Standoff
Tags: cult, flashback

Plot synopsis:
A young girl, Bird with her aunt's boyfriend waiting at the car, visits the grave of her parents on the anniversary of their deaths, witnesses and photographs a hitman, Sade, killing people attending a funeral. When her aunt's boyfriend, Roger, comes looking for her, Sade kills him and tries to kill her too, but she flees into the woods. Bird comes across the house of a war veteran, Carter, who vows to protect her. Arriving at the house, Sade shoots at Carter, who grabs a shotgun and shoots back. They exchange words and gunfire, and both are wounded. During a break in the gunfire, Sade tries to talk Carter into sending Bird down so he can kill her. Carter refuses, and they both pause to patch up their wounds and prepare for the next round. Carter sends the girl for some light bulbs, which he breaks and throws down the stairs, alerting Sade to the fact that he "ain't no farmer." Carter finds out from the girl what happened in the cemetery and that she has a picture of Sade's face. Sade, in the downstairs of the house, starts going through Carter's possessions and finds a picture of Carter in military uniform with his wife and son. He tries to convince Carter he is also ex-military and he understands why Carter is protecting Bird. Carter lets him know he is aware that Bird has a picture of him and that is why he is after her.
Meanwhile, a sheriff's deputy happens upon the abandoned cars at the cemetery. In the house, a resting Carter is dreaming about a tragedy that happened to his son. He wakes up and sends Bird to get a bottle of alcohol. She returns with the drink and his son's teddy bear, which he angrily tells her to put back. Sade finds and starts to read a letter Carter had written his wife, taking blame for the death of their son. In the letter, he states he knew she blamed him for the death and didn't blame her for leaving him. Sade realizes that Carter had packed up and written the letter as he was contemplating suicide. He snidely encourages him to go ahead.
Bird tells Carter that her dad told her she had "no quit in her" and wonders if she will see her dad when she dies. She asks Carter why his wife left him and he said the house reminded her of their son. They hug and Sade shoots a round, gaining the attention of the deputy (Jim Watson) who was looking around for the cars' owners. The light in the house starts to fade and Carter now needs to get Bird out as he only has one shot remaining and in the dark he can't protect her.
The deputy goes back to his car to report the shot fired and ask if a shooting range had opened. He drives up to the house, where Sade sees him arrive while Carter is trying to get Bird out through a window on the second level. Knocking at the door, the deputy is shot by Sade and Bird goes back into the house. Sade hides the deputy's car and starts to head back to the house where Carter confronts him and tells him to leave. Sade tries to goad him to shoot, guessing he only has the one shot and would likely miss given the shotgun's range. Carter backs off and Sade grabs the deputy as bait. He tries to bargain with Carter for the deputy's life as well as his own for Bird. When Carter refuses, Sade starts to torture the deputy. He eventually shoots him and rolls him out where Carter can see him.
After a period of silence, Carter tells Bird to hide and starts down the stairs. Sade in the meanwhile makes his way barefoot across the roof. He ends up at the top of the stairs, where he is surprised by Carter, and falls down the glass-strewn stairs. Fed-up, Sade plans to set the house on fire, but changes his mind and calls Carter's wife on Carter's cell phone which he had found earlier. Resting again, the men engage in another argument.
Night descends and Carter's wife Mara arrives. Sade bargains again for Bird implying he'll rape Mara if Carter doesn't comply. Fearing he will trade for his wife, Bird pleads with Carter not to. Instead he gives her the gun instructing her to shoot down the stairs if Sade heads up. He heads down the stairs, telling Sade "if he wants her, go get her." Sade goes on a rant before shooting Carter in the leg. When Sade yells to Bird that he will kill Carter, she quickly heads down the stairs in order go save him. Before Sade has the chance to kill any of them, the lights in the house flicker, giving Carter the chance to rush the assassin, stabbing Sade multiple times, though is shot in the ensuring struggle. While Carter incapacitates Sade, Mara runs outside to call 911. Bird, however, stays behind, determined to kill her tormentor herself. Finding Sade against the wall, severally bleeding, he tells her to shoot him after she aims the gun at Sade and pulls the trigger, but the gun only clicks; with Sade realizing the round was a dud the whole time. Sade aims his gun at Bird, who looks on at the man, unafraid, telling him herself to pull the trigger, though he only responds with the fact that he is not a monster before dying without shooting. With it finally over, Bird heads over to Carter who is still alive. He simply tells her "there is no quit in me." as the three of them wait for the police to arrive.

Review: Not what I was expecting, but alright nonetheless. I basically saw this movie through happenstance, and had no expectations whatsoever. I will admit to being shallow and expressing disappointment at not seeing Natasha Henstidge topless, but besides that, this movie was enjoyable. It has the feel of a converted stageplay, in the sense that it is essentially six people locked in a room for two hours. Maybe I'm completely out to lunch here, but it reminds me of other converted plays like 'twelve angry men' and 'lifeboat'. It definitely has that HBO/Sci Fi Channel feel to it. The acting was solid overall, though not exceptional. The best of the bunch I think was 'Bama'. Also, maybe I'm a tad naieve, but I found the surprise ending to be a big surprise. Maybe I got suckered by it all just like Jamie, the main character did. Hmph. On an overall scale of enjoyment, I'd have to give this a six or so.. A Good Cast in a Low-Budget and Confined Thriller. A way to go for some Low-Budget Movies is to have a Confined or Closed Environment. The thing Is, if You go that way, the Characters and the Actors have to be on Their game or the whole thing collapses under its own restraint.In this one the Setting is an Abandoned, Run Down Farmhouse in Rural Texas. The Backdrop of the Story is a WACO like Raid on a Nut-Case Religious Cult and some FBI Agents are Caught in the Crossfire and Holed-Up, Waiting for the Calvary.The Cast is a Good One with Dennis Haysbert, Keith Carradine, and Natasha Henstridge (fully clothed). The Headliner is Robert Sean Leonard, whose Film Career Stalled early on and He went to TV. The Interaction, Anxiety, and Paranoia of the Agents and Their two Cult Captives (both Women) are what's at hand here and it is a fine Dramatization of a Stressful Situation where Everyone Comes Unglued.There is some Strong Violence and the Players have the Chops to make this work. The Plot may be Predictable or Not, but the Ending is Not the Big Noise in This One. It is a Character Study and the Script is a Good One for a Low-Budget Standoff.This Virtually Unseen Movie that Captivates with the Crackerjack Cast and the Dialog. There are frequent Shootings In between the Character Confrontations and Overall it's Worth a Watch for some Good Acting and a very Tense "Pulled From the Headlines" Scenario.. It was ok, but could have been better with cast changes and more originality. I kinda enjoyed "Standoff (1998)" even though it wasn't the least original. A bunch of FBI agents storm the headquarters of a deeply religious cult Waco-stylee.But the operation - which we never see, only in flashbacks - goes wrong and two of the agents, played by Robert Sean Leonard and Dennis Haysbert, get away. Sounds an awful lot like "Reservoir Dogs (1992)" doesn't it?They hide in an old house with the vicious trigger happy cult members lurking outside. Soon more people, a couple of other guys who are also fighting the cult, show up. They don't like each other at first, but they all have to work together to survive and fight enemy outside. Sounds an awful lot like "Night Of The Living Dead (1968)" doesn't it?And in the basement of this house they find more people, who also hide from the danger outside. Gee, for some reason that's sound very familiar... I've heard that somewhere before, wonder what it could be... Oh yeah, it's "Night Of The Living Dead (1968)" again.From there, more things happen, problems appear and everything seems hopeless. I can't go on about the plot without spewing spoilers all over the place, so I'll stop right there. Let's just say that if you've even seen only one film in this genre, doesn't really matter which one, you know exactly what's gonna happen and you won't find the ending the least surprising. I spotted that one coming casually from a mile away.What I liked about "Standoff (1998)" was that I, in all its predictability, actually found it sort of exciting. It's like when you're watching a "Die Hard"-movie, you know exactly what's coming (that's about the only resemblance, but give me a break, it's just an example). You know Bruce Willis is gonna blow stuff up, start bleeding, get dirty and sweaty, spit out a decent amount of one-liners and, of course, save the world. But somehow it keeps you on the edge of your seat, anxiously awaiting whatever comes next.What I didn't like was some of the acting, Zeke Clayton was nothing short of being one complete disaster. Cliché and stereotyped anyone? But he was probably told to act the way he did by writer/director Andrew Chapman (son of Michael Chapman, wow!) so won't blame him for this flat performance. And I've never liked Robert Sean Leonard all that much. He reminds me too much of Hugh Grant, and that's about as far away from a compliment you can ever get. They both have that nervous appearance with the stuttering and the blinking and all that. No hard feelings though, I'm sure they're both really nice guys, I just wouldn't mind if they would cast someone else instead.