"That" scene in Executive Decision

[Disciple]

Am I the only person who has to look away from screen when he gets blown away?

Yeah I know I'm a wuss for doing this...I don't cry or anything, I just find it hard to watch.

If anyone remembers reading interviews at the time, Seagal in his wisdom tried to get the producers to change the script so that he lives... He KNEW his fans would not want to see him die onscreen.

 

[Lotussan]

Well, I was majorly upset...I don't really think a hero in a film should ever die, but he was man enough to do it for them, so I thought that was very admirable...
I think the biggest thing that got me was the fact that he got killed so early in the movie...
Of course I would have preferred a whole differnt turn of events...Even though it wasn't real I don't like to watch that scene at all...That is the one tape I don't own...

 

[Mama San]

No! I do not watch it!
God bless,
Mama san

 

[suziwong]

I don't know this !!! But he was absolutely RIGHT !!!!

in oneness

 

[Storm]

If he had died after a good few scenes fighting a decent enemy it may have been worthwhile but he was wasted in that movie and in i don't consider it one of his really. If they wanted to sell it on his rep. on the cover he should have had a bigger part. I mean Kurt Russell! Give me a break.

 

[Amos Stevens]

You should think of it this way..he had on a parachute & survived-they just didn't want to take away the fan fare at the end of the movie by having him show up again! hee hee

 

[TDWoj]

I also thought him getting blown out of the chute was too early. Considering that he and Kurt shared very little screen time together, the two characters actually played off each other very well - the practician vs. the theorist would have had some nice character-driven dramatic tension (but God forbid there be any character-driven dramatic tension in an action flick).

 

[Lotussan]

If he had died after a good few scenes fighting a decent enemy it may have been worthwhile but he was wasted in that movie and in i don't consider it one of his really. If they wanted to sell it on his rep. on the cover he should have had a bigger part. I mean Kurt Russell! Give me a break.

I don't care for Kurt Russell, either...For some reason my mom likes him, though...I think the roles should have been totally switched around, with Steven baby, being the lead...But then that's just me...

 

[Storm]

He's made a few decent films but in an action film an action star would help!

 

[Disciple]

The whole point of Executive Decision was that the hero WASN'T a conventional square-jawed action guy who could be called upon to saved the day. The hero of that movie was a bespectacled desk jockey who rose to the occasion. The clue is in the title, "Executive Decision".

Kurt Russell was excellent, as always.

 

[TDWoj]

I'm just saying that Seagal got blown out of the picture a wee bit too soon. There was potential drama between his character and Kurt's that would not have harmed the movie at all if we'd had a little more of it.

 

[Storm]

If that's true i can see why the movie sucked **** big time.

 

[Gino Felino]

That is a great movie and the fact that Seagal was in it at all makes it better. I would have injoyed it even if Seagal wasent in it.

 

[Lotussan]

That's true, the movie was a good movie...

 

[Amos Stevens]

They basically used his name-otherwise how many people would have bothered to see it

 

[TDWoj]

Strangely, though, Seagal's name does not appear in the opening credits. I can imagine what people were thinking when they saw him turn up in the first six minutes, then again later, briefly, and the shock value of him being sucked out of the picture - literally - so soon. I seem to recall Roger Ebert being absolutely stunned by this development in his review (which ended in a thumbs up, partly because he was so astonished that the story allowed a character played by a big name actor, which Seagal still was at that time, got killed off so early in the film). (Ebert's a fan of Seagal's, at least, he was until HPD came out.)

 

[Disciple]

Yeah, I remember Ebert gave a pretty fair review of Above the Law when it first came out, pointing out Seagal's natural screen presence amongst other things.

I never did find out exactly what the real story was with Executive Decision. Some articles I've read indicate that they (Warner Brothers, the producers, or whoever) wanted to kill Seagal's character off early because he was being "difficult" on set, which could be taken to mean that originally he was meant to survive until the end and they only wrote his death into the script to get rid of him.

But other accounts say that his character was ALWAYS meant to die early, i.e. that was how the story was originally written. I find this kind of hard to believe because like others have said, his death is just so abrupt and unexpected.

As an aside, a couple of months back, the actor John Leguizamo (who played Seagal's second in command in the movie) was talking about this on Conan O'Brien, and he mentioned how Seagal was basically refusing to come out of his trailer the day they were supposed to shoot his character's death scene... in the end I think he only agreed to shoot the scene with great reluctance.

 

[Lotussan]

.......a character played by a big name actor, which Seagal still was at that time......

But don't forget that he has recently been referred to as "Superstar Steven Seagal" so I think that means he's still a pretty big name in the world...

 

[TDWoj]

Refered to where, though, and by whom as "superstar"? Steven, unfortunately, has been considered a "B" list star in Hollywood for quite some time.

 

[Lotussan]

They mentioned it when they said he was going to be honored in Las Vegas...Now, where did that thread go to....