Assassins. Hitmen (and women). Bounty hunters. In the movies, we're fascinated by these miscreants and their dark and nefarious deeds. From Blake Edwards THE PINK PANTHER STRIKES AGAIN (1976) which opens with various assassins from around the world trying to knock off the clumsy Inspector Clouseau (Peter Sellers) at Munich's Oktoberfest to Joe Carnahan's SMOKIN' ACES (2006) where the before mentioned three (assassins, hitmen and hitwomen, and bounty hunters) all descend on Lake Tahoe to knock off or grab a mob snitch (Jeremy Piven) to David Leitch's just released BULLET TRAIN (2022) starring Brad Pitt with a bunch of killers and assassins on a speeding train, filmmakers find interesting stories and characters for these wrongdoers to thrive in. In reality, hired killers and bounty hunters are much more mundane, usually not wearing fancy clothes or sporting mohawks to call attention to themselves. Often, the one thing the movie hitmen and the real hitmen share are they're not very smart. Not all of them. But some.
Add to this subgenre Martin Brest's MIDNIGHT RUN (1988). Like friends telling me about films I needed to see that I had never seen like George Roy Hill's SLAP SHOT (1977) or George Armitage's GROSSE POINTE BLANK (1990), more than one friend had recommended that I had to see MIDNIGHT RUN. Somehow, I missed MIDNIGHT RUN when it was originally released. I was just out of college in 1988 and trying to figure out what my vocation was going to be. I started working in movies as a Production Assistant which ate up most of my time so I may not have been going to many movies that year. But when I look up films from 1988, there are many that I saw in cineplexes including A FISH CALLED WANDA, BULL DURHAM, and MARRIED TO THE MOB. MIDNIGHT RUN slipped past my radar.
MIDNIGHT RUN'S director Martin Brest has slipped past film fans radar. He's not a prolific director with only six director credits to his name. You probably wouldn't know that Brest directed the widely popular BEVERLY HILLS COP (1984) starring Eddie Murphy. But looking at Brest's film credits, what jumps out are that his films are a combination of the fish out of water plot and unlikely duos or trios. His first noteworthy film GOING IN STYLE (1979) is about three senior citizens who decide to rob a bank. BEVERLY HILLS COP placed an urban Detroit cop in the swank environment of Beverly Hills. For MIDNIGHT RUN, it's a blue-collar bounty hunter who has to catch and bring back not a vicious criminal but a low key, unassuming mob accountant. Oil and water. But these dichotomies make for entertaining, compelling films.
With a tight script by George Gallo and directed by Martin Brest, MIDNIGHT RUN introduces us to bounty hunter Jack Walsh (Robert DeNiro). We see Jack at work as he chases and catches a fugitive named Monroe Bouchet (John Toles-Bey). But then Jack's competitor, another bounty hunter named Marvin Dorfler (John Ashton) knocks Jack momentarily unconscious and briefly grabs Monroe before Jack regains the upper hand and takes Monroe bacl. Jack turns Monroe into a bail bondsman named Eddie Moscone (Joe Pantoliano) and his associate Jerry Geisler (Jack Kehoe) and claims his bond money. Eddie has a big score for Jack. He needs Jack to find and bring back a low-level Mafia accountant named Jonathan "the Duke" Mardukas (Charles Grodin) who embezzled $15 million from his mob boss Jimmy Serrano (Dennis Farina) and gave it away to charity. The Duke skipped out on a $450,000 bail that Moscone posted on him. Jack agrees to find and bring the Duke back for $100,000.
Almost immediately, Jack is picked up by the FBI led by special agent Alonzo Mosely (Yaphet Kotto). Mosely wants to know if Jack is looking for the Duke. Jack denies any involvement and leaves, stealing Mosely's badge as he does. Jack flies off to New York where he's immediately harassed by two of Serrano's goons Tony (Richard Foronjy) and Joey (Robert Miranda). With some help from a police friend and the use of Mosely's badge, Jack tracks Jonathan to his sister's house. Jack arrests Jonathan and heads straight to the airport to fly him back to Los Angeles and collect his money. But Jonathan has a fear of flying. Jack and Jonathan exit the plane and take the train instead. Furious that Jack and Jonathan are now taking a train to Los Angeles, Eddie calls in Marvin to help expedite Jonathan's immediate return.
So begins a cross country trek by Jack and Jonathan to arrive in Los Angeles before midnight on Friday, chased by Mosely and the FBI, Jimmy Serrano's goons and hired hitmen, and now Jack's bounty hunter competitor Marvin. Marvin and Mosely almost catch Jack and Jonathan on the train, but they jump off, switching to bus travel next. The bus pulls into Chicago (Jack's hometown) where Serrano's snipers wait to pick them off. But Mosely and the FBI show up. During the shootout between the FBI and Serrano's men, Jack and Jonathan manage to escape again. Needing money, Jack begrudgingly visits his ex-wife Gail (Wendy Phillips) and his teenage daughter Denise (Danielle DuClos) for money so they can continue their journey west. Gail loans him what money she has in the house and lets Jack borrow her station wagon. Jack calls Eddie and asks him to wire $500 to Amarillo, Texas. Eddie's partner Jerry leaks the info to Serrano's men. Jack and Jonathan begin to bond as they head out west.
The final act has Jack and Jonathan encountering a helicopter full of Serrano's snipers, falling into and floating down a raging river, getting picked up by a group of Native Americans, pretending to be the FBI inspecting supposed "counterfeit" money at a diner so they can obtain some dough to continue to Los Angeles, and hopping a train (literally) to Flagstaff. Marvin gets the upper hand with Jack in Sedona, grabbing Jonathan from Jack before losing Jonathan directly to Serrano's men. Jack makes a deal with FBI agent Mosely. Jack will help set up Serrano by offering him some fake computer discs supposedly containing Serrano's hidden assets so the FBI can arrest him if Jack gets custody of Jonathan in return. Mosely agrees and all parties confer at Las Vegas's McCarron Airport for the final showdown, but things don't turn out exactly as expected.
One of the clever devices of MIDNIGHT RUN is Jonathan aka the Duke becoming Jack's conscience. Now, Jack already has a conscience. We learn this when Jack reveals to Jonathan that when Jack was a cop in Chicago, he wouldn't go on the take like his fellow police officers with a local drug dealer (who turns out to be Serrano). Jonathan becomes Jack's conscience for everyday life. He keeps telling Jack to stop smoking, reminding him that smoking will kill him. Jack's marriage fell apart after he left the police force. Jonathan pushes Jack to reconcile with his ex-wife and daughter when they pay them a visit to borrow some cash and a vehicle. If we imagine the classic conscience imagery, Jonathan is the angel or good conscience, and Jack has become a bit of the devil or bad conscience. Jonathan's concern for Jack makes the two of them connect throughout the film.
All the characters claim to be smarter than anyone else in MIDNIGHT RUN, yet everyone keeps getting duped. Marvin successfully grabs Jack's bond escapees twice from Jack only to fall for the oldest trick in the book and lose them right back to Jack. Jack falls for Jonathan's claim he's afraid of flying only to learn later Jonathan knows how to fly a crop duster. FBI Agent Mosely orders Jack to stay away from Jonathan only to have Jack steal his ID badge. The stolen badge keeps coming back to haunt and embarrass Mosely. Even mob boss Serrano falls prey to his better senses. His men Tony and Joey keep failing to catch or kill Jonathan. Serrano keeps threatening to kill both of them if they don't but Serrano only bluffs and he's eventually apprehended by the authorities. Bail Bondsman Moscone will be double crossed by Jack but only after Moscone hired Marvin for more money to find Jack and Jonathan.
What makes MIDNIGHT RUN so much fun is the relationship between DeNiro's Jack Walsh and Charles Grodin's Jonathan "the Duke" Mardukas. Like any good buddy film, they need to hate and antagonize each other at the start of the film only to come to respect one another by the end of the film. Grodin is the perfect foil as the quiet yet irritating Jonathan who easily gets under the skin of DeNiro's uptight bounty hunter Jack. After a series of intense, dramatic roles in films like Michael Cimino's THE DEER HUNTER (1978) and Martin Scorsese's RAGING BULL (1980) it's nice to see DeNiro in a comedic film albeit action comedy. DeNiro would appear in more comedies later in his career including Harold Ramis's ANALYZE THIS (1999) and Jay Roach's MEET THE PARENTS (2000).
Grodin made a career playing bland, unassuming characters with a rebellious or wild streak lurking inside in films like Elaine May's THE HEARTBREAK KID (1972), Warren Beatty's HEAVEN CAN WAIT (1978) or Ivan Reitman's DAVE (1993). In MIDNIGHT RUN, Grodin's Jonathan seems like the typical nerdy accountant but he's more street smart than he lets on. He nearly escapes from Jack a couple of times, rescues Jack from a raging river, and comes up with a plan for the two of them to grab some easy money as the continue their run from their pursuers. Jonathan wins Jack over with his ingenuity.
MIDNIGHT RUN is full of juicy roles for some of the most colorful supporting actors in Hollywood. The actor who steals the film is John Ashton who plays Jack's bounty hunter adversary Marvin Dorfler. Marvin is a complicated character. At times, he's the smartest guy in the film until he does something so stupid, he's the dumbest guy in the film. Director Brest must have loved Ashton as he cast him as one of the LA detectives stuck with chaperoning Detroit cop Eddie Murphy in BEVERLY HILLS COP. Joe Pantoliano (RISKY BUSINESS, MEMENTO, THE GOONIES) gets to play one of his usual bombastic, screaming characters who can't catch a break as Bail Bondsman Eddie Moscone. Audiences love to root against Moscone and Pantoliano makes you care for him briefly before you're happy he's never going to get his bond money back.
Yaphet Kotto (LIVE AND LET DIE, ALIEN) plays FBI agent Mosely in a quiet, understated way which makes his performance funny when he learns Jack has stolen his ID badge. Mosely's seething but it's always internally, no histrionics or dramatic meltdowns. The one actor whose performance is a bit disappointing and one dimensional is the great Dennis Farina as mob boss Jimmy Serrano. Serrano is the least fleshed out of MIDNIGHT RUN'S characters. Yes, he has a history with Jack going back to Chicago and Serrano knows how to push Jack's button. But Serrano's just a regular cardboard villain. Farina never really finds a way to bring any humor or empathy to the Las Vegas mobster. Check out Farina in Barry Sonnenfeld's GET SHORTY (1995) with John Travolta and Gene Hackman or Steven Soderbergh's OUT OF SIGHT (1998) with George Clooney and Jennifer Lopez to see Farina at his best.
The musical score for MIDNIGHT RUN is very jazzy which will surprise movie fans when they find out the composer is Danny Elfman. Elfman is best known as the composer for most of Tim Burton's films including BEETLEJUICE (1988), BATMAN (1989) and EDWARD SCISSORHANDS (1990). Elfman's music is usually haunting and dramatic so it's nice to see him branching out in a different direction. Elfman's score for MIDNIGHT RUN was one of the first movie scores he did.
Although director Martin Brest has not made a ton of films, Brest has had an interesting up and down career. Brest's reputation as a perfectionist may have contributed to his limited resume. Brest was the original director of WAR GAMES (1983) starring Matthew Broderick before he was replaced by John Badham. Some of Brest's scenes he directed are still in WAR GAMES. Brest reached the pinnacle of his career directing Al Pacino to his Academy Award winning performance in SCENT OF A WOMAN (1992). And it was Brest who directed the ill-fated GIGLI (2003) starring Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez that may have sunk his career due to the off-set romance and tabloid headlines with Affleck and Lopez that overshadowed the film (besides a terrible title and plot).
But MIDNIGHT RUN is Brest during one of his best creative periods. Juggling multiple locations and an array of characters, Brest steers MIDNIGHT RUN confidently to a satisfying conclusion. DeNiro and Grodin are perfectly cast as an unlikely odd couple who form a bond even though DeNiro's Jack Walsh may be taking Grodin's Jonathan inadvertently to his death. A multitude of pursuers and an unlikely pair who become buddies, MIDNIGHT RUN is a satisfying combination of genres that entertains, thrills, and makes you laugh. No bail bond required.
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