| U.S. Marshals | |
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Poster for U.S. Marshals |
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| Directed by | Stuart Baird |
| Produced by | Anne Kopelson Arnold Kopelson |
| Written by | Roy Huggins John Pogue |
| Starring | Tommy Lee Jones Wesley Snipes Robert Downey Jr. Joe Pantoliano Tom Wood |
| Music by | Jerry Goldsmith |
| Distributed by | Warner Bros. |
| Release date(s) | March 6, 1998 |
| Running time | 131 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $60,000,000 (estimated) |
| Box office | $102,367,405 |
U.S. Marshals is a 1998 action thriller film starring Tommy Lee Jones, Wesley Snipes, and Robert Downey Jr.. It is a sequel to The Fugitive. The storyline of U.S. Marshals does not feature the character Dr. Richard Kimble; the role of the protagonist has been passed onto Samuel Gerard and his team of U.S. Marshals who pursued Kimble in the first film.
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Two Diplomatic Security Service (DSS) agents are gunned down while trying to intercept a briefcase exchange taking place in a United Nations (UN) parking garage. The murders are caught on a CCTV camera but the killer escapes with the top secret information.
Six months later, Mark Roberts (Wesley Snipes) is arrested for a weapons violation after a traffic accident, enabling the Chicago Police Department to discover he is the federal fugitive wanted for the double-homicide. Roberts boards a prisoner transport back to New York, sharing the flight with Deputy U.S. Marshal Samuel Gerard (Tommy Lee Jones), who is escorting prisoners unrelated to Roberts' case. Roberts thwarts an assassination attempt by a Chinese prisoner with a zip gun, but the bullet pierces the window and depressurizes the cabin, forcing a crash landing. Gerard discovers Roberts has fled the crash site and DSS Special Agent John Royce (Robert Downey Jr.) is assigned to join Gerard's team to hunt Roberts.
Roberts makes it to New York City, secures money, weapons and a false ID, and begins conducting surveillance on Chinese attaché/spy Xian Chen (Michael Paul Chan). In Chicago, Gerard and the marshals pursue several leads, including Roberts' girlfriend Marie Bineaux (Irène Jacob) as well as the airplane mechanic who hid the zip gun, the latter of whom the marshals find killed by Chen. Gerard and team view UN surveillance footage of the murders in the parking garage that suggests Roberts acted in self-defense and was wearing gloves; thus couldn't have been identified by fingerprints at the scene as was claimed. Confronted with the evidence, DSS Director Bertram Lamb (Patrick Malahide) informs Gerard that "Mark Roberts" is in fact Mark Sheridan, a highly-trained covert operative that went rogue during an investigation to find the mole within the U.S. State Department that had been selling secrets to China. Chen was the contact delivering the money to Sheridan for the information and when DSS agents tried to apprehend him Sheridan killed them and disappeared.
Eventually, the team catches up with Sheridan in the Bohemian National Cemetery where Sheridan meets with, and threatens to expose, DSS Special Agent Frank Barrows (Rick Snyder) as one of the conspirators who framed him. Chen tries to snipe Sheridan as he leaves the cemetery, but inadvertently kills Barrows instead. Sheridan flees to a retirement home followed by Gerard, Royce and Deputy Marshal Noah Newman (Tom Wood), while Chen is caught and arrested. Newman corners Sheridan inside one of the patient's rooms where he witnesses Royce holding Sheridan at gunpoint. But then Royce shoots Newman and later lies to the team, claiming Sheridan ambushed and shot Newman. Sheridan escapes by jumping from the building onto the top of a passing train. Newman dies in transit to the hospital.
After finding empty motion sickness pill containers in a stolen car, Gerard tracks down Sheridan on a freighter bound for Canada. During a brief scuffle, Sheridan gains the upper-hand and grabs Gerard's gun, aiming it at him but then lowering it without taking the shot. Sheridan is then shot from behind by Royce and taken into custody. Due to his curious behaviour and change of his firearm from a silver Taurus handgun, to a black Glock pistol (his previous weapon displayed in an earlier scene) Gerard begins to suspect Royce may be associated with the mole within the U.S. State Department. Royce is left alone to guard Sheridan's hospital room and plants a knife to claim an attempted escape and therefore justifiable self-defense in shooting Sheridan. Gerard interrupts Royce before he can shoot Sheridan and tricks him into revealing his status as a rogue agent, before telling him he has emptied his gun. Royce pulls his concealed backup firearm but is shot by Gerard. After leaving the hospital, Sheridan's charges are dropped and he is released. Gerard then takes his team out to celebrate the life of their fallen comrade, Marshal Newman.
Based on 30 reviews collected by the film review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, 27% of critics gave U.S. Marshals a positive review, with an average rating of 4.9/10.[1]
The Box office opening of US Marshall was $16.8 million.[2]
The film grossed $57,167,405 domestically and $45,200,000 in foreign markets, totaling $102,367,405 worldwide.[3]
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