Guilty Pleasure No. 131: Sudden Death (dir by Peter Hyams)

Oh, Sudden Death, how I love you!

At first glance, 1995’s Sudden Death appears to just be another “Die Hard in a—” type of film. The final game of the Stanley Cup Final is being played in Pittsburgh. The Vice President (Raymond J. Barry) will be attending. Security’s tight, but not tight enough to stop rogue Secret Service agent Joshua Foss (Powers Boothe) and his band of quirky mercenaries. The hockey players continue to fight on the ice. The fans in the stadium continue to cheer every punch thrown and tooth knocked out. None of them know they are currently being held hostage as part of Foss’s plot to extort the government out of several billion dollars.

Fireman Darren McCord (Jean-Claude Van Damme) is at the game with his son and his daughter. He just wants a good bonding experience with his children. Instead, in true John McClane fashion, he finds himself sneaking around the arena, trying to defuse the bombs Foss has set and also trying to rescue the Vice President. It’s not easy, even for someone like Jean-Claude Van Damme.

As I said, this film was obviously inspired by Die Hard. But not even Bruce Willis ever found himself fighting for his life against a terrorist wearing a big penguin costume. Van Damme not only defuses bombs but also finds time to put on a goalie’s costume and hit the ice. He manages to block the puck, then looks up at the stands and gives his son a meaningful look. Even with the mask covering his face, his son recognizes him. Meanwhile, up in the VIP box, Powers Boothe appears to be having a wonderful time chewing the scenery. Even though he’s playing the bad guy in a Die Hard rip-off, Boothe doesn’t make the mistake of trying to imitate the great Alan Rickman. Instead, Boothe brings his own rugged style to the role of Joshua Foss. It’s hard not to appreciate a villain who can casually threaten to blow up a stadium without breaking a sweat. When someone sensibly points out that Foss would probably die in the explosion as well, he merely shrugs as if to say, “Let’s do it and be legends.”

And I haven’t even gotten to the bit with the helicopter yet….

Sudden Death is a big, ludicrous, and wonderful movie. It’s the type of action film that could only have starred Van Damme. Sylvester Stallone and Bruce Willis may have been better actors, but Stallone would have taken the project too seriously and Willis’s wiseass persona would have sabotaged the film’s more earnest moments. Arnold Schwarzenegger may have been bigger, but there’s no suspense to watching Schwarzenegger beat up someone in a penguin costume. Steven Seagal would have made you root for the penguin. Only Van Damme could have played Darren McCord and made you cheer for him whether he was fighting terrorists or trying to impress his children. Director Peter Hyams directs with an anything-goes sort of energy. The same genius that somehow made me cry when Elliott Gould and James Brolin ran through the cemetery in Capricorn One is present in Sudden Death’s best scenes.

Sudden Death is a true pleasure. No need to feel too guilty about this one!