Black Dog (film)

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Black Dog
Patrick Swayze featured in the movie poster.
Directed by	Kevin Hooks
Produced by	Raffaella De Laurentiis Michael Ilitch Jr. Mark W. Koch Peter Saphier
Written by	William Mickelberry Dan Vining
Starring	Patrick Swayze Meat Loaf Randy Travis Brenda Strong Charles S. Dutton Lorraine Toussaint Stephen Tobolowsky
Distributed by	Universal Pictures
Release date(s)	1998
Running time	89 min.
Language	English
IMDb profile

Black Dog is a 1998 movie featuring Patrick Swayze as well as musicians Meat Loaf and Randy Travis.

[edit] Plot

The movie first starts out with FBI and ATF agents on a pursuit to stop a truck carrying illegal guns as part of an illegal arms operation. The result would be the death of the driver, which leads to a disagreement with FBI and ATF agents on involvement with the case, which would carry on throughout the movie. Then comes Jack Crews (Patrick Swayze), a truck driver who has just been released from jail for vehicular manslaughter, for accidentally hitting and killing a motorist on the side of the road during a trip in which he experienced a Black Dog hallucination. Along with his imprisonment, he also loses his CDL driver's license. Following his release, he attempts to get back to a normal life but this time holds a job as a truck mechanic for a local repair shop in New Jersey. He is then offered a job by his manager, Cutler (Graham Beckel) to drive a load of bathroom fixtures from Atlanta to New Jersey for $10,000. Crews initially declines the offer, but then finds out that his house will be repossessed unless he pays off his debt. He then changes his mind and takes the job where he flys down to Atlanta to meet up with Red (Meat Loaf), who runs a trucking yard. Red gives Crews a truck to haul the load, and is accompanied on the trip by Earl (Randy Travis), Sonny (Gabriel Casseus), and Wes (Brian Vincent) for security. As they make their way to New Jersey, Crews experiences several run-ins with Red and his crew as they attempt to hijack the load, in retaliation for the failed negotiations with Cutler about money. Crews also finds out that his load also contains illegal guns, and that Wes has been informing Red of their whereabouts throughout the trip. Crews also discovers that and that Sonny is an FBI agent when he is shot and killed by Red during another hijack attempt, and that the FBI has been tracking their whereabouts as well.

Things take a turn for the worse when Cutler takes Crew's wife and daughter hostage to ensure that Crew's will complete the job and make the entire trip. Despite the numerous attempts from Red to hijack the load, as well as the death of Sonny, Crews manages to survive each attempt. When they make it to Maryland, Crews now officially knows what the whole plot is and formulates a plan to turn over the guns to the FBI and to get his family back. Wes at this point has gone his separate way, while Earl decides to stay on until the end. Crews puts the FBI tracking device on the truck that Wes is leaving on and eventually the FBI pulls over the truck to realize it is the wrong one. However, Crews is able to speak to Agent Ford (Charles Dutton) who is leading the case on Wes' cell phone. He tells him his plan which is to meet him at a loading dock in New Jersey, where he will be meeting with Cutler to exchange the guns for his family. Eventually when the meeting occurs, the FBI shows up and a shootout occurs with Cutler's men. Crews is able to catch Cutler before he can escape and is then turned over to the FBI. Then in the end, the FBI gives Crews his CDL license back, and also tells Crews that his house will still be in possession, in return for his assistance during the operation. He is also given the take to drive the truck one last time to the impound lot. Also, Earl, who was wounded in the shootout, is thanked by Crews for staying, and tells Crews to take care of his dog, Tiny (a pitbull riding in the back as a guard), until he heals and everything is sorted out. As Crews and his family leave the docks for the impound lot, he is intercepted by Red who makes one last attempt at Crews' life, but as they are slamming into each other Red looses control of his truck which then flips over numerous times before getting hit by a train and exploding.

[edit] Trivia

• The truck that Jack Crews drives is a black Peterbilt. Swayze had to get special training on how to operate a truck since he had no prior experience.
• This movie features abundant trucker lingo, although having been released in 1998, no trucker hats are shown. The name of the movie is trucker lingo or slang itself.
• Black dog can refer to the hallucination of the shadows on the road turning into animals and making the driver swerve to avoid and accident due to sleep deprivation and or drugs. Black Dog is also the nickname for various stimulants, legal and illegal, used to stay awake by long haul truckers before GPS and ignition cutoff on modern trucks were used to enforce driver's downtime.

[edit] External links

• Black Dog at the Internet Movie Database