Plot Details: This opinion reveals major details about the movie's plot.

I find it kind of strange that I had never even heard of this movie until recently, especially given that it was released in 1995, which would make me 10, which was when I was really into Van Damme’s movies.

The movie opens with a building on fire, where fireman Darren McCord (Van Damme) has become trapped trying to save a little girl. As the roof caves in, it isn’t long before other firemen arrive to lift off the rubble and find that Darren accidentally smothered the little girl while trying to protect her.

Two years later, Darren has since quit his job and is now the fire marshal in the Pittsburgh Ice Hockey Stadium. It’s the Stanley Cup final, so he goes to visit his ex-wife to ask if he can take his son and daughter to the game. After much moaning from his ex-wife, it is agreed that they can go with him.

With this being a big match and all, the vice president (Raymond J.Barry – Rapid Fire) is coming to take a place in the owner’s box. Darren gives his daughter Emily (Whittni Wright – I’ll do Anything) to his friend who is the local team, the Penguins Mascot, while he takes his son Tyler (Ross Malinger – Kindergarten Cop) to meet the team in the dressing room. As the game starts, he leaves them in there seats and tells them not to leave them for anything while he goes to make sure everything is alright and generally do his job.

But it isn’t long before terrorists led by ex-CIA man Joshua Foss (Powers Boothe – Southern Comfort) take over the owners box, holding the vice president, the mayor and more hostage, threatening that he will blow up the building if the crowd, or anyone other than the police outside are notified.

Tyler and Emily have an argument, which leads to Emily going to find the Penguin mascot girl and witnessing her being murdered and her costume stolen. Luckily the assassin runs out of bullets and has to take Emily up to the owner’s box, which is now impossible to gain access to due to the lift key being lost.
As Darren goes back to his seat and gives Tyler a row, he sets off to find Emily, and ends up discovering the terrorists plans. There are ten C4 explosives set up around the arena, and if Foss doesn’t get the money he wants by the end of the match, everyone will die. However, as a twist, the scores are still level at the end of the match, so the game goes into sudden death. Darren has got more time to rescue his kids and stop the terrorists, although he will need to go up against crooked cops, terrorists and Ice hockey forwards if he wants to succeed…

The acting in the movie is all up to an acceptable standard for an action movie. Van Damme’s accent is a bit on the obvious side in this movie, but he doesn’t actually speak very much, and he gets to show of some of his moves, which compensates.

Powers Boothe is an actor of good quality, and here he doesn’t disappoint. The only downside to him is that he couldn’t, and doesn’t offer Van Damme any sort of real fight for the finale.

Ross Malinger is fairly irritating as Van Damme’s son, but Whitni Wright does a surprisingly good job despite playing an incredibly irritating character.

The music in the film is all up to standard as well, with a suitable score that isn’t anything awesome, but wont spoil the atmosphere of the movie.

The special effects and stunts in the movie are all handled good to very well. The only scenes that stand out as a bit disappointing are the clearly fake scenes of characters hanging off the edge of the roof, but it was 1995, so allowances have to be made. The explosions and helicopter crash are all handled superbly. The fights are all well choreographed, and Van Damme delivers a few choice kicks to make them entertaining. A favourite fight has to be when he squares off against the Penguin’s mascot in the kitchen.

The only major faults in the movie lie within the plot. First of all, it is a Die Hard clone, which is blatantly obvious. But being a Die Hard clone doesn’t make a movie bad.
But there are some plot elements that bothered me. Why does Tyler change his view on his dad from being good to bad in a matter of moments, without any cause? And the scene in which Van Damme has to play in goals on the ice for a moment was disgustingly stupid.

But on the whole, I actually enjoyed Sudden Death quite a bit. It isn’t anywhere near the top of the pile of Van Damme movies, but it is certainly above average in terms of enjoyment. I have to admit I like these Die Hard style movies, and along with Under Siege, this has to be one of the better rip-offs that are out there.
While the game going to Sudden Death was fairly predictable, and the plot parts that bothered me are in there, this is a really good fun action movie, that makes good use of the Hockey Stadium setting, and is just generally the kind of action movie that we don’t see enough of these days.

If you are a fan of Van Damme, I would recommend this to you. While it cant compare to his movies like Death Warrant or Hard Target, it is better than the majority of action movies that you could watch, and is better than some of the crap he has starred in.
Action fans should also give it a look, Van Damme doesn’t go overboard with the karate, and does have some action movie style shootouts, and creates some funky weapons like a fire-extinguisher dart gun and super soaker flame thrower to help him take down the villains.
If you aren’t a fan of action movies, this probably isn’t obligatory viewing, but it would possibly be worth checking out if it were on TV, because it offers one of the best Die Hard-esque plots that you will find outside of Die Hard itself, and a film from when Van Damme made movies that were actually cinema quality.
The movie is directed by Peter Hyams, who also gave us Van Damme’s Timecop and Arnold Schwarzenegger’s End of Days.


Other Jean Claude Van Damme Reviews

A.W.O.L: Absent without Leave
Bloodsport
Cyborg
Death Warrant
Derailed
Desert Heat
Double Team
Hard Target
Kickboxer
Legionnaire
Maximum Risk
No Retreat, No Surrender
Nowhere to Run
Universal Soldier


Recommended: Yes

Viewing Format: DVD
Video Occasion: Good for Groups