Death Wish 4: The Crackdown

Death Wish 4: The Crackdown
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	J. Lee Thompson
Produced by	Pancho Kohner
Written by	Brian Garfield (characters) Gail Morgan Hickman (screenplay)
Starring	Charles Bronson Kay Lenz John P. Ryan Perry Lopez George Dickerson Soon-Tek Oh Dana Barron Danny Trejo Tim Russ
Music by	John Bisharat Paul McCallum Valentine McCallum
Cinematography	Gideon Porath
Editing by	Peter Lee-Thompson
Distributed by	Cannon Films (Original U.S. Distributor) CBS/Paramount Television (Television Distributor) Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (Current U.S. Distributor/DVD Release)
Release date(s)	November 6, 1987 (USA)
Running time	99 mins.
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$5,000,000 (estimated)
Box office	$6,880,310 (USA) [1]

Death Wish 4: The Crackdown is a 1987 action thriller, and the third sequel to the 1974 film, Death Wish, once again starring Charles Bronson.

This is the first of the series to carry a subtitle, the first to be directed by someone other than Michael Winner, and the last to be released by Cannon Films. It was directed by J. Lee Thompson.

The film had a substantially cheaper budget and more limited release than its predecessors. It debuted in U.S. theatres in November 1987. The screenplay by Gail Morgan Hickman returns Kersey to Los Angeles, where he lived in Death Wish II.

Plot

A woman in a parking garage has trouble starting her car. Three thugs appear, force her out, and begin to rape her when Paul Kersey appears out of nowhere. He shoots the first two to death and wounds the third. Kersey blocks the exit, where the third mugger pleads for his life. Paul shoots him and then rolls the criminal over with his foot and reveals him to be himself. The assault was just a bad dream.

A young woman enters Paul's architectural office. She is Erica Sheldon (Dana Barron), whose mother, Karen Sheldon (Kay Lenz), is Paul's current girlfriend. Erica later goes with boyfriend Randy Viscovich (Jesse Dabson) to an arcade to meet up with someone named JoJo Ross (Héctor Mercado) and another buddy, Jesse Winters (Tim Russ). JoJo offers her crack cocaine, and Erica dies from an overdose.

The next night (without explanation), Paul follows Randy to the arcade. Randy confronts JoJo and threatens to go to the police. JoJo kills Randy to prevent this. Kersey promptly shoots JoJo, who falls onto the electrified roof of the bumper-car ride to his death.

At home, Paul receives a call from publisher Nathan White (John P. Ryan). Nathan explains that after his wife died, his daughter became his whole life. Then she became addicted to drugs and died of an overdose. Nathan wants to hire Kersey to wipe out the drug trade in LA — in particularly, there are 2 major drug gangs rivaling between themselves for the main local drug supply: one is led by Ed Zacharias (Perry Lopez), while the other is under brothers Jack and Tony Romero (Mike Moroff and Dan Ferro respectively).

Kersey accepts and Nathan supplies him with weapons and information. All the while two LA detectives, William Reiner and Phil Nozaki (George Dickerson and Soon-Tek Oh respectively), begin to investigate the arcade deaths.

Kersey infiltrates a mansion where Zacharias is throwing an elaborate birthday party. As he bugs a phone, he witnesses Zacharias murder a colleague, Vince Montono (James Purcell). Zacharias discovers and captures Paul (under the fake name "Leo") and orders him to help carry out the dead body. A hired hitman, Al Arroyo (Daniel Sabia), and Paul hide it in the trunk of a car. Knowing that he is about to be killed, Paul decapitates Arroyo with the car's trunk cover in self-defense.

Paul proceeds to kill three of Ed Zacharias' favored hitmen at an Italian restaurant - Danny Moreno (Michael Russo), Art Sanella (Danny Trejo) and Jack Steiner - with a wine bottle containing a bomb (he offered the explosive bottle to the 3 criminals under the fake name "Jack Kimble" and saying himself to be a representative of a newly-open wine manufacturer); later he starts attacking the Romeros' side: first, he kills drug dealer Max Green (Tom Everett), leader of Romeros' streetdealers, disguised as a porn video store owner and two of his assistants; later, he kills Romeros' top hitman, Frank Bauggs (David Wolos-Fonteno), by throwing him from the sacade of his apartment. All the while Zacharias and the Romeros begin to suspect each other.

Paul then goes to St. Peter to destroy a drug processing laboratory belonging to Ed Zacharias' gang, disguised as a fisherman wharf, killing eight more criminals. Nozaki, revealed to be a corrupt cop working to Zacharias, is instructed by the latter to get rid of whoever is setting him up. Nozaki himself tries to get information from Kersey at his office, but he is killed by Paul. Detective Reiner learns of Nozaki's death (not knowing about his corruption) and swears vengeance on the vigilante Paul Kersey for what he did to his partner.

Zacharias calls Romero to a meeting place in an oil rig. Kersey is already there and fires his rifle. Zacharias thinks that it is Romero's crew doing this and opens fire, resulting in a mobster gunfight that includes Jack Romero in the killed. They kill each other as Kersey kills two more - Tony Romero and Ed Zacharias themselves. Zacharias' top henchman, Nick Franco (Peter Sherayko), is the sole survivor.

Nathan White calls to congratulate Kersey on a job well done. He asks to meet, but instead sends his limousine driver (Craig Curtis) alone. Kersey realizes he's been set up inside a limousine prone to explode. He shoots the back window of the limo and escapes before the car explodes.

Kersey forces his way into Nathan's house. An old man living there (Richard Nugent-Aherne) claims to be the real Nathan White, having returned from a three-month vacation. Kersey is then arrested by two cops. On the way to the station, Paul recognizes them as impostors. He flips over the car, killing one phony cop and knocking the other unconscious.

The fake Nathan White is furious that Kersey is still alive. He kidnaps and uses Karen as a bait to lure Paul into a trap. Kersey knocks out Detective Reiner (who was awaiting inside Kersey's apartment), then pulls a M16 rifle, with an incorporated M203 grenade launcher, from a gun rack hidden behind his freezer.

Kersey arrives at the meeting place - the parking lot of White's luxuous commercial building. The car rolls forward as White orders his men to open fire. They spray the car with bullets before realizing Paul's not in it. Kersey fires a grenade, killing three bandits as their van explodes, then fires another grenade to kill Jesse as he betrays his crew and tries to drive away. Kersey follows White into a roller rink, resulting in the deaths of six more criminals (Nick Franco being the last of them).

White escapes through a back door holding Karen hostage. Karen attempts to escape, but White shoots from behind and kills her. Distraught by Karen's death and realizing that White has run out of bullets, Kersey fires a last grenade that finishes him off, literally blasting him to death. Reiner arrives and orders him to surrender, threatening to shoot as Kersey walks away. Kersey simply replies: "Do whatever you have to", and Reiner lets him go.

References

1. ^ http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=deathwish4.htm

External links

• Death Wish 4: The Crackdown at the Internet Movie Database
• Death Wish 4: The Crackdown at Box Office Mojo
• Death Wish 4: The Crackdown at AllRovi