Tag: The Assassination Game

Plot synopsis:
The central and pretty much only plot revolves around students at a college campus who are involved in a role-playing game called TAG which is an acronym for "The Assassination Game". The game is fairly straightforward, each player is assigned another player who they must assassinate by shooting him or her with a spring loaded dart gun. At the outset of the game each player is given a document called a Tag Victim Profile that contains a photo, the name, address, phone and class schedule of the player who he/she must kill. After a player completes the assignment he/she then takes over the assignment of the person who he/she killed and then notifies the game organizer, Nick Carpenter, of the kill so he can plot the kill on his game progress chart. Play continues in this manner until only one player remains at which point he or she is declared the winner.The movie follows the exploits of 2 TAG players, Susan Swayze who is playing for the first time and Loren Gersh who is the 5 time undefeated TAG champion looking to repeat yet again. He doesn't have much of a life besides playing TAG and devotes all his time to following players around and taking them out. At least one of these two characters is in every scene except for a few isolated occasions where the camera is concentrating on Alex Marsh. The only time other TAG players are shown is when they are interacting with Susan or Gersh.The movie opens with Gersh standing in a dorm hallway wearing a Get Smart style hat and trench coat while hiding behind a newspaper with eye holes cut out. His target approaches but then the target sees him and slowly backs away as he draws his dart gun but for some reason he is carrying an empty gun. When his target realizes he has no darts he turns and runs away as Gersh casually strolls after him Pepe' le Pew fashion. The target goes down a set of stairs and hides under a grate. On the sidewalk above footsteps are heard approaching and then leaving. Suddenly Gersh appears out of the dark, greets him, loads his dart gun and fires. The dart sticks to the forehead of the target and he then utters an expletive as he pulls it off.The next scene features Susan walking outside of a dorm as the clock tower strikes 9pm. While she is looking at the profile of her target, Shooster, she notices a car signaling somone in a dorm room by flashing its headlights then the person in dorm room responds by turning the room lights on and off. In the meantime someone else is in a phone booth in front of the dorm and says, "she's right here I can't talk". Susan brushes the signaling off and enters the dorm anyway. Shooster makes sure that Susan sees him then walks down the stairs to the laundry room with a laundry basket in his hands. She follows him and enters the laundry room but it appears to be empty. She doesn't see that he is hiding in a dark corner behind a dryer. As she is about to leave she hears him move and opens a washing machine door just in time for it to block a dart that was headed for her. They proceed to shoot at one another until she can't find another dart at which point she runs away. He finds a dart, loads his gun and follows. To escape Susan ducks into Alex Marsh's dorm room to hide. Alex tries to talk to her but she shushes him. Susan leaves almost as abruptly as she entered. Alex gets out of bed and opens his door to see where she went. Susan walks down the hall as Shooster and Charlie, another player, suddenly pop out of different doors with Susan in the middle of them. As they fire Alex tells Susan to look out, she ducks and they end up shooting one another instead. The three players walk away together laughing as Alex stands speechless in his underwear. Alex finds Susan extremely attractive so he is determined to find her to try to get to know her. Alex writes for the school paper and plans to use the pretext of writing an article about TAG to meet Susan and follow her around. He visits the office of Nick Carpenter, the game organizer, locates Susan's file and discovers where she lives.Susan's roomate Nancy is also playing TAG and in fact it is made clear later that she is the one who got Susan involved in the game. Nancy and Susan realize they are being followed by Nancy's assassin, Randy, so Nancy decides to use a trick to get rid of him. Susan observes while Nancy goes to the pool, changes into her bathing suit, hides a mini-dart gun in her bikini bottom and then pretends to drown in the pool. Randy jumps in with his clothes on to save her but after he lifts her out of the pool she shoots him with a dart.In the meantime another TAG player, Swanson, is heading to the bathroom to take a shower. He has his dart gun with him and places it on the soap dish in the shower stall. Gersh is hiding in a stall with his feet on the toilet so that Swanson doesn't know he is in the bathroom. Gersh opens the shower curtain and while lecturing him about not being careful enough, Swanson knocks his dart gun on the floor. The gun hits the floor, fires and the dart hits Gersh. Gersh is extremely upset at being hit for the first time and protests that it doesn't count because it was an accident. He then unsuccessfully tries to bribe Swanson to start over as if nothing had happened. To prevent
Swanson from reporting him dead to Carpenter, he retrieves a real Beretta 92 from his dorm room, returns to the shower and murders him. He then uses a laundry cart to wheel the corpse to his dorm room closet.Alex goes to visit Susan and tells her that he is writing an article about TAG and needs to follow a player around in order to learn about the game. Susan agrees to let him accompany her only if he helps her win, he agrees and she gives him his first assignment, to go warm up her car. In the meantime, after contemplating his actions, Gersh is somewhat depressed and calls Carpenter to tell him he killed Swanson as if asking for guidance. Carpenter doesn't realize he means he killed Swanson for real, he thinks he meant he shot him with a dart. So Carpenter notes the kill on his progress chart and tells Gersh to keep up the good work. Carpenter's encouragement cheers Gersh up and at that point the limited remaining grasp he had on reality vanishes. Though he has no need to use the real Beretta to silence anyone else, he proceeds to use it to murder the remaining contestants unlucky enough to become one of his assigned kills and also dumps their bodies in his closet.Next Alex starts Susan's car as some girls, who are obviously out to get Susan, are snickering in the background. Susan yells for him to drive and pick her up. As he does the girls come out of the dark giving chase on foot but the car pulls away too fast for them to get a shot off. Susan has Alex park in the Delta House fraternity lot next to the car of her target. Alex questions Susan while they wait for her target to come out. Susan loses track of time and realizes he closed his room light and is approaching. She kisses Alex just as her victim reaches her car with his gun drawn. He figures they are just making out so he turns around to get in his car. Susan then shoots him in the back through her window which was rolled down.In the next scene Nancy and Susan are in class. Nancy tells Susan she is dating Randy and that she is not playing TAG anymore because instead she going to Randy's track practice then she is going away with Randy to his Parent's beach house and the following day to a concert together. Gersh is seen in the widow spying on them. It shortly becomes clear that Nancy is the one he is targeting. He tails her to the track meet and sneaks under the bleachers right behind her. Gersh shoots and kills her at the same exact time the coach fires a blank to start the race. Gersh then reports the kill to Carpenter and transports her body to his room.Frank, who is apparently an editor at the school paper, approaches Alex and tells him that there are two missing students and tries to convince him to write an article about it but Alex tells him he is still busy with his TAG feature. At first blush it appears that the second missing student was Nancy. However, it is implied that both are males because not even their "girlfriends" know where they are and is later revealed that this second missing student was a different TAG player who Gersh killed. The second kill was never shown on film nor does Gersh report it to Carpenter anywhere in the movie, which would have cleared things up sooner. Thus the audience is not aware of it and most assume the report was referring to Nancy. This makes one wonder why Susan is not worried. Randy eventually reports Nancy missing towards the end of the movie and since Nancy told her that she was going away Susan never suspects anything is wrong by her absence.Alex goes to meet Susan but can't find her at first. Susan calls the Campus Information desk and asks to speak to Alex. She tells him that she is hiding in the nearby phone booth and needs his help because she is out of darts and her assigned assassin, Wallace, is waiting outside the phone booth to get her. He makes an announcement over the loudspeaker that there is a free concert in a different hall and a large crowd including Wallace run to the location of the alleged concert. This permits Susan to escape and they spend the day together.Later that evening while Susan and Alex are spying on Gowdy, her assigned target, she notices that Wallace is again tracking her. She tells Marsh to keep an eye on Gowdy while she goes off to get rid of Wallace. She goes to the pool locker room and changes into her bathing suit, planning to try the same drowning trick that Nancy demonstrated to her. In the meantime Alex sees Gersh lurking about and asks him if he is looking for Wallace. Gersh answers yes and Alex tells him to go to the pool to find him. While Susan is under the water Gersh shoots and kills Wallace. Susan exits the pool perplexed and while searching for Wallace encounters Alex who tells her he took care of Wallace but lost Gowdy. They run to the athletic building and again part company as she says she will take the front and he should take the back.While lying in wait Susan shoots Alex as he walks through the door thinking he is Gowdy. Alex then proceeds to step on the dart breaking it. Susan states that she had only one dart for her mini dart gun and asks Alex to go back to her locker to get her primary weapon while she spies on Gowdy. Gowdy returns and starts searching rooms, the last room is where Susan is hiding. Alex is unable to remember the locker combination and thus fails to get her gun. He sees Gersh and runs up to him and asks if he got Wallace. Then he said he did Gersh a favor and in return wants to borrow Gersh's gun. Gersh gives him the dart gun and Alex tosses it to Susan just in time for her to shoot Gowdy before he found her. Naturally the final two players left at this point are Gersh and Susan.Game rules dictate that a party be held before the final round between the two remaining players can commence so a party is scheduled the next evening and play is suspended for a 21 hour period until after the party ends. Susan and Alex use the break to spend the night together in her room. Alex leaves in the morning but proceeds to smother her throughout the day with flowers and notes professing his love. Susan is put off and tries to avoid him and refuses to answer her phone. When he approaches her at the party she tells him she needs space and is not sure when and if she wants to see him again. She tells him that she wants to handle the final round on her own rather than with his help, despite telling him the previous night that she wanted his help.After the party the final round commences. At 9pm Gersh calls Susan and challenges her to meet him in the quad. During the course of playing cat and mouse Susan hides in Gersh's room to try a sneak attack when he returns but she finds the corpses in the closet and runs away screaming in panic. Interestingly only 3 bodies are shown, Nancy, Swanson and Wallace, despite the fact it is later implied that he murdered 5. Gersh sees her running from his room and tries to get her before she can tell anyone. She runs screaming to the College rent-a-cop but as he loads a round into his revolver Gersh shoots and kills him. He proceeds to chase her to the roof of a building.In the meantime Alex drowns his sorrows with journalistic work, specifically investigating the rash of missing college students. He visits campus security as Randy is reporting Nancy missing. At this point it becomes clear that Nancy was not the second missing student, another player was. Apparently 2 players never shown in the film were killed offscreen, one named M. Homes and the other we are simply given the last name March. Alex recognizes Wallace and pieces together that all the missing students played TAG and were taken out by Gersh. He surmises that Gersh harmed them for real and then sets out in search of Susan to warn her. Alex finds the dead security guard and picks up the gun not realizing there was only 1 round in it. Then he hears the sound of glass breaking coming from the rooftop and runs to investigate. Gersh is about to shoot Susan when Alex appears. Alex fires at Gersh but nothing happens and then fires 4 more times to no avail. Gersh is amused by this and at first simply laughs but after the 5th click he takes aim at Alex. Alex pulls the trigger one final time and at last a bullet fires hitting Gersh who then falls off the roof to his death. The movie ends with Alex consoling Susan.

Tags: murder, prank

Review:
Jaded viewers imposing current film standards and expectations may want to look elsewhere, but if one has an appreciation for 80's movies and other movies of this type and pace, then it's clear that Tag has aged well for what it is.
Tag is a dark comedy-thriller that takes place on a college campus during the 1980's.
Think of something along the lines of Terror Train (1980 with Jamie Lee Curtis), except with comedy and a tongue in cheek quality to it, at least in the films first half.TAG, The Assassination Game (1982) is a great little film that has gained a strong, though seemingly small fan following over the years.
I've watched it many times since I discovered it in the early 80's (after which I got a few people together in my high school so we could hunt each other down with rubber band guns –not recommended).
At a college campus the latest pastime is a game called TAG.
TAG players are given lists of targets (consisting of other players in the TAG group) that they chase after all over the large college campus with fake plastic suction tipped dart guns.
That is, until things go wrong.The reigning champion (played wonderfully by Bruce Abbott in his first film role) gets so upset over getting tagged and losing that he decides to use real bullets instead and continue on with the game.
The movie is a decent paced 80's film with a noir like tongue in cheek quality to it that develops into the dark and serious, contains a fair amount of suspense, and pulls it all off with nice style for a little film.
Though I've never seen anything else really like TAG, there are a few other movies that one might like if they like it, such as Silver Streak (1976), and Foul Play (1978).
Castle was involved in helping his friend, Director John Carpenter write Escape From New York, and TAG was Castle's first Directing project.
Castle would later go on to direct more commercially honed films (for that time period) such as The Last Starfighter, The Boy Who Could Fly, and others.
He was also the original man behind the mask in Halloween.Having already been in a number of films before TAG, (most notable to me is The Big Red One as a cigar smoking writer named Pvt. Zab), Robert Carradine appears in Tag as a dashing cigar smoking journalist who falls in love with the movies heroine.
He's still active in his long career.Aside from a couple of TV roles and minor work, TAG is Linda Hamilton's first real film.
(Incidentally, Bruce Abbott apparently did "get" Linda Hamilton in the end after all, in reality that is.
The first thing I notice when I watch "TAG" is that the film seems to have been made on TV tape....it has that feel.
Sound and lighting are basic, and it's clear from the outset that this movie was made on a shoestring budget.It is the acting that brings this film through.
Linda Hamilton studied Lauren Bacall very closely, and makes a credible run at a "To Have and Have Not" moment, and Robert Carradine hams it up as a budding ace reporter.
Considering that every bad 80's slasher movie ever made seems to have a cult following these days (including, God help us all, the Sleepaway Camp trilogy), I find it highly ironic that a well-made, suspenseful, and entertaining film like this is now virtually forgotten.
It has some great b-movie talent including Robert Carradine, Bruce Abbot, erstwhile porn starlet Kristine DeBell, and a young Linda Hamilton.
The problem with this movie, no doubt, was that, much like the original Halloween, it contained little blood and gore.
So this great little movie is forgotten today while pointless dreck like Sleepaway Camp lingers like an unflushed turd in a poorly ventilated bathroom.
The funny thing is, when I went to U of Miami for college in 1990, we actually played a version of this game on campus.
I do not think this movie is available on DVD at this point, and I think thats way it is not seen as a cult classic like others like it from the same era.
At a college campus the latest craze is a game where people are given targets to chase after with fake guns loaded with plastic darts.
However, the reigning champion so upset over losing decides to use real bullets instead and continue on with the game.
Seeing Linda Hamilton in an early role was fun, as was the premise.
This movie came out during the height of "assassination" games where you try to "eliminate" someone you've been assigned to, without that person knowing you're after him/her.
A group of students in college are playing a game called TAG:The Assassination Game with plastic dart guns.A college newspaper reporter played by Robert Carradine decides to write the story about TAG after one of the players beautiful Linda Hamilton hides out in his room.Gersh(Bruce Abbot)becomes angry after failing the game,so he starts to use gun with a real bullets and the hunt begins..."Tag:The Assassination Game" was directed by Nick Castle who played Michael Myers in John Carpenter's "Halloween".It's also worth checking out for fantastic actors including Linda Hamilton,Bruce Abbot,Robert Carradine,Xander Berkley,Michael Winslow and Forest Whitaker.The score is excellent,the pace is fast and there is a bit of violence but no gore and nudity.7 deadly dart guns out of 10..
OK, all one really needs to say is "This is a film about college kids shooting each other with rubber tipped dart guns." If you are looking into a movie with that premise for anything other than breezy entertainment, you need to raise your standards.That being said, this is a pretty good film.
Linda Hamilton, as another commenter said, was really honing her craft here, and many of the skills that she demonstrated in Terminator were beginning to be displayed.
Carradine is passable as a lead as a wannabe "front page", but like all the Carradines, not very memorable.Finally, it is worth noting that Michael Winslow has some enjoyable scenes as a TAG contestant who entertains himself and others with his very commendable skills as a sound effects specialist.
He would eventually go on to great fame in the Police Academy movies 2 years later.Not much in the way of technical expertise displayed here by Nick Castle, who played the Shape in Halloween (though he probably had no budget to work with).
Most enjoyable for me was the boom mike that appeared in a classroom scene above Linda Hamilton's head.
The execution of "TAG: The Assassination Game" may be primarily comical and light-headed, the concept is extremely ingenious and would easily lean itself for a harsh and disturbing thriller.
It's actually quite regrettable that writer/director Nick Castle (an acolyte of John Carpenter, which is made clear through many details throughout the film) opted for the more comical and all-revealing approach, as you can't help thinking this premise held a lot more potential.
"TAG" is the name of a game organized on campus grounds and it's a gigantic hype in universities all across the USA.
Of course one of the players, who can't stand losing too well, takes the game a little serious and starts taking out his targets with genuine bullets.
Most of the film, however, revolves on the game circuit of the lovely Linda Hamilton, as well as on her romance with the school newspaper journalist Robert Carradine), so it takes an awful long while before anyone ever realizes there's a crazed killer on the loose.
"TAG" isn't exactly suspenseful, since the identity of the killer is never kept secret and  let's face it  someone going completely bonkers over losing a stupid college game isn't very convincing.
Still, it's a fun idea and the film has a few highly memorable moments and eccentric characters, like Carpenter (see the link?); the creep who keeps hold of the score.
Linda Hamilton looks beautiful and very sexy in this one, although she smokes like a chimney unfortunately, and it's also the debut film of Bruce Abbott (Re-Animator)..
The acting is better than in slashers but the script ends up being lacking at times, not enough comedy and the romance angle was largely boring.
The biggest draw to the movie and the real reason there is a cult following of sorts (cult following among those who actually saw it) is because of kids or teens who had dart guns and loved the concept of the game being portrayed and in fact this movie inspired the creation of such games.
The movie thus should have devoted more to the game itself.
The only time Tag players other than Susan and Gersh appeared was when they were interacting with Susan or Gersh.
In combination with the killer's identity being secret, or at least the face of each assassin not being shown until after a kill this would have increased the thrill factor because the audience would wonder whether each upcoming kill would be real or fake.
Instead there were just 3 players murdered on screen with a total lack of surprise or suspense plus we do not care much about the victims either.
With so few murders the movie needed more of the game shown and some suspense.
Towards the end it is revealed that Gersh murdered 5 players.
If the budget and/or time did not permit hiring more actors or showing the other two kills at the very least the movie should have shown Gersh calling Carpenter to report the kills so the audience would be aware of them.
Compared to some slashers though with the likes of super human freaks nearly impossible to kill this is relatively minor.Another minor issue is that on 2 occasions various players teamed up to get Susan.
Props for the choice because they look great on film.
One of the more entertaining entries happens to have been T.A.G. Well-written and flawlessly crafted from start to finish, this one boasted a superb cast and a film noir sensibility that elevated it head and shoulders above the then-current run-of-the-mill murder movies.
There are enough in-jokes to keep John Carpenter and Nick Castle fans satisfied, and the overall look and feel of this film makes it a must-see for students of the art..
Tag - You're It. Tag - The Assassination Game is yet another one of those unknown slashers from the 1980's, but has a few famous stars in it Linda Hamilton (The Terminator 1&2) as the final girl and Bruce Abbott (The Re-Animator) as the deranged killer (not a dead give away it's revealed very early on).To be honest you can't really call this movie a slasher as the killer doesn't use any sharp instruments just a gun as he takes the game of tag quite literally, with fast descent into madness.
Especially when Linda Hamilton becomes his latest victim then we get the classic killer and final girl showdown.
Tag is a very entertaining movie in my opinion especially loved the cheesy starting where it looks more like a 70's TV show than a horror/thriller movie.
But the only drawback that this movie is that it's a little bland at times with no suspense.
Director Nick Castle delivers a suspenseful dark comedy about a group of college students who play a game of TAG, consisting of sneaking around with suction-dart guns and keeping tabs on who lives and dies.In the cat and mouse game, each participant lurks in the shadows dorm rooms, hallways, and even showers to "remove" their opponents from the list, all covered by L.A. based rock DJ Frazer Smith as the frantic scorekeeper.Enter Robert Carradine as a wannabe pulp writer working for the campus newspaper, interested in covering what, in his opinion, is a strange and subliminally violent pastime where students center more on a fictional death than studying, reading, or anything else worthwhile.With signature full lips, sexy smile and independence, quick-witted Linda Hamilton becomes his very own Lauren Bacall.
But the real story begins after scene-stealing Bruce Abbott, as the brooding antagonist, getting accidentally taken out by a dart and being the only player who's never lost, loses his mind: turning into a calculating killer using a real gun with real bullets.Director Castle, a student of John Carpenter, keeps things at a steady pace and, as Abbott sneaks around campus like a shadowy wraith, the body count/horror film aspect works along with the dark comedy and steamy romance.
While GOTCHA starring Anthony Edwards, with a similar plot of a game turned lethal, became more mainstream a few years later, TAG is darker and more intense.Kristine DeBell co-stars as a creative but ultimately unlucky gamer and Michael Winslow wields his voice sound effects sporadically.
And the name fits, almost.A parody of horror combined with Noir and a dash of exploitation, there are plenty of cool homage's to old black and white films and some more "modern" classics, including Abbott looking much like a youthful GODFATHER2/TAXI DRIVER era Robert De Niro.Good stuff from start to finish, 'cause you never know what'll happen next...For More Reviews: www.cultfilmfreaks.com.
Tag:The Assassination Game.
Odd blend of comedy and thriller has a writer for a college paper, Alex Marsh(Robert Carradine)deciding to follow a student(in psychology, no less), Susan Swayze(Linda Hamilton)as she plays a popular game, TAG, where opponents are pitted against each other, on campus, with guns that shoot rubber darts.
One of the players, Loren Gersh(Bruce Abbott, REANIMATOR), has been champion for four years running, and when actually "killed", he doesn't take defeat very well..something snaps and Gersh loads his gun with real bullets and starts actually killing those on his game's hit-list.
Marsh falls in love with Susan and even helps her at times when she runs out of darts and her gun is useless.
Once student bodies start going missing, Gersh begins a transformation, cleaning himself up, even wearing a suit and tie, and eventually Susan will be his next target.While not in it much, Kristine DeBell has some nice work as Hamilton's pal Nancy, unfortunately a fellow TAG player who winds up on Gersh's hit-list.
This also features an early performance from "human sound effects machine" Michael Winslow who is fortunately on Susan's hit-list and spared the fate of those targeted by Gersh.Abbott is quite effective as the psychopath who never appears very stable to begin with, obsessed with the TAG game maybe because it's the only thing that gives his life meaning.
I've always been a fan of Carradine's and this film doesn't change my opinion of him, chomping on a cigar, just head over heels(as I was)for Hamilton, his character is one of those unlikely Hitchcockian heroes who saves the day in the nick of time, just because his reporter stumbles upon a novel idea for a story based on his infatuation for a girl who entered his room to avoid being "shot" by an "assassin" at the beginning of the movie.I think the film benefits from this great cast, but, gosh, this premise is pretty disturbing if you think about it.
The potency of the murders is the very fact that Gersh doesn't play fair and his victims never stand a chance.
The main problem I imagine others will have with this film, besides the idea that college students could commit to their studies and play this demanding game, is that the outcome will not be a surprise.
I think a movie hinges on the suspense of the premise, but I figure, if you were like me, no one will be convinced that Hamilton won't be rescued by Carradine.
Still, I thought TAG:THE ASSASSINATION GAME was a nice surprise, because I had never heard of it.
And, when I noticed that Carradine and Hamilton were both in it, as well as Abbott, I was more than excited to see what might come of it.
Lots of nice homages to classic film noir, and the score is very bluesy, appropriate for what inspires Carradine(this includes a loving nod to TO HAVE AND HAVE NOT where Hamilton gets to run that famous line from Lauren Bacall and steals Carradine's heart in the process).
From the director of THE LAST STARFIGHTER, and John Carpenter associate, Nick Castle..
Gathering up a small pile of Video's that I'm hoping to sell during the Christmas period,I noticed a Video with a very cheap & tacky cover.Originally expecting the movie to be nothing but an extra low-rank Action movie,I was instead shocked to discover,that along with featuring Forest Whitaker (playing a boom-box carrying "gangsta" thug!) in his debut role,the film also had Linda Hamilton in the lead role,which led to me going back on the school play fields to play a deadly game of tag.The plot:Struggleing to find a subject to fill up the student newspaper,journalist Alex Marsh decides to do a report on the 6th annual Tag:Assassination tournament is being held at his university,where students are each given a dart gun,and told that they have to "take out" all of the other students,in order to become the number one Tag champion.Finding himself quickly drawn into the event's world,Alex finds himself following Tag whizkid Susan Swayze,who he witnesses quickly rising through the ranks.Unbeknowst to Susan,as she gets closer to reaching the Tag final,the reining champ decides that he is going to have to take extreme measures in order to hold on to his title View on the film:Featuring name checks for Lauren Bacall and Raymond Chandler, (and also covering the student newspaper wall with a huge Bogart poster) writer/director Nick Castle gives his teen riff on Richard Connell's The Most Dangerous Game a terrific Film Noir edge,as Alex finds himself being unable to look away from the dangerous adrenalin rush of the Tag tournament,and also the sassy, witted charms of Susan.Whilst Castle's path into a Slasher-lite territory, (the reigning Tag champion is a complete nutter) does water down the movies Noir charm,and the roguish thrill of being caught up in the exciting,ruthless tournament,Linda Hamilton gives a terrific spirited performance as Susan Swayze,with Hamilton showing a proto-Sarah Conner level of daring and guts as Susan battles to dodge the final "Tag" that could lead to her game,being permanently over.