Surviving the Game

• Directed by Ernest R. Dickerson
• April 15, 1994 (US)
• Loosely based on the 1924 short story The Most Dangerous Game by Richard Connell

A homeless man is hired as a survival guide for a group of wealthy businessmen unaware that they are killers who hunt humans for sport and he is their next target.

This quite literally fell in my lap. I was moving some boxes and out it plopped. I very vaguely recall hearing Surviving the Game advertised and maybe seeing it for sale somewhere but never watched. From the surface it looks dumb-which it is-but there is something enjoyable once things get going in earnest.

F. Murray Abraham. Gary Busey. The late great Rutger Hauer. Ice-T. Charles S. Dutton. All of them in one movie? Sounds like very random casting that is random enough that it could be interesting. And random casting that probably owes itself to celebrities taking a part for a paycheck and not because they thought it was a good project. This is not a step up but just a payday.

What’s clear from the get-go is Ice-T could never have been an action star on any level-quality of this film aside. He’s a tough guy but not an action movie tough guy. Plus he just doesn’t have the physique nor the right kind of presence to convince you he can kick all ass presented. Some but not all.

Yet there is something I found appealing about this movie. In part I think it is because the action sequences we get here were all done in reality and not on a keyboard. In large part Surviving the Game connected with my love of real stunts and practical effects. There are one or two FX shots presented but that is because you can’t have your people standing dangerously next to a cliff or on a log spanning a ravine.

Ice-T plays the homeless Jack Mason (generally referred to as just ‘Mason’) whose life is on a downward spiral after the death of his family in a fire. Mason has a best bud named Hank (Jeff Corey) who in a ham-fisted way you cannot miss gives Mason the key bit of information that not only aids him at the start but sets up the final scene. This is not artful.

You get the impression this has been going on for some time (at least long enough that this is not just the second time) but how it all started and who exactly Thomas Burns (Rutger Hauer), the businessman who organizes it is, never gets made clear. I don’t need an extensive backstory on his character or how he formed it but as the one behind it maybe his motivations need to be explored at a minimum level.

As for the members of the hunting party we do get a token mention of why they are there for that particular trip though Hawkins (Gary Busey) looks like a regular participant. And that is a problem. Not that this could be a classic, but it could have been received better with a little better explanation of things. Extraneous info can be found outside the movie, but the actual presentation is lacking. From what we get presented our group of hunters who get very little depth drop a good chunk of money to hunt and kill somebody that will not be missed. Enter Mason.

I expected some ‘shocking’ reveal where our rich hunters somehow dig into Mason’s background and learn something along the lines that he is ex-CIA, Special Forces, Green Beret, former member of the Army Airborne, lifelong member of the SPCA, AWA, NWO, and the WWE. Average Steven Seagal stuff but it never happens which in and of itself was a pleasant development. Yet that lack of explanation also undermines how Mason is able to successfully take on six armed individuals.

Yet is Surviving the Game entertaining? Yes. It’s nothing great but it is entertaining. The action sequences are good. There are a few darkly humorous moments. And the kills give you a little bit of a visceral thrill. Plus they don’t shy on the gore. Walter Cole (Charles S. Dutton) gets seriously maimed and we see his legs as meaty stumps.

What harms the action sequences-and maybe this is a nod to the level of cheapness on the part of the production-is that Mason can be moving right past these clearly experienced hunters who are unable to do nothing to stop him even though they are armed with guns. Mason is often in spitting distance, but nobody can shoot him? Really?

There are some pretty very important things which do not get answered or hinted at even. The biggest of which is how did Mason who probably doesn’t have a pilot’s license make it back to civilization from the middle of nowhere whose only access is an airstrip. And it was one with no working plane. No idea. 

As a mindless action film Surviving the Game isn’t bad. It’s big and dumb and I was entertained but I can certainly see this appealing only to people who are into 80s style mindless action films. So if you like 80s action this is for you, but otherwise move on.