Marvin Bookman is a small shop owner in Gary, Indiana, USA. After he sees a drive-by shooting of Laurie Thompson's son by a local gang, he gives up the license number of the car to the police. The gang doesn't like this so they go to the store and rough him up. Soon, John Bookman comes to town to set the wrong things right. With the help of Laurie and his old friend Jake, they attempt to take back the streets and show the new breed of gang members what the true originals can do.
Written by
Josh Pasnak
Plot Synopsis:
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The F word is said 103 times.
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The movie is set in Gary Indiana, Fred Williamson (John Bookman) was born in Gary.
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Larry Cohen stated how he enjoyed filming and how cooperative the real gang members in the film were "who came every day to work. They were always on time. They did everything they were asked to do. You know, if you wanted to shoot them and have them fall down, they did falls. They did anything you asked, and they were very friendly to me. They used to come to my trailer and bring me Famous Amos cookies, things like that. They did their best to ingratiate themselves. I was not concerned with the ones we hired, but with the ones that didn't get hired. I thought, "Well, now one of the ones that didn't get hired might just drive by one day with a machine gun or something, and polish us all off in one afternoon." But it never happened. Everything was fine there for the entire shoot of the picture, and they were all very cooperative and pleasant. And then it was all over, and we left. And it was kind of sad, because while we were there they all had jobs, and they had some place to go every day, and they had some focus and some reason for being. Then when we left, we kind of just abandoned everybody. And there's nothing we could do about it. We couldn't take them back to Hollywood. That's where they lived, so there's nothing we could do".
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Last film of Larry Cohen released theatrically, before his death in 2019.
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Kevin Watson appearance is based off of Larenz Tate O-Dog from Menace II Society (1993) coincidentally O-Dog's real name was Kevin which is Bobby's actors real name.
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Larry Cohen revealed that two weeks after the film crew left, "the National Guard had to come in there. There was so much violence. They started killing each other right and left as soon as we were gone. So I felt there was a movie in that. A movie company goes to a gang town, and everything is great. And then they leave everybody behind, and this is what happens. You know, I felt bad about it, but there was really nothing I could do about it. You know, Gary isn't that far from Chicago, and we have an apartment in Chicago. So I would go back to Chicago maybe on Sunday or something, the day we didn't shoot. And then I'd come back to Gary, and then shoot the rest of the picture. And then when we left, we went back to Chicago, and that was it. We never went back to Gary again, and I haven't been back there since. I've never heard from anybody in the town".
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The scene with the two police cars exploding is lifted directly from RoboCop 2 (1990) - also an Orion picture.
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Larry Cohen revealed that he got the chance to direct this film was because Fred Williamson call him up to do it wanting to collaborate with him again, Larry stated " I got a call from Fred out of the blue, saying he wanted to make a picture up in Gary, Indiana about a bunch ex-gang members who return to Gary and find themselves facing the new gangs that have sprung up, which are much more violent and deadly than his gang ever was when he was a kid. So he'd already had a script written on it, he had a screenplay, and he wanted me to direct the picture. So that was how it came about".
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Larry Cohen stated about shooting the picture in Gary, "I had my second thoughts about it. I said, "I don't mind making a movie like this, but to shoot it in a gang capital -- who knows who's gonna get angry at you? You know, people can lose their temper very easily, and they have very violent reactions out there." Well, we were gonna use real gang members in the picture playing members of the gang, use real gang people on the crew, and provide some employment for the people down there. So I said, "This is great, let's go down and have a look at it."
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Fred Williamson was adamant about shooting the film in Gary, Indiana to which Larry Cohen said to him, "Look, I'll do it." But I really didn't think he'd ever come up with the money to make the picture. I didn't expect it would really happen. Many deals like this are proposed, and very few of them come true. But lo and behold, he showed up with the money, and said he had the funds to make the picture. And I couldn't back out of it. I didn't want him to lose the deal, so I just went ahead with it, and we went down there and shot the picture".
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Larry Cohen stated they started filming in the summer, and it was "extremely hot. I mean, the average temperature was 100 degrees, so it was murder down there, and naturally everything was just desolate".
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Larry Cohen revealed for the filming locations in Gary, "There were a lot of burned-up buildings, and a lot of torn-down structures, and a lot of empty places. And Fred had gotten an entire city block which was abandoned, which had homes on it, and he had gotten permission to blow them all up. So they wanted to get rid of these places anyway, and they were empty, so what we did was we brought in a crew of people to paint them and put curtains in the windows and put little bicycles on the front lawn, and spruce the whole place up so the whole block looked like it was inhabited. And then one night, we just blew the whole place to smithereens. As a matter of fact, when that explosion went off, we were a couple of blocks away and I got a sunburn from the explosion. It was a much bigger explosion than we'd counted on, but it was great. It looked fabulous, and we blew up this whole block".
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opened the same day as Twister, to which Larry Cohen stated, "and Twister had the biggest opening of the year. It was a very highly-publicized picture -- tremendous amount of advertising. It must have been in 3000 theaters. And we were supposed to open a week before, but for some stupid reason Orion decided to postpone the opening and move it back a week. And Twister, which was supposed to open two weeks later, they moved their date up. So they ended up on the same day as us, and we were facing the most potent motion picture release of the year. So we were the second-highest grossing picture, and the second-highest theater average picture in the country. But that didn't do us any good, because Twister just wiped everybody out. The picture got unusually good reviews, surprisingly, from the New York Times and from all the papers -- really rave reviews".
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Critics likened the film to Boyz n the Hood, and pictures like that, Larry Cohen stated, "And they said it was a serious commentary on the conditions in Gary, Indiana and the people, and a worthwhile movie. And a New York critic said it was the most fun he'd had at the movies all year. So in a way it was a better picture than Twister, and I'm sure over the years it's picked up most of its audience on DVD and cable".
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When the minister is talking to Jake and John He shows a map that shows 3 gang territories. However, when Spiro and Damien are talking to their associates there are too many other gang leaders and cars for 3 territories.
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When John is leaving the hospital to go to his car there is a lady with an open umbrella. Even though it is not raining.
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Damiens car is a, 1951 Buick Special De Luxe Sedanet [48-D].
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Spyro drives a, 1983 Cadillac Sedan DeVille.
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Dinks "scooter" is a, Yamaha Razz.
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Larry Cohen: [phone booth] Kenny gets gunned down in a phone booth.
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The only movie Larry Cohen directed which he didn't write the screenplay for.
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When John and Jake do a drive-by at the steel mill in an attempt to start the gang war, several fires in barrels are burning. When they make their second pass, the smoke and fire can be seen going backwards, back into the barrels.
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Camera crew shadow visible during the fight at the abandoned steel mill.
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