In the 1980s, Hollywood didn’t quite know what to do with Rutger Hauer. The actor broke out in a pretty major way following his acclaimed turn in Paul Verhoeven’s Soldier of Orange, paving the way for his American debut in the Sylvester Stallone thriller Nighthawks, where he played the villain Wulfgar. His performance as Roy Batty in Blade Runner blew people away, and for a while, it looked like he might become the next big Hollywood heartthrob, especially when he signed on to star in the epic adventure film Ladyhawke opposite Michelle Pfeiffer for Richard Donner.

But major stardom didn’t happen? Why? Perhaps it was because the movies of Hauer’s that did best at the box office were the ones where he played the villain, such as The Hitcher. He was so unforgettable as a bad guy that when he played a hero, such as in the 1986 actioner Wanted: Dead or Alive, he came off as too intense and possibly psychotic. That movie hurt his chances at a big-screen action hero, even though the way he kills the villain, played by Gene Simmons, is perhaps the most excellent kill in 80s movie history. While his movies did poorly theatrically, they cleaned up on home video, paving the way for many low-budget actioners. Yet, next to Philip Noyce’s Blind Fury (wel loved on The Best Movie You Never Saw), one Hauer movie stands head and shoulders above the others, Split Second, which is this week’s best movie you ever saw!

Split Second is a UK-US co-production and a bit of a riff on Alien, with a heavy dose of Predator or Predator 2 mixed in. Set in the far-out futuristic world of 2008, Hauer plays a renegade cop working in London, flooded due to out-of-control global warming. Boasting the kick-ass cop movie name, Harley Stone, Hauer’s burnt-out Copper is mourning the death of his partner, who was killed by a serial killer who may or may not be human some years back. Stone, who – as his captain says – survives on “anxiety, coffee and chocolate,” has a psychic link with the killer, who he knows is staying in the flooded London Underground network of tube tunnels.

Stone’s fellow cops hate him because they’re sure he got his partner killed due to the fact that he was having an affair with the man’s wife, played by Kim Cattrall, so they pair him with a real nerd – an Oxford-educated psychologist named Durkin. Of course, none of these bozos have ever seen a buddy cop movie, as by the time the two have a few run-ins with the killer, Durkin is Harley’s new best bro, starts wearing a leather jacket, carrying big “f*cking” guns, and mouthing off to the captain.

Split Second is a fun little movie that I recently had the pleasure of seeing on a 35mm archival print at this little film club I belong to in Montreal. The film has a pretty interesting crew of people involved that went on to bigger things. The writer, Gary Scott Thompson, went on to become one of the original writers of The Fast and the Furious, with him credited as the creator of the characters on all following instalments. The movie’s creature bad guy was designed by Stephen Norrington, who went on to direct Blade and The League of Extraordinary Gentleman, before quitting the business due to all the behind the scenes drama on the latter film.

It’s directed by Tony Maylam, who directed an infamous horror movie called The Burning, but apparently, the stress of making the movie got to him, and Ian Sharp, who directed one of the best British action movies ever – Who Dares Wins, aka The Final Option, was called into to finish it.

While a standard creature feature, some things make Split Second stand out. One is Hauer’s performance. Sporting tiny sunglasses and an oddball haircut, his Harley Stone is weird-looking but unforgettable. Hauer was always too much of an oddball ever to be a regular leading man, but his vibe makes Split Second better than it would be, with him also having good chemistry with the sexy Kim Cattrall, who shows up in her Star Trek VI haircut to play his love interest. There’s just one scene in the movie that drives me nuts as an animal lover. Hauer’s character is addicted to chocolate, and at one point, he pets a dog and, as a treat, gives the dog a piece of chocolate, which – as any dog owner can tell you – is very toxic to dogs. It was a tiny piece, but when I saw this, everyone in the audience groaned because this is something you don’t do!

But I digress. The movie also has an interesting cast of British character actors, including Krull’s Alun Armstrong as Harley’s captain, Thrasher, while Pete Postlewaite, Michael J Pollard and even Ian Dury of Ian Dury and The Blockheads fame show up.

Split Second had a decent chance of being a sleeper at the US box office. It was picked up for release by a short-lived company called InterStar, which specialized in releasing medium-budget genre films. They had hits with two Christopher Lambert movies, Highlander 2 and Knight Moves. Split Second got a significant advertising campaign but, sadly, opened the same weekend as the LA Riots and died a quick death at the box office, later becoming a hit on home video. While unoriginal, it’s a fun little piece of 90s sci-fi action cinema worth seeing for Rutger Hauer fans.

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