THE FOLLOWING REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS OF THE DISCUSSED FILM. READERS DISCRETION IS ADVISED.
Sometimes, the truth is hard to believe. You don't buy that? Look at The Fugitive.
PLOT
Inspired by the 1960s series created by Roy Huggins, the 1993 film takes place in Chicago and follows vascular surgeon Richard Kimble accused of murdering his wife Helen. Although he had an altercation with a one armed man upon arriving home, there is no evidence of a forced entry and her 911 call misinterpreted him to be responsible. The cops would decide to arrest him as they believe him to be motivated off of her lucrative life insurance policy. Convicted of first degree murder, Richard would receive a death sentence. During his bus transfer to death row, other inmates attempt to escape which only leads to multiple lives being lost as the bus would crash into the path of a train. Luckily, Richard saves a guard and escape the collision before fleeing himself to begin looking for proof of his innocence. 90 minutes after the crash, US Deputy Marshal Sam Gerard begins a manhunt for him. As the manhunt ensues, Richard sneaks into a local hospital to obtain some clothes and alter his appearance by shaving off his beard. When he drives off in an ambulance, he gets spotted by the marshals and they chase him down a storm drain. He tells Gerard that he is innocent, but the latter claims to not care. This leads to him escaping by leaping off the water dam and surviving. As he returns to Chicago, he resumes his attempt to clear his name by looking for the one armed man responsible. He gets cash from his colleague and friend Charles Nichols, which gives him enough money to rent a cheap apartment. As he hides, he disguises himself as a janitor to infiltrate Cook County Hospital, to narrow down a list of patients with a prosthetic arm that would match the killer's. He almost gets caught when saving the life of a misdiagnosed child by forging new medical orders. Separately, Richard and Gerard look for one armed man with their own lists of people with prosthetic arms and criminal records. Richard first looks into Matthew Zelick, who is revealed to be dead. He then tries Clive Driscoll, but when he visits him in Chicago City Hall, he realizes he ain't the murderer either. Thankfully, he is able to avoid being captured again by disappearing into a local parade. The next person he investigates is Frederick Sykes and he confirms him to be the one when recognizing his picture. In that same picture, he recognizes Doctor Alec Lentz, someone Charles introduced him to at the benefit he attended before his wife died. When he looks over his medical file, he finds forms from Devlin MacGregor, a pharmaceutical company that sponsored the same benefit. He calls Gerard at Sykes' home and leaves the line off hook to allow him to trace the call and raid the apartment. When Sykes returns home, he denies knowing Richard and gives his alibi that he was out of town the night Helen died. Certain that he's lying, Gerard has his partner Cosmo investigate Lentz. When Richard contacts Charles again, he shares his theory that Lentz plotted Helen's death due to questioning new drugs Devlin MacGregor was pushing, Provasic. Nichols hints that it couldn't have been him since he recently died in a car accident. The doctor only puts himself in suspicion when denying to Gerard that he knew Lentz. Looking into Provasic once again, he discovers multiple drug study samples can cause liver damage but got approved the day Lentz died. As Richard recalls Charles leading the drug's development and becoming a board member of Devlin MacGregor, he arranged a cover up by falsifying the files to get Provasic approved. With Lentz discovered it too, it presumably led to him getting killed. But since Richard found out first, that means Sykes was hired to kill him and stage it as a burglary. He killed Helen instead because she surprised him. When Richard heads his way towards the Hilton Tower where Provasic is being promoted, he gets attacked by Sykes on a train and their altercation leads to an officer nearby getting shot. However, Richard gets the upper hand and cuffs Sykes to the pole to ensure his arrest. When he reaches the hotel, he exposes Charles aloud for his scandal and chases him to the top of the building to confront him for his wife's death. Their fight would lead to them crashing through a skylight onto an elevator. Gerard arrives to the scene and tells Richard he knows the truth. Just when Charles knocks out Cosmo Renfro (Joe Pantoliano), Richard stops him from shooting the marshal. As he surrenders, Nichols is arrested alongside Sykes. Once the former surgeon is escorted out of the building and into a squad car, Gerard un cuffs him and gives him an ice pack. The film ends with both men being driven into the night, knowing that exoneration is assured for the fugitive.
THOUGHTS
When I got the chance to check this out during my tenure in high school and boy is it aging well because I still love it to this day. Director Andrew Davis keeps you hooked from beginning to end by with a cat and mouse chase so simple yet extremely effective. Every chase is well edited and James Newton Howard gives a compelling score to keep you focused. In such an insane environment we get to witness, you're moved from the general theme to not give up on what you believe in. And in this movie's case, it's the truth. No matter how bizarre or unnatural it sounds, you must always stick with it and don't lie because it's what others want to hear. When you choose to prove it, be sure to take control of your surroundings to avoid any further misunderstandings. You catch on as you follow the shoes of Richard Kimble. Thanks to a fantastic performance by Harrison Ford, you fall in love with this character because he is relentless to prove his innocence and uses his brains better than anyone to be ahead of the chase. No matter how vulnerable he gets, he doesn't change his morals and always tries to help people. He saved a guard from the crash, saved Gerard from getting killed saved a kid's life from being misdiagnosed. It's not just his job, it's in his nature to help people and you can't hate on someone like that. It's even smarter to see him not take the lives of the people responsible for his wife's death because that's his way to be better than them. So beating the crap out of them is enough for him. Knowing that Richard is the mouse, there has to be a cat that knows how to catch up and there is no doubt that Sam Gerard is that cat. Tommy Lee Jones earns his Best Supporting Actor Oscar by making this character so apathetic, it makes more focused on getting the job done. Originally, he proves so when saying he doesn't care of Richard being innocent because it's not part of his job to be concerned of that. But he chooses to come around because he couldn't help wanting to understand his actions, which only makes him closer in getting the job done. He may be a hard nosed guy, yet is a hell of a leader to the group of marshals, being able to always assess the situation. Without them, he likely would've not gone too far with solving the case. Seeing that in display, it's enough to answer why he got his own spinoff. And again, the cat wouldn't have been chasing the mouse had it not been for the ones who set the trap. Jereon Krabbe fooled us big time in having us think he was a caring friend only to have playing him like a fiddle the whole time. The man was typically greedy as he did everything he could be at the top of his element and Andres Katsulas showed off Sykes as a guy selfish enough to act cold blooded as well. So no remorse should be shown for such scoundrels. On top of that, this chase wouldn't have been possible without the most innocent victim. While I preferred Julianne Moore as Helen, who ironically played the compassionate Dr. Anne Eastman briefly, Sela Ward was a worthy substitute. Before her eventual demise, she was a delight to see because she brought the zen anywhere she went and you felt all the innocence in her. The love she and Richard had for each other was unconditional which only makes her death tragic, especially when she had no idea of the conspiracy at all. Nevertheless, justice was served and she would be proud of her husband keeping his guard up. This is a timeless favorite of mine, but even one as great as this has had its fair share of issues. For example, it makes sense that the evidence looks bad on Richard since his DNA is on Helen's fingernails, but should it really be bad if his fingerprints are all over the house? He lives there so that should've been bound to find. In fact, I thought it was weird for him to be questioned without his attorney. Of course he doesn't expect to be accused until the questioning escalates, but that should've been a safe bet since the one armed man was hard to believe. The build up for the bus crash is pretty wild itself, but god it didn't feel real when noticing how it took the second shot for the bus driver to look back. I even respect how practical it was for the bus to be hit by a train, but how the hell was that even possible? There were no tracks when it first crashed and stopped near a tree, so that's a weird continuity error. Plus, how did the surviving guard recognize Kimble when he shaved his beard? Even though he's right, it should be hard to believe someone so disoriented. And was I the only one laughing when another car honked at the ambulance Richard was driving? He may not know who's driving, but it's so rude to honk at an ambulance man. It is smart for Richard to change his hair color, but why black? That can resemble brown half the time, so he should've went for blonde because no one would've expected that. And boy did I get annoyed when a totally different one armed man walks between Sam and Cosmo when he could've walked around them. It's one of many intense chases when Sam spots Richard at the stairs, but why didn't he radio it in that he spotted it in? It's not like he wouldn't have a signal to do so. And how is it even possible for Sykes to have 15 people verify he was out of town? I know that had to mean Charles paid people off to back him up, but that's wild to keep a guy's cover. And if there were that much witnesses, how come no one checked the checked the phone records? That would've saved Richard since we all know he was at the fundraiser when the calls were made. Speaking of which, why didn't Sykes wait until Richard came home to get the job done? I ain't rooting for the villain, but it didn't seem like Helen was gonna look at the closet. So he should've not gotten bored to do his job. Charles on the other hand messes up when choosing to lie about Lentz because that was his boss. It's the stupidest lie he makes. If he was willing to say he gave Richard cash, this would've saved him a little longer from trouble. It's an epic moment when Richard calls out Charles for his lies, but how is he not tackled during it? We know he's innocent, but he was still a fugitive in the audience's eyes at that point so security should've stopped him from harming Charles. Lastly, why the hell was Sykes arrested outside the Hilton where Charles and Richard were? He was cuffed at the train, which looked far from the hotel. Ignore all these issues and you'll still enjoy this thrilling experience. In short, 1993's The Fugitive is one of the best thrillers for knowing how to be smartly intense of its kind, earning its Best Picture nominee in the process. You love thrillers? See this now.
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