Bullet Points: Passenger 57
Passenger 57 was a coming out party for Wesley Snipes as an action star and it was the perfect type of film for him to make his debut as a badass. Always betting on black used to just be a roulette strategy that I would use after drinking too much but now it’s a protocol that I follow in all walks of life. Thanks Wesley.
Synopsis: Airline Security Expert John Cutter is on board a plane when captured psychopath Charles Rane attempts to hijack and escape detection.
Hellbent for leather: As if I had to tell you, John Cutter finds and dons a very weathered leather jacket for a good portion of the movie. It ups his coolness factor by at least 7 points and I’m sure it raised sales of leather jackets in 1992 by $22 million.
Future Project: While on the plane, John Cutter is reading “The Art of War”. He would later star in a film of the same name in the year 2000. Is it some sort of Y2K conspiracy? Most likely…
Old People are Funny: One of my favorite characters in the entire movie is the old lady who thinks that John Cutter is talk show host Arsenio Hall. She even goes so far as to do the whole ‘whoop whoop’ deal with her fist at the end of the film. She’s probably been dead for years but boy was she funny.
Creepster: Sometimes it’s better to be creepy than bad ass. That’s where Bruce Payne’s bad guy falls in Passenger 57. Rane isn’t going to go all Bolo Yeung on anybody and kick the shit out of them but what he lacks in physical prowess he makes up for in pure crazy.
Damn 7-11’s: The early 90’s saw a shitload of grocery store robberies turning normal cops into badass cops and vigilantes. I guess it’s something that most robbers don’t think about before they commit the crime.
The Verdict: Passenger 57 is a fun early 90’s actioner. It’s back when they could make action movies that didn’t need to have any sort of political message or real reason to exist. This film says nothing about sex slavery or the East/West struggles. Its simplicity is one of its biggest strengths. A crazy bad guy tries to hijack a plane with a good guy who just so happens to know martial arts. Boom! What a great premise that is. It never gets bogged down by the story and for a film like this, that is a real compliment. Watch it.
