By Geno McGahee
In 1987, the action genre would forever change with the release of DIE HARD, possibly the best action film of all time. Hollywood took notice of the success and the call of the people for more terrorist takeover movies and released films like UNDER SIEGE with Steven Seagal, CLIFFHANGER with Sylvester Stallone, SUDDEN DEATH with Jean Claude Van Damme, and PASSENGER 57 with Wesley Snipes. PASSENGER 57 was given a budget of 15 million and made 44 million, proving that people still wanted to see terrorists get their what for.
I recently reviewed BOILING POINT with Snipes and was very disappointed and I could not remember much about PASSENGER 57 outside of the phrase “always bet on black.”
John Cutter (Snipes) is a former security detail guy that has left the field forever after a terrible tragedy. That happens a lot in action films. The good guy has some inner turmoil going on and that is the truth with Cutter. His girlfriend was killed in a convenience store robbery that he tried to stop. The bad guy executed his girl and now he lives with it, blaming himself for it.
Sly Delvecchio (Tom Sizemore) is the head of airport security and wants to get Cutter onto the team. He brings him in as a contractor to start and things don’t go as well as intended. While holding a fake gun to the head of Marti (Alex Datcher), a flight attendant, she elbows him and takes the gun. Cutter is furious and demands that she does what the hostage taker demands because she’ll get everyone killed. Despite the questionable results, Sly asks his old friend to not only join his team but to head it up. He finally accepts the offer to get on with his life.
In the meantime, Charles Rane (Bruce Payne), is a total prick and starts the film by killing a doctor and then goes on the run. He gets caught and is now going to be placed on a plane for transport to prison, which just so happens to be the same plane that Cutter is on, on his first day of work back. You would think that he would get some days of nothingness to get back into the swing of things, but they did not hold back. The world’s worst terrorist and an escape artist is put on a plane and they put Cutter there.
Along with Rane, Cutter has to deal with that bitch flight attendant that elbowed him and took his fake gun. She makes his life immediately difficult when she places an old lady next to him and tells her that he’s Arsenio Hall. That was actually pretty funny.
Unknown to Cutter, Rane has his team on board and are ready to take the plane. Sabrina, played by Elizabeth Hurley, opens fire on the federal agents when Cutter is in the bathroom. I could not believe that it was Hurley! I did not recognize her, but now, looking at her again, I see it. If I were to assemble a team of terrorists, I’d try to get members that look like Hurley. You don’t see many terrorist groups with insanely hot chicks on the team, but props to Rane for making it happen. He sort of evened it out with some weird guy with Sammy Hagar hair that is the first to die.
Cutter and Marti team up and they run into another member of the flight team in the belly of the plane and Marti assures Cutter that he is cool. Unfortunately, he’s one of Rane’s guys too. I wonder how that happened. This guy worked at the airport and Rane was in prison. Did Rane send him letters, asking for his assistance? How the hell did this guy become a member of the team and why was he stationed in the belly of the plane and not upstairs helping the other goons?
Another problem with the guy is that he has a knife and instead of doing a surprise attack when Cutter has his back turned, he tells him that he should do what Rane says and then shows the knife. He ends up getting his ass totally kicked. He gives one final effort, screaming at the top of his lungs and running at Cutter, but he gets beat down even more. Now, he’s out of a job and got his ass beat and I bet that Rane would have never given him any money. He lost it all for nothing.
Cutter empties the fuel out of the plane, forcing it to land. It doesn’t bother Rane too much. For a bad guy, he’s pretty even-tempered. With the plane on the ground, Cutter gets out and is immediately met by the local cops and they arrest him. While in custody, Cutter has enough and beats up two cops. Can he do that? I don’t think he can. As far as I know, he works with the airline security and that does not permit him to beat the asses of police officers. After seeing that, I took his words about Rane less seriously. The guy lived in a glass house. He’s a criminal too.
After some more bullshit, Rane gets arrested again…after Cutter tosses another goon off of a Ferris wheel. Part of the appeal of action films is watching bad guys getting tossed off shit and this film delivers.
So, after Cutter beats up two cops, steals a police motorcycle and kills a guy at a carnival, they allow him alone time with a handcuffed Rane. It goes as expected. He beats him up, but there isn’t much of a reaction from Rane. He’s as cool as a cucumber and notes that they aren’t that different and so forth. He then demands release or the rest of his crew, still on the plane, will kill the remaining passengers.
The new plan is to let him go to the plane and then have the snipers take him out and any bad guy that is waiting at the door to welcome him back. Rane gets his own snipers and they take out more of the feds that are escorting him on the plane. This guy thinks of everything. Now Cutter finds his way on the plane to end it and get rid of the terrorists once and for all.
(SPOILERS) As expected, Cutter kills all the bad guys with the exception of Elizabeth Hurley. I’m with him. She can be reformed. That only leaves Rane and we get an epic battle inside the plane but the plane door is open and I wonder what is going to happen… In a great moment, Rane is kicked out of the plane and falls to his death. That’s the only way to get rid of a terrorist leader. Their death must be epic.
PASSENGER 57 is a really decent action film. Wesley Snipes is limited but he does well with the role and the film mixes some great action with a little bit of levity here and there. Rane was a good villain and his death scene was worth a few points in and of itself. I recommend this flick. It’s nowhere near as good as DIE HARD or even UNDER SIEGE, but it’s worth a watch.
