U.S. Marshals (1998)

U.S. Marshals has some great action sequences and stunts. Everything from the sequence at the graveyard to the building shootout leading to the jump from the building to the train is great. Stuart Baird, being primarily an editor stages every action sequence beautifully. There is both a positive and a negative to this being a sequel to the Fugitive with a whole new story. It has the continuity between Tommy Lee Jones and most of the same team of U.S. Marshals from that movie. Wesley Snipes plays a sympathetic and much more active and not cerebral as a fugitive as Harrison Ford. What is different from the first movie is in the writing. While the first Fugitive movie interwove the storylines of the fugitive, authority figures, and the other villains well this doesn't do that quite as well. Instead of feeling like one movie it almost feels like two and a half at times. The brilliantly staged action sequences as well as ones that have much more culture and geographical sense than most modern action movies make up quite a bit for long runtime.

Synopsis: An airplane bearing gruff U.S. Marshal Sam Gerard (Tommy Lee Jones) crashes in the wilderness. On board the same flight is Mark Sheridan (Wesley Snipes), a federal prisoner accused of double murder, who escapes during the ensuing chaos, but not before rescuing several people from the wreckage. Gerard is ordered to hunt down the fugitive along with State Department agent John Royce (Robert Downey Jr.), and the two pursue Sheridan relentlessly, despite growing doubts about his guilt.

The movie starts with surveillance footage where a person with a briefcase shoots two people. Mark Roberts (Snipes) is driving a tow truck when he gets into accident. He is arrested, as the police have obtained evidence from the government that he shot those two agents at the beginning months ago. His fingerprints were found at the scene. Meanwhile, Deputy Sam Gerard, and his team of U.S. Marshals played by Joe Pantoliano, Daniel Roebuck, LaTanya Richardson, and Tom Wood, do a sting operation on a family of drug dealers. I enjoy seeing Tommy Lee Jones undercover in a big chicken suit. I enjoy seeing Joey Pants and Roebuck having to try to fight Donald Gibb. Nowadays if this scene were a real thing people would definitely talk about excessive use of force. In a very relevant scene for today's sociopolitical climate Tom Wood's character, Noah Newman shoots one of the criminals who keeps retreated to his baby's crib. It is revealed there was a shotgun in the crib. Sometimes deadly force is necessary. At the same time Gerard goes and hits Doanld Gibb's character in the face with a shotgun. 

Gerard is reprimanded for his use of deadly force by his boss played by Kate Nelligan. They are shown to have a completely unnecessary romantic relationship. Gerard is then tasked with security on a prison transport plane that Roberts happens to be on. Roberts thwarts and attempt on his life. This leads to the plane depressurizing and crashing near a small Ilinois town. I do like the sequence where they are all trying to get out of the plane. It shows a different side to Gerard as he repeatedly goes into the sinking plane to save more prisoners. Roberts disappears. This leads to a fun sequence where Tommy Lee Jones gets a shirt from a local town restaurant and all of the Marshals go into the swamps with local boat drivers. Diplomatic Security Service Agent John Royce (Robert Downey Jr.) is assigned to work with Gerard and his team. 

In a confrontation with Roberts in the woods Gerard is shot. Gerard and his team eventually see in the surveillance footage that the man had gloves on. They show this video to the head of DSS and it is eventually revealed that Roberts' real name is Sheridan. He is a former Marine and worked in the CIA. He was part of a plan to find a mole within the US Government who was selling secrets to the Chinese government. That is when the opening scene happened and allegedly he was the one who shot two people. This shows that Roberts is a different fugitive from Harrison Ford's character. He is much more dangerous, a little less calculating but every bit as observant. He does things much quicker and more decisive. As the Marshals, Sheridan, and the Chinese agent the corrupt agents were selling secrets to are lead to the same place, this leads to a great action sequence in a graveyard, car chases, and chases inside tall buildings. 

This graveyard sequence is edited beautifully and shot well by Stuart Baird and his crew. The geography is well defined and each person's view is clear. It's one of the better action sequences in any 90s action movie truth be told. While I enjoy Wesley Snipes' ability to play both a more dangerous and sympathetic fugitive I do think it's a bit of a problem that he spends some part of the movie threatening ordinary civilians. Do they get any say in what happens to him even when he's proved his innocence? Harrison Ford's crimes in the first movie were more like stealing keycards and fraudulent identity. He never really tried to hurt anyone. While I like seeing Gerard and his team I think each thread in this movie could be shorter. Instead of showing so much of Snipes it could just be more of a Criminal Minds episode where it strictly focuses on the authorities and they find out what Snipes is doing as we do. I think this would have worked better as miniseries but the action sequences are still great. 

Spoiler Section 

The mystery in this movie is actually more fun to watch for upon rewatch, even if it again adds a lot of time to an all ready fat movie. This movie is like a great steak with some fat on the corners and even in the middle. There are many times, such as when Robert Downey Jr.'s character doesn't put up his flare where you can tell he wants Sheridan alone so that he can kill him. There is even more venom to his villainy when he decides to shoot Noah and how he acts all innocent after. I'm not sure if I missed something but is Royce really that stupid thinking that giving Sheridan his gun and filing off the serial number would fool Gerard. Why not just bring a different gun so that Gerard may not have been able to recognize it later. Again I can condone it just because I enjoy seeing Gerard having to draw faster than him like in a western duel at the end of the movie. Seeing a much more cold, vengeance-driven, rogue Gerard at the end was awesome too. I honestly wish we would've gotten another movie with Tommy Lee Jones as this character but instead of showing too much of the fugitive it could be more police procedural. Roebuck and Pantoliano are great also. 

Rating: 8/10

Trivia: When Sheridan rents his apartment from across the U.N. Building his response to the landlord is "It's perfect." That is the same line used by Harrison Ford when his character rents an apartment in the Fugitive. Samuel L. Jackson was the first choice to play Mark Sheridan. 

Trailer: