Passenger 57

This one is a strange and interesting Die Hard rip off for several reasons and you know what?  It’s pretty goddamn good.

Snipes plays John Cutter (that’s a perfect action movie name by the way), an airline anti-terrorist instructor guy turned head of security for a major airline.  He happens to be on the same flight that gets hijacked by Charles Rane (Bruce Payne (I’ve never seen anything else he’s been in)), a psychopath that likes to bomb public places.  And the two of them go at it.

Cutter is one of those haunted cops (well, ex-cop) because his wife was killed during a convenience store robbery.  The bad guy took his wife hostage and Cutter maybe could’ve stopped him but decided to lay down his gun.  And then in a moment of action movie bliss the robber says to him, “you shouldn’t have tried to stop me the first time” and shoots Cutter’s wife in the head.  It’s great because it makes no fucking sense.  It’s like the dude meant to go in the store and kill someone in cold blood.  Also by shooting his hostage he has nothing left to bargain with so that was kinda stupid.  And that line that he says, again, it’s like he planned it out or these two had met before but it’s never explained.  In my opinion this is the kind of stuff that makes an action movie an action movie.  The filmmakers needed Cutter to be tormented by his past so they came up with this over the top and clumsy scenario.  I love that shit.

Ok, so because of the convenience store incident Cutter has a no nonsense attitude and feels sorry for himself.  We know this because while he’s working out he thinks about that fateful night and begins to punch the punching bag harder and harder.  But the whole plane hijacking thing makes him believe in himself again.  This is confirmed when we see Cutter get with the girl at the end signaling that he’s ready to give up his dead wife.

Charles Rane on the other hand is completely inhuman.  I mean I like that he’s evil ‘n all but we don’t get a range of emotions from Bruce Payne.  It’s not like Pipes shows much more than grief and anger but Payne plays it a little stiff.  He’s certainly good in the role and believably and appropriately crazy it’s just that I wish we got to know him better.  The main thing we do know is that he’s a mad bomber and that he likes (or can at least take) pain.  For instance the opening scene is Rane on the verge of getting his face surgically altered so the cops won’t recognize him.  As the nurse goes to give him an anesthetic he stops her which prompts the doctor to ask, “I have to give you something for the pain” and Rane replies, “there will be no pain”.  Now, that is a classic action movie line because it’s so utterly stupid yet so supremely badass.  It reminds me a lot of Swayze’s line from Road House, “pain don’t hurt”. 

There’s also another part where Rane-takes-the-pain and it’s during the final fight with Cutter where he gets punched in the balls like three times.  You can see that some pain wants to get through but Rane successfully suppresses it.  So all I’m sayin’ is that it couldn’t have hurt to make Rane a little more human.  But I still think he’s a pretty cool villain with how cutthroat, vicious and to-the-point he is.

The action in this piece is top notch.  There are two foot chases, a shootout and several hand to hand fights which is Snipes’ forte.  A smart move was to have a whole middle section of the movie off of the plane so we don’t get tired of it.  In fact the last fight is the best one and that’s in part because there’s the risk of our hero getting sucked out of the plane.              

As for the Die Hard comparison there’s a bunch of sneaking around on the plane and taking down bad guys one by one.  Cutter also starts out like John McClane where he’s been thrown into a terrorist situation and can’t believe what’s happening.  That quickly fades away though when he gets into the underbelly of the plane and tells his love interest that he’s the best at takin’ motherfuckers down.  Well he doesn’t actually say it like that but you get the gist.  Another point is that Cutter and Rane don’t know each other like McClane and Gruber but both bad guys realize at some point later that they’ve encountered a worthy adversary.  Cutter has a friend on the ground that’s helping him out (Tom Sizemore (Heat, The Relic)) like McClane and Powell.  However, the major difference between the films is that this one is a prison break while Die Hard is about a robbery. 

Everyone takes a hostage at some point,
even Elizabeth Hurley gets in on the act.

And you know, there’s something about this film that sorta nags at me even though it’s executed well.  And this last time watching it I think I figured it out.  It’s a nonstop barrage of action movie clichés.  You have a monster of a villain to the point that he comes off cheesy as hell, a haunted-by-his-past cop that seems to be on the upswing when some serious shit goes down, incompetent henchmen with ponytails, an absurd terrorist scheme, a classic action movie soundtrack with eerie and suspenseful string arrangements, one liners (which include almost all of Rane’s lines and the infamous “always bet on black” said by Cutter) and it’s only 80 mins long.  Alright, that last one isn’t necessarily a cliché (Face/Off and Terminator 2 are both 2 ½ hours long) but I think it helps my argument.  While most or all of these clichés appear in many other pictures this one seems a bit more B movie-ish or rather it shows a somewhat lack of confidence and/or interest.  Kevin Hooks directed this and this was only his second feature (not counting TV movies).  In fact he doesn’t really do features at all but a ton of TV.  I think that’s why this one has a cheap feel to it.  It’s strange to say that though because all the elements are there and pulled off well.  I can’t put my finger on it but you can tell that this film wasn’t done by either a veteran action director or by someone that’s either really into action or has studied the genre.  It feels more like a person read a book about what’s supposed to be in an action movie and then made this.  It’s an action picture in terms of mechanics but I wouldn’t say it’s from the heart.  For instance if you watch Hard Boiled or Predator you know that these guys are totally into what they’re making.  The passion (or maybe that’s testosterone) oozes off the screen and into your mind and heart.  Passenger 57 is more like an assignment or exercise.  It’s step by step without offering anything new to the field.

With all of that said I still think it’s a really fun movie and I definitely recommend it.  It’s one of Snipes’ best really.

Here’s a clip of Bruce Payne at a Ludacris after party.  Apparently he loves rap, like a lot. And the host totally has no idea what Payne’s talking about when he drops all of those movie titles towards the beginning.