On Deadly Ground

On Deadly Ground is a 1994 American environmental action adventure film directed, co-produced by, and starring Steven Seagal, and co-starring Michael Caine, Joan Chen, John C. McGinley and R. Lee Ermey. It is Seagal's only directorial effort, and features a minor appearance by Billy Bob Thornton in one of his early roles. Seagal plays Forrest Taft, an expert firefighter who decides to fight back against the environmental destruction caused by his ruthless former boss (Caine).

On Deadly Ground
Theatrical release poster
Directed bySteven Seagal
Written byEd Horowitz
Robin U. Russin
Produced bySteven Seagal
A. Kitman Ho
Julius R. Nasso
Starring
CinematographyRic Waite
Edited byDon Brochu
Robert A. Ferretti
Music byBasil Poledouris
Production
company
Distributed byWarner Bros.
Release date
  • February 18, 1994 (1994-02-18) (United States)
Running time
101 minutes
LanguagesEnglish
Inuktitut
Budget$50 million[1]
Box office$78.1 million[2]

Plot

Aegis Oil operates in upstream and midstream oil production, and owns various oil refineries and rigs in Alaska, where the company faces great oppositions from the public due to the increasing environmental damage done by its operations. Aegis had purchased the oil production rights from the local Tribal Council 20 years prior; however, the rights will revert to the natives if Aegis 1, the company's newest oil platform and biggest refinery, is not on-line within a certain deadline. Further, thirteen days before said deadline, provisions of blowout preventers to Aegis turn out to be defective, and shipments of adequate replacements end up being delayed up to 90 days.

Unable to legally complete the rig with safe equipment without missing the deadline and losing the oil rights, Aegis's CEO Michael Jennings forces his workers to use the substandard preventers. Rig foreman Hugh Palmer is aware of this; as he predicts, his rig suffers a blowout due to the faulty preventer. It takes Forrest Taft, a firefighting and blowout specialist in dealing with oil drilling-related fires, to extinguish the blaze.

Initially skeptical of Palmer's claims, Taft discovers the delays in the equipment shipments via restricted computer files. After being informed of Palmer's efforts to alert the EPA about the use of the substandard equipment and of Taft's restricted file access, Jennings arranges for them to be eliminated by his Chief Security Officer, MacGruder and his assistant Otto. The two trash Palmer's cabin and brutally murder him, then leave his corpse in a seemingly damaged pump station rigged to explode, which Jennings lures Taft into under the guise of an emergency. Taft discovers the trap and barely manages to escape as MacGruder sets off the explosives. He survives and is rescued by Masu, the daughter of Inuit tribe chief Silook. Jennings publicly blames the recent accidents at Aegis facilities on Palmer and Taft, stating that they both died in the latter explosion.

Taft receives care from Silook's tribe. At the behest of Silook, he undergoes a vision quest in which he sees the full truth and vows to make amends for his part in Aegis's crimes. Meanwhile, when the Aegis security team are unable to locate Taft's body, Jennings figures he has survived and orders him found. They track him to Silook's village and when the tribe refuses to cooperate, a confrontation ensues, ending with MacGruder fatally shooting Silook. Taft returns in time to have one last talk with Silook before he succumbs to his wounds, vowing to avenge him and bring down Aegis.

Taft and Masu make their way to Palmer's cabin. While gathering supplies, they find his incriminating disk containing proof of Aegis's crimes. Meanwhile, Otto and three Aegis security guards track the pair back to the cabin, and proceed to storm the place. Taft successfully ambushes the aggressors, quickly killing all of them. He and Masu then access the incriminating disc, and discover that Jennings intends to use the refinery to cause a spill in order to keep the oil rights, and later profit off the empty oil field by refilling it with toxic substances. With little time left to alert authorities, Taft decides to resort to violence in order to prevent Aegis from committing the crime.

Meanwhile, Jennings hires a group of New Orleans-based mercenaries led by Stone to prevent Taft from stopping Aegis 1 going on-line. While being pursued by Stone's men, Taft and Masu collect weapons and explosives stashed by him in the mountains, and then proceed to sneak into the refinery complex. Taft begins to effectively sabotage Aegis 1 by killing the main power and forcing a reboot, then releasing hydrochloric acid gas inside the refinery. This causes the evacuation of the plant, and the immediate withdrawal of an FBI anti-terrorism unit summoned by Liles. Stone suggests from these methods that Taft is ex-CIA. Taft then enters the Aegis 1 control room, fatally sabotages the rig's safety measures, and places C-4 on the preventers to implode them and prevent the spill.

MacGruder and Liles attempt to escape, but Taft kills the former and the latter is killed in an explosion while making her getaway. Jennings heads for the platform, guarded by Stone and his crew. Taft then enters the rig, eliminating every opposing mercenary on the way to the preventer, then confronts Jennings, and drops him to his death into a pool of oil sludge leaked from the faulty preventer. He and Masu then leave the rig just as the hidden C-4 charges detonate, causing a chain of explosions that ravages the whole plant. They flee the exploding refinery in an Aegis truck, escaping as Aegis 1 is completely torn down by the fire.

Later, Taft, far from being arrested for industrial sabotage and multiple murders, delivers a speech at the Alaska State Capitol about the dangers of oil pollution and the companies that are endangering the ecosystem.[3]

Cast

Reception

Critical response

The film received negative reviews and has an approval rating of 12% at rottentomatos.com.[4] On Metacritic, the film has a score of 33%, based on reviews from 18 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews".[5] Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film a grade of "B+" on an A+ to F scale.[6]

At the time of its release, Gene Siskel included the film in his "Worst of" list for 1994, singling out the melancholy tone of the film and the quality of Seagal's dialogue.[7] On their syndicated TV show Siskel & Ebert, Siskel called the film's pyrotechnics "low rent" and stated that he "didn't think the fight sequences were anything special." He noted that Seagal's speech at the end was "more interesting than the actual fighting." Roger Ebert, for his part, called the speech "absurd" and "shameless" but opined that while "it doesn't pay to devote close attention to the plot", "if you like to see lots of stuff blowed up real good, this’d be a movie for you."[8]

Variety film critic Leonard Klady referred to the film as "a vanity production parading as a social statement" and commented that the film seemingly borrowed heavily from the earlier film Billy Jack, but opined that Seagal lacked "acting technique and the ability behind the camera to keep the story simple and direct" that Billy Jack star Tom Laughlin exhibited. Like Siskel, Klady also singled out the speech by Seagal's character at the end of the film.[9][10]

Seagalogy author Vern considers On Deadly Ground to be one of Seagal's defining works, writing, "It's the corniest, most unintentionally hilarious movie of his career... But it's also Seagal's most sincere and his most ballsy," going on to claim, "You can't understand Seagal if you haven't seen On Deadly Ground."[11] He points out that many of the most important themes and motifs that define Seagal's work are present in the film, and more overtly so than in any of his other films.[12]

Box office

The film grossed $38.6 million in the United States and Canada[1] and $78.1 million worldwide[2] against its reported $50 million budget.

Accolades

The film received six Golden Raspberry Awards nominations, and won in the Worst Director category. The film is listed in Golden Raspberry Award founder John Wilson's book The Official Razzie Movie Guide as one of The 100 Most Enjoyably Bad Movies Ever Made.[13]

Award Category Subject Result
Golden Raspberry Award Worst Actress Joan Chen Nominated
Worst Actor Steven Seagal Nominated
Worst Director Won
Worst Picture Nominated
A. Kitman Ho Nominated
Julius R. Nasso Nominated
Worst Screenplay Ed Horowitz Nominated
Robin U. Russin Nominated
Worst Original Song ("Under the Same Sun") Mark Hudson Nominated
Klaus Meine Nominated
Bruce Fairbairn Nominated

Year-end lists

References
  1. "On Deadly Ground (1994)". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved 24 June 2015.
  2. "Top 100 grossers worldwide, '93-94". Variety. October 17, 1994. p. M-56.
  3. Archived at Ghostarchive and the Wayback Machine: edstar83 (2010-07-10). Steven Seagal On Deadly Ground. 1994 Ending Speech! (video). Retrieved 2017-12-20 – via YouTube.
  4. "On Deadly Ground (1994)". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved 2021-03-24.
  5. "On Deadly Ground". Metacritic. Retrieved 2020-05-04.
  6. "CinemaScore". Archived from the original on 2018-12-20.
  7. Siskel, Gene, Ebert, Robert. (1994). "Siskel and Ebert at the movies: Best and worst of 1994" [Television recording] Buena-Vista Entertainment Ltd
  8. Siskel, Gene, Ebert, Robert. (1994). Siskel & Ebert: Sugar Hill / On Deadly Ground / Eight Seconds (1994) (TV). Event occurs at 12:00. Retrieved April 28, 2014.
  9. Klady, Leonard (22 February 1994). "On Deadly Ground". Variety. Retrieved 2020-05-04.
  10. Harrington, Ricard. "On Deadly Ground (R)", The Washington Post, February 19, 1994, accessed May 24, 2011.
  11. Vern (March 2012). Seagalogy: A Study of the Ass-Kicking Films of Steven Seagal. London: Titan Books. p. 69. ISBN 978-0857687227.
  12. Vern (March 2012). Seagalogy: A Study of the Ass-Kicking Films of Steven Seagal. London: Titan Books. p. 78. ISBN 978-0857687227.
  13. Wilson, John (2005). The Official Razzie Movie Guide: Enjoying the Best of Hollywood's Worst. Grand Central Publishing. ISBN 0-446-69334-0.
  14. P. Means, Sean (January 1, 1995). "'Pulp and Circumstance' After the Rise of Quentin Tarantino, Hollywood Would Never Be the Same". The Salt Lake Tribune (Final ed.). p. E1.
  15. Strauss, Bob (December 30, 1994). "At the Movies: Quantity Over Quality". Los Angeles Daily News (Valley ed.). p. L6.
  16. Craft, Dan (December 30, 1994). "Success, Failure and a Lot of In-between; Movies '94". The Pantagraph. p. B1.
  17. Travers, Peter (December 29, 1994). "The Best and Worst Movies of 1994". Rolling Stone. Retrieved July 20, 2020.
  18. Mayo, Mike (December 30, 1994). "The Hits and Misses at the Movies in '94". The Roanoke Times (Metro ed.). p. 1.
  19. Pickle, Betsy (December 30, 1994). "Searching for the Top 10... Whenever They May Be". Knoxville News-Sentinel. p. 3.
  20. Webster, Dan (January 1, 1995). "In Year of Disappointments, Some Movies Still Delivered". The Spokesman-Review (Spokane ed.). p. 2.
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