The fugitive - 1993

I’ve always loved this movie, since the first time I watched it many years ago. I was a fan of Harrison Ford (obviously, after three star wars and three indiana jones…) but after I saw this film I was a Tommy Lee Jones fan as well, has been ever since. 

The story: Doctor Richard Kimble (Ford) comes back home from a party one night to find that his wife Helen (Sela Ward) has been murdered. The man that killed her is still in the house and the two fight, but he gets away. His story is not believed and he’s found guilty of her murder. While being transported by bus, other prisoners rebel and escape, and he takes advantage of the situation and escapes as well. FBI commander Gerard (Jones) and his team must find the prisoners. He’s the only one that keeps eluding them. He sneaks into a hospital to treat his own wounds, and uses a patient room to change, shave his beard and eat something. When he goes out, he gives the paramedics advice on how to treat the wounded guard, and goes away but Gerard finds him. He tells him that he didn’t kill his wife, but Gerard says that he doesn’t care. Kimble’s only way out: he throws himself off from the top of a dam. The team thinks the must be dead, Gerard doesn’t. Instead of running away, Kimble comes back to Chicago, to investigate and find the man with one arm that killed his wife. He enters a hospital as a janitor to have a look at the prosthetic department, and gather a list of names of men with the prosthetic he’s looking for.

When he’s about to go out, he notices that a kid is being mis-diagnosed in the overwhelmed e.r., and changes the writings on his file and takes him to the surgery floor, saving his life. The e.r. doctor (Julianne Moore) questions him about it and later tells everything to Gerard.

Kimble looks up all the names on his list, even goes to see one man in prison, only as soon as he saw his face he knew he was the wrong man. Again he’s found by Gerard while trying to get out, and he makes it out of the door just in time: Gerard shoots at him multiple times, but the doors have bulletproof glass. That was a great scene, Kimble’s face when for a split second he thought he ought to have been shot.. I love that scene.

Kimble finds the one-armed man he’s looking for (Andreas Katsulas) and calls Gerard to lead him to Sykes house. Sykes was working for a pharmaceutical company making big big money with a new drug, but Kimble’s research would have prevented that drug from being released because it had bad side-effects or something, it was dangerous, so his friend Charlie Nichols, that he trusted, covered it all up and wanted him dead, but Helen was killed instead. Like collateral damage, while he waited for him too.

Gerard becomes rather curious about his actions, and starts looking at this whole thing as he did, arriving at the truth as well. 

Sykes tries again to kill Kimble, but ends up shooting a patrol officer instead before Kimble knocks him down and handcuffs him to the train.  Then he goes to confront Nichols, who is giving a speech on his miraculous new drug. They fight until Gerard arrives. He calls Kimble, shouts that he knows everything, also giving the details of course otherwise it’d mean nothing. Nichols knocks his man out and attempts on shooting him, but Kimble hits him unconscious and then surrenders to Gerard. He’s taken to a police car, where Gerard takes off the handcuffs and puts ice on his hands. Kimble says “I thought you didn’t care” - Gerard “I don’t” and then “don’t tell anyone” :-)

ITA il fuggitivo