World’s Most Dangerous Shopping Malls – Vol. 1

In today’s world, the most dangerous thing about a shopping mall is probably owning one. But there was a time where shopping malls were raking in the the cash, night after night, year after year.

Malls were a hub of activity, a one stop shop for all your needs and in the days before social media, malls were a gathering place for the younger generation.

If movies have taught me anything it is that shopping malls were also a magnet for danger back in the day. I brought some examples with me to back up this claim, as I present some of the World’s Most Dangerous Shopping Malls…

8. Christmas Rush (2002)

It’s Christmas Eve at the Chicago Place Mall. Suspended police officer, Cornelius Morgan (Dean Cain) finds himself in hot water, not only with the police brass, but his beautiful wife, Cat (Erika Eleniak) too. Cornelius decides to surprise Cat at work with some flowers and a much needed apology before she calls it a day at one of the mall’s jewelry stores. Instead Cornelius ends up becoming the fly in the ointment for a plan to steal millions from the mall concocted by master thief, Jimmy Scalzetti (Eric Roberts).

After seemingly disposing of Petrovich, Scalzetti’s hulking henchman, Cornelius finds himself in a shoot out with Petrovich’s best friend and fellow henchman, Simulus. Cornelius and Simulus take their bullet riddled battle to the confines of Chicago’s finest department store, Sciacci & Forzini. Mannequin heads are blown off and display cases shatter, as Cornelius and Simulus exchange fire… but when Cornelius runs out of ammo, he needs to improvise, dumping a display case on top of Simulus, then making a dash for the department store’s escalator!

Cornelius throws luggage down the escalator to slow down the pursuing Simulus. Cornelius then pours some shampoo all over the floor to further slip up his foe. A clothes rack from Sciacci & Forzini, helps Cornelius exit the department store and smash his way into the Near North Sports sporting goods store across the way. Cornelius attempts to grab a shotgun and some shells… but the store’s safety and security measures make that a difficult task… once again it’s time to improvise, especially since Simulus has caught up with him.

Cornelius grabs a hockey stick and proceeds to puck up Simulus! When the hockey fight is over, a frustrated Simulus begins shooting wildly, even hitting a Dick Butkus standee! Seconds later… Simulus gets something even worse than a lump of coal for Christmas… he gets an arrow to the chest, courtesy of Cornelius Morgan!

7. Rage (1995)

Human guinea pig, Alex Gayner (Gary Daniels), agrees to meet with news reporter, Harry Johansen (Kenneth Tigar), at a local shopping mall. Alex begins to tell Harry the amazing story of how he wound up becoming an experimental “super soldier”. The interview is interrupted by Special Agent Parrish (Tim Colceri) and an army of agents who are looking to shut the story down and offer Alex a “way out”. But Alex has no reason to trust these people and instead of surrendering we get ourselves a BRAWL at the MALL!

Alex starts kicking and punching agents, tossing and booting some of them through store front windows. When Alex ducks into a surf shop, the guns come out and Alex soon makes a mad dash out of the store through one of the windows! Then it happens… Alex finds himself inside a video store filled with PM Entertainment films, Alex dives over one of the display shelves to take cover from the barrage of bullets coming his way! Alex disarms the gunman, then uses a display shelf like a bulldozer and pushes two more agents through a window. There’s broken glass everywhere as window after window is destroyed!

Outside the video store, Alex dumps one of the agents off the second story balcony, before swinging down to the first floor himself, eliminating another agent with a baseball slide upon landing and taking his gun. More agents head Alex’s way and the chase is on as innocent people looking for deals at Florsheim and JC Penney are forced to flee. Alex makes his way to the escalators where things definitely escalate… Alex exchanges fire from agents in every direction! The carnage continues when Alex gets ahold of some superior firepower allowing him to add to the body count and property damage!

Word comes down from the Governor himself to cease the operation, but stubborn Parrish isn’t hearing it. Meanwhile, Alex finds himself fighting in, on and around a merry-go-round as a carousel of agents are taken down one by one.

Finally Parrish, the self-proclaimed patriot, decides to get his hands dirty and he pulls his gun and shoots Alex multiple times, first in the shoulder, then in the legs. Wounded and on his knees, Alex finds himself at the mercy of Parrish, and that’s when Agent Beckford steps in. Beckford is the one agent who is following the Governor’s orders and the agent that ends up gunning down Special Agent Parrish, saving Alex’s life in the process.

6. The Blues Brothers (1980)

Jake and Elwood Blues are on a mission from God… they are also on the run from the law! Elwood leads state troopers on a high speed chase that starts on surface streets and ends up in a mall parking lot, and eventually into the mall itself!

The Blues Brothers crash through a Toys R Us, with the troopers still in hot pursuit, before leading the chase through the mall proper where shoppers scatter and scamper away. Jake and Elwood admire the wide variety of shopping options the mall has to offer, and with the help of their police pursuers, destroy much of that variety too.

One cop car spends the latter portion of the pursuit upside down, the other ends up crashed out in a Jewel grocery store, while the Blue Brothers make a hasty exit through a JC Penney!

5. Marked for Death (1990)

A hot pursuit on the streets of Chicago ends after a car full of Jamaican drug dealers crashes into a mall’s department store! The drug dealers, known as the Posse, soon learn their problems have just begun… now they have to face their two pursuers, former DEA agent John Hatcher (Steven Seagal) and his old friend, Max Keller (Keith David)!

It’s a cacophony of deafening gun shots and blood curdling screams with Hatcher and Keller waging a two-man war on drugs, as they engage in a gun fight with the Posse! Getting nowhere fast, The Posse decides to run, but Hatcher and Keller waste no time going after them… One guy pulls a knife on Hatcher and finds himself tossed into a display case… Another Posse member swings his empty shotgun at Hatcher, only to get sidestepped and thrown into a counter… A third gets back body dropped by Hatcher into another display… Yet another takes a woman hostage holding a knife to her throat. In the blink of an eye, Hatcher outsmarts his foe, saves the woman, and then proceeds to stab the Posse member with his own knife!

Realizing they can’t take Hatcher one on one, two Posse members decide to team up. The result is very much the same… One of them has his arm broken in moments, the other goes head first into two display cases, before being slammed into a third.

4. Commando (1985)

Colonel John Matrix (Arnold Schwarzenegger) has recruited an off-duty flight attendant named Cindy (Rae Dawn Chong) to help him get Sully (David Patrick Kelly). Sully works for Arius, the man who has kidnapped Matrix’s young daughter Jenny in an attempt to get Matrix to do his bidding. And right now, Sully is Matrix’s only chance of finding out where Jenny is. After “modifying” Cindy’s convertible, Matrix orders Cindy to follow Sully, who just pulled out of the airport parking garage in his yellow Datsun 240Z.

The pursuit leads them to the Sherman Oaks Galleria, where Matrix wants to use Cindy as bait. Cindy follows Sully into a bar, but instead of making her way over to Sully’s table where he is conducting some sort of dirty deal, Cindy tells a security guard about the huge paranoid maniac that has kidnapped her. The security guard takes one look at Matrix and wisely realizes he’s going to need some back up.

Meanwhile, Sully has concluded his business transaction and spots Cindy, who is standing by the bar’s entrance. Sully makes his way over to Cindy and that’s when he spots Matrix (who he believed was on a flight to Val Verde) fighting with the security guards! Sully races to a payphone to spill the beans to his boss, but Matrix is right behind him… Sully fires his gun in Matrix’s direction, shattering the glass of the phone booth. Matrix grabs a hold of the phone booth and starts shaking it violently, before picking it up and dumping it attitude adjustment style on the hard floor! Sully spills out, while the security guards swarm Matrix.

Just then… the ne’er do well that Sully was doing business with at the bar comes out and shoots one of the security guards, before he himself is shot and goes tumbling over the balcony rail! Sully then shoots another security guard as he is hightailing his way to the elevator!

Realizing she should have believed Matrix’s story, Cindy prevents one of the guards from shooting Matrix, by shoving the guard down a flight of stairs. Meanwhile, Matrix continues to fight off a phalanx of security guards, before he swings over to the top of the elevator that Sully is in… but thanks to more security guard interference on the parking garage level, Sully manages to get to his car, where he proceeds to rundown Matrix as he bolts out of the garage in hopes of getting as far away from John Matrix as possible.

3. Police Story (1985)

Chu Tao, a notorious Hong Kong drug dealer, and his minions converge on a shopping mall. Their main objective is to stop Salina, a former Chu Tao secretary, from obtaining evidence that would put an end to Chu Tao’s criminal empire. Fortunately for Salina, super cop Cha Ka-Kui (Jackie Chan) has also made his way to the mall, along with his girlfriend May.

Chu Tao spots Salina with the briefcase containing the damning evidence against him, and sends his men to chase after her. Salina pushes her way past people on the escalator, but the Chu Tao’s minions are hot on her trail… until Cha Ka-Kui leaps into action and fights the pursuers on the escalator! Cha Ka-Kui and Salina then head back up the escalator, but there’s more trouble waiting for them. Cha Ka-Kui ends up kicking one of the goons so hard that the goon goes airborne and ends up between the two escalators!

When another goon rips the briefcase from Salina’s hands, Cha Ka-Kui attempts to retrieve it, but the numbers game comes into play and Cha Ka-Kui is sent over the rail, where he lands hard on a display on the floor below. The action makes it all the way to the top floor of the mall with Chu-Tao’s goons attempting to escort Salina and the briefcase to Chu-Tao’s office… some security guards step in, but they are quickly dispatched of.

Then like a phoenix from the ashes, Cha Ka-Kui is back and ready for a fight! And he gets one, as two of the goons, wielding aluminum baseball bats, attack him! Cha Ka-Kui proves to be resourceful, using a rolling clothes rack to defend himself! Before it is all said and done, a mannequin, a mirror and even a motorcycle come into play during what could only be described as mall mayhem!

When one of the baddies, Danny Koo, throws the briefcase from the balcony all the way to the first floor food court, it becomes a race for the evidence! Cha Ka-Kui spots May and tells her to get downstairs and grab the briefcase, but the diabolical Chu Tao intercepts May and pushes May down the stairs, before retrieving the briefcase himself! Needing to find the quickest way from point A to point B, the proud policeman, Cha Ka-Kui, pulls out a fireman move and slides down a pole in the most spectacular fashion possible!

2. Chopping Mall (1986)

Leslie Todd (Suzee Slater) is in desperate need of a cigarette after some furniture store fornication with her boyfriend and fellow mall employee, Mike Brennan (John Terlesky). Leslie uses her feminine wiles to convince Mike to go out to the cigarette vending machine in the mall proper. But when Mike doesn’t return, an agitated Leslie, figuring Mike is playing some sort of game, goes out to investigate.

Leslie finds Mike sitting down on the floor next to the cigarette vending machine, assuming he’s fallen asleep, she shouts in his face and shakes him to wake him… then she realizes Mike’s throat has been slit. She screams in terror, and then she meets Mike’s throat slitter when a pair of double doors opens… it’s a Killbot and it’s after Leslie now!

In a total panic, Leslie makes her way back to the Furniture King, screaming all the way! The Killbot is in hot pursuit and zaps Leslie with some laser shots to her back and one to Leslie’s Playboy panties posterior! All the screaming gets the attention of her friends who pause their partying in the furniture store and find themselves glued to the window as they watch in horror as the Killbot goes for the kill shot, causing Leslie to lose her head… literally!

1. Invasion USA (1985)

After blowing up a residential neighborhood and a community center, the terrorist invasion on United States soil targets a South Florida shopping mall. The mall is packed with Christmas shoppers, but among the collection of capitalism supporting consumers, is a wolf in sheep’s clothing. It’s Kurt the terrorist in disguise. Kurt is posing as just another shopper looking to get their Christmas shopping done. Kurt is carrying a shopping bag with what appears to be a wrapped present inside… but in actuality it is a bomb, a bomb that he casually places by a department store display case.

A couple shopping nearby, notices Kurt walked away from his bag. The husband springs into action, picking up the bag and shouting in Kurt’s direction. As Kurt picks up his pace, so does the husband, and it becomes a full fledged foot chase in the mall proper, until some of Kurt’s terrorist buddies appear and open fire… shooting one innocent person after the next! If that’s not enough terror… the bomb goes off!

And that’s about the time Matt Hunter (Chuck Norris) comes roaring into the mall in his GMC K-1500, smashing through displays and a store front, before he races towards the gaggle of gun toting terrorists and nails one of them with his front end! Hunter then gets out of his vehicle with an Uzi in each hand and begins spraying the invaders with bullets. Multiple store fronts become collateral damage in what has become a shopping mall shootout!

Kurt, and one of his bad time buddies, hop into a Nissan 720 that the mall was giving away. Kurt attempts to hotwire the truck, while his partner in crime continues the firefight with Hunter. Once Kurt gets the truck started, he races towards Hunter, but Hunter avoids the collision and manages to hitch a ride on the side of the speeding vehicle. Kurt tries to shake Hunter by driving through display after display, but it’s not working! It’s not until Kurt goes barreling through an exit door that he forces Hunter to abandon ship… but if Kurt thinks he’s just going to drive away, he’s got another thing coming!