Hard Rain (1998)

The nephew of an armored-truck driver tries to prevent three million dollars from being taken by a local rival gang during a catastrophic flooding caused by a severe storm.

Director:

Mikael Salomon

Writer:

Graham Yost

Stars:

Morgan Freeman, Christian Slater, Randy Quaid

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Morgan Freeman	...	Jim
Christian Slater	...	Tom
Randy Quaid	...	Sheriff Mike Collins
Minnie Driver	...	Karen
Edward Asner	...	Uncle Charlie
Michael A. Goorjian	...	Kenny (as Michael Goorjian)
Dann Florek	...	Mr. Mehlor
Ricky Harris	...	Ray
Mark Rolston	...	Wayne Bryce
Peter Murnik	...	Phil
Wayne Duvall	...	Hank
Richard Dysart	...	Henry Sears
Betty White	...	Doreen Sears
Ray Baker	...	Mayor
Lisa Fuhrman	...	Mayor's Wife

Storyline

In Huntingburg, the armored truck with three million dollars driven by Tom and his Uncle Charlie gets stuck in the flooding and realizes that the town has been evacuated since the dam does not have capacity to hold the storm. While waiting for the National Guard, they are attacked by Jim and his gang formed by Kenny, Mr. Mehlor and Ray and the clumsy Kenny kills Charlie. Tom flees with the bags of money and hides them in the cemetery. Then he is hunted down by Jim and his gang and he hides in a church. Out of the blue, he is knocked out and awakes locked in a cell. Soon he learns that the restorer Karen believed he was a looter and hit him. Sheriff Mike Collins and Deputy Wayne Bryce go to investigate Tom' story while Officer Phil takes Karen out of the town by boat. However she escapes with the boat and goes to the church. Meanwhile Tom is trapped in the cell full of water and Karen rescues him. He decides to return to the armored truck to retrieve a shotgun but he is captured by Jim...

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Plot Keywords:

reference to swamp thing | rogue cop | renegade cop | money | sheriff | 

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Taglines:

Prepare for hard rain.

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Genres:

Action | Crime | Drama | Thriller

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for violence

Details

Country:

USA UK Denmark France Japan New Zealand Germany Australia

Language:

English

Release Date:

16 January 1998 (USA)

Also Known As:

The Flood

Filming Locations:

Etobicoke, Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Box Office

Budget:

$70,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend USA:

$8,009,024, 19 January 1998, Wide Release

Gross USA:

$19,819,494, 19 April 1998

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$2,600,000, 22 March 1998

Company Credits

Production Co:

British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) Television, Marubeni, Mutual Film Company

Technical Specs

Runtime:

97 min

Sound Mix:

DTS Dolby Digital

Color:

Color (DeLuxe) Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Jim says he used to work for "the Johnstown Company" - likely a reference to Bruce Springsteen's song, "The River" which itself is quoted moments later by Ray. Johnstown, Pennsylvania, is most famous for an 1889 flood, caused, like the flood in this film, by a dam failure.

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Goofs

Cars submerged in water do not float on the water surface as they did in the movie. If a car is driven (or falls) into water, it will stay on the surface only until the air trapped under the hood and the trunk / passenger department has been displaced with water.

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Quotes

Tom: [while floating down the road in a half submerged car] You all right?
Karen: Yeah, I'm fine. I think the heater just kicked in.
Tom: At least we're out of the rain, right?
Karen: Oh, yeah. This is real cozy.

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Crazy Credits

The Paramount mountain is seen in much worse weather than normal; the camera pans down from the logo to scenes of flooding.

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Connections

References The Killer (1989)

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Soundtracks

The River
Written by Bruce Springsteen

User Reviews

Water and Greed

In Huntingburg, the armored truck with three million dollars driven by Tom (Christian Slater) and his Uncle Charlie (Edward Asner) gets stuck in the flooding and realizes that the town has been evacuated since the dam does not have capacity to hold the storm. While waiting for the National Guard, they are attacked by Jim (Morgan Freeman) and his gang formed by Kenny (Michael Goorjian), Mr. Mehlor (Dann Florek) and Ray (Ricky Harris) and the clumsy Kenny kills Charlie. Tom flees with the bags of money and hides them in the cemetery. Then he is hunted down by Jim and his gang and he hides in a church. Out of the blue, he is knocked out and awakes locked in a cell. Soon he learns that the restorer Karen (Minnie Driver) believed he was a looter and hit him. Sheriff Mike Collins (Randy Quaid) and Deputy Wayne Bryce (Mark Rolston) go to investigate Tom' story while Officer Phil (Peter Murnik) takes Karen out of the town by boat. However she escapes with the boat and goes to the church. Meanwhile Tom is trapped in the cell full of water and Karen rescues him. He decides to return to the armored truck to retrieve a shotgun but he is captured by Jim and his men and learns that Charlie was part of the gang. He tries to retrieve the hidden money for the gang, but Sheriff Collins and his men have already taken it. Soon Tom learns that the Sheriff wants to keep the money for him and his men and Tom and Karen are witnesses and he teams up with Jim.

"Hard Rain" is a combination of disaster genre with crime and action. Despite the negative reviews, the action scenes are spectacular, the cast is excellent and the plot has a great twist based on the ancient proverb "the enemy of my enemy is my friend". My vote is six.

Title (Brazil): "Tempestade" ("Storm")