Under Siege 2: Dark Territory

Under Siege 2: Dark Territory
Film poster
Directed by	Geoff Murphy
Written by	Richard Hatem Matt Reeves characters J.F. Lawton
Produced by	Arnon Milchan Gary W. Goldstein Steve Perry Steven Seagal
Starring	Steven Seagal Eric Bogosian Katherine Heigl Morris Chestnut Everett McGill Brenda Bakke
Cinematography	Robbie Greenberg
Edited by	Michael Tronick
Music by	Basil Poledouris
Production company	Regency Enterprises
Distributed by	Warner Bros.
Release date	July 14, 1995 (1995-07-14)
Running time	99 min.
Country	Template:Film US
Language	English
Budget	$60,000,000 (estimated)
Box office	$104,324,083

Under Siege 2: Dark Territory is a 1995 American action film set on board a train traveling through the Rocky Mountains from Denver to Los Angeles. Directed by Geoff Murphy, it stars Steven Seagal as the ex-Navy SEAL, Casey Ryback and is the sequel to the 1992 film Under Siege also starring Seagal. The film was produced by Seagal along with Arnon Milchan and Steve Perry. The film's cast was made up of cameos and supporting roles by Eric Bogosian, Everett McGill, Peter Greene, Kurtwood Smith and a young (then-unknown) Katherine Heigl. Nick Mancuso, Andy Romano, and Dale Dye were the only other cast members besides Seagal to reprise their roles from the first film.

Plot

Casey Ryback (Seagal) has retired from the United States Navy and is a chef at the Mile High Cafe in Denver, Colorado. Ryback is taking his estranged niece Sarah Ryback (Heigl) to Los Angeles to visit the grave of Ryback's brother James (Sarah's father). Sarah and her Uncle Casey board the Grand Continental, a train traveling through the Rocky Mountains from Denver to Los Angeles.

As the train proceeds through the Rocky Mountains, it is flagged down by two men. The engineer and the brakeman step out and are gunned down. A group of terrorists led by computer genius Travis Dane and mercenary leader Marcus Penn hijack the train, cutting its phone lines and taking the passengers as well as the staff hostage, herding them into the last two train cars. Ryback slips away by hiding in the cool room of the kitchen after killing one of the mercenaries. Dane worked on a top secret military satellite particle weapon called Grazer One. The military fired Dane, who then faked his own death. Two of Dane's former Department of Defense colleagues are aboard the train, hiding a romantic relationship that violates Department of Defense regulations. Dane has them brought to him and threatens to have one of his mercenaries insert a burning needle into their eye unless they give him the codes needed to take over Grazer One. They give him the codes and then are thrown from the train, killing them.

Middle Eastern terrorists have offered Dane $1 billion to destroy the Eastern seaboard by using Grazer One to target a nuclear reactor located under the Pentagon. Dane destroys a Chinese chemical plant in order to demonstrate Grazer One's capabilities to his investors and, after one investor offers an additional $100 million, Dane destroys an airliner carrying the investor's ex-wife.

The U.S. government cannot locate Dane's headquarters nor target Grazer One because Dane created fifty "ghost satellites". When officials destroy what they think is Grazer One, it turns out to be the NSA's best intelligence satellite. As long as the train keeps moving, his location cannot be determined. Ryback, who has discovered the plot, takes matters into his own hands. Ryback enlists an eager porter named Bobby Zachs to help him. He also faxes a message to the owner of the Mile High Cafe, who finally reads it and relays the word to Admiral Bates; Bates quickly understands that Dane and the terrorists are on the train, and reluctantly OK's a mission by two F-117 Stealth bombers to destroy the train. Zachs discovers that they are on the wrong tracks and are on a collision course with a Southern Pacific freight train carrying several gasoline tank cars. Ryback kills the mercenaries one by one, but Dane uses his computer skills to find the Stealths and retarget Grazer One to knock them out before they complete their mission.

After Penn takes Sarah as bait for Ryback, Ryback confronts Penn, who is aware of Ryback's military past. Ryback disarms and kills Penn by breaking his neck. He then finds Dane who is about to depart in a chopper hovering over the train, unaware that Zachs has killed a female terrorist and is forcing the pilot to wait for Sarah and Ryback at gunpoint. When Dane informs Ryback that there is no way to stop the satellite from destroying Washington, Ryback shoots him, the bullet destroying his computer and injuring Dane, who falls out of a window of the train. Control of the satellite is restored at the Pentagon and it is destroyed by remote control one second before it would have fired on the Pentagon, just before the two trains collide.

The crash happens on a trestle, resulting in an explosion that destroys the bridge. Ryback escapes by racing through the exploding train and grabbing a rope ladder hanging from the chopper. Dane, who survived the gunshot and the crash, has also caught the ladder and attempts to climb onto the helicopter while screaming that he and Ryback should join forces. Ryback silently shuts the door, severing Dane's fingers and causing him to fall to his death into the explosion. Ryback informs the Pentagon that the passengers are safe, as he previously detached the last two cars from the rest of the train. In the final scene, Sarah and her uncle Casey pay their final respects at her father's gravestone.

Cast

• Steven Seagal as Lt. Casey Ryback, a former SEAL now heads a restaurant in Denver
• Eric Bogosian as Travis Dane, a crazed computer genius who designed the weapons satellite who takeovers the satellite for his own bidding, the main antagonist
• Everett McGill as Marcus Penn, the mercenary leader who lead the team to hijack the Grand Continental train to set up the satellite equipment, the secondary antagonist
• Katherine Heigl as Sarah Ryback, Ryback's niece who accompanies him on the train to go to her father's funeral
• Morris Chestnut as Bobby Zachs, a eager porter of the train who reluctantly helps Ryback with the hijacked train
• Nick Mancuso as Tom Breaker, the shady CIA director who assists ATAC on Grazer One
• Brenda Bakke as Captain Linda Gilder, a member of ATAC and one of Dane's former colleagues
• Peter Greene as Mercenary #1, Penn's main mercenary who was instructed by Ryback at Fort Bragg
• Patrick Kilpatrick as Mercenary #2, One of Penn's mercenaries
• Scott Sowers as Mercenary #3, One of Penn's mercenaries
• Afifi Alaouie as Female Mercenary (Fatima), Penn's only female mercenary
• Andy Romano as Admiral Bates, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
• Dale Dye as Captain Garza, Admirial Bates' right-hand man
• Kurtwood Smith as Major General Stanley Cooper, An Air Force general who commands ATAC and Dane's former boss
• David Gianopoulos as Captain David Trilling, a member of ATAC and one of Dane's former colleagues
• Sandra Taylor as Kelly, a barmaid onboard the train
• Jonathan Banks as Scotty (Mercenary), the mercenary who drives the locomotive of the Grand Continental train
• Royce D. Applegate as Ryback's cook who runs the restaurant when Ryback is absent
• Dale Payne as Train Conductor

Reception

The film received mixed reviews from critics. Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times gave the film a three-star rating in his review, while Peter Rainer of the The Los Angeles Times wrote that "the action upstaged the actors." Despite these positive reviews, the film has 34% positive professional critical ratings at Rotten Tomatoes and hence is certified Rotten.

Box office

Under Siege 2 opened at #2 at the box office under Apollo 13 in 2,150 theaters and made $12,624,402 with a hefty $5,871 average for the weekend.

External links

• Under Siege 2: Dark Territory at IMDb
• Under Siege 2: Dark Territory at AllMovie
• Under Siege 2: Dark Territory at Rotten Tomatoes