The Last Boy Scout
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| The Last Boy Scout | |
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 The Last Boy Scout promotional movie poster |
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| Directed by | Tony Scott |
| Produced by | Michael Levy Joel Silver |
| Written by | Shane Black & Greg Hicks (tory) Shane Black (screenplay) |
| Starring | Bruce Willis Damon Wayans Chelsea Field Noble Willingham Taylor Negron Danielle Harris Halle Berry |
| Music by | Michael Kamen |
| Cinematography | Ward Russell |
| Editing by | Stuart Baird Mark Goldblatt |
| Distributed by | Warner Bros. Pictures |
| Release date(s) | December 13, 1991 |
| Running time | 105 minutes |
| Country | USA |
| Language | English |
| Budget | Unknown |
| Gross revenue | $59,509,925 (USA) |
| IMDb profile | |
The Last Boy Scout is a 1991 action movie starring Bruce Willis as a former Secret Service agent—now working as a private detective—and Damon Wayans as a retired professional football player, who join forces to solve the murder of the football player’s girlfriend. The movie was produced by Warner Bros. Pictures and Geffen Pictures, and directed by Tony Scott.
Its grim, downbeat tone and punishing violence proved to be a little much for holiday moviegoers at the time of its release in December 1991.[citation needed] It was, however, a modest commercial success, particularly in comparison to star Bruce Willis’ previous vehicle, Hudson Hawk.
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[edit] Plot
Bruce Willis stars as Joe Hallenbeck, a private detective and retired US Secret Service agent who discovers that his wife is having an affair with his best friend and sometime business partner, Mike (Bruce McGill). The same morning, Mike is killed in a mysterious car explosion after giving Joe an assignment to act as bodyguard for a stripper named Cory (Halle Berry). Joe immediately crosses paths with Cory’s over-protective boyfriend, recently retired football star James Alexander “Jimmy” Dix (Damon Wayans). When thugs attack Joe and kill Cory in front of Jimmy Dix’s eyes, Jimmy and Joe team up to solve her murder.
The investigation turns out to tie together the professional pasts of both Jimmy and Joe. Jimmy, it turns out, had to retire from professional football after a sports injury led to an addiction to pain-killers, which in turn led to a possibly bogus gambling charge that ended his career. Joe, meanwhile, used to be a respected agent in the Secret Service and even once saved President Jimmy Carter’s life, before his career was ended when he punched a protectee in the face, upon discovering that the corrupt Senator Calvin Baynard was physically abusing one of his one-night stands.
Jimmy and Joe soon discover that Cory had proof that Sen. Baynard (Chelcie Ross) is part of a conspiracy to legalize sports gambling, but that the other conspirators have decided to assassinate the senator rather than continue to bribe him. Much of the film follows Jimmy and Joe’s attempts to prevent the assassination.
[edit] Trivia
- Shane Black became the first writer to sell a script for $1 million.
- The movie that Joe’s daughter Darian is watching on TV is Lethal Weapon, which was also written by Shane Black. The scene in the film features Al Leong, who Bruce Willis also fought in the movie Die Hard.
- In the original script, the entire third act was set on water. Also, Hallenbeck’s grudge with senator Baynard was completely different from the movie. In the script, Hallenbeck was working security for the Baynard family when Louis Baynard, President Baynard’s son, kills a mother and her child in a drunken car accident. When Hallenbeck refuses to cover for the president’s son, they plant half a kilo of crack cocaine in his house. Louis Baynard was also a villain in the script, and in the end both he and his father dies.
- Quentin Tarantino has declared himself a fan of The Last Boy Scout.
- Bill Medley sings “Friday Night Is a Great Night for Football” on the opening and closing credits.
- This was Eddie Griffin's first ever appearance in a film
- Billy Cole is played by famous Tae-Bo guru, Billy Blanks.
- Composer Michael Kamen hated the film when he first saw it. He only scored the film out of his personal friendships to Bruce Willis and Joel Silver.
- The movie's title character "The Last Boy Scout" is revealed to be Joe Hallebeck (Bruce Willis) when Jimmy Dix (Damon Wayans) signs Hallenbeck's daughter's football card, "To the Daughter of The Last Boy Scout"
