The Fugitive

Acclaimed surgeon “Kimble” (Harrison Ford) is used to the finer things in life, but not to the back of a prison van where he finds himself after being convicted of murdering his wealthy wife. Of course he protests his innocence, but it’s the chair for him - until, unexpectedly, his transportation makes an unscheduled stop and following the ensuing fracas he manages to escape. The local cops are content that all are accounted for, but Chicago Marshall “Gerard” (Tommy Lee Jones) spots an extra set of leg irons and quickly deduces that the good doctor has got away. Now he isn’t supposed to be a man with many survival skills, but it transpires that there is no-one scorned like a man falsely accused of killing his wife and so with the tenacious “Gerard” on his tail, nothing is going to get in his way as he sets about trying to find out who really did kill his beloved “Helen” (Sela Ward). As he investigates, we are introduced to his erstwhile colleagues like “Eastman” (Julianne Moore) and “Nichols” (Jeroen Krabbé) as well as the menacing “Sykes” (Andreas Katsulas) who looks like he’d wandered straight off the set of a “Munsters” movie, but with the scientific evidence looking fairly damning, what chance he can get to the truth? Fans of the television series from the 1960s are unlikely to see too many similarities as this takes advantage of far better production techniques to immerse us in both the escapee’s desperate flight but also in the comprehensive array of kit available to his pursuers as the pace of the film hits the ground (or the water) running and rarely lets up for a couple of hours that remind us more of why the charismatic Ford was a star in the first place. The ending isn’t the best, I felt. It’s all a bit rushed and just a little too predictable but discounting that last ten minutes, this is still a solidly entertaining chase thriller that does draw us in.