The Fury

Plot synopsis:
The movie opens with a scene on the beach with bikini clad women everywhere. A U.S. agent, Pete Sandza (Kirk Douglas) is watching the beach as it is suddenly attacked by Islamist terrorists. His son Robin is watching as his dad gets armed and fires back. Thinking his father was killed in an explosion, the son is taken away. Later, on a different beach, more women are walking around in bikinis. Two of them are students studying as a strange older man name Raymond follows them. Gillian is psychic like Robin is and knows the follower's name. He goes to a phone booth and calls Pete, who is interested in finding more psychics. Some operatives have Pete's phone tapped and move in on the hotel where he is hiding. Sensing the pursuit, Pete jumps out the window and escapes. Pete lands in an apartment and gets some new clothes before he moves on. As Gillian's powers are tested, she starts to see disturbing images of a stranger's death. Disguised as an old man, Pete walks the streets to continue searching for his son. Pete is soon made and goes on the run. Three cars are after him, and when he escapes (in riveting fashion), they report back to Childress, Pete's nemesis. Gillian is coming apart meanwhile, as her newly discovered powers are scaring her. She goes to see Doctor McKeever (Charles Durning) at an institution where she will stay a few weeks. Meanwhile Pete connects with an old flame ( Hester) who worked at Gillian's old school. Though he is after information, the romance rekindles. Then Pete's girl visits Gillian and befriends her again. Then Gillian has a vision of the doctor shoving Pete's son Robin out the window. She freaks out and runs, and then the doctor realizes what she is. He schedules more tests for the next day as Gillian rests. The next day, Childress visits the doctor because he is trying to harness every psychic's powers that he can. He is in charge of a military project that uses psychics, and that is why he uses this doctor. He wants Gillian, to take her to where he has Robin hidden. She is feeling more and more connected to Robin. During the tests, Gillian flips out again, accidentally using her power to crush the doctor's assistant, and Gillian runs as the woman bleeds to death. Gillian escapes the hospital with Pete and Hester's help. Though Pete wasted several of his men while getting Gillian, and Hester was accidentally killed, Childress is hot on their trail. He threatens the Dr. McKeever if he can't find her. Now her powers are making her quite valuable to both Childress and Pete. The doctor no longer wants to help Childress because of how he kidnapped Robin. Meanwhile, Robin is having anger problems, and his rage is making his powers stronger by the day. Pete and Gillian are on the run and as they get to know each other they talk about Robin. When she leads Pete to Robin, Pete tries to send Gillian to Seattle , so she will be safe. She insists on coming because Pete is the only one she trusts and she wants to help him find Robin. Inside the compound where he is held prisoner, Robin's rage is getting worse. But now he and Gillian sense each other's presence. Robin knows that she is psychic and thinks is there to replace him. He fears that Childress's people are going to kill him so Gillian can take his place. After Robin starts to use his power to kill, Pete and Gillian are capture by Childress's men. Pete goes upstairs and finds Robin, who has gone insane. He attacks Pete and flies out through the window. Pete tries to save him but fails. As Robin dies in Gillian's arms he gives her his power. Pete sees that he is dead and lets himself fall to the ground next to his son. The next day, Childress explains things to Gillian as she wakes up. Suddenly, Gillian refuses to be his soldier and the movie ends with Childress exploding into bits.

Tags: paranormal, insanity, cult, gothic, flashback

Review:
Veteran Kirk Douglas ('Spartacus', 'Saturn 3') and cult director/actor John Cassavetes ('Rosemary's Baby', 'The Killers') are both solid as friends-turned-enemies who once worked for the same nameless Government agency.
Irving and Douglas are both excellent in this movie, Cassavetes plays a fantastic villain, and the supporting cast includes Carrie Snodgress ('Diary Of A Mad Housewife'), Charles Durning ('O Brother, Where Art Thou?'), Fiona Lewis ('Drum'), and cameos from Daryl Hannah ('Bladerunner'), De Palma semi-regular William Finley ('The Phantom Of The Paradise') and a noticeably younger and thinner Dennis Franz (NYPD Blue').
Peter Sandza (Kirk Douglas) a government agent is betrayed by a fellow friend/agent Ben Childress (John Cassavetes), who kidnapped his son for his psychokinetic powers.
The music score is fairly effective in building up the tension and thrills, but also it has an impact in the quieter moments.There are great performances from the experienced Kirk Douglas (who's incredibly fit for his age and has some physical roles) and Cassavetes, who really boost and add some class to the film.
The only good acting comes from Carrie Snodgrass, Charles Durning, Carol Eve Rossen and (especially) Fiona Lewis.It has some good things--the direction from Brian DePalma is excellent (especially Irving's slow motion run from the Institute) and there's a good score by John Williams.
After the success of Carrie (1976), Brian De Palma followed up with another outstanding film about youths with incredible telepathic powers.Government agent's telepathic son is kidnapped and along with a similarly-gifted teenage girl he seeks to save him.Based upon the novel by John Farris, The Fury is a film that could have easily became a mundane action film if not for the splendid direction of De Palma and an outstanding cast.
John Williams also deserves special mention for his wonderfully powerful music score.Star Kirk Douglas is great as the government agent searching for his son.
Supporting cast Snodgress, Durning, and Lewis are also good.All around The Fury is a pretty under appreciated thriller that firmly ranks among the best of De Palma's films.*** 1/2 out of ****.
Before "Scanners" there was this wonderful little gore fest from Brian De Palma, who all-ready had done such great Hitchcock-like thrillers as "Sisters" and "Obsession" and of course "Carrie", which in many ways is related to this one, another tale of telekinesis with deadly results.
It is also worth noting that David Cronenberg's above-mentioned "Scanners" seem to owe a great deal to this movie."The Fury" balances brilliantly between weird and unexpected comedy (like the whole scene where Douglas carjacks two off-duty cops, one played by Dennis Franz!) and imaginative horror that will turn off anyone who hates blood.
Great acting from everyone; worth noting the star-making performances of Amy Irving and Andrew Stevens, Douglas who has a field-day, Cassavetes who looks great as the sinister bad-guy and Carrie Snodgress who will touch your heart with her performance as the caring nurse Hester.The last scene is quite a kick, truly one of the most memorable finales ever shown on screen, and it could very well leave you cheering well into the end credits!.
It is a potentially brilliant and ingenious chiller that concerns about a government agent , Peter Sandza , (Kirk Douglas , he was aged around sixty-one years of age , Kirk was cast as the lead because director had felt that his previous picture had suffered at the box-office without a name draw-card) determined to come to his son's (first major cinema movie role of actor Andrew Stevens) rescue , when a sinister official (John Cassavetes) kidnaps him to harbor his extremely powerful psychic abilities .
Director 'Brian de Palma''s second movie featuring Telekinesis, his first had been Carrie (1976) , as actress Amy Irving appears in both films .
Very good cast plenty of familiar faces such as John Cassavetes , Charles Durning , Rutanya Alda , Fiona Lewis , Carrie Snodgres and William Finley who played for De Palma , Phantom of paradise .
And so is Fiona Lewis who's been given personal charge of Stevens and develops the kid's libido as well as his telekinesis.Brian DePalma directed this film and it's a good one with outstanding performances by all the cast.
The boss of an institute for psychic researches of the American government discovers that his own son and a girl are being sought by terrorists who want to use their mind's powers.Narrative conducted in an agile and suffocating way by the veteran De Palma, responsible for equally violent and full of action classic such as "The Untouchables".
In this thriller marked by a great dramatic charge, the excellent supporting cast's work ( beginning with Carrie Snodgress,who has the most shocking, unpleasant and courageous scene , and with Charles Durning, who shows talent in a serious part, different from the characters that made his fame:he became well-known for doing partner's roles in some Burt Reynolds' movies, but here he offers a discreet, silent interpretation) sustains the interest for this confused but well developed and touching story.
THE FURY Aspect ratio: 1.85:1Sound format: MonoAn ex-government agent (Kirk Douglas) enlists the help of a gifted psychic (Amy Irving) in the search for his equally gifted son (Andrew Stevens), who has been kidnapped by a sinister cartel for nefarious purposes.Dismissed at the time of its release as a mishmash of themes and genres, Brian De Palma's dazzling thriller encompasses Middle Eastern terrorism, government conspiracies, psychic horror, and a series of Grand Guignol set-pieces, orchestrated with pulp grandeur by a director flexing his creative muscles.
In his movies Brian sometimes hits and his films are quite good with his own unique type of stylish surrealism that enhances the Hitchcock and Argento-type like scenes.
Brian de Palma's attempt to strike gold for the second time with a "Carrie" like film about telekinesis in his movie "The Fury".
Peter Sandza, Kirk Douglas, spends the entire movie looking for his son Robin, Andrew Stevens, after he was kidnapped in Israel by Peter's friend Ben Childress, John Cassavetes, and co-worker in some secret US government agency where they both worked for twenty years.
Both Amy Irving & Andrew Stevens were unstable as well as psychic in their roles as the twin whiz-kids of parapsychology causing involuntary movements in both people and objects.What really made "The Fury" so bad is that you could not build up any sympathy for no one in the film.
There was some cool action scenes with  Kirk Douglas but my main love of the movie was the majority of the scenes with Amy Irving--who really(despite the billing) is the main stand out character of the film.
A father(Kirk Douglas) who has a son(Andrew Stevens) who gets kidnapped by a secret federal group in the Middle East and is used as a special weapon because of the nature of his powers.
Peter Sandza (Kirk Douglas) was going through great lengths to find his kidnapped son, all the while his son, Robin (Andrew Stevens) was under the watchful eye of a government official interested in Robin's psychic abilities.
But here are my favorite scenes (spoilers ahead):The scenes at the school with that bitchy Margot Kidder look-alike.When Gillian (Amy Irving) "witnesses" the experiments Robin is going through and Gillian is freaking out as she's watching the bad guys replaying the film footage of the kidnapping of Robin (Andrew Stevens), which occurred at the beginning of the movie.
Brian De Palma built a rep with these types of films- dark, dramatic thrillers and also excellent police dramas like the Untouchables.The Fury doesn't look quite as good as it did when it came out, mostly because of the subject matter.
Unfortunately, the narrative here leaves a bit to be desired: Kirk Douglas is miscast in the lead as the doting father of a young man with psychic abilities being hunted by a government agency, which makes the central conflict rather strained, while there are a number of downright inexplicable interactions here and there that make the narrative difficult to follow at times.
Kirk Douglas, who I am not a great fan is faultless, John Cassavetes at his Rosemary's Baby's best and if Andrew Stevens is a little flat, it works within the tale and is well covered by the fantastic performance from Amy Irvine..
Kirk Douglas, his son Andrew Stevens, and his friend John Cassavetes, are enjoying a beach day, when they suddenly come under attack by terrorists!
With the majority of the film seemingly constructed as an action movie about taking down the spy ring enables for some rather nice action as well, with a decent foot- chase through a series of apartments and a fine shoot-out in the middle of a car chase help this one out as well, As well, the scenes of the two going through the tests trying to find him as well as the utterly cheesy fun of the unleashed powers at the carnival makes for some rather fun action-scenes here that go a long way toward helping this get more of a horror feel throughout here.
That carries over into the rest of the movie with this one being so long setting up the different tactics of getting her to cooperate with them or passing their tests that this one just isn't all that much of a horror film as the industrial spy subplot takes over so much of the film that it holds this one back by not letting those elements get a chance to be featured that there's not a lot of time to let those in.
What helps though is the casting, as Kirk Douglas in hero mode works best through this very narrowly focused man on a mission; John Cassavetes in one of his very best acting roles as the cold- though devil-friendly- antagonist as he kidnaps his 'gifted' son.
And for the greater part of the film I bought into it, that Douglas could be this old man with enough sense to match skills as an ex-agent, or that Andrew Stevens as the son and Irving could be convincing as vulnerable, confused teens with certain 'unstable' ways.
A scary and good old-fashioned joy ride that concentraits on an aging goverment agent, Peter Sandza (Kirk Douglas - "Ben-Hur") who finds help from Gillian (Amy Irving - "Traffic"), a teenage girl who's surprised to learn that she has special abilities and he relies on her to find out where a crooked adversary of his, Childress (the late John Cassavetes - "The Dirty Dozen") is doing with his psychic son, Robin (Andrew Stevens).Brian DePalma ("Carrie", "The Untouchables") directs here and he applies the hair-raising details where they're needed.
The film stars Kirk Douglas in a strong performance as a government agent whose son (a psychic) was kidnapped.
John Cassavetes plays the kidnapper, who happens to be Douglas' partner (all these connections are established within the first 20 minutes, so I'm not spoiling it for you) The bulk of the film deals with Gillian (Amy Irving), another psychic who Douglas enlists to find his son.
Charles Durning returns as another villain, adding to his collection of offbeat and memorable performances (The Muppet Movie added another)and Amy Irving is very good as the psychic who helps Douglas.
With then still-fresh heartthrob Stevens, backed by a cast of able-bodied film vets like Douglas and Cassavettes, THE FURY was the perfect formula for a screaming good time at the movies: buckets of blood and popcorn included.
But I enjoy the cause more than the resulting effect, and the sly way De Palma trades a night of tragedy for a beautiful, sunlit setting, where good finally gets the upper hand and evil bites the big one.If not for that ending, which needed to be as outrageous as it was to balance off Cassavettes' OTT performance as Childress, then enjoy it for what is truly some of John Williams' best scoring ever.
Peter Sandza (Kirk Douglas) is happily holidaying with his son Robin (Andrew Stevens), when he is betrayed by his lifelong friend Ben Childress (John Cassavetes).
It stars Kirk Douglas, John Cassavetes, Carrie Snodgress, Charles Durning, Amy Irving, Fiona Lewis and Andrew Stevens.
A government agent (Kirk Douglas) is determined to come to his son's rescue, when a sinister official kidnaps him to harbor his extremely powerful psychic abilities.I find it interesting that Brian De Palma chose this as the follow-up to "Carrie".
From nosebleeds to explosion, he mines the kids in the film for all they are worth.Kirk Douglas, who plays a former government agent, is on the trail of his son, who has these psychic abilities, and who was kidnapped by the government.Amy Irving, who was Carrie;s friend gets her own opportunity to shine.Yes, it does have one of the goriest scenes in the movies..
i enjoyed this Brian De Palma paranormal thriller/horror.it.may seem tame by today's standards,but back then,i'm sure it was probably pretty terrifying to some people.i thought it was also revolutionary.there are some pretty graphic images that i found a bit disturbing,even though i've seen a lot of horror/thrillers.but this is not just some slice'n dicer.there's a story in here,and the gory parts are part of the story.John Farris wrote the screenplay adapted from his novel.and he has quite a few excellent novels that in the right hands would make good films.***possible minor spoiler ahead***like many people i thought Scanners(which came out 3 years later) was revolutionary.but the Fury paved the way for that film.(and yes,The Fury borrows form Carrie,another DePalma film.in fact some of the sequences in Scanners were nearly identical to those in the Fury,but were actually not as graphic.i think The Fury is actually a superior film.Amy Irving is terrific,and steals the show.the supporting cast is also good,with Kirk Douglas,Carrie Snodgress,John Cassavetes,Andrew Stevens,and Fiona Lewis.Charles Durning also has a small role.an unrecognizable Melody Thomas Scott(Nikki Newman from the long running soap The Young and the Restless)also has what amounts to a cameo.but it's Dennis Franz in his very brief appearance that is hysterical in a bit of comic relief performance.as for the movie itself,if you have a weak stomach or don't like horror films,i suggest you avoids this.but if you like being scared,pop this in late at night for maximum effect.my vote for The Fury is a 9/10 P.S. some people may find this movie slow by today's standards,but that merely builds up the suspense and is well worth sitting through..
Kirk Douglas plays former CIA agent Peter Sandza, who is determined to find his son Robin(played by Andrew Stevens) who has been kidnapped by a secret government organization called Childress, (led by John Cassavetes) who want him,(and others) who have powerful psychic abilities to be used in times of war.
Peter enlists the help of a Childress student named Gillian(Amy Irving) to rescue Robin, and defeat the evil Childress.Brian De Palma film is high on melodrama and violence but short on credibility, with a plot that seems like an extension of "Carrie"(which also starred Amy Irving) only isn't as good.
In effect, the film has great moments, but between the high spots it comes across as rather a mish-mash.Government agent Peter Sandza (Kirk Douglas) is vacationing in Israel with his son Robin (Andrew Stevens) when some gun-toting terrorists show up.
Ben Childress (John Cassavetes) pretends to be sending Peter Sandza (Kirk Douglas) and his son Robin (Andrew Stevens) to Chicago.
Ridiculous, over-the-top, but entertaining thriller about a renegade secret agent (Kirk Douglas) obsessively searching for his psychic son (Andrew Stevens), who has been kidnapped by an evil government agency that wants him as a weapon.
The story just isn't always the best going one also because they can't seem to decide who is the movie its main character; Peter Sandza (Kirk Douglas) or Gillian Bellaver (Amy Irving).
I have a rule against watching any movies about people with "special powers." The presence of Kirk Douglas and Brian dePalma's directing made me suspend the rule.
The Untouchables and Mission Impossible.The Fury follows up Carrie as it deals with people who have telekinesis powers.Kirk Douglas who even though was in his 60s looks in great shape who plays a shadowy government agent whose psychic son, Robin (Andrew Stevens) is kidnapped in a staged incident in the Middle East.John Cassavetes who is Douglas's fried and colleague is behind it all.
He is trying to get people with psychic powers together to use them as weapons.Amy Irving is Gillian, a young woman with similar psychic abilities as Douglas's son.
Douglas wants her to use her powers to find her son.The film starts of intriguing enough and we see Irving coming to terms with her powers and using her abilities to unravel people with ulterior motives such as Charles Durning playing a doctor in an institute.Douglas is good as the dogged father who has been betrayed by his own agency and there is some nice comic scenes with two cops whose car he kidnaps.The film is just too damn long and Andrew Stevens is not good enough as Robin.
Peter Sandza (Kirk Douglas) is a secret government agent whose son (Andrew Stevens) has extraordinary psychic gifts, which make the young man the target of a kidnapping plot hatched by Peter's duplicitous colleague, Ben Childress (John Cassavetes).
De Palma's second film about psychic powers features a stellar cast including John Cassavetes and Kirk Douglas, and some spectacular sequences, but fails due to a silly and muddled plot.
In a surprising twist of events, Douglas' character is killed off resulting in his son going berserk and using his telekinetic powers to make John Cassavette's head explode!!As was the trend with a lot of supernatural pictures around this time ("The Entity", "The Exorcist", "Carrie", "Scanners", etc), this was quite entertaining.
Directed by Brian DePalma, The Fury stars Kirk Douglas as desperate father Peter Sandza, who enlists the help of teenage psychic Gillian (Amy Irving) to find his son Robin (Andrew Stevens), who has been abducted by Ben Childress (John Cassavetes), the head of a shadowy government organisation.The Fury isn't really much of a De Parture for De Palma, who had scored a hit only two years earlier with Carrie, another film about a psychic teenage girl.