Fire Down Below
All actors and roles (10)
Short description
Fire Down Below is an action thriller set in the Appalachian hills of Kentucky, where toxic waste is being dumped in secret. After a government agent is found dead in a small mining community, environmental agent Jack Taggart is sent to the area to find out what happened. He poses as a handyman working with a church relief group, but the locals keep their distance and the investigation is slow to progress. Taggart's search eventually points toward Orin Hanner, a ruthless local businessman whose operations threaten the region's land and water, and who has the town too frightened to speak.
The film was directed by Félix Enríquez Alcalá, and it stands as the first of the two features listed in his directing filmography. Steven Seagal stars as Jack Taggart; he also produced alongside Julius R. Nasso. The cast includes Marg Helgenberger as Sarah Kellogg, Stephen Lang as her brother Earl, Kris Kristofferson as Orin Hanner Sr., Brad Hunt as his son, and Levon Helm as Reverend Bob Goodall. The screenplay is credited to Jeb Stuart and Philip Morton, with 76 credited cast members and 94 credited crew members.
Released in September 1997, the film had a budget of 60 million US dollars and took in about 16 million worldwide, a large shortfall against its cost. On IMDb it holds a rating of 5.2 out of 10 from around 20,000 votes, while on TMDB it sits at 5.7 out of 10 from just over 400 votes. A critics' rating of 3.9 out of 10 from 27 reviews places it below both audience scores.
What's left behind the scenes
- The church shown in the film (with a pond nearby) was specially built for filming, and then it actually burned down, as shown in the film. The fire was filmed in one take simply because there was nothing left to burn for subsequent takes.
- Marg Helgenberger's character's house was built on top of a hill because the film's producers liked the view from there. The landowner on whose property the house was built gave permission for construction and filming on the condition that it would not just be a set, but a real house, and that the house would become his property after filming was completed. Moreover, he eventually moved into the house himself.
- To better understand her character's motivations, Marg Helgenberger visited several operating mines during filming.
- Initially, Bruce Willis was supposed to star in the lead role, and Jeb Stuart's script envisioned a drama with detective elements. However, over time, Willis left the project, the main role went to Steven Seagal, and screenwriter Phil Morton was tasked with reworking the script into an action film script with all the typical elements of Seagal's films.
- The management of Warner Bros. wanted a typical action film in the style of all other movies with Steven Seagal, so they significantly re-edited the film as usual and cut out many scenes that better developed the characters and plot, as well as several significant action scenes for which the majority of the film's $60 million budget would have been spent.
- The screenplay was based on the recollections of screenwriter Jeb Stuart. While studying at college, he lived in the Appalachian region, where he worked as a carpenter, and where the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency was investigating the illegal dumping of toxic waste.
- It took about two weeks to film the scene where Jack is chased by a truck.
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