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Rush (1991 film)
Encyclopedia
Rush is a 1991
American crime drama feature film
, based on a novel written by Kim Wozencraft
. A narcotics detective and his inexperienced partner go after an elusive drug dealer. They become drug addicts themselves and, failing to get the evidence they need, use falsified evidence.
narcotics police officer, Jim Raynor (Jason Patric
), greets his police superior, Lt. Dodd (Sam Elliott
). The two walk over to a nearby track, where a number of recent police academy
graduates are jogging. From this group of officers, Raynor must choose a partner to join him in his undercover investigation, which his been ongoing for two years. His choice of beautiful but otherwise unimpressive Kristen Cates (Jennifer Jason Leigh
) surprises Dodd, but Raynor is confident she is the right fit for what he needs in a partner.
Upon leaving the track, Raynor drives Cates to a deserted canyon to observe her skill as a marksman
. He explains to her that all they will have is each other in this assignment. They are caught between the legal world and the illegal underworld, belonging to neither and only able to trust one another. This is a difficult and demanding job, one that will take them both to the brink. Though initially startled by Raynor's intensity, Cates insists she is capable of doing whatever it takes to get the job done. Later at Raynor's apartment, he teaches Cates how to properly shoot up heroin. Cates informs Raynor that she was instructed how to expertly fake drug use at the police academy, which arouses a strong negative response from Raynor. He informs her in no uncertain terms that she will be put in situations where she will have to take the drugs they will be buying. The drug dealers they will be doing business with are not stupid, and if she tries to fake drug use in front of them, she will get both of them killed.
Raynor and now Cates's main objective in their operation is to take down the cunning, mysterious, and powerful drug lord
Will Gaines (Gregg Allman
). While Raynor (and the Tyler police department) is certain Gaines is the main drug boss in Tyler, Texas
, Gaines is an expert at avoiding detection, and deeply mistrustful of Raynor. Raynor and Cates begin frequenting the bar Gaines owns, but still come no closer to penetrating his inner circle.
Unable to secure access to Gaines, Cates and Raynor buy large quantities of illegal drugs from minor dealers in Tyler. These drugs are cataloged and given to Dodd, along with information detailing who they bought the drugs from. Raynor and Cates quickly go from pretending to be lovers to the real thing, and fall passionately in love.
As Raynor predicted, Cates is soon put into a position where she is forced to inject drugs in front of a drug dealer. Raynor tries to intervene and tell the dealer that "his lady doesn't fix", the dealer insists at gunpoint. Cates first tries nervously to talk her way out of the situation, then yanks off her jacket and with shaking hands begins to prepare a heroin shot as Raynor had taught her. Seeing her high level of anxiety, Raynor takes the prepared needle from her and injects it into her arm. While the dealer watches approvingly and laughs, Cates quietly vomits offscreen.
Soon enough, Cates is addicted
to the drugs she has to use to maintain her cover, and Raynor arrives home one day to find Cates combing the carpet, desperately searching for any crumbs of drugs that may have fallen. Raynor nurses Cates through her withdrawal
, steadfastly murmuring empathetic words of support, and holding her through the worst of it. While he appears largely unaffected by his own drug use at this point, over the course of the film he becomes even more addicted than Cates. His downward spiral and eventual withdrawal scenes later are among the most powerful and intense in the film. Eventually, both characters are able to get clean, however both have been traumatized and scarred by their drug experiences. Raynor, filled with shame about the abundance of track marks that scar the crook of his arm, burns them off with a hot iron in a pivotal scene.
Though they have successfully infiltrated Tyler's drug underworld, Raynor and Cates are no closer to obtaining evidence against Gaines. Under pressure from the Tyler police department, they falsify evidence against Gaines in order to secure his arrest and indictment. They are moved into protective custody
, and live together in a small trailer awaiting the day they will have to deliver court testimony in an effort to convict Gaines. Cates is startled awake one evening by the barrel of a shotgun
gliding across her face. She wakes up Raynor and a gunfight ensues in which Raynor is shot in the thigh, striking his femoral artery
. Cates frantically races outside in an effort to get help, then returns to the trailer to find Raynor ghostly pale and barely conscious. She holds him and pleads with him not to die as he breathes his last in her arms.
An unspecified amount of time later, Cates is on the witness stand at Gaines's criminal trial. She begins her testimony by sticking to the fabricated story Raynor and she concocted, and appears to have the jury and courtroom spectators firmly supporting her version of events. When she finally looks directly at Gaines, he slides two fingers down the bridge of his nose, mimicking the movement of the shotgun that eventually killed Raynor. Stunned, Cates makes the decision to tell the truth on the stand, recanting her earlier deposition statements about Gaines's involvement in the drug trade, and ultimately securing his acquittal.
In the last scenes of the film, we follow Gaines, now a free man, as he gets into his car. An assassin is waiting for him in the backseat, swiftly executes Gaines and exits the vehicle. It is never made explicit who the assassin was, though Cates is the obvious suspect. The film ends with Cates leaving the police force for good and leaving town.
's Grammy
-winning song "Tears in Heaven
" is featured in the film. Clapton wrote the film's score
and performed on it. The soundtrack
includes Clapton's guitar and vocals on "Tears in Heaven" and "Help Me Up"; Clapton and Buddy Guy
perform "Don't Know Which Way to Go" as well.
Other songs featured in the film (but not on the soundtrack album) are Jimi Hendrix
's "All Along the Watchtower
" (composed by Bob Dylan
), Lynyrd Skynyrd
's "Free Bird
", Freddy Fender
's "Before the Next Teardrop Falls", Robin Trower
's "Bridge of Sighs", The Ohio Players' "Love Rollercoaster", and Rick Derringer
's "Rock and Roll Hoochie Koo".
is reportedly based on the Jim Raynor character in this film.
1991 in film
The year 1991 in film involved some significant events.-Events:*April 28 - Bonnie Raitt marries actor Michael O'Keefe in New York* Terminator 2: Judgment Day, became one of the landmarks for science fiction action films with its groundbreaking visual effects from Industrial Light & Magic.*November...
American crime drama feature film
Feature film
In the film industry, a feature film is a film production made for initial distribution in theaters and being the main attraction of the screening, rather than a short film screened before it; a full length movie...
, based on a novel written by Kim Wozencraft
Kim Wozencraft
Kim Wozencraft is an American author. She is best known as the author of the internationally best-selling novel Rush, on which a 1991 film directed by Lili Fini Zanuck and...
. A narcotics detective and his inexperienced partner go after an elusive drug dealer. They become drug addicts themselves and, failing to get the evidence they need, use falsified evidence.
Plot
The film begins as seasoned undercoverUndercover
Being undercover is disguising one's own identity or using an assumed identity for the purposes of gaining the trust of an individual or organization to learn secret information or to gain the trust of targeted individuals in order to gain information or evidence...
narcotics police officer, Jim Raynor (Jason Patric
Jason Patric
Jason Patric is an American film, television and stage actor. He may be best-known for his roles in the films The Lost Boys, Sleepers, Your Friends & Neighbors, Narc, The Losers and Speed 2: Cruise Control. His father was actor/playwright Jason Miller...
), greets his police superior, Lt. Dodd (Sam Elliott
Sam Elliott
Samuel Pack "Sam" Elliott is an American actor. His rangy physique, thick horseshoe moustache, and deep, resonant voice match the iconic image of a cowboy or rancher, and he has often been cast in such roles.-Early life:Sam Elliott was born in Sacramento, California, to a physical training...
). The two walk over to a nearby track, where a number of recent police academy
Police academy
A police academy is a training school for new police recruits, also known as a law enforcement academy.-Australia:Larger police departments usually run their own academies. States often run a centralised academy for training of personnel of law enforcement agencies within the state.Police...
graduates are jogging. From this group of officers, Raynor must choose a partner to join him in his undercover investigation, which his been ongoing for two years. His choice of beautiful but otherwise unimpressive Kristen Cates (Jennifer Jason Leigh
Jennifer Jason Leigh
Jennifer Jason Leigh is an American film and stage actress, best known for her roles in Fast Times at Ridgemont High, Single White Female, Last Exit to Brooklyn, Georgia and Short Cuts...
) surprises Dodd, but Raynor is confident she is the right fit for what he needs in a partner.
Upon leaving the track, Raynor drives Cates to a deserted canyon to observe her skill as a marksman
Marksman
A marksman is a person who is skilled in precision, or a sharpshooter shooting, using projectile weapons, such as with a rifle but most commonly with a sniper rifle, to shoot at long range targets...
. He explains to her that all they will have is each other in this assignment. They are caught between the legal world and the illegal underworld, belonging to neither and only able to trust one another. This is a difficult and demanding job, one that will take them both to the brink. Though initially startled by Raynor's intensity, Cates insists she is capable of doing whatever it takes to get the job done. Later at Raynor's apartment, he teaches Cates how to properly shoot up heroin. Cates informs Raynor that she was instructed how to expertly fake drug use at the police academy, which arouses a strong negative response from Raynor. He informs her in no uncertain terms that she will be put in situations where she will have to take the drugs they will be buying. The drug dealers they will be doing business with are not stupid, and if she tries to fake drug use in front of them, she will get both of them killed.
Raynor and now Cates's main objective in their operation is to take down the cunning, mysterious, and powerful drug lord
Drug lord
A drug lord, drug baron or kingpin is the term used to describe a person who controls a sizable network of persons involved in the illegal drugs trade. Such figures are often difficult to bring to justice, as they might never be directly in possession of something illegal, but are insulated from...
Will Gaines (Gregg Allman
Gregg Allman
Gregory Lenoir Allman , known as Gregg Allman, is a rock and blues singer, keyboardist, guitarist and songwriter, and a founding member of The Allman Brothers Band. He was inducted with the band into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1995 and received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Georgia...
). While Raynor (and the Tyler police department) is certain Gaines is the main drug boss in Tyler, Texas
Tyler, Texas
Tyler is a city in and the county seat of Smith County, Texas, in the United States. It takes its name from President John Tyler . The city had a population of 109,000 in 2010, according to the United States Census Bureau...
, Gaines is an expert at avoiding detection, and deeply mistrustful of Raynor. Raynor and Cates begin frequenting the bar Gaines owns, but still come no closer to penetrating his inner circle.
Unable to secure access to Gaines, Cates and Raynor buy large quantities of illegal drugs from minor dealers in Tyler. These drugs are cataloged and given to Dodd, along with information detailing who they bought the drugs from. Raynor and Cates quickly go from pretending to be lovers to the real thing, and fall passionately in love.
As Raynor predicted, Cates is soon put into a position where she is forced to inject drugs in front of a drug dealer. Raynor tries to intervene and tell the dealer that "his lady doesn't fix", the dealer insists at gunpoint. Cates first tries nervously to talk her way out of the situation, then yanks off her jacket and with shaking hands begins to prepare a heroin shot as Raynor had taught her. Seeing her high level of anxiety, Raynor takes the prepared needle from her and injects it into her arm. While the dealer watches approvingly and laughs, Cates quietly vomits offscreen.
Soon enough, Cates is addicted
Addiction
Historically, addiction has been defined as physical and psychological dependence on psychoactive substances which cross the blood-brain barrier once ingested, temporarily altering the chemical milieu of the brain.Addiction can also be viewed as a continued involvement with a substance or activity...
to the drugs she has to use to maintain her cover, and Raynor arrives home one day to find Cates combing the carpet, desperately searching for any crumbs of drugs that may have fallen. Raynor nurses Cates through her withdrawal
Withdrawal
Withdrawal can refer to any sort of separation, but is most commonly used to describe the group of symptoms that occurs upon the abrupt discontinuation/separation or a decrease in dosage of the intake of medications, recreational drugs, and alcohol...
, steadfastly murmuring empathetic words of support, and holding her through the worst of it. While he appears largely unaffected by his own drug use at this point, over the course of the film he becomes even more addicted than Cates. His downward spiral and eventual withdrawal scenes later are among the most powerful and intense in the film. Eventually, both characters are able to get clean, however both have been traumatized and scarred by their drug experiences. Raynor, filled with shame about the abundance of track marks that scar the crook of his arm, burns them off with a hot iron in a pivotal scene.
Though they have successfully infiltrated Tyler's drug underworld, Raynor and Cates are no closer to obtaining evidence against Gaines. Under pressure from the Tyler police department, they falsify evidence against Gaines in order to secure his arrest and indictment. They are moved into 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...
, and live together in a small trailer awaiting the day they will have to deliver court testimony in an effort to convict Gaines. Cates is startled awake one evening by the barrel of a shotgun
Shotgun
A shotgun is a firearm that is usually designed to be fired from the shoulder, which uses the energy of a fixed shell to fire a number of small spherical pellets called shot, or a solid projectile called a slug...
gliding across her face. She wakes up Raynor and a gunfight ensues in which Raynor is shot in the thigh, striking his femoral artery
Femoral artery
The femoral artery is a general term comprising a few large arteries in the thigh. They begin at the inguinal ligament and end just above the knee at adductor canal or Hunter's canal traversing the extent of the femur bone....
. Cates frantically races outside in an effort to get help, then returns to the trailer to find Raynor ghostly pale and barely conscious. She holds him and pleads with him not to die as he breathes his last in her arms.
An unspecified amount of time later, Cates is on the witness stand at Gaines's criminal trial. She begins her testimony by sticking to the fabricated story Raynor and she concocted, and appears to have the jury and courtroom spectators firmly supporting her version of events. When she finally looks directly at Gaines, he slides two fingers down the bridge of his nose, mimicking the movement of the shotgun that eventually killed Raynor. Stunned, Cates makes the decision to tell the truth on the stand, recanting her earlier deposition statements about Gaines's involvement in the drug trade, and ultimately securing his acquittal.
In the last scenes of the film, we follow Gaines, now a free man, as he gets into his car. An assassin is waiting for him in the backseat, swiftly executes Gaines and exits the vehicle. It is never made explicit who the assassin was, though Cates is the obvious suspect. The film ends with Cates leaving the police force for good and leaving town.
Cast
- Jason PatricJason PatricJason Patric is an American film, television and stage actor. He may be best-known for his roles in the films The Lost Boys, Sleepers, Your Friends & Neighbors, Narc, The Losers and Speed 2: Cruise Control. His father was actor/playwright Jason Miller...
as Jim Raynor - Jennifer Jason LeighJennifer Jason LeighJennifer Jason Leigh is an American film and stage actress, best known for her roles in Fast Times at Ridgemont High, Single White Female, Last Exit to Brooklyn, Georgia and Short Cuts...
as Kristen Cates - Sam ElliottSam ElliottSamuel Pack "Sam" Elliott is an American actor. His rangy physique, thick horseshoe moustache, and deep, resonant voice match the iconic image of a cowboy or rancher, and he has often been cast in such roles.-Early life:Sam Elliott was born in Sacramento, California, to a physical training...
as Dodd - Max PerlichMax Perlich-Biography:He was born in Cleveland, Ohio. His mother was a teacher and his father, Martin Perlich, a writer and radio programming director and announcer, worked for a time with the Cleveland Orchestra. The Perlich family moved to Los Angeles, California when Max was four...
as Walker - Gregg AllmanGregg AllmanGregory Lenoir Allman , known as Gregg Allman, is a rock and blues singer, keyboardist, guitarist and songwriter, and a founding member of The Allman Brothers Band. He was inducted with the band into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1995 and received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Georgia...
as Will Gaines - Tony FrankTony FrankTony Frank was an American television actor. He acted in such films and series as Extreme Prejudice, Born on the Fourth of July, North and South, Riverbend and A Climate for Killing....
as Nettle - William SadlerWilliam Sadler (actor)William Thomas Sadler is an American actor who works in film and television. His television and motion picture roles have included Lewis Burwell "Chesty" Puller in The Pacific, Luther Sloan in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Sheriff Jim Valenti in Roswell, convict Heywood in The Shawshank Redemption,...
as Monroe - Dennis LettsDennis LettsDennis Letts was an American college professor and actor. Letts made his Broadway theater debut in December 2007 in the production of August: Osage County, which was written by his son, playwright Tracy Letts....
as Senior District Attorney - Dennis BurkleyDennis BurkleyDennis Henry Burkley is an American character actor from Texas who has appeared in numerous films and television series since the 1970s.-Early life:...
as Motorcycle Guy - Merrill ConnallyMerrill ConnallyMerrill Lee Connally, Sr. , was an American film actor, a county administrative judge, a rancher, and a brother of both Governor John B. Connally, Jr. , and Texas State Senator Wayne Connally ....
as Defense Attorney
Soundtrack
Eric ClaptonEric Clapton
Eric Patrick Clapton, CBE, is an English guitarist and singer-songwriter. Clapton is the only three-time inductee to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame: once as a solo artist, and separately as a member of The Yardbirds and Cream. Clapton has been referred to as one of the most important and...
's Grammy
Grammy Award
A Grammy Award — or Grammy — is an accolade by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences of the United States to recognize outstanding achievement in the music industry...
-winning song "Tears in Heaven
Tears in Heaven
"Tears in Heaven" is a ballad written by Eric Clapton and Will Jennings about the pain and loss Clapton felt following the death of his four-year-old son, Conor. Conor fell from a window of the 53rd-floor New York apartment of his mother's friend on March 20, 1991. Clapton, who arrived at the...
" is featured in the film. Clapton wrote the film's score
Film score
A film score is original music written specifically to accompany a film, forming part of the film's soundtrack, which also usually includes dialogue and sound effects...
and performed on it. The soundtrack
Rush (soundtrack)
Rush is a soundtrack album to the movie of the same name written and performed by Eric Clapton. The album features the acoustic rock ballad "Tears in Heaven", which won three Grammy awards for Song of the Year, Record of the Year and Male Pop Vocal Performance in 1993.-Track listing:All songs...
includes Clapton's guitar and vocals on "Tears in Heaven" and "Help Me Up"; Clapton and Buddy Guy
Buddy Guy
George "Buddy" Guy is an American blues and jazz guitarist and singer. He is a critically acclaimed artist who has established himself as a pioneer of the Chicago blues sound, and has served as an influence to some of the most notable musicians of his generation...
perform "Don't Know Which Way to Go" as well.
Other songs featured in the film (but not on the soundtrack album) are Jimi Hendrix
Jimi Hendrix
James Marshall "Jimi" Hendrix was an American guitarist and singer-songwriter...
's "All Along the Watchtower
All Along the Watchtower
"All Along the Watchtower" is a song written and recorded by American singer-songwriter Bob Dylan. The song, which has been included on most of Dylan's greatest hits compilations, initially appeared on his 1967 album John Wesley Harding. Over the past 35 years, he has performed it in concert more...
" (composed by Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan is an American singer-songwriter, musician, poet, film director and painter. He has been a major and profoundly influential figure in popular music and culture for five decades. Much of his most celebrated work dates from the 1960s when he was an informal chronicler and a seemingly...
), Lynyrd Skynyrd
Lynyrd Skynyrd
Lynyrd Skynyrd is an American rock band prominent in spreading Southern Rock during the 1970s.Originally formed as the "Noble Five" in Jacksonville, Florida, in 1964, the band rose to worldwide recognition on the basis of its driving live performances and signature tune, Freebird...
's "Free Bird
Free Bird
"Free Bird" is a song by the American southern rock band Lynyrd Skynyrd...
", Freddy Fender
Freddy Fender
Freddy Fender , born Baldemar Garza Huerta in San Benito, Texas, United States, was a Mexican-American Tejano, country and rock and roll musician, known for his work as a solo artist and in the groups Los Super Seven and the Texas Tornados...
's "Before the Next Teardrop Falls", Robin Trower
Robin Trower
Robin Leonard Trower , known professionally as Robin Trower, is an English rock guitarist who achieved success with Procol Harum during the 1960s, and then again as the bandleader of his own power trio.-Biography:...
's "Bridge of Sighs", The Ohio Players' "Love Rollercoaster", and Rick Derringer
Rick Derringer
Rick Derringer is an American guitarist, vocalist, and entertainer.-1960s:When he was seventeen years old, his band The McCoys recorded "Hang on Sloopy" in the summer of 1965, which became the number one song in America before "Yesterday" by The Beatles knocked it out of the top spot. The song was...
's "Rock and Roll Hoochie Koo".
Pop-cultural influence
The main character of the game StarcraftStarCraft
StarCraft is a military science fiction real-time strategy video game developed by Blizzard Entertainment. The first game of the StarCraft series was released for Microsoft Windows on 31 March 1998. With more than 11 million copies sold worldwide as of February 2009, it is one of the best-selling...
is reportedly based on the Jim Raynor character in this film.