Maximum Revenge, also known as Maximum Security, is a 1997 direct-to-video action thriller directed by Fred Olen Ray and starring Paul Michael Robinson, Landon Hall and John Lazar. It was produced by Alan B. Burnsteen and Andrew Stevens, edited by Jeffrey Scharz, lensed by Gary Graver and features a score by David Lawrence.
Plot[]
Police officer Detective Mason "Mace" Richter (Paul Michael Robinson) arrives at LAX, where a passenger plane, Flight 544, has been hijacked on the runway by a white supremacist terrorist group. Lieutenant Burke (Fred Olen Ray) and Captain Hightower (John Henry Richardson) inform Richter that among the hostages is an Arab prince, Ahmad Ali-Rasull (Vanick Moradian). The terrorists hope to extort the ransom money from the Prince's brother, the Sultan of the oil-rich Republic of Soleil. Knowing full well that the en-route S.W.A.T. team won't do anything, Richter decides not to let the terrorists get away with it. He volunteers to board the plane in order to negotiate, but first the terrorist ringleader Murdock (John Lazar) demands that Richter gratuitously strip down to his trousers. Once Richter gets on board, he realizes that Murdock intends to allow his henchman Stefan (Neil Delama) to execute him. However, the pilot (Jay Longfellow) sneaks up on Stefan from behind and attempts to disarm him. In the resulting chaos, the captain is fatally is shot, while Richter knocks Murdock out and uses his gun to kill his henchwoman Shana (Michelle Bauer) before incapacitating Stefan by shooting him in the cheek. Suddenly, the enraged Prince Ali-Rasull jumps out of his seat and pulls a gun on Richter, revealing himself to have been on the whole plot. Richter quickly shoots the Prince dead and quips “Now there's gratitude for ya.”
A few hours later, Richter is summoned to Captain Hightower's office, where he meets Charles Patterson (Don Scribner), a representative of the State Department. Patterson informs Richter that the Sultan is understandably upset by the untimely demise of his brother. Despite Richter's protests that Ali-Rasull was affiliated with the terrorists, Patterson states that Richter will stand trial for going against orders to wait for the S.W.A.T. team. Knowing he'll be scapegoated either way, Captain Hightower recommends that Richter plead guilty in order to negotiate a lighter sentence of at least six months.
One week later, journalist Richard Trent (Paul Savage) is working on a major breaking news story; the hijackers where busted out of prison when their prison transport truck was ambushed on the way to the jail. Trent's (De'Ann Power) arrives home, and noticing that Trent appears overworked, distresses him by engaging in gratuitous fornication. However the couple is interrupted in the middle of the tryst when Murdock himself walks in and shoots them both dead. “I told you not to write about me,” he says.
Six months later, Innsmouth Federal Penitentary, a highly controversial prison facility located right in the heart of Los Angeles, is finally due to open after multiple delays. The first five “guests” to stay at the prison consist of; Glenn Jackson (George Franklin), serving twenty years for his plot to blow up the IRS' main computer; Harrison Edward O'Reilly III (Bob Johnson), the so-called “SNL Bandit” serving fifteen years for masterminding the National Savings scam; Jésús Gonzales (Steve Scionti), also serving fifteen years fo kidnapping; Carl Croaker (Peter Spellos), serving ten years for the second degree murder of a police officer in a bar fight; and, of course, Mace Richter, convicted of two wrongful deaths relating to the hijacking. Also present at the prison on opening day is news reporter Tracy Quinn (Landon Hall) and her cameraman Jeff Caldwell (Richard Gabai), who are partaking in an exclusive tour of the facility by Warden William Glover (Arthur Roberts). However, they are not the only “journalists” joining them on the tour; Stefan, wearing a nasty scar on his cheek, appears posing as the photographer friend of Harry Chapel (J.C. Johnson), who is pretending to be a reporter with the Independent Herald using Trent's stolen credentials.
While the tour gets underway, the security guard at the front gate spots an arriving truck marked F.O.R. Kitchen Supplies. He lets them through the main gate after the driver states that he is only delivering food, but when the guard opens the back of the truck to inspect it, he is met by the sight of a man wearing an identical uniform. The impostor, Quincy, shoots the guard dead and takes his place monitoring the front gate, while the truck drives around the to the back of the prison and the passengers, including Murdock, disembark.
Back on the tour as things are wrapping up, Tracy tries to secure an interview with the five prisoners, but Warden Glover won't budge. As Chapel and Stefan seemingly take their leave, Tracey decides to change tactics and asks Glover for a private interview just with him, in order to help people get to know him. Flattered, Glover agrees to escort Tracy and Jeff to the central control room as it will make a better backdrop than his office. Meanwhile, a security guard runs into Murdock and his men walking down a hallway. The criminals try to pass themselves off as employees doing their job as per their supervisor's orders, but when the guard makes the mistake of asking for their supervisor's name, Murdock decides to stop wasting time and instead wastes the guard with a bullet to the head. Murdock heads to the main control room and reunites with Chapel and Stefan, who kills the two security guards present before Glover, Tracey and Jeff arrive, only to be taken hostage.
Murdock attempts to persuade Glover into revealing the master override computer control codes by having Stefan threaten to put a bullet in Tracy's head, but the cowardly Glover refuses to do so as it would surely cost him his job. This prompts Murdock to instead shoot Glover in the hand and threaten to shoot him in another part of his body if he does not comply. Reluctantly Glover gives up the code, which after being punched in by Chapel, gives Murdock complete control over the prison. Outside, a second car arrives, bringing with it Murdock's lover Katya (Monique Parent) and a case containing a nuclear bomb.
After Murdock and Stefan leave the control room to meet Katya, Tracy convinces Chapel, who has been left to stand guard over the hostages, to allow her to bind Glover's wounded hand. Jeff takes advantage of the temporary distraction to jump Chapel from behind; he succeeds at knocking the terrorist out, but at the cost of his own life. Tracy and Glover then flee the control room, but not before Glover flips a switch which opens every door in the building, thus freeing the five prisoners from their jail cells.
The five men, confused and thinking they have been released because of a fire in the building, wander around looking for an exit, but instead run into the armed mercs, who open fire causing the group to scatter. After they all split off in various directions, Gonzales encounters Tracy and Glover. He grabs Tracy and drags her away, the cowardly warden ignoring her pleas for help. Glover manages to escape via a fire exit to the front gate, but as he begs the guard to open the gate and let him out, he fails to realize that the guard is really Quincy. The fake guard executes the hapless warden on the spot.
Meanwhile, Gonzales drags Tracy into an empty room and attempts to rape her. However he only gets as far as pulling her panties down before Richter heroically bursts in and beats him senseless. Having retrieved a gun from a mercenary he also previously beat up, Richter subdues Gonzales before deducing from the information Tracy gives him about the terrorists that he is dealing with Murdock and Stefan, who have come to Innsmouth to have their revenge on Richter.
The trio team up to try and escape but first make a detour to the infirmary to attend to the bruising Gonzales left on Tracy's face. Leaving Gonzales to stand guard, Richter and Tracy enter the sick bay, where their flirting develops into passionate lovemaking. Gonzales calls on them to alert them to somebody approaching, and Richter announces his plan to take them on in a surprise attack. Leaping around the corner waving a gun, Richter instead comes face-to-face with Jackson, flanked by Croaker and O'Reilly.
Meanwhile, Murdock hacks into the television airwaves of L.A. and broadcasts a pre-recorded message directly to the police. The message features an Arab terrorist (Roberto Correa) warning that there is a nuclear bomb hidden somewhere in the city, the location of which is hidden, and it is going to go off in two hours. Lieutenant Burke thinks it's a bluff, but Captain Hightower, concerned for his two children, orders that the S.W.A.T. team and bomb squad be placed on standby.
Richter, Tracy and the rest of the convicts decide to team up to foil Murdock's plot by stopping the detonation of the bomb. Jackson and Croaker pair off to monitor the activity of the nuclear device, but before anything else can happen the group is attacked by one of Murdock's hired killers. Richter fights him to the death, eventually winning, but drops his gun in the process, allowing Gonzales to pick it up and take Tracy as his hostage once again before disappearing into the bowels of the prison. With Jackson and Croaker on bomb duty, Richter takes O'Reilly with him to rescue Tracy.
While searching for the bomb, Croaker explains to Richter that he didn't mean to hurt the cop he killed; what happened was, Croaker was in a bar and witnessed the man smacking a woman around, prompting Croaker to take action. When he hit the off-duty officer, he hit him harder that he'd intended killing the man. Jackson explains that he never intended to harm anybody either; he wanted to blow up the IRS because he blames tax collectors for ruining his father's life, but tried to warn people to stay away from the building so that nobody would be hurt. It was from these warnings that the police were able to nail Jackson for the crime. Upon learning that Croaker doesn't read the newspapers because he isn't able to read, Jackson promises to teach him once they get of prison.
Elsewhere, Gonzales searches for an exit but ignores Tracy's directions, eventually becoming so frustrated that he flings her to the floor and threatens to shoot her. Suddenly Gonzales himself is shot dead. Tracy turns to see her savior, expecting to see Richter, but instead finds Stefan brandishing a smoking gun. He grabs her and marches her back to Murdock at the control room, where Chapel is unable to get a response on his walkie-talkie from any of the men except for Quincy at the front gate. Afraid that Richter will interfere and possibly disarm the bomb, Chapel is dispatched to find and kill him.
Richter himself is stuck listening to O'Reilly protest his innocence; O'Reilly claims that he was set-up to take the fall for the National Savings scheme, and there was a further conspiracy against him which landed him in Innsmouth, as he was actually supposed to be put in a minumum security prison. Richter is spared from having to hear anymore when Chapel arrives and shoots at them. Richter disarms Chapel and takes him on hand-to-hand, but Chapel knocks Richter to the ground and pulls a knife on him. Richter is saved at the last second when O'Reilly shoots Chapel in the back.
Richter and O'Reilly arrive at a stairwell, but there is a terrorist waiting for them and in the ensuing shootout, O'Reilly is hit multiple times and killed. Richter avenges him by shooting the merc to death while sliding down the stairs. He then makes his way to the control room, by now abandoned by the terrorists, where he is able to use a phone to contact Captain Hightower and inform that the bomb is at Innsmouth, and that the terrorists are not Jihadis but mercenaries led by Murdock. Hightower tells Burke to call the bomb squad and head over to the prison.
As Richter heads off to try and save the day, he encounters Stefan in the laundy room. Stefan, wanting revenge for his scarred cheek, drops his gun and challenges Richter to a one-on-one fist fight to the death. Richter eventually wins when Stefan pulls out a knife but Richter twists his arm around and plunges the blade into his back, leaving Stefan to be dragged away by a conveyor belt.
Murdock, Katya and a captive Tracy make their way to the location of the bomb, where they find Jackson and Croaker trying to figure out how to defuse it. After Murdock shoots both men, Croaker in the chest and Jackson in the shoulder, a bleeding Jackson asks Murdock who's paying him to blow up L.A.; the Iraqis or the Syrians. Murdock laughs and explains that he's doing it for free; the whole thing is a false flag to incite the U.S. Government to wage war on the Middle East. Murdock prepares to finish Jackson and carry out his plan to trigger a holy war, but Richter arrives and disarms him, resulting in the two men engaging in a bitter and brutal hand-to-hand fight. Tracy simultaneously battles Katya, a fight which Tracy wins by pushing Katya through a pane of glass, shattering it and knocking her out. Richter and Murdock have their final showdown at the top of a stairwell, and after savagely beating the terrorist leader, Richter finally Murdock by throwing him over a railing to his death. He then reunites with the others and successfully guesses that Jackson should cut the bomb's red wire, shutting it off with one second left on the countdown to annihilation. With his last breath, Croaker tells Jackson that he would've enjoyed learning to read with him before he succumbs to his wounds.
Richter and Tracy walk out of Innsmouth just as the police arrive. They are met by Captain Hightower and Representative Patterson, who inform Richter that as thanks for his heroic efforts, all charges against him will be dropped and he'll be giving a clean slate. As a wounded Jackson is wheeled past on a stretcher bound for the nearest hospital, Richter asks that he too be given a fresh start. Patterson is hesitant, but reluctantly agrees after some persuading by Hightower. As Patterson walks away, Hightower goes to offer Richter his old job back, when suddenly spots Quincy nearby aiming a gun at them. Thinking fast, Richter grabs the captain's gun from his holster and shoots the final terrorist to death. “See you Monday,” comments Hightower before laving Richter and Tracy to share the final kiss of the movie...
Cast[]
- Paul Michael Robinson as Police DetectiveMason "Mace" Richter
- Landon Hall as Tracy Quinn
Prisoners[]
- George Franklin as Glenn Jackson
- Bob Johnson as Harrison Edward O'Reilly III
- Peter Spellos as Carl Croaker
- Steve Scionti as Jésús Gonzales
Terrorists[]
- John Lazar as Murdock
- Neil Delama as Stefan
- J.C. Johnson as Harry Chapel
- Monique Parent as Katya
- Michelle Bauer as Shana
- Vanick Moradian as Prince Ahmad Ali-Rasull
- Roberto Correa as Video Terrorist
Police Officers[]
- John Henry Richardson as Captain Hightower
- Fred Olen Ray as Lieutenant Burke
- Don Scribner as State Department Representative Charles Patterson
Civilians[]
- Arthur Roberts as Warden William Glover
- Richard Gabai as Jeff Caldwell
- Paul Savage as Richard Trent
- De'Ann Power as Mrs. Trent