Blown Away (1994 film)

For the 1992 film, see Blown Away.

Blown Away
Directed by	Stephen Hopkins
Written by	John Rice Joe Batteer Jay Roach
Produced by	Pen Densham Richard Barton Lewis John Watson
Starring	Jeff Bridges Tommy Lee Jones Lloyd Bridges Forest Whitaker
Music by	Alan Silvestri
Distributed by	Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM)
Release date	July 1 1994 (USA)
Running time	121 minutes
Country	Template:Film US
Language	English/Irish
Budget	$50,000,000
Box office	$30,155,037 (USA)

Blown Away is a 1994 action film starring Jeff Bridges and Tommy Lee Jones. It was directed by Stephen Hopkins.

Plot

Ryan Gaerity (Tommy Lee Jones), an Irish terrorist, escapes from his cell in a castle prison in Northern Ireland.

In faraway Boston, meanwhile, Lt. Jimmy Dove (Jeff Bridges) is a veteran disposal technician for the police bomb squad. He irritates his captain, partner and everyone else when he plays hero and disarms dangerous explosives.

Nobody, except for his uncle Max (Lloyd Bridges), knows of Jimmy's dark past. Originally from Belfast, Northern Ireland, Jimmy's actual name is Liam McGivney. He had been friends and partners with Gaerity, who, unbeknownst to Liam, was a freelance terrorist. After a botched attempt to stop Gaerity led to the bomber's imprisonment and the death of his girlfriend (Gaerity's sister), Liam fled to Boston and became Jimmy Dove.

Gaerity comes to Boston to seek vengeance against Jimmy, who is semi-retired but working as an instructor. Gaerity begins taunting his old protégé with threats and his homemade explosives. With his family and friends in danger, Jimmy reveals his secret to his wife Kate (Suzy Amis). He returns to action to hunt for Gaerity, while an officer named Anthony Franklin (Forest Whitaker) investigates Jimmy, suspecting a connection between the two. After Gaerity kills Max, Dove tracks Gaerity to his steamboat hideout, booby-trapped with explosives, and after a brief fight, cuffs himself to Gaerity, prepared to die in order to keep his secret and prevent any more deaths. He is saved by Franklin at the last minute, leaving Gaerity to die when the boat detonates. Dove and Franklin go to Kate to rescue her (after Gaerity reveals that he has booby-trapped her car) and after a harrowing chase disarms the bomb. Franklin tells Dove that he knows his secret, but will leave the matter alone if Dove lets HIM (Franklin) be the hero and take all the credit for taking down Gaerity. Dove gives Franklin his badge and gun and walks away with his family.

Cast

• Jeff Bridges - Jimmy Dove/Liam McGivney
• Tommy Lee Jones - Ryan Gaerity
• Lloyd Bridges - Max O'Bannon
• Forest Whitaker - Anthony Franklin
• Suzy Amis - Kate Dove
• Stephi Lineburg - Lizzie
• John Finn - Captain Fred Roarke
• Caitlin Clarke - Rita
• Christofer de Oni - Cortez (as Chris de Oni)
• Loyd Catlett - Bama
• Ruben Santiago-Hudson - Blanket
• Cuba Gooding, Jr. - Cameos as a Bomb Squad Class member
• Ed OKeefe as press photographer

Pop culture reference

• The Whitest Kids U Know has a sketch where Trevor believes Zack is Forest Whitaker after watching Blown Away and Zack is confused about Trevor, who later admits he has a disease where he sees "everyone is Forest Whitaker".
• Some U2 songs heard in the film, example: "With or Without You" and "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For". The album The Joshua Tree is mentioned in a scene. The same scene U2 mentioned as "Irish born band", like the antagonist.

See also

• The Friends of Eddie Coyle (1973)
• Recent crime films based in or near Boston:
  • The Boondock Saints (1999), set in South Boston
  • The Boondock Saints II: All Saints Day (2009), set in Ireland and South Boston
  • The Departed (2006), concentrating on criminals from South Boston
  • Gone Baby Gone (2007), concentrating on the Dorchester section of Boston
  • Mystic River (2003)
  • Shutter Island (2010)
  • The Town (2010), set in Charlestown
• Edge of Darkness (2010)

External links

• Blown Away at IMDb