# The Rage (1997 film)

The Rage is a 1997 Canadian–American action-thriller film directed by Sidney J. Furie, starring Lorenzo Lamas, Gary Busey, Kristen Cloke and Roy Scheider. Lamas and Cloke play FBI agents who are tasked with pursuing a murderous militia driven mad by their experiences in the Vietnam War.
The Rage was released direct-to-video in select markets in mid-1997 and the United States on June 16, 1998, with theatrical releases in some countries also in 1998. It received generally mixed-to-negative reviews from critics for its illogical plot and poor acting performances, though its action scenes received praise.

## Plot

In Wasatch County, Utah, a militia of psychosexual thrill-killers led by Art Dacy and his lover Cyndi commit a string of vicious rapes and murders targeting women. After the pursuit of a kidnapper hits a dead-end, FBI criminal profiler Kelly McCord is assigned to head the murders' task force and partnered with veteran agent Nick Travis to assist Sheriff Glen Dobson. Travis confides to McCord that he has become disillusioned with the FBI following his supervisor John Taggart's unnecessary deadly escalation of a standoff at Highland Gorge that Travis was attempting to resolve through crisis negotiation.
As they investigate the murders, Travis and McCord are spotted by the militia and pursued by Bobby Joe, Dacy's right-hand-man, who nearly kills McCord with a logging truck. Dacy, enraged at McCord's suggestion in a news interview that he is sexually impotent, kidnaps and tries to rape her, but Travis shoots him and allows her to break free. The FBI identifies Dacy, and the task force investigates a trailer park where Dacy's mother Lucille lives, but Lucille draws a gun and is shot, while Dacy, Cyndi, and Joe open fire from her vehicle. As they flee, McCord accidentally shoots at a passing car that crashes; though the car's occupants are unharmed, the driver files a lawsuit against the FBI, prompting Taggart to suspend McCord pending termination. Travis accuses Taggart of scapegoating McCord and obstructing justice, incapacitates him in a brawl, and flees with her to continue the investigation.
Interviewing Dacy's former comrade Lucas McDermott at the Salt Lake Veterans Affairs Medical Center, Travis and McCord learn Dacy and his militia were previously part of the Phoenix Program, a CIA assassination squad during the Vietnam War. Dacy was emasculated by a Viet Cong prostitute that he viciously murdered, which was revealed in an exposé that prompted the CIA and Veterans Affairs to imprison and drug the Phoenix operatives to treat their psychotic behavior; Dacy and his men promptly declared war against women and defense officials. A militiaman assassinates Lucas, who reveals their hideout in Cougar Canyon Wilderness before dying. There, the task force finds Dacy's taped manifesto in which he claims he will flee to Canada, before the hideout explodes. Travis and McCord deduce their escape to Canada is a feint but are detained by Taggart, before McCord steals his gun and knocks him unconscious. After escaping Taggart's custody, Travis, McCord, and Dobson learn Dacy's militia plans to attack the Bountiful Society, a remote retreat, as they host a Vietnam War reconciliation ceremony with the former Secretary of State, Secretary of Defense, and North Vietnamese Minister of Defence in attendance. As Dobson assembles a SWAT team to fight the militia, Travis reneges on a promise to be "shoulder-to-shoulder" with McCord and detains her, fearing Dacy will target her if she joins the raid, but she coaxes a civilian into freeing her after Travis and Dobson leave.
That night, the militia attacks the Bountiful Society, but Travis, Dobson, and the SWAT team intervene and kill the militiamen in a shootout before they can massacre the attendees, while McCord arrives and runs over Joe but is knocked out. Dacy and Cyndi abduct an unconscious McCord and flee on a boat with Travis in pursuit. Travis rams his boat into Dacy's and they fight, with McCord drowning Cyndi while Travis blows up Dacy. Travis and McCord swim ashore and are met by Taggart, who holds them at gunpoint and reveals he seeks revenge against Travis for the incident at Highland Gorge, which prevented his promotion to FBI director, but Dobson arrives and shoots him before he can execute McCord. Travis and McCord walk to the police lines and kiss. Intertitles reveal Travis and McCord were cleared of wrongdoing, married, and are now instructors at the FBI Academy, where "John Taggart and Art Dacy are now two-day courses in their curriculum".

## Cast

* Lorenzo Lamas as Nick Travis
* Gary Busey as Art Dacy
* Kristen Cloke as Kelly McCord
* Roy Scheider as John Taggart
* Brandon Smith as Sheriff Glen Dobson
* Tiani Warden as Cyndi
* Dell Yount as Bobby Joe
* David Carradine as Lucas McDermott
* David Jensen as Agent Green
* Russ McGinn as Coroner

## Production
### Development

The Rage was announced and filmed under the preliminary title Word of Honor. The film, which contains references to the Waco and Ruby Ridge incidents, was promoted as taking inspiration from real-life FBI profilers. It was a joint venture between Canada's Norstar Entertainment and U.S. company Itasca Pictures, who had previously collaborated on The Nature of the Beast. A local press article mentioned that veteran stunt coordinator Hal Needham was involved with the film, but Spiro Razatos was ultimately in charge of action during filming.

### Casting

Lorenzo Lamas, whose career had been confined to the lower rungs of genre filmmaking, viewed the project as a major step towards more legitimate roles. He voiced this belief in the press, saying: "People are going to be made aware of Lorenzo Lamas in 1997 [...] It's a real movie with a real director and a terrific script that wasn't action-driven." Trade magazine Variety reported that the actor had turned down two direct-to-video films paid US$500,000 each so that he could work on this one instead during the Renegade offseason. Lamas also cut his hair for the role, which forced him to wear a hairpiece for the series' final season. Tiani Warden, who played the girlfriend of Busey's character, was his real-life girlfriend and soon-to-be wife. She appeared in several of his projects during the 1996–97 period.

### Filming

Principal photography began on May 1, 1996, and lasted five weeks. The shoot immediately followed Lamas's wedding to Shauna Sand. It took place in the state of Utah, visiting the cities of Park City, Heber City and Salt Lake City, as well as Rockport State Park, where the final boat setpiece was shot on the local reservoir. The film gave Razatos the opportunity to finally pull off the stunt he had been dreaming of for a long time, which comes during the film's second major setpiece, when one side of a car is crushed by the wheels of a semi-trailer truck.

## Release
### Theatrical

The film saw a theatrical release in select international markets, most notably Japan, where it opened on March 21, 1998, through Nippon Herald Films. According to Lamas, he was told the film had a good chance of going theatrical in the U.S. as well, but that did not happen.

### Home video

In the U.S., The Rage premiered on VHS on June 16, 1998 through Miramax's genre label Dimension Home Video. Dimension also released the film in the short-lived DivX disc format. The film was released earlier in several international markets, such as the UK where it launched in the first week of June 1997 through BMG Video, and potentially Australia, where its classification certificate was issued in June 1997, although the date of its actual release by CEL Entertainment could not be determined. In Canada, the film was released at an undetermined date by Norstar Home Video, the sister label of production company Norstar Entertainment, through an output deal with Behaviour Distribution. The Rage was re-issued on DVD in the U.S. on February 3, 2004, also by Dimension.

## Reception

The Rage received mixed-to-negative reviews, with praise for the action sequences, and criticism towards Busey's character and performance.
Robert Firsching of AllMovie opined that "[t]his silly, over-the-top action film has a great hammy performance by Gary Busey" but "[t]here are way too many plot threads dangling everywhere [...] Still, those in search of mindless shootouts and hissable villains will find enough to enjoy". The British Film Institute's magazine Sight and Sound wrote that "Busey goes into grinning overdrive in an utterly shameless performance in which his anger springs from losing his manhood during sex with a Viet Cong woman." Fellow British publication Film Review stated that "if you can stomach the film's grisly details, this contains some of the most exciting action sequences seen." VideoHound's Golden Movie Retriever deemed that "good action sequences substitute for the lack of plot sense." In his syndicated column, British reviewer Peter Dean called the film "a powerful thriller".
Alan Levine of The Arizona Republic was less forgiving, and noted: "Too much emphasis on rivalries, interdepartmental politics and personal conflicts. Add to this an over-the-top performance by Gary Busey, and you got a real loser on your hands." TV Guide commented that "logic is not this film's imperative", adding that "contributing to the movie's moronic approach is the central figure of Gary Busey, a star so over-the-top he can never be taken seriously. Even if the film had better acting, The Rage would still suffer from [several] plot incredulities". In his book The American Martial Arts Film, author M. Ray Lott noted that "Lamas completely disregards his martial arts persona" and that "The Rage had all the earmarks of a big-budget film, with a superb supporting cast including Gary Busey and David Carradine in a cameo". However, he mentioned that "the story was confusing at times" and that Busey's character arc "was preposterous at best."