Action

Thriller

Two-Minute Warning

Universal Pictures

Filmways Pictures

United States of America

English

Charlton Heston

John Cassavetes

Martin Balsam

Beau Bridges

Marilyn Hassett

David Janssen

Jack Klugman

Gena Rowlands

Walter Pidgeon

Brock Peters

David Groh

Mitchell Ryan

Joe Kapp

Pamela Bellwood

Jon Korkes

Susan Backlinie

Sandy Johnson

Brooke Mills

Michael Gregory

Branscombe Richmond

J.A. Preston

Hollis Irving

William Bryant

Allan Miller

Andy Sidaris

Dick Winslow

Garry Walberg

Cay Forester

Christine Nelson

Howard Cosell

Frank Gifford

Dick Enberg

Merv Griffin

Larry Manetti

John Stuart West

Larry Peerce

Edward Hume

George La Fountaine Sr.

Edward S. Feldman

Charles Fox

Gerald Hirschfeld

Walter Hannemann

Eve Newman

Lea Stalmaster

Herman A. Blumenthal

John M. Dwyer

Bob Forrest

Phill Norman

Al Teeter

James Plannette

Connie Nichols

Lon Bentley

Tony Lloyd

Gordon Ecker

Kitty O'Neil

Glenn R. Wilder

Tony Brubaker

Freddie Hice

Lester Kahn

Undervalued thriller.

A lone gunman has his sights set on a sell-out crowd at a championship football game. Captain Peter Holly leads the desperate fight to try and stop the maniac from picking people off at will. Perched high on top of the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, the gunman has his pick of the targets, the Mayor -the President - or merely the innocent? Either way he has to be stopped before all hell breaks loose.

Much like "Rollercoaster" a year later, Two-Minute Warning is wrongly lumped in with the disaster movie genre that flooded the 1970s, and just like Rollercoaster, Two-Minute Warning is an excellently taut thriller. The build up is paced to precision, all characters are introduced to us to give us something to associate with should things go very wrong. As this is happening we get little POV snippets of our killer, accompanied by Charles Fox's harshly impacting music, the killer is never seen but we feel the dread, the impending sense of murder is a constant presence.

Once we are at the game and the authorities are aware that a sniper is on the roof, the film shifts up a gear and lays on the suspense thick and heavy. Captain Holly (Charlton Heston in authoritative scene commanding form) is joined by the SWAT team, led by the cool and serious Sgt. Chris Button (John Cassavetes), whilst stadium security manager Sam McKeever (Martin Balsam) prays that disaster can be averted. Then the final third of the picture is a ripper of heart pounding stuff, a final third that rewards the viewers patience for having invested in the film and the key characters. Filling out the cast is Gena Rowlands, Jack Klugman (brilliant interplay with Mitch Ryan's priest), Beau Bridges, Walter Pidgeon and David Jansen. 

Two-Minute Warning is a quality thriller that is sadly undervalued on the big IMDb site, go on, give it a go and you might just be pleasantly surprised. 7.5/10

Footnote: I should point out that my thoughts are on the original unedited cut of this film, I have never seen the watered down TV cut and have no plans to ever do so.

Two Minute Warning 1976 High Definition 4 TV Spots Trailers Charlton Heston John Cassavetes 16mm

Best Movies

Two-Minute Warning

Cast & Crew

Videos

Cast

Charlton Heston

John Cassavetes

Martin Balsam

Beau Bridges

Marilyn Hassett

David Janssen

Jack Klugman

Gena Rowlands

Walter Pidgeon

Brock Peters

Box office

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