The Getaway (1994 film)

The Getaway
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Roger Donaldson
Produced by	David Foster John Alan Simon Lawrence Turman
Screenplay by	Walter Hill Amy Holden Jones
Based on	The Getaway by Jim Thompson
Starring	Alec Baldwin Kim Basinger Michael Madsen James Woods Jennifer Tilly
Music by	Mark Isham
Cinematography	Peter Menzies Jr.
Edited by	Conrad Buff
Production company	Largo Entertainment JVC
Distributed by	Universal Pictures
Release dates	February 11, 1994 (1994-02-11)
Running time	115 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Box office	$30 million

The Getaway is a 1994 crime thriller directed by Roger Donaldson. It is based on the Jim Thompson novel of the same name and is a remake of the 1972 film of the same name. The film stars Alec Baldwin and Kim Basinger, with Michael Madsen, James Woods, Philip Seymour Hoffman, and Jennifer Tilly in supporting roles.

Plot

Carter "Doc" McCoy (Baldwin) and his wife Carol (Basinger) are taking target practice with pistols when Rudy (Madsen) arrives to propose they break a Mexican drug lord's nephew out of jail for a $300,000 payment. The job is successful, but it turns out the drug lord wanted his nephew free only in order to kill him.

Rudy is waiting with a getaway plane, but he sees police cars and leaves Doc behind. After a year in a Mexican jail, Doc will do anything to get out so he sends Carol to mob boss Jack Benyon (Woods), who is looking to put together a select team of experts to rob a dog track in Arizona. Benyon agrees to get Doc released from prison, in exchange for sexual favors from Carol first.

Doc gets out and meets the men Benyon has hired. By chance, one is Rudy, along with another man called Hansen (Hoffman) who seems relatively inexperienced. Rudy extends a hand and says "No hard feelings" but is punched by Doc and warned not to double-cross him again.

At the track, while Doc is breaking into the vault, a guard pulls a gun and is shot by Hansen in a panic. The thieves escape by creating a diversion with a bomb under a gas truck and leave with the cash. The plan was for Doc and Carol to meet Rudy and Hansen later to split the money. On the road, Rudy kills Hansen and pushes him out of the car.

Doc arrives at the rendezvous point, where Rudy again pulls a gun. Doc expected this and is ready with his own weapon, shooting Rudy and leaving him for dead. Doc and Carol drive off with all the money, unaware that Rudy was wearing a bullet-proof vest, a safety precaution that he had earlier mocked.

A wounded Rudy manages to drive himself to a local clinic, where he holds veterinarian Harold (James Stephens) and his wife Fran (Jennifer Tilly) hostage, then forces them to treat his wounds and drive him to El Paso. An attraction develops between Rudy and Fran and they taunt her meek husband. At a motel, Rudy has sex with Fran after tying Harold to a chair. Hearing his wife's moans and her laughter at him, a heart-broken Harold commits suicide by hanging himself. Fran barely looks back as she accompanies Rudy to El Paso.

Doc and Carol go to Benyon's house with the money. Benyon drops broad hints about what Carol did to get Doc out of jail. Carol approaches with a gun, unseen by Doc as he counts the money. Benyon clearly expects her to shoot Doc, but she kills him instead.

Doc is upset, but Carol says she did whatever she had to do to help Doc and assumes he'd do the same if their situations were reversed. There continues to be tension between the pair, particularly when Carol loses the money to a con man at a train station in Flagstaff. Doc has to board the train, find the man and subdue him to retrieve the money.

They proceed to the rustic Border Hotel in El Paso, owned by Doc's friend Gollie, to get new passports and identities so they can escape to Mexico. They don't realize that Rudy is already there ahead of them, waiting with Fran in a room at the hotel. Benyon's men, led by Jim Deer (David Morse), also want the money and arrive in El Paso shortly after the McCoys.

Rudy sets a trap and Doc is startled to see him alive. He knocks out Rudy but resists killing him in cold blood. A long and bloody gunfight ensues with Doc and Carol shooting it out with Benyon's men in the halls and stairwells of the hotel.

Rudy comes to his senses just as the last of Benyon's men die. He makes one more attempt to get the money and after a hand to hand fight is killed by Doc in an elevator when Doc shoots the cables, sending the elevator plummeting down to ground level and crashing it, much to the horror of Fran. Doc and Carol hijack a pickup truck driven by Slim, an old cowboy (Richard Farnsworth), and then drive to the border of Mexico. They like the cowboy and buy his truck, paying far more than it is worth, and then make their getaway.

Cast

• Alec Baldwin as Carter "Doc" McCoy
• Kim Basinger as Carol McCoy
• Michael Madsen as Rudy Travis
• James Woods as Jack Benyon
• David Morse as Jim Deer Jackson
• Jennifer Tilly as Fran Carvey
• James Stephens as Harold Carvey, DVM
• Richard Farnsworth as Slim
• Philip Seymour Hoffman as Frank Hansen
• Burton Gilliam as Gollie
• Elske McCain as Driver

Production

Locations in the script include Phoenix, Prescott and Flagstaff, Arizona, New Mexico, and border town El Paso, Texas. Standing in for these communities, the film was actually shot in Arizona, Yuma, Phoenix, and The Apache Lodge in Prescott, Arizona. An exterior, establishing shot for one scene is believed to have been filmed in San Luis Río Colorado, Sonora, Mexico. The location portrayed as the Border Hotel in El Paso is the Hotel Del Sol (formerly Hotel Del Ming) in Yuma, Arizona. It was filmed in the spring of 1993 and was originally set to be released in December of that year.

Reception

The film garnered negative reviews from critics and has a rating of 33% on Rotten Tomatoes. It earned a Razzie Award and a Stinkers Bad Movie Awards nomination for Kim Basinger as Worst Actress, but she lost both trophies to Sharon Stone for Intersection and The Specialist.

External links

• The Getaway at IMDb
• The Getaway at Box Office Mojo
• The Getaway at AllMovie