Themes: Survival in the Wilderness, Flight of the Innocent, Race Against Time
Main Cast: Ice-T, Rutger Hauer, Charles S. Dutton, Gary Busey, F. Murray Abraham
Release Year: 1994
Country: US
Run Time: 96 minutes
MPAA Rating: R
Plot
The Richard Connell short story, The Most Dangerous Game, has been adapted for the screen many times. In this updated version, the rapper-actor Ice-T plays Mason, a homeless man whose best friend and his dog both die on the same day. Cole (Charles S. Dutton, a relief worker, tells Mason that there's a job available that entails leading a hunting expedition in the mountains of the Pacific Northwest. The desperate Mason signs on. The hunting party is led by two CIA agents, Burns (Rutger Hauer) and Hawkins (Gary Busey), and it includes a business executive, Wolfe, Sr. (F. Murray Abraham), his son (William McNamara), and a strange Texan, Griffin (John C. McGinley). Mason flies on ahead to prepare the hunting lodge, and there he discovers that he is to be the prey for the hunt, though the hunters at least give him a head start before pursuing. The violent action pits the high-tech hunters, armed with numerous fancy weapons and vehicles, against Mason -- who must rely on his street smarts to escape and turn the tables on the hunting party. ~ Michael Betzold, All Movie Guide
John C. McGinley - Griffin; William McNamara - Wolfe Jr.; Jeff Corey - Hank; Jacqui Dickerson - Taxi Passenger; Victor Morris - Homeless Father; Kevin Harris - Homeless Man; Steve Lambert - 1st Trophy Hunted; Bob Minor - Security Guard; Kathie Ryan; Jodi Rothfield; George Fisher - Taxi Driver
Credit
Madelyn Marcom - Art Director, Jodi Rothfield - Casting, Katie Ryan - Casting, Ruth E. Carter - Costume Designer, Randy Fletcher - First Assistant Director, Ernest R. Dickerson - Director, Sam Pollard - Editor, Stewart Copeland - Composer (Music Score), Felipe Borrero - Musical Direction/Supervision, Christian Wagener - Production Designer, Bojan Bazelli - Cinematographer, Fred Caruso - Producer, David Permut - Producer, Kevin J. Messick - Producer, George Toomer Jr. - Set Designer, Bob Minor - Stunts, Eric Bernt - Screenwriter
Mason (Ice-T) is a homeless man from Seattle who loses his only friends - a fellow homeless man and his dog - on the same day. Dejected, Mason attempts to commit suicide when a soup kitchen worker, Walter Cole (Charles S. Dutton), saves him and refers him to businessman Thomas Burns (Rutger Hauer). Burns offers Mason a job as a hunting guide.
Flying to a remote cabin in the Pacific Northwest surrounded by hundreds of acres of woods, Mason meets the rest of the hunting party, all of whom paid $25,000 for the privilege of being there. The party includes Doc Hawkins (Gary Busey), the founder of the hunt, a psychotic psychiatrist who specializes in psychological assessments of CIA agents. The other hunters include Cole (who picks the "game" for the hunt), a Texas "oil man" named John Griffin (John C. McGinley), a wealthy man from Wall Street named Derek Wolfe Sr. (F. Murray Abraham), and his son, Derek Wolfe Jr. (William McNamara), who is at first ignorant of the true purposes of the hunt.[2] The following morning Mason is awakened with a gun in his face by Cole, who explains that the men are not hunting any animals, but rather Mason himself.
