The Last Boy Scout is a 1991 action film starring Bruce Willis as a former Secret Service agent, now working as a private detective, and Damon Wayans as a retired professional football player. The two join forces to solve the murder of Wayans' character’s girlfriend (played by the then-little known Halle Berry). The movie was produced by Warner Bros. Pictures and Geffen Pictures and directed by Tony Scott.
Synopsis
During a rainy football game between (fictional) teams from Los Angeles and Cleveland,[1][2] star running back Billy Cole (Billy Blanks) receives a threatening phone call during half time from someone named Milo (Taylor Negron), involved in game fixing, warning him to win the game at all costs, or he's "history". Cole ingests PCP and, in a drug-induced rage, brings a firearm onto the field. Cole initially continues to play normally but, finding his path blocked with seconds remaining, he shoots three opposing players to make it to the end zone. As the police move in, Cole kneels in the end zone and announces "Ain't life a bitch?" before shooting himself in the head.
Joe Hallenbeck (Bruce Willis), a retired U.S. Secret Service agent-turned Private Detective, discovers that his wife (Chelsea Field) is having an affair with his best friend and sometime business partner, Mike Matthews (Bruce McGill). The same morning, Mike is killed in a mysterious car explosion outside Joe's house, after giving Joe an assignment to act as bodyguard for a stripper named Cory (Halle Berry). Beginning his assignment that night at the bar where Cory works, Joe immediately crosses paths with her over-protective boyfriend, former football star James Alexander "Jimmy" Dix (Damon Wayans), who had been banned from professional football on gambling and drug possession charges. After an annoyed Jimmy takes Cory away for some private time, Joe decides to wait outside, where he is attacked by thugs and taken away to be executed. As Joe turns the tables on his would-be assassin, Jimmy and Cory leave the bar in separate cars. Cory immediately gets into a minor car accident and, stopping to confront the other driver, is shot dead by the hitmen hiding in the car. Jimmy blindly rushes to her aid, requiring Joe to come to his rescue.
At the police station to explain themselves, and later at Joe's house, Jimmy and Joe bond over their past and present failings. Jimmy had to retire from professional football after a sports injury led to an addiction to painkillers, which in turn led to a (possibly) erroneous gambling charge that ended his career. Joe had been a respected agent in the Secret Service and even once saved President Jimmy Carter's life, before his career was ended when he punched a protectee in the face, upon discovering that the corrupt Senator Calvin Baynard (Chelcie Ross) was physically abusing one of his one-night stands. They decide to work together to solve Cory's murder.
At Cory's house, Jimmy and Joe discover she had proof that Sen. Baynard, currently the chairman of the Senate commission to investigate gambling in professional sports, is being bribed by Los Angeles football team owner Sheldon "Shelly" Marcone (Noble Willingham). A "yes" vote by the commission would legalize sports gambling, invigorating the ailing football industry and earning millions for its investors. Cory had learned of the men's agreement and had used her knowledge as leverage to allow Jimmy to return to football, in turn prompting her murder by Marcone's men. They also eliminated Mike, since he knew too much. Approached by more hitmen to finish them off as well, Joe blows up his car to kill the assassins, destroying Cory's evidence in the process.
After Jimmy takes Joe home and meets his daughter Darian (Danielle Harris), Joe finds Jimmy in his bathroom attempting to use drugs; enraged, he destroys the drugs and throws Jimmy out. The next morning, the police, having learned of Mike's affair with Joe's wife, decide Joe must have killed Mike for revenge and move to arrest him, but Marcone's top henchman, Milo, captures Joe at home first and holds him prisoner. A thug named Chet slaps Joe about and Joe responds first by knocking him to the floor, then asking the same thug for a cigarette. Chet hands Joe a cigarette, then sucker-punches him while lighting it. Joe calmly asks for another cigarette, but warns him, "Touch me again, and I'll kill ya." Chet ignores the threat and sucker-punches Joe once more, only to have Joe kill him by driving his nose into his brain with a single punch. Joe later issues the same threat to Milo, but doesn't attack when Milo ignores the warning and strikes him twice.
Marcone appears and explains Sen. Baynard has proven too expensive to bribe, so Marcone plots to murder him at that evening's football game, by switching a briefcase of graft money intended for Baynard's men with one containing a bomb. He orders Milo to frame Joe for the murder before executing him, but Joe is rescued by Jimmy and Darian before escaping in Jimmy's sports car. They manage to capture both briefcases after running the bodyguards and Milo off the road; however, Milo survives his crash and kidnaps Darian after Joe leaves her to wait for the police. Ordered to bring the cases to Marcone's stadium office to save Darian, they appear trapped, but a quick-thinking Jimmy creates a diversion, allowing them to fight their way free, though Marcone escapes with one of the cases. Knowing Milo will attempt to shoot Baynard from a sniper position on the stadium lights, Joe goes after him while sending Jimmy to find Baynard. Jimmy invades the field on a horse, attempting to shout a warning to Baynard in his nearby corporate box, but is unsuccessful. Grabbing the game ball, he throws it at Baynard, knocking him down just as Milo begins shooting. Before Milo can shoot again, Joe finds him and they fight, with Joe making good on his earlier threat by knocking Milo to the edge of the platform, where police snipers shoot him several times, causing him to fall off, into the blades of a circling helicopter. Joe begins to dances a jig as he says he would earlier in the film. Joe is finally able to prove his innocence with the remaining briefcase, though the police find it is the one with the money. Joe and his wife decide to reconcile and work things out. Baynard tries to pin everything on Joe who punches him out again out of annoyance. The fleeing Marcone has ironically escaped with the wrong briefcase, and is killed by the bomb inside when he opens it at his penthouse. At the end of the film Joe and Jimmy agree to a partnership as they walk off down the sidewalk.
Reception
The film performed under expectations given the star power and hype surrounding the then record price paid for the screenplay by Shane Black (1.75 million dollars). Roger Ebert gave the film three stars, saying it was "a superb example of what it is: a glossy, skillful, cynical, smart, utterly corrupt and vilely misogynistic action thriller".[3] It has a 43% rating on Rotten Tomatoes and 6.7 out of 10 on the Internet Movie Database. Reviews were mixed, and some critics cited the Christmas time release for such a violent film as a reason for its sluggish box office. It grossed $7,923,669 in its opening weekend, and the total gross was $59,509,925.
Cast
Awards
The Last Boy Scout was nominated for two MTV Movie Awards.
- Best Action Sequence - For the helicopter blade sequence
- Best On-Screen Duo - Bruce Willis & Damon Wayans
References
External links
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Films directed by Tony Scott |
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Loving Memory (1969)
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