Eraser (1996)
Eraser is a 1996 American action film directed by Chuck Russell and starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, Vanessa Williams, James Caan, James Coburn, and Robert Pastorelli. The film follows a U.S. Marshal of WITSEC who protects a senior operative testifying about an illegal arms deal and is forced to fight his former allies when one of the players is revealed to be a mole inside WITSEC. The film was a commercial success, grossing over $242 million against a budget of $100 million. It received mixed reviews from critics, but they praised Williams’s and Schwarzenegger’s performances, the action sequences and the visual effects. It was released in the United States on June 21, 1996 and was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Sound Effects Editing in 1997. It was also one of the first major films released on DVD, being part of the Japanese launch lineup of Warner Home Video’s debut of the format on December 20, 1996. A direct-to-video reboot of the film titled Eraser: Reborn starring Dominic Sherwood, was released on June 7, 2022.
Plot.
John Kruger – a top U.S. Marshal for the Witness Security Protection Program (WITSEC) – specializes in “erasing” high-profile witnesses: faking their deaths to protect them from anyone that might silence them before they can give their testimony in Court. After erasing mob witness Johnny Casteleone and his wife, John is given a new assignment by his superior, Chief Arthur Beller, to protect Lee Cullen, a senior executive at Cyrez Corporation, a defense contractor. Lee warned the FBI that top-level Cyrez executives covered up the creation of a top secret electromagnetic rifle and plan to sell the weapon on the black market. In an FBI sting operation, Lee accesses the Cyrez mainframe and downloads data on the EM rifle onto two discs: one for the FBI and one for her own protection. Vice President William Donohue, her employer, detects Lee’s intrusion and orders her into his office. After finding Lee’s hidden camera and threatening her with a revolver, Donohue commits suicide in front of her. Lee delivers the disc to the FBI but, disillusioned by their broken promise to guarantee her safety, refuses John’s protection offer.
The FBI’s disc is replaced with a fake by a mole working for Under Secretary of Defense Daniel Harper, the conspiracy’s mastermind.
That night, Lee’s house is attacked by a mercenary team led by J. Scar sent by Cyrez’ corrupt CEO, Eugene Morehart. John rescues Lee and hides her in New York City, keeping her location secret even from WITSEC. John learns from his mentor, Marshal Robert DeGuerin, that several witnesses have been murdered because a mole in WITSEC is leaking information and they must relocate their witnesses. Along with agents Calderon, Schiff and newcomer Deputy Monroe, they raid a remote cabin and kill the mercenaries holding DeGuerin’s witness hostage, but DeGuerin discreetly kills her when the mercenary leader reveals the marshal as the mole. Flying back to DC, DeGuerin drugs an increasingly suspicious John who manages to warn Lee to relocate before losing consciousness. The warning call is traced to NYC and DeGuerin kills Monroe using John’s gun, framing him as the mole.
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Development and casting.
Director Chuck Russell and star Arnold Schwarzenegger were originally working on another project together when Eraser was brought to their attention. Russell was excited about the possibilities the film could bring between actor and the character: “I see Arnold the way a lot of people do – as a mythic, bigger-than-life character – and that’s who Kruger is. The character and the scenario are based firmly in reality, but I liked the mythic proportions of this man with a strong sense of duty, a strong sense of honor, who will literally do anything to protect a noble witness. I was excited about doing a film that had heroic proportions.” Producer Arnold Kopelson was also keen to cast Schwarzenegger in the role of “The Eraser”, having talked with the actor about working on projects before. Vanessa Williams would be cast as the lead female character, Lee Cullen, the key witness Eraser must protect. Williams came to the attention of the Kopelsons when Maria Shriver, the wife of Arnold Schwarzenegger, suggested her for the role.
To play the character of DeGuerin (Kruger’s mentor and the main sociopathic antagonist), the filmmakers wanted an actor who could “convey intelligence, skill and magnetism – a more mature version of the Kruger character”, they would cast James Caan in this role. Before Caan was officially cast, Jonathan Pryce was also considered for the role. The screenplay was initially the work of Tony Puryear, who had a background in advertising and rap videos. Writers Walon Green and Michael S. Chernuchin had previously worked together on the television drama Law & Order. Extensive, uncredited rewrites were made by Frank Darabont and William Wisher Jr. (Terminator 2: Judgment Day). Additional rewrites were made by John Milius as a favor to Schwarzenegger..
Filming.
Eraser began principal photography in New York City, locations would include The Harlem Rail Yard in the South Bronx, Central Park’s Sheep Meadow and Chinatown. Following shooting in New York production moved to Washington D.C. For the action sequence which takes place in the Reptile House of New York City Zoo, interiors were built on the soundstages of the Warner Bros. Studios in Burbank, California. The screenplay went through numerous drafts with some of the most prominent screenwriters in the business, with a great deal of uncredited script-doctoring work being done by Graham Yost and William Wisher. One of the most demanding action sequences in the film featured the character of Kruger forced to flee from a jet speeding through the skies at 250 miles (400 km) per hour.
Speaking about this scene, director Russell says: “These things are jigsaw puzzle pieces not only within shooting sequence but within each shot. You had elements that were live action, elements that were miniature, sometimes computer-generated, and they’re all married together in the final processing.” Some of the physical stunts were performed by Schwarzenegger himself. For the “aerial” stunt Arnold was required to fall 65 feet (20 m) in vertical descent and perform a back flip in mid-flight. The shot took seven takes to get right. In the final film, Kruger appears to drop along the length of the fuselage and past the flaming engine of the jet thanks to inventive camera angles and special effects.