Themes: Miscarriage of Justice, Race Against Time, Flight of the Innocent
Main Cast: Keenen Ivory Wayans, Jon Voight, Jill Hennessy, Paul Sorvino, Eric Roberts
Release Year: 1997
Country: US
Run Time: 99 minutes
MPAA Rating: R
Plot
Actor-comedian-talk show host Keenen Ivory Wayans stars in his own action thriller screenplay about a war hero who becomes the fall guy in a frame-up. During the Persian Gulf War, U.S. Marine Sgt. James Dunn (Wayans) refuses to shoot a young shepherd, struggles with a superior officer, and winds up with a murder conviction. Sentenced to death in a military prison, Dunn is rescued from a prisoner-transport bus and selected for a special covert "Black Sheep" unit commanded by Lt. Col. Grant Casey (Jon Voight). Casey offers Dunn freedom if he will aid their battle against corrupt industrialist Donald Bickhart (Robert Culp). During the dedication of a Los Angeles medical research building, the First Lady is assassinated, and Dunn discovers that he has been set up as the trigger-man. Caught in a conspiracy, Dunn relies on his own survival skills and expert military training to elude those in pursuit, including corrupt Army superiors plus police and government agents. To clear his name and expose the real killers, Dunn kidnaps Dr. Victoria Constantini (Jill Hennessy), an eyewitness who made a videotape of the assassination. Now he has the evidence he needs and an uncooperative hostage, but after a $10 million bounty is announced, his situation gets even more desperate as he finds himself chased through the streets of Los Angeles by an immense money-hungry crowd hoping to collect the reward. The freeway filming of this chase featured an unprecedented stunt -- 16 stunt people simultaneously hit by 20 cars. Another stunt required a leap from a 45-story building. ~ Bhob Stewart, All Movie Guide
Robert Culp - Donald Bickhart; Wolfgang Bodison - Capt. Steve Braddock; Simon Baker-Denny - Stephen Barnes
Credit
Arlan Jay Vetter - Art Director, Valerie McCaffrey - Casting, Ileane Meltzer - Costume Designer, Carl Goldstein - First Assistant Director, David Glenn Hogan - Director, Michael J. Duthie - Editor, Tony Mark - Executive Producer, Keenen Ivory Wayans - Executive Producer, Paul Bruckmaster - Composer (Music Score), Jean-Philippe Carp - Production Designer, Marc Reshovsky - Cinematographer, Eric L. Gold - Producer, Alex Carle - Set Designer, Michael Hogan - Sound/Sound Designer, Michael Bradford - Sound/Sound Designer, James M. Halty - Stunts, Pete Antico - Stunts, Chuck Picerni, Jr. - Stunts Coordinator, Keenen Ivory Wayans - Screenwriter
James Dunn (Wayans), a United States Marine who served in the Gulf War, is wrongly accused of an assassination of an officer he had disputed with. Dunn is later saved from death row and recruited for top-secret special operations squad led by Lt. Col Grant Casey (Voight). Their mission is to neutralize criminals who had avoided conventional law enforcement methods. On his first mission, Dunn finds that his purpose is to actually be falsely perceived as the man who assassinated the first lady. Soon, a search begins for Dunn and Dr. Victoria Constantini (Hennessy) who happened to videotape what occurred. One of the forces looking for him is the military, led by General Adam Woodward, which is in fact an alias for Grant Casey.
