With the passing of the great Rutger
Hauer, I fished out a VHS I’d actually been meaning to revisit for
sometime – Tony Maylam’s Split Second from 1992.
In futuristic (2008!) London, Det.
Harley Stone (Rutger Hauer) is on the trail of a brutal serial killer
that rips out his victim’s hearts.
This was a fun rewatch. I remember when
this came out, people were quick to compare it to Blade Runner and
Alien, but cumulatively I think its biggest influence may be
Predator 2.
Looking up Split Second, I discovered
the script had a pretty storied evolution which I won’t
regurgitate here, but I was surprised to learn the whole
half-submerged London was a late addition. I recall my Dad coming in while I first watched it and asked, “What’s with all
the water?”
“Global warming.” I replied.
“Oh,” he said, simply.
It seems like a really costly and
cumbersome plot device just for the sake of world building, but
I must admit that it worked. In hindsight, I can also see the DNA of
the original script in there, as well.
Being on the Deckard side of things a
decade later, you could tell Hauer was having a good time with this.
I mean his partner’s (Alastair Duncan) name was Dick Durken for
Christ’s sake, and they say it SO MUCH. Split Second was just one
of the cool action movies Hauer did around this time (Blind Fury,
The Blood of Heroes & Deadlock being three others) and he made the most of it. Add on a solid supporting cast in Kim Catrall, Pete
Postlethwaite & Michael J. Pollard and you’ve got some real
entertainment value here.
The creature was designed by pre-Blade
Steve Norrington, but sadly the best look you get of it is on the
cover box. In fact, the subway sequence where you really only saw it
at all was a re-shoot by Maylam’s late replacement Ian Sharp. I
think it looks like a weird cross between Giger’s Alien and
Marvel’s Venom.
Split Second is definitely worth a
watch, as it comes from an era when there were still mid-budget
action flicks that blurred the lines between theatrical and
straight-to-video.
2 comments:
I loved this post! Rutger Hauer was one of my absolute favorite actors and since his passing I have become obsessed with his films all over again. I just watched Split Second on Amazon Prime video a few days ago and I thought it was fantastic.
Thanks Jen! I highly recommend checking out Deadlock (aka Wedlock) and Blind Fury if you haven't already.
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