Terminal Velocity (film)
| Terminal Velocity | |
|---|---|
 Film poster | |
| Directed by | Deran Sarafian |
| Written by | David Twohy |
| Produced by | Ron Booth Tom Engelman Scott Kroopf |
| Starring | |
| Cinematography | Oliver Wood |
| Edited by | Frank J. Urioste |
| Music by | Joel McNeely |
Production companies | |
| Distributed by | Buena Vista Pictures Distribution |
Release date |
|
Running time | 102 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $50 million |
| Box office | $47 million |
Terminal Velocity is a 1994 American
Plot
About to leave the country, a young Russian woman was ambushed in her Tucson apartment after calling her contact about a Boeing 747 she witnessed landing in the desert. The lead assailant, Kerr, tortures her for information about her roommate before drowning her in an aquarium.
Former
Feeling guilty and confused, Ditch rifles through Chris' personal belongings, and finds her apartment key. There he finds a photograph of Chris performing a jump, thus contradicting her earlier claim of inexperience. Ditch is attacked by Kerr, but fends him off and escapes. At the flight school, Ditch is approached by
Taking shelter in the desert, Chris reveals that her real name is Krista Moldova, and that she and her pursuers are former
As Ditch is about to leave on a bus, he finds a picture taken by Chris holding up a sign reading "Ditch Did Not Kill Me", thereby exonerating him. Having a change of heart, Ditch drives off to the airfield just as Pinkwater and his men take off, having kidnapped Chris. Posing as an FAA agent, Ditch convinces a biplane stunt pilot to fly him up and onto the 747. Ditch gets on board just as Chris is stuffed in the trunk of Kerr's sports car to be killed. Ditch and Kerr get into a fight, driving the car out of the cargo hold and plummeting toward the ground below. Ditch manages to force Kerr off sending him falling several thousands of feet to his death, and gets Chris out of the trunk before it hits the ground. The two land in a nearby wind farm, and the plane, damaged in the fight, is forced to land. As police swarm the runway, Chris and Ditch are attacked by a parachuting Pinkwater, and Chris is stabbed in the back. Ditch pulls Pinkwater's back-up chute, sucking him into a nearby turbine and killing him.
Some time later, Ditch and Chris receive official commendations at the Kremlin for their actions in preventing the coup.
Cast
- Charlie Sheen as Richard 'Ditch' Brodie
- Nastassja Kinski as Agent Krista Moldova / Chris Morrow
- James Gandolfini as Stefan / Ben Pinkwater
- Christopher McDonald as Kerr
- Suli McCullough as 'Robocam'
- Hans R. Howes as Sam
- Melvin Van Peebles as Noble
- Gary Bullock as Agent Lex
- Margaret Colin as Joline
- Cathryn de Prume as Agent Karen
- Rance Howard as Chuck
- Sofia Shinas as Maxine 'Broken Legs Max'
Production
Based on David Twohy’s original spec script which sold to Hollywood Pictures for over $500,000 [1] Kevin Reynolds and Tom Cruise were initially slated as director and star, but commitments prevented this.[1]
The final stunt, which features Sheen at the wheel of a
Portions of the film were shot in
Reception
The film debuted at number 2 at the US box office behind Timecop in its second week with an opening weekend gross of $5.5 million.[5] It eventually grossed $16.5 million in the United States and Canada and over $31 million internationally, for a worldwide total of over $47 million compared to its $50 million budget.[6][7]
It received mostly negative reviews by critics; it has a 19% positive scale on the ratings aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, based on 26 reviews.[8] Owen Gleiberman opined that "Terminal Velocity is the kind of movie in which the hero keeps sneaking into rooms to peek into some file and you wait, with glum certitude, for yet another 'surprise' thug to leap out of the shadows. It's fun to hear Charlie Sheen deliver quips like, 'I'm not just a walking penis — I'm a flying penis!' But for most of the movie, Sheen, lowering his voice to a basso he-man growl, gives a boringly flat, square-jawed performance, as if he thought he were doing Hot Shots! Part Quatre."[9] Roger Ebert suggested that "Sheen's behavior in this and other scenes is so close to the self-parody of his work in the Hot Shots! movies that he almost seems to be telling us something — such as, that he takes the movie with less than perfect seriousness. No wonder. It's based on such a goofy premise that with just a nudge here and a pun there it could easily have become 'Hot Shots Part Cinq' and taken advantage of the franchise. It's not so much that Sheen can keep a straight face in any situation, as that he always seems to be testing himself with the situations he gets himself into."[10]
Year-end lists
- Honorable mention – David Elliott, The San Diego Union-Tribune[11]
References
- ^ a b "Sarafian signed to direct Interscope's 'Terminal'". Variety. Retrieved July 23, 2021.
- OCLC 61211290. (for Table of Contents)
- ^ "Eyewitness News Team". KVOA.com. 1997. Archived from the original on February 21, 1997. Retrieved November 22, 2016.
- ^ "Filming Locations for Terminal Velocity". IMDb.com. Retrieved November 22, 2016.
- ^ Strauss, Bob (October 3, 1994). "'Timecop' Puts Brakes On 'Velocity'". Sun Sentinel. Los Angeles Daily News. Archived from the original on May 24, 2012. Retrieved November 2, 2010.
- ^ "Terminal Velocity". BoxOfficeMojo.com. Internet Movie Database. Retrieved November 22, 2016.
- ^ Klady, Leonard (February 19, 1996). "B.O. with a vengeance: $9.1 billion worldwide". Variety. p. 1.
- ^ "Terminal Velocity (1994)". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved November 22, 2016.
- ^ Gleiberman, Owen (October 7, 1994). "Terminal Velocity". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved November 2, 2010.
- Chicago Sun Times. Retrieved November 2, 2010.
- ^ Elliott, David (December 25, 1994). "On the big screen, color it a satisfying time". The San Diego Union-Tribune (1, 2 ed.). p. E=8.