Silent Trigger

This film felt like a mix of LA FEMME NIKITA, another early '90s piece, and BLADERUNNER, in both aesthetics, mood, and plot elements. The whole 'crawling-around-in-shafts-and-elevators' reminded me of DIE HARD, as well. This film has a welcome female presence, unlike Die Hard. I found this film very enjoyable. The endless rain and lighting, as well as just '90s vibes, were enough to make me keep watching. I found the repeated flashbacks to a previous mission bothersome to the narrative present; I thought the opening scene was enough to establish the relationship between Gina Bellman and Lundgren, although they did a good job maintaining the tension between them throughout the film. On a side note, people forget how gritty the '90s were, and this film shows that (not that people were sniping each other all the time), similar to La Femme Nikita. I have yet to see Russel Mulcahy's HIGHLANDER (I have the VHS on my shelf!) nor have I seen any other Dolph Lundgren films, but watching this one made me want to see all his other films. I don't know what else to say, except the opening music rocks, the CGI is bad (typical '90s), and it was confusing why such a large, important tower would have been left vacant like that. Now, if you don't mind, I have some unfinished industrial buildings to climb around in.

The movie has a good plot, great acting, interesting stuff, well scripted bad guys, and is very beautifully shot. The flashback of the shooter and spotter were interesting, one of the two security guards is one messed-up-in-the-brain, coke-sniffer, the other was a very annoying by-the-book rookie, the shooter was a "paranoid" man, and the spotter was a beautiful woman that "got along with everybody", or so she thought, I would dare say Russel Mulcahy did an excellent job at directing and recommend it.

This movie was a very pleasant surprise. I figured it was just a BIG turkey, but no. Silent trigger is a very styleful actionflick. Nice photography and a cool storyline, and Dolph delivers (yeah).

An unusual actionmovie and Dolphs best too date.

It's AWFUL, a nothing, plotless "film"!!! And I can't take the female lead seriously when she spends the whole movie moping around, staring, breathing loudly, and talking like a 900-number operator. Someone in the production CLEARLY had a girlfriend they wanted to show off. But at least they could have made her interesting and believable! It's insulting to give a woman that kind of role and then just make her act like a model. They barely bother to fake being interested in having her appear believable. Dolph Lundgren, the only reason I watched, sleepwalked through it.

Where is the story? Where is the plot? Where is the point?? Altogether absent! This wouldn't even be suitable for a 30-minute TV episode. I'm actually offended by how pointless it all is, and I tend to enjoy a lot of random, low-budget films, so I have a high tolerance for schlock. But this isn't even to that standard! The only reason it's worth even a star is 1. That Dolph is nice to watch despite his limitations (I really like him, but he's never been charismatic-the closest he ever got for me was Universal Soldier, and his role was a psychopathic mass murderer who wore the ears of his victims, so...) and 2. The early-to-mid-90s Cinemax-like track that just made me want to watch Strange Days.

I'm not even gonna touch on what "happens" in the "film" because it's offensively non-existent. This movie had to have been a tax write-off or a money laundering scheme.

Heaven knows why I fall for this picture. But I do, hook, line, and sinker. The deadpan delivery from Lundgren and Bellman makes this a truly post ironic classic. Gina Bellman is difficult to watch, being from the UK I'm acquainted with her later (emetic) sitcom work, and seeing her try to hold down a serious role is very funny. She's clearly very sensual though, so she has to be let off.

It's also pretty intriguing on an existential level to see the sniper Waxman (Lundgren) pondering what his duty is and whether he can ever be redeemed. But asides from all the post irony and existentialism it's downright atmospheric. Mulcahy found some pretty extraordinary landscapes to film. The title scene, is of a man running through some sort of estuary set to a nice bluesy piece of jazz. What it has to do with the plot is anybody's guess, but it was brilliant. Most of the film is set in the penthouse of a skyscraper (the Algonquin) at night time during heavy thunder and rain. It's a great looking piece of architecture, and very atmospheric. The rest of the film is shown in flashbacks of Waxman and his spotter's exfiltration following an abortive assassination attempt.

The Algonquin is described in this movie as 'a piece of techno-crap', it's an unfurbished incomplete neo-Gothic skyscraper that no-one seems to be bothered to finish. It's an uninhabited shell that makes a great eagles nest for sniping. It's all quite amusing, quite why the powers that be want a VIP in an armoured limo travelling at high speed to be assassinated so publicly, so flagrantly, and so spectacularly by a sniper using armour-piercing explosive rounds from an incredibly difficult one-mile away shooting position, is anybody's guess. Just for your interest my friends I have looked into why Mulcahy has named the skyscraper 'The Algonquin'. It seems the literal translation of the root of this word (whose definition is an Indian tribe) comes from the Micmac meaning "at the place of spearing fish and eels". How pretentious is that? Good though.

In true B-movie tradition we have a freak, Christopher Heyerdahl, as the night-shift security guard in the Algonquin. His body is tattooed with his 'buddies' a load of spiders who seem to urge him to commit wanton acts of sexual violence, especially after he's snorted a bit of white. He's really very creepy indeed.

The few action scenes in the movie are quite effective, but action fans may find the longueurs in between to be unpalatable. This one is more for the B-movie mavens.

Plot-whores don't really like this movie because it is a bit discontinuous, for example why on earth is Waxman given a second chance after his first failure to complete his assignment? But Silent Trigger is perhaps the most entertaining movie I have ever watched, and I could see it again and again. For the true connoisseurs of tripe from this period it is an interesting debate whether or not to prefer Van Damme or Lundgren, in my opinion this film marks Lundgren out as the top banana. Can you imagine how excited I was at the tender age of 12 to find out that they were appearing in the same movie (Universal Soldier). Food for thought my friends.