Desert Heat (film)
| Desert Heat | |
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Official movie poster
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| Directed by | John G. Avildsen |
| Produced by |
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| Screenplay by | Tom O'Rourke |
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| Music by | Bill Conti |
| Cinematography | Ross A. Maehl |
| Edited by | J. Douglas Seelig |
| Distributed by | Columbia TriStar Home Video |
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Release date
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Running time
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95 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
Desert Heat (released in Europe and South America as Inferno) is a 1999 American action film directed by John G. Avildsen, and starring Jean-Claude Van Damme, Danny Trejo and Pat Morita. This was the last film directed by Avildsen, before his death in 2017.
Eddie Lomax (Van Damme) is a veteran soldier sick of life, wandering the desert looking for a reason to die. An incident with a few thugs from the nearby town who steal Eddie's motorbike and beat him almost to death, starts in Eddie a flame for revenge. Helped by Mr. Early, and some other good fellows, Eddie is out for vengeance.
This film is a remake of and a self-conscious tribute to Yojimbo (1961) by Akira Kurosawa.
The film opens as Eddie Lomax (Jean-Claude Van Damme) drives an Indian motorcycle in an open desert plain (referred to as the Dry Lake). Soon enough, the motorcycle breaks down and Eddie dismounts, carrying nothing but his jacket, his .45 pistol, and a bottle of tequila. As he lies in the desert drinking, he eventually sees his friend Johnny Sixtoes (Danny Trejo), a Mexican Indian, whom he had sent a postcard notifying him of his arrival.
In their conversation, Eddie reveals that the surprise he wrote about in the letter was, in fact, the Indian motorcycle. He also reveals that he's there to kill himself as he goes into a drunken rage, revealing deep regret from their days in the Army, claiming that the souls of those that he killed haunt him. Firing shots off in all directions, he vents his buried feelings to Johnny, and hopes he will "give him the OK to take a journey".
Soon after the shots are fired, a truck pulls up to Eddie, Johnny disappears, it becomes clear that Eddie was hallucinating about him being present. Matt (Shark Fralick), Jesse (Silas Weir Mitchell), and Petey Hogan (Jonathan Avildsen), sons of Ramsey Hogan (Larry Drake) get out of the truck, Matt furious as one of Eddie's drunken shots almost killing him.
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