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An Innocent Man (film)
Encyclopedia
An Innocent Man, is a 1989 crime
thriller film directed by Peter Yates
, and starring Tom Selleck
. The film follows James Rainwood, an airline
mechanic
sent to prison when framed by crooked police officers.
) is a model citizen. He is happily married to a beautiful woman, has a modest home in Long Beach, California
, works as an engineer for American Airlines
, drives a classic Pontiac Trans Am, pays his bills, and enjoys his ordinary life.
Detectives Mike Parnell (David Rasche
) and Danny Scaliese (Richard Young
) are two corrupt cops who specialize in making drug busts. Rather than completing the busts properly and handing over all the drugs as evidence, they always steal a portion for their own use
or for resale to other dealers.
After taking a cocaine
hit and being unable to concentrate properly, Parnell takes down the address
incorrectly for his next drug bust. Instead, they break into Jimmie's home, expecting to find drugs
. When Rainwood walks out of the bathroom with a handheld hair dryer in hand, Parnell shoots him, thinking it's a weapon. In order to cover up their mistake, they frame Jimmie by planting drugs throughout his house and putting a firearm in his hand. With false evidence stacked up against him (and a previous marijuana charge during his college years) and his only defense being his word against two cops, he receives a 6 year prison
sentence
.
Jimmie is less than well versed to the horrors of prison life, something demonstrated well when he first witnesses a man get stabbed with a screwdriver
and set on fire. Not long after his arrival, a vicious prisoner named Jingles and his gang, the Black Guerrilla Family
take an interest in Jimmie. After getting savagely beaten by Jingles and his gang and being threatened with sexual assault, Jimmie comes to realize that all the rumblings about having to "take care of his problem" is his only recourse.
With the help of a benevolent and influential convict named Virgil Cane (F. Murray Abraham
), a plexiglas shank
is fashioned for Jimmie. He stabs Jingles to death, and ends up spending three months in a windowless, subterranean solitary confinement
, though the guards are unable to prove Jimmie did the job.
Upon his release back to general population, Jimmie is received as a minor hero
. Upon getting parole
d after three years, he sets out to seek revenge on the detectives who framed him. Malcolm (M.C. Gainey), another ex-con Jimmie befriended on the inside, assists Rainwood in his cause, along with Jimmie's wife Kate (Laila Robins
), who learns of Scalise and Parnell's involvement in the cover-up when they begin to harass her. An Internal Affairs
detective, John Fitzgerald, becomes involved after Kate tells him about a racist remark Parnell made (falsely) about Fitzgerald and his department. Parnell makes the mistake of telling off Fitzgerald after being confronted about the Rainwood case, making Kate's lie seem more truthful and Fitzgerald now more determined than ever to find the truth.
The harassment of the Rainwoods escalates as they get closer to the truth. The movie's climax is a showdown and shootout that leaves Scalise dead after crashing his car and Parnell about to die at the hands of Jimmie by Parnell's own switchblade. As Jimmie is about to kill Parnell, Kate speaks up. Jimmie throws Parnell to the ground, leaving him to his soon-to-be-former colleagues.
The movie ends with Parnell in the general prison population (a creative liberty, as convicted ex-cops are generally kept in protective custody
or are housed in an out of state Federal prison
), and spotted from a distance by Virgil, who openly addresses him as "Officer", drawing the attention of the other inmates.
Parnell looks up to the balcony where Virgil is standing, his face frozen in a mask of fear. "Ain't life a motherfucker?" Virgil asks, repeating a line he stated when he and Jimmie said their goodbyes earlier.
The movie ends with the final scene showing the epilogue of Jimmie Rainwood's life, working again for American Airlines, finally getting his life back.
Crime film
Crime films are films which focus on the lives of criminals. The stylistic approach to a crime film varies from realistic portrayals of real-life criminal figures, to the far-fetched evil doings of imaginary arch-villains. Criminal acts are almost always glorified in these movies.- Plays and films...
thriller film directed by Peter Yates
Peter Yates
Peter James Yates was an English director and producer. He was born in Aldershot, Hampshire.The son of an army officer, he attended Charterhouse School as a boy, graduated from the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art and worked for some years as an actor, director and stage manager...
, and starring Tom Selleck
Tom Selleck
Thomas William "Tom" Selleck is an American actor, and film producer. He is best known for his starring role as Hawaii-based private investigator Thomas Magnum on the 1980s television show Magnum, P.I.. He also plays Police Chief Jesse Stone in a series of made-for-TV movies based on the Robert B....
. The film follows James Rainwood, an airline
Airline
An airline provides air transport services for traveling passengers and freight. Airlines lease or own their aircraft with which to supply these services and may form partnerships or alliances with other airlines for mutual benefit...
mechanic
Mechanic
A mechanic is a craftsman or technician who uses tools to build or repair machinery.Many mechanics are specialized in a particular field such as auto mechanics, bicycle mechanics, motorcycle mechanics, boiler mechanics, general mechanics, industrial maintenance mechanics , air conditioning and...
sent to prison when framed by crooked police officers.
Plot
James Rainwood (Tom SelleckTom Selleck
Thomas William "Tom" Selleck is an American actor, and film producer. He is best known for his starring role as Hawaii-based private investigator Thomas Magnum on the 1980s television show Magnum, P.I.. He also plays Police Chief Jesse Stone in a series of made-for-TV movies based on the Robert B....
) is a model citizen. He is happily married to a beautiful woman, has a modest home in Long Beach, California
Long Beach, California
Long Beach is a city situated in Los Angeles County in Southern California, on the Pacific coast of the United States. The city is the 36th-largest city in the nation and the seventh-largest in California. As of 2010, its population was 462,257...
, works as an engineer for American Airlines
American Airlines
American Airlines, Inc. is the world's fourth-largest airline in passenger miles transported and operating revenues. American Airlines is a subsidiary of the AMR Corporation and is headquartered in Fort Worth, Texas adjacent to its largest hub at Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport...
, drives a classic Pontiac Trans Am, pays his bills, and enjoys his ordinary life.
Detectives Mike Parnell (David Rasche
David Rasche
-Early life and career:Rasche was born in St. Louis, Missouri. His father was a minister and farmer. Rasche started in theatre, but also has appeared on numerous movies and television series. He became a member of the Chicago Second City, after John Belushi moved on to Saturday Night Live...
) and Danny Scaliese (Richard Young
Richard Young (actor)
Richard Young is an American actor who has starred in film and in television. His first feature film part was in 1972. Among his best known films are the 1984 movie The Ice Pirates and in the 1985 horror film Friday the 13th: A New Beginning...
) are two corrupt cops who specialize in making drug busts. Rather than completing the busts properly and handing over all the drugs as evidence, they always steal a portion for their own use
Recreational drug use
Recreational drug use is the use of a drug, usually psychoactive, with the intention of creating or enhancing recreational experience. Such use is controversial, however, often being considered to be also drug abuse, and it is often illegal...
or for resale to other dealers.
After taking a cocaine
Cocaine
Cocaine is a crystalline tropane alkaloid that is obtained from the leaves of the coca plant. The name comes from "coca" in addition to the alkaloid suffix -ine, forming cocaine. It is a stimulant of the central nervous system, an appetite suppressant, and a topical anesthetic...
hit and being unable to concentrate properly, Parnell takes down the address
Address (geography)
An address is a collection of information, presented in a mostly fixed format, used for describing the location of a building, apartment, or other structure or a plot of land, generally using political boundaries and street names as references, along with other identifiers such as house or...
incorrectly for his next drug bust. Instead, they break into Jimmie's home, expecting to find drugs
Psychoactive drug
A psychoactive drug, psychopharmaceutical, or psychotropic is a chemical substance that crosses the blood–brain barrier and acts primarily upon the central nervous system where it affects brain function, resulting in changes in perception, mood, consciousness, cognition, and behavior...
. When Rainwood walks out of the bathroom with a handheld hair dryer in hand, Parnell shoots him, thinking it's a weapon. In order to cover up their mistake, they frame Jimmie by planting drugs throughout his house and putting a firearm in his hand. With false evidence stacked up against him (and a previous marijuana charge during his college years) and his only defense being his word against two cops, he receives a 6 year prison
Prison
A prison is a place in which people are physically confined and, usually, deprived of a range of personal freedoms. Imprisonment or incarceration is a legal penalty that may be imposed by the state for the commission of a crime...
sentence
Sentence (law)
In law, a sentence forms the final explicit act of a judge-ruled process, and also the symbolic principal act connected to his function. The sentence can generally involve a decree of imprisonment, a fine and/or other punishments against a defendant convicted of a crime...
.
Jimmie is less than well versed to the horrors of prison life, something demonstrated well when he first witnesses a man get stabbed with a screwdriver
Screwdriver
A screwdriver is a tool for driving screws and often rotating other machine elements with the mating drive system. The screwdriver is made up of a head or tip, which engages with a screw, a mechanism to apply torque by rotating the tip, and some way to position and support the screwdriver...
and set on fire. Not long after his arrival, a vicious prisoner named Jingles and his gang, the Black Guerrilla Family
Black Guerrilla Family
The Black Guerrilla Family is a prison and street gang founded in 1966 by George Jackson and W.L...
take an interest in Jimmie. After getting savagely beaten by Jingles and his gang and being threatened with sexual assault, Jimmie comes to realize that all the rumblings about having to "take care of his problem" is his only recourse.
With the help of a benevolent and influential convict named Virgil Cane (F. Murray Abraham
F. Murray Abraham
Fahrid Murray Abraham is an American actor. He became known during the 1980s after winning the Academy Award for Best Actor for his role as Antonio Salieri in Amadeus. He has appeared in many roles, both leading and supporting, in films such as All the President's Men and Scarface...
), a plexiglas shank
Shiv (weapon)
A shiv is a slang term for any sharp or pointed implement used as a knife-like weapon. However, the word in practical usage is frequently used when referring to an improvised bladed weapon. Shivs are commonly made by inmates in prisons across the world...
is fashioned for Jimmie. He stabs Jingles to death, and ends up spending three months in a windowless, subterranean solitary confinement
Solitary confinement
Solitary confinement is a special form of imprisonment in which a prisoner is isolated from any human contact, though often with the exception of members of prison staff. It is sometimes employed as a form of punishment beyond incarceration for a prisoner, and has been cited as an additional...
, though the guards are unable to prove Jimmie did the job.
Upon his release back to general population, Jimmie is received as a minor hero
Hero
A hero , in Greek mythology and folklore, was originally a demigod, their cult being one of the most distinctive features of ancient Greek religion...
. Upon getting parole
Parole
Parole may have different meanings depending on the field and judiciary system. All of the meanings originated from the French parole . Following its use in late-resurrected Anglo-French chivalric practice, the term became associated with the release of prisoners based on prisoners giving their...
d after three years, he sets out to seek revenge on the detectives who framed him. Malcolm (M.C. Gainey), another ex-con Jimmie befriended on the inside, assists Rainwood in his cause, along with Jimmie's wife Kate (Laila Robins
Laila Robins
-Personal life:Robins was born in St. Paul, Minnesota, the daughter of Latvian American parents Brigita and Janis Robins, who was a research chemist. She attended the Yale School of Drama, and received her undergraduate degree at the University of Wisconsin–Eau Claire, . Robins has been in a...
), who learns of Scalise and Parnell's involvement in the cover-up when they begin to harass her. An Internal Affairs
Internal affairs (law enforcement)
The internal affairs division of a law enforcement agency investigates incidents and plausible suspicions of lawbreaking and professional misconduct attributed to officers on the force...
detective, John Fitzgerald, becomes involved after Kate tells him about a racist remark Parnell made (falsely) about Fitzgerald and his department. Parnell makes the mistake of telling off Fitzgerald after being confronted about the Rainwood case, making Kate's lie seem more truthful and Fitzgerald now more determined than ever to find the truth.
The harassment of the Rainwoods escalates as they get closer to the truth. The movie's climax is a showdown and shootout that leaves Scalise dead after crashing his car and Parnell about to die at the hands of Jimmie by Parnell's own switchblade. As Jimmie is about to kill Parnell, Kate speaks up. Jimmie throws Parnell to the ground, leaving him to his soon-to-be-former colleagues.
The movie ends with Parnell in the general prison population (a creative liberty, as convicted ex-cops are generally kept in protective custody
Protective custody
Protective custody is a type of imprisonment to protect a prisoner from harm, either from outside sources or other prisoners. Many administrators believe the level of violence, or the underlying threat of violence within prisoners, is a chief factor causing the need for PC units...
or are housed in an out of state Federal prison
Federal prison
Federal prisons are run by national governments in countries where subdivisions of the country also operate prisons.In the United States federal prisons are operated by the Federal Bureau of Prisons. In Canada the Correctional Service of Canada operates federal prisons. Prison sentences in these...
), and spotted from a distance by Virgil, who openly addresses him as "Officer", drawing the attention of the other inmates.
Parnell looks up to the balcony where Virgil is standing, his face frozen in a mask of fear. "Ain't life a motherfucker?" Virgil asks, repeating a line he stated when he and Jimmie said their goodbyes earlier.
The movie ends with the final scene showing the epilogue of Jimmie Rainwood's life, working again for American Airlines, finally getting his life back.