| Under Siege 2: Dark Territory |
Under Siege 2: Dark Territory movie poster |
| Directed by |
Geoff Murphy |
| Produced by |
Arnon Milchan,
Steve Perry,
Steven Seagal |
| Written by |
J.F. Lawton (characters),
Richard Hatem,
Matt Reeves |
| Starring |
Steven Seagal,
Eric Bogosian,
Katherine Heigl,
Morris Chestnut,
Everett McGill |
| Music by |
Basil Poledouris |
| Cinematography |
Robbie Greenberg |
| Editing by |
Michael Tronick |
| Studio |
Regency Enterprises |
| Distributed by |
Warner Bros. |
| Release date(s) |
July 14, 1995 |
| Running time |
99 min. |
| Country |
United States |
| Language |
English |
| Budget |
$60,000,000 (estimated) |
| Gross revenue |
$104,324,083 |
| Preceded by |
Under Siege |
Under Siege 2: Dark Territory is a 1995 action film set on board a train traveling through the Rocky Mountains from Denver to Los Angeles. Directed by Geoff Murphy, it stars Steven Seagal as the ex-Navy SEAL, Casey Ryback and is the sequel to the 1992 film Under Siege also starring Seagal. The film was produced by Seagal along with Arnon Milchan and Steve Perry. The film's cast were made up of cameos and supporting roles by Everett McGill, Peter Greene, Kurtwood Smith and Katherine Heigl along with Nick Mancuso and Andy Romano, who both were the only other cast members besides Seagal to reprise their roles from the first film.
Plot
Casey Ryback (Steven Seagal) has retired from the Navy and is a chef at the Mile High Cafe in Denver, Colorado. Ryback is taking his estranged niece Sarah Ryback (played by a then-unknown Katherine Heigl) to Los Angeles to visit the grave of Ryback's brother, who was Sarah's father. They board a train traveling through the Rocky Mountains from Denver to Los Angeles.
Travis Dane (center) with Mr. Penn (left) and Female Mercenary (right)
As the train proceeds through the Rockies, two people wave it down. The driver and an engineer step out and are killed. A group of mercenaries led by computer genius Travis Dane (Eric Bogosian) and mercenary leader Penn (Everett McGill) hijack the train. Dane is a satellite programming expert who worked on a top secret satellite laser weapon called "Grazer One". Dane was fired and faked his death. They herd the passengers and staff into the last two train cars and cut the train's phone lines. Two of Dane's former Department of Defense colleagues are on board the train, hiding their romantic relationship that goes against DoD regulations. Dane has them brought to him and threatens to have one of his mercenaries insert a burning needle into their eye, causing it to explode, unless they give him the codes needed to take over Grazer One. They give him the codes and Dane has them killed.
Middle Eastern terrorists have offered Dane one billion dollars to destroy the Eastern seaboard by using Grazer One to target a nuclear reactor located under the Pentagon. Dane blows up a Chinese chemical plant in order to demonstrate Grazer One's capabilities to his investors and, after one investor offers an additional 100 million dollars, Dane destroys an airliner carrying the investor's ex-wife.
Penn holding Ryback's niece Sarah at gunpoint
The US government cannot locate Dane's headquarters and cannot target Grazer One because Dane creates fifty "ghost satellites" to hide the location of the real Grazer One. When officials destroy what they think is Grazer One, it turns out that they destroyed the NSA's best intelligence satellite. As long as the train keeps moving, his location cannot be fixed. Ryback, who has discovered the plot, takes matters into his own hands. Ryback enlists an eager porter named Bobby Zachs (Morris Chestnut) to help him. He also sends a message to the owner of the restaurant he works at and is friends with. Ryback kills the mercenaries one by one, including one of his former men (Peter Greene).
After Penn takes Sarah as bait for Ryback, Ryback confronts Penn, who is aware of Ryback's military past. Ryback ultimately disarms and kills Penn by breaking his neck. He then finds Dane who is about to depart in a chopper hovering over the train. When Dane informs Ryback that there is no way to stop the satellite from destroying Washington, Ryback shoots him, the bullet destroying his computer and injuring and knocking Dane out a window, causing him to fall out of the train and off of a bridge. Control of the satellite is restored at the Pentagon and it is destroyed by remote control one second before it would have fired on the Pentagon.
The train collides with a freight train carrying several gasoline tank cars, resulting in a massive explosion. Ryback escapes from the train by grabbing a rope ladder hanging from the chopper above. The bloodied Dane, who is revealed to have survived, has also caught the ladder and attempts to climb onto the helicopter while screaming for his life. Ryback slides the door shut, severing Dane's fingers and causing him to fall to his death. Ryback informs the Pentagon that the passengers are safe, as he previously detached the passenger section from the rest of the train.
Ryback and Sarah pay their final respects at her father's gravestone.
Cast
Background
Originally, Jon Peters was slated as producer for this film and considered Gary Busey to reprise the role of Commander Krill. In early planning stages, Krill somehow survived the submarine attack in the first film and plans to exact revenge on Ryback, for foiling his and Strannix's hijacking schemes in the original film, by holding his niece hostage and hijacking the train that Ryback was boarded on. However, after being told that Busey's character was officially dead in the previous film, Peters stepped out as producer. After the main villain Travis Dane was created, Julian Sands and Jeff Goldblum were approached to play the role, but both of them turned it down.[1]
Critical response
Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times gave the film a three-star rating in his review, while Peter Rainer of the Los Angeles Times wrote that "the action upstaged the actors."
Box office
At the box office Under Siege 2 opened at #2 at the box office under Apollo 13 in 2,150 theaters and made $12,624,402 with a hefty $5,871 average for the weekend. At the end of its domestic run it totaled a $50,024,083 in receipts and $104,324,083 worldwide. In comparison to the first film and with its $65 million budget, it was seen as a minor disappointment.
References
External links
