Exit Wounds

Steven Seagal plays a regulation issue maverick cop who’s assigned to an unruly precinct after one act of insubordination too far. 

The opening 10 minutes document Whispering Steve’s fall from grace which involves foiling an attempted assassination of the Vice President. 

After speaking at a public event, the Veep’s convoy is attacked. Naturally, the Secret Service response is inept providing Whispering Steve with the excuse to step in and save the day. 

After an alloy crunching car chase and bullet zinging shoot out, the villains whistle up a helicopter -complete with machine gunner – to help with the hit. 

Grabbing hold of a machine gun, the aikido arm-waver takes careful aim at the helicopter and deploys some precision firing to take out the chopper's fuel tank. The explosion rips through the fuselage and the chopper fully combusts. 

Intriguingly, prior to its incineration, the helicopter has what appeared to be an Eighties acid house smiley painted on the side. Presumably Seagal – who rather fancies himself as a blues guitarist – took great pleasure in destroying this visible reminder of how glo-stick wielding teens killed blues-based guitar music. 

Verdict

A rather uninspiring helicopter explosion. Aside from Old Totem face’s one-man war on acid house little imagination been brought to the scene. 

Relevance to plot

Any group capable of organising a high-level plot to assassinate the US Vice President would easily have the resources to muster a helicopter as part of their plan. However, the rave culture livery seems a rather odd choice when we learn that a red neck militia were behind the hit. 

Exploding helicopter innovation

First known destruction of an acid house style helicopter. OK, I'm really struggling here. Pretty much none. 

Interesting fact 

Excluding Machete, in which he has a cameo, this was Seagal’s last theatrically released film before he entered the world of DTV. 

Review by: Jafo