Hard to Kill
Encyclopedia
Hard to Kill, a 1990
action film
directed by Bruce Malmuth
and starring Steven Seagal
, Kelly LeBrock
, Frederick Coffin
and William Sadler
. The film stars Seagal as Detective Mason Storm, who is shot into a coma in the same fire-fight that kills his wife Felicia and son Sonny. He reawakens seven years later to find his son alive and seeks vengeance with the coma-ward nurse and his old partner.
This film cemented Seagal's status as the "Aikido
" action hero
, due to the very esoteric, anachronistic techniques his character employs to overcome antagonists. For example "knee-walking" while in seiza
(正座, literally "correct sitting") is employed to navigate a convenience store aisle without exposing the head to gunfire; this has origins in culturally-mandated etiquette
, specific to pre-Meiji Japan
and during some traditional arts such as the tea ceremony and Ikebana. (Robert Twigger
's book Angry White Pyjamas
mentions the story of a Japanese police officer, and aikido trainee, using knee-walking in a similar fashion during a gunfight.)
) is a Los Angeles police detective who is investigating a mob meeting taking place by a pier. He spies on them with a video camera, and captures on tape a shadowy figure telling the other people that they can rely on his political support, emphasizing this by saying "And you can take that to the bank!" Storm is spotted, but manages to get away. Driving home, Mason informs first his partner then his friend Lt. O'Malley (Coffin
) that he has evidence of corruption (unaware of another pair of cops listening in), and will be bringing the tape to them soon. He goes into a store to get drink and a teddy bear to give to his son. The store gets robbed by men, one of them shooting the clerk. Mason manages to stop them; afterwards, he goes home, intent on celebrating with his wife Felicia (Bonnie Burroughs). Before he does anything, Mason hides the tape in a small hole in his kitchen wall. When he goes upstairs, though, a hit squad composed of corrupt policemen, including Jack Axel (Boswell) and Max Quentero (Richmond
), working for the politician break in and proceed to murder Mason's wife and shoot him. Mason's young son Sonny, (Bara) manages to hide until the danger passes (at the same time, Storm's partner is shot by a masked assassin whilst seated beside his window). At the hospital, Mason is found to be alive, but in a coma. Lieutenant O'Malley informs the medics to tell people that Mason died, to prevent anyone from coming back for him later. Mason is set up by the corrupt policemen as having murdered his wife and committed suicide.
Seven years later, Mason wakes up from his coma, having spent all this time in recovery hospital. Andy (LeBrock
), one of the two nurses monitoring him makes a phone call, which is intercepted by one of the corrupt police officers who want to see Mason dead. They send Jack Axel to the hospital to finish the job and kill the nurses whom Mason might have talked to. Mason realizes that he is still in danger, but his muscles have atrophied to where he can barely use his arms. He manages to get himself to an elevator, and when Andy sees her colleagues killed, helps Mason escape from the hospital.
Needing time to recuperate, Andy brings Mason to a friend's house, where Mason uses his knowledge of acupuncture
, moxibustion
and other meditation techniques to bring back his strength and train himself again. While training, Mason hears a commercial for Senator Vernon Trent (Sadler
) on television, who caps his commercial with the phrase, "And you can take that to the bank!" Recognizing the voice, Mason now knows who he has to go after to get his revenge and even mocks Trent's phrase by saying "I'm gonna take you to the bank . . . To the blood bank!". Mason contacts O'Malley, who comes over with some weapons for Mason. O'Malley tells Mason that his son is still alive - O'Malley took Mason's son in and raised him, sending him to a private school so that he would be out of danger. O'Malley then leaves. However, Senator Trent's men find the house where Mason and Andy are, and attempt to kill them, but Mason manages to get them both out again.
Mason then goes back to his old house. Posing as realtors looking to see if the house is one that can be put on the market, Mason breaks through the plaster in the kitchen to get the tape he hid. Mason then goes to meet O'Malley in a train station, where O'Malley brings Mason's now teenage son. They do not see each other, because as Mason arrives, O'Malley is already dead having been shot (by Max) while providing a distraction for Sonny (Rosencrantz) to get away. When Mason arrives, he sees his son running away from two of the corrupt officers (recognising one as Max, who helped murder his wife). Mason catches up, kills Max and saves his son. Mason gives the tape to Andy for safe-keeping, and decides to go after Senator Trent at his home.
At the Senator's mansion, Mason sneaks in and manages to take the Senator's men down one by one. Mason fights with Axel in the billiard room, ending with him jamming a pool stick into his jugular. Mason finally manages to confront Senator Trent, and holds him at gunpoint when the police storm the mansion. However, rather than arresting Mason, the police arrest Senator Trent and take him away. Mason is then reunited with Andy and his son, and walk off as the image from the video-tape is played, showing Trent coming out of the shadows briefly, wondering who it is that is taping him.
1990 in film
The year 1990 in film involved some significant events.-Events:* CGI technique is expanded with motion capture for CGI characters, used in Total Recall .* The first digitally-manipulated matte painting is used, in Die Hard 2....
action film
Action film
Action film is a film genre where one or more heroes is thrust into a series of challenges that require physical feats, extended fights and frenetic chases...
directed by Bruce Malmuth
Bruce Malmuth
Bruce Malmuth was an American actor and film director.-Early life:Malmuth began making documentaries while serving in the Army, where he met baseball announcer Walter Red Barber...
and starring Steven Seagal
Steven Seagal
Steven Frederic Seagal is an American action film star, producer, writer, martial artist, guitarist and reserve deputy sheriff. A 7th-dan black belt in Aikido, Seagal began his adult life as an Aikido instructor in Japan...
, Kelly LeBrock
Kelly LeBrock
Kelly LeBrock is an American actress and model. Her acting debut was in The Woman in Red co-starring with comedian Gene Wilder. She also starred in the film Weird Science, directed by John Hughes.-Early life:...
, Frederick Coffin
Frederick Coffin
Frederick D. Coffin was an American film actor.-Early life:Coffin was born in Detroit, Michigan in 1943 to actress Winifred Deforest Coffin, and was one of five children. He was educated at Western Reserve Academy in Hudson, Ohio, where he was both a student and athlete. He began to study...
and William Sadler
William Sadler (actor)
William Thomas Sadler is an American actor who works in film and television. His television and motion picture roles have included Lewis Burwell "Chesty" Puller in The Pacific, Luther Sloan in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Sheriff Jim Valenti in Roswell, convict Heywood in The Shawshank Redemption,...
. The film stars Seagal as Detective Mason Storm, who is shot into a coma in the same fire-fight that kills his wife Felicia and son Sonny. He reawakens seven years later to find his son alive and seeks vengeance with the coma-ward nurse and his old partner.
This film cemented Seagal's status as the "Aikido
Aikido
is a Japanese martial art developed by Morihei Ueshiba as a synthesis of his martial studies, philosophy, and religious beliefs. Aikido is often translated as "the Way of unifying life energy" or as "the Way of harmonious spirit." Ueshiba's goal was to create an art that practitioners could use to...
" action hero
Action hero
An action hero is a character, usually a protagonist, in an action-adventure novel, film, television show, or game.-Further reading:*Osgerby, Bill, Anna Gough-Yates, and Marianne Wells. Action TV : Tough-Guys, Smooth Operators and Foxy Chicks. London: Routledge, 2001.*Tasker, Yvonne. Action and...
, due to the very esoteric, anachronistic techniques his character employs to overcome antagonists. For example "knee-walking" while in seiza
Seiza
Seiza is the Japanese term for the traditional formal way of sitting in Japan.- Form :To sit seiza-style, one first kneels on the floor, folding one's legs underneath one's thighs, while resting the buttocks on the heels...
(正座, literally "correct sitting") is employed to navigate a convenience store aisle without exposing the head to gunfire; this has origins in culturally-mandated etiquette
Etiquette
Etiquette is a code of behavior that delineates expectations for social behavior according to contemporary conventional norms within a society, social class, or group...
, specific to pre-Meiji Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
and during some traditional arts such as the tea ceremony and Ikebana. (Robert Twigger
Robert Twigger
Robert Twigger is a British poet, writer and explorer. He lives in Cairo, Egypt.-Life:Twigger was educated at Balliol College, Oxford University. He first began to study engineering, but after six weeks switched to politics, philosophy and economics. His attendance record was poor, and he left...
's book Angry White Pyjamas
Angry White Pyjamas
Angry White Pyjamas is a book written by Robert Twigger about his time in a one-year intensive program of studying Yoshinkan aikido.-Summary:...
mentions the story of a Japanese police officer, and aikido trainee, using knee-walking in a similar fashion during a gunfight.)
Plot
Mason Storm (SeagalSteven Seagal
Steven Frederic Seagal is an American action film star, producer, writer, martial artist, guitarist and reserve deputy sheriff. A 7th-dan black belt in Aikido, Seagal began his adult life as an Aikido instructor in Japan...
) is a Los Angeles police detective who is investigating a mob meeting taking place by a pier. He spies on them with a video camera, and captures on tape a shadowy figure telling the other people that they can rely on his political support, emphasizing this by saying "And you can take that to the bank!" Storm is spotted, but manages to get away. Driving home, Mason informs first his partner then his friend Lt. O'Malley (Coffin
Frederick Coffin
Frederick D. Coffin was an American film actor.-Early life:Coffin was born in Detroit, Michigan in 1943 to actress Winifred Deforest Coffin, and was one of five children. He was educated at Western Reserve Academy in Hudson, Ohio, where he was both a student and athlete. He began to study...
) that he has evidence of corruption (unaware of another pair of cops listening in), and will be bringing the tape to them soon. He goes into a store to get drink and a teddy bear to give to his son. The store gets robbed by men, one of them shooting the clerk. Mason manages to stop them; afterwards, he goes home, intent on celebrating with his wife Felicia (Bonnie Burroughs). Before he does anything, Mason hides the tape in a small hole in his kitchen wall. When he goes upstairs, though, a hit squad composed of corrupt policemen, including Jack Axel (Boswell) and Max Quentero (Richmond
Branscombe Richmond
Branscombe Richmond is an American character actor and stuntman. He is sometimes credited in films as Richmond Branscombe, Ranscombe Richmon, Ranhome Quickman or Branscom Richmond....
), working for the politician break in and proceed to murder Mason's wife and shoot him. Mason's young son Sonny, (Bara) manages to hide until the danger passes (at the same time, Storm's partner is shot by a masked assassin whilst seated beside his window). At the hospital, Mason is found to be alive, but in a coma. Lieutenant O'Malley informs the medics to tell people that Mason died, to prevent anyone from coming back for him later. Mason is set up by the corrupt policemen as having murdered his wife and committed suicide.
Kelly LeBrock
Kelly LeBrock is an American actress and model. Her acting debut was in The Woman in Red co-starring with comedian Gene Wilder. She also starred in the film Weird Science, directed by John Hughes.-Early life:...
), one of the two nurses monitoring him makes a phone call, which is intercepted by one of the corrupt police officers who want to see Mason dead. They send Jack Axel to the hospital to finish the job and kill the nurses whom Mason might have talked to. Mason realizes that he is still in danger, but his muscles have atrophied to where he can barely use his arms. He manages to get himself to an elevator, and when Andy sees her colleagues killed, helps Mason escape from the hospital.
Needing time to recuperate, Andy brings Mason to a friend's house, where Mason uses his knowledge of acupuncture
Acupuncture
Acupuncture is a type of alternative medicine that treats patients by insertion and manipulation of solid, generally thin needles in the body....
, moxibustion
Moxibustion
Moxibustion is a traditional Chinese medicine therapy using moxa, or mugwort herb. It plays an important role in the traditional medical systems of China, Japan, Korea, Vietnam, Tibet, and Mongolia. Suppliers usually age the mugwort and grind it up to a fluff; practitioners burn the fluff or...
and other meditation techniques to bring back his strength and train himself again. While training, Mason hears a commercial for Senator Vernon Trent (Sadler
William Sadler (actor)
William Thomas Sadler is an American actor who works in film and television. His television and motion picture roles have included Lewis Burwell "Chesty" Puller in The Pacific, Luther Sloan in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Sheriff Jim Valenti in Roswell, convict Heywood in The Shawshank Redemption,...
) on television, who caps his commercial with the phrase, "And you can take that to the bank!" Recognizing the voice, Mason now knows who he has to go after to get his revenge and even mocks Trent's phrase by saying "I'm gonna take you to the bank . . . To the blood bank!". Mason contacts O'Malley, who comes over with some weapons for Mason. O'Malley tells Mason that his son is still alive - O'Malley took Mason's son in and raised him, sending him to a private school so that he would be out of danger. O'Malley then leaves. However, Senator Trent's men find the house where Mason and Andy are, and attempt to kill them, but Mason manages to get them both out again.
Mason then goes back to his old house. Posing as realtors looking to see if the house is one that can be put on the market, Mason breaks through the plaster in the kitchen to get the tape he hid. Mason then goes to meet O'Malley in a train station, where O'Malley brings Mason's now teenage son. They do not see each other, because as Mason arrives, O'Malley is already dead having been shot (by Max) while providing a distraction for Sonny (Rosencrantz) to get away. When Mason arrives, he sees his son running away from two of the corrupt officers (recognising one as Max, who helped murder his wife). Mason catches up, kills Max and saves his son. Mason gives the tape to Andy for safe-keeping, and decides to go after Senator Trent at his home.
At the Senator's mansion, Mason sneaks in and manages to take the Senator's men down one by one. Mason fights with Axel in the billiard room, ending with him jamming a pool stick into his jugular. Mason finally manages to confront Senator Trent, and holds him at gunpoint when the police storm the mansion. However, rather than arresting Mason, the police arrest Senator Trent and take him away. Mason is then reunited with Andy and his son, and walk off as the image from the video-tape is played, showing Trent coming out of the shadows briefly, wondering who it is that is taping him.
Cast
| Actor | Role |
|---|---|
| Steven Seagal Steven Seagal Steven Frederic Seagal is an American action film star, producer, writer, martial artist, guitarist and reserve deputy sheriff. A 7th-dan black belt in Aikido, Seagal began his adult life as an Aikido instructor in Japan... |
Detective Mason Storm |
| Kelly LeBrock Kelly LeBrock Kelly LeBrock is an American actress and model. Her acting debut was in The Woman in Red co-starring with comedian Gene Wilder. She also starred in the film Weird Science, directed by John Hughes.-Early life:... |
Nurse Andrea 'Andy' Stewart |
| William Sadler William Sadler (actor) William Thomas Sadler is an American actor who works in film and television. His television and motion picture roles have included Lewis Burwell "Chesty" Puller in The Pacific, Luther Sloan in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Sheriff Jim Valenti in Roswell, convict Heywood in The Shawshank Redemption,... |
Senator Vernon Trent |
| Bonnie Burroughs | Felicia Storm |
| Charles Boswell | Jack Axel |
| Frederick Coffin Frederick Coffin Frederick D. Coffin was an American film actor.-Early life:Coffin was born in Detroit, Michigan in 1943 to actress Winifred Deforest Coffin, and was one of five children. He was educated at Western Reserve Academy in Hudson, Ohio, where he was both a student and athlete. He began to study... |
Lt. Kevin O'Malley |
| Branscombe Richmond Branscombe Richmond Branscombe Richmond is an American character actor and stuntman. He is sometimes credited in films as Richmond Branscombe, Ranscombe Richmon, Ranhome Quickman or Branscom Richmond.... |
Max Quentero |
| Andrew Bloch | Capt. Dan Hulland |
| James DiStefano | Nolan |
| Dean Norris Dean Norris Dean Joseph Norris is an American actor currently starring as DEA agent Hank Schrader, the brother-in-law of main character Walter White in the AMC series Breaking Bad, which premiered on January 20, 2008.-Biography:... |
Det. Sgt. Goodhart |
| Jerry Dunphy Jerry Dunphy Jerry Dunphy was an American television news anchor in the Los Angeles/Southern California media market. He was best known for his catchy intro "From the desert to the sea, to all of Southern California, a good evening."... |
Himself |
| Zachary Rosencrantz | Sonny Storm |
| Robert LaSardo Robert LaSardo Robert LaSardo is an American actor.LaSardo began his career studying at the famed High School of Performing Arts in New York City, before going on to the Stella Adler Studio of Acting. Robert also spent four years in the U.S... |
Punk |
| Geoffrey Bara | Sonny at five |