Surviving the Game: Difference between revisions

Surviving The Game
Surviving the Game DVD cover
Directed by	Ernest R. Dickerson
Written by	Eric Bernt
Produced by	Fred C. Caruso
Starring	Ice-T Rutger Hauer Charles S. Dutton John C. McGinley William McNamara With Gary Busey And F. Murray Abraham
Cinematography	Bojan Bazelli
Edited by	Samuel D. Pollard
Music by	Stewart Copeland
Distributed by	New Line Cinema
Release dates	April 15, 1994
Running time	96 min
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$7,400,000 (estimated)
Box office	$7,690,013 (USA) (sub-total)

Surviving the Game is a 1994 action film directed by Ernest R. Dickerson, starring Ice-T, Rutger Hauer and Gary Busey. It is loosely based on the short story The Most Dangerous Game by Richard Connell.

Jack Mason (Ice-T) is a homeless man from Seattle who loses his only friends - a fellow homeless man and his dog - on the same day. Dejected, he's about to take his own life when a soup kitchen worker, Walter Cole (Charles S. Dutton), saves him and refers him to businessman Thomas Burns (Rutger Hauer). Burns offers him a job as a hunting guide after Mason is able to prove his fitness by running on a treadmill for thirty minutes. He is promised a payment of $500 a week, starting early the next morning. Mason is uncomfortable over the whole prospect of hunting animals, but the offer of money proves too tempting to turn down.

Flying to a remote cabin in the Pacific Northwest surrounded by hundreds of acres of woods, Mason meets the rest of the hunting party, all of whom paid $25,000 for the privilege of being there. The party includes Doc Hawkins (Gary Busey), the founder of the hunt, a psychotic psychiatrist who specializes in evaluating the sanities of CIA agents. Hawkins's mental instability is shown in a monologue in which he tells the story of his "birthmark," a long scar running across his right cheek. This story revolves around a childhood incident in which he was forced by his father into mortal combat with the family dog named Prince Henry Stout, which Doc had raised from a puppy. In reality Gary Busey, ad libbed this entire monologue.

I refer to that as my birthmark. On my 8th birthday, my dad bought me this bulldog, this fat little bulldog. I named him Prince Henry Stout, he was strong. He would chase my pet turkey; he would chase squirrels up the trees. I trained him, I raised him, I fed him, I groomed him, I took care of him, I loved that dog, I loved that dog. More than anything in the world, I loved that dog. My father gave me a hand full of cherry bombs and M-80s and said, “You’re going to train this dog to be a protector.” So every Saturday afternoon I got behind this little dummy my dad built and I’d toss these cherry bombs and M-80s at the dog, “Boom BOOM.” The dog was scared at first but after a while, he would get angry and he would come at the dummy, “Raaw” he’d get the dummy and rip it apart. Head was off, shirt was off. So, 13 years old, birthday time, got me a 12-gauge shotgun. “We’re going hunting” I was so excited. We went out to a clearing in the woods, he laid his gun down took my gun and laid it down and said, “Son today you’re going to learn to control your emotions. You’re gonna do things that some men are unable and unwilling to do, follow me.” So I follow my dad we go around these lumps of trees and there’s this little corral built, there’s Prince Henry Stout chained in the middle of the corral.

My dad takes out a pocket full of cherry bombs and puts them in my hand and says, “Get in the corral, here’s a lighter, I want you to light those cherry bombs and then throw them at the Prince. You’re gonna face manhood, you’re gonna fight that dog to the death. He’s gonna kill you or you’re gonna kill him…. NOW!" Whip oooo BOOM. Naaaa! He was on me. He was on me like flies on shit. I had no chance. I got my arm up in between his teeth and my neck, Womp! Went down in the mud, rolled over, rolled over. That dog is fighting and biting and kicking and scratching, I’m screaming and crying, I grab him around the head, I stand up, Raaw pow! I fall on him with my weight on it, “Naawoo” I hear his neck break. He’s dead. He’s not breathing. He’s not yelping, he’s not biting. I’m covered with blood. I stand up, I wipe the blood off, I lick it. My dad says, “Welcome to manhood.” That’s why this is a birthmark.

— Doc Hawkins

Although the murder of his dog scarred him emotionally, he rationalizes the event as a healthy rite of passage into manhood. The other hunters include Cole (who picks the "game" for the hunt), a Texas "oil man" named John Griffin (John C. McGinley), a wealthy man from Wall Street named Derek Wolfe Sr. (F. Murray Abraham), and his son, Derek Wolfe Jr. (William McNamara), who is at first ignorant of the true purposes of the hunt. It is hinted at several times during the movie that Cole and Burns have a homosexual relationship. After a dinner of roast pig (which was brought to the cabin alive, and butchered in front of Mason) and $450 bottles of wine, Mason goes to sleep thinking that he'd better get some rest for the next day's hunt.

The following morning he is awakened by Cole, in full combat gear, aiming a pistol at his face. Burns then says to Mason in a sexual voice, "We like to play a Game" then Cole tells him that the men are not hunting any animals, but rather Mason himself by saying, "You see it's very simple. You see we're the hunters and you're the hunted." If Mason makes it to civilization, he will be allowed to go free. The hunters then give Mason a head start as they eat a leisurely breakfast; Mason runs away as fast as possible, but realizes that years of heavy smoking have made so much exertion difficult. The hunters eventually pursue him on All-terrain vehicles and motorcycles. Unlike Mason, they are all armed.

Mason realizes that simply running away would be futile, so eventually he doubles back to the cabin to deceive the hunters (a move they find impressive), where he uses a rock to smash into a previously locked room. Inside, he finds shelves of glass jars filled with human heads, the previous victims of the hunting party. He douses the cabin in gasoline and waits for the hunters to arrive. The hunters enter and Wolfe Sr. goes upstairs, thinking that Mason is hiding there; instead, Mason is outside, and surprises the group by setting the cabin on fire. Doc Hawkins runs through the flames with a knife. However, with his obsession to kill things with his bare hands as he did the family dog, Dr. Hawkins throws the knife away and says, "We're going bare hands" and engages Mason in a fistfight, which ends with Mason throwing Hawkins back into the cabin, in which he burns to death. Before Dr. Hawkins died he said to Mason, "I like my meat rare." Wolfe Sr. nearly succumbs to smoke inhalation, but is saved by his son. Mason, still unarmed, flees into the woods to plan his next move.

The hunters pursue Mason into the woods, and Griffin splits off from the main party. The group thinks they're on Mason's trail when they smell cigarette smoke, but are surprised to find that he has planted lit cigarettes in the trees to deceive them. Mason manages to knock out the isolated Griffin by jumping on to him from a cliff. He drags Griffin into a cave and ties him up, then takes Griffin's radio and attempts to negotiate with Burns, stating that if Burns alone flies Mason back to civilization on one of the planes at the cabin, then he will not kill Griffin. Burns does not make the deal, and instead manages to locate the cave that Mason is hiding in. He plans to raid it the following morning. Overnight, Mason and Griffin bond, as Griffin reveals that the loss of his daughter (who was murdered by a homeless man) has resulted in his no longer caring about his life. The only thing he values is the hunt, which he hopes might one day bring him face-to-face his daughter's killer. Mason reveals that his wife and daughter died in a fire in the apartment building which he once managed. In the morning, the hunters storm the cave, but only Griffin is still there - Mason is nowhere to be found.

As the group heads back to the vehicles, Griffin attempts to quit the hunt, finding that his sympathy for Mason makes it impossible to try to kill him. Griffin says, "I'm going home" Burns tells him to stop but Griffin says, "Or what, you're gonna shoot me in the back, huh?" Burns says, "Yeah". Giffin slowly turns around with a grin on his face. Burns says while laughing, "I lied" and Cole shoots him fatally in the forehead. Wolfe Jr. objects to the murder by screaming, "Aaaaahhh. Dad! Dad! Do something! Dad!" Burns punches him in the stomach to stop his girlish screaming, causing a temporary standoff between Wolfe Sr., Burns, and Cole. Burns states that no-one can return without finishing the job. Mason takes advantage of the situation by wiring the starter motor of one of the ATVs into its fuel tank, then makes his escape on one of the other ATVs. Burns immobilizes Mason's ATV, but when Cole tries to pursue him on the sabotaged four-wheeler, it explodes. He is left alive, but badly burned. While laying on the ground in extreme shock he starts muttering senseless things like, " Ah.. ahh nah. You ain`t-- you ain`t the last pick. He ain`t the last pick. He ain`t the last pick. Wahd i wahd i wahd i. Next year we gotta bring... we... gotta... bring! more pigs, yeah yeah we can bring the girls up next time, yeah yeah we can bring the girls up". Burns decides to finish him off by collapsing his windpipe. Later, Mason sets another trap by shooting the base of a tree with Griffin's shotgun, causing the tree to fall over and bridge a small valley. The hunters arrive and assume that Mason crossed over the tree, and begin to cross over it. First, Burns crosses, then Wolfe Jr. starts. When he is halfway over, Mason appears and begins throwing rocks at them. Although, Burns manages to shoot Mason in the shoulder, Wolfe Jr. falls to his death, sending his father into a rage with a long dramatic "NAaaaaoooooo!" while looking like a dying coyote as he watches his son fall to his death.

Burns and Wolfe Sr. have a brief dispute as to how to handle the situation. Burns proposes that they simply wait in silence for Mason to come to them. That night, Wolfe, still emotional over the loss of his son, foolishly empties his pistol into the air while shouting for Mason to come and get him. Mason does this, and after a short fight, he manages to kill Wolfe by snapping his neck. Burns decides to escape back to the planes, and Mason follows. Mason arrives at the runway and approaches the plane, only to realize too late that Burns has set a trap for him. Burns shoots the fuel tank of the jet and it explodes. Burns, thinking Mason dead, escapes in the only other plane. However, Mason survives.

Three days later, back in the city, Burns has dyed his hair and arranged a fake passport, planning to leave the country. Melinda Wolfe calls and leaves a message on the answering machine about how she hasn't heard from her husband or son and is beginning to worry. Burns is seen with various disguises and passports, he then leaves dressed as a priest without contacting Wolf's wife. Burns leaves on foot, after discovering that his vehicle would not start. Shorlty after leaving, Burns encounters a homeless woman in an alley and insults her. Burns begans to hear whispers and laughs from a distant which sounds like Mason. As a result of this, he unpacks his assault rifle from his suitcase and walks down a nearby alleyway. Mason ambushes him while making a tiger like sound and the two get into a brawl in which they both make strange and somewhat funny sounds as they fight each other. It ends with Mason grabbing Burns' rifle and pointing it at him. Burns tells Mason to shoot him and finish the Game. Mason screams "Bang" and says, "Game Over" then simply leaves the gun and walks away. Burns picks up the gun and says, "It's my luck day" and aims at Mason, pulling the trigger - however, instead of shooting, it explodes, killing him. Mason anticipated that Burns would shoot him and clogged the front of the barrel with cigarettes and paper cigarettes, which caused the gun to backfire. Mason reiterates his late friend's advice, "Always check the barrel," before walking down the alley as the credits roll.

• Ice-T .... Jack Mason
• Rutger Hauer .... Thomas Burns
• Charles S. Dutton .... Walter Cole
• Gary Busey .... Doc Hawkins
• F. Murray Abraham .... Derek Wolfe Sr.
• John C. McGinley .... John Griffin
• William McNamara .... Derek Wolfe Jr.
• Jeff Corey .... Hank

• List of American films of 1994

• Surviving The Game at IMDb