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Eraser is a 1996 American action film directed by Chuck Russell and starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, James Caan, James Coburn, Robert Pastorelli, and Vanessa L. Williams. The film follows a U.S Marshal of WITSEC who protects a senior operative testifying about an illegal arms deal and is forced to fight his former allies when one of the players is revealed to be a mole inside WITSEC.
The film was a commercial success, grossing over $242 million against a budget of $100 million. It received mixed reviews from critics, but they praised Williams and Schwarzenegger's performances, the action sequences and the visual effects. It was released in the United States on June 21, 1996 and was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Sound Effects Editing in 1997. It was also one of the first major films released on DVD, being part of the Japanese launch lineup of Warner Home Video's debut of the format on December 20, 1996.
Plot[]
John Kruger (Arnold Schwarzenegger) – a top U.S. Marshal for the Witness Security Protection Program (WITSEC) – specializes in "erasing" high-profile witnesses: faking their deaths to protect them from anyone that might silence them. After erasing mob witness Johnny Casteleone (Robert Pastorelli), Kruger is given a new assignment by his boss, Chief Arthur Beller (James Coburn), to protect Lee Cullen (Vanessa L. Williams), a senior executive at Cyrez Corporation, a defense contractor. Lee warned the FBI that top-level Cyrez executives covered up the creation of a top secret electromagnetic pulse rifle and plan to sell the weapon on the black market.
In an FBI sting operation, Lee accesses the Cyrez mainframe and downloads data on the EM rifle onto two discs: one for the FBI and one for her own protection. Vice President William Donohue (James Cromwell), her boss, detects Lee's intrusion and orders her into his office. After finding Lee's hidden camera and threatening her with a pistol, Donohue commits suicide in front of her. Lee delivers the disc to the FBI but, disillusioned by their broken promise to guarantee her safety, refuses Kruger's protection offer. The FBI's disc is replaced with a fake by a mole working for Deputy Secretary of Defense Daniel Harper (Andy Romano), the conspiracy's mastermind.
That night, Lee's house is attacked by a mercenary team led by J. Scar (Mark Rolston) sent by Cyrez' corrupt CEO, Eugene Morehart (Gerry Becker). Kruger rescues Lee and hides her in New York City, keeping her location secret even from WITSEC. Kruger learns from his mentor, Marshal Robert DeGuerin (James Caan), that several witnesses have been murdered because a mole in WITSEC is leaking information and they must relocate their witnesses. Along with Agents Calderon (Nick Chinlund) & Schiff (Michael Papajohn) & newcomer Deputy Monroe (Danny Nucci), they raid a remote cabin and kill mercenaries holding DeGuerin's witness hostage, but DeGuerin discreetly kills her when the mercenary leader reveals DeGuerin as a mole. Flying back to DC, Kruger, now suspicious of DeGuerin, warns Lee to relocate. DeGuerin drugs Kruger long enough to trace the warning call to NYC and kill Monroe using Kruger's gun, framing him as a mole. Revealing he, Calderon, and Schiff are corrupt, DeGuerin explains he is the go-between for the black market buyer, and Kruger escapes from the plane to rescue Lee from DeGuerin's mercenaries. Kruger saves Cullen from Scar at Central Park Zoo, who pursues them; Kruger releases several alligators that devour Scar and other mercenaries. DeGuerin has Kruger and Lee branded as fugitives.
Kruger and Lee enlist Casteleone's help and using a mainframe backdoor in Donohue's terminal, they decrypt Lee's second disc. It reveals that a huge shipment of EM rifles is at the Baltimore docks and will be delivered to Russian Mafia boss Sergei Ivanovich Petrofsky (Olek Krupa), who plans to sell the weapons overseas to terrorists. A Cyrez operative pinpoints their whereabouts and remotely destroys the disc; DeGuerin kidnaps Lee and takes her to the docks as the shipment is being loaded onto Petrofsky's Russian freighter.
Casteleone contacts his mobster cousin Tony Two-Toes (Joe Viterelli) & his two associates to help Kruger raid the docks. They kill Petrovsky, his henchmen, and DeGuerin's mercenaries. In a struggle atop a shipping container, DeGuerin holds Lee hostage, but Kruger frees her and destroys the lock on the container crane, dropping DeGuerin and the container to the ground and exposing the presence of the EM rifles. Kruger rescues the critically wounded DeGuerin, leaving him to be detained by Beller and the authorities and proving his and Lee's innocence.
Weeks later, Kruger brings Lee to a hearing for DeGuerin, Harper, and Morehart, who are indicted for treason. With little confidence that her testimony could secure their convictions, Kruger and Lee publicly fake their deaths in the van explosion. In the back of a limo, DeGuerin congratulates Harper on their deaths and says that they should go back into black-market business as soon as possible, but looks astonished when Harper says that he assumed DeGuerin had killed them. The men are confused, then shocked as their limo stops on a train track and the driver – actually Casteleone – locks the doors and exits the vehicle. Kruger calls DeGuerin and tells him, "You've just been erased" as they see a train heading right for them. They can't escape before the train slams into the limo, killing all three. Kruger waves goodbye to Casteleone and walks over to Lee in a waiting car, telling her "they caught a train."
Cast[]
- Arnold Schwarzenegger as US Marshal John Kruger
- James Caan as US Marshal Robert DeGuerin
- Vanessa Williams as Lee Cullen
- James Coburn as WITSEC Chief Arthur Beller
- Robert Pastorelli as Johnny Casteleone
- James Cromwell as William Donohue, Vice President of International Division at Cyrez and Cullen's supervisor
- Danny Nucci as WITSEC Deputy Monroe
- Andy Romano as Deputy Secretary of Defense Daniel Harper
- Joe Viterelli as Tony Two-Toes
- Olek Krupa as Sergei Ivanovich Petrovsky
- Gerry Becker as Eugene Morehart
- Nick Chinlund as Agent Calderon
- Michael Papajohn as Agent Schiff
- K. Todd Freeman as Agent Dutton
- Mark Rolston as J. Scar
- John Slattery as Agent Corman
- Robert Miranda as Frediano
- Roma Maffia as Claire Isaacs
- Tony Longo as Little Mike
- John Snyder as Sal
- Rick Batalla as Kevin, the Bartender
- Skipp Sudduth as Watch Commander
- Sven-Ole Thorsen as one of Petrofsky's guards
- Denis Forest as Cyrez's system administrator
- Patrick Kilpatrick as James Haggerty, Head of Cyrez Security
Production[]
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