Under Siege 2: Dark Territory

Under Siege 2: Dark Territory
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Geoff Murphy
Produced by	Arnon Milchan Gary W. Goldstein Steve Perry Steven Seagal
Written by	Richard Hatem Matt Reeves
Based on	Characters by J.F. Lawton
Starring	Steven Seagal Eric Bogosian Katherine Heigl Morris Chestnut Everett McGill
Music by	Basil Poledouris
Cinematography	Robbie Greenberg
Edited by	Michael Tronick
Production company	Regency Enterprises
Distributed by	Warner Bros.
Release dates	July 14, 1995 (1995-07-14)
Running time	100 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$60 million
Box office	$104,324,083

Under Siege 2: Dark Territory is a 1995 American action film set on board a train traveling through the Rocky Mountains from Denver to Los Angeles. Directed by Geoff Murphy, it stars Steven Seagal as the ex-Navy SEAL, Casey Ryback, and is the sequel to the 1992 film Under Siege also starring Seagal.^[1] The title refers to the railroading term that the subject train was travelling through dark territory, a section of railroad track that has no train signals and in which communications between train dispatchers and the railroad engineers were impossible, and on which the train is on a collision course with another train.

The film was produced by Seagal along with Arnon Milchan and Steve Perry.^[2] The film's cast also included Eric Bogosian, Everett McGill, Morris Chestnut, Peter Greene, Kurtwood Smith and Katherine Heigl. Nick Mancuso, Andy Romano, and Dale Dye also reprised their roles from the first film.

Plot

Casey Ryback has retired from the United States Navy and is a chef at the Mile High Cafe in Denver, Colorado. Casey is taking his estranged niece Sarah to Los Angeles to visit the grave of Sarah's father. Sarah and Casey board the Grand Continental, a train traveling from Denver to Los Angeles through the Rocky Mountains. Armed mercenaries, led by former U.S. government computer hacker and computer genius Travis Dane and mercenary leader Marcus Penn, hijack the train. Dane worked on Grazer One, a top-secret military satellite particle weapon designed to destroy underground targets. The military fired Dane because of his mental instability; Dane later faked his suicide.

The mercenaries take the train's passengers and staff hostage, herding them into the last two cars. Casey kills one mercenary, then slips away.

Among the hostages are two former Department of Defense colleagues who worked with Dane. Dane threatens them with torture unless they reveal the codes to take over Grazer. Despite giving up the codes, they are thrown from the train into a deep valley and killed.

Middle Eastern terrorists have offered Dane $1 billion to destroy the Eastern seaboard by using Grazer to target a nuclear reactor located under the Pentagon. Dane demonstrates Grazer to investors by destroying a Chinese chemical weapons plant. After one investor offers an additional $100 million, Dane destroys an airliner carrying the investor's ex-wife.

The U.S. government has difficulty locating Dane or Grazer. When officials destroy what they think is Grazer, Dane explains the NSA's premier intelligence satellite was destroyed instead. As long as the train keeps moving, his location cannot be determined. However, Casey faxes a message to the owner of the Mile High Cafe, who contacts Admiral Bates. Bates reluctantly approves a stealth bomber strike to destroy the train.

Bobby Zachs, a porter who hid in a duct in the baggage car and is Casey's reluctant sidekick, discovers that they are on the wrong tracks and on a collision course with a Southern Pacific freight train hauling gasoline tank cars. Since the trains are in dark territory, it was impossible for the train dispatchers to communicate with the trains' engineers to stop the trains to avoid collision. Casey kills the mercenaries one by one and releases the hostages, but Dane uses his computer skills to locate the stealth bombers and re-targets Grazer to knock them out before they can complete their mission. Meanwhile, Penn had previously captured Sarah and uses her as bait for Casey. Casey confronts Penn and breaks his neck after a fight that spills into the kitchen.

Casey finds Dane about to depart in a chopper hovering over the train. When Dane informs Casey that there is no way to stop Grazer from destroying Washington, Casey shoots him. The bullet destroys Dane's computer and injures Dane. Pentagon control of the satellite is restored and it is destroyed by remote control one second before it would have fired on the Pentagon.

The Grand Continental and freight train collide on a trestle killing Scotty. Casey races through the exploding train and grabs a rope ladder dangling from the chopper. Dane, who had survived Casey's bullet, also catches on to the ladder. He attempts to climb into the helicopter, but falls to his death into the explosion when Casey shuts the helicopter door on his hands, severing his fingers. The explosion causes the helicopter to spin out of control, but the pilot is able to regain control of the helicopter.

Casey, having previously detached the last two cars from the rest of the train, informs the Pentagon that the passengers are safe. Later, Sarah and Casey pay their last respects at her father's grave.

Cast

• Steven Seagal as Lt. Casey Ryback, a former SEAL who now heads and manages a restaurant in Denver
• Eric Bogosian as Travis Dane, a crazed computer genius-turned-terrorist who designed the Grazer One satellite weapon for the US government before faking his death
• Everett McGill as Marcus Penn, the mercenary leader who leads a team of terrorists to hijack the Grand Continental train to set up the satellite equipment
• Katherine Heigl as Sarah Ryback, Ryback's niece who accompanies him on the train to go to her father's funeral
• Morris Chestnut as Bobby Zachs, an eager porter of the train who reluctantly helps Ryback with the hijacked train
• Nick Mancuso as Tom Breaker, the shady CIA director who assists ATAC on Grazer One
• Brenda Bakke as Captain Linda Gilder, a member of ATAC and one of Dane's former colleagues
• Peter Greene as Mercenary #1, Penn's main mercenary who was instructed by Ryback at Fort Bragg
• Patrick Kilpatrick as Mercenary #2, One of Penn's mercenaries
• Scott Sowers as Mercenary #3, One of Penn's mercenaries
• Afifi Alaouie as Fatima, Penn's sole female mercenary
• Andy Romano as Admiral Bates, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
• Dale Dye as Captain Garza, Admiral Bates' right-hand man
• Kurtwood Smith as Major General Stanley Cooper, an Air Force general who commands ATAC and Dane's former boss
• David Gianopoulos as Captain David Trilling, a member of ATAC and one of Dane's former colleagues
• Sandra Taylor as Kelly, a barmaid on board the train
• Jonathan Banks as Scotty, the mercenary who drives the locomotive of the Grand Continental train
• Royce D. Applegate as Ryback's cook who runs the restaurant when Ryback is absent
• Dale Payne as Train Conductor

Reception

The film received mixed reviews from critics. Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times gave the film a three-star rating in his review,^[3] while Peter Rainer of The Los Angeles Times wrote that "the action upstaged the actors."^[4] Review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes gives the film a score of 34% based on reviews from 29 critics.^[5]

Box office

Under Siege 2 opened at #2 at the box office under Apollo 13 in 2,150 theaters and made $12,624,402 for the weekend.^[6]

Sequel

On October 3, 2016, Seagal announced on his official Twitter account that the script for Under Siege 3 was in development. ^[7]

References

External links

• Under Siege 2: Dark Territory at the Internet Movie Database
• Under Siege 2: Dark Territory at Box Office Mojo
• Under Siege 2: Dark Territory at AllMovie
• Under Siege 2: Dark Territory at Rotten Tomatoes