A professional thief is hired by the FBI to steal a data tape from a company under investigation. The analysis of this tape, will prove the criminal activities of this company. As this thief is discovered in his attempt, he hides the tape inside a prototype car, but unfortunately there is someone else interested in this vehicle. Written by
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bianca-13 from Arkansas
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No Tommy Lee Jones fan should miss this outing. While it's not great cinema, it IS great fun. The action is top-notch and the characters are appealing. The relationship between Jones and Hamilton is surprising well-balanced for an 80s action film and some of the lines are definitely ones to put in the memory bank and quote. It has a bit of everything for a fun rent (or purchase) - action, romance, coldly wicked villains, a flawed hero, a strong heroine, humor and a bit of pathos. (Watch the emotions play across Jones' face in his conversation with Keenan Wynn.) It's a favorite in my circle of film fans.
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JBond007
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A typical 80's action film with an anything but typical plot, Black Moon Rising is not only a film with a memorable story but also admirable acting. Jones, as usual, delivers a great performance, with Linda Hamilton and the always watchable Robert Vaughn backing him up with their immense talent. Above average stunts, an intriguing score, and a fast-paced and, at times, light-hearted script all combine to form a fun and memorable film.
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(eddy-28) from Lake Isabella, CA
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John Carpenter wrote the story for this stylish exciting action film from 1986, although the film seems to have a rather low budget, must be because it was made through Roger Corman's old company, New World Pictures. In any rate, Tommy Lee Jones is great in one of his most exciting roles, before he became a major star. Jones plays Quint a man who steals from the government. He steals a certain disc and hides it in a 21st century car built by a former NASA agent. However, the problem is, he is being tracked by government agent Johnson (Bubba Smith) who relies on his famous line "don't **** with the government!", which I truly enjoyed. Quint also falls in love with a young woman named Nina (Linda Hamilton) who just so happened to steal the car that has the discs in it. It becomes a fun filled, action packed chase in the end, and the action scenes in the LA skyrise buildings are awesome. The supportive cast is topped off by Robert Vaughn, playing his usual villian role, while Richard Jaeckel, Lee Ving, William Sandersen, Nick Cassavettes and Keenan Wynn occasionally steal the scene. Black Moon Rising is a fun filled little action film, which I liked.
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TSMChicago from Palatine, IL
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Great film that takes me back to the '80s in a good way.
I agree with the positive reviews already posted and fondly remember "Black Moon Rising" projected on the giant screen at the Virgina Theater in Champaign, IL. The car chase scenes are tremendous and they don't trash the Dodge Daytona Turbo. I was driving the same car at the time and it has always been my favorite vehicle.
Considering the participation of John Carpenter and Roger Corman it really is a "good little film" as everyone seem to call it. New World released several of these small gems in the '80s. "The Philadelphia Experiment" and "Eddie and the Cruisers" come to mind. Small budgets, great stories and terrific acting in films that actually improve with age.
Any film with Tommy Lee Jones is worth a look and Linda Hamilton is always a looker. Check it out.
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ccthemovieman-1 from United States
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Tommy Lee Jones in a love scene??!! Yikes: what a scary thought. It happened maybe only once on film in his illustrious career. This is that film. With Linda Hamilton, too! I guess this is another version of her TV show, "Beauty and The Beast."
Okay, I don't mean to be that nasty because Jones is a terrific actor and usually a lot of fun to watch, especially when he's chasing bad guys.
This film really had a Class B-type of feel to it despite the presence of those two actors, along with Robert Vaughn and Richard Jaekel....and a very cool car called "Black Moon."
The best thing about the movie was that it was fast-moving, meaning it was interesting enough not to get bored. Other than that, it's an ordinary heist tale that isn't too memorable.
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George Erhard from Pittsburg CA, USA
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Ho hum, another 80's supercar movie... no wait, that's Tommy Lee Jones. And Linda Hamilton. And the car doesn't get all that much screen time! Wait, could this be a (gasp!) real movie? Yes!
The car (an aircraft-composite alternate-fuel vehicle named "Black Moon") doesn't get much in the way of road time, as it's the target of some ne-er-do-well car thieves early in the flick. But Tommy Lee's got to get something he dropped back... and it's in the car. And what's this? The car theft ringleader (Robert Vaughn) is a white-collar corporate type who's not about to just let it be driven away? Hrmm... this isn't sounding like our usual crash-em-up plot here. Lots of intrigue, quite a bit of steamy interaction between Jones and Hamilton, and some wonderful stuntwork (including jumping a car from one skyscraper to another). Definitely worth a couple of bucks at the video store for a few nights.
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elvis_dolan from United Kingdom
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Nice little film this though some may disagree! Of course, I'm a fan of this kind of low-budget action/sci-fi fare, and the fact that John Carpenter wrote the screenplay is a bonus. While it does come across as a TV movie, or a pilot for a series that never was, it keeps rolling along with enough action to please the most hardened of late-night, post-pub film fan. It's funny how many programmes featured suped up vehicles in the 80's, and while Black Moon should be linked most closely to Knightrider, I think it has a lot more in common with Streethawk. Tommy-Lee Jones is excellent in the lead role and it's nice to see him in a younger incarnation, getting involved in all the gritty events.
All in all, a good, hidden gem of a film. Give it a try!
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Anthony Bannon (bannonanthony) from Annalong, N. Ireland
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Once again, a film that the majority seems to hate, but I enjoyed. I got the DVD of this film for my birthday. On the cover was a review from the Chicago Sun-Times, calling it 'a stylish and consistently engaging thriller'. I assume that this review was from Roger Ebert as he writes for the Sun-Times. If it was written by him, then I'm glad that for once there's a movie both he and I agree on. There's a couple of other films which I like that he gives good reviews too as well, but there are others I like which he just seems to find fault with. I'm glad that this was not one of them. True, it does have some minor faults, but overall it is a great film. I had heard about this flick about two years ago when I read about it in a sci-fi movies book. I admit I was attracted by the notion of a futuristic supercar. In hindsight though, the car (the Black Moon of the title) looks rather silly, but the film itself is rather good.
SPOILER WARNINGS: Tommy Lee Jones (before he was REALLY famous) plays Sam Quint. an ex-thief who does odd jobs for the government. His current assignment is to get a computer tape containing the tax records of a crooked Las Vegas corporation which is being investigated by the government. He gets the tape but finds himself being pursued by the company's head of security, a ne'er-do-well named Marvin Ringer, who happens to be an old rival of his. Meanwhile, a trio of scientists, lead by ex-NASA tech Richard Jaeckal, is travelling to LA with their invention, the Black Moon, in tow to show off to a group of investors. Quint hides the tape in the rear of the car, hoping to retrieve it later. But shortly after the car reaches LA, it is stolen by a car theft ring working for ruthless tycoon Ryland. Quint is given three days by the Feds to recover the tape. He intends to break into Ryland's skyscraper fortress to get both the car and the tape back. To do this, he teams up with frustrated thief Nina, and the two surviving scientists (the third gets run over by Ryland's right hand man). But Ringer is still in hot pursuit and when he catches up with him at one point, Quint gets beaten within an inch of his life. But he keeps on going. Basically, he saves the day, gets the girl and beats the bad guys.
The performances are very good in this picture. Tommy Lee Jones is great as lovable rogue Quint as are Linda Hamilton as Nina and Lee Ving (CLUE) as the ruthless Ringer. Robert Vaughn is rather two-dimensional as Ryland, but that's probably because Ryland is a rather thin character. One of my favourite actors, Nick Cassavetes, appears as Ryland's number two, a lanky thug named Luis, and he is very menacing, but doesn't have much to do. POLICE ACADEMY's Bubba Smith is surprisingly good in a straight role as gigantic FBI agent Johnson ('Don't f**k with the government' he warns Quint!). The action is also brilliant and very realistic too. After Quint gets his butt kicked by Ringer and his goons, he doesn't recover instantly like other action heroes would. He is still carrying the bruises from that particular beating at the end of the film. As said before, the Black Moon is rather stupid looking, but it proves itself in a car chase around LA (which comes rather early in the film). I would strongly recommend a viewing of this film.
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Coventry from the Draconian Swamp of Unholy Souls
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"Black Moon Rising" is a formulaic and predictable but nevertheless entertaining and fast-paced thriller based on a story originally written by no less than John Carpenter. Apparently he wrote it in the 70's already, but the content was admirably processed and adapted in order for the events to take place in a typically 80's setting with even faster cars and contemporary hot starlets like Linda Hamilton that are, in fact, most unattractive by today's standards. Tommy Lee Jones, on the other, rarely looked cooler than here in his role as super-thief Sam Quint. Quint is hired to steal a tape containing evidence against a dodgy company, but quickly finds himself chased by the company's fanatic security guards as well as his governmental employer. Quint hides the tape inside a prototype race car (one that reaches up to 350mph!), but before he has a proper opportunity to recover it, the wheels get stolen by a professionally organized syndicate of car thieves. That's how Quint meets and gradually falls for Hamilton's character Nina, as she's a sly and experienced kleptomaniac! "Black Moon Rising" is a prototypic example of an action movie in which one little handling (like hiding a tape in the truck of a car) snowballs into a gigantic avalanche of cliched but even so enjoyable situations until a grotesque finale is inevitable. In this case the finale involves an impressive piece of stunt car driving at great height. Literally! It's a forgettable and lightweight 80's action movie, but Harry Cokeliss' direction is fairly competent and the dull moments can easily be count on the fingers of one hand. Robert Vaughn is on automatic pilot (pun intended) in his confident role of relentless crime boss and there are some neat cameos from familiar names like Keenan Wynn, William Sanderson and Richard Jaeckal. Nothing special, but definitely a fine choice if you seek mindless rainy-Sunday afternoon entertainment.
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Scarecrow-88 from United States
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Robert Vaughn portrays Ed Ryland, one of those meglomaniacal crooks who runs an underground organization where his crew steals high priced cars and sells them on the black market. Linda Hamilton plays Nina, his head runner of the operation. Richard Jaeckel is Earl, one of three who have created a uniquely shaped and very fast state-of-the-art car which can go to speeds up to 325 miles per hour(it also runs on hydrogen from water). Earl and crew are at a meeting to pitch the unique car to Italian buyers when it is stolen by Nina and her crew, among many vehicles in the lot. Tommy Lee Jones is the star of the film as superstar thief, paid by the government to retrieve a cassette with important information the federal government doesn't want out to the public(Bubba Smith is the secret agent Johnson who threatens Jones if he doesn't give the tape to him). Jones plays Quint, who has an arch rival in Marvin Ringer(Lee Ving), both after the same cassette. Ringer has a bevy of cronies behind him to help in the dirty work and they try several times to kill him(often viciously beating him or shooting at him). In a scene to keep the cassette from Ringer, Quint places it in the pocket of the Black Moon vehicle..owned by Earl! So Quint isn't able to deliver the cassette to Johnson and is given 72 hours to find that tape and give it to him. The deck is stacked against Quint, for he must get inside Ryland's secure, well guarded compound, retrieve the hidden cassette, fend off constant attack from Ringer, and convince the Black Moon crew to help him. It's a lot to handle, but soon Quint winds up falling head over heels for Nina and the story takes on a whole new path. The film is quickly paced and fun despite asking the viewer to accept a lot of hogwash about cars that can drive a quick speeds through endless traffic, a man who can cross from one building to another on a rope hanging on one prong on a hook, and one man seemingly able to do many psychical things after being beaten heinously. The film has a ridiculous ending car chase which has the Black Moon going from one window off a building and into another windowed building. The film does have good leads who take the film a long way. Jones is always fun to watch, and is believable in his role. I liked Hamilton as well. Ving is really over-the-top bad in this film playing the heavy REALLY heavy.
Jeff Bridges, Don Johnson, Tom Berenger and Richard Dean Anderson were all considered for the lead role that eventually went to Tommy Lee Jones.
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Tommy Lee Jones did most of his own stunts.
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The Hollywood location where the Black Moon is shown is called "The Betsy." Tommy Lee Jones also starred in the 1978 film titled The Betsy (1978).
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Quints Daytona makes the sound of a V-8 engine. The Daytona was never offered with a V-8 engine.
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When the owner of "Black Moon" is describing the car at The Betsy, he says the body is made from "Kelvar". The super-strong plastic is "Kevlar", not Kelvar.
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In the scene when Nina is driving the "Black Moon", chased by Quint, the car has a normal round steering wheel. In all other scenes the steering wheel of the "Black Moon" has two handles.
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Nina has two vehicles parked in front of her building (both her cars), a white Rolls Royce and a green Jaguar. The cars swap positions between shots, without being driven.
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The 6-shot revolver that Quints pulls from under his car is fired 7 times without reloading.
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As Quint slides his Daytona sideways, to park between the Jaguar and the Rolls Royce, the trash and trash cans that were between the cars disappear.
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As Quint reaches the top of tower #2 (from the stairway), his jumpsuit appears to be quite dirty/dusty around the shoulders (light colored dust). In the next shot, the suit is again strikingly black.
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The video technicians show up for work, but in a previous shot they are already on site working on the problem.
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All the windows of the Black Moon appear solid black in every scene, until inside the freight elevator, where they suddenly become clear glass.
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Earl slices into the insulation on the video cable, spreading the jacket open to reveal the cabling inside. In the next shot, he is still slicing into the insulation jacket.
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Just when Nina is about to drive off in the Black Moon after the theft of the cars at the Betsy, she presses various starting buttons on the dash, however it is clear that it is not Nina's hand doing the pressing as her finger nails have suddenly become much shorter than the long nails she displays in almost all of the movie.
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About an hour in to the film, when Quint arrives at John's trailer, a beige sedan is parked facing the building. When Ringer's goons throw Quint off the porch a minute later, he lands on the trunk of a differently-shaped and much browner vehicle (that has no back window, presumably for safety reasons). A few seconds later, Quint gets dragged off the hood of the original beige car.
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In the opening scene, the comic rack behind the young man with the gun is a spinner rack. It changes position and and comics between shots.
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During scenes filmed from the backseat of Quint's Dodge Daytona, you can see an indicator light on the dash revealing that the hatch is open. Perhaps this is to make room for the rig, camera or crew.
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During the opening sequence, Quint runs towards a glass door to escape, however, he clearly stops well short of the door. The ensuing shot is from a side angle of (him) bursting through the glass door in a jumping fashion, as if in one continuous motion.
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tape|car|company|thief|vehicle|super car|running|investigation|fbi|fbi agent|evidence|assassin|bodyguard|henchman|murder|corpse|revenge|car showroom|power outage|bar|carjacking|premarital sex|heist|explosion|c4 explosives|elevator|videotape|showdown|female thief|factory|japanese businessman|strangulation|art gallery|restaurant|corporate crime|held at gunpoint|deception|stealing a car|car chase|one man army|anti hero|hand to hand combat|mixed martial arts|brawl|fight|fistfight|gas station|escape|wiretapping|security camera|surveillance|security guard|foot chase|gangster|mafia|organized crime|las vegas nevada|silencer|machine gun|pistol|shotgun|uzi|revolver|attempted robbery|convenience store|opening action scene|martial arts|suspicion|hit by a car|shot to death|shot in the chest|razor blade|kicked in the crotch|violence|tension|stolen car|speed|shooting|sex|nipples|los angeles california|kicking|gun|female nudity|cruelty|building|brutality|bare breasts|beating|robbery|chase|science|automobile|death of friend|independent film|
AKAs Titles:
Bulgaria (Bulgarian title) - ˜зг€евŠ‚ на ‡е€на‚а лƒна
Brazil - O Erro Fatal
Denmark - Black Moon Rising
Denmark - Vk p 10 sekunder
Spain - Luna negra
Finland - Black Moon
France - Sans issue
Greece (transliterated ISO-LATIN-1 title) - O kinoumenos keravnos
Greece - Ÿ κινομενο‚ κεα…νŒ‚
Hungary - Fantasztikus prototpus
Hungary (TV title) - Sasf szek
Italy - Il giorno della luna nera
Japan (English title) - Black Rider
Poland - Wschd czarnego ksiezyca
Portugal - Grande Assalto
Romania - Luna neagra
Serbia - Izlazak crnog meseca
West Germany - Black Moon
Release Dates:
Certifications:
Australia:R / Finland:K-16 / France:-12 / Iceland:16 / Norway:15 / Norway:16 (original rating) / Portugal:M/16 / Singapore:M18 / Sweden:15 / UK:18 (cut) / UK:15 (re-rating) (2009) (uncut) / USA:R / West Germany:16
Movie Details:
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