Metro (1997)

A Hostage Negotiator teams up with a Sharpshooter to bring down a dangerous jewel thief.

Director:

Thomas Carter

Writer:

Randy Feldman

Stars:

Eddie Murphy, Michael Rapaport, Kim Miyori

1 nomination.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Eddie Murphy	...	Insp. Scott Roper
Kim Miyori	...	Detective Kimura
Art Evans	...	Lt. Sam Baffett
James Carpenter	...	Officer Forbes
Michael Rapaport	...	Kevin McCall
Donal Logue	...	Earl
Jeni Chua	...	Debbie, Earl's Hostage
Dick Bright	...	Bank Manager
David Michael Silverman	...	SWAT Officer Jennings
Denis Arndt	...	Capt. Frank Solis
Frank Somerville	...	Reporter
Malou Nubla	...	Reporter
Carmen Ejogo	...	Veronica 'Ronnie' Tate
Nino Degennaro	...	Repoman
Michael Wincott	...	Michael Korda

Storyline

Roper, a hostage negotiator catches a murderous bank robber after a blown heist. The bank robber escapes and immediately goes after the man who put him behind bars. The ending is played out with Roper and his partner McCall attempting to rescue Roper's kidnapped girlfriend. A major element in the plot is the relationship between Roper and his girlfriend.

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Plot Keywords:

hostage | chase | police officer | gunfight | violence | 

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Taglines:

San Francisco's top police hostage negotiator is about to get more than he ever bargained for.

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Genres:

Action | Comedy | Crime | Drama | Thriller

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for strong violence and language

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

17 January 1997 (USA)

Also Known As:

El negociador

Filming Locations:

San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge, San Francisco Bay, California, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$55,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend USA:

$11,411,107, 19 January 1997, Wide Release

Gross USA:

$31,987,563, 27 April 1997

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$74,387,563

Company Credits

Production Co:

Touchstone Pictures, Caravan Pictures, Roger Birnbaum Productions

Technical Specs

Runtime:

117 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital SDDS

Color:

Color (Eastmancolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

One of the reasons why Eddie Murphy choose to star in Metro is because he wanted to play serious and dramatic role in more serious action film than his previous films were. Even before he accepted the role in Metro, around early 1995 he was originally going to star in another action thriller titled Sandblast. The script for the film was written by screenwriter Steven Maeda in 1993 and he sold it to Joel Silver, famous producer of many action hits, and Warner Bros. for $750,000.

Described as both Die Hard and Cliffhanger in the desert sandstorm, the plot of Sandblast would have been very similar to the plot of John Woo's Broken Arrow (1996). It was gonna take place in Iraq desert after the Gulf War, and Murphy would play the lead role of ex-landmine expert and army specialist who has to help group of US commandos to stop the team of traitorous Green Berets from tracking down lost nuclear warheads which are somewhere in the desert wasteland, and while dealing with deadly terrain and huge sandstorm at the same time.

Once Murphy quit from the project due to scheduling conflicts and then went on to star in Metro, Wesley Snipes was hired to play the main role and there were plans to hire Jean Claude Van Damme to play the main villain, but since Snipes' latest films weren't a success and Van Damme didn't want to play the villain, Warner Bros. cancelled the project in 1996 and so it was never made.

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Goofs

When a car flips over in front of the cable car, an obvious ramp, on the front of the car traveling in the opposite direction, catapults the car into the air.

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Quotes

Scott Roper: [Trying to open an impound car, talking about his ex-girlfriend] She's going out with some baseball player called Greg Barnett.
Lt. Sam Baffett: Damn that boy can hit... and throw... and run...
Scott Roper: [pissed off at Sam's comments] Damn... why don't you just get some pom poms and start yelling Greg... Greg... Greg. Fuck him!

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Connections

Referenced in Inside the Actors Studio: Eddie Murphy (2006)

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Soundtracks

THINGS AIN'T WHAT THEY USED TO BE
Music by Mercer Ellington (uncredited) and lyrics by Ted Persons (uncredited)
Performed by Duke Ellington
Courtesy of The RCA Records

User Reviews

Neked in Tahiti.

Scott Roper is a wise cracking hostage negotiator, he is however exceptionally good at his job. After bringing down a particularly nasty bank robber called Michael Korda, he sets about winning his old girlfriend back whilst breaking in a new partner, Kevin McCall. When Korda escapes from prison there is only one thing on his mind, revenge, can Roper outwit Korda once again? And if so, at what cost?

There has always seemed to me to be something of a negative bias towards post 1980s Eddie Murphy (Roper) films, it appears that no matter what, nothing that comes close to his best 80s efforts will ever be deemed worthy. Now I'm not saying that Metro is a world beater, or even close to Beverly Hills Cop and Trading Places, but it's an accomplished thriller with classy bits of Murphy humour thrown in. It also boasts splendid support from Michael Rapaport as Roper's intelligent partner McCall, both men playing off each other to good effect, while Michael Wincott with his gravel voice used to full effect, is impressively devilish as the bad guy of the piece. Let down by a weak female lead in Carmen Ejogo, and certainly the familiarity of the genre loses the film any real sense of impending dread, but for a quick fix of nonsense entertainment on a blustery cold night, it's a more than OK viewing. 6/10