Two-Minute Warning is a typically sprawling 1970s disaster flick that is decidedly untypical in its explosive brutality and cold remorselessness. It's like a fusion of The Towering Inferno and the original Assault on Precinct 13 or The Poseidon Adventure and the original The Last House on the Left. Death and destruction are a staple of the genre, but I'm not sure any other disaster film of its era presented the audience with such shocking and disconcerting carnage.
The story is set in what is clearly meant to be the Super Bowl but is referred to as "Championship Ten", and we're introduced to a large cast of characters at the big game. There's Charlie Tyler (Joe Kapp), the aging quarterback looking for one last moment of glory. There's Sam McKeever (Martin Balsam), head of the stadium where everything happens. Steve and Janet (David Janssen and Gena Rowlands) are a pair of squabbling, middle aged cohabitators who've flown into Los Angeles to watch their hometown team try and win it all. Mike Ramsay (Beau Bridges) is a man out of work who's taking his family to the game to try and forget all his troubles. An old pickpocket (Walter Pidgeon) and his pretty, young partner (Julie Bridges) show up at the stadium to steal as much as they can. An inveterate gambler (Jack Klugman) who has literally bet his life on the outcome of the championship winds up sitting next to a priest (Mitch Ryan) who's an old friend of Charlie Tyler. A beautiful woman (Marilyn Hassett) who got lassoed into attending the game winds up sitting next to a charming stranger (David Groh). And then there's police captain Peter Holly (Charlton Heston) and SWAT sergeant Button (John Cassavetes), two men who have to overcome their mutual distrust and resentment to try and keep everyone alive.
That's because there's one more person at "Championship Ten" who really shouldn't be there. He's a deranged sniper with a high-powered rifle. This man (Warren Miller) is a mystery. It 's never clear why he's there or what he wants, only that he could unleash murder, panic and mayhem at any moment.
In one way, Two-Minute Warning is like every other disaster flick. I t establishes who all of its characters are and then flits back and forth between them, giving us a bit more of their individual stories as it does. There's nothing unusual about any of it, though it's done reasonably well.
In two ways, however, this film is unlike any disaster movie I think I've ever seen.
First, the build up to the disaster is stretched out to the breaking point. I n other films like this, the big event (fire, earthquake, etc.) happens in the first half of the story or at least by the middle. Everything after that is the characters having to deal with the crisis and overcome various deadly challenges. Two-Minute Warning takes that pacing and throws it out the window. For a long time, the audience are the only ones to know the sniper is in the stadium. When he's finally discovered by an errant TV camera, the tension just keeps building as the authorities try to figure out what to do and then move into position to do it. The disaster here happens almost at the very end of the movie. But trust me, it's more than worth the wait.
Second, there's a viciousness to this catastrophe epic that is unlike the rest of the genre. People get killed in those films, but not like they get killed here. People are trapped in helpless situations, but not as unsettlingly helpless as they are here. There's a whiff of horror to the last 15 minutes of so of this movie that is starkly different from the uplifting conclusions disaster flicks normally strive to deliver.
From what I gather, Two-Minute Warning was a box office bomb when it was released. The movie-going public of 1976 apparently didn't find mass murder at the Super Bowl an appealing concept. That's a shame, because there's some gripping, nerve-wracking cinema on display here. It's hard and sharp and well worth watching.
The story is set in what is clearly meant to be the Super Bowl but is referred to as "Championship Ten", and we're introduced to a large cast of characters at the big game. There's Charlie Tyler (Joe Kapp), the aging quarterback looking for one last moment of glory. There's Sam McKeever (Martin Balsam), head of the stadium where everything happens. Steve and Janet (David Janssen and Gena Rowlands) are a pair of squabbling, middle aged cohabitators who've flown into Los Angeles to watch their hometown team try and win it all. Mike Ramsay (Beau Bridges) is a man out of work who's taking his family to the game to try and forget all his troubles. An old pickpocket (Walter Pidgeon) and his pretty, young partner (Julie Bridges) show up at the stadium to steal as much as they can. An inveterate gambler (Jack Klugman) who has literally bet his life on the outcome of the championship winds up sitting next to a priest (Mitch Ryan) who's an old friend of Charlie Tyler. A beautiful woman (Marilyn Hassett) who got lassoed into attending the game winds up sitting next to a charming stranger (David Groh). And then there's police captain Peter Holly (Charlton Heston) and SWAT sergeant Button (John Cassavetes), two men who have to overcome their mutual distrust and resentment to try and keep everyone alive.
That's because there's one more person at "Championship Ten" who really shouldn't be there. He's a deranged sniper with a high-powered rifle. This man (Warren Miller) is a mystery. It 's never clear why he's there or what he wants, only that he could unleash murder, panic and mayhem at any moment.
In one way, Two-Minute Warning is like every other disaster flick. I t establishes who all of its characters are and then flits back and forth between them, giving us a bit more of their individual stories as it does. There's nothing unusual about any of it, though it's done reasonably well.
In two ways, however, this film is unlike any disaster movie I think I've ever seen.
First, the build up to the disaster is stretched out to the breaking point. I n other films like this, the big event (fire, earthquake, etc.) happens in the first half of the story or at least by the middle. Everything after that is the characters having to deal with the crisis and overcome various deadly challenges. Two-Minute Warning takes that pacing and throws it out the window. For a long time, the audience are the only ones to know the sniper is in the stadium. When he's finally discovered by an errant TV camera, the tension just keeps building as the authorities try to figure out what to do and then move into position to do it. The disaster here happens almost at the very end of the movie. But trust me, it's more than worth the wait.
Second, there's a viciousness to this catastrophe epic that is unlike the rest of the genre. People get killed in those films, but not like they get killed here. People are trapped in helpless situations, but not as unsettlingly helpless as they are here. There's a whiff of horror to the last 15 minutes of so of this movie that is starkly different from the uplifting conclusions disaster flicks normally strive to deliver.
From what I gather, Two-Minute Warning was a box office bomb when it was released. The movie-going public of 1976 apparently didn't find mass murder at the Super Bowl an appealing concept. That's a shame, because there's some gripping, nerve-wracking cinema on display here. It's hard and sharp and well worth watching.