The Fugitive (1993)

The Fugitive is a 1993 American thriller film based on the television series of the same name. The film was directed by Andrew Davis and stars Harrison Ford and Tommy Lee Jones.
== Plot ==
Prominent Chicago vascular surgeon Dr. Richard Kimble arrives home to find his wife, Helen, fatally injured by a man with a prosthetic arm. Kimble struggles with the killer, who escapes. The lack of evidence of forced entry, Helen's lucrative life insurance policy, and a misunderstood 911 call result in Kimble's wrongful arrest after the cops refuse to believe his story about the killer. He is then convicted of first-degree murder and receives a death sentence.
While being transported by bus to death row, Kimble's fellow prisoners attempt an escape. In the pandemonium, two prisoners and the driver are killed, sending the bus down a ravine and into the path of an oncoming train. Kimble saves a guard, escapes the collision, and flees as the train derails. Hours later, U.S. Marshal Samuel Gerard and his colleagues Renfro, Biggs, Newman, and Poole arrive at the crash site and launch a massive manhunt. Kimble sneaks into a hospital, where he obtains clothes and alters his appearance. He then drives off in an ambulance and is nearly captured in a highway tunnel but slips down a storm drain. Gerard follows and corners Kimble at the edge of a spillover above a dam; Kimble proclaims his innocence and leaps into the water below and escapes.
Kimble returns to Chicago to hunt for the real murderer, acquiring some money from his friend and colleague, Dr. Charles Nichols. He rents a cheap apartment and assumes the identity of a janitor to infiltrate Cook County Hospital's prosthetic department, where he makes a list of names of male patients with prosthetic arms matching the killer's. While there, Kimble forges new medical orders for a young trauma patient who was misdiagnosed, saving his life. Kimble escapes after a suspicious doctor confronts him and alerts the police.
Speculating that Kimble has returned to Chicago to search for the one-armed man, Gerard spots Kimble at Chicago City Hall, who is there to investigate a jailed man on his list. Kimble barely escapes the ensuing chase and disappears into the St. Patrick's Day parade. Kimble later breaks into the residence of Fredrick Sykes; seeing a photo of Sykes, Kimble recognizes him as his wife's murderer. Sykes, a former police officer, handles security for Devlin-MacGregor, a pharmaceutical company that is releasing a new drug called Provasic. Kimble had previously analyzed the drug's test samples and discovered it caused liver damage, which should have prevented FDAapproval.
Kimble and a sympathetic colleague deduce that Dr. Nichols, who led the drug's development and has just become a board member of Devlin-MacGregor, arranged a cover-up by falsifying the findings to get Provasic approved. Nichols arranged for Sykes to kill Kimble in a staged burglary, only for him to be surprised by Helen. Sykes is alerted that Kimble is in Chicago and arms himself to kill him. Kimble phones Gerard, who conducts his own investigation into Sykes and Nichols. Kimble heads to a hotel conference where Nichols is presenting Provasic. Sykes tracks down and attacks Kimble on an "L" train. In the struggle, Sykes fatally shoots a transit cop before Kimble subdues him and handcuffs him to a pole. 
Unbeknownst to Kimble, the officer's death is assumed to be his fault, and the local police issue a shoot-to-kill order on him. At the conference, Kimble publicly confronts Nichols about the drug conspiracy and the murders, which results in a fight that spills on the roof. Gerard stops a police helicopter from sniping Kimble, while both men crash through a skylight onto a descending elevator. Nichols regains consciousness and attempts to escape through the laundry room, with Kimble following him. Gerard follows with Renfro and calls out to Kimble that he knows about Nichols's conspiracy and that Kimble is innocent. Nichols knocks out Renfro, takes his gun, and tries to shoot Gerard, but Kimble attacks Nichols from behind, saving Gerard's life.
Kimble surrenders to Gerard, while Sykes and Nichols are arrested. All three are escorted out through the hotel entrance as the press questions the police about the newly found suspects, indicating Kimble's innocence. In the back of a squad car, Gerard uncuffs Kimble and offers him an ice pack; when Kimble remarks, "I thought you didn't care.", Gerard smiles and says, "I don't. Don't tell anybody, okay?" The two men are driven away into the night, with Kimble’s exoneration assured.
== Cast ==
* Harrison Ford as Dr. Richard Kimble
* Tommy Lee Jones as Deputy U.S. Marshal Sam Gerard
* Sela Ward as Helen Kimble
* Joe Pantoliano as Deputy U.S. Marshal Cosmo Renfro
* Andreas Katsulas as Fredrick Sykes
* Jeroen Krabbé as Dr. Charles Nichols
* Daniel Roebuck as Deputy U.S. Marshal Bobby Biggs
* Tom Wood as Deputy U.S. Marshal Noah Newman
* L. Scott Caldwell as Deputy U.S. Marshal Erin Poole
* Johnny Lee Davenport as Deputy U.S. Marshal Henry
* Julianne Moore as Dr. Anne Eastman
* Ron Dean as Detective Kelly
* Joseph Kosala as Detective Rosetti
* Jane Lynch as Dr. Kathy Wahlund
* Dick Cusack as Attorney Walter Gutherie
* Andy Romano as Judge Bennett
* Nick Searcy as Sheriff Rawlins
* Eddie Bo Smith as Copeland
* Neil Flynn as Transit Cop
* Richard Riehle as Old Guard
* Kirsten Nelson as Hospital Secretary
* David Darlow as Dr. Alec Lentz
* Frank Ray Perilli as Corrections Officer
* Lester Holt as Newscaster
== Production ==
Filming began in February and wrapped in mid-May. Locations for the motion picture included Bryson City, North Carolina; Blount County, Tennessee; Chicago; and Dillsboro, North Carolina. Although almost half of the film is set in rural Illinois, a large portion of the principal filming was actually shot in Jackson County, North Carolina in the Great Smoky Mountains. The scene involving Kimble's prison transport bus and a freight train wreck was filmed along the Great Smoky Mountains Railroad just outside Dillsboro, North Carolina. Riders on that excursion railroad can still see the wreckage on the way out of the Dillsboro depot. The train crash cost $1 million to film. A real train, with its engine removed, was used for the filming, which was done in a single take. The wreck took several weeks to plan, and several test runs with a boxcar and a log car were conducted before the night of filming came. Scenes in the hospital after Kimble initially escapes were filmed at Harris Regional Hospital in Sylva, North Carolina. Cheoah Dam in Deals Gap was the location of the scene in which Kimble jumps from the dam. Deals Gap is also a popular and internationally famous destination for motorcycle and sports car enthusiasts, as it is located along a stretch of two-lane road known since 1981 as "The Dragon" or the "Tail of the Dragon".
The rest of the film was shot in Chicago, Illinois, including some of the dam scenes, which were filmed in the remains of the Chicago freight tunnels. The city hall stair chase (where Kimble narrowly escapes being apprehended by Gerard) was indeed filmed in the corridors and lobby of Chicago City Hall. The character Sykes lived in the historic Pullman neighborhood of Chicago. Harrison Ford uses the pay phone in the Pullman Pub, and then climbs a ladder and runs down the roofline of the historic rowhouses. According to Andrew Davis, it was Ford's idea to film in Chicago. "Originally I wasn't even going to try to come to Chicago. I thought that the weather would be too cold and difficult for shooting. But Harrison, having seen several of my prior films shot in Chicago, suggested doing it here." Ford would later explain, "I grew up in Chicago, went to college in Wisconsin, and came back to take summer jobs for three years. I felt this was the best possible option as a location...We could get the grittiness, we could get the flash of architecture, the charm of the lake. It has it all."
==Trivia==
*After the filming wrapped, remains of the train wreck were left behind, even today it is a tourist attraction .
*An unofficial sequel called U.S. Marshals was released in 1998.
Category:1993 films
Category:Best Picture nominated films
Category:Films based on television series
Category:Thriller
Category:1990s films
Category:Warner Bros. films
Category:Harrison Ford films
Category:Films starring Harrison Ford
Category:Films starring Tommy Lee Jones
Category:Rated PG-13
Category:Films on VHS
Category:Films on DVD
Category:Films on Blu-Ray
Category:1:85:1 Aspect Ratio Films