Ultimate Dolph

Silent Trigger



What if a sniper posted up on the roof of the hotel from "The Shining" and the hotel from "The Shining" was also the skyscraper from "Die Hard"? Such is the irresistibly top-heavy pitch for "Silent Trigger," a direct-to-video curiosity hiding like a landmine in the careers of star Dolph Lundgren and director Russell Mulcahy. It doesn't lean on the former's superhuman physique. It doesn't call for the latter's manic style forged in the fires of Duran Duran music videos and cult canon like "Highlander." By DTV standards of the time, this is downright contemplative.

Lundgren is the world's best shot for the low, low price of his mortal soul. He hesitated once, on a target holding an infant. One more time will earn him a nine-millimeter retirement. High atop the brutalist Algonquin building, there's not much else to do but wait for the next shot and brood over the ill-fated op where he first met spotter Gina Bellman. They also battle a sex pest security guard who hallucinates spiders, but that's more of a detour. What truly matters here is cold concrete, constant rain, and blood squibs the size of cantaloupes.