THE LAST BOY SCOUT: The Most Unruly Action Film of the 90s

My first memory of Tony Scott’s film is very vivid – after inserting the rented tape into the VCR, it almost immediately pulled the tape in, resulting in a half-hour delay in the screening, during which I tried, together with my father, to fix the situation. He, a seasoned fan of action films, had already seen The Last Boy Scout countless times, while I was just beginning my adventure with this now-classic title (similarly to another of Scott’s films, True Romance). Since then, I too have had several encounters with Joe Hallenbeck and Jimmy Dix, an irredeemable duo of losers, who, by getting involved in the case of the murder of the latter’s girlfriend, aim to prove to themselves that the world wrote them off too soon.

The film, shot and released in cinemas in 1991, begins with a dynamic opening sequence, during which the credits appear on screen with a loud thud, signaling the energy of the upcoming spectacle, and a moment later, singing Bill Medley encourages us to watch American football games on Friday nights. There’s no surprise here, since the very first sequence takes us to the field during a game between two teams. But instead of smiling cheerleaders and a festive atmosphere, there’s rain, mud, and empty stands. The film’s Los Angeles rarely looks this ugly. A local reporter, during an interview with the owner of one of the teams, mentions the declining interest in the sport, but the owner mocks him, while praising Billy Cole (played by Billy Blanks, star of TC-2000 and Back in Action), who is playing the game of his life. Prophetic words. In the next play, Cole runs for points, but instead of using his strength and agility, he pulls out a gun and shoots his opponent in the forehead, not even interrupting the game. He wounds two others before stopping, saying the telling words, “Life’s a bitch”, and committing suicide in front of thousands of spectators. This is not the kind of football Medley was singing about a moment earlier.

Screenwriter Shane Black likes to start his films in a strong and uncompromising way. In Lethal Weapon, he had a drugged and naked girl jump from a skyscraper straight onto the roof of a car parked dozens of floors below, and in his The Nice Guys, another naked girl dies in a surprising car accident. The first death in The Last Boy Scout is as shocking as it is unexpected – the last thing we expect at a game is a player carving his way through with 9mm bullets, only to shoot himself in the head. Why did this happen? Just before entering the field, Cole receives a phone call from a blackmailer, who tells him not to kill himself but to win the game. The pressure seems to be too much, prompting the player to make the drastic and final decision to exit this world with a bang. The tragedy of this situation stays with the viewer until the end of the film, not only because the scene is memorable for its violence but also because it sets the right tone for the rest of the movie. And although it is most often remembered for the brilliantly funny and often vulgar exchanges between the main characters, Scott’s work surprisingly does not let up in showing them as defeated, disgraced people, clearly unwilling to live, yet still having more strength than Billy Cole.

However, it is hard to treat The Last Boy Scout as an existential drama, when the bodies pile up, every other word is “fuck”, and the dialogue crackles with humor, often dark and very cynical. Plot-wise, the prologue has little to do with the rest of the film’s intrigue, which revolves around the murder of a beautiful dancer (Halle Berry on the brink of her big career), poorly protected by private detective Joe Hallenbeck (Bruce Willis) and her boyfriend, former football player Jimmy Dix (Damon Wayans, the memorable Major Payne). The two don’t like each other from the start, mainly because one sees the other as a complete failure. Joe may have once been a Secret Service agent and protected the president with his own body, but now he’s a perpetually hungover loser, whose wife is cheating on him with his best friend, his thirteen-year-old daughter curses at him and calls him a screw-up, and he doesn’t even have any change for cigarettes. Jimmy, once one of the best players in the country, also has his glory days behind him – addicted to drugs and medication, he was kicked out of the league for substance abuse and gambling, and now lacks the strength to stay faithful to his girlfriend. An unusual duo, which shouldn’t surprise anyone, especially if you’re familiar with Black’s work, but probably in none of his other scripts did the level of despair and hopelessness of the main characters reach such lows. Usually, one partner would pull the other out of a life crisis or a hopeless situation, being a strong and steady support; here, both seem to need help and aren’t particularly willing to offer it to the other. Mathematics, however, teaches that two negatives make a positive.

Hallenbeck and Dix’s investigation quickly leads to the discovery of a plot to murder a senator, who stands in the way of legalizing gambling in professional football. The politician is not a guardian of morality but simply wants too much money from those who want to buy him. It’s a pity that this particularly defeated duo of main characters didn’t face more interesting opponents than the fat club owner and his sadistic henchman. Noble Willingham and Taylor Negron in these roles are solid but not as memorable as the demonic Gary Busey in Lethal Weapon, the piercing-eyed and sinister-smiling Craig Bierko in The Long Kiss Goodnight, or the instantly threatening Matt Bomer in The Nice Guys. Comparisons to other films based on Black’s scripts, rather than Scott’s achievements, who directed The Last Boy Scout, are relevant, as their joint work is closer to Black’s style, filled with verbal humor and juxtaposing family values (which are somewhat waning here) with nihilism, rather than the equally strong display of violence on screen but with a more serious tone characteristic of the British director, known for Top Gun, Crimson Tide, or Man on Fire.

This doesn’t mean that Black forces us to laugh at everything his characters say; it also doesn’t mean that Scott avoids humor. It clearly comes from the often most brutal moments, which even approach the absurd. When Willis’s character is hit, he threatens his assailant that he will kill him if he does it again. Of course, another blow comes, resulting in an immediate nose-to-brain connection for the thug – there’s nothing funny in this description, but on screen, violence often serves amusement, as long as the positive characters aren’t suffering. Another time, Joe places an uncocked gun to his daughter’s head, just to have some innocent guy give him the car keys. This is probably the funniest scene in the film, though improper and extremely risky, not only because the child is potentially (though not really) in danger.

Earlier, we met little Darian (played by Danielle Harris, known from the sequels and remakes of Halloween) as someone just as outspoken as her father – their domestic argument scene heads toward the image of a dysfunctional family and is particularly devoid of ease or convention. But at the same time, convention governs the entire script of Black. His idea for rebuilding the bond between father and daughter is not only to place the girl in the middle of the action (which is rather a norm in action films) but, importantly, to make her a character without whom Hallenbeck and Dix would not be able to cope. In other films based on his scripts, the child is most often a helpless participant in the events, a character who needs to be protected or saved. Here, however, she also brings salvation to the main characters. Darian willingly walks into the lion’s den in a scene that shocks with its audacity. Here, the child, with a toy in hand, suddenly appears among armed killers, deep in the forest, where one cannot expect rescue, and asks her father to make the puppet speak. This moment surprises us, but we do not oppose it, and if action cinema has ever come close to surrealism, it is precisely here. When, a few minutes later, Joe aims at his daughter, we don’t so much fear for her as we wonder how far Black will go in his playfulness.

Unfortunately, while watching The Last Boy Scout, we won’t learn this; the production of the film was a tough grind for its main creators. Black had to rewrite his script countless times, which, in its original form, was less spectacular, much darker, more brutal, and as it neared the end, very different from the final film. Instead of an action film, it resembled a noir crime story, a genre the screenwriter would return to many times later. Producer Joel Silver and Willis continually interfered with Scott’s work, with the director recalling the making of the film as one of the worst experiences of his career, and the famous actor was reportedly unbearable on set, even for his co-star, Wayans, who was primarily known for his comedic roles. When the filmed material reached the editing table, it turned out there was so much of it (Scott was known for shooting scenes with several cameras at once) that each successive editor gave up, unable to piece it into a single, coherent whole. The situation was only saved by Stuart Baird, already known for his work with Silver on the first two Lethal Weapon films and Die Hard 2. Even Michael Kamen’s music, as always expressive and perfectly fitting for this type of cinema, was created somewhat forcefully – the producer managed to convince the composer, through old connections, to write the soundtrack, even though he didn’t like the film.

One can therefore speak of incredible luck that the finished work turned out so well. We are not watching the fully authorial vision that Black and Scott had in mind (the director, in fact, preferred the script before any changes), but rather a compromise between the hot names in the industry at the time. Each of its creators had a completely different idea of what they were doing and had different motivations for undertaking its realization. Black wrote the script after a two-year break, partly caused by the breakdown of a relationship, during which he did little more than smoke cigarettes and read cheap crime novels, which ultimately influenced the character of the text. Scott wanted to take a break from bombastic action in favor of a more grounded crime story, which didn’t quite succeed after Silver and Willis began demanding changes. Just a few months earlier, they had suffered a painful flop with Hudson Hawk, and they wanted to recover as quickly as possible. The Last Boy Scout thus became a creative battleground for many individuals, resulting in mutual resentment among all involved. After this experience, Black promised himself that if he ever directed anything, he would strive to have full control over it. Ironically, his excellent debut, Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, was produced by… Joel Silver.

Audiences quickly erected a monument to The Last Boy Scout, the most unruly action film of the 1990s. Just like its protagonist, doomed to lose, yet strangely managing to avoid it. Perhaps because of the certainty with which it parades itself, which is overpowering. On the screen, we do not see the problems that plagued this production, yet the end result is admirable. The script, and especially Black’s dialogue, is brilliant, Scott’s direction and his eye for the most spectacular depiction of action, as always, flawless, the Willis-Wayans duo exceptionally successful, and the impression of a truly original action film (not just for its decade) accompanies the viewer with every viewing. A cult like no other, which can be summed up in one way – the last will be the first.