The Chase (1994 film)

Infobox_Film
name=The Chase


caption = The movie cover for "The Chase".
imdb_id=0109402
writer=Adam Rifkin
starring=Charlie Sheen,
Kristy Swanson
director=Adam Rifkin
music=Richard Gibbs | distributor=20th Century Fox
released=March 4 1994
runtime=89 min.
language=English
movie_series=
awards=
producer=Cassian Elwes
Brad Wyman
budget= |

"The Chase" is a 1994 comedy-adventure movie starring Charlie Sheen and Kristy Swanson. Henry Rollins has a role in the film as a police officer. The movie features cameos from Ron Jeremy and both Anthony Kiedis and Flea of the Red Hot Chili Peppers.

Plot Summary

28-year old Jackson "Jack" Davis Hammond is sentenced to 25 years in prison for armed robbery, although he is innocent, but manages to escape. To get away from the police while at a convenience store, he takes a hostage, California heiress Natalie Voss, threatening everyone with a candy bar (posing for a gun). He acquires the officers' guns and drives off in Natalie's car. The girl happens to be the only daughter of billionaire Dalton Voss, one of the richest men in the state of California. The car chase quickly becomes broadcast live on every TV-channel, covering the event from helicopters, the backseat of a police car, the pavement of the highway etc. The girl eventually gets to know Jack during the course of this chase. Originally thinking of Jack as a "gun-wielding, cop-shooting, maniac kidnapper," Natalie later compares her life to his and realizes how similar they are despite being from different backgrounds. She falls in love with him and finally starts to believe in him. Jack plans on escaping into Mexico and Natalie proposes a future together.

When the cops block off the border crossing to Mexico, Jack is forced to stop and he then lets Natalie out. She reluctantly leaves and in the final confrontation with the police, Jack appears to be defiant and goes down in a blaze of glory. Moments later, however, this is revealed to be only a mental projection of what is likely to happen if he doesn't surrender. This sequence is reminiscent of and may be an intentional tribute to his brother Emilio Estevez in "Wisdom". Jack surrenders but Natalie takes a television producer hostage with a gun Jack gave her. Voss blows up a nearby police helicopter and together they escape across the border into Mexico in a news helicopter that Voss hijacks. It is then shown, some time later, that they are relaxing in freedom on a beach.

After the ending credits, there is an homage to the famous "I love the smell of napalm in the morning" line by Robert Duvall in Apocalypse Now. The line has similar wording to Duvall's line and is delivered to Wagner's "Ride of the Valkyries" by Charlie Sheen in a clown costume who is driving down the freeway.

::"You smell that? Do you smell that?! Nothing else in the world smells like that, son. I love the smell of napalm in the morning! You know, one day we had a hell bomb. And when I walked out, we didn't find one of 'em, not one stinkin' dink body. But that smell, that gasoline smell... the whole hill, it smelled like... victory." -- Uncredited clown.

Notable Cast and Cameos

* Charlie Sheen - Jackson Hammond
* Kristy Swanson - Natalie Voss
* Rocky Carroll - Byron Wilder (Channel 8 traffic reporter)
* Henry Rollins - Officer Dobbs (lead chase car driver)
* Josh Mostel - Officer Figus (lead chase car passenger)
* Bree Walker - Wendy Sorenson (Channel 8 news anchor)
* Ray Wise - Dalton Voss
* Claudia Christian - Yvonne Voss (Natalie's stepmother)
* Natalia Nogulich - Frances Voss (Natalie's mother)
* Cary Elwes - Steve (Channel 12 news anchor)
* Flea, Anthony Kiedis - Red-blooded American monster truck driver Dale, passenger Will
* Paul Dondridge - himself
* Cassian Elwes - The Producer (reality cop show)

Critical reaction

Chicago Sun Times critic Roger Ebert wrote at the time:

"The Chase" a movie named with unerring accuracy, takes place mostly in a car on a California expressway, where love blooms during a high-speed police pursuit. Once you grasp that premise, you know where the movie's going and more or less everything that is going to happen in it, so the surprise is that "The Chase" does such a good job within its limited range."

Ebert gave the film two-and-a-half stars. Critic James Berardinelli, who also gave the movie two-and-a-half stars out of four, said:

"As an example of modern cinematic art, The Chase is an utter failure. As a character study, it can't get past the comic book stage. As a tightly-plotted thriller, it's missing about half the storyline. But, as a piece of unfettered, unpretentious entertainment, it hits the bullseye".

Soundtrack

It has not been confirmed that an official soundtrack was released, but this is the movie's music listing:

# One Dove - Breakdown (Radio Mix)
# Suede - The Next Life
# Stephen Stuart Short - Macho Man (written by the Village People)
# Bad Religion - Two Babies in the Dark
# The Offspring - Forever and A Day
# Down By Law - Our Own Way
# Rollins Band - Shine
# Dan Carlson - House
# Rancid - Adina
# The Offspring - Take It Like a Man
# Rancid - The Bottle
# NOFX - Please Play This Song on the Radio
# NOFX - Warm

DVD

* The movie was released on DVD September 6, 2005

Trivia

* The director told Henry Rollins that he was funnier than the lines written in the script. Consequently, almost all of his performance is ad libbed.
* The extensive chase and crash scenes were not filmed on a California expressway, but on a newly completed and unopened stretch of highway in Harris County, on the west side of Houston, Texas. Dozens of mature palm trees were trucked in and planted along the highway to provide southern California ambiance.
* Canadian Band Alexisonfire has a song called "Charlie Sheen Vs. Henry Rollins" based on the film.
* The movie was released months before the O.J. Simpson chase which was viewed on TV all over the world.
* Henry and Charlie recreated, in part, the classic interview sequence from the 1978 Sam Peckinpah movie Convoy.
* The first police car that flips over (after Jack shoots it in the tire) lands backwards but in the next shot the car is in front.
* At the very end (after the credits) Charlie Sheen quotes a scene from Apocalypse Now (1979) (which starred his father, Martin Sheen.)
* When the high-speed pursuit becomes more intense, Charlie Sheen's character says that the situation has gotten "way too hairy." Which leads to an exchange between Jackson and Natalie that is right out of Apocalypse Now.
* Anthony Kiedis and Flea from Red Hot Chili Peppers make cameo appearances driving a lifted pickup truck.
* When Natalie and Jack are being intimate in the car, it is bright sunshine outside, and a sign that says "Tijuana 10 miles" can be seen. However, in the next scene, they have not yet reached the border and it is pitch black outside - despite the car traveling 90-100 mph.
* Charlie Sheen and Kristy Swanson, the two main characters in the movie both made cameo appearances in the 1986 movie Ferris Bullers Day Off.

External links

* [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0109402/ The Chase on imdb.com]
* Roger Ebert Critic of The Chase http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/19940304/REVIEWS/403040303/1023
* James Berardinelli critic http://www.reelviews.net/movies/c/chase.html