The Exterminator
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- For the 1960 book by William S. Burroughs and Brion Gysin, see The Exterminator (1960 book).
The Exterminator is a 1980 action movie directed by James Glickenhaus and starring Robert Ginty as John Eastman, aka 'The Exterminator', who takes out the street punks and those involved in organized crime when the law fails to do justice.
| The Exterminator | |
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| Directed by | James Glickenhaus |
| Produced by | Lester Berman Mark Buntzman |
| Written by | James Glickenhaus |
| Starring | Robert Ginty Steve James Samantha Eggar Christopher George Stan Getz (cameo) |
| Distributed by | Avco Embassy Pictures |
| Release date(s) | 10 September 1980 (USA) |
| Running time | 104 min |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $unknown (est.) |
| IMDb profile | |
Contents |
[edit] Plot
The film begins in Vietnam, establishing the friendship between John Eastland (Robert Ginty) and Michael Jefferson (Steve James). The film then shifts to New York, where Eastland and Jefferson work in a food warehouse. One day, a group of thugs called the Ghetto Ghouls attacked Eastland while he was working after Eastland catches them trying to steal beer, and Jefferson came to his aid. They defeated the thugs, but sadly, the gang would return to cripple Jefferson, leaving him paralyzed. Eastland, taking the law into his own hands, kills the Ghetto Ghouls except for one seen later in the hospital after interrogating one of the members with a flame thrower while he was tied up. His vigilante justice does not end there. The warehouse that he works at has been cowed into paying protection money to organized crime. Unrelenting, even though Congress has stated it will hold hearings to investigate the price of meat in New York, the mob has squeezed money out of the paychecks of workers such as Jefferson. Eastland manages to kidnap one of the mobsters, steal money from the mobster's home (though he narrowly survives an attack by a guard dog) and feed the mobster to a meat grinder. Eastland gives the money to the Jeffersons.
A police officer named Dalton begins investigating these attacks, as Eastland announces to the press his nom de guerre as the Exterminator. He kills the ring leader of a child pornography ring, as well as a state senator from New Jersey whom he provides boys for him to abuse. Ironically, Eastland himself steals a motorcycle and helmet from another man, though only to pursue a group of Ghetto Ghoul muggers who had just attacked an elderly woman and robbed her.
Meanwhile, the CIA has heard of the Exterminator and reaches odd conclusions. Based on the current administration's promise to cut down crime rates, they believe that the Exterminator is either an opposition party's stunt or a foreign power's ruse to humiliate the current administration by exposing their inability to handle the crime problem. They monitor Dalton's investigation of the Exterminator. Dalton, working off of a bootprint found at the mobster's home, discovers the Exterminator wears a hunting boot manufactured by a mail order only firm in Maine. Asking them for a list of clients in New York, and following the hunch that the Exterminator may be a veteran (since when he killed the Ghetto Ghouls he was seen with an M-16), Dalton has narrowed the suspects accordingly.
In the denouement, Eastland visits Jefferson in the hospital. Jefferson has asked to see him. Never being able to walk again, Jefferson wishes that Eastland would kill him. Eastland does, but coincidentally, Dalton was visiting the hospital at the time. When he learns about Jefferson's death, Dalton concludes (apparently having investigated Jefferson earlier as a possible suspect for the Exterminator and having learned about the attack on him) that one of Jefferson's friends was the Exterminator, and learns that Eastland was one of them.
Dalton stakes out Eastland's apartment. Eastland, seeing the police arriving at his home from afar, calls his apartment and arranges for a private meeting with Dalton, where he hopes to explain his reasons for his actions. However, the CIA, bugging his phone, hear his call with Dalton, and ambush them at the rendez vous. Eastland escapes alive. But in most foreign territories, according to the liner notes on Anchor Bay Entertainment's video and DVD reissue of the film in a director's cut, the ending was where Eastland died rather than escaping alive.
[edit] Criticisms/Influences/Homages
One of the criticisms of this film was that it seemed derivative of the Death Wish films, though it should be noted that Paul Kersey, the main character of that film, was not a combat veteran. A possible influence and source of confusion is that at one point, Dalton accidentally calls the Exterminator "the Executioner"; Don Pendleton penned a series of novels about a veteran crimefighter named the Executioner. Later, the Exterminator would inspire two characters called the Executioner; one was a character in the Judge Dredd strip (the author admitted he had seen the Exterminator and cited it as a reference) and Christopher Mitchum would star in the deceptively titled veteran turned crimefighter movie The Exeuctioner Part II (not actually a sequel to any movie).
Eastland was rather slovenly in concealing his identity, since other than the motorcycle helmet, he does not wear any disguise or mask. The poster to his film remains quite misleading since it shows Eastland in a motorcycle helmet wielding a flame thrower. In fact, Eastland only uses a blow torch once during an interrogation of one of the Ghetto Ghouls in the film.
Irwin Keyes returned in part 2, although one of the Ghouls survived, it remains unclear if he was reprising his role from part 1.
[edit] Sequel
A sequel (Exterminator 2) was shot in 1984. Following somewhat incongrously from the previous film, it shows Eastland walking freely on the streets of New York, without any hint that his dual identity was compromised. He meets up with another old army buddy, one who owns a garbage truck. As seen at the beginning of the film, Eastland wears a welders' mask and wields a flame thrower while listening to a police scanner for possible crimes to stop. Slaying the brother of a gang leader named X, the Exterminator gains the gang's enmity. Coincidentally, his army buddy happens upon the gang during a robbery of an armoured car, scaring them away with his truck. However, they get the truck's plate numbers, and vow revenge. Following the truck one night when the buddy loans it to Eastland, they follow Eastland to his home, and, not having seen who the driver of the truck was the night it scared them away, presume Eastland was the man behind the wheel that night. They attack Eastland's girlfriend in the park, crippling her. Later, they break into her apartment and kill her.
Eastland and his buddy interrupt a drug deal between X's gang and the mob, stealing the narcotics in the process, though the army buddy dies. Having earlier captured one of the gang members, Eastland allows him to escape to draw X into a confrontation, with the drugs as bait, in a closed up industrial site. Curiously, X seems to be aware of the Exterminator's real name in this final battle. Eastland triumphs, but was shot when last seen, and is seen walking away. There were no further Exterminator movies.
