Man's Best Friend (1993 film)

Man's Best Friend
Theatrical poster
Directed by	John Lafia
Produced by	Robert Engelman Robert Kosberg Dan Grodnik
Written by	John Lafia
Starring	Ally Sheedy Lance Henriksen Robert Costanzo Fredric Lehne John Cassini J.D. Daniels
Music by	Joel Goldsmith
Cinematography	Mark Irwin
Editing by	Nancy Frazen Michael N. Knue
Distributed by	New Line Cinema
Release date(s)	November 19, 1993
Running time	97 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$6,000,000 (estimated)
Box office	$12,974,636 (USA)

Man's Best Friend is a 1993 American horror film written and directed by John Lafia. It stars Ally Sheedy as a TV personality who adopts a genetically altered Tibetan Mastiff, and Lance Henriksen as a mad scientist who tries to track down his dog after he goes missing. It was released on November 19, 1993. The official tagline of the film was "Nature created him. Science perfected him. But no one can control him."

Plot

Judy Sanders (Robin Frates), who works in a research facility, has contacted TV personality Lori Tanner (Ally Sheedy). The plan was for them to meet after work. Judy is going to let Lori into the research facility to show her the atrocities that go on behind closed doors at EMAX. Dr. Jarret (Lance Henriksen), who is doing vivisection and genetic altering, discovers the plan and kills Judy. Laurie keeps her appointment, but when Judy does not show, she decides to break into the lab where she finds and films dead bodies and animals that are in the middle of research projects. Among them is a Tibetan Mastiff named Max, who has been genetically altered with big cats and other exotic animals. While shooting the lab scene, Max escapes. Dr. Jarret, discovering the filming, chases Lori out of the research facility. Max follows, and as Lori drives away, Max jumps into her car. Jarret goes to the police complaining that his dog has been stolen. Later that day, when Lori goes shopping, a thief steals her purse. Max chases him and brings Lori's purse back to her. The thief is later found dead, and Jarret verifies that it had to be Max who killed him.

Lori wants to keep Max but her boyfriend, Perry (Fredric Lehne), who lives with her, is absolutely against the idea. He finally agrees, as long as Max remains in the backyard. However, Max, being almost human, understands conversations between people. He also has unusual abilities (for instance, he can unlock doors, open windows, etc.). Max is also in love with Lori, and a rivalry results between Max and Perry. Max finesses his way into the house, goes upstairs and peeks through the key hole of Lori's bedroom, where he sees Lori making love to her boyfriend. He pounds on the door until Lori opens it whereupon Max attempts to attack Perry. He tells Lori to put the dog outside.

Max, while being a big lovable dog to Lori, has a propensity to be a killer due to his genetic altering. For instance, when the paperboy (Mickey Cassidy) hits Max in the head with a newspaper, Max chases him and tears up his bicycle tire. When the neighbor's cat, Boo, irritates Max, Lori's young neighbor, Rudy (J. D. Daniels), and his friend Chet (Bradley Pierce) let Max chase the cat down the street and right up a tree, which Max has the ability to do because of his genetic altering with big cats. In a very gory scene, he catches the cat and devours it alive. Rudy and Chet then flee, thinking that Max might hurt them.

Meanwhile, Max is madly in love with Heidi, Rudy's pet Collie. One day, after escaping his confinement, he spies on Rudy taking Heidi into his house. After Rudy and his father (Del Zamora) leave for the baseball game, Max jumps the fence, climbs through the window, and seduces Heidi.

In another scene, Max is maced by the mailman. The mace does not effect Max, and chases the mailman, jumps over a fence, attacks and kills him by grabbing his leg with his mouth with him on the other end. He later tries to bury the body. In the mean time, the jealousy between Max and Perry has accelerated. Max destroys the brake lining in Perry's truck, and Perry attempts to kill Max with poisoned hamburger. Max, being of super intelligence, realizes the meat is poisoned and instead of eating the meat, Max chases Perry out of the house, but Perry manages to escape in his truck. Being frustrated by this, Max kills Ed the parrot by knocking over his cage and eating him up. Then, Max puts the hamburger meat in the toilet and flushes it down the drain.

Lori, not knowing that any of this has happened but feeling the animosity of Perry towards Max, feels that she must find Max a home. She takes him to a junkyard where she leaves him with Ray (William Sanderson), the junkyard dealer, who assures Lori that Max will be taken to a ranch for a couple of days. Instead, when Lori leaves in her car and Max keeps barking for her, Ray chains Max and hits him over the head with a shovel, knocking Max out. When Max regains consciousness, he pulls loose from his chain and attacks Ray, who, in turn, puts a blowtorch to Max's face, and then Max kills him by biting his crotch so hard that it bleeds. Soon, Ray is taken to the hospital. Max, now terribly burned, escapes and makes his way home to get even with Perry. He climbs the wall of the house, opens the window, and chases Perry, who runs into the closet. Max then crashes through the closet door, attacking Perry, pulls him out into the bedroom and urinates acid on him. Perry is quickly rushed to the hospital. Max, going berserk, runs down the stairs and Rudy attempts to stop Max with his baseball bat, but before he can hit Max, he grabs the bat with his mouth and hurls Rudy through the air and into the corner of the stairs. The police, by this time, have heard enough about Max to believe that he is a dangerous dog. They arrive at the house, and the pursuit of Max begins. However, Max manages to escape by jumping over the police cars and making them crash into each other.

In an attempt to get Max back, Dr. Jarret kidnaps Lori, hoping Max will follow, which he does. However, in doing so, Max jumps on the car, causing the car to crash into the front of the EMAX building. Lori manages to pull herself free from the wrecked car and run into the building. For the first time, Max turns on Lori and chases her into the lab. His eyes are wild and glassy, and there are scars on his face from the blowtorch. Lori grabs a knife to protect herself, but in the end, their love for each other is stronger than his propensity for violence and her fear of him. In a very sentimental scene, Lori reaches out with her bloody hand to touch Max, who returns to loving her. Suddenly, Dr. Jarret comes back into the lab and attempts to shoot Lori. Max leaps to protect Lori, but takes the bullet himself and is killed. However, pushed by Max, Jarret falls on top of a large cage, and Lori's new curious puppy, Spike, ignites a live wire resting on the cage, electrocuting Jarret and killing him instantly. Soon after, Max's body is found by Lori, who mourns for his death.

Three months later, Lori is going for a walk with Spike (whom she has replaced Max with), and as she passes Rudy's home, Rudy invites her in to see the new litter of puppies Heidi just had (fathered by Max). All of them look like Heidi, except one little black dog which looks exactly like Max.

Cast

• Ally Sheedy as Lori Tanner, Max's adoptive owner.
• Lance Henriksen as Dr. Jarret, Max's original owner and tormentor.
• Robert Costanzo as Detective Frankie Kovacs
• Fredric Lehne as Perry, Lori's boyfriend and Max's arch-rival. Max's second tormentor.
• John Cassini as Detective Emilio Bendetti
• J.D. Daniels as Rudy, Lori's young next-door neighbor.
• William Sanderson as Ray, a junkyard operator and Max's fifth tormentor.
• Trula M. Marcus as Annie
• Robin Frates as Judy Sanders
• Frank Welker as Max, a genetically altered Tibetan Mastiff
• Rick Barker as Mailman, Max's fourth tormentor.
• Mickey Cassidy as Paperboy, Max's third tormentor.

External links

• Man's Best Friend at the Internet Movie Database
• Man's Best Friend at AllRovi
• Man's Best Friend at Box Office Mojo
• Man's Best Friend at Rotten Tomatoes