Bullet Points: Fire (2004)
The Canadian Wildfires of 2023 have already set the record for worst wildfire season in recorded history for the continent of North America. A record that hopefully will never be broken.
Some IMDb user reviews would have you believe that 2004’s Fire is among the worst wildfire themed movies (set in North America) in recorded history.
- Go For the Gold: The movie opens with park ranger Jake (Bryan Genesse, Project Shadowchaser II) making the rounds and noticing the chains on the gate to the old abandoned mine have been cut again… Jake radios in and then goes inside for a closer look. He finds repeat offender Tiny (played by the singularly named Shend) and a couple of running buddies trapped in the elevator shaft in the mine… the greedy Tiny was there due to the deposits of gold deep in the mine. The problem is in addition to gold, there are also pockets of methane gas in the mine, which can cause explosions and cave ins, plus the mine is old and run down… all good reasons for the place to be condemned. It’s not long before disaster strikes (and I’m not just talking about the low budget visual effects)… Jake is able to save Tiny’s gold digging friends, but not Tiny. And then the movie skips ahead six months…
- The Dirt Bike Kids: Some college kids are enjoying the great outdoors of Duluth, Minnesota on their dirt bikes. When the ring leader of the group, Marcus, challenges his friend Chris to try his first dirt bike jump, Chris agrees… partially to shut up Marcus and partially not wanting to look scared in front of the ladies in the group, Sharon and Melanie. Chris hit the jump perfectly… it was the landing where he had some trouble, ending up with a broken shin. Fortunately Sharon had some paramedic training, which comes in handy as they wait for the park rangers to arrive so they can transport Chris to the nearest hospital. This is where the trouble begins… Jake is coming in by helicopter, but the pilot can’t land because the clearing is not big enough… so Jake has to be lowered down by winch… that works but when Jake tries to winch him and Chris back up to the helicopter, the winch breaks. Looks like they are going to have to dirt bike their way to the ranger station where they can then fly Chris to the hospital.
- Out of the Frying Pan, Into the Fire: Marcus being the asshole that he is, questions if Jake can handle a dirt bike, but Jake shuts him down pretty quickly with a little demonstration of his bike riding skills (which any fan of Street Justice was already well aware of)… Things are about to get worse though for Jake and The Dirt Bikers (not to be confused with Eddie and The Cruisers) because Jake can smell smoke in the distance and see the tell tale signs in the forest that there’s a wildfire coming. Guess what? Marcus does not believe him, because he doesn’t smell anything, he doesn’t see any smoke or fire and most importantly because he’s an asshole. And at that point I hoped he’d be the first victim of the fire… Marcus only gets cockier when Jake’s escape route doesn’t pan out and they run into more fires.
- Here Comes the Ax: My hope for Marcus’ demise did come true and I kind of felt bad as Marcus used his dying words to tip off Jake that he saw a guy setting the fires! This explains why this wildfire is not spreading like it naturally would… because there’s a maniac lighting multiple fires all over the forest almost like he is trying to get a measure of revenge on Jake! That’s right Tiny survived the mine accident and he has been waiting for his chance to kill Jake… the two engage in an ax battle and fire bug Tiny ends up going up in flames!
- Murphy’s Law: The Tiny problem has been addressed, but there’s the much bigger problem that has to be addressed… the wildfire that is now surrounding Jake, Sharon, Melanie and Chris… and at this point Chris and Jake both have bad wheels, they’ve lost Jake’s radio, basically everything that could go wrong has gone wrong… you know shit is bad when the safest option is to go hide out in the condemned mine, bringing the movie full circle in more ways than one.
The visual effects used in the opening scene was not the best first impression Fire could have made. Some of the “kids” were also not the most appealing characters (at one point or another I wanted them all to burn)… so I can understand those IMDb users who gave Fire a below average rating.
What I can’t understand are those IMDb users who gave the movie a 1… are you kidding me? A movie with a rating of 1 has absolutely no redeeming qualities and that is impossible when your movie stars Bryan Genesse, who was excellent as park ranger Jake! The practical effects all looked good and you had Tiny who was a helluva fired up villain. I wish I could point the 1 raters in the direction of some other action movies currently streaming on TUBI that are a half step above a bad student film starring people the director knows and not people with actual talent. But I guess to each their own as they say…
I say, how about some Bonus Bullet Points?
- One Thing I Didn’t Know: My DVD copy of Fire included a fun behind the scenes featurette where I learned that Bryan Genesse hyperextended his knee and tore up his hamstring during one of the fight scenes. While those types of injuries would send your average man home, ol’ BG finished the movie wearing a cast on his leg that went from his groin to his ankle. Props to Bryan Genesse, Director Allan A. Goldstein (who also directed Death Wish V) and the cast and crew for being able to work around Bryan’s injury and finish the movie.
- AKA: Fire is also known by the longer title Nature Unleashed: Fire, part of a series of films that Nu Image produced. The other Nature Unleashed movies include Avalanche, Earthquake, Tornado and Volcano. I think Nature Unleashed: Tornado will be next on my list since it stars Daniel Bernhardt.
- Missed Opportunity: Sadly Fire does not feature the Ohio Players classic “Fire”. That would have been the perfect end credits song… but it probably wasn’t budget friendly.
