Blue Steel is a 1989 American action thriller film directed by Kathryn Bigelow, starring Jamie Lee Curtis, Ron Silver and Clancy Brown.
Plot[]
| Spoiler Warning: The following contains important plot details of the entire film. |
Rookie New York City policewoman Megan Turner shoots & kills a suspect who was holding up a neighborhood market with her service revolver. The suspect’s handgun lands on the floor of the market in the shopping area as he is blown backward through the front window.
As Megan continues to the checkout area, she nearly steps on the suspect’s handgun directly in front a man named Eugene Hunt, a commodities trader and also a sociopath. Hunt takes the gun & gets away, using the weapon to commit several bloody & brutal murders over the next couple of days.
Due to the weapon not being found at the scene, Megan is accused of murdering an unarmed man. While she tries to clear her name with Chief Hoyt and her superiors, Hunt begins romance Megan and he ends up getting arrested by Megan, but is freed by his attorney, Mel Dawson. After that, Hunt starts talking Megan at her family home.
After Hunt turns up in Megan’s apartment where he assaults Megan & murders her friend, Tracy, it causes Megan to have an emotional breakdown. While spending the night with a fellow police officer, Mann, Hunt attacks Mann & rapes Megan. Megan tries to shoot him, but Hunt gets away again.
In the end, Megan gets her revenge on Mann after a long & violent confrontation (along with a bullet in her shoulder) when she shoots & kills him. After that, she is taken away by her fellow police officers.
Cast[]
- Jamie Lee Curtis as Megan Turner
- Ron Silver as Eugene Hunt
- Clancy Brown as Nick Mann
- Elizabeth Peña as Tracy
- Louise Fletcher as Shirley Turner
- Philip Bosco as Frank Turner
- Richard Jenkins as Dawson
- Kevin Dunn as Asst. Chief Stanley Hoyt
- Tom Sizemore as Robber
Production[]
The movie was filmed from August to October of 1988 in New York. It was originally supposed to be released by Vestron Pictures & its offshoot label, Lightning Pictures, but due to Vestron’s financial issues (and later bankruptcy) at the time, MGM acquired the rights to the film.
Release[]
The movie first premiered on May 26, 1989 at the 1989 Cannes Film Festival and was later given a wide theatrical release on March 16, 1990.
Box Office[]
“Blue Steel” ranked at #5 at the box office, grossing $2,895,744 during its opening weekend and grossed $8,217,997 domestically.
Critical Reception[]
The movie was given positive & mixed reviews from critics. On Rotten Tomatoes, the movie was given a score of 71% based on 21 reviews with an average of 5.9\10.
Roger Ebert compared the movie to John Carpenter’s Halloween, writing in his review: “Blue Steel is a sophisticated update of Halloween, the movie that first made Jamie Lee Curtis a star. (...) What makes it more interesting than yet another sequel to Halloween is the way the filmmakers have fleshed out the formula with intriguing characters and a few angry ideas.”
But Rita Kempley of the Washington Post wrote in her review that the movie was “a mean and unsavory celebration of misplaced misogyny milked for dollars, a mindless soup of urban neurosis and sexual loathing. It's a case of slam, bam, no thankee ma’am.”
Trailer[]
Blue Steel (1990) Trailer