Wedlock (1991)

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

Director:

Lewis Teague

Writer:

Broderick Miller

Stars:

Rutger Hauer, Mimi Rogers, Joan Chen

Nominated for 1 Primetime Emmy.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
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

Storyline

Frank (Rutger Hauer has been convicted of stealing millions of dollars of diamonds which have not been recovered. In his uni-sex prison, each inmate has an unknown partner; when the two are separated by more than 100 yards, an explosive collar kills both inmates. Frank and his female partner escape and head for the money, but they are hotly pursued by his double-crossing colleagues.

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Plot Keywords:

diamond | prison | escape | on the run | money | 

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Taglines:

In the prison of the future, criminal justice will have a deadly twist.

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Genres:

Action | Crime | Drama | Sci-Fi | Thriller

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for some strong violence, and for language

Details

Country:

USA UK

Language:

English

Release Date:

5 September 1991 (Germany)

Also Known As:

Deadlock

Filming Locations:

Los Angeles River, California, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$6,000,000 (estimated)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Home Box Office (HBO), Incorporated Television Company (ITC), Spectacor Films

Technical Specs

Sound Mix:

Dolby Stereo

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

This film was later parodied in Wild Wild West (1999). Jim West (Will Smith) and Artemus Gordon (Kevin Kline) wear magnetic collars around their necks, and must stay within the perimeter to stay alive, but West steps out of the perimeter and West and Gordon are chased by razor-sharp discs.

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Goofs

Obvious stunt doubles for Frank and Tracy when falling in the river from the hill during their jail escape.

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Quotes

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

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Crazy Credits

The closing credits end with the sounds of the wedlock collar's warning alarm and an explosion.

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Alternate Versions

In Germany only a cut version was released to avoid an FSK 18 rating

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Connections

Referenced in Rewind This! (2013)

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Soundtracks

All the Good Times Are Past and Gone
(uncredited)
Traditional
Performed by Bill Monroe

User Reviews

A film with a one note sci-fi premise that won't be at the top of anyone's CV.

'Sometime in the future' (probably 1997), an electronics whiz gone bad named Frank (Rutger Hauer) was f*cked over by his partners in crime and sent to a revolutionary new prison. The hook of the new prison is that there are no walls or draconian confinement measures, prisoners wander around as they please. But each prisoner wears a bulky electronic collar this explodes if someone attempts to remove it. Furthermore each prisoner is linked to another unknown prisoner in the facility, and if they move more than 100 yards apart *BOOOM!!!*, both collars explode and you can cancel the hat shopping trip.

Bad luck I guess if your partner decides suicide is the solution…

Of course Frank manages to uncover the identity of his collar-buddy and the two escape, spending an hour or so coming perilously close to breaching the 100 yard boundary and going pop. To complicate matters the prison warden wants Frank for more than escaping, he wants to get his paws on the 25M he and his fellow crims managed to get away with, crims that by the way are back on the scene and want to talk to Frank for themselves for some reason.

Hauer actually gets to be a little sarcastic and dare I say salty with his dialogue in this film. Given the fact that it was always going to be a one note straight to VHS flick he hams it up merrily in some scenes, most notably when the warden initially hits him up for the diamonds. Rutger was never really very good at comedy, but at least he tries here.

Wedlock is actually quite solidly plotted in the early going. The initial robbery is well thought out and creative, and they obviously spent a bit of time fine tuning the details in the prison where other films might've said 'we thought of the exploding collars, that'll do'.

The relationship between Frank and fellow escapee played by Mimi Rogers is forced and arbitrary – as is to be expected in a B film where actual chemistry is less a priority than finding someone they could afford – and the supporting cast of fellow 80s and 90s bitzers only serve to further highlight the low budget nature of the film.

Final Rating – 5.5 / 10. Wedlock will definitely not demand a spot in your DVD collection, but 20 years or so since release it still justifies the hour and a half of your time.