In Andrew Davis’s 1996 thriller, “Chain Reaction”, Keanu Reeves embodies Eddie Kasalivich, a machinist from the University of Chicago who oversees a special scientific experience to transform hydrogen into energy. Eddie is not a genius, but he knows how the chain reaction chamber filled with water works. Then, one night, he accidentally discovers an obscure sound frequency that stabilizes the experience and makes him succeed. It seems that global energy supply problems will be resolved.
Of course, this immediately starts a dark concealment in which the chain reaction chamber is exploded by unknown conspirators and Eddie is framed for destruction. (The explosion withdraws eight blocks of cities.) Innocent scientists are killed, then Eddie has to start fleeing with a physicist named Lily, played by Reeves at the time of the Co-Star “Constantine” Rachel Weisz. Naturally, they must find a way to prove their innocence and discover who would like to destroy their energy experience. Morgan Freeman also appears to be one of the conspirators.
If you don’t remember “chain reaction”, don’t feel bad. It was a kind of forgetful film that came and came at the end of summer 1996 without too many people noticing. Reeves had not yet obtained intensive courses at Kung Fu for “The Matrix” and, therefore, was not necessarily a guaranteed box-office print, the photo of $ 50 million earning only a little more than $ 60 million at the box office (which is, in terms of Hollywood, a bomb). The “chain reaction” was rather one of these films that you were most likely to watch on cable television at the end of the 90s. At the time, you may even have exceeded several copies of “Chain Reaction” during a blockbuster on your way to rent a more interesting film. Even Reeves does not like the “chain reaction”.
The script for the chain reaction has been changed without the knowledge of Reeves
In 2001, five years after the “chain reaction” made theaters, Reeves admitted Upi The film had a multitude of problems, most of which come from its script (which is credited with JF Lawton and Michael Bortman). He noted that he selected his actor roles according to the richness of his characters and / or the complexity of the intrigue (as opposed to the commercial potential of a film) and that he signed for the “chain reaction” because he loved Eddie a lot. In the script he read, however, the character was closer to an archetypical protagonist of Hitchcock, that is to say a family man who is wrongly accused but dangerously motivated. This has radically changed just before the start of filming, leaving Reeves Cold on the project. As he said:
“”[W]Thumb I arrived, it was a different film. Originally, I was married. I had this child, and I did this research, and I did not know that what I was looking for had this effect. And someone was killed. And I had these regrets. And I try to stop what I do, but they can’t leave me, so they continue me. And all of a sudden, I transform myself into this 24 -year -old machinist. And I turned to Andrew Davis and said, “What happened to the film I said yes?” What happened to this script? Where did it happen? And he said, “No, I have something better”, and so I had to go with it. “”
In the final film, Eddie is a much less interesting character, expressing a little more than the steel determination of a generic action hero. Reeves does not do much with the room, but then there is not much to do with a character like Eddie. Like the film around him, Eddie sinks in the background, a forgetful element in a forgetful film.
“Chain Reaction” has an 18% approval rating on Rotten tomatoes Based on 34 reviews. Most criticism quickly used the words “generic” and “formula” to describe it. It is a completely banal film, and this even article can be one of the few times in the past 30 years that someone has taken the trouble to notice it.
