Last Action Hero

Last Action Hero is a 1993 action comedy directed by John McTiernan. The film is a parodic satire on the action genre and its clichés.

Synopsis

Outline

Danny, a young boy, is obsessed with cinema and, in particular, movies featuring the action hero Jack Slater (played by Arnold Schwarzenegger). Thanks to a magic ticket that was passed down from Asian magicians to Harry Houdini and to Danny himself, the lines between reality and the movie world blur as Danny is catapulted into Jack Slater IV.

Found inside the movie, Danny must persuade Slater that he is, in fact, a fictional character played by the real-life actor, Arnold Schwarzenegger. Things become more complicated when the villain from Jack Slater IV, a hit man named Benedict, gains possession of the magic ticket and travels into the real world. Slater and Danny follow him, but find that things are far more difficult in a world where the clichés of action films (guns that never run out of bullets, cars that explode when shot at, and punching through a glass window without pain) do not exist.

Detailed synopsis

Last Action Hero follows the story of Danny Madigan, a boy whose love of action movies keeps him out of school and in trouble. Danny idolizes Arnold Schwarzenegger, particularly his character Jack Slater; he has watched Jack Slater III six times.

Danny's obsession with television and movies leads him to befriend an old man named Nick, who runs a beat-up old cinema in downtown New York City. Nick allows Danny to watch pre-screenings and reel tests of movies before they are available to the public, which he offers to do with the new Jack Slater film, Jack Slater IV. Danny, however, is in trouble with his school for not attending classes and his single mother finds it increasingly difficult to keep tabs on him whilst holding down a job. Danny is eager to see the Slater film and against his own safety (the first time he opens his door, a man charged him, but left in disgust at the lack of valuables), he ventures out late at night to view the midnight pre-screening.

Danny arrives at the cinema only to be told he requires a ticket to enter. Nick then reveals a gold-plated ticket from his pocket and speaks of his time as a boy when he went backstage after a Houdini show in the same theater, and was presented the ticket. Told by Houdini that it was passed along by the great magicians of India and that it has magical powers yet a mind of its own, Nick had always been too afraid to use it. Disbelieving, Danny allows Nick to nostalgically tear the stub off and start the movie.

Danny takes a seat in the theater, his eyes wide with excitement as Jack Slater IV is played on the screen. During a car chase scene the ticket stub begins to glow blue. Before Danny knows what is happening, a stick of dynamite flies out of the screen and onto the floor near Danny; it explodes, throwing Danny into Jack Slater's speeding car. Amidst the confusion Danny understands what Nick had revealed about the ticket and realizes he's inside the movie.

Danny ends up accompanying Slater, trying to convince him that he's a fictional character inside a movie. Even despite the seemingly unbelievable goings-on of the movie, Slater is unconvinced. Eventually Danny uses his knowledge of the Jack Slater story line to help Slater find out who killed his second cousin Frank.

The two run into Tony Vivaldi, the movie's crime boss, and his henchman Mr. Benedict. Danny later reveals that Benedict was wearing a red glass eye. Benedict overhears this and is intrigued to find out how Danny could come about such information.

Benedict eventually tracks Danny down at Slater's house, intending to take him hostage along with Slater's daughter Whitney. Slater arrives to save the two, but Benedict escapes back to Vivaldi's mansion with Danny's wallet, including the magic ticket. There he discovers that the ticket lights up and he is able to travel to the real world; but he is reluctant to try it.

Slater then gets fired by his over-the-top stereotyped police chief. Danny convinces Slater that Vivaldi is hatching a plan, and the two begin to work it out. They soon discover that Vivaldi is going to eliminate a rival syndicate: he has hidden a nerve gas bomb in the body of the late gangster Leo the Fart, to go off at his funeral, which is to be held on the roof of a hotel. Slater and Danny use a crane to dump the corpse (and Slater) into the La Brea Tar Pits, which (barely) contains Leo's deadly "last fart". As Slater emerges from the pit, tar sloughs off him without a trace; Danny sarcastically remarks, "You know, tar actually sticks to some people" as Whitney drives up and just "happens" to have a fresh set of clothes for Jack.

Meanwhile Benedict is back at Vivaldi's mansion. Tony Vivaldi is excited as Benedict tells him intricate details, proving the plan worked. However, Benedict admits he was lying and then proceeds to shoot Vivaldi, ordering the butler to clean up the mess. Benedict sits down to have a drink at the bar when Slater bursts through the wall in Whitney's truck. He grabs Benedict and throws him at the butler, only to see them both vanish into a wall.

Slater is puzzled. "Usually when I do that it leaves a hole," he muses. Danny guesses that Benedict has the ticket and is now in the real world, Danny's world. Danny convinces Slater that they need to go through and stop Benedict while the hole is still open. The pair step through to see Benedict escaping out of the theater. They give chase but Benedict escapes. Danny returns to his apartment, with Slater following bewildered.

Danny and Slater hunt for Benedict, who proves elusive, using his ticket to jump between other movies and the real world. Benedict hatches a plan to rid himself of Slater; he travels into the Jack Slater III movie and brings Slater's former nemesis, the Ripper, to the real world. If he can kill the real Arnold Schwarzenegger, Benedict believes that Slater too will die. The Ripper turns up at the New York premiere of Jack Slater IV and attempts to kill Schwarzenegger, but Danny and Slater foil him and the Ripper escapes to the roof. Slater and Danny pursue him; Slater eventually electrocutes the Ripper and saves Danny, but just as the duo think it's over, Benedict shows up and shoots Slater, giving him a mortal wound (something impossible in the film world). Danny, distraught and infuriated, knocks Benedict's gun over to Slater who shoots Benedict's glass eye, causing him to explode.

Seeing that Slater is dying from his bullet wound, Danny loads Slater into an ambulance and drives him back to the theater. Danny crashes through the doors and wheels Slater down the aisle to the screen, hoping to get him back into the movie. He is unsuccessful: he no longer has the ticket. Danny despairs when the black-and-white figure of Death (whom Benedict had inadvertently freed from The Seventh Seal) appears; but Death has come to see Slater only out of curiosity, because "he isn't on any of my lists." Death suggests that Danny look for the other half of the ticket — the stub that Nick tore off earlier.

Danny finds the ticket and activates its magic, returning Slater back to his movie world where the fatal injury caused by Benedict turns out to be "just a flesh wound", and is seen as a joke by his colleagues. Danny and Slater share a moment about believing in each other, then the movie returns to Slater, who is back on the job winding up his once-again over-the-top police chief and explaining that the two of them are fictional and Slater wants to stop shooting and blowing things up. The movie ends with Nick and Danny exiting the theatre with Nick telling Danny about a time he went to see Buffalo Bill and a parting shot of Jack riding into the sunset in his car, waving backward at the 'screen'.

Responses

Last Action Hero was billed at the time as "the next great summer action movie"^{[citation needed]} and many movie insiders predicted the film to be a huge blockbuster, especially following the success of Schwarzenegger's previous film, Terminator 2: Judgment Day. ^[1]

Instead, the movie was panned by critics and grossed only $50 million in the United States and an additional $87 million worldwide, totaling US$137 million (a disappointment considering the $85 million budget).[1] In an A&E biography of Schwarzenegger, the actor (who was also the film's executive producer) says that the film failed due to bad timing, since it came out a week after Jurassic Park, the biggest movie phenomenon of that year. Schwarzenegger states that he tried to persuade his co-producers to postpone the film's June 18 release in the US by four weeks, but they turned a deaf ear. Some in the film industry believe that the movie would have been successful (or at least recovered its production costs) if it had been released in mid-July, at the peak of summer.^{[citation needed]}

Another theory has suggested that the poor reaction to the movie was partly due to a belief that the general public did not understand the theme, expecting a serious action epic but instead getting a film laced with a large amount of comedy. Whether this is true or not remains unknown. However, public reaction to the similarly comic but less cartoony True Lies has appeared to be more favorable.

Despite its box office failure, the movie has become a cult favorite. Plus, gained some admiration as a satire on the action genre^{[citation needed]}, as it intentionally parodies almost every action movie cliché.

It is also become somewhat of a sleeper cult hit, and is also regarded in some quarters as a very cerebral science fiction film, which explores the concepts of alternate reality in a meaningful way.^{[citation needed]}

Background/Production

Last Action Hero was an original screenplay by Zak Penn and Adam Leff, meant to parody typical action film screenplays of writers such as Shane Black. Zak Penn noted himself that it was ironic that the studio then had Shane Black rewrite the script. The original screenplay differs heavily from the finished film and is widely available to read online. Although it was still a parody of Hollywood action films it was set almost entirely in the film world and focused largely on the futile cycle of violence displayed by the hero and the effect it had on people around him. Due to the radical changes Zak Penn and Adam Leff were eventually credited with the story of the film but not the screenplay, which is noted as being unusual for a film based on an original screenplay.^[2]

Cameos and film references

• Tina Turner makes a cameo appearance at the climax of Jack Slater III as the mayor of Los Angeles; she tries to convince Slater not to enter a hostage situation.
• In the scene leading up to the climax of "Jack Slater III", Jack contemptuously dismisses the Lieutenant Governor with a punch to the face and the line "When the Governor gets here, call me". Taken in conjunction with the fact that Slater lives in California, this has become something of an example of life imitating art.
• At the beginning of Jack Slater IV, a credit reads "A Franco Columbu Film". Franco Columbu was Schwarzenegger's long time friend and training partner when the two were bodybuilding and competing in the Mr. Olympia competition.
• After the explosion at Slater's favorite second cousin's house, the black cop is heard saying, "Two days 'til retirement," quoting Danny Glover's character in Lethal Weapon 3 Along with a saxophone riff imitating the signature music of Lethal Weapon when this is said.(1992).
• When Danny and Slater arrive at LAPD headquarters, Sharon Stone is near the door lighting a cigarette, dressed as her character in Basic Instinct (1992). Stone had also recently played Schwarzenegger's wife in Total Recall (1990).
• Immediately following Sharon Stone's cameo, Robert Patrick strides past the two heroes, in character, as the T-1000 from Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991).
• When Danny is trying to convince Slater that he is in a film, he tries to find a Schwarzenegger film in a video store. He finds a poster for Terminator 2: Judgment Day, but to his surprise, the poster shows Sylvester Stallone as the Terminator. Stallone's image on the poster even matches the theatrical poster for Judgement Day, albeit with Stallone's head in place of Schwarzenegger's.
• Several games of chicken are played throughout the film, with progressively deteriorating outcomes. The first shows Slater in the film world, easily following the "rules" of action movies and offing the bad guys. In the second, Danny attempts to ride a bicycle at the villains' oncoming car, before exclaiming at the last moment that he is not the hero but, in fact, the comic sidekick in Jack Slater IV, and swerves out of the way. (Briefly airborne, Danny and his bicycle are silhouetted against the moon, in allusion to E.T. (1982).) In the real world, Slater attempts to play chicken against Benedict, but as the "rules" of the film world do not apply, he ends up in a head-on collision with Benedict's car.
• When Slater introduces himself to Danny's mother in the real world, he says "Hello, I'm Arnold Braunschweiger", parodying the difficulty native English speakers have with speaking Schwarzenegger's name. Braunschweiger is a name for a native of the German city Braunschweig and for a type of spicy liver sausage, also known as liverwurst.
• During the premiere of Jack Slater IV in the real world, a number of celebrities make cameo appearances as themselves, including: Maria Shriver (Schwarzenegger's real-life wife), Little Richard, Entertainment Tonight host Leeza Gibbons, Jim Belushi, Damon Wayans, Chevy Chase, Jean Claude Van Damme and Timothy Dalton.
• In the novelization of the film, Danny warns Schwarzenegger to be wary of Benedict because he "almost took out Bruce Willis and Bill Murray". This line may suggest that the role of Benedict was originally intended for William Atherton, who played the role of "Richard Thornburg" in Die Hard (1988) and against Bill Murray as "Walter Peck" in Ghostbusters (1984), albeit as a comic foil rather than a true villain.^{[citation needed]}
• After the second 'chicken' scene, Danny and Slater argue over whether Benedict is dead, during which Danny references a character in Die Hard; the Die Hard theme is then heard in the background.
• While in the movie world, Danny warns Slater that his friend John Practice (F. Murray Abraham) killed Mozart (which Slater interprets as "Moe Zart"), a reference to the film Amadeus (1984), in which Abraham played Antonio Salieri. In a later scene in Danny's apartment, when his mom is talking to Slater, Mozart's overture to The Marriage of Figaro (audio file) is played and discussed.
• Frank McRae is seen as Slater's superior officer, in a similar role to the one he portrayed in 48 Hrs.
• The movie posters for Bram Stoker's Dracula can be seen in the movie rental store and in the newspaper.
• Joan Plowright as the teacher shows her class the 1948 film of Hamlet which starred her real-life husband Laurence Olivier

Trivia

• This was the first movie to use Sony's 8 channel digital sound format SDDS (Sony Dynamic Digital Sound). ^[3]
• The film featured Art Carney's final film appearance.
• Steven Spielberg was offered the chance to direct the film, but he turned it down in order to make Schindler's List instead. ^[3]
• Arnold Schwarzenegger was paid $15 million for his performance. ^[3]
• It was the first film to be advertised in space. An unmanned NASA rocket, launched by Schwarzenegger, had the film's title graffitied onto its side, costing $50,000. ^[3]
• It is said that Last Action Hero didn't fare as well as it could have because competition from Jurassic Park; this was parodied in a Disney Adventures comic strip. The January 1994 issue featured Mr. Hamhead's "Drastic Park" where dinosaur toys and merchandise came to life to attack Drs. Rant, Prattler, and Iam Malcontent; grandchildren Dim and Lax; and lawyer Don Generic. They were saved by the Last Action Figure who promptly destroyed the toy dinosaurs with blowtorches, saying "MELT, sauroid competitive merchandise! Summer vas supposed to be MINE!
• The song "Two Steps behind" by Def Leppard was changed for the movie to include an orchestra in the background. The original version of the song is acoustic.
• The animated cat named Whiskers was voiced by uncredited Danny DeVito.
• Alice in Chains boasted that the movie would be the top box-office seller of all time prior to the film's release. (Alice in Chains had written a song "What the Hell Have I" for the film's soundtrack)
• The Simpsons episode "The Boy Who Knew Too Much" pokes fun at the films poor showing.
• The movie was part inspiration for the Viewtiful Joe series of Video Games.
• Schwarzenegger's hilarious quote of how he "only kills 48 people in Jack Slater 4 as opposed to the 148 in Jack Slater 3" is a jab at his now-redundant mass-murdering "heroic" persona in the 1980's, made famous by films like Commando, where he kills 89 people onscreen.

Cast

• Arnold Schwarzenegger as Jack Slater / Himself
• Austin O'Brien as Danny Madigan
• Charles Dance as Benedict
• Robert Prosky as Nick
• Tom Noonan as the Ripper / Himself
• Joan Plowright as Danny's Schoolteacher
• Frank McRae as Lieutenant Dekker
• Anthony Quinn as Tony Vivaldi
• Bridgette Wilson as Whitney Slater / actress Meredith Caprice
• F. Murray Abraham as John Practice
• Mercedes Ruehl as Irene Madigan
• Art Carney, in his last film role, as Frank
• Ian McKellen as Death
• Toru Tanaka as Tough Asian Man

Soundtrack

Music from the Motion Picture album

1. Big Gun (AC/DC) – 4:24
2. What the Hell Have I (Alice in Chains) – 3:58
3. Angry Again (Megadeth) – 3:47
4. Real World (Queensrÿche) – 4:21
5. Two Steps Behind (Def Leppard) – 4:19
6. Poison My Eyes (Anthrax) – 7:04
7. Dream On (Aerosmith) – 5:42
8. A Little Bitter (Alice in Chains) – 3:53
9. Cock the Hammer (Cypress Hill) – 4:11
10. Swim (Fishbone) – 4:13
11. Last Action Hero (Tesla) – 5:44
12. Jack and the Ripper (Michael Kamen) (Buckethead: guitar) – 3:43

See also

• List of 8 channel SDDS films
• ISBN 0-425-14015-6, the novelization of the film
• List of fiction that breaks the fourth wall
• Story within a story

References

1. ^ http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m5072/is_n1_v15/ai_13579259
2. ^ Creative Screenwriting X-Men 3 Q&A Podcast with Zakk Penn and Simon Kinberg. Retrieved on 2006-09-20.
3. ^ ^{a b c d} http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0107362/trivia

Wikipedia information about Last Action Hero This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Last Action Hero". It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer). Help contribute to Americola and edit this article.