Red Heat (1988)

Red Heat is a 1988 American buddy cop action film co-written, co-produced, and directed by Walter Hill. The film stars Arnold Schwarzenegger, as Moscow Militia Captain Ivan Danko, and Jim Belushi, as Chicago police detective Art Ridzik. Finding themselves on the same case, Danko and Ridzik work as partners to catch a cunning and deadly Georgian drug kingpin, Viktor Rostavili (Ed O’Ross), who killed Danko’s previous partner in the Soviet Union. Most of the scenes set in the Soviet Union (with the exceptions of the establishing shots under the main titles and the final lengthy shot in Red Square behind the end credits) were actually shot in Hungary. Schwarzenegger was paid a salary of $8 million for his role in the film.

Plot.

Captain Ivan Danko and Lieutenant Yuri Ogarkov of the Moscow Militia lead a sting operation against Georgian drug kingpin Viktor Rostavili. However, Rostavili manages to evade capture, and in an ensuing firefight, kills Ogarkov and flees to the United States. As Danko is recovering from his injuries, Rostavili is arrested for a minor traffic violation in Chicago, and Danko is subsequently dispatched to America to retrieve the felon, under strict orders not to reveal the true nature of Rostavili’s extradition. Upon arriving in Chicago, Danko is met by Police Detective Sergeant Art Ridzik and Detective Max Gallagher. As he is interrogating Rostavili, Danko confiscates a mysterious key hidden on his person. While he is being transported to the airport, the group is ambushed by his men and Gallagher is shot and killed, allowing the prisoner to escape. Against the wishes of local authorities, Danko resolves to remain in Chicago to apprehend Rostavili, and Ridzik is assigned to be his minder.

Through an informant, Danko and Ridzik learn that Rostavili is working with local street gangs to purchase and smuggle uncut cocaine into the Soviet Union. The duo confront Rostavili’s American wife Cat Manzetti, but are led into an ambush where Rostavili demands Danko return his key, forcing the two to flee. Danko and Ridzik go to a hospital to interrogate one of Rostavili’s men, injured during the earlier ambush, but he is killed by another of Rostavili’s accomplices disguised as a nurse. Danko subsequently shoots and kills the assassin. Ridzik’s superiors confiscate Danko’s sidearm, as he isn’t licensed to carry one in the United States, and order him to cease the investigation. However Ridzik, who still wants to avenge his partner’s murder, secretly gives Ivan his spare gun.

Development and writing.

The film was based on an original story by Walter Hill. He says he conceived of the idea for Red Heat because he and Arnold Schwarzenegger had long wanted to work together: I didn’t want to do sci-fi and it’s tough to use Arnold credibly in an American context with his accent. I thought it would be interesting if he could play a Russian cop in the US. I wanted to do a traditional John Wayne/Clint Eastwood larger-than-life movie. You then ask the question: Will the American audience accept an unapologetic Soviet hero, someone who will not defect at the end of the movie? According to Schwarzenegger, when Hill approached him he did not have a complete script – he just had the basic premise and the scene in which Danko rips off a henchman’s leg to discover it is wooden and contains cocaine. Schwarzenegger agreed to make the movie on the basis of this and Hill’s track record, in particular his earlier buddy action comedy 48 Hours.

Black Eagle (1988) Biography, Plot, Scene.

The wooden leg scene originally came from a script by Harry Kleiner that had been sent to Hill. Hill did not want to do the script but loved the scene and paid Kleiner for it. “I think it’s the best scene in the movie”, said Hill later. “The movie, after he left Moscow, I never thought was much good, but I thought that was a terrific scene.” Hill says he deliberately chose to tone down the Schwarzenegger persona, making him more realistic and less prone to wisecracks. Hill: I had confidence in him as an actor. I didn’t want him just to throw a Volkswagen over a building. Arnold has an ability to communicate that cuts through cultures and countries. They just love to see this guy win. But everyone thinks it’s his muscles. It’s not that at all: it’s his face, his eyes. He has a face that’s a throwback to a warrior from the Middle Ages or ancient Greece.

Filming.

The first half of the opening scene was shot in Budapest’s Rudas Thermal Bath. It features a brawl between naked men, including Schwarzenegger. He approved the scene saying that “Whenever the scene calls for nudity and it fits into the movie, I don’t mind that .. But if it is exploiting the whole idea and is thrown in for no reason, then it bothers me and I stay away from it.” The second half was shot in Austria because Budapest had no snow. Much of the film was shot in Moscow, which became possible due to the rapid warm up of the cultural and political relations between the Soviet Union and United States. Despite obtaining the filming permissions in Moscow, including the Red Square, the film crew was unsure about exactly where they could shoot; hence many “Moscow” close-ups were filmed in Budapest. For example, Buda Castle was used as the Soviet Ministry of home affairs.

Box office.

The film opened at the top spot at the box office, but was far outpaced by Schwarzenegger’s other comedy film in 1988, Twins. Schwarzenegger later wrote the film “wasn’t the smash I’d expected. Why is hard to guess. It could be that audiences were not ready for Russia, or that my and Jim Belushi’s performances were not funny enough, or that the director didn’t do a good enough job. For whatever reason, it just didn’t quite close the deal.” Walter Hill said the film “did pretty well at the domestic box office but not as well as what we hoped it would do. It was big foreign. It was a very big seller on cassette. Did the movie do poorly, medium or well?”

Cast:

Arnold Schwarzenegger as Captain Ivan Danko
James Belushi as Detective Sergeant Art Ridzik
Peter Boyle as Commander Lou Donnelly
Ed O’Ross as Viktor Rostavili / Viktor Rosta
Larry Fishburne as Lieutenant Charlie Stobbs
Gina Gershon as Catherine “Cat” Manzetti
Richard Bright as Sergeant Max Gallagher
J. W. Smith as Salim
Brent Jennings as Abdul Elijah
Gretchen Palmer as Hooker
Pruitt Taylor Vince as Night Clerk
Michael Hagerty as Pat Nunn
Brion James as “Streak”
Gloria Delaney as Intern
Peter Jason as TV announcer
Oleg Vidov as Yuri Ogarkov
Savely Kramarov as Gregor Moussorsky

Red Heat (1988) Biography, Plot, Development, Writing, Filming, Box office.