Passenger 57 (1992)

Passenger 57 is a 1992 American action thriller film directed by Kevin Hooks. The film stars Wesley Snipes and Bruce Payne, with Snipes portraying a security consultant who finds himself forced to foil a plot to free a captive terrorist during a commercial airline flight. Critical reviews were mixed, but the film was a box-office success, and made Snipes a popular action hero icon. It also introduced Snipes’s famous line: “Always bet on black.”

Plot.

British international terrorist Charles Rane (Payne), whose career has been dubbed as “The Rane of Terror” by the media, is arrested by the FBI and local authorities in Miami, just as he is about to undergo plastic surgery in order to evade law enforcement. The FBI make plans to return Rane to Los Angeles for him to stand trial. Widowed and reputed police officer, decorated soldier, and retired U.S. Secret Service agent John Cutter (Snipes) is constantly haunted by the memories of his wife’s death in a convenience store robbery and has launched a course specializing in training flight attendants in self-defense. After one class,

Cutter is approached by an old friend, Sly Delvecchio (Tom Sizemore), who offers Cutter the vice presidency of a new antiterrorism unit for his company, Atlantic International Airlines. Cutter is reluctant, but Delvecchio and the company’s president, Stuart Ramsey (Bruce Greenwood), eventually convince him to accept the offer. Cutter boards as the 57th passenger on an Atlantic International flight to Los Angeles (a Lockheed L-1011 TriStar), where one of his students, Marti Slayton (Datcher), is one of the flight attendants. Rane and his two FBI escorts are also aboard. After the flight takes off, several henchpersons in Rane’s employ, posing as flight

Hard Boiled (1992) Biography, Plot, Development, Filming, Box office, Trailer

attendants and passengers, kill the FBI agents, release Rane, and secure the plane by also killing the captain. Cutter, in the lavatory at the time, manages to use the plane’s on-board phone to warn Delvecchio of the situation, but Cutter is soon caught by one of Rane’s henchmen. Cutter overpowers the henchman and takes his weapon; he then uses the agent (in a chokehold) as a shield to confront Rane, but an indifferent Rane shows his ruthlessness by mercilessly murdering a passenger in cold blood. Cutter realizes he is outmatched and escapes with Marti to the cargo hold, while Rane

kills the henchman that Cutter overpowered, ranting his “incompetence”. Cutter dispatches another of Rane’s men, Vincent, who is disguised as a caterer. Cutter trips circuitry to dump the plane’s fuel, forcing Rane to order the surviving pilots to land at a small Louisiana airfield. As Cutter and Marti prepare to escape upon touchdown, Marti is caught by Forget and he kicks Cutter out of the plane. The local sheriff, Leonard Biggs (Ernie Lively) and his deputies arrest Cutter, thinking he is a terrorist, and takes him to the airport building.

Filming.

Although supposedly set partly at a small airport in Louisiana, filming took place in Snipes’s hometown of Orlando, Florida, with Orlando-Sanford International Airport standing in for “Lake Lucille” airport in Louisiana. The airport’s former combination main hangar and control tower from its time as Naval Air Station Sanford was used for many key scenes just prior to its demolition after filming.

Box office.

Passenger 57 was released on November 6, 1992, and opened at number one rank in 1,734 theaters. The opening weekend receipts were $10,513,925. The film’s final US domestic gross receipts were $44,065,653. Internationally, the film grossed $22,437,000, for a worldwide total of $66,502,653. Passenger 57 is one of the films that launched Wesley Snipes’s career in the action genre. Because of this film’s success, Wesley Snipes was cast in lead roles of other features, including Money Train, Drop Zone, Demolition Man, The Art of War, and the Blade trilogy.