Wedlock (1991)

Director:

Lewis Teague

Writer (WGA):

Broderick Miller (written by)

Release Date:

5 September 1991 (Germany)

Genre:

Action | Crime | Drama | Sci-Fi | Thriller

Tagline:

Trapped in a prison of the future. Betrayed by a woman of his past. Frank Warren is wired to explode.

Plot:

A male prison escapee heads for his hidden loot electronically attached to a female prisoner.

Plot Keywords:

Diamond | Prison | Escape | Robbery | Violence

Awards:

Nominated for Primetime Emmy.

Cast

Rutger Hauer	...	Frank Warren
Mimi Rogers	...	Tracy Riggs
Joan Chen	...	Noelle
James Remar	...	Sam
Stephen Tobolowsky	...	Warden Holliday
Basil Wallace	...	Emerald
Grand L. Bush	...	Jasper
Denis Forest	...	Puce
Glenn Plummer	...	Teal
Belle Avery	...	Deborah
Ismael 'East' Carlo	...	Chief Officer
Ed Crick	...	Sergeant #1
Zaid Farid	...	Policeman #1
Richard Gilbert-Hill	...	Security Guard #2
Colin Hamilton	...	Minister

Also Known As:

Deadlock

Runtime:

USA:101 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.78 : 1

Sound Mix:

Stereo

Certification:

New Zealand:M | UK:18 (original rating) (1991) | Iceland:16 | Singapore:NC-16 | Germany:16 | Norway:18 (video premiere) | Spain:13 | UK:15 | USA:R

Filming Locations:

Los Angeles River, California, USA

Company:

Home Box Office (HBO)

Quotes:

Warden Holliday: [to Frank] You non-conformists are all alike.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Batoru rowaiaru II: Chinkonka (2003)

Disappointed, could have been better with a more futuristic feel to it

Set "sometime in the future" the main character Frank (Rutger Hauer) gets sent into a new kind of prison. Everybody in the prison has a necklace, which is linked with another person's necklace. (Of course you don't know who this other person is.) If you get too far away from the person you're linked with both of your necklaces will explode. This is of course to prevent people from escaping. Compared to if the necklace was just linked to a certain spot inside the prison, the idea of linking the necklace to another person adds another dimension to it. You might be willing to risk your own life trying to escape, but do you really want to risk another person's life at the same time? Such a prison will not be set in the US in the present time of course. It would be highly controversial. That's why the believability of the plot relies on this being set in sometime the future, when views on moral have changed enough so that such a prison will become plausible. The problem here is that this "future" could very easily be mistaken for 1991, when the movie was made. This is a huge problem for me as I just don't believe that such a prison will exist in the US in the near future. I would have really wanted them to put more effort/resources into making it seem more futuristic. I guess this was a budgetary decision.

Even if you don't care about the plot being plausible, this movie has little to offer compared to other semi-low-budget movies of the genre. The action sequences and acting efforts are pretty average, and the script follows the Hollywood formula quite well, making any plot twists obvious. I'm a bit disappointed because it actually seemed like a pretty cool idea for an early '90s action movie. Maybe I'm a little nice with the grade 4/10, but I didn't want to be too harsh when the basic idea is actually good. I might be interested in a remake with a bit higher budget so they can set it further into the future.

I'd recommend this only for the die hard 1980s and early '90s action movie fans.