Most Rewatchable Scene
TV-station bounty through the 'Give me back my son' call; Sinise's drive to the ransom drop
In the discussion (15)
Approx. transcript time · 00:28:02Read transcript
- The second half is preferred over the setup-heavy first half; from Donnie Wahlberg's death the movie goes to another level.
- Sean getting kidnapped is a first candidate: the balloon drifting up with nobody running it is a kidnapping-movie staple, like an overturned toy car, a basketball rolling across an empty court, or a swing still moving.
- The scene sets up the parents' guilt and shows Sean as already alone: he cannot compete in the science fair because his mom is a judge, and he cannot play with his dad because too many people want to talk to him.
- Because it was a different time, the family has no security; they were business magnates rather than celebrities and did not face threats on social media.
- Tom's money delivery, with the locker-room change of clothes and bags, leads to the phone call in which he is told he paid off the union guy and is a payer, laying the groundwork for the kidnappers.
- Donnie Wahlberg plays the good kidnapper, a type like the one good prison guard who will sneak you a candy bar but did not sign up to kill kids.
- Tom realizing they will probably kill his son, after the man at the drop had no idea about the drop-off, is called a good piece of writing that motivates his refusal to pay.
- Tom going on Channel 5 and flipping the ransom into a bounty is called fantastic; a clip is played, and the station staff look horrified.
- At home Russo's character goes at him with full fire in a really nice argument (clip played); it is just a great stretch of the movie.
- The 'Give me back my son' phone call (clip played) has Mel getting madder and madder, and few other actors seem right for that scene.
- Sinise shooting the other kidnappers, the well-constructed shootout, and the final Gibson-versus-Sinise moment when the kid wets himself are listed; the last is an all-time movie moment.
- The version watched on TNT on demand cut out the kid wetting himself, which is called an overreaction.
- One pick: the stretch from the TV station through the 'give me back my son' call to Sinise, when they start playing chess, described as the obvious choice.
- The other pick gives Sinise love: the car ride to the ransom with his time-machine and Morlocks speech about the rich, the reason he took the role, a rare 90s bad-cop moment with two acting greats going against each other.
- Dirty-cop stories were just starting then, with Copeland and The Glass Shield.