25 years ago last month, the film Sudden Death starring Jean-Claude Van Damme was released in American theaters. I'm sure that some people may disagree with this, but the film is basically Die Hard at a hockey game/arena. And without the is it or isn't it a Christmas movie discussion. As someone born and raised in Pittsburgh, I am embarrassed to share that I never watched this movie even though it was filmed at Pittsburgh's Civic Arena. Looking at the calendar, I know why I didn't see it back in December 1995 or January 1996. My grandmother had just passed away. And then I broke up with my first long-term girlfriend. Then I went back to college for the second semester and got caught up in classes, activities, friends, and my jobs. That doesn't explain why I didn't watch the movie until just a few weeks ago though. So with this introduction, I'm now going to share my thoughts about seeing Sudden Death!
First, there are going to be a lot of spoilers in this post. If you haven't seen this movie yet and don't want to know that Jean-Claude Van Damme ("JCVD") is a good guy and saves the day, then watch the movie and come back later.
JCVD plays Darren McCord, who is a fire marshall at the Civic Arena. He gets tickets for his two kids for game 7 of the Stanley Cup Finals between the Penguins and the Chicago Blackhawks. For no apparent reason, he's allowed to enter the Penguins locker room with his kids about an hour before the game begins. If he's there to do official fire marshall duties, fine, but you can't drag your kids along with you. Totally unprofessional on the part of McCord.
I guess you can make the case that he's being a responsible parent to his elementary school aged kids by not leaving them alone, but game 7 of the finals is not take your kids to work day. Besides, he leaves the kids by themselves later, and his daughter gets kidnapped by the bad guys. Plus, it seems like his only purpose in going to the locker room before the game is to have the kids meet the players and to talk with Penguins player Luc Robitaille. There was no indication that he was performing any fire marshall duties. Let's just say that current Penguins coach Mike Sullivan would never allow this to happen!
My favorite part of the movie may have been hearing the late public address announcer John Barbero's voice again.
I find it quite curious that defenseman Chris Tamer was on the ice to start the game. Was he part of the first-line pairing with Larry Murphy? I think it probably would have (or should have) been Norm Maciver or Ulf Samuelsson or even Fracois Leroux with Murphy.
Another fun memory was seeing "Foodland" advertised on the boards. Foodland was one of three main grocery store chains in the Pittsburgh area when I grew up along with Giant Eagle and Shop 'n Save. There was a Foodland close to my house that I went to regularly. Once I got my driver's license, my parents seemed to constantly send me there to pick up a few items. I also had several friends work there. According to their website, there are only 9 Foodland stores still around.
At some point in the third period, the Penguins goalie Tolliver (basically Tom Barrasso, but the Pens goalie wouldn't let his name be used in the film) goes to the locker room completely by himself. No trainer, no equipment guy. JCVD takes his equipment and reenters the game. I'm not going to get into the plot here, but per the not suitable for work video below (the coach says a bad word), JCVD starts a fight in order to get ejected. While it doesn't seem like an extra penalty was assessed, the Pens should have been short-handed for the rest of the third period, really hurting their chances for a comeback. Pittsburgh sports talk radio would have absolutely destroyed Tolliver for this!
I've been to many hockey games in my life, especially when I worked a beer man for the first season of the Columbus Blue Jackets. Ushers at NHL arenas, and especially at the Civic Arena, definitely would not have tolerated JCVD and the terrorists going through the stands while the game was in play.
The Penguins were down a goal with only seconds remaining in the game, yet somehow Luc Robitaille got past Chicago's defense for a breakaway and scored the tying goal basically at the buzzer. This has to go down as one of the worst defensive plays in NHL history.
Again, not getting into the plot here, but the game suddenly stops in overtime and people start running to the exits. There is no winner of the game. When does game 7 resume? A lot of innocent people died, many of whom worked for the Penguins organization. It's going to take some time for the players and fans to be up for a game again. Plus, where does this game get played? There was some major damage to the ice and the Civic Arena. It wouldn't be fair to put the game in Chicago. The Penguins earned home-ice for game seven, but there isn't any other NHL-caliber rink in Pittsburgh in the mid-90s. Maybe they play in the closest NHL city to Pittsburgh, which would have been Buffalo.
Is Sudden Death a great movie? No. Is it entertaining? Sure, especially if you have any ties to Pittsburgh or are a Penguins fan. My biggest takeaway from the movie is the Civic Arena itself. I wrote a post about my Civic Arena memories years ago, but it was really nice seeing the building again on the screen.
By the way, I highly recommend Sean Gentille's oral history of Sudden Death on The Athletic.
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