When I was an early teen, my idol and role model was Steven Seagal. The fascination I had for this action/martial arts star came about when I went to see one of his movies at the age of 14. The movie was “Under Siege 2”. My dad took me to our local cinemas to see it and it was the first real action film I saw at the cinemas. I walked out of that film absolutely blown away by it, especially the final scene.
Towards the end of the film, our hero learns that the train he is riding is on a collision course with another train carrying millions of gallons of gasoline. He knows this because the terrorists that have taken over his train (which he once again manages to avoid capture by) have set their locomotive on this path to destroy the train they hijacked, so they can cover their tracks and escape. Casey Ryback, the character played by Seagal, manages to disengage the carriages holding all the passengers, who were being held as hostages. He also gets his niece safely out of the train through the access hatch in the roof. She hangs onto the bottom of a ladder suspended from a helicopter, safely hovering above the scene and watches in horror as the two trains collide.
As the two locomotives smash head-on into each other, Ryback is thrown like a rag doll and tumbles down to the end of the carriage. He manages to get up and has one second to catch a glance of the diesel train of death tearing its way through the passenger train with no sign of stopping. He runs. Calm and cool as he always was in the face of danger, Ryback skillfully and tactfully runs towards the end of this train. Each carriage behind him is smashed to smithereens and plummets to the base of the canyon below. He knows he can’t go back. The helicopter is waiting for him with its trusty ladder at the end of the very last carriage. Ryback runs forward with steadfast focus and determination. He is not going to let this be the end of him. He has come too far and fought too long to lose here and now. He killed the bad guys, stopped Washington from being blown up and rescued the hostages. All that was left for him to do now was to make it to that helicopter and spend the rest of his days with his niece, living in peace. Without about a second left to spare, Ryback makes it to the last carriage just as it was about to tip down into the dark hole beneath the bridge it was heading across. He leaps with a grunt to exert himself forward and grabs the bottom of the ladder with both his hands. He climbs up it with ease and makes it to the helicopter to see the remainder of both trains meet their demise in a gigantic ball of flames. And after all that, he still remains as cool and as calm as he had been since the entire ordeal began.
This final scene in the film is the one I remember the most after seeing it the first time about 15 years ago. Afterward, my dad and I walked through the shopping centre and I reeled in excitement as I recapped the whole movie to him as if he hadn’t even seen it. We passed by a game arcade and I asked my dad if I could go in and play a “Shoot ‘Em Up” game. He granted my wish and I got my play time. That night at home, I lay in bed wide awake, full of buzz and excitement as I discovered my first true idol. My love for action films of the blockbuster sort had begun. I would go on to see many more after that, but to this day none have had as much as an impact and influence on me as “Under Siege 2”
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