Bullet Points: The Substitute (1996)

Question: Does Tom Berenger get the credit he deserves for his multiple contributions to the world of action entertainment?

Answer: I don’t think so. A big reason for this, in my opinion, is that Berenger did not specialize in the action genre, yet he had quite a few quality action movies to his credit including 1996’s The Substitute.

• Cancel Culture: Shale (Tom Berenger, Sniper) is the commanding officer of a group of mercenaries who find themselves back home in Miami and looking for work after a mission in Cuba does not go exactly as planned. The failed mission was all over the TV news cycle and is not long before the government agencies that would contract Shale and his team soon forget they exist.
• Kings of Destruction: Shale’s fiancée, Jane Hetzko (Diane Venora, Heat) has problems of her own. Hetzko is a history teacher at Miami’s Columbus High, a high school that is overrun by a gang known as the Kings of Destruction (The KOD for those in the know). The KOD leader is a guy named Juan Lacas (Marc Anthony). After a conversation Hetzko has with Lacas ends with Lacas threatening her, Hetzko goes to Principal Rolle (Ernie Hudson, The Crow) looking to have Lacas expelled from Columbus High. Rolle, looking to avoid a lawsuit, says there is nothing they can do about Lacas. The next day, Hetzko gets a pipe to the knee cap while she is out jogging on the beach. Shale arrives seconds later and mixes it up with Hetzko’s assailant before he runs off.

• Save Our School: Hetzko is now hospitalized and Shale is right there by her side. And that’s about the time opportunity knocks. Hetzko asks Shale to call her usual substitute and see if he can fill in for her until she is able to return to work… but the usual guy is already booked and that’s when Shale gets the bright idea that he’ll go undercover as a substitute teacher and eliminate the KOD problem.
• Welcome to the Jungle: When Shale arrives for his first day of school, posing as Mr. James Smith, he quickly gets a lay of the land and what he is going to have to deal with at Columbus High. After school, Shale gets his team back together and by the next day Shale has the entire school covered with surveillance cameras that he can watch via a monitor in his briefcase. “Mr. Smith” also sends two kids to the nurse’s office after they don’t comply to his classroom rules.
• Alpha Males: “Mr. Smith” and Principal Rolle are eyeballing each other from the word go. During Smith’s first visit to the principal’s office, Smith learns that Rolle was once a cop with the Miami PD and lives by the motto “Power perceived is power achieved”. Their next meeting is not as cordial, Rolle informs Smith that they aren’t going to be able to keep him on unless he apologizes to the students he injured. Smith has no intention of apologizing for what he believes was self defense, but reminds Rolle that union rules state that Rolle has to give him two weeks notice before terminating him. Rolle agrees.

• Cahoots: It isn’t long before Shale gets confirmation that Rolle is in cahoots with Lacas and the KOD and he’ll soon find out just how deep Rolle is in with them. Rolle coordinates a hit against “Mr. Smith” to be carried out by Lacas and some of his gang along with members of the school’s security team. This sets up one of the more memorable scenes in the film as Shale gets into it with his would be killers in the school’s library and ends up throwing some of them out the second story window!
• This Means War: Shale and his team respond to the attempted murder of Shale by interjecting themselves in a KOD drug deal and confiscating the drugs and the money. Then Shale turns around and uses the dirty drug money to buy the school some much needed sports equipment, musical instruments and throwing the world’s biggest pizza party. At this point business really picks up, as Lacas ends up holding Hetzko hostage in her apartment and Rolle and Johnny Glades (the drug dealer that supplies the KOD) to hire their own group of mercenaries officially turning Columbus High into a war zone!

It had been a few years since I have seen The Substitute and I honestly forgot how good this movie is. The tension that is built up between Tom Berenger and Ernie Hudson’s characters from the moment they cross paths is really well done. The Substitute is also full of memorable moments and lines and much like its star, I believe it really deserves more love than it gets.

Treat Williams ended up becoming the face of the franchise in the direct to video sequels, but I’d love to see Tom Berenger return for another Substitute flick. Berenger may have been opposed to the idea when it was first presented, but given how many DTV Sniper sequels Berenger has been a part of over the last two decades, I think he’d be down for another scholastic showdown.

We may have to wait for Tom Berenger to return to the Substitute franchise, but you don’t have to wait any longer for these Bonus Bullet Points…

• Familiar Faces: William Forsythe (Stone Cold and Out for Justice) plays Hollan the loose cannon of Shale’s crew… Luis Guzmán (Carlito’s Way and The Taking of Pelham 123) plays Rem, another member of Shale’s team and the man responsible for creating James Smith, including his accolades from multiple Ivy League schools. Guzmán
• Local Flavor: If Miami Vice taught us anything it is that the sport of Jai alai is big in Miami. So it was really no surprise when The Substitute managed to use the Miami Jai alai Fronton as a backdrop for a confrontation between Shale and Wolfson (Cliff De Young), a guy who is basically an agent for soldiers of fortune.
• If You Ever: …wanted to hear Cliff De Young rip a mean, fiber induced fart, then The Substitute is the movie for you.
• School House Rock: Miami Senior High School played the part of Columbus High in The Substitute.
• The Name Game: There was a 1993 TV movie titled The Substitute that starred Amanda Donohoe as a substitute high school English teacher that seduced a student (played by Mark Wahlberg). Amanda Donohoe’s character was also a murderer.