Bullet Points: The Sender (1998)

We have put over free streaming services like Tubi and Crackle on this site multiple times. But one free streaming service that has not received as much love as it probably should is the recently rebranded Freevee (formerly IMDb TV).

It was on Freevee that I recently found and watched a movie from the vast PM Entertainment library that I had previously never seen, 1998’s The Sender…

• Return to Sender: The movie begins in 1965 in the skies above The Bermuda Triangle where Jack Grayson (Brian Bloom, The A-Team) is leading a squadron on a reconnaissance mission. Grayson and his squad aren’t exactly sure what they are looking for, but when a giant spaceship appears in the sky, they figure it out. But their radios are out so they can’t report back (yet they can talk to one another!?!) and when it is all said and done Jack Grayson’s plane is shot down by an alien ship and as it plunges towards the drink below, the worst is presumed. The rest of the squadron says nothing about the alien spacecraft once radio communication resumes and Jack Grayson’s demise is a mystery.
• Send Me On My Way: More than 30 years later the wreckage of Jack Grayson’s plane has been recovered and it is being unloaded in Los Angeles where it is set to be transported to Area 51. Overseeing this transport operation is Colonel Rosewater (R. Lee Ermey, Savate) and Rosewater is none too happy when Commander Dallas Grayson (Michael Madsen, Executive Target), the son of Jack Grayson is on hand to investigate the wreckage of his father’s plane. Rosewater doesn’t believe Dallas Grayson has any business being there and is threatening to have Dallas locked up… while they are bickering some conspiracy theorists on Rosewater’s team jump in the cab of the truck that is set to transport the wreckage to Area 51 and shout something about the truth being known and in true PM Entertainment fashion we have ourselves the first of multiple chase scenes in The Sender.

• Send Me An Angel: After the chase and once the wreckage is back in Rosewater’s possession (thanks to Dallas), Rosewater is once again ready to throw Dallas in jail, but a phone call from his Area 51 boss, Lockwood, played by Steven Williams of L.A. Heat fame with dyed hair and a mustache. Lockwood tells Rosewater to let Dallas go… but it isn’t for benevolent reasons. Lockwood has his suspicions about Dallas and more importantly Dallas’ young daughter Lisa. So Lockwood redirects Rosewater and his team to monitor the Grayson home. And that’s when we learn that Lisa has an “angel” and this is not some imaginary friend a young child like Lisa invented, it is an alien named Angel that visits her on the regular and is helping Lisa develop her special “sending” powers! When Angel visits Lisa that night, the monitoring equipment goes haywire and Rosewater and company move in…they take out Dallas and scoop up Lisa so they can treat her like a lab rat and study the gene that gives her her “sender” power.
• Send in the Clowns: With his daughter kidnapped, Dallas Grayson now finds himself teaming up with Angel to rescue Lisa (after Angel brought Dallas back to life)… but Lockwood and Grayson are sending agents to intercept Dallas and Angel before they can get to Area 51 and this leads to another chase. Chase number two takes place in the desert and the agents end up looking like a bunch of clowns. While all this is going on, Lisa uses her “sender” powers to escape her Area 51 cell and finds herself scared and alone in downtown Los Angeles… Dallas and Angel use Angel’s spacecraft to get them to L.A. in record time, but even with that advantage, Colonel Rosewater still manages to get to Lisa just seconds before Dallas and Angel spot Lisa… This leads to chase number 3, but it’s not cars and trucks… it is Angel’s spaceship and military helicopters flying above downtown L.A. and shooting up skyscraper windows! After eliminating the helicopters and an emergency landing for Dallas and Angel we get chase #4 because why the fuck not and that sets up the big action finale at Area 51, where Dallas is determined to rescue his daughter and take out those who are looking to exploit her gift!

The Sender could be labeled Close Encounters of the PM Entertainment Kind especially with the way the movie ends. I would also label it as the most CGI that I have ever seen in a PM Entertainment movie.

If the movie explained exactly why we needed the 1965 stuff at the beginning, I must have missed it… possibly distracted by the CGI or the multiple chase scenes. The Sender was definitely one of those movies that is better enjoyed if you don’t overanalyze it or try to look for any sort of logic to the plot points.

Speaking of points, how about some Bonus Bullet Points…

• Soundtraxx: The Bobby Vee classic, “Take Good Care of My Baby” is featured in The Sender.
• Familiar Faces: Robert Vaughn, of The Delta Force and Superman III fame, played Ron Fairfax, a friend and confidant of Dallas Grayson.. Rance Howard played Max, one of the two agents that confront Dallas and Angel at the road side diner, an event that precipitated the desert car chase. Rance was no stranger to PM Entertainment with roles in Force to Kill and Tiger Heart… I also recognized Carlos Lauchu who played an Area 51 lab technician in The Sender, from another PM Entertainment sci-fi actioner, The Silencers.
• Directed By: One of the founding fathers of PM Entertainment, Richard Pepin, was the director of The Sender.