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 | |
|---|---|
 Theatrical release poster |
|
| 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 (U.S.) |
| Running time | 104 min. |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | Unknown |
| Followed by | Exterminator 2 |
| Allmovie profile | |
| IMDb profile | |
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.
[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 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 prostitution 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 from 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 dénouement, 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.
