Bird on a Wire (film)



Bird on a Wire is a 1990 American action comedy film starring Mel Gibson and Goldie Hawn, directed by John Badham, and shot mainly in British Columbia, Canada. The title refers to the Leonard Cohen song "Bird on the Wire". The alley motorcycle chase scene was filmed in Victoria, BC's Chinatown, in Fan Tan Alley.

Plot
Rick Jarmin (Mel Gibson) helped convict a drug-dealing DEA agent named Eugene Sorenson (David Carradine) and was placed in the witness protection program. Fifteen years later his former fiancée Marianne Graves (Goldie Hawn) crosses paths with him at a gas station in Detroit, Michigan. Rick refuses to recognize Marianne as the witness protection program does not allow contact with people from the witness' previous life. If she recognizes him it may lead to Sorenson finding and killing him.

Sorenson has been let out of jail after serving his sentence, and with his partner Albert Diggs (Bill Duke), they are out to kill Rick in order to smooth the passage of their latest deal with drug dealers. Marianne has blown Rick's cover and he makes a frantic call to his relocation officer for a new identity, only to discover that his old contact has retired and is later revealed to have Alzheimer's.

His new contact is Joe Weyburn (Stephen Tobolowsky), a dirty cop in league with Diggs and Sorenson. Just as Marianne prepares to confront Rick they are surprised by Sorenson and Diggs, who show up at the gas station with guns blazing.

They shoot Rick's kindly old boss at the gas station, pinning the murder on Rick and Marianne, and Rick is shot in the buttocks. A witness sees them and her rental car, a blue BMW, and they are forced to go on the run, which occupies most of the movie, during which they revisit some of Rick's former life-in-hiding, including a beauty salon where he was a star employee, an old flame of a veterinarian who still wants to marry him, who owns an animal farm and operates on the wound in his behind, in her operating room.

Rick and Marianne spend a night in a hotel room, where they later share their feelings and have passionate sex.

The climax of the film takes place the next night in a zoo where Rick used to work and knows his way around. He releases the various large cats and other animals from their cages, and these and crocodiles and piranhas complicate the pitched battle with Sorenson, Diggs and Weyburn, who meet various ends. At the end Rick is suspended over a large cat in a pit and Marianne can't quite reach him. He offers her the extra incentive of marriage and children, which does the trick. To tease her afterwards, he pretends to back out of his promise, but the next scene shows them boating in the Caribbean, and their repartee suggests that they have tied the knot.

Cast

 * Mel Gibson as Rick Jarmin
 * Goldie Hawn as Marianne Graves
 * David Carradine as Eugene Sorenson
 * Bill Duke as Albert Diggs
 * Stephen Tobolowsky as Joe Weyburn
 * Joan Severance as Rachel Varney
 * Jeff Corey as Lou Baird

Reception
Bird on a Wire gained a mixed to negative reception. The film holds a 32% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, based on 22 reviews.

Box office
Bird on a Wire debuted at #1 at the box office. and went on to gross over $138.6 million worldwide.