Bullet Points: Evasive Action
Dorian Harewood would not be my first choice to play an action hero, mostly because I have not forgotten or forgiven the way he double crossed Jean-Claude Van Damme in 1995’s Sudden Death… but also because I have never seen Harewood exude the amount of swagger necessary to be an action hero.
Fortunately for Mr. Harewood, I was not the one making the casting decisions for 1998’s Evasive Action…
- Right Not Might: Dorian Harewood plays Luke Sinclair, a man who guns down the scumbag that killed his wife and daughter on the courtroom steps right after the accused scumbag was reluctantly set free by the judge. The decision was made after it was learned that the DNA and blood evidence found at the murder scene had been contaminated and thus were inadmissible. So Sinclair took the law into his own hands and ended up getting a 15 year sentence for doling out vigilante style justice. This was a quick reminder that action heroes don’t have to be larger than life and oozing charisma… sometimes they just have to be a guy who is willing to do the right thing and face the consequences of his actions like a man.
- Behind Bars: When the movie picks up, Sinclair has served 12 of his 15 years. He has been eligible for parole countless times, but every time the parole board asks if he has any remorse for what he did… he answers honestly and says no. Sinclair believes killing the man who killed his wife and daughter was 100% the right thing to do. When the parole board asks Sinclair if he feels that he has been rehabilitated, he again replies no and believes that he never needed rehabilitation to begin with. Sinclair could have easily said the things the parole board wanted to hear, but he remained honest (and behind bars).
- Shanksgiving: One day out in the prison yard, Sinclair witnesses a large inmate (played by Sam J. Jones) try to shank mafia kingpin Enzo Marcelli (Roy Scheider, Blue Thunder). Sinclair tackles the convict before he could do any real damage to Enzo, from there Enzo grabs a baseball bat and beats the life out of his would be assassin. After the skirmish, Enzo pulls a few strings with the warden (played by action movie veteran, Ed O’Ross) to get Luke Sinclair on a transfer list to a new state of the art prison, that Enzo and a few others are being moved to. Sinclair is happy to stay right where he’s at, but the warden insists that Sinclair gets transferred.
- C’mon Ride the Train: Enzo wanted Luke Sinclair to get transferred to the new prison as his way to repay Sinclair for saving his life… because this transfer is the backdrop for an elaborate prison break. The prisoners are going to be transferred in a special state of the art prison car that will be attached to a commuter train heading to San Diego. But Enzo already has two of his men on board the passenger portion of the train, that are ready to strike when the time is right and get the escape plan in motion. Before you know it, the marshals assigned to watch the prisoners are all dead, and the convicts are now posing as federal marshals (something Sinclair is not a fan of, but realizes he’ll be dead if he doesn’t go along with the plan) and herding the passengers and the remaining train staff, including the sassy bartender Zoe Clark (who used a cell phone to contact the local sheriff before getting discovered by the bad guys) to the back of the train for “safety reasons”.
- Off the Rails: This was the type of elaborate prison break that would be considered epic if it went off without a hitch, but this is also a prison break taking place in an action movie, so you know there is absolutely no way it was going to go off without a hitch. There was a failed rendezvous with a helicopter, that indirectly ended up getting Sheriff Wes Blaidek (Ray Wise, RoboCop) blown to smithereens. Sinclair ended up having to jump off the train in order to avoid his fellow convicts who were pissed that he wasn’t 100% on board with them and the authorities who just thought he was another bad guy… only for Sinclair to commandeer a motorcycle and make his way back on to the train to help the innocent people on board. There was also a failed attempt to redirect the train to an abandoned station and instead the train winds up heading straight for Los Angeles! If something could go wrong with the plans on either side, they did… which made for a fast paced 91 minutes.
After watching Evasive Action, Dorian Harewood the action hero still doesn’t sound right to me. But, Dorian Harewood the every man who stepped up and constantly did what he needed to sure does sound right and Harewood wears that badge of honor well in this movie.
Now let me redirect this train to the Bonus Bullet Points…
- AKA: Evasive Action is also known as Steel Train or Con Train in Germany.
- Truth in Advertising: The posters for Western Rail inside the passenger cars tout riding the rails with Western Rail as “A Vacation You’ll Never Forget”.
- Familiar Faces: Two of the other convicts on the train were played by Don Swayze (Driving Force) and Clint Howard (Street Corner Justice) respectively…. Clint’s dad, Rance Howard (Forced to Kill), had an uncredited part as the train’s engineer… Keith Coogan (Toy Soldiers) played the intern manning the phone at the Western Rail office… And last but not least, Dick Van Patten (Spaceballs) played a member of the parole board.
- Con Air Reference: Warden Jack Kramer explains the reason the prisoners are being transferred by train and not plane is because the FAA wants nothing to do with the transfer of prisoners after the incident in Las Vegas.
- Musical Selection: The end credits feature and R&B jam that really seemed out of place with the movie that just concluded, but there was some connection as the song “No Excuses” was written and performed by Dorian Harewood.
