Hard to Kill (1990)

Mason Storm, a 'go it alone' cop, is gunned down at home. The intruders kill his wife, and think they've killed both Mason and his son too. Mason is secretly taken to a hospital where he ... See full summary »

Director:

Bruce Malmuth

Writer:

Steven McKay

Stars:

Steven Seagal, Kelly LeBrock, William Sadler

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Steven Seagal	...	Mason Storm
Kelly LeBrock	...	Andy Stewart (as Kelly Le Brock)
William Sadler	...	Senator Vernon Trent (as Bill Sadler)
Frederick Coffin	...	Lt. Kevin O'Malley
Bonnie Burroughs	...	Felicia Storm
Andrew Bloch	...	Capt. Dan Hulland
Branscombe Richmond	...	Max Quentero
Charles Boswell	...	Jack Axel
Zachary Rosencrantz	...	Sonny Storm
Lou Beatty Jr.	...	Carl Becker
Nick DeMauro	...	Calabrese
Nick Corello	...	James Valero
Justin De Rosa	...	Mikey
Stanley Brock	...	Counterman
Evan James	...	Danny

Storyline

Mason Storm, a 'go it alone' cop, is gunned down at home. The intruders kill his wife, and think they've killed both Mason and his son too. Mason is secretly taken to a hospital where he spends several years in a coma. His son meanwhile is growing up thinking his father is dead. When Mason wakes up, everyone is in danger - himself, his son, his best friend, his nurse - but most of all those who arranged for his death

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Plot Keywords:

coma | hospital | nurse | revenge | 1990s | 

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Taglines:

The star of Above the Law is back. Now...Steven Seagal is hard to kill.

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Genres:

Action | Drama | Crime | Thriller

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Certificate:

R

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

9 February 1990 (USA)

Also Known As:

Seven Year Storm

Filming Locations:

Saddle Rock Ranch - 31727 Mullholland Highway, Malibu, California, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$10,000,000 (estimated)

Gross:

$47,410,000 (USA)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Warner Bros., Lee Rich Productions

Technical Specs

Runtime:

96 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

While Senator Vernon Trent is making a live appearance, a billboard of Do the Right Thing can be seen in the background.

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Goofs

Mason's trousers change from black to white when he leaves his house and gets into his jeep.

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Quotes

[a knife-wielding punk wants to cut Mason, but Mason is holding a shotgun]
Mason Storm: Oh, I know what you're thinking. Mine's bigger than yours, right? It's not fair.

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Connections

Spoofed in Spy Hard (1996)

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Soundtracks

"Feels So Good"
Written and Performed by Chuck Mangione
Courtesy of A&M Records

User Reviews

Hard to Take

(There are Spoilers) What surprised me in the movie more then anything else is that Steven Seagal, playing coma cop Mason Storm, didn't as much as hit, much less shoot, anyone for almost 50 minutes which has to be a record for him. From the time Storm and his his wife Felicia and young son Sonny, Bonnie Burroughs & Zachary Rosencrantz, were gunned down by a gang of corrupt cops at the start of the movie until these same crooked cops attack Storm and his girlfriend nurse Andy Stewart, Kelly LeBlock, home more then half way into the movie Seagal or Storm was just working out reading Oriental philosophy as well as improving both his body and soul without as much as a bad or violent thought in his mind or heart but the last fifteen or so minutes in the movie, like the first ten, would more then make up for that very acute deficiency like Officer Mason Storm accurately remarked later in the movie: "You can take that to the Blood Bank".

Gunned down and pronounced dead after him and his family were rubbed out by a gang of dirty cops Mason Storm had some kind of near-death experience by suddenly coming back to life in the operating room. Alive but in a coma Storm's good friend and fellow cop Let. Kevin O'Mally, Frederick Coffin, swears those who know about Storm's condition to absolute secrecy having the wounded cop put in the hospital coma unite under a John Doe.

It's now 1990 seven years later and as Storm, now with long hair and a clip-on Van Dyke beard, comes out of his coma the first thought that hits him and first words out of his mouth is "that their out to get me". Being looked after by nurse Stewart she calls the police station to tell them that one of their own is now possibly ready to go back on duty, there was a very sever manpower shortage in the LAPD at the time, and all hell breaks loose with the same bunch of cops who tried to do in Storm seven years ago popping up at the hospital and gunning down a number of doctors and orderlies but as usual not getting the slippery and elusive Storm who escapes with the help of nurse Stewart who we never see working as a nurse in the hospital or movie again.

It turns out that the now junior Senator of California Sen. Trent, William Sadler, was responsible for the murder of Mason's wife and son, who's later found out to have survived, as retaliation for him video and audio taping back in 1983 the then L.A assemblyman Trent taking a bribe from the mob and now that the cats out of the bag, or that Storm is out of his coma, Trent & Co. pull out all stops to make sure that this time Storm wouldn't be so lucky.This whole thing about the cops and Trent out to get Storm confused me since they weren't supposed to know that Storm survived, the 1983 shooting, in the first place and only those hospital workers who were in the operating room trying to save Storms life seven years ago ,and Let. O'Mally, were supposed to be the only one's who knew that Storm was alive so how could the cops who try to murder him now know all this? If they did somehow know that he was still alive they had all this time, seven years,to finish Storm off so why wait until he comes out of his coma where he's capable of eluding them? this is one of the many, and biggest, illogical plot-holes in the movie "Hard to Kill".

The movie starts to pick up in tempo but drop off in logic when Storm now fit as a fiddle after having a couple of orders of Chinese food working out meditating and finally sticking himself with a number of what looks like acupuncture pins, that Storm for some reason lit up, he's now back and ready for action to not only take on the bad guys but save his son Sonny, now enrolled in a private school under the name of Mason's friend O'Mally, from them trying to kidnap him as well.

As you would have expected Mason Storm, or Steven Seagal, has no trouble at all taking out the gang of corrupt cops with his slicked down hair barley being mussed up in his usual fashion where he doesn't as much as have to take a punch or even bullet from the scores of bad guys that he so easily disposes of. Saving Trant for last Storm has a shotgun rammed up his mouth, knocking out both his front and bottom teeth, with the cops fortunately, or so Trent thought, coming to his rescue only to have the happy and arrogant Trent get the surprise of his life by finding out from the officer in charge that it was him, not Storm, who's under arrest for taking bribes from the mob and being responsible for the murder, made to look like a plane crash, of Trent's predecessor Senator Caldwell; yes nurse Andy Stewart came through in the clutch by getting the tapes that Storm and Let, O'Mally had secretly hidden all these years, implicating that sleazy lowlife Vernon Trent, to the local police and this time the honest, not corrupt, ones.