Weird Wednesdays: Stone Cold, A Thundering Bosworth led Biker Epic

This screening was part of the Alamo Drafthouse’s Weird Wednesday series. For upcoming shows, click here.

Former NFL linebacker Brian Bosworth’s breakout film Stone Cold is anything but forgettable. Bosworth, a promising linebacker whose career got cut short due to injury, pivoted to acting after leaving the NFL and contemplating his next career move. After some encouraging words from Michael Douglas, Bosworth accepted a role in Malmuth’s Stone Cold. Stone Cold, Bosworth believed, would be a “heartfelt and family oriented” film and that’s what it was for the first few weeks of shooting. About four and a half weeks into Bosworth’s first acting gig, Malmuth was fired by the studio and replaced with Craig Baxley. Baxley, a former stunt coordinator turned director, was only interested in two things: blowing shit up and killing people. In Bosworth’s words, Baxley said “we’ll figure out the rest later.” What was pitched to Bosworth as a sincere and light-hearted action flick quickly turned into a badass biker gang epic that’s just as fun as it sounds.

Bosworth plays Joe Huff (a tough name amongst many in this movie), a suspended cop who’s offered an undercover gig by the FBI after stopping an insane supermarket robbery. It’s one of the most memorable parts of the film because of how violent it is but also kind of Three Stoogesesque and goofy it is too. This includes Terminator-style quips and one-liners from Bosworth plus robbers and grocery shoppers falling into giant stacks of cans and shooting up grocery food like Ritz Crackers into oblivion. I don’t think I’ve seen such intensity in a grocery store since The Mist. The blitz in the supermarket causes the FBI to recruit Huff to infiltrate the “The Brotherhood,” a local White Supremacist biker gang who’s murdered government officials and has mob ties. Huff is reluctant but after the FBI says they could extend his suspension if he refuses, he gives in.

The Brotherhood’s leader is Chains, played by Lance Henrikson, who gladly accepts Joe Huff under the alias of John Stone into the gang. Stone, with the help of the FBI, completes his initiation ceremony by faking the murder of a man. It can’t be emphasized enough how badass Bosworth looks in his leather jacket and motorcycle and how deceitfully slick he is through his ability to infiltrate The Brotherhood. He dons an earring with a stone on it and serves smoulders in the way only a late 1980s heartthrob truly can. Through spending time with the Brothers, Stone learns that their next target is District Attorney Brent Whipperton, nicknamed “The Whip”. “The Whip” is running for Governor of Mississippi on the platform of “cracking down on bikers,” very on the nose. Their plan is to raid the trial of one of the Brotherhood members inside the Mississippi Capitol where The Whip will be present and assassinate him.

The raid on the Mississippi Capitol is absolutely bonkers for many reasons. For one, they filmed this on-site at the real Capitol of Arkansas. (Whoever gave them permission to do that, I’m positive, got fired after this.) The Capitol of Arkansas is very reminiscent of typical Capitol buildings like Texas’s or DC’s with a large open rotunda, beautiful, glossy staircases and an overall clean and polished aesthetic. I can’t imagine any Capitol building in any state approving this type of movie to film in and around their grounds. That alone is already impressive. Secondly, they did all sorts of things to that Capitol building. They hooked up a moving truck full of bikers on motorcycles and had them drive into the building, they were making skid marks on the shiny, white floors while racing on the motorcycles up and down the staircases, they were filming grueling fight sequences all over the building. It felt like someone handed the crew the keys to the building and let them do anything they wanted with it. Third, the crew were granted permission to shoot for one day on the grounds and were told they could have no explosions in or around the building. So of course, they had a motorcycle drive into a mid-air helicopter 50 feet from the building that proceeded to explode. Bosworth said the pyrotechnic guy was a maniac and burnt up the building’s hedges during that explosion, that’s how close it was to the building. They literally blew up a helicopter next to a state Capitol, and I just don’t know that you could come close to doing anything like that today. Fourth, and my favorite shot of the film, they threw someone over the handrail on one of the upper floors and into the rotunda. It’s poetic and it’s perfect. I’ve spent a lot of time at the Texas Capitol and weirdly enough have always thought about how cool of a shot this would be for an action flick and it actually already exists. (The full shot is actually here as my description truly doesn’t do it justice.) There is just something about the architecture of rotundas that makes this shot so cool to look at it and spoiler alert: for the death of a villain at the hands of the FBI, there isn’t a better backdrop.

Stone Cold was a hardcore badass biker flick that’s enjoyable, goofy and action-packed. It is a shame it wasn’t appreciated when it came out, especially in an era where action was in.  The Weird Wednesday audience was the perfect crew of folks for this; we were lucky enough to have Brian Bosworth attend our screening which excited the nearly sold-out theatre. He was a very kind guy who stayed to talk to every fan that wanted a photo or to have a conversation with him. He told stories about being onset and fun-facts about the film like that he got to design his own bike and knew how to ride before being cast in the film. Bosworth expressed feeling validated that the movie now resonated with people and poked fun at the fact the movie bombed when it came out. (“Where were you in 1991?”) Stone Cold is the type of movie you’d rent at the video store and have a blast viewing with friends on the couch.

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