Midnight Run is a 1988 American action/comedy motion picture starring Robert De Niro as a bounty hunter.

Primary cast:

• Robert De Niro  : Jack Walsh
• Charles Grodin  : Jonathan Mardukas
• Yaphet Kotto  : FBI Agent Alonzo Mosely
• John Ashton  : Marvin Dorfler
• Dennis Farina  : Jimmy Serrano
• Joe Pantoliano  : Eddie Moscone

Award nominations:

• Golden Globe Award for Best Motion Picture - Musical or Comedy
• Golden Globe Award for Best Actor - Motion Picture Musical or Comedy (Robert De Niro)

Storyline

Jonathan "The Duke" Mardukas (Grodin) is an accountant who embezzled 5 million dollars from Vegas gangster Jimmy Serrano (Farina) and skipped bail. He is hiding in New York when his Los Angeles bail bondsman, Eddie Mascone (Pantoliano) hires Jack Walsh (De Niro), a former policeman living rough, to bring the accountant back to L.A. "It'll be a piece of cake, get in, get out," he promises, "it's a midnight run." The bounty is set at $100,000. To get his bounty, Walsh needs to get Mardukas back to L.A. before the deadline.

The FBI, led by the eternally put-upon Special Agent Alonzo Moseley (Kotto), want Mardukas under arrest to build their case against Serrano. Serrano, meanwhile, knows that Mardukas has access to financial information that could lead to his conviction.

After tracing and grabbing Mardukas in Manhattan, Walsh is unable to take Mardukas to LA by plane due to the latter's very pronounced fear of flying, which gets them thrown off their transcontinental flight, and sets up the rest of the plot. The pair embark on a wild cross-country chase, relying on various unreliable modes of transportation, all the while dodging the FBI, Serrano's goons, and rival bounty hunter Marvin Dorfman, hired by Moscone as insurance. Walsh and Mardukas, quabble constantly, with frequent insults and insinuations.

Much of the movie involves Mardukas' sincere effort to uncover the truth about his captor, a man he suspects is actually a decent guy, beneath the violent behavior and ten pack a day cigarette habit. In fact, Walsh was a former Chicago detective who refused to go on the take, and got drummed out of the force and driven out of Chicago. His wife ended up remarrying the lieutenant who fired him, and he hasn't seen his little girl since she was an infant. It turns out the gangster responsible for "the payroll" was Jimmy Serrano.

Mardukas' character is a bit of a cipher, though he does exhibit a real knack for pushing Walsh's buttons. Walsh, meanwhile, turns out to be the moral center of the film, a true anti-hero. Meanwhile, the narrative propels Walsh and Mardukas toward their inevitable showdown with Serrano.

Themes

There are many themes in the film, but the main one is the clash between the rough Walsh and the middle-class Mardukas. Discussions about diet, smoking, financial responsibility and other topics spin out of control as prejudices fly.

It should also be noted that the main conceit--the convoluted cross-country odyssey necessitated by the sidekick's debilitating fear of flying--was repeated with some success in Barry Levinson's Rain Man.

Trivia

Robin Williams and Bruce Willis are reputed to have been considered for Grodin's role.

External link

• IMDB entry