The Getaway | |
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Theatrical release poster
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Directed by | Roger Donaldson |
Produced by | David Foster John Alan Simon Lawrence Turman |
Screenplay by |
Walter Hill Amy Holden Jones |
Based on |
The Getaway by Jim Thompson |
Starring | |
Music by | Mark Isham |
Cinematography | Peter Menzies Jr. |
Edited by | Conrad Buff |
Production
company |
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Distributed by | Universal Pictures |
Release date
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Running time
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115 minutes |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Box office | $30 million |
The Getaway is a 1994 crime film directed by Roger Donaldson. The screenplay was written by Walter Hill and Amy Holden Jones, based on the Jim Thompson novel of the same name. The film stars Alec Baldwin and Kim Basinger, with Michael Madsen, James Woods, and Jennifer Tilly in supporting roles.
Carter "Doc" McCoy and his wife Carol are taking target practice with pistols when Rudy arrives to propose they break a Mexican drug lord's nephew out of jail for a $300,000 payment. The job is successful, but it turns out the drug lord wanted his nephew free to kill him.
Rudy is waiting with a getaway plane, but he sees police cars and leaves Doc behind. After a year in a Mexican jail, Doc sends Carol to mob boss Jack Benyon, who is looking to put together a select team of experts to rob a dog track in Arizona. Benyon agrees to get Doc released from prison, in exchange for sexual favors from Carol first.
Doc gets out and meets the men Benyon has hired. One is Rudy, along with Hansen, who seems inexperienced. Rudy extends a hand and says "No hard feelings" but is punched by Doc and warned not to double-cross him again.
At the track, while Doc is breaking into the vault, a guard pulls a gun and is shot by Hansen in a panic. The thieves escape by creating a diversion with a bomb under a gas truck and leave with the cash. The plan was for Doc and Carol to meet Rudy and Hansen later to split the money. On the road, Rudy kills Hansen and pushes him out of the car.
Doc arrives at the rendezvous point, where Rudy again pulls a gun. Doc expected this and is ready with his own weapon, shooting Rudy and leaving him for dead. Doc and Carol drive off with all the money, unaware that Rudy was wearing a bullet-proof vest.
A wounded Rudy drives to a local clinic, where he holds veterinarian Harold and his wife Fran hostage, forces them to treat his wounds and drive him to El Paso. An attraction develops between Rudy and Fran and they taunt her meek husband. At a motel, Rudy has sex with Fran after tying Harold to a chair. Hearing his wife's moans and her laughter at him, a heart-broken Harold commits suicide by hanging himself. Fran barely looks back as she accompanies Rudy to El Paso.