Passenger 57

365 Films

Entry #17

Passenger 57 (1992)

Directed by: Kevin Hooks

I suppose I have some ‘splainin’ to do about this particular entry.  No, this won’t be one of those ironic appraisals of a previously-thought-to-be garbage title.  I’m not going to try and convince you that Passenger 57 is really a sub-textual journey into the paralysis of grief and how that somehow parallels with the corporatizing of private security in the airline industry.  I merely offer Passenger 57 as my gateway drug into the many pleasures that the action movie had to offer.  It also introduced me to someone who is, in my humble opinion, the greatest action movie star of the 20^th and subsequently 21^st century. I’m talking about Tom Sizemore of course, oh wait, I mean Wesley Snipes.  I always get those two mixed up.  Getting back to the point, Passenger 57 is the film that introduced the world to Wesley Snipes: action star!  After making a big splash with a series of sports comedies followed by a trio of dramas, two of which were directed by Spike Lee, Snipes became a household name with Passenger 57.  In what barely passes for a warmed-over Die Hard rip-off, Snipes plays John Cutter, an airline security expert who finds himself on a passenger plane held hostage by terrorist Charles Rane and his all-star team of international freelance terrorists. Cutter teams up with a plucky female flight attendant named Marti to end the “Rane of Terror” on board.  That’s about it.  There’s a diversion to a county fair just so the entire action of the movie doesn’t take place on a plane, and everything turns out exactly as you hope it would.  It’s literally Under Siege on a plane, that’s how far removed we are from even a Die Hard knock-off.  I shouldn’t slag on the movie too much.  It provided me with thrills a-plenty when I first encountered it.  Plus, it introduced me to my first movie star obsession in Mr. Snipes.  I followed his career with great interest through the years and while his subsequent legal troubles have robbed us of his cinematic presence, Passenger 57 is a sufficient reminder of just how valuable he was to action movies.  He is (in my opinion) the best actor of all the late-80’s/early-90’s action stars and he had the most charisma of the bunch by far.  It’s no wonder they’ve been desperately trying to get him to do an Expendables movie.  Snipes’ performance in Passenger 57 has certain stillness to it (I know, I know, shut up) and while most action stars of that era amped up their machismo, what appealed to me about Snipes was his discipline. He wasn’t an improviser like Willis, or a brick shit house like Stallone, Schwarzenegger, or Van-Damme.  Snipes is a thinking man’s action hero who strategizes the next move instead of impulsively impaling people with steam pipes   And he knows karate! I miss him every day.