The Fugitive’ (1993)

Watched ‘The Fugitive’ (1993) on Primevideo.

An action thrill film starring Harrison Ford as Dr. Richard Kimble. Acclaimed for many reasons.

Dr. Richard Kimble is falsely implicated in his wife’s murder and given the death sentence. Execution by lethal injection. While being transported to prison, his bus falls down the ravine, as the driver is shot when some of the prisoners are planning to escape. Down in the ravine, a speeding train arrives, there is a spectacular collision and the train is derailed. It’s supposed to be one of the best of it’s kind ever filmed. 

The scene of the train wreck was filmed along the Great Smoky Mountains Railroad just outside Dillsboro, North Carolina. Riders on the excursion railroad can still see the wreckage on the way out of the Dillsboro depot. The train crash cost $1 million to film. A real train used for the filming, which was done in a single take.

Richard survives and then on, until the end of the movie, he is on the run, chased by a Deputy US Marshal Smauel Gerard (Tommy Lee Jones) most relentlessly.

At one point, Gerard corners him at the edge of a storm drain over a dam. Kimble leaps into the raging water. This jaw-dropping dive into the waterfall is another thing about the movie. 

‘Only one in a million can survive that fall. That guy is fish food’ says the search squad.

‘OK, get a cane pole, go catch the fish that ate him’, says Gerard!

That jump was going overboard. No one could have survived that. And that too, he comes out without breaking a bone. Without bruises.

Its a great chase, Richard chasing the guy who murdered his wife and Gerard chasing Richard, Richard just one step ahead of the cop.

I will not spoil the rest for you. However, I will say, that Big Pharma was behind the murder. It wasn’t the wife but the doctor who was heir target. A pharmaceutical company was scheduled to release a new drug called Provasic. Richard had assessed the drug to cause liver damage and this would have come in the way of FDA approval and hence he had to go…

The movie ends without showing how exactly the crime was committed, why the wife HAD to be killed. It would have taken 5 more minutes and they were in a hurry to close after spending 2 hours on the never ending chase. Hate it.

Those who want to watch the most important scenes,…

The train wreck scene starts 17:00 onwards 

The jumping down the dam at 38:00. don’t miss these.

Julianne Moore is young and looks good. Unfortunately, she a very small role to play. I was hoping to see more of her.

Notes to myself…

‘Have them glass this river’ 

What does that mean?

‘If they can dye this river green today (St Patrick day) why can't they dye it blue the other 365 days?’

The Chicago River has been dyed green on St. Patrick's Day, March 17 every year since 1962. This is undertaken by the Chicago Plumbers Union, and it has been since Chicago Plumbers Union business manager Stephen Bailey came up with the idea over 50 years ago. 

How does Chicago dye the river green?

The Plumbers Union pours a bunch of what's effectively food coloring into the river. It's a powder with a secret recipe that was originally developed to trace leaks in buildings. The crew sets out in at least two motorboats -- an 18-foot boat that dyes the river and a 12-foot boat that churns up the water by chasing the longer boat. It takes around 45 minutes for the dye to take effect.

#westerncinema