Bullet Points: Plato’s Run
You don’t have to twist my arm to check out a movie from the Nu Image library. All you really have to do is pop up in my streaming options. And that’s how I came to watch 1997’s Plato’s Run…
- Two Guys Are Stranded on a Beach: The movie begins with a prison break, three guys make a daring escape from a Cuban prison in the dark of night. Two out of the three avoid the landmines and make it to the jungle that surrounds the prison. A manhunt ensues, the escaped prisoners find a radio and call for help and more importantly remain undetected. Meanwhile in Miami…
- Three Guys Go Into a Bar: Plato (Gary Busey, Eye of the Tiger), Dominick (Jeff Speakman, Street Knight) and Sam (Steven Bauer, Drive Like Lightning) are tipping a few back at a local watering hole and reminiscing with some war stories. When Sam decides he wants to bust a move with a woman at the bar, he soon finds out she has a boyfriend and the bar fight rule is adhered too as Sam, Plato and Dominick find themselves trading fists (and in Dom’s case kicks) with some of their fellow patrons. There’s also another altercation out in the parking lot, when Plato and Sam are approached by some guys with guns and a message for Plato. Someone wants to talk to Plato and who are Plato and Same to turn down some guys with guns.
- One Guy Wants His Son Back: That someone who wanted to talk to Plato was Marta (Tiani Warden aka Gary Busey’s wife at the time). It is clear that Plato and Marta had a romantic relationship in the past and it didn’t end well.. that notwithstanding, Marta still knew her former Navy SEAL lover was the perfect man for an extraction mission. A mission that pays $100,000 (half up front and half on deliver) to bring back those two guys stranded on the beach in Cuba from the start of the movie. But when Plato hears that a nefarious arms dealer, Manuel Gomez, is the one paying for this mission, Plato wants nothing to do with it… That is until he gets home and finds out from his teenaged daughter Kathy that they received an eviction notice and have to be out in two weeks. Suddenly the rescue mission (and the money) sounded really good.
- One Guy Gets Framed for Murder: Plato, Sam AND Marta are going on the rescue mission… which doesn’t sit well with Marta’s new man, the poorly named Mr. Senarkian (Roy Scheider, Executive Target), who we later learn is in the land mine business. He sells them, he removes them, he even has a prosthetics division for those who may have had a land mine “mishap”. The rescue mission goes relatively smoothly, although by the time they get there the two guys stranded are now just one… but fortunately the one that is left is Manuel Gomez’s son, Felix (Horacio Le Don) or is he? When they get back to Miami, Plato wants to personally deliver Felix to Gomez and collect the rest of his cash. Felix turns out to be an imposter and before Gomez can get close enough to realize this, Felix shoots Gomez dead, knocks out Plato and puts the smoking gun in his hand. Plato comes to minutes later, but now has to make an escape from Gomez’s security force and it isn’t long before Plato’s face is all over the news as the suspected killer of Manuel Gomez!
- Two Guys Make a Deal: It turns out that Felix was in cahoots with Mr. Senarkian. Apparently Senarkian was trying to conduct some business with Gomez, but Gomez was not interested so Senarkian wanted him eliminated. Now before Felix can get his pay off, Senarkian wants him to tie up any loose ends, meaning he has to kill Plato. Felix is unsuccessful at first, but comes close when he catches Plato at Marta’s place… unfortunately Felix ends up shooting Marta instead of Plato. Knowing he fucked up, Felix goes back to Senarkian and tells him that it was Plato who killed Marta… and now it has become more than business for Senarkian and he orders Felix to kidnap Plato’s daughter so Plato will come to them.
- Three Guys Go to Kick Some Ass: Despite being told to come alone, Plato brings his boys Sam and Dom with him. It really felt like business was about to pick up and for a short time it did, there were bullets flying, explosions, fan boats!! …Then the landmine scene happens. In a classic villain move, instead of just killing Plato, Senarkian has a challenge for Plato and Sam… get through his mine field and they are free to go… oh and they need to do it in 10 minutes or he’ll just shoot them both. Normally “10 minutes” in movie time would end up being less, some how it felt like double the time in Plato’s Run. This scene almost ruined the entire movie for me… there was no way they were going to get through in 10 minutes, and that was BEFORE Sam stepped on a landmine and then our 2 heroes had to diffuse it. The whole time Senarkian and Felix are sitting there drinking champagne and watching it all and it dragged on forever. I should point out that Kathy was also watching from a nearby jail cell… was she supposed to watch them leave as well IF by some miracle they made it through?? The more I think about it, the less sense it makes.
Plato’s Run got off to a good start but could not maintain its momentum. Busey and Bauer make it worth sticking with it, although my favorite character was Jeff Speakman’s Dominick. Dom’s lack of screen time proves the theory that sometimes less is more with Speakman really maximizing his minutes, showing off his martial arts skills and blowing shit up.
Now let’s blow this pop stand with some Bonus Bullet Points…
- Familiar Face: Marc Macauly plays Baker, one of Senarkian’s right hand men. I remembered Macauly from his work in 2004’s The Punisher and Bad Boys. During that whole drawn out mine field scene, Baker decides he is going to rape young Kathy in her cell. Fortunately this does not happen since Dom shows up in the nick of time… but Baker’s sudden “rapiness” only added to my displeasure of that scene.
- Double Duty: James Becket wrote and directed Plato’s Run. Becket also wrote and directed the Thomas Ian Griffith movie, Ulterior Motives.
- Suggestion Box: If you want to watch another Nu Image landmine themed film, check out Sweepers starring Dolph Lundgren and Bruce Payne.
