No Surrender Cinema: Fast Getaway
There’s nothing stronger than the bond between father and son…and that level of trust comes in handy when most of your time together is spent robbing banks! This edition of No Surrender Cinema takes a look back at an action comedy with an all star cast that just so happens to be celebrating its 30th anniversary this year, so sit back and enjoy the ride as we head out on a Fast Getaway!
Famed character actor Leo Rossi (Maniac Cop 2) and teen icon Corey Haim (The Double O Kid) are Sam and Nelson Potter, a family unit that enjoys playful banter and taking money that isn’t theirs. Nelson is your normal, overtly horny 16 year old kid, but he spends most of his time hard at work as his dad’s decoy/lookout, aiding him in his robberies. It’s not the normal life for a kid like Nelson, but he seems to be loving every second of it. Unfortunately for Nelson, Sam’s girlfriend Lily (martial arts legend Cynthia Rothrock) doesn’t like having the kid along for the ride. An argument with Sam leads to Lily kicking his ass all over an abandoned farmhouse, and Nelson grabbing a handgun and coming to his father’s rescue. Lily takes off with Tony, the fourth and least smart member of the gang, leaving Nelson and Sam to try their luck as a two man operation.
After splitting from Lily, Nelson and Sam pull another heist (complete with Nelson dressed in drag as a decoy), but the ensuing police chase finds the duo trapped on a bridge with nowhere to go but down…which is exactly where they go! Fortunately for their sake (and the film’s remaining runtime) they survive, but the incident seems to have given Sam an epiphany; he’s thinking of winding down this life of crime. After all, his main motivation for robbing all of these banks has been to build a college fund for Nelson and send him off to law school. By this point though, Nelson is your typical rebellious teen and lives off the rush of robbing places, which causes him and dear old dad to butt heads. Not only that, but a vengeful Lily is still lurking around, now with Tony by her side, looking to get even with the pair. Nelson manages to convince Sam to pull another job, but a tipoff from Lily sends the police to the scene just as Nelson and Sam walk out of the door. Sam is placed under arrest and Nelson poses as a runaway, not divulging the fact that Sam is his father. The two make faces to each other at the police station to assure each other that things will be OK, but Sam’s final look is one of shock when a woman named Lorraine comes to pick Nelson up. It’s obvious that Lorraine is someone from Sam’s past, and it’s not long before she’s caught up in their crazy lifestyle, evading Lily and Tony and giving in to Nelson’s pleading that she help him break Sam out of jail.
Nelson’s plan works, but Sam’s return causes more of a stir when he reveals to Nelson that Lorraine is his mother (who he thought was dead). Naturally, this causes a rift between father and son, allowing Lily and Tony capitalize on that moment of weakness by taking Nelson hostage. Now Nelson is their unwilling decoy, forced to enter a bank with a bomb strapped to him, and it’s up to Sam and Lorraine to put their past behind them and come together to save their son.
Director Spiro Razatos, better known in Hollywood as a stunt coordinator on everything from Maniac Cop to Bad Boys For Life, truly hit on something special with Fast Getaway. The chemistry among the cast is undeniable, and it’s not hard to see that everybody was having fun on set. Rothrock has said as much in an online interview where she shared several humorous stories from the set (such as Haim claiming she punctured his lung with a pulled kick just so he could have a day off from filming) and discussed how different it was for her to go from co-starring with fellow martial artists to being the lead villain in an action comedy. Although this one didn’t come close to achieving the success of other films that Razatos worked on, it’s become a cult favorite over the years thanks to its long life on cable (HBO aired this one often up through the late 90’s, so it was one of those films that seemed like it was always on whether you were looking for it or not). I could have lived without the subplot of Nelson being a virgin for the first half of the film (and his being so worked up that he stared uncomfortably at his dad making out with Lily) because it’s an odd character quirk that doesn’t seem to mesh well with the rest of the story, but the second half balances things out with the awkward family reunion, jailbreak, and climactic chase scene.
Aside from a foreign DVD release, Fast Getaway has only been released on VHS, but it can currently be viewed on YouTube and Amazon Prime Video. If you’re looking for a lighthearted way to spend your evening, or ever wanted to see Cynthia Rothrock kicking Corey Haim’s ass around the back of a moving truck, then this one’s for you. Fast Getaway was a staple of my teenage years, and it’s nice to see that it still holds up after all this time.
