 Sudden Death theatrical poster | |
| Written by | Karen Elise Baldwin (story) Gene Quintano (screenplay) |
| Directed by | Peter Hyams |
| Produced by | Howard Baldwin Moshe Diamant |
| Starring | Jean-Claude Van Damme Powers Boothe Raymond J. Barry Whittni Wright Ross Malinger Dorian Harewood |
| Music by | John Debney |
| Cinematography by | Peter Hyams |
| Editing by | Steven Kemper |
| Distributed by | Universal Pictures |
| Release Date | December 22, 1995 |
| Run time | 110 min. |
| Budget | $35,000,000 (est.) |
| Grossed | $64,350,171 |
Sudden Death is the 1995 film. It was released in December 22, 1995 and it was written by Karen Elise Baldwin & Gene Quintano and directed by Peter Hyams.
The film has disgraced ex-Pittsburgh firefighter Darren McCord (Jean-Claude Van Damme) now works as a fire marshal in Civic Arena. During Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Final, McCord discovers that terrorists, led by ex-government agent Joshua Foss (Powers Boothe), have taken U.S. Vice President Daniel Binder (Raymond J. Barry) hostage in the luxury box and rigged the area with bombs and puts all effort to stop the nefarious plot.
Plot
Darren McCord (Van Damme) is a Canadian-born firefighter with the Pittsburgh Fire Bureau who suffered a personal crisis after he was unable to save a young girl from a house fire. Now removed from active duty, Darren is the fire marshal for the Civic Arena. While attending Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Finals between the Pittsburgh Penguins and the Chicago Blackhawks with his daughter Emily (Wright) and his son Tyler (Malinger), he discovers a crime operation occurring in the arena. A terrorist group led by former United States government employee Joshua Foss (Boothe) is holding U.S. Vice President Daniel Binder (Barry) and several other VIPs hostage in a luxury suite. Foss has the arena wired with explosives, and plans to blow it up at the end of the game while having hundreds of millions of dollars wired into several off-shore accounts. Darren must not just stop Foss, but somehow send the game into overtime and save his children simultaneously. Darren is first pulled into the plot when Emily is kidnapped by Carla, the sole female member of the terrorists dressed as the mascot Iceburgh. She witnesses Carla murder numerous people, and is spared when she runs out of ammunition. Carla places Emily in the suite with the other hostages about to be executed. Darren, who had given pursuit, is left to search in vain. Realizing she has been "made", Carla returns to deal with Darren and a long fight breaks out. He proves to be more than a match for Carla. Darren manages to kill Carla by kicking her into a large dishwasher, which pulls on her penguin's head strap and strangles her. Darren finds a security guard, but this man is a hostile in disguise. He gets the upper hand this time, though, and forces information out of the thug before stabbing him in the neck. Darren heads up to the executive offices and finds a mobile phone, with which he calls the police. They put him in touch with Secret Service Agent Matthew Hallmark (Harewood), who advises that Darren stand by while the agents take charge. He angrily refuses, saying that he will handle this himself. The Secret Service and the Pittsburgh Police team up to surround and cordone off the arena and a standoff ensues. Meanwhile, Darren manages to find a few of the bombs and disable them, whilst Foss goes about killing several hostages. Eventually, Hallmark manages to sneak inside and meet with Darren. It quickly transpires that Hallmark is yet another puppet of Foss's, influenced by money. Darren kills Hallmark and uses Hallmark's phone to contact Foss, who taunts the man with the news that he is holding his daughter captive. As time quickly ticks down, Darren manages to disable more bombs, but is severely slowed by confrontations with Foss' men. At one point, the fire marshal must pretend to be the Pittsburgh goalie to escape the thugs and ends up successfully defending a shot. The third period runs down, and with the Penguins down by one goal, Luc Robitaille scores the equalizer in the last second, bringing the game to sudden death—prolonging the game, but only until the next goal is made. Darren decides that there's no time left to find the remaining bombs and climbs up to the roof of the arena. He advances upon the owner's box from above and forces his way in, rescuing Emily and the remaining hostages. Foss manages to escape and blend in with the chaos that has ensued by one of Foss' henchmen falling from the roof through the score display earlier and blowing it up. Foss sets off one of the bombs, flooding part of the arena, and recaptures Emily when she recognizes him. They head up towards the top of the arena, where a helicopter is waiting to lift Foss away. Darren intervenes and saves his daughter. As Foss flees, a wounded Darren shoots the pilot through the floor. The pilot falls back taking the joystick with him, stalling out the chopper and screaming Foss dies as the chopper goes into the arena and explodes on impact with the ice. As Darren is being led to a waiting ambulance, his son and daughter comment to the paramedics about how their father is a hero, while Tyler had before told Emily that their father was too scared to be a fireman again. A contented Darren is put inside the ambulance as the film ends.
Cast and characters
The McCord family
- Jean-Claude Van Damme as Darren McCord
- Whittni Wright as Emily McCord
- Ross Malinger as Tyler McCord
Terrorists
- Powers Boothe as Joshua Foss
- Dorian Harewood as Matthew Hallmark
- Michael Gaston as Hickey
- Faith Milton as Carla
- Jack Erdie as Scratch
- Jophery Brown as Wootton
- Bernard Canepari as Jefferson
- Manny Perry as Brody
- John Hateley as Briggs
- Fred Mancuso as Pratt
Others
- Raymond J. Barry as Vice President Daniel Binder
- Kate McNeil as Kathi
- Audra Lindley as Mrs. Ferrara
- Brian Delate as Blair
- Paul Mochnick as Andrew Ferrara
Hockey figures
- Luc Robitaille as Himself
- Mike Lange as Play-by-Play Announcer
- Paul Steigerwald as Color Commentator