Main Cast: Steven Seagal, Eric Bogosian, Katherine Heigl, Everett McGill, Morris Chestnut, Nick Mancuso
Release Year: 1995
Country: US
Run Time: 100 minutes
MPAA Rating: R
Plot
In the original box-office smash Under Siege, action hero Steven Seagal played Casey Ryback, a U.S. Navy SEAL who saved the world from nuclear destruction by outsmarting and killing off terrorists who had commandeered a submarine. In this sequel, Seagal's Ryback character does the same sort of thing aboard a train. Ryback now has retired from the Navy and is taking his niece Sarah (Katherine Heigl) on a vacation. They board a train traveling through the Rocky Mountains. Criminal mastermind Travis Dane (Eric Bogosian) is using the train as a control center in his effort to kidnap a top-secret government outer space super-weapon. Dane built the weapon but then was fired by the government before it was deployed. He has hooked up with shadowy Middle Eastern terrorists who have offered him $1 billion to use the satellite to blow up the Eastern seaboard by targeting a secret nuclear reactor underneath the Pentagon. Dane shows the Pentagon that he's got control of the weapon by blowing up a Chinese chemical plant. Officials can't stop him because they can't locate his headquarters. As long as the train keeps moving, his location can't be fixed. Ryback learns of the plot and enlists a porter named Bobby (Morris Chestnut) to help him in his battle. ~ Michael Betzold, All Movie Guide
Review
A fired government techie (Eric Bogosian) wants revenge. He hijacks a passenger train and commandeers the top-secret satellite weapon that he designed for the U.S. He demonstrates his device, which is capable of generating Non-Terrestrially Originated Seismic Events (man-made earthquakes), by destroying part of China. He targets the States, but a hero stands in his way. Under Siege 2: Dark Territory is the return of Casey Ryback, Steven Seagal's fearless Navy Seal-turned-restaurateur. A passenger on the captured train, Casey saves the day and helps make Under Siege 2 as entertaining as an action sequel should be. Its good guys are tougher. No time is wasted on "the cook who's really a martial artist" jokes. Casey is respected as a well-trained killing machine from start to finish. His sidekicks -- his aikido-trained niece (Katherine Hiegl) and a loquacious porter (Morris Chestnut) -- are both capable and sympathetic. Its bad guys are meaner. Eric Bogosian's vainglorious villain is the quintessential megalomaniac, complete with a sadistic team of underappreciated henchmen (one can use mace like breath spray, another has two sinister sleepy eyes). Most importantly, its action is better. Director Geoff Murphy cleverly uses the confines of a train -- the baggage car, the dumbwaiter, and, of course, the kitchen -- for each trick and fight sequence. The final battle (involving a helicopter and another train) is thoroughly exciting, if entirely unbelievable. Under Siege 2 may not be Under Siege, but it lives up to expectations. ~ Aubry Anne D'Arminio, All Movie Guide
Brenda Bakke - Gilder; Kurtwood Smith - Gen. Stanley Cooper; Royce D. Applegate - Ryback's Cook; Jonathan Banks - Scotty; Don Blakely - Cook #2; Wren T. Brown - Captain #1; Greg Collins - Huey Pilot; Phyllis Davis - Hostage #2; David Gianopoulos - David Trilling; Patrick Kilpatrick - Merc #2; Frank Roman - Aide; Andy Romano - Adm. Bates; Al Sapienza - Captain #2; Dennis Stewart - Holy-Merc; Ping Wu - SYSOS Officer; Dale Dye - Colonel Darza; Julius R. Nasso - Hostage #3; Christopher Darga - Cook #1; Chad Dowdell - Porter (uncredited); Scott Sowers - Merc #3; Jim Clark - Train Consultant; Peter Greene - Merc #1
Credit
Carol Wood - Art Director, Doug Metzger - Associate Producer, Louis Di Giaimo - Casting, Julius R. Nasso - Co-producer, Richard Bruno - Costume Designer, Geoff Murphy - Director, Michael Tronick - Editor, Gary W. Goldstein - Executive Producer, Martin Wiley - Executive Producer, Jeffrey R. Neuman - Executive Producer, Basil Poledouris - Composer (Music Score), Bob Arrollo - Makeup, Margaret Elliott - Makeup, Eric Pascarelli - Camera Operator, Albert Brenner - Production Designer, Robbie Greenberg - Cinematographer, Arnon Milchan - Producer, Steve Perry - Producer, Jon Peters - Producer, Steven Seagal - Producer, Kathe Klopp - Set Designer, Richard Yuricich - Special Effects, Edward Tise - Sound/Sound Designer, Matt Reeves - Screenwriter, Richard Hatem - Screenwriter, Wayne R. Tidwell - Video Assist
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 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 a 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.
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 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. Dane, who is revealed to have survived, has also caught the ladder and attempts to climb onto the helicopter while yelling that he and Ryback should join forces. 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.
At the box office Under Siege 2 opened 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.
