“The Fugitive” is a classic action thriller that pits two industry titans, Harrison Ford and Tommy Lee Jones, against each other, in a non-stop, edge-of-your-seat cat-and-mouse-chase.
Ford portrays Dr. Richard Kimble, a successful and well renowned vascular surgeon who returns from a party one evening to find that his wife had been brutally murdered by a mysterious intruder. Kimble is subsequently arrested for the murder and though the viewer is made aware from the onset that he is innocent of the crime, he is nonetheless convicted by a jury and sentenced to death. During transportation, Kimble manages to escape custody in an iconic scene involving a train crash.
Deputy Samuel Gerard (Jones) is brought in to track down the escapees and represents the true definition of an antagonist in the unique way that he is not a villain but a US Marshall. His team (featuring great character actors Joe Pantoliano, Daniel Roebuck and Tom Wood) have a sole objective; to bring in the fugitives.
In one memorable encounter, Dr Kimble confesses to Gerard that he didn’t kill his wife to which Gerard responds frankly, ‘I don’t care.’
The viewer feels for Ford’s character as you know from the beginning that he is innocent and fighting for his own life as he evades well intentioned law officers.
As Dr. Kimble leads them on a thrilling chase across the city of Chicago, he begins to piece together the mysterious details surrounding his wife’s murder – and his own ticket to freedom.
– by Matt Christopher
