Passenger 57 *** (1992, Wesley Snipes, Bruce Payne, Tom Sizemore) – Classic Movie Review 2299

Director Kevin Hooks’s 1992 action crime thriller is an engagingly preposterous slice of energised, vigorous hokum. There’s a decent Die Hard on a plane set-up and a good star turn and an effective villain, but an underwritten screenplay by David Loughery and Dan Gordon and some overstated performances.

Wesley Snipes stars as John Cutter, a famous airline security expert who just happens to be in a passenger jet plane’s toilet at the moment when terrorists try to spring their clever and ruthless infamous operative Charles Rane (Bruce Payne) from FBI custody. If you can believe that professional bad guys would be so dumb and careless as not to check that the bathroom was actually empty at the time, you might be able to swallow the rest of the story.

Nevertheless, preposterous as it is, it is done with very considerable B-movie-style vigour, with some impressive stunts and exciting action, plus some good wisecracking humour. And it does keep moving throughout its short running time of just 83 minutes. It was a hit: costing only $15million, it grossed $44million in the US.

Hooks directs his own father Robert Hooks as the FBI boss Dwight Henderson. Also in the cast are Tom Sizemore, Alex Datcher, Bruce Greenwood, the 27-year-old Elizabeth Hurley (in an early role, as Sabrina Ritchie), Michael Horse, Marc Macaulay and Ernie Lively.

It was filmed at Orlando and nearby Sanford airport in Florida, with the aerial scenes filmed at Florida Keys.

Sylvester Stallone turned down the star role, so the writers named one of the major characters Sly. The original screenplay set the action at night but it was changed to day to save money. The type of aircraft used is an L1011-500 Tristar. On the plane Snipes reads the book The Art of War and in 2000 he starred in a film of the book.

© Derek Winnert 2015 Classic Movie Review 2299

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