the indoor shots in the arena, cardboard displays were sometimes used by spectators, as they couldn't pay as many extras.
  • The film was shot during the 1994/95 ice hockey season , which is why it ended a little later because of the shooting.
  • Quite a few real Penguins star players have guest appearances in the film. You can see both Luc Robitaille , who scored a decisive goal, as well as the then unknown Markus Näslund (afterwards NHL professional for years with the Pittsburgh Penguins , Vancouver Canucks and the New York Rangers ).
  • The opponents of the "Chicago Blackhawks" are played by players from the " Cleveland Lumberjacks ", who were then still in the International Hockey League . In other scenes, members of the " Wheeling Thunderbirds " from the East Coast Hockey League appeared.
  • Jean-Claude Van Damme was not originally intended to play the lead role. In addition, the Penguins should play their Stanley Cup match against the Los Angeles Kings in an earlier draft .
  • As McCord, Van Damme builds a do-it-yourself bomb out of mason jars in exactly the same way that Penelope Ann Miller makes it in The Relic , also shot by Peter Hyams .
  • The Mellon Arena in Pittsburgh was called the Civic Arena at the time of shooting, but was then renamed. When Foss henchman destroyed the display board with a bazooka, the lettering can be clearly seen when aiming. In another aerial photo, the later title Mellon can already be seen as a neon sign on a high-rise building.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Rotten Tomatoes
  2. ^ Review by Roger Ebert
  3. ↑ Review by Mick LaSalle
  4. ↑ Sudden Death. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed March 2, 2017 .Template: LdiF / Maintenance / Access used 
  5. ↑ Sudden Death on outnow.ch
  6. ↑ a b c d e f Trivia