Vanishing Point (1997 film)

"Vanishing Point" is a 1997 television remake of the 1971 cult film of the same title.

The film stars Viggo Mortensen, Jason Priestly, Peta Wilson, Christine Elise and Keith David and the same model 1970 Dodge Challenger R/T as in the original, and was directed by Charles Robert Carner.

The remake originally aired on the Fox television network on January 7, 1997.

Synopsis

Jimmy Kowalski (Mortensen), a Gulf War veteran and former stock car racer, works as an automobile restorer and delivery driver at a shop in Idaho. He takes an assignment delivering a 1971 Plymouth Road Runner to New Mexico to pay his wife's mounting medical bills. In New Mexico, he is offered another job, delivering a 426 Hemi powered 1970 Dodge Challenger R/T to Salt Lake City, Utah. On the way, he's informed that his wife's already-difficult pregnancy has taken a turn for the worse and continues to head back home to Idaho, refusing to stop for police when flagged down for speeding.

An interstate chase develops. Throughout the entire movie, he is pursued by a relentless Utah sheriff and the head of the FBI who, while trying to make a name for himself and the organization, after the incidents of Ruby Ridge and the Waco Siege, become convinced he is either running drugs or is a domestic terrorist. Kowalski is aided in his flight by a radio shock jock called "The Voice" (Priestly), a libertarian DJ with a "Don't Tread on Me" flag in his studio, and constantly giving homilies on things such as income taxes and government oppression. The Voice, intrigued by Kowalkski's run across country sets out to find the truth about Kowalski. As he does so, he discovers the truth of Kowalski's "drug run" and that he is really rushing home to be with his wife and her now dangerous pregnancy.

Along the way, Kowalski runs into the desert where he gets lost, blows a tire, and spends the night in an Indian reservation. He finds his way back onto the road where he continues on his way to Idaho, tricking the FBI into going the opposite direction of his intended path. However, as the day rides on he falls asleep and drives into the salt flats. A woman on a motorcycle finds him as he wakes up, and informs him that he has lost his oil pan. He follows her to her hideout, where she and her boyfriend help him to get a new oil pan and help him to run a roadblock.

After running the roadblock with help, he shuts off his headlights and vanishes into the woods. He wakes up from a nightmare about his wife at 7:19 a.m., finds a phone booth and calls the hospital.

Kowalski then drives down the road to where the movie began. Upon seeing the roadblock, he stops where we first see him in the beginning. A flashback reveals that his wife died at 7:19 a.m. after her kidneys failed. He then drives his car into the roadblock. An epilogue by "The Voice" reveals that although the authorities claim he died in the crash, the body was never found, and that some witnesses swear he bailed just before the crash and escaped authorities, and is now living out west with his newborn daughter.

Contrast with Original Film

The bare bones of the plot of this remake are the same as the original, but the number of major characters has grown. Kowalski and the radio DJ, have been changed significantly, and the plot is changed as a result. The DJ does not have the supernatural powers to speak with Kowalski through the radio, but instead seeks the truth about Kowalski's sketchy past. The Kowalski in the original drove for unknown reasons, but the remake gives Kowalski a more clear background and reason to drive.

See also

*Vanishing Point - The original film version

External links

*imdb title|id=0120430|title=Vanishing Point