Grave Danger: Volume 1 (19 May 2005)

The CSI Nick Stokes is kidnapped while investigating a crime scene and buried alive in a glass casket by his kidnapper. The Las Vegas Police Department receives a package with a tape and a ... See full summary »

Director:

Quentin Tarantino

Writers:

Anthony E. Zuiker (creator), Naren Shankar (teleplay),

Stars:

William Petersen, Marg Helgenberger, Gary Dourdan

Cast

Episode cast overview, first billed only:
William Petersen	...	Gil Grissom
Marg Helgenberger	...	Catherine Willows
Gary Dourdan	...	Warrick Brown
George Eads	...	Nick Stokes
Jorja Fox	...	Sara Sidle
Eric Szmanda	...	Greg Sanders
Robert David Hall	...	Dr. Al Robbins
Paul Guilfoyle	...	Captain Jim Brass
Scott Wilson	...	Sam Braun
Tony Curtis	...	Himself
Frank Gorshin	...	Himself
Andrew Prine	...	Rodger Stokes
John Saxon	...	Walter Gordon
Lois Chiles	...	Jillian Stokes
Michael Bacall	...	Delivery Man

Storyline

The CSI Nick Stokes is kidnapped while investigating a crime scene and buried alive in a glass casket by his kidnapper. The Las Vegas Police Department receives a package with a tape and a hardware to permit watch Nick inside the casket, together with a request of one million dollars cash to release him. The mayor refuses to pay the ransom, but Catherine Willows asks her wealthy father and gets the amount. Then Gil Grissom schedules a meeting with the criminal to deliver the money and be informed where Nick is.

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Plot Keywords:

million dollars | buried alive | dynamite explosion | coin | explosive | 

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Genres:

Crime | Drama | Mystery | Thriller

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Certificate:

TV-14

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

19 May 2005 (USA)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Jerry Bruckheimer Television, Alliance Atlantis Productions, CBS Productions

Technical Specs

Color:

Color

Did You Know?

Trivia

The episode is dedicated to Frank Gorshin, who died shortly before the episode originally aired.

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Goofs

The ants that are attacking Nick Stokes are identified as fire ants. In one clip, these ants bite Nick and a CSI style close up follows venom from one ant's bite into Nick's heart. Fire ants actually release their venom through a sting from the abdomen; their bite is only to get a grip.

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Quotes

Officer Michaels: Anonymous 911 caller reported body parts in this area. I rolled and found this.
[shows some insides in a bloody puddle]
Nick Stokes: Hm. Tasty.

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Connections

References The Dukes of Hazzard (1979)

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Soundtracks

"Who Are You"
By Pete Townshend
Performed by The Who

User Reviews

Great episode from an interesting director

I'm usually very ambivalent about Quentin Tarantino's movies. To use an old but relevant term, he puts style above substance. If you strip away the hip references to pop-culture and Asian cinema, you will realize that the themes of his movies only get touched upon very superficially. Yet his cool dialog and ingenious use of continuity in PULP FICTION (1994) has been a great inspiration to movie-makers for over a decade, therefore it could be argued that he's the Godard of his generation. I personally acknowledge the significance of his movies, although I request more real substance.

Quentin Tarantino's episode GRAVE DANGER: PART 1 (of two episodes) doesn't disappoint, whether you are a fan of Tarantino or CSI. I haven't seen many CSI episodes, so my reference frame isn't exactly huge, but I understand its basic concept. In my opinion Tarantino manages to harmonically combine the usual CSI thriller elements with the classic Tarantino trademarks. It could in fact be argued that fusing completely different movie styles and genres is Tarantino's great strength. That's possibly the main reason this project fit him so well. The result is a fresh, pumped-up, stylistic CSI. It's not as ground-breaking as PULP FICTION, but who expected it to be? TV-series are always dumbed down to fit the mainstream, and that goes for the GRAVE DANGER episodes too. Yet if all TV-series were like this, the general TV standard would indeed be very high. Then again, Tarantino was gives two full episodes to operate on, which meant that he had the necessary time for character developing scenes with non-plot-driven dialog that the normal CSI directors don't have.

Regardless of you're a CSI or Quentin Tarantino fan I highly recommend watching the GRAVE DANGER episodes. It's CSI Ultimate Edition and an interesting curiosity for QT fans. 8/10