Passenger 57

Plot

British international terrorist and narcotics kingpin Charles Rane, whose career has been dubbed as "The Rane of Terror" by the media, is arrested by the FBI and local authorities in Miami, just as he is about to undergo plastic surgery in order to evade law enforcement. The FBI make plans to return Rane to Los Angeles to stand trial.

Widowed law enforcement veteran John Cutter has served an honorable career as a reputable police officer, decorated soldier, and reliable Secret Service Special Agent known for his tough stance on high-level crimes. Having constantly been haunted by the memories of his wife's death in a convenience store robbery, Cutter has launched a course specializing in training airline flight crews, including flight attendants, in anti-terrorism measures and self-defense. After one class, Cutter is approached by an old friend, Sly Delvecchio, who offers Cutter the vice presidency of a new anti-terrorism unit for his company, Atlantic International Airlines. Cutter is reluctant, but Delvecchio and the company's president, Stuart Ramsey, eventually convince him to accept the offer.

Cutter boards as the 57th passenger on an Atlantic International flight to Los Angeles (a Lockheed L-1011 TriStar), where one of his students, Marti Slayton, is one of the flight attendants. Rane and his two FBI escorts Agents Manning and Duncan are also aboard. After the flight takes off, several henchmen in Rane's employ, posing as flight attendants and passengers, kill Manning and Duncan, release Rane, and secure the plane by also killing the captain. Cutter, in the lavatory at the time, manages to use the plane's on-board phone to warn Delvecchio of the situation, but Cutter is soon caught by Allen, one of Rane's henchmen.

Cutter overpowers Allen and takes his weapon; he then uses him (in a chokehold) as a shield to confront Rane, but an indifferent Rane shows his ruthlessness by murdering both Douglas, a passenger and Allen in cold blood; Cutter realizes he is outmatched and escapes with Marti to the cargo hold. Cutter dispatches another of Rane's men, Vincent, who masquerades as a caterer. Cutter trips circuitry to dump the plane's fuel, forcing Rane to order the surviving pilots to land at a small Louisiana airfield. As Cutter and Marti prepare to escape upon touchdown, Marti is caught by one of the terrorists, Forget, and he kicks Cutter out of the plane. He is arrested by local sheriff Leonard Biggs, who thinks he is a terrorist, and takes him to the airport building.

Production

Development

The film was based on a script by Stewart Raffill. It was written as an action film for an actor like Clint Eastwood, about a man going to bury his son in Spain who sat next to an Iranian terrorist on the plane. The terrorist hijacks the plane and takes the passengers to Iran. Then the Clint Eastwood type character escapes, captures the Mullahs and holds them as prisoners in exchange for American prisoners.

Raffill says "The head of the studio said to me, "If I make that movie, they'll blow up the theaters." So I did a couple of re-writes for them, for Warner Bros. who owned it, then I got another picture and came back and then it became a black movie." Raffill says his work only remains in the first quarter of the resulting film. Raffill could not think of a title for the film but noticed a bottle of ketchup and was inspired by the Heinz 57 mark to call the film Passenger 57.

Filming

Although supposedly set partly at a small airport in Louisiana, filming took place between January 13 and February 26, 1992, in Wesley Snipes' hometown of Orlando, Florida, with Orlando Sanford International Airport standing in for Lake Lucille Airport in Louisiana. The airport's former combination main hangar and control tower from its time as Naval Air Station Sanford was used for many key scenes just prior to its demolition after filming.

Music

Soundtrack

Passenger 57's soundtrack was composed by jazz bassist Stanley Clarke, and features both jazz fusion and more traditional grand orchestral pieces. A soundtrack album was issued by Epic Records on CD and cassette to coincide with the film's release. However, the main title theme was strangely omitted from it, and can instead be found on the later collection, Stanley Clarke: At the Movies. The track "Chaos on the Tarmac" has been re-used for the trailer of another action film, Sudden Death. A cover of Stevie Wonder's "Too High" by Norman Brown also features in the film.

Release

Home media

The film was released on video in the United States and the United Kingdom by Warner Home Video in October 1993 and September 1994. It was released on DVD in Region 1 in the United States on May 27, 1998, and Region 2 in the United Kingdom on April 26, 1999.

Reception

Box office

Passenger 57 was released on November 6, 1992, and opened at number one rank in 1,734 theaters. The opening weekend receipts were $10,513,925. The film's final US domestic gross receipts were $44,065,653. Internationally, the film grossed $22,437,000, for a worldwide total of $66,502,653. Passenger 57 is one of the films that launched Wesley Snipes' career in the action genre. Because of this film's success, Snipes was cast in lead roles of other features, including Money Train, Drop Zone, Demolition Man, The Art of War and the Blade trilogy.

Critical response

The film received mixed reviews. Critics praised Wesley Snipes and Bruce Payne's performances, but panned the script. On Rotten Tomatoes it has an approval rating of 30% based on 27 reviews, with an average rating of 4.5/10. The consensus states: "Wesley Snipes tries to pilot Passenger 57 away from turbulence, but even he can't help this implausible coach-class action bomber from nose-diving." Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B" on an A+ to F scale.

Marcus Trower, of Empire magazine, stated that Bruce Payne was "a brilliantly disconcerting madman. With his flowing blond Jesus locks, armor-piercing stare and casual sadism, he makes Hannibal Lecter look like a social worker – and like Sir Anthony Hopkins's serial killer, part of the man's menace is in the apparent contradiction between his articulate, well-spoken English and his off-hand brutality." The Radio Times stated that Payne and Snipes both gave 'charismatic turns' in the film. The New York Times stated that Payne brought a 'tongue-in-cheek humor to the psychopathic fiend' that he played. A reviewer for People magazine stated that "Bruce Payne steals the plane—and the movie".