Backdraft (film)

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Backdraft

Directed by	Ron Howard
Written by	Gregory Widen
Starring	Kurt Russell William Baldwin Scott Glenn Jennifer Jason Leigh Rebecca DeMornay Donald Sutherland and Robert De Niro
Cinematography	Mikael Salomon
Distributed by	Universal Studios
Release date(s)	May 24, 1991
Running time	132 min (137 min. in Ontario, Canada)
Language	English

Backdraft is an American movie released in 1991, directed by Ron Howard and written by Gregory Widen. Kurt Russell, William Baldwin, Robert De Niro and Scott Glenn star. Donald Sutherland, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Rebecca De Mornay, Jason Gedrick and J.T. Walsh are also featured. The story is about firefighters in Chicago on the trail of a serial arsonist.

The film received three Academy Award nominations (Sound Effects Editing, Visual Effects and Best Sound). It also received two nominations at the first annual MTV Movie Awards.

Featured in the film are original songs performed by The Drovers, a Chicago band that was heavily influenced by Irish traditional music. The titles of the tracks are "Unpromised Land," "Nothing for You" and "Granuille Reels." The Drovers appeared several years later in the motion picture Blink, which also was filmed in Chicago.

There is an exhibit at Universal Studios based on the film.

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

The movie tells the story of a group of Chicago firefighters, two of whom are brothers. Stephen McCaffrey (Kurt Russell), the elder of the two brothers, is slowly being taken over by the fires that he fights. Beating the fire becomes an obsession with him. He is always at the heart of the fire - the most dangerous place to be.

Brian (William Baldwin) is a bit of a drifter who has become a firefighter after quitting the fire academy several years before, then embarking on a number of other failed careers. He is looked down on by his elder brother who expects him to fail in his newly chosen career. Brian witnessed the death of his father first hand when an explosion killed him early in his childhood.

Donald Rimgale (Robert De Niro) is a fire investigator. (The real Donald Rimgale, a veteran Chicago fire investigator, served as one of the technical advisors on the film.) He is called in because a number of fires that have occurred have somewhat similar connections. Rimgale is dedicated to his job as an arson investigator. Convicted arsonist Ronald Bartel (Donald Sutherland) has been imprisoned for a number of years and can appear very normal on occasions but at the mention of fire his mind becomes obsessed with the idea of living fire, one that takes over not only buildings but also people's lives. His latest application for parole is turned down during the story. A fictional chemical substance, trychtichlorate, is used by the arsonist to set the fires.

Kurt Russell as firefighter McCaffrey.

The longest serving of all the firefighters, John "Axe" Adcox (Scott Glenn), served under the McCaffrey's father in the Chicago Fire Department and was like an uncle to the two boys when their father died. He takes great pride in his work and has a love of the department. Obviously brave, he is the firefighter who "takes the pipe" and attacks the fire head on, but is also concerned about Steven's blatant unorthodox methods, and disregard of safety procedures.

Martin Swayzak (J.T. Walsh) is an alderman on the City Council. He has obvious hopes of being elected to mayor, but has had to made a number of budget cuts to the fire department. Many of the rank and file firemen believe that the cuts that he has made are endangering the lives of the firefighters. Some of the firefighters are not slow in letting him know what they think of him and his cuts. It is revealed during an investigation that he was paid off by several businessmen and contractors to shut down the firehouses for purposes of rebuilding and/or rehabing the firehouses into community centers, with the aformentioned businessmen receiving the contracts for the construction.

There are also two main female characters: Helen McCaffrey (Rebecca De Mornay) and Jennifer Vaitkus (Jennifer Jason Leigh). Helen is Stephen's estranged wife, Jennifer is Brian's ex-girlfriend and works in the office of Martin Swayzak. Her loyalties are torn between her job with the alderman (who is making financial cuts in the fire department) and Brian who is obviously concerned about the damage that the cuts are doing to the firefighters.

Near the end of the film, it is revealed that Adcox is behind the backdraft fires; he set the fires to kill associates of Swayzak because he is angered that Swayzak was making money off the deaths of firefighters.

In the climactic scene, Stephen is fatally injured trying to save a falling Adcox after confronting him about the deadly backdrafts during a multiple alarm fire at a chemical plant. Stephen dies in the ambulance on the way to the hospital with Brian at his side, his final request being that Brian not reveal that Adcox was behind the series of arson fires. It is implied in the final scene that Brian continues on with his firefighting career despite the losses of both his father and brother.

Spoilers end here.

[edit] Influences

DVD cover

The Japanese cooking TV show, Iron Chef, used Backdraft's music (composed by Hans Zimmer). The film is the basis of an attraction at Universal Studios Theme Parks where visitors can learn how the pyrotechnic effects were created and experience some of them first hand.