The Getaway (1994)

The Getaway is a 1994 American action thriller film directed by Roger Donaldson. The screenplay was written by Walter Hill and Amy Holden Jones, based on Jim Thompson’s 1958 novel of the same name. The film stars Alec Baldwin and Kim Basinger, with Michael Madsen, James Woods, and Jennifer Tilly in supporting roles.
== Plot ==
Carter "Doc" McCoy and his wife Carol are taking target practice with pistols when Rudy arrives to propose they break a Mexican drug lord's nephew out of jail for a $300,000 payment. The job is successful, but it turns out the drug lord wanted his nephew free to kill him.
Rudy is waiting with a getaway plane, but he sees police cars and leaves Doc behind. After a year in a Mexican jail, Doc sends Carol to mob boss Jack Benyon, who is looking to put together a select team of experts to rob a dog track in Arizona. Benyon agrees to get Doc released from prison, in exchange for sexual favors from Carol first.
Doc gets out and meets the men Benyon has hired. One is Rudy, along with Hansen, who seems inexperienced. Rudy extends a hand and says "No hard feelings" but is punched by Doc and warned not to double-cross him again.
At the track, while Doc is breaking into the vault, a guard pulls a gun and is shot by Hansen in a panic. The thieves escape by creating a diversion with a bomb under a gas truck and leave with the cash, totaling over one million dollars. The plan was for Doc and Carol to meet Rudy and Hansen later to split the money. On the road, Rudy kills Hansen and pushes him out of the car.
Doc arrives at the rendezvous point, where Rudy again pulls a gun. Doc expected this and is ready with his own weapon, shooting Rudy and leaving him for dead. Doc and Carol drive off with all the money, unaware that Rudy was wearing a bulletproof vest.
A wounded Rudy drives to a local clinic, where he holds veterinarian Harold and his wife Fran hostage, forces them to treat his wounds and drive him to El Paso. An attraction develops between Rudy and Fran and they taunt her meek husband. At a motel, Rudy has sex with Fran after tying Harold to a chair. Hearing his wife's moans and her laughter at him, a heart-broken Harold commits suicide by hanging himself. Fran barely looks back as she accompanies Rudy to El Paso.
Doc and Carol go to Benyon's house with the money. Benyon drops broad hints about what Carol did to get Doc out of jail. Carol approaches with a gun, unseen by Doc as he counts the money. Benyon clearly expects her to shoot Doc, but she kills him instead.
Doc is upset, but Carol says she did what she had to do to help Doc and assumes he'd do the same if their situations were reversed. There continues to be tension between the pair, particularly when Carol loses the money to a con man at a train station in Flagstaff. Doc has to board the train, find the man and subdue him to retrieve the money.
They proceed to the rustic Border Hotel in El Paso, owned by Doc's friend Gollie, to get new passports and identities so they can escape to Mexico. Rudy is already there waiting with Fran. Benyon's men, led by Jim Deer want the money and arrive in El Paso.
Rudy sets a trap and Doc is startled to see him alive. He knocks out Rudy but resists killing him in cold blood. A long and bloody gunfight ensues with Doc and Carol shooting it out with Benyon's men in the halls and stairwells of the hotel.
Rudy comes to his senses just as the last of Benyon's men die. He makes one more attempt to get the money, but after a hand-to-hand fight he is killed by Doc in an elevator when Doc shoots the cables, sending the elevator plummeting down to ground level, where his body is discovered by a screaming Fran. Doc and Carol make their way out of the hotel just as the police arrive, and hijack a pickup truck driven by "Slim", an old cowboy, forcing him to drive them to the border. After safely crossing into Mexico, they buy Slim's truck from him and drive southward, making their getaway.
== Cast ==
* Alec Baldwin as Carter "Doc" McCoy
* Kim Basinger as Carol McCoy
* Michael Madsen as Rudy Travis
* James Woods as Jack Benyon
* David Morse as Jim Deer Jackson
* Jennifer Tilly as Fran Carvey
* James Stephens as Harold Carvey
* Richard Farnsworth as "Slim"
* Philip Seymour Hoffman as Frank Hansen
* Burton Gilliam as Gollie
Richard Farnsworth who appeared in Tom Horn with Steve McQueen (1980) tips his cowboy hat to Slim Pickens who had this supporting role to the McCoys in the original version of this film from 1972.
== Production ==
== Reception ==
=== Critical response ===
The film garnered negative reviews from critics. It has an approval rating of 33% on Rotten Tomatoes based on 24 reviews, with a weighted average of 4.9/10. It earned a Razzie Award and a Stinkers Bad Movie Awards nomination for Kim Basinger as Worst Actress, but she lost both trophies to Sharon Stone for Intersection and The Specialist.
Baldwin later referred to the film as "a bomb".
In retrospect, Michael Madsen, is very proud of the movie: “It was a pretty good movie. I don’t think it was really released right. I think it should’ve been a wider release. I think they should’ve left it out a little bit longer.“
=== Year-end lists ===
* Honorable mention – David Elliott, The San Diego Union-Tribune
* Honorable mention – Michael MacCambridge, Austin American-Statesman