Touchstone and Beyond: “Ladder 49”
Marquee Attraction: Ladder 49
Release Date: October 1, 2004
Budget: $45 million
Domestic Box Office Gross: $74,541,707
Worldwide Box Office Gross: $100,572,044
Plot Synopsis
Jack Morrison is a seasoned firefighter in Baltimore, who one day gets trapped in a fire after rescuing a trapped victim. While he waits and hopes for his own rescue, the hero reflects on his life and how he got to his current predicament. From his first days on the job as a probationary firefighter, to the friendship he built with his captain, Mike Kennedy, Jack spends the time reflecting on his life.
Through the years, Jack meets his wife Linda, builds a family with her including two children, and watches as Mike gets promoted, and some of his friends die on the job. Each passing year Jack becomes better at his job and continues to put his life on the line.
Mike tries to convince his friend to join him at headquarters in the chief’s office, but Jack is a firefighter and stays on the truck waiting to run into the next burning building. When a massive warehouse fire breaks out, Jack heads into the flames, and may not come home.
Standing Ovation
Joaquin Phoenix is very convincing and brings a much-needed grounded approach to the role. Jack Morrison could have been portrayed as a superhero, but the firefighter's life is well documented, and Phoenix brings a level of humanity to the role and the film. I think other movies in the same genre missed out on this approach. (I’m looking at you, Backdraft.)
John Travolta plays Mike Kennedy with a certain panache that other actors would not have brought to the screen. It’s easy to like Kennedy, and the viewer needs to like him to build out the story. Thankfully, Travolta makes this standard character unique and outstanding.
Time for the Hook
Everyone is trying to get Jack to change, and the fact that he is so hardheaded just doesn’t make sense. I would have expected he would have taken a job at the Chief’s office just to appease his wife and friend and then got tired of the paperwork and went back to the firehouse. Instead, Jack is single-minded and seems on a collision course for danger.
Couldn’t Mike have transferred his friend for his own good? I mean he is a deputy chief and should have been looking out for Jack.
Bit Part Player
Robert Patrick as Lenny. He plays the tough guy in the group, who softens a little, doesn’t have a major role in the movie, but is critical to the narrative. Combine that type of role with Robert Patrick, and you have cinema perfection.
Did You Know?
- The soundtrack for the movie won a BMI Film Award.
- The song ‘Shine Your Light’ was nominated for a Satellite Award.
- Joaquin Phoenix and the film were nominated for a Teen Choice Award.
- Phoenix spent a month training at a fire academy to prepare for the role. He spent another month with the men of Baltimore’s Truck 10. He became an honorary member and got the same tattoo as the rest of the men in the company.
- The firefighters who trained Phoenix would reportedly refer to the actor as Hollywood at the outset of training. It wasn’t until Phoenix impressed his teachers that they called him by his name.
- Apparently, the big warehouse fire scene at the end of the film was so big that drivers on the I95 thought it was a real fire and kept calling 911. Emergency services took to the radio stations to inform the public that it was all part of a movie, and asked people to stop clogging up the emergency lines.
- The script had the story originally set in New York City. The 9/11 terrorist attacks prompted a change in locations.
- More than 2,000 real life fire fighters showed up for casting calls in the film.
- Martin O’Malley, who was mayor of Baltimore at the time, plays himself in the film.
- The movie earned over $22 million dollars on its North American opening weekend.
- Critic Roger Ebert gave the film 3.5 out of four stars and states that because the film is attentive to the human elements, it draws from the action scenes instead of relying on them to carry the film.
Best Quotable Line
This quote is something that Lenny Richter says, with the incredible supporting performance that only Robert Patrick could bring to the screen. “Why does it always have to be the 12th floor? Why can’t they be on the 4th?
Bill’s Hot Take
The ending. I didn’t like it at all. Yes, I understand that the film is not meant to be a superhero film, and that this was supposed to show what can happen to firefighters, but still, I was upset by the ending. It seemed cruel to the audience, and to the character.
Casting Call
- Joaquin Phoenix as Jack Morrison
- John Travolta as Mike Kennedy
- Jacinda Barrett as Linda
- Robert Patrick as Lenny Richter
- Morris Chestnut as Tommy
Production Team:
Directed by Jay Russell
Produced by Touchstone Pictures / Beacon Pictures / Casey Silver Productions
Written by Lewis Colick
My Critical Response
{Snub-Skip this Film, Lifeboat Award-Desperate for Something to Watch, Commuter Comforter-A Perfect Film for Any Device, Jaw Dropper- You Must Watch This Film on a Big Screen, Rosebud Award- This Film is Cinema.}
I remember seeing this film on opening weekend at the theatres and loving it but disliking the ending. Having gone back to see the movie again, it still holds up as an incredible action-packed film with a great lead performance by Phoenix, and one of the best supporting roles that Travolta has done in a long time.
The movie is not perfect, and while I understand the reasoning for the ending of the movie, I still don’t like it. Then again, I like happy endings, and in the world of fire fighters, they aren’t always happy endings.
Ladder 49 is a film worthy of seeing on the biggest screen possible just so viewers can appreciate the magnificence of the fire scenes. For that reason alone, Ladder 49 gets the
Jaw Dropper Award.
Coming Soon
‘Touchstone and Beyond’ will return in two weeks.