Peter Hyams

Darren McCord, a fire marshal for the Pittsburgh Civic Arena, finds himself in a race against time to save his daughter, the Vice President and a crowded stadium, when terrorists take over an NHL Stanley Cup game. Darren McCord takes his two kids to a Pittsburgh Penguins National Hockey League play-off game, unknowing that the sports arena has been taken over by terrorists, who are holding the Vice President of the United States, as well as many other high-ranking officials hostage. Darren later becomes the only one who is aware of the situation. And, the stakes are raised when the terrorists announce that they will blow-up the building at the end of the game. Therefore, Darren must not only subdue the terrorists, but postpone the game and send it to overtime. —Anonymous The Vice President is being held at gunpoint. The Pittsburgh Civic Arena is wired with enough explosives to blow up the whole city. And if $1 billion isn't delivered soon, thousands will die... ...Darren McCord is in the arena. An arson investigator, he's seen what explosives can do to people. And he won't let it happen again. Because this time, one wrong move and his daughter dies, too... —Stephen Mertz

In 1863, Confederate soldiers are carrying a gold bullion as a payday for the army. Suddenly, they are cornered and gunned down by a highwayman using anachronistic automatic pistols and futuristic tech equipment, leaving them stranded and dead. The mysterious highwayman steals the trunk containing the gold and then suddenly vaporizes into a gelatin like mist. In 1994, 131 years later in Washington DC, the U.S. government creates the Time Enforcement Commission (TEC) to combat the misuse of newly developed time travel technology. They have discovered that the same gold bullion was used in recent arms purchases. The TEC is to detect "time ripples" among the time-lines and to stop them from happening before they reach the present, since people cannot travel forward in time to the future, they always travel back to either change history or steal riches. (Note: the mysterious highwayman who killed the Confederate soldiers in 1863 to steal their gold is never seen again or identified). Senator Aaron McComb (Ron Silver) volunteers to fund and oversee the commission. Meanwhile, police officer Max Walker (Jean Claude Van Damme) is offered a job as an agent for the Time Enforcement Commission. He meets his wife Melissa (Mia Sara) at a local shopping mall where he stops a purse snatcher. He notices three odd-looking punk men following them despite never seeing them before. Walker and Melissa go home to their large fancy house and later make love. Later that same evening, Max is attacked in his home by the same intruders he saw earlier at the mall and Melissa is killed in an explosion, destroying his house. Ten years later in 2004, Walker is now a veteran TEC Agent. He is sent back to October 1929, in the middle of the Wall Street crash to arrest his former partner Lyle Atwood (Jason Schombing) for taking advantage of the U.S. stock-market crash. After subduing Atwood's bodyguards, Walker interrogates Atwood who reveals that he is working for Senator McComb, who needs money for his presidential campaign. Terrified by McComb's threat by sending hitmen back in time to murder his ancestors, thereby wiping out his existence, Atwood tries to kill himself by jumping out a window. Walker catches him as he falls and takes him back to 2004, but Atwood refuses to testify against McComb and the TEC agency sends him back to 1929, right where he left off, this time falling to his death. Senator McComb arrives at the TEC agency to oversee the work and to congratulate Walker for his recent successful mission. Walker implies to McComb that he knows all about his dirty dealings behind the scenes in Washington and about his means to acquire money for his campaign. McComb leaves the facility and orders his aide to have Walker killed. The next morning, two assassins break into Walker's small apartment and attempt to kill him, but Walker, a trained martial arts expert, kills both assassins after a violent and protracted fight. While still trying to investigate McComb to expose him of corruption, Walker is partnered with agent Sarah Fielding (Gloria Reuben), and sent back to 1994 to investigate a pending ripple, where they find a young Senator McComb arguing with his business partner Jack Parker about their company's new computer chip. Parker offers to buy McComb's share of the company, but suddenly, the older McComb arrives from 2004 to warn his younger self that the chip will make huge profits. A fight starts when Walker is double-crossed by Fielding, who reveals she works for McComb. McComb kills Parker, wounds Fielding, attempts to kill Walker, and manages to escape back to 2004. When Walker returns to 2004, he finds that things have become worse. McComb now owns the computer company, with no record of Parker. He is almost guaranteed the Presidency with his finances and approval rating. The TEC is being shut down on account of budget cuts. There is also no record of Fielding. Realizing that he has to repair things, Walker hijacks the original prototype time machine (which McComb had been using for their illegal trips) with the help of Commander Matuzak (Bruce McGill), who sacrifices himself when McComb's men attempt to stop Walker from escaping. Finding himself once more in 1994, Walker finds Fielding in the hospital, where she agrees to testify against McComb. Whilst trying to find Fielding's DNA from a blood sample in the lab, Walker finds a sample of Melissa's blood and it indicates she is pregnant. Walker realizes her death occurred later that night, and he decides to stop it. After going back to Fielding's room, he discovers that she has been murdered and he is framed as the prime suspect. He goes to the mall where he and Melissa met that night. Eventually, Max Walker finds her and manages to convince her he is from the future. He also sees the three thugs who attacked him and realizes that they are McComb's men whom were sent back to kill him before he joined the Time Enforcement Commission. That evening, McComb's thugs break into Walker's home, like before, only this time the older Walker is waiting for them. Without his younger self realizing this, the older Walker helps to fight off the bad guys. Together, they and Melissa win, though the younger Walker is wounded. The 2004 McComb then takes Melissa hostage. When the older Walker finds McComb is holding Melissa, the corrupt senator then sets a time bomb. He then shoots Melissa, just before the young McComb appears, having been deceived into coming to the house by a fake message from Walker. Walker grabs the young McComb and pushes him into the older one, causing them to become a writhing, screaming mass which melts into nothingness (since according to the time theory, no two persons can exist by physically touching each other). Walker carries the wounded Melissa out of the house just before the bomb explodes, destroying the house just like before. He lays the unconscious Melissa beside his younger self and leaves the scene before the local police and fire department arrives. Walker returns to 2004, and the time-line has been corrected. The Time Enforcement Commission still exists, Fielding and Matuzak are alive, and McComb does not exist, having vanished ten years earlier. As Walker returns home, he is happily shocked to find himself living in the same house which was rebuilt. Melissa is alive and their nine-year-old son is waiting to greet him. As Walker walks into the house for dinner, Melissa has something to announce to Walker... implying that she is pregnant again.

A San Francisco civilian police detective is forced to work on a series of murders with his former enemy commanding officer while dating his daughter. Jay Austin is now a civilian police detective. Lieutenant Colonel Alan Caldwell was his commanding officer several years before when he left the military police over a disagreement over the handling of a drunk driver. Now a series of murders that cross jurisdictions force them to work together again. That Austin is now dating Caldwell's daughter is not helping the relationship at all. —John Vogel <jlvogel@comcast.net> At the Presidio, the Army base in San Francisco, a female M.P. was conducting her rounds when she came across the officer's club and the door had been forced open. She went to investigate and was shot. The individuals who broke in got into their car and drove off, and what followed was high speed chase that got both the Army M.P.s and the San Francisco police involved, which ended badly for both. Jay Austin, a San Francisco Police detective, is sent to investigate and he is met by Lieutenant Colonel Alan Caldwell, who was his commanding officer, when he was an M.P. at the Presidio. It seems that Austin tried to arrest an Army officer, but didn't follow procedures, and Caldwell didn't support him, and the murdered M.P. was Austin's partner. A preliminary investigation casts suspicion on the officer Austin tried to arrest. —rcs0411@yahoo.com

In Chicago, Illinois, undercover police detectives Danny Costanzo (Billy Crystal) and Ray Hughes (Gregory Hines) spot two criminals, Julio Gonzales (Jimmy Smits) and "Snake", (Joe Pantoliano) getting out of a parked Mercedes-Benz. Gonzales recognizes the officers, jumps back in the car, and drives off, leaving Snake holding an attaché case. Snake runs down the alley to his third floor apartment, as the officers chase him. They persuade Snake to invite them inside, but he refuses to hand over the briefcase. When he asks if they have a search warrant, the policemen warn him that he will be uncomfortably detained for as long as it takes them to do the paperwork. Reluctantly, Snake surrenders the attaché case, which is filled with $50,000 in cash. Ray asks if Snake has resumed dealing drugs, but he denies the accusation. When Danny searches the apartment, nothing turns up, and the officers cannot make an arrest. Danny goes out on Snake's balcony, and announces to nearby basketball players that Snake's apartment has poor locks, and $50,000 for the taking. Snake realizes he cannot protect his windfall, and punches Ray in the face. Danny and Ray arrest him for assaulting an officer. As they drive Snake to the police station, they discover that the money belongs to Julio Gonzales. They stop at a cemetery so Danny can attend his Aunt Rose's funeral, and he briefly says hello to his former wife Anna (Darlanne Fluegel). Later, at the station, Anna appears and tells Danny she is getting remarried to a dentist. As they talk, a lawyer delivers an envelope with a $40,000 inheritance check from Aunt Rose's estate. With the money, Danny imagines he and Ray will treat themselves to fancy dinners and better seats at Chicago Cubs baseball games. Soon, Captain Logan (Dan Hedaya) informs them that the unidentified man who jumped from a building the other day was actually a South Side police officer, Alan Jackson. He also mentions that Jackson drowned before his body was pushed off the structure, and orders the partners to investigate the crime. At first, Danny and Ray suggest that Snake lead them to Gonzales, but he refuses. However, when he collects his briefcase and money upon being released, Danny and Ray have withheld all but $5,000 of his cash. He can sue the police department, which will take months, so he is forced to cooperate. The partners outfit Snake with an electronic "wire," and watch him take possession of a corrugated box that is filled with Uzi machine guns. They follow him to a shipping vessel as he meets Gonzales. The partners expect to carry out an arrest, but are surrounded and captured by Gonzales's men. However, Gonzales believes Snake has betrayed him and has him killed. Suddenly, two of Gonzales's men, Frank (Steven Bauer) and Tony (Jonathan Gries), announce they are policemen. A gunfight ensues, but Gonzales escapes with a machine gun. As Frank and Tony give chase, they are angry that Danny and Ray have ruined months of undercover work. Gonzales eludes the undercover officers, but Danny and Ray find and arrest him. Later, the captain criticizes the partners for ruining an undercover investigation, and claims they needed to be rescued like a couple of rookies. He orders them to take vacation. Danny and Ray seek out the sunshine of Key West, Florida, where they meet some women, fish, roller skate, and watch the sunset. Danny convinces Ray to quit the force and open a bar. When they return to Chicago, they give the captain 30 days notice of their retirement. However, Capt. Logan announces that Gonzales is back on the street thanks to his lawyer. The partners are eager to apprehend Gonzales and return to work. They get a tip that he may be living with his girl friend at the El Camino apartments. As Ray and Danny drive to the location, they recognize Gonzales's Mercedes. Ray takes a can of red spray paint and creates a no-parking zone around the car, and it is towed. Soon, they have a standoff with four of Gonzales's men. After getting the upper hand, Danny and Ray search the apartment, but Gonzales escapes out the back door. A few floors down, Gonzales grabs a female neighbor, and uses her as a human shield. Gonzales escapes and drives off in their police car. Backup units transport the stranded partners to the station. Capt. Logan warns that the anticipation of retirement is turning them cautious, and caution will likely get them killed. He insists they work together with Frank and Tony to capture Gonzales. A police mechanic transforms Ray and Danny's abandoned cruiser into a yellow taxicab with bulletproof windows. Soon, the four officers are embroiled in a messy stakeout. Tony accidentally shoots Danny but his bulletproof vest saves him. Afterward, Frank and Tony gloat that they have captured one crook, Juan Martinez, while Ray and Danny have none. Danny recognizes Juan, and pulls him aside for further questioning. When Juan gives them an important tip involving Gonzales's upcoming shipment of drugs, they remove his handcuffs. They warn Tony and Frank that Juan is escaping. Meanwhile, the partners go to the airport, hoping to ambush Gonzales, but other officers are already on the scene with drug-sniffing dogs. A dog locates a packet of cocaine believed to be worth $3 million, and Frank and Tony get credit for capturing a suspect. Ray and Danny are irked that the captain is treating them as though their retirement is already in effect. As they leave the runway, a drug agent tells them that further tests reveal the drugs found are of inferior grade, and are likely a decoy. At customs, Gonzales meets with a Colombian priest and nun. When he sees Danny and Ray, he escapes in a limousine, leaving the nun and priest behind. Ray and Danny give the priest and nun a ride, and a chase ensues. Gonzales's limousine drives onto the elevated railroad tracks and the police taxicab barely misses crashing into an oncoming train. The chase continues until Gonzales's limousine stops for another oncoming train. Gonzales jumps out and disappears into the station just as the train upends his limousine. Back at the station, the partners apologize, saying they mistook the priest and nun to be cocaine smugglers for Gonzales. They cannot find drugs inside the ceramic souvenirs in their suitcases, and the nun and priest are released. Ray and Danny soon realize that the ceramic containers themselves are made of pressed cocaine, and tell the captain. Later, the partners harass Juan Martinez to get new information about Gonzales's whereabouts. On their stakeout, Gonzales arranges for a trash compactor truck to destroy their taxicab with them in it after they refuse to return the drugs in exchange for a bribe that would cover a mortgage for their Key West bar. The partners escape through the back window, only to discover that Gonzales is gone. The next day, they retrieve Gonzales's Mercedes from the impound yard, and drive around town looking for him. Anna appears at Danny's apartment to give him an insurance policy she found, and they fight about his inability to act like an adult. Gonzales kidnaps Anna after she leaves the apartment. He warns Danny that he will kill her unless the drugs are returned. Danny and Ray go to the station, where Ray uses a fake requisition form to take the cocaine from the evidence room. Frank and Tony arrive, sensing something is brewing, but Danny and Ray refuse to give them information. As Danny enters the Illinois State Building, Ray sneaks into the basement. He meets Juan Martinez impersonating a security guard. Juan leads Ray to a cage in which all the real guards have been locked up. Ray discovers the only way up is by the window-washing rig. Meanwhile, as Danny rides up in a glass elevator, Anna passes, descending in a second elevator. Danny opens a duffle bag and displays plastic bags of cocaine. Gonzales gives the signal for Anna's elevator to rise until it is level with Danny. Suddenly, Gonzales's associate opens fire on both elevators. Danny orders his wife to drop to the floor. He shoots the associate dead. Ray rappels inside the building's atrium with ropes. He sees Frank and Tony enter the lobby and orders them to get Gonzales. Danny's elevator door opens but Anna's remains shut. He orders her to climb out the top and jump over to his elevator but she is afraid to move. He throws bags of cocaine in the air, and Gonzales is frantic as they burst on the lobby floor. Danny catches Anna and they escape. Ray shoots his way past Gonzales's men and swings onto firm ground. The partners fire away at Gonzales and he goes down. Ray and Danny argue over who fired the fatal shot, but Gonzales pops up again. After another round of shooting, Gonzales collapses dead on a down escalator, and his bloody body lands on the lobby floor. Anna hugs Danny and smothers him with kisses. Danny and Ray agree that the people of Chicago deserve good protection and Frank and Tony could use more seasoning. At this, Danny turns to the rookies and asks if anyone wants to buy his bar.

Nine years ago, the American Discovery One's mission to Jupiter mysteriously failed. As depicted in 2001: A Space Odyssey, Discovery's HAL 9000 computer "Hal" (Douglas Rain)malfunctioned, killing four astronauts. The fifth, David Bowman, disappeared into a large, alien Monolith orbiting the planet. Heywood Floyd (Roy Scheider), head of the National Council on Astronautics, received the blame for the failure and left NCA. Although tension is growing between the United States and the Soviet Union, both nations prepare missions to determine what happened to Discovery. Although the Soviet Alexei Leonov will be ready before the American spaceship, the Soviets need American astronauts to help investigate Hal's malfunction and to board an American spacecraft. The US government agrees to a joint mission since Discovery's orbit is deteriorating and it will crash into Jovian moon Io before the US ship is ready. Floyd, Discovery designer Walter Curnow (John Lithgow), and HAL 9000 creator Chandra (Bob Balaban) join the Russian mission. Upon Leonov's arrival in the Jovian system, captain Tanya Kirbuk (Helen Mirren) and the other Soviets wake Floyd early from his hibernation because they have detected chlorophyll and other chemical signatures of life on the frozen moon Europa. A burst of electromagnetic radiation destroys an unmanned probe from Leonov and all telemetry records before the probe takes close-up pictures. Floyd suspects that it is a warning to keep away from Europa. After surviving a dangerous aerobraking through Jupiter's atmosphere Leonov finds Discovery abandoned but undamaged, orbiting the planet close to Io, rotating on an axis at the center of it's spine. Curnow travels with Cosmonaut Max Brailovsky, and the two, in a risky EVA, enter the spinning ship. Curnow reactivates the ship and Chandra restarts Hal, which Bowman had deactivated before Discovery arrived at Jupiter. Brailovsky (Elya Baskin) travels to the Monolith in an EVA pod, but a burst of energy that emerges from the Monolith and heads to Earth consumes him. Bowman, now an incorporeal being, appears on his widow's television and wishes her farewell. He visits his terminally ill mother in a nursing home and combs her hair before she dies. Chandra discovers the reason for Hal's malfunction: The NSC ordered the computer to conceal from Discovery's crew the fact that the mission was about the Monolith. This conflicted with Hal's basic function of open, accurate processing of information, causing him to suffer a mental breakdown. The tensions between the United States and Soviet Union escalate to what is "technically a state of war", and the US government orders Floyd, Curnow, and Chandra to move into Discovery. Both crews plan to leave Jupiter when a launch window opens in several weeks. Bowman appears to Floyd, warning him that they must leave Jupiter within two days because "something wonderful" will happen. Although Kirbuk is skeptical of Floyd's report, the Monolith suddenly disappears and a growing black spot appears on the Jovian surface. The spot is a vast grouping of Monoliths that is rapidly increasing in number, shrinking Jupiter's volume, increasing the planet's density, and modifying the chemical properties of its atmosphere. The Monolith's disappearance convinces the two crews that they must leave soon. Since neither ship can reach Earth with an early departure, they work together to use Discovery as a booster rocket for Leonov. Tension arises when Hal is not told that the Discovery will be left stranded in space, and possibly destroyed; Chandra fears that another deception may cause Hal to again malfunction. During the launch countdown Chandra tells the computer the truth. Hal agrees that it must sacrifice itself for the human beings on board Leonov to complete Discovery's mission. Leonov leaves Jupiter just before the Monoliths engulf Jupiter and increase its density to the point that nuclear fusion occurs, transforming the planet into a small star. Bowman commands Hal to repeatedly broadcast a final message to Earth: ALL THESE WORLDS ARE YOURS EXCEPT EUROPA ATTEMPT NO LANDING THERE USE THEM TOGETHER USE THEM IN PEACE A wave of hot plasma erupts from the forming star, incinerating Discovery. The new star's miraculous appearance inspires the American and Soviet leaders to seek peace. Europa gradually transforms from an icy wasteland to a humid jungle covered with plant life. A Monolith stands in a swamp, waiting for intelligent life forms to evolve.

Ralph "Papa" Thorson (Steve McQueen) is a modern day bounty hunter who hunts down and captures criminals who have skipped on their bail to bring them back for a 20% of the reward to his bailbondsman employer. It is revealed in the opening text that Thorson has has apprehended more than 5,000 criminals and bail jumpers and life is just getting complicated for him. In the opening scene, Thorson arrives in a small, African American town in Texas where despite being a terrible driver of cars (a running joke used throughout the film), he captures fugitive Tommy Price (LaVar Burton) for fleeing on his bail. Next, Thorson drives to another small Texas town where he is to bring in a dangerous punk, named Billie Joe, whose kinfolk include Sheriff Strong, a redneck lawman who warns Thorson not to get involved. Papa ignores him and ends up in a violent fight with the fugitive, who is so huge, even a Taser barely stops him. Thorson drives both Tommy Price and Billie Joe back to Los Angeles where he collect his $1,800 reward for bringing them back. However, Thorson vouches for Price, and thus soon after becomes one of his many acquaintances who hang out at Thorson's house. At home, Thorson is revealed to be an old-fashioned guy who has a love of antiques and classical music, drives a 1950s convertible and keeps an antique gasoline pump in his house. His schoolteacher girlfriend Dotty (Kathryn Harrold) is pregnant and would like "Papa" to be there for her when the baby is born, but his work continually keeps him on the road. Thorson works for elderly and veteran bailbondsman Ritchie Blumenthal (Eli Wallace) who sends him out on dangerous assignments to chase down fugitives in all parts of the USA. However, Throson himself is pursued by a psychotic killer who was one of Thorson's former convicts, Rocco Mason (Tracey Walter) who begins stalking Thorson at his home and begins following Dotty around as well. Thorson's adventures continue when he is sent to rural Nebraska to bring back two fugitives, called the Branch Brothers. He flies out to Nebraska, rents a fancy 1979 Pontiac Trans Am car and drives to the Branch farmhouse where the two psycho brothers steal his car and try to kill him with dynamite. Thorson commandeers a crop cutter machine and chases after the two Branch Brothers through a cornfield which ends when a stick of dynamite dropped by them blows up their car, but they both survives. Thorson arrives back at the local airport to deliver back the destroyed Trans Am and bring the Branch Brothers on the plane back to L.A. Meanwhile, Rocco Mason begins terrorizing Dotty at her workplace which leads Thorson to try to protect her, but she instead tries to make him give up his bounty hunter way of life and to take her to a Lamaze class. Thorson grows tired of it and Dotty threatens to leave him due to his uncertain feelings towards being there for her. When Thorson's police friend Captain Spota (Richard Venture) commits suicide after he is investigated for illegal use of police funds and embezzlement, Thorson goes into a further decline. Blumenthal next sends Thorson to Chicago to pick up fugitive Bernardo (Tom Rosales) a dangerous ex-con which leads to a long chase sequence as Thorson and Bernardo exchange gunfire with each other at an apartment building. Thorson chases Bernardo on foot through the streets and to an elevated train where Thorson is forced to climb on the roof of the train to avoid getting shot at. The chase leads to a high-rise tower where the both steal cars and chase each other to the top level the parking garage, where the psychotic fugitive drives off the edge and plunges several stories into a river to his apparent doom. After returning to Los Angeles that evening, Thorson learns from Price that Dotty has been kidnapped by Rocco Mason and is holding her at the high school where she teaches. Thorson arrives when Mason attempts to kill him with an M-16 assault rifle. Unarmed after being deprived of his weapon, Thorson lures Mason into one classroom where he floods the room with flammable gas where once Mason opens fire, the sparks ignites the gas and blows up the room with Mason in it. Having delt with Mason, Thorson immediately needs to rush Dotty to the hospital when she begins to go into labor. Despite being a terrible driver, he manages to get to the hospital where he collapses exhausted in the lobby area. He comes to in the final scene to walk back outside where Dotty has given birth and he holds his new baby.

An American bomber pilot in England during WWII falls for a married Englishwoman but must team up with her husband, a British secret service agent, on an espionage mission.

An enthusiastic young woman runs away to Chicago to start a new life. She is soon confronted with the emotional coldness of the big city, and has to search for her place in the scheme of things.