6. A Simple Plan (1998)
Sam Raimi’s A Simple Plan didn’t get too much attention when it first came out back in 1998, but these days it’s built up a healthy cult following, and some even claim it to be one of the best thrillers of the 1990s, admittedly a golden era for the genre.
A moral tale of greed, the film stars Bill Paxton and Billy Bob Thornton as two brothers who, with their friend (played by Brent Briscoe), come across a crashed plane in snowy Minnesota which is holding £4.4 million. After much deliberation, the trio, along with Paxton’s wife (Bridget Fonda), decide to hide the money. They intend to keep the loot a secret, but then a man claiming himself to an FBI agent turns up in town (played with menace by Gary Cole), and the tension begins to mount.
Scripted by Scott V Smith and based on his own novel, A Simple Plan is one of those films you just can’t find any fault with. The characters are so vividly real that you can’t help but get entangled in their plight, and the contradictory nature of their predicament raises a lot of troubling concerns. We also find ourselves asking various questions. Would we turn the money in? Would we keep it? Would the money corrupt us, as it does the main characters in A Simple Plan?
As well as being a thought provoking study of greed and loyalty, the film is superbly played by a very fine cast. As Sarah the pregnant wife, Fonda gives one of her finest efforts, while Thornton is moving and rather sad as the simple minded but sweet brother. The late and great Paxton was rarely given the chance to play a lead, but here, thrust into the central role, he carries the film. Ben Stiller and Nicolas Cage had been attached to the project in early development stages, but it’s unlikely that they’d have been able to bring the level of humanity Paxton did.
A Simple Plan is full of tension and scenes that have you on the edge of your seat, and you’d be hard pressed to find a more nerve racking and enjoyable thriller than this.
7. Breakdown (1997)
The 1990s were full of tense thrillers, the type of films that have you gasping and cringing throughout, and Jonathan Mostow’s Breakdown is one of the most rewarding of the ones that are overlooked these days.
As soon as the film begins we are pulled in. It stars Kurt Russell as Jeff Taylor, who with his wife Amy (Kathleen Quinlan) is driving from Boston to San Diego in their brand new Jeep. When the car breaks down in the middle of nowhere, a trucker offers to take Amy to a nearby diner where she can call for help. As Amy optimistically goes along with him, Jeff stays behind, and realises that someone had tampered with the car to cause its breakdown. When he finds the diner, not only is there no sign of Amy, no one claims to have seen her. Worse still, the trucker denies ever having bumped into the couple. Enraged and frustrated, Jeff begins his quest to find his wife and solve the mystery behind her sudden disappearance.
Based on Mostow’s own story, and co-adapted to the screen with Sam Montgomery, Breakdown is a cinematic treat that is both stressful viewing and highly engaging. Russell carries the film as the determined husband, and acts as our eyes through the twists and turns in the plot. Action packed and excellently crafted, Breakdown is a good old fashioned thriller that ticks all the right boxes and hasn’t aged one bit since it was released nearly thirty years ago.
8. The General’s Daughter (1999)
The General’s Daughter stars John Travolta as Paul Brenner, an undercover Chief Warrant Officer who, after wiping out a scheme by an underground freedom fighter (for which he adopts a nifty Southern accent which he abruptly drops once no longer undercover), finds himself in the midst of a grisly murder; that of Elisabeth Campbell, the commanding general’s daughter. Alongside Madeline Stowe (a rape specialist and ex-girlfriend), Brenner begins to investigate the killing and hopes to get to the bottom of a case which takes him closer to the higher ranks than he might have thought.
The film is directed with fuss-free assurance by Sam West, while the script by William Goldman and Christopher Bertolini (from Nelson DeMille’s book) is a master class in character-based drama. Travolta puts in a sturdy effort, as brilliant as ever as Brenner, while he is aided by a top supporting cast; James Cromwell is excellent as the general, while Timothy Hutton and Stowe are also strong. But it’s James Woods who has the most curious and intriguing part here. He is Colonel Moore, a close friend of Elisabeth and, for a short time at least, a key suspect in the murder case.
As written, the Moore part may have been more straight forward. He is a man who comes across as strange, someone definitely keeping a secret. His caginess could be interpreted as guilt, and proof that he is the man behind the murder. But the truth is (spoiler alert) Moore is gay, and if one is picking up on odd behaviour, it’s in the fact he is concealing his sexuality.
A multi-layered thriller, perfectly paced and flawlessly executed, The General’s Daughter was a big hit at the time and regularly plays on TV regularly to this day, though I feel it deserves more credit than it gets.
9. Extreme Measures (1996)
The 1990s were a true golden age for the complex thriller, and Extreme Measures (1996) is a fine example of how strong the genre was in that era. Based on Michael Palmer’s novel, the film follows Hugh Grant as Dr Guy Luthan, a New York ER doctor who sees to a dying patient who mentions a drug that is a total mystery to him. When the man convulses in a most unusual way and then dies, Guy becomes suspicious, even more so when the body seems to have vanished. Looking around the records, he begins to realise that the deceased man has been given some unusual blood tests irrelevant to his complaints. As he starts to investigate, getting a little too close to the truth for some people’s comfort, drugs are found in his apartment, he loses his job and his whole life unravels. Still, Guy remains intent on getting to the bottom of the mystery.
Scripted by Tony Gilroy, and directed superbly Michael Apted, Extreme Measures is a very gripping ride, with twists and turns at every corner. Though some of them are far fetched, they work well within the context of this fairly out-there thriller. Hugh Grant carries the film, no question, and it’s great to see him in a more tense environment. It is Hackman however who provides the murkiness and intrigue. He plays Dr Myrick, the man behind the scheme who is kidnapping homeless people and using them for experiments, in his mind for the greater good of science.
Reviews were mixed, with some critics thinking Grant too light an actor to carry such a film. Business was also underwhelming, with Extreme Measures apparently only making half its budget at the box office. Looking back at the film now, it’s hard to see why people were underwhelmed. Sadly, Extreme Measures has sort of disappeared into time, though I must say I think it deserves a dust off and reappraisal.
10. The Specialist (1994)
The Specialist is a mid 90s larger than life action gem about an explosives expert (Sylvester Stallone) who falls in with a woman (Sharon Stone) who hires him to help get revenge on the mob who killed her family when she was a girl. Naturally, a chemistry builds between the pair, all the while the mysteries unravel.
The Specialist is a very enjoyable action thriller. It features a fine supporting cast, in particular James Woods who is hilariously nasty as Ned and gets a lot of the best lines and scenes. There’s also Rod Steiger as a mob boss and Eric Roberts as a slimy gangster. But as good as everyone else may be, it’s Stone’s show through and through. She never puts a foot wrong in her finely tuned performance, the very definition of movie glamour, though her beauty masks a tortured psyche. As fun as The Specialist is, Stone lifts the film above your usual mid 90s action flick.
The engine of the film is the building tension between Stallone and Stone, and though it’s overcooked to the point of being funny at times, the film stays on the tracks to the end. In all, The Specialist is a funny, sexy, action packed treat with likeable heroes and superbly OTT villains, a nostalgic trip into the kind of Hollywood flicks they just don’t make any more.