Standoff (film)

Standoff is a 2016 American thriller film starring Laurence Fishburne and Thomas Jane.

Plot

A young girl, Bird (Ella Ballentine) with her aunt's boyfriend waiting at the car, visits the grave of her parents on the anniversary of their deaths, witnesses and photographs a hitman, Sade (Laurence Fishburne), killing people attending a funeral. He kills her aunt's boyfriend, Roger, and tries to kill her too, but she flees into the woods. Bird comes across the house of a war veteran, Carter (Thomas Jane), who vows to protect her. Arriving at the house, Sade shoots at Carter, who grabs a shotgun and shoots back. They exchange words and gunfire, and both are wounded. During a break in the gunfire, Sade tries to talk Carter into sending Bird down so he can kill her. Carter refuses, and they both pause to patch up their wounds and prepare for the next round. Carter sends the girl for some light bulbs, which he breaks and throws down the stairs, alerting Sade to the fact that he "ain't no farmer." Carter finds out from the girl what happened in the cemetery and that she has a picture of Sade's face. Sade, in the downstairs of the house, starts going through Carter's possessions and finds a picture of Carter in military uniform with his wife and son. He tries to convince Carter he is also ex-military and he understands why Carter is protecting Bird. Carter lets him know he is aware that Bird has a picture of him and that is why he is after her.

Meanwhile, a sheriff's deputy happens upon the abandoned cars at the cemetery. In the house, a resting Carter is dreaming about a tragedy that happened to his son. He wakes up and sends Bird to get a bottle of alcohol. She returns with the drink and his son's teddy bear, which he angrily tells her to put back. Sade finds and starts to read a letter Carter had written his wife, taking blame for the death of their son. In the letter, he states he knew she blamed him for the death and didn't blame her for leaving him. Sade realizes that Carter had packed up and written the letter as he was contemplating suicide. He snidely encourages him to go ahead.

Bird tells Carter that her dad told her she had "no quit in her" and wonders if she will see her dad when she dies. She asks Carter why his wife left him and he said the house reminded her of their son. They hug and Sade shoots a round, gaining the attention of the deputy (Jim Watson) who was looking around for the cars' owners. The light in the house starts to fade and Carter now needs to get Bird out as he only has one shot remaining and in the dark he can't protect her.

The deputy goes back to his car to report the shot fired and ask if a shooting range had opened. He drives up to the house, where Sade sees him arrive while Carter is trying to get Bird out through a window on the second level. Knocking at the door, the deputy is shot by Sade and Bird goes back into the house. Sade hides the deputy's car and starts to head back to the house where Carter confronts him and tells him to leave. Sade tries to goad him to shoot, guessing he only has the one shot and would likely miss given the shotgun's range. Carter backs off and Sade grabs the deputy as bait. He tries to bargain with Carter for the deputy's life as well as his own for Bird. When Carter refuses, Sade starts to torture the deputy. He eventually shoots him and rolls him out where Carter can see him.

After a period of silence, Carter tells Bird to hide and starts down the stairs. Sade in the meanwhile makes his way barefoot across the roof. He ends up at the top of the stairs, where he is surprised by Carter, and falls down the glass-strewn stairs. Fed-up, Sade plans to set the house on fire, but changes his mind and calls Carter's wife on Carter's cell phone which he had found earlier. Resting again, the men engage in another argument.

Night descends and Carter's wife Mara arrives. Sade bargains again for Bird implying he'll rape Mara if Carter doesn't comply. Fearing he will trade for his wife, Bird pleads with Carter not to. He gives her the gun instructing her to shoot down the stairs if Sade heads up. He heads down the stairs, telling Sade "if he wants her, go get her." Sade goes on a rant before shooting Carter in the leg. Bird heads down the stairs, the lights in the house flicker, Carter stabs Sade multiple times, and Mara runs outside to call 911. Bird aims the gun at Sade and pulls the trigger, but the gun only clicks; with Sade realizing the round was a dud the whole time. Sade aims his gun at Bird, says he's not a monster before dying without pulling the trigger. Bird heads over to Carter who is still alive. He tells her "there is no quit in me."^[2]

Cast

• Laurence Fishburne as Sade
• Thomas Jane as Carter Green
• Ella Ballentine as Isabelle (Bird)
• Jim Watson as Officer Baker
• Joanna Douglas as Mara
• John Tench as Roger
• Laura de Carteret
• Ted Atherton

Development

Thomas Jane was confirmed to join the cast on May 1, 2014.^[3]

It was shot in Ontario, Canada, in locations including Sault Ste Marie, Echo Bay and Bar River.^[4] Casting calls were held in September 2014.^[5]

The first trailer was released on September 2, 2015.^[6]

Reception

It received mostly negative reviews and has a score of 36% on Metacritic,^[7] and 50% on Rotten Tomatoes.^[8] The Hollywood Reporter gave it a mixed review, calling it: "A solid if unsurprising B-movie whose title says it all".^[9] Writing for RogerEbert.com, Glenn Kenny awarded it one out of four stars, saying: "To give credit where it’s due, this lukewarm mess of a movie delivers what its title promises."^[10] Slant Magazine gave it a mixed review, saying: "Standoff isn't quite inspired, but it coasts on unexpected modesty of professionalism."^[11] The LA Times gave it a negative review, saying: "At the end of the very long day, not even Fishburne's dependable gravitas is able to pummel this stagy gab-fest into submission." ^[12]

References

External links

• Standoff at the Internet Movie Database