10 Things You Didn’t Know About Death Wish 4: The Crackdown

The fourth installment in the Death Wish franchise hit theaters on November 6, 1987 with Charles Bronson reprising role as architect/vigilante Paul Kersey. Death Wish 4: The Crackdown was Bronson’s sixth movie with Cannon and the seventh movie he made with director J. Lee Thompson.

In honor of the 35th Anniversary, I recently sat down and rewatched Death Wish 4: The Crackdown, but this time with the commentary stylings of Charles Bronson expert, Paul Talbot. Over the years I have enjoyed Paul Talbot’s books, Bronson’s Loose: The Making of the Death Wish Films and Bronson’s Loose Again: On the Set with Charles Bronson, plus Paul’s numerous commentary tracks on a variety of special edition releases including Mr. Majestyk, The Mechanic and my all-time favorite, Death Wish 3.

Paul did not disappoint on Umbrella Entertainment’s Death Wish 4 release, providing a ton of behind the scenes info, some of which I’ll be sharing with you now as I present 10 Things You Didn’t Know About Death Wish 4: The Crackdown…

1.One of the masked thugs in Paul Kersey’s parking garage dream sequence at the start of the movie was played by Tony Borgia, who served as Charles Bronson’s stunt double in the movie.

2. The dream sequence to start the movie was not in the original script… instead the movie started with Kersey back in his secret motel room from Death Wish II, where Kersey puts on his hat and coat (also from Death Wish II) and heads out to clean up the streets. That opening sequence would then be followed by the introduction of the two detectives Reiner (George Dickerson, Death Warrant) and Nozaki (Soon-Tek Oh, Missing in Action 2: The Beginning), who were investigating the return of The Vigilante!

3. Other changes from the original script included a venue change and a character change… The scene at the oil field, where Kersey gets the jump on the rival drug gangs led by Romero (Mike Moroff, Angel Town) and Zacharias (Perry Lopez, Kinjite: Forbidden Subjects) was originally set to take place at Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, but the oil field was a much cheaper option… And Kay Lenz’s Karen Sheldon was originally supposed to have a son named Eric. The son was changed to a daughter named Erica played by Dana Barron (The Equalizer).

4. There were several premises submitted included one by the author of the original Death Wish novel, Brian Garfield. Ultimately Gail Morgan Hickman eventually got the writing nod, but only after two of his premises were rejected. One saw the return of Jill Ireland’s Geri Nichols character from Death Wish II, only for her to be killed by drug dealers with Kersey once again avenging a loved one. The other had Kersey battling terrorists but that idea was scrapped due to its similarities with the Rutger Hauer movie Wanted: Dead or Alive.

5. Menahem Golan and Yoram Globus started making plans for Death Wish 4 immediately following Death Wish 3, however Charles Bronson refused to sign on for a fourth Death Wish movie unless it was part of a multi-picture deal that would see him get paid $1 million dollars for each film.

6. Shooting for Death Wish 4 began on April 13, 1987 and lasted 7 weeks. The budget was $5 million dollars (with a million of that going to Bronson). The movie would go on to make nearly $7 million dollars at the box office. Death Wish 4 also ended up being Bronson’s most successful home video release.

7. Bronson stopped the filming of the scene at the Italian restaurant where Paul Kersey (posing as a wine salesman) has to throw a glass of water in the face of a mobster played by Danny Trejo in order to make a hasty getaway. Bronson noticed that there were ice cubes in the glass of water he was set to throw and did not want to hit Trejo in the face with ice cubes.

8. Between takes Bronson would play nickel and dime poker games with the female members of the crew… no males were allowed to play.

9. There would have been more of the Karen Sheldon character in the movie, but two of her scenes were cut, one of which had Karen meeting Paul at a burger joint to discuss the story she was working on for her newspaper, shortly after Kersey had his encounter with Frank Bauggs in Bauggs’ swanky high rise apartment on Wilshire Blvd.

10. The movie theater scene where Kersey meets with the fake Nathan White (John P. Ryan, Avenging Force) was not shot at an actual movie theater, instead it was shot in Cannon’s screening room located at their headquarters… And Cannon property was used once again during the final confrontation between Kersey and Fake Nathan White. That scene was shot in the Cannon parking lot.