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Written by Gavin Salkeld
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Sunday, 31 July 2005 12:52 |
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Passed “15” by the BBFC after approximately 8 seconds of cuts
- During the opening siege sequence, just before we see Seagal’s character appear from behind the bushes, we don’t see a close-up of a knife being removed from his clothing with a metallic scrape.
- As Seagal moves in for the kill, after slitting the throat of the first bad guy, the BBFC have removed all confirmation of this by not allowing us to see a brief close-up of his neck with a bloody slit in it.
- Immediately after this, Seagal stabs the second bad guy in the left-hand side of his neck. We see this briefly in the UK version in a close-up, but we don’t see the following mid-shot play out in its entirety. Seagal should be seen to withdraw the knife after which the guy stumbles back.
- We also miss the following brief shot where the same bad guy cries out whilst holding his neck wound, as he stumbles backwards.
- Finally, a third bad guy’s death has been totally removed from the British version. We do not get to see him running and trying to escape from Seagal, but Seagal catches up with him and drives the full length of his knife blade deep into the back of his neck, before dropping him to the floor.
- It is also worth noting that the soundtrack and music have been slightly rearranged in this sequence to try and make the cuts appear smoother.
There are also two other highly bizarre cuts later in the film. Whether these are due to the BBFC or not is unknown. However, given the nature of the material, these cuts are unlikely to be due to the their interference and why these edits were made I have no idea.
- Around 1h37m into the film (NTSC DVD time), we see a high-angled shot of David Suchet’s character kneeling on a prayer mat and praying. This has been eliminated from the UK versions.
- Shortly after this, as the F-14s sweep in front of the 747, the terrorist in the cockpit urgently telephones through to Suchet. He is seen to be rising from his prayer position before he answers the phone, but in the UK versions we simply cut to him answering the phone.
Cuts: 8s
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