Death Warrant is a 1990 American prison action thriller film directed by Deran Sarafian, produced by Mark di Salle, and starring Jean-Claude Van Damme. The film was written by David S. Goyer while a student at USC, and was Goyer's first screenplay to be sold and produced commercially. In the film, police detective Louis Burke is going into a prison facility in California as an undercover cop in order to find out who was behind a mysterious series of murders, and finds himself locked up with his nemesis: Christian Naylor, a psychotic serial killer who calls himself "The Sandman," who sets out to exact revenge upon him after getting into prison.
Death Warrant was released on September 14, 1990. Upon its release, the film grossed $46 million against a production budget of only $6 million. The film received general mixed critical reaction from critics who found the direction, its storyline, villain, and the plot poor, but highly praised the acting as well as the action scenes and the thrilling atmosphere.
Contents
Plot
Detective Louis Burke of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police from Quebec confronts the maniac that killed his partner: a psychopathic serial killer who calls himself "The Sandman". Burke searches an abandoned house in Los Angeles, where he comes across a series of bodies hanging from the ceiling, and is then attacked by the Sandman. Burke shoots the Sandman several times in the chest, apparently killing him.
Sixteen months later, Burke joins a task force assembled by the governor to investigate a series of murders in the Harrison State Prison in California. While Burke poses as an inmate, attorney Amanda Beckett acts as his wife. Burke goes undercover and is interned in the state penitentiary, where he befriends his cellmate Konefke and clerk Hawkins. Despite Burke saving Hawkins from a confrontation with a gang, neither he nor Konefke will talk about the recent murders. Burke is able to track down Mayerson, the cellmate of the most recent victim, who works at the infirmary, but he also refuses to talk. When Burke threatens him, Mayerson reveals that he doesn't know what's going on, but that the guards are involved and that there is an "outside man." He sends Burke to talk to Priest, who gets him a key to the records room.
In the records room, Burke finds Barrett's death certificate covered in codes. He feeds the codes to Beckett and connects her with a teenage hacker, Tisdale, who determines the codes come from the infirmary. With help from Priest and Hawkins, Burke breaks into the infirmary and finds several boxes labeled "medical waste" that are actually full of human organs.
Later, a new inmate arrives; Burke is horrified to find that it's the Sandman. The Sandman recognizes Burke and briefly apprehends him; instead of killing Burke, the Sandman reveals to their fellow prisoners that Burke is a cop.
Meanwhile, Beckett and Tisdale decipher a code they find in the computer, which comprises prisoner identification numbers followed by their blood type. None of the inmates on the list have drug-related crimes, and they are mostly young, first-time offenders. All of the ID numbers match those of prisoners who have been murdered. Beckett identifies it as a "hit list", and tips off Burke that he's next on the list. During the night, Burke's cell is attacked: he manages to fend off the attackers, but Konefke is killed. Burke is dragged off by the guards and interrogated by Sgt. de Graff.
Production
Development and writing
The film was originally known as Dusted. It was the second script ever written by David S. Goyer and the first one he sold.
Filming
Filming started August 1989.
Reception
Box office
The film debuted strongly at the box office, opening with a $5 million weekend to place No. 3. It would gross over $16 million at the domestic box office.
Critical response
On Metacritic the film has a weighted average score of 34 out of 100, based on 9 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable" reviews.
