Pursuit (1972)

Absolutely Fantastic

Absolutely brilliant

The first must-see film of the year.

It is both painfully honest and laugh-out-loud funny at the same time.

How this movie doesn't get more acclaim is strange.The prophetic and imaginative Michael Crichton ("Andromeda Strain", "Coma", "WestWorld" directs his own screenplay. Michael Crichton had a prescience in his vision and this movie is no exception. Getting hung up on setting the movie "in the future" never presented a dilemma for Crichton. He just uses contemporary settings to bring the movie closer to home. The technology may be beyond our means, but it still affects us all today.The movie stars brilliant and eclectic Ben Gazzara ("The Killing of a Chinese Bookie", "The Big Lebowski"), Storied great E.G. Marshall ("12 Angry Men", "Creepshow"), Prolific Martin Sheen ("Apocalypse Now", "The Dead Zone") and Television guest star William Windom ("Star Trek: The Doomsday Machine", "Escape from the Planet of The Apes").The musical score is even composed by composer-great Jerry Goldsmith. Its reminiscent of "Hawaii 5-0", "McQ" or "The French Connection" a typical, but lively, 70s-style action cop-show movie background score. I love background scores like this. Its a really good one. The sunset of actual orchestral background scores. The story revolves around a political activist-millionaire-terrorist who steals a large supply of nerve gas and threatens to release it in San Diego, which is hosting the Republican National Convention.Sounds simple. The movie is really thrilling for a TV Movie, the story has a familiar contemporary feel, the acting and musical score are good. The movie was filmed in early 1970s San Diego and for anybody who loves or lives in San Diego (like me), the movie is a great archive piece to record how San Diego was 40 years ago. Much more watchable than "Attack of the Killer Tomatoes".Could the movie have been better? Sure it could. It suffered from low-budget syndrome. Michael Crichton's visionary writing shakes most of the deficiencies the move has and makes this a great TV-Special...certainly one of my top 10-made for TV Movies of all time.

Okay, who knew Nixon was going to turn out to be a crook, besides anyone who watched his career.Actually this isn't bad for an early 70's made for TV movie. Personally, I've always wondered why 1970's TV was so fond of brown cars and dull colors. It seems in the 1960's, they discovered color was this new thing and were very flamboyant about it, but in the 1970's, they went with "earth tones" and got bored wit the thing.The plot is that an eccentric millionaire steals some Army Nerve gas, so potent they have to store it in binary form. Realizing a clever FBI agent is on to him, he sets up a series of contingencies to make sure his weapon goes off in San Diego when Richard Nixon (never specifically mentioned but obviously implied) is making his acceptance speech at the Republican National Convention.The battle of wits between these two guys is very interesting, and this is before Hollywood learned how to milk such scenarios for every ounce of suspense.

I read Binary, Pursuit's first title, published under the pseudonym John Lange. Crichton published under a pseudonym because he was afraid his med school instructors would doubt his dedication to medicine (at that time he still wanted to be a doctor). The title Pursuit was ordered by the studio, fearing that the public would not understand the title Binary, and the general incomprehension about biowarfare agents in 1972 help land Crichton the Director's job. First run as an ABC TV movie of the week. Pursuit is fast paced with a surprisingly high powered cast: EG Marshall, Wm Windom, Ben Gazarra, and a young Martin Sheen as what may very well be the first role as the small screen's first computer hacker. It's a good TV thriller at least thirty years ahead of its time

I saw this movie on TV when I was 12 years old...missed the start of it but couldn't stop watching it once started. I never new the name, or have seen it since. BUT, I forever wanted to see it again from start to finish. I saw enough of the plot and *especially the ending* to make me a lover of action thrillers for life! *****spoiler!!!*****The ending occurs in a hotel room with the binary nerve gas stored in compressed air cylinders and the cylinders are ingeniously painted with *explosive paint* so that when the device explodes, the two harmless gases are mixed and will be blown out of the nearby window. I clearly remember the race by the agents to get to the device in the booby-trapped room (two police officers were laying dead outside the door already from unknowingly setting off the door-tamper mechanism) A truly most-excellent thriller--especially for TV at that time! As was said in other comments, I'm really surprised that no one has remade this into a modern movie with all of the new special effects available now as opposed to the early 70's. If you can rent this or if it comes on again, I highly recommend viewing--just don't be eating popcorn at the end--you might choke while holding your breath!--happy watching!