Midnight Run is all about a bounty hunter with a heart of gold buried deep beneath a gruff exterior that he uses to keep people at bay. He’s charged with bringing an accountant after he’s skipped out on bail. What happens is that he ends up making his way across the country using whatever means possible while avoiding the FBI and hired goons to keep hold of his bounty. Eventually he reaches his destination only to realize that he can’t turn his bounty in, so he lets him go. It’s not the wisest move for a bounty hunter, but at the very least he’s compensated for his time.
Here’s a few things you might not have known about the movie.
10. Paramount dropped the film when Charles Grodin was cast.
Paramount wanted to go with Robin Williams as the accountant since he’d had such success with Good Morning Vietnam, but when Grodin was cast instead they dropped the film.
9. The habit of checking his watch was DeNiro’s idea.
It was a nervous tic that the character had and it was DeNiro’s idea so as to give him a little more character.
8. Grodin still has scars from wearing the handcuffs in the movie.
Sometimes things can get a little too real since the handcuffs used actually bit into Grodin’s wrists and left permanent scars.
7. The boxcar scene was almost entirely improvised.
A lot of the dialogue that went on in the boxcar was completely off script and yet worked so well that it got kept.
6. There was a scene in which DeNiro actually hit one of the other actors.
He got so into a fight scene that he actually wound up slugging the other guy for real.
5. DeNiro spent time with real bounty hunters to prep for the role.
It was a good way to gain the needed expertise that he would require going into this role, and it obviously gave him a few key insights.
4. DeNiro liked the role since it was lighter than his part in The Untouchables.
He was wanting something that was a little more low key than the Al Capone character. He even auditioned for Big but it was given to Tom Hanks.
3. Charles Grodin was a big fan of the script.
Considering he wasn’t even the first choice for his role he really got into it. Maybe he understood this fact and wanted to prove himself.
2. The F word is used about 119 times in the movie.
This was one reason why people kind of avoided it since the language was considered to be a little overboard when one really looked at the content.
1. It didn’t fare well at the box office.
It made back the money spent on its budget but didn’t really put up stellar numbers throughout its theatrical release. Even now the movie isn’t well thought of since a lot of people seemed to have forgotten about it.
You could say that this wasn’t one of DeNiro’s best roles despite the fact that he had fun making the movie.
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