Sudden Death

A disgraced former fireman takes on a group of terrorists holding the Vice President and others hostage during the seventh game of the NHL Stanley Cup finals.

• Director:Peter Hyams
• Genre:Action / Drama / Thriller
• Runtime:106 minutes

Cast

Jean-Claude Van Damme : Darren McCord
Powers Boothe : Joshua Foss
Raymond J. Barry: Vice President
Whittni Wright : Emily McCord
Ross Malinger : Tyler

Darren McCord (Van Damme) is a Canadian-born firefighter with the Pittsburgh Fire Bureau who was disgraced when he was unable to save a young girl from a house fire. Now removed from active duty, McCord handles fire security at Civic Arena. While attending Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Finals with his daughter Emily and his son Tyler, he discovers a criminal operation occurring in the arena. A group led by former United States government employee Joshua Foss (Boothe) is holding Vice President of the United States Daniel Binder (Barry) and several other VIPs at gunpoint in a luxury suite. Foss has the arena wired with explosives, and plans to blow it up at the end of the game while having hundreds of millions of dollars wired into several off-shore accounts. McCord must not just stop Foss, but somehow send the game into overtime and save his children simultaneously.

McCord is first pulled into the plot when Emily is kidnapped by a hitwoman disguised as Iceburgh, the Pittsburgh Penguins’ mascot. Emily witnesses the woman kill several people, and is spared when the killer runs out of ammunition. She places Emily in the suite with the other hostages. McCord, who had given pursuit, is left to search in vain. Realizing she has been “made”, the killer returns to deal with McCord and a long fight breaks out. McCord proves to be more than a match for the killer. He manages to kill the woman by kicking her into a large dishwasher, which pulls on her penguin’s head strap and strangles her.

McCord finds a security guard, but this man is a hostile in disguise. McCord gets the upper hand this time, though, and forces information out of the thug before stabbing him in the neck. McCord heads up to the executive offices and finds a mobile phone, with which he calls the police. They put him in touch with Secret Service Agent Matthew Hallmark (Harewood), who advises that McCord stand by while the agents take charge. McCord angrily refuses, saying that he will handle this himself.

The Secret Service, and the Pittsburgh Police team up to surround and cordone off the Arena and a standoff ensues. Meanwhile, McCord manages to find a few of the bombs and disable them, whilst Foss goes about killing several hostages. Eventually, Hallmark manages to sneak inside and meet with McCord. It quickly transpires that Hallmark is yet another puppet of Foss’s, influenced by money. McCord kills Hallmark and uses Hallmark’s phone to contact Foss, who taunts McCord with the news that he is holding his daughter captive. Read more

Watch full Sudden Death online streaming for free