Death Wish 4: The Crackdown
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| Death Wish 4: The Crackdown | |
|---|---|
 Film poster |
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| Directed by | J. Lee Thompson |
| Produced by | Pancho Kohner |
| Written by | Brian Garfield (characters) Gail Morgan Hickman (screenplay) |
| Starring | Charles Bronson Kay Lenz John P. Ryan Perry Lopez George Dickerson Soon-Tek Oh Dana Barron Danny Trejo |
| Music by | John Bisharat Paul McCallum Valentine McCallum |
| Cinematography | Gideon Porath |
| Editing by | Peter Lee-Thompson |
| Distributed by | Cannon Films |
| Release date(s) | November 6, 1987 (USA) |
| Running time | 99 mins. |
| Country |  United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $5,000,000 (estimated) |
| Gross revenue | $6,880,310 (USA) |
| Preceded by | Death Wish 3 |
| Followed by | Death Wish V: The Face of Death |
| Allmovie profile | |
| IMDb profile | |
Death Wish 4: The Crackdown is a 1987 action thriller, and the third sequel to the 1974 film, Death Wish. It is the first film in this series to carry a subtitle, the first to be directed by someone other than Michael Winner, and the last to be released by Cannon Films. It was directed by J. Lee Thompson, best known in Hollywood for the 1961 film The Guns of Navarone and the 1962 thriller Cape Fear. The film had a substantially cheaper budget and limited release, first appearing at U.S. theaters in November 1987. The screenplay by Gail Morgan Hickman relocates Kersey to Los Angeles, where he initiates a one-man war against drug dealers.
[edit] Plot
The movie opens with a woman walking to her car in the parking garage. She gets in and has trouble starting her car. Three thugs appear, break into her car, force her out, and begin to rape her when Paul Kersey appears out of nowhere. He shoots the first two thugs, but wounds the third. He follows the third mugger as he attempts to escape the parking garage, but Kersey quickly blocks the exit. The third mugger pleads for his life, but Paul shoots him. He rolls the criminal over with his foot, and reveals the criminal to be... himself. It is then revealed that the whole assault was a dream sequence.
A young woman enters Paul's architectural design office, and it is revealed to be Erica (Dana Barron). Paul is currently dating her mother Karen Sheldon (Kay Lenz). Erica goes out later that evening with her boyfriend Randy Viscovich (Jesse Dobson) to the arcade to meet up with Jojo and his buddy. Jojo offers Erica crack, and later she dies from an overdose. The next night (without any explanation), Paul follows Randy to the arcade where Randy confronts Jojo and threatens to go to the police and tell them everything. Jojo kills Randy to prevent this. Kersey shoots JoJo, who falls onto the electrified roof of the bumper-car ride.
Paul arrives back at his house where he receives a note and a phone call from publisher Nathan White (John P. Ryan), who tells him that he knows about the death of JoJo. Nathan explains to Kersey that after Nathan's wife died, his daughter became his whole life. Then she became addicted to drugs, and died of an overdose. Nathan wants to hire Kersey to wipe out the drug trade in LA -- and in particular to target Ed Zacharias (Perry Lopez) and Jack Romero (Mike Moroff), rival drug kingpins who are the city's two main drug suppliers. Kersey asks for a few days to think about it, and after a few days, he accepts Nathan's offer. Nathan supplies Kersey with weapons and information so Kersey can go after Zacharias and Romero. All the while two LA detectives, Rainer (George Dickerson) and Phil Nozaki (Soon-Tek Oh), are on Paul's trail of destruction.
Paul infiltrates Zacharias' mansion where Ed Zacharias is throwing an elaborate birthday party. As Paul Kersey bugs Zacharias' phone, he unwittingly witnesses Zacharias murder one of his colleagues, Vincent, due to betrayal. Zacharias captures Paul, and tells him to help take Vincent's body out in order for his silence. Another of Zacharias' members offers to help, and they take the body out and hide it in the trunk of the car. Knowing that he is to be killed, Paul decapitates the hired hitman in self defense and walks away from the crime scene. Paul kills three more men in an Italian restaurant, kills a drug dealer disguised as a porn video store owner and two of his assistants, and Zacharias' top hitman, Frank Bauggs (David Wolos-Fonteno), by dropping him from his apartment window. All the while Zacharias and the Romero brothers begin to suspect each other's involvement.
Three more are killed at the fisherman's wharf by Kersey. Zacharias is informed by Nozaki, revealed to be corrupt, to kill whoever is setting him up. Nozaki tracks Kersey at work and tries to get information out of him. Kersey puts a bullet in the chest. Detective Reiner learns about Nozaki's death (not knowing about his corruption) and swears vengeance on the vigilante Kersey.
In an act of retribution, Zacharias calls Jack and want to talk to him. They arrange a meeting place at the oil fields. Kersey is already there and fires his weapon. Zacharias thinks that it is Jack's crew who is doing it and opens fire. They kill each other as Kersey saves Tony and Ed for last.
Nathan calls, congratulating Kersey on a job well done, and asks to meet with him tonight. Kersey arrives at the meeting place, but Nathan sends his limo driver instead. Kersey hops in the limo, and realizes he's been set-up after the limo driver jumps in White's car. Kersey shoots the back window and makes it out before the limo explodes. Kersey forces his way into Nathan's house demanding to see Nathan. An old man living there claims to be the real Nathan White, having returned from a three-month vacation. Kersey drives back to his apartment, only to be pulled over and arrested by two cops. On the way to the downtown police station, Paul immediately recognizes one of them. He flips over the car, killing one, and knocking the other unconscious.
Back at his apartment, Paul Kersey comes face-to-face with Reiner. Kersey tries to inform Reiner about his partner's corruption, but Reiner does not buy his story. The impostor White (his true name isn't revealed) is mad that Kersey is still alive, and uses Karen to lure him into a trap. He leaves a message, but hangs up before Kersey is giving time to speak. To get away from Reiner, Kersey pretends to speak to him and knocks Reiner out cold. He slides the refrigerator and pulls out an M-16 with grenade launcher from his gun rack.
Kersey arrives with car at the meeting place. The car rolls forward as White orders his men to open fire, which they spray the car with bullet holes before realizing Paul's not in the car. Kersey fires a grenade, killing three as the car explodes. He also shoots Jesse's car, with Jesse inside, as he makes his escape. Kersey follows them into the roller rink where he kills six more people.
White escapes through the back door as Kersey follows. Karen escapes his grasp, but is shot in the back while attempting to run. Realizing White is now out of bullets and distraught by Karen's death, Kersey fires a grenade that finishes him off. Reiner arrives and orders him to surrender, threatening to shoot as Kersey walks away. Kersey replies: "Do whatever you have to" Reiner lets him go, hopefully understanding now.
[edit] Original script idea
The film was at one point intended as a direct sequel to Death Wish II. As mentioned in the book "Bronson's Loose" by Paul Talbot, an early draft of the screenplay had a beginning that homaged Death Wish II by having Kersey in the same beat-up clothes and using the same transient hotel. A tense scene results in which Kersey saves a woman from attackers. The police learn about the incident, and later corner Kersey in his base of operations, a room in a transient hotel. He manages to escape because he has a closet full of disguises-including a policeman's uniform. However, the police find the closet after he has given them the slip. Examining the shoes and clothes he uses for his disguises reveals his height and shoe size. On one of the shirts, they find blueprint ink stains and part of a mechanical pencil in the pocket. They conclude that the vigilante is an architect. They run his size through the DMV's computers, and begin questioning architects. During the visit, they notice his shoes fit the size they found in the closet. In the film, however, Kersey goes to an arcade to kill a drug dealer, and uses his own car (instead of renting one) and makes no attempt to obscure his plates (just a little bit of grease or dirt would have done it).
[edit] External links
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