Half Past Dead (2002)
Half Past Dead is a 2002 American action film written and directed by Don Michael Paul in his directorial debut, and produced by Steven Seagal, who also starred in the lead role,[5] alongside Andrew Stevens and Elie Samaha. The film co-stars Morris Chestnut, Ja Rule, Tony Plana, Kurupt, and Nia Peeples. The film tells the story of a criminal who infiltrates a prison to interrogate a prisoner about the location of a fortune in gold while an undercover FBI agent has to stop him. Distribution and copyrights are held by Columbia Pictures. Half Past Dead was released on November 15, 2002 by Screen Gems. The film grossed $19 million worldwide against its budget of $25 million. Half Past Dead was Seagal’s last film to be given a wide theatrical release in the United States until 2010’s Machete, and remains as both his last star vehicle produced by a major Hollywood studio and the only one to be given a PG-13 rating by the Motion Picture Association of America.
Plot.
In San Francisco, FBI agent Sasha Petrosevitch (Steven Seagal) goes undercover as a Russian car thief and is brought in by criminal Nick Frazier (Ja Rule) to work for crime boss Sonny Eckvall (Richard Bremmer), who apparently shot and killed Sasha’s wife. After some time, FBI Special Agent Ellen “E. Z.” Williams (Claudia Christian) and her team show up to nail Nick, but things go wrong, and Sasha gets shot. After eight months of recovery following his brief bout of being clinically dead from the shooting, Sasha is incarcerated along with Nick in the newly reopened Alcatraz prison. Run by the charismatic warden, Juan Ruiz “El Fuego” Escarzaga (Tony Plana),RELATED:
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the place is known for its new state of the art death chamber where the condemned can choose from five different ways to die: lethal injection, gas chamber, hanging, firing squad, or electric chair.
Lester McKenna (Bruce Weitz), is the first death row prisoner brought to the new Alcatraz and also the first prisoner scheduled to be executed. An older man, he stole $200,000,000 worth of gold bricks in a heist that resulted in five deaths, and hid the loot at an unknown location. Federal Bureau of Prisons head Frank Hubbard (Stephen J. Cannell) and Supreme Court Justice Jane McPherson (Linda Thorson) have arrived to witness the execution, which is a result of Jane sentencing Lester.
But she’s not the only one interested in Lester. A small but well equipped team of terrorists who call themselves the “49ers” have parachuted onto the Alcatraz island, and gained control of it. Led by 49er One, a.k.a. Hubbard’s assistant Donny Johnson (Morris Chestnut), and 49er Six (Nia Peeples), the team finds Lester, and they want him to give up the location of his hidden stash of gold. When Lester will not tell them, Donny shoots a nearby priest (Eva-Maria Schönecker), and threatens to kill others if the information is not delivered.v
Box officeÂ
Half Past Dead was released on November 15, 2002, in the United States, where it grossed $7.8 million on its opening weekend. It grossed $15.5 million in the US and another $3.7 million outside the US, for a total worldwide gross of $19.2 million.Cast:
- Steven Seagal as Sasha Petrosevitch
- Morris Chestnut as Donny Johnson
- Ja Rule as Nick Frazier
- Nia Peeples as “49er Six”
- Tony Plana as Warden Juan Ruiz
- Kurupt as “Twitch”
- Michael “Bear” Taliferro as “Little Joe”
- Claudia Christian as  Agent Ellen Williams
- Linda Thorson as Judge Jane McPherson
- Bruce Weitz as Lester McKenna
- Michael McGrady as Guard Damon
- Richard Bremmer as Sonny Eckvall
- Hannes Jaenicke as FBI Agent Hartmann
- Mo’Nique as Twitch’s Girl
- Stephen J. Cannell as Frank Hubbard