The Survivors (film)

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The Survivors
Theatrical release poster.
Directed by	Michael Ritchie
Produced by	William Sackheim
Written by	Michael Leeson Jonathan Reynolds (uncredited)
Starring	Walter Matthau Robin Williams Jerry Reed
Music by	Paul Chihara
Cinematography	Billy Williams
Editing by	Richard A. Harris
Distributed by	Columbia Pictures
Release date(s)	June 22, 1983 (New York City, New York)
Running time	102 min
Country	USA
Language	English
Allmovie profile
IMDb profile

The Survivors is a 1983 comedy film starring Walter Matthau and Robin Williams.

[edit] Plot

Donald Quinelle (Williams) is a simple employee who gets fired from his job by a parrot. Sonny Paluso (Matthau) is a gas station owner whose station is accidentally blown up by Donald. The two men meet up at a restaurant when it is robbed by a man in a ski mask.(Jerry Reed) Donald is shot, but Sonny gets a good look at the man. Then Donald goes on the news to explain the incident and the robber learns Sonny's identity. That night the robber visits Sonny to kill him and his teenage daughter Candice, but is saved by Donald. Afterwards Sonny and Donald take Jack Locke[the name of the robber] to the police at gun point. On the way back they stop at a gun store and Donald buys a huge amount whereas Sonny can't stand them. Donald goes to a survival camp and Jack fresh from jail finds Sonny again. The two make a deal that Jack won't kill them if he and Donald agree to say nothing to the police. Sonny and his daughter go to try to talk to Donald. After Donald insults Jack on the phone Jack decides to come up there to settle it himself. Donald has now become a killing machine thanks to the leader Wes's teachings. After a quick battle with Jack, Donald runs away and the rest of the camp gets wind of what's going on. Jack hides in Donald's cabin and Sonny tries to reason with rest of the camp. Jack and Donald come out and Donald is yelling about how they are going to kill him. However, it is a ruse and Sonny, Candice, Jack, and Donald escape in Sonny's car. After showing to the rest of the camp that Wes is a fraud the group heads home. Donald gets out of the car and has a moment of reflection in the snow and Sonny tries to comfort him. The two walk back to the car as friends.

[edit] Cast

Walter Matthau.............Sony

Robin Williams.............Donald

Jerry Reed.................Jack

John Goodman...............Commando

James Wainwright...........Wes Huntley

Kristin Vigard.............Candice Paluso

Annie McEnroe..............Doreen

Mariah Hailey..............Jack's Wife

Joseph Carberry............Detective Matt Burke

Skipp Lynch................Wiley

[edit] Reception

This film did not get good reviews and is somewhat hard to find. On rotten tomatoes the film got only a 17% rotten rating. Many feel that Robin Williams and Walter Matthau's style of humor did not mesh well together.