Eraser is a 1996 American action film starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, James Caan and Vanessa L. Williams. It was directed by Chuck Russell. The film was nominated for an Academy Award for Sound Effects Editing in 1996.
Plot
John Kruger (
Arnold Schwarzenegger), code name: "Eraser", is a
U.S. Marshal who works for the Federal
Witness Security Protection Program (WITSEC). John is assigned to protect Lee Cullen (
Vanessa L. Williams), a senior executive for Cyrez Corporation, a company that creates and manufactures weapons for the military. Lee has come across plans in which Cyrez plans to sell a top secret
electronic pulse rifle to terrorist Sergei Ivanovich Petrofsky (
Olek Krupa). With its unparalleled firepower, the sale of such weapons to the wrong hands would tip the balance of power. To procure evidence, Lee copies critical data onto two discs: one for the
FBI, the other as evidence in order to publicize Cyrez's transgressions. However, William Donahue (
James Cromwell), the CEO of Cyrez, catches wind of Lee's intentions and orders her into his office. Donahue commits suicide to escape punishment, and Lee barely escapes from Cyrez. Disappointed with the FBI because of failure to guarantee her safety, she delivers the evidence but refuses to submit herself to WITSEC, despite John's advice.
The same night, Lee is targeted for assassination by a group wielding a couple of the aforementioned pulse rifles. John rescues Lee and takes her to New York City to hide her. However, soon afterwards John learns from his mentor, fellow marshal Robert DeGuerin (James Caan), that someone, perhaps a mole within the WITSEC, is targeting witnesses in top-level cases, including Lee. They proceed to the location of one of the targeted witnesses, but DeGuerin kills the witness personally, revealing himself as Donahue's U.S. Marshal mole and the leader in the scam, which includes even Undersecretary of Defense Daniel Harper (Andy Romano). In order to facilitate his plans, DeGuerin tries to frame John as the mole, but John escapes and rescues Lee in the nick of time.
Since the evidence against Cyrez has fallen into the hands of the enemy, John, Lee and Johnny Casteleone (Robert Pastorelli), a mob witness whose life John once saved, penetrate the main office to read Lee's copy, since the data on the disc is encoded for Cyrez computers only. They are discovered, however; DeGuerin kidnaps Lee and has her brought to the Baltimore docks where a railgun shipment is being loaded onto a terrorist freighter. With the aid of Johnny, his cousin Tony Two-Toes (Joe Viterelli) and two associates, John rescues Lee and prevents the railgun shipment by killing of the terrorists, including Petrofsky.
After a hearing for DeGuerin and his fellow conspirators a few weeks later, and with the implication that under civil law jurisdiction a conviction and sentence of the culprits will not be possible, John publicly fakes his and Lee's death, but subsequently eliminates DeGuerin and the conspirators "erasing" them throughly in an arranged train accident.
Cast
Arnold Schwarzenegger as US Marshal John "Eraser" Kruger
James Caan as US Marshal Robert DeGuerin
Vanessa L. Williams as Lee Cullen
James Coburn as WitSec Chief Arthur Beller
Robert Pastorelli as Johnny Casteleone
James Cromwell as William Donohue
Danny Nucci as WitSec Deputy Chief Monroe
Andy Romano as Daniel Harper
Nick Chinlund as Agent Calderon
Michael Papajohn as Agent Schiff
Joe Viterelli as Tony Two-Toes
Mark Rolston as J. Scar
John Slattery as Agent Corman
Robert Miranda as Frediano
Roma Maffia as Claire Isaacs
Tony Longo as Little Mike
Gerry Becker as Morehart
John Snyder as Sal
Olek Krupa as Sergei Ivanovich Petrofsky
Sven-Ole Thorsen as one Petrofsky's guards on the boat
Vic Polizos as Hannon
Production
Development and casting
Director
Chuck Russell and star Arnold Schwarzenegger were originally working on another project together when
Eraser was brought to their attention. Russell was excited about the possibilities the film could bring between actor and the character: "I see Arnold the way a lot of people do -- as a mythic, bigger-than-life character -- and that's who Kruger is. The character and the scenario are based firmly in reality, but I liked the mythic proportions of this man with a strong sense of duty, a strong sense of honor, who will literally do anything to protect a noble witness. I was excited about doing a film that had heroic proportions."
Design
The "rail-gun" featured in the film as a key plot device, Schwarzenegger talks on the subject: "We paid a lot of attention to making the audience feel the danger of this weapon, that anyone can be outside of your house, looking right through the walls. It really leaves you nowhere to hide," he explains. "But, on top of that, we show the sophistication of the weapon in a lot of fun ways: you not only see through a building, you see a person's skeleton and even their heart beating inside. There are some great visual effects there." Final US gross would be $101,228,120 and final
UK gross was £4,700,340.
References
External links
Category:1996 films
Category:1990s action films
Category:American films
Category:American action thriller films
Category:Warner Bros. films
Category:Films shot anamorphically
Category:Films set in Maryland
Category:1990s thriller films
