THE CHILL FACTOR
US, 1999, 100 minutes, Colour.
Cuba Gooding Jnr, Skeet Ulrich, Peter Firth, David Paymer.
Directed by Hugh Johnson.
The Chill Factor is a chase thriller with a theme of weapons of mass destruction. The prologue shows American experiments in toxic warfare and the experiments going wrong. The commander of the enterprise is jailed in Leavenworth. When he gets out, he is determined on vengeance.
The screenplay plays to audiences enjoying being scared, asking what if? The critique of human fallibility, especially in scientists? The heroes are a delivery man and a young man who serves at a bar. The young man is a friend of the scientist who invented the weapons. He finds himself with the material, forces the delivery man to take it on his truck and a chase ensues. The American military also enter in, as well as do the local police. The Chill Factor can be seen as an action chase film as well as a drama about conspiracy theories and Americans and renegade military.
1. Comedy action thriller? Military conspiracy theory? Weapons of mass destruction and secrecy?
2. The settings, the initial island and the experiments, the laboratories? The open road, the mountains, lake? Special effects for weapons and explosions? The musical score?
3. The title, the reference to the chemicals, the temperature at which they should be kept? The danger of heating?
4. The plausibility of the plot, the experimentation? Experiments going wrong? Cover ups? Court martials and imprisonment?
5. The initial experiments, the doctor, Brynner? The explosions, the deaths? The cover up? Brynner being sentenced to Leavenworth? Dr Long continuing his work?
6. Ten years later, Dr Long and his fishing with Mason? Their friendship? Their breakfast? The news of the escape? Dr Long and his entrusting the chemicals to Mason? His death?
7. Arlo, his driving the truck, the deliveries? His ambitions, study, taking the truck? The encounter with Mason, at the diner? Mason taking over the truck?
8. Mason, his reputation, the sheriff and his antagonism? The sheriff and the pursuit? The murderer investigation? Linking up with Brynner? Holding up the convoy? His ignorance?
9. Arlo and Mason, the desperate ride, the chase, the ice? Having to get more ice? The confrontation with the sheriff? With Brynner? The crash? Their being taken? Mason and his shrewdness with the chemicals? The switch?
10. Brynner, malevolent, killing of Long? His henchmen? His assistant? The pursuit? Confrontations, the bids and the international terrorists? The confrontation with Arlo and Mason, about to kill them?
11. The American military, the background of Vietnam, the confrontation? Arlo and Mason, their pursuit, having the chemicals, the tunnel, the ultimatum that it be blockaded? The sheriff and his pigheadedness? The man with the ice, the reduction of the temperature?
12. The inevitable ending: the enemy being vanquished, the world safe from terrorism, the military winning? Arlo and Mason and the Secrecy Act, their future? Silent heroes?
