Fugit

Paul Scheer was opining that The Fugitive (1993) is a better movie than, for example, Speed. Well, I couldn't argue one way or the other, so we watched The Fugitive.

It starts with some confusing scenes of violence - a woman being murdered. Ms. Spenser immediately checked out here, although she has seen worse. Maybe it was the stylization. Anyway, Dr. Harrispn Ford comes home to the scene, and fights off the attacker (a one-armed man, we learn later), who runs off. When the police get there, it looks like an open and shut case - Ford did it. He is swiftly tried and convicted. On his way to the Big House, the adventure starts. 

First, another prisoner tires to escape and the guard blows him away. There's a struggle and the driver is killed. So the prison bus is now out of control. It comes to a stop on the railroad tracks, and a train smucks it to high heaven - after Ford gets out. This is a pretty wild set piece to open with.

The US Marshalls show up, lead by Tommy Lee Jones, a hard-ass who immediately sets up a perimeter to catch the escapees, especially Ford. Everyone figures he was killed in the crash, but not Jones. 

Ford sneaks into a hospital to treat his wounds, and takes off in an ambulance. Jones is hot on his trail in a copter. Ford winds up at a dam, and when manages to get hold of Jones' gun. When he pleads that he didn't kill his wife, Jones has the bad-ass line: "I. Don't. Care." So Ford jumps off of the mile-high dam. Once again, everyone assumes he's dead, but not Jones.

Unfortunately after these two big set pieces, things slow down a little. Ford sneaks back to Chicago to look for the one-armed man. He gets some help from old friends, but trusts no one - good plan. There's a good scene where they pass each other on opposite stairwells, and Ford almost slips by. But Jones recognizes him and chases him down a long stairwell - but loses him in Chicago's iconic St. Patrick's Day parade. 

The ending is a bit anticlimactic - It's pretty paranoid, but the stakes seemed to be ridiculously low. I think the TV series had the same problem.

I didn't actually watch The Fugitive on TV, but I think Ford does a pretty good job playing David Janssen's character - the same intensity, paranoia, and intelligence. But Tommy Lee Jones' bad-ass marshall steals the show. He has a quirky group of assistants (Joey Pants as "Cosmo") and snaps out orders with the occasional quirk tossed in ("And don't let them tease you about your ponytail"). It makes sense that the sequel is just about him.