Under Siege 2: Dark Territory (1995) Warner Bros./Action RT: 100 minutes Rated R (language, strong violence, brief nudity, suggested sex) Director: Geoff Murphy Screenplay: Richard Hatem and Matt Reeves Music: Basil Poledouris Cinematography: Robbie Greenberg Release date: July 14, 1995 (US) Cast: Steven Seagal, Eric Bogosian, Katherine Heigl, Everett McGill, Morris Chestnut, Peter Greene, Patrick Kilpatrick, Scott Sowers, Afifi, Andy Romano, Brenda Bakke, David Gianopoulos, Kurtwood Smith, Sandra Taylor, Jonathan Banks, Royce D. Applegate, Nick Mancuso, Dale Dye. Box Office: $50M (US)/$104.3M (World)
Rating: ***
It’s common knowledge among action fans that the best way to watch a Steven Seagal movie is with your brain in the OFF position. Otherwise, you’re going to find yourself questioning the logic (or lack thereof) behind it and you don’t want to do that. It’s a waste of time trying to make sense of the nonsensical.
Never has this theory been proven truer than by Under Siege 2: Dark Territory, a dopey but entertaining sequel to the hit 1992 actioner starring Seagal (Out for Justice) as ex-Navy SEAL Casey Ryback who’s called upon to deal with terrorists that have taken over a battleship. This time, the action is set on a train traveling from Denver to L.A. through “dark territory”. Ryback, now the head chef at a restaurant after retiring from the military, is accompanying his recently orphaned teenage niece Sarah (Heigl, My Father the Hero) home for her father’s funeral. Ryback and his brother were estranged for years and Sarah resents Uncle Casey for it. That about does it for the human drama.
At the same time, plans are already in motion for a group of domestic terrorists to take over the train and take everybody hostage. The leader of this motley crew is Travis Dane (Bogosian, Talk Radio), a mentally unstable computer genius who created a satellite particle weapon for the government. They repaid him by firing him for his unstable mental state. He retaliates by taking control of the weapon and offering its services to terrorists worldwide for $1 billion. Dane’s own end game involves blowing up the Pentagon and setting off the nuclear weapons hidden underneath it. He threatens to kill his hostages if the authorities interfere in any way. He opts to hatch his evil plan on a moving train in order to prevent the military from getting a fix on his location.
Like the two psychos before him, Dane didn’t count on Ryback throwing a monkey wrench into his nefarious plan. The hero manages to dodge and weave the bad guys by scaling along the side of the train and running across the top. Then he starts taking them out. He’s assisted in his latest endeavor by Bobby (Chestnut, Boyz n the Hood), a young porter who puts the moves on the niece only to find out the girl has moves of her own, those of the martial arts variety. Together, they try to end the siege before the government deals with it their own way. Hint, it involves a couple of stealth bombers.
It’s no big secret; we all know sequels are rarely equals. Under Siege 2: Dark Territory falls right into that category. Directed by Geoff Murphy (Freejack), it’s not exactly a bad movie. In fact, it’s reasonably entertaining yet still feels like a pale reflection of its predecessor. One of the questions I could ask about it if I was so inclined is how it manages to look cheap with a $60 million budget. The effects, which include a fair amount of rear projection, aren’t great. The plot is unoriginal and extremely far-fetched, more so than the average action movie. It stretches the limits of credulity to unbelievable lengths. It doesn’t have just one or many “YEAH, RIGHT!” scenes; it’s one great big “YEAH, RIGHT!” It’s low on intelligence too. It may be one of the dumbest action movies I’ve ever seen. It has plot holes so enormous, a train could zip right through them. I’ll give you one. Why doesn’t Ryback start by killing the bad guys guarding the hostages being held in the last two cars? That way, he could disconnect them from the rest of train effectively taking away Dane’s bargaining chip? It’s a valid question, but one where the answer doesn’t really matter. Despite all this, Under Siege 2: Dark Territory is rather fun.
The acting is a great big “SO WHAT?” Seagal gives his usual wooden performance. He could earn extra money by modeling for sculptors of cigar store Indians. Heigl is just okay as the niece. She doesn’t have a lot of emotional range. Bogosian overacts gleefully as the madman villain who brags about being the smartest person in the room at all times. He claims to have thought of everything to make sure his plan doesn’t fail. Of course, he hasn’t. In fact, he misses something very obvious. Everett McGill (Silver Bullet) hams it up nicely as a terrorist who’s had a previous encounter with Ryback. What, they never tell us. Guys, if you’re going to bring it up, it would be a good idea to explain it too.
Barring all flaws, I still enjoyed Under Siege 2: Dark Territory. I enjoyed it to a point. It’s never going to earn a place on the top action movies of all times list or any top anything list. It’s a decent action picture in the right frame of mind. The star gets to show off his skills as he amasses another high body count. This one is especially violent. Some of the terrorists die in horrible ways like the creep that gets a knife jammed through his skull face-first. This is what the audience comes to see. On that level, Under Siege 2: Dark Territory is a winner. The rest of it is pure sequel.
