Tango & Cash
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| Tango & Cash | |
|---|---|
 Promotional movie poster for the film |
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| Directed by | Andrei Konchalovsky Albert Magnoli |
| Produced by | Peter MacDonald |
| Written by | Randy Feldman |
| Starring | Sylvester Stallone Kurt Russell Teri Hatcher Jack Palance |
| Music by | Harold Faltermeyer |
| Cinematography | Donald E. Thorin |
| Editing by | Hubert C. de la Bouillerie Robert A. Ferretti |
| Distributed by | Warner Bros. Pictures |
| Release date(s) |  December 22, 1989 February 22, 1990 March 29, 1990 |
| Running time | 104 min. |
| Country | U.S.A. |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $55,000,000 (estimate) |
| All Movie Guide profile | |
| IMDb profile | |
Tango & Cash is a 1989 American action/comedy film directed by Albert Magnoli (though the credit is given to Andrei Konchalovsky, he quit and Magnoli, who also directed Purple Rain took over), starring Sylvester Stallone, Kurt Russell, Teri Hatcher and Jack Palance.
Contents |
[edit] Overview
Ray Tango (Stallone) and Gabriel Cash (Russell) are two highly successful Los Angeles-based narcotics cops, who work in different precincts and cannot stand each other because of their vastly different styles. Tango is a smooth, organized businessman who spends the morning with the Wall Street Journal, while Cash is a sloppy bachelor in the tradition of Martin Riggs. Between the two of them, they have seized millions of dollars of drugs and weapons that belong to crimelord Yves Perret (Palance).
The movie starts with Ray Tango in his car, driving down a desert highway, pursuing a tractor trailer. When Tango tries to pass the truck, the truck blocks the pass. Eventually, Tango gets around, and drives a far enough distance ahead of the truck. He pulls out his .357 Magnum and shoots two bullets in the windshield, eventually causing the truck to stop, and the passengers to be under arrest. When it seems nothing is to be found, Tango shoots a panel of the truck, proclaiming "It's Snowing!" as a stream of cocaine pours out. Unseen by the police, mob boss Perret (Jack Palance) drives by in his limo, complaining about Tango stopping his shipment - and if it's not Tango, then it's Cash.
Cut to Gabriel Cash coming back to his apartment, where he picks up a paper, reads about his bust, and looks at himself in the mirror. A Chinese assassin shoots Cash twice in the chest, leading to a small chase, which leads to the apprehension of the suspect. Cash had worn a bulletproof vest all day, saving his life (though giving him a bad case of body odor).
In one of the movie's memorable moments, Cash and his assassin are in the bathroom. Cash dismisses the cop in the bathroom, puts a chair on the chest of his assassin, and sits on it, interrogating him in a roundabout fashion. He finds out about a deal going down that night. The same deal is found out about by Tango via a snitch.
Perret decides to take care of both of these thorns in his side, but he doesn't want to create martyrs, so he frames them for murder. As both arrive to the deal, they find a dead Federal Agent, and have the murder weapons planted on them. They're taken into custody. With both Tango and Cash away in prison - a prison Perret controls - he believes that he can easily have them killed there once they are sufficiently disgraced.
At the trial, an audio tape is played, with Tango and Cash discussing buying drugs from the murdered man, just before they shoot him. Tango and Cash enter a guilty plea, in the expecation that they'll get sent to a minimum security prison. However, they end up being transported to a maximum security prison, and put in with the general population. As they enter, they are peppered with threats from the people they helped to put away.
Perret shows up with his right-hand man, and a fight breaks out with Tango and Cash eventually being overrun by criminals let loose by security guards on the take. Tango and Cash are dunked into pools where electricity is run through for the amusement of the prisoners. However, they are eventually saved by the Prison Warden, Matt Zachowski, who comes in with a new set of prison guards. Matt recommends that Tango and Cash escape, and helps to aid in their escape. Tango, though, still believes in the law, and refuses to break out of prison with Cash.
The night of the escape, Cash finds his C.O. and mentor murdered, presumably by Perret and his crew. Just before Cash can be boxed in, he's saved by Tango, who manages to stop a large fan long enough for Cash to crawl through it. After a prisonwide chase, and a brief fight with one of the inmates, Tango and Cash escape. Tango tells Cash to go to the Cleopatra Club, where his sister (Teri Hatcher) works.
Tango and Cash then go on to exact revenge against those who framed or help to frame them. The audio expert is visited by Cash, where Cash takes a shotgun and destroys the audio equipment. Cash finds out that it was Perret's righthand man who manipulated audio of the two to make a fake tape. Tango, meanwhile, interrogates the FBI Agent who testified against them at his house. The agent admits that Perret was behind it, but when he tries to escape from Tango, he's killed by a carbomb.
Tango and Cash later meet Tango's C.O., who advises and aids Tango and Cash in their quest to apprehend or destroy Perret. Armed with an armed vehicle and firepower, Tango and Cash go to the airfield where Perret is hiding out. Using the heavy assult vehicle they arrived in, Perret's lines of defense are decimated at the hands of the two. Tango and Cash eventually kill Perret's inner-circle and save Tango's sister Catherine, who was kidnapped by Perret. Tango and Cash both kill Peret (simulatenously shooting him in the head), and the three leave before the self-destruct sequence decimates the building. The movie ends with a newspaper headline celebrating the vindication of Tango and Cash.
[edit] Cast
- Sylvester Stallone as Raymond 'Ray' Tango
- Kurt Russell as Gabriel 'Gabe' Cash
- Teri Hatcher as Katherine 'Kiki' Tango
- Jack Palance as Yves Perret
- Brion James as Courier/Requin
- James Hong as Quan
- Michael J. Pollard as Owen
- Robert Z'Dar as Face
[edit] Soundtrack
The soundtrack was never released, however the songs featured in the movie are easily found on the artists' albums.
The soundtrack score which was composed by Harold Faltermeyer will be released in 2006 on Lalaland records (www.lalalandrecords.com) and features the first ever release of the score. Since several of Harold Faltermeyers most famous scores have never been released, this is a first ever release for this score and will be issued in 3000 Limited Sets.
[edit] Trivia
There is a nightclub of the same name in Warsaw, Poland.
