Chiasmus cult cinema trailers - "Long Kiss Goodnight" (1996). *These will be ongoing posts, courtesy of the A.Glass DVD collection. As I offer via Chiasmus Cult trailers, my summarized overviews*

 

"The Long Kiss Goodnight" is one the smartest written, acted and directed femme fatale movies of the 1990s, potaying the appeal of the female assassin.  Screenplay and script by Shane Black, yes, that lesser character in "Predator" (1987) who was killed off early in the movie, but is renowned for being the quintessential 1990s action screenwriter, and the Long Kiss Goodnight stands as a his finest adaptations from print to screen.  Distributed by New Line Cinema, after the company bought Shane Black's script for $4 million, with Black offering and then becoming one of the main producers of the production, filming began in early 1995.

Directed  by Renny Harlin, who also matched Shane Back's scripts, of those 1990s action blockbusters, where the death counts were more significant, as was the widespread destruction.  With "Die Hard 2" (1990) and "Cliff Hanger" (1993) under his belt, Harlin appeared to be the best choice to direct the femme fatale/assassin/spy/conspiracy action thriller, that being the "Long Kiss Goodnight".  With the incredible talented actress Geena Davis playing "Samantha Caine", who has amnesia, after being found washed up, and pregnant, on a New Jersey beach, without any memory of the event or how she got there, she becomes a schoolteacher, begins a relationship, whilst giving birth to her daughter Caitlin, yet unknown who her the father is.  Setting the stage for the events that soon follow, after eight years of living in a small town in New Jersey, she hires 'low rent' private detective Mitch Henessey, played by Samuel L. Jackson, fresh from his role as the iconic "Jules Winnfield" from "Pulp Fiction" (1994), to find out about her past.  Yet, a series of dramatic circumstances occur simultaneously, as after a car accident, she is rendered unconscious, and her psychopathic, femme fatale alter ego "Charly Baltimore", which has been buried for eight years, begins to surface.  Showing the range of Geena Davis acting, with Samantha and Charly confronting each other in her dreams.

The Long Kiss Goodnight is through and through an action movie, despite the psychological intrigue of Samantha/Charly being the same person, with Charly being the dominant persona, who created Samantha as a deep cover to assassinate a target, later revealed in the movie that she may have always desired the life that Samantha has, away from being a trained killer that she is.  As Charly slowly, but surely takes control over Samantha, after being being targeted by her former CIA boss "Lenland Perkins", portrayed with an officious, yet neurotic charm by the English actor Patrick Malahide.  Revealing her true nature, after being tortured, killing all her captives, and rescuing a bloody and beaten Mitch Henessey.  Charlie, the chain smoking, vodka drinking, killer, is thus reborn.  With Geena Davis's ability to accentuate Chary's ruthless resolve, when confronted against all the odds with her daughter in tow, towards the end of the movie, tilts her head slightly down, and stares at her main protagonist, and, yes spoiler alert, the father of Caitlin, and yes, the nasty psychopathic hitman "Timothy" played by Craig Bierko, hired by Perkins, prepared to kill his own daughter, she quotes, "You'll die screaming".  And watch for the fight at the end between the two former lovers, actually it was Charly's target, hence she had sex with him and got pregnant, they both beat into each other with ferocity, of course Charly does get her wish, and our bad guy does die screaming.

But, as the conclusion of the movie reaches its explosive finale or death and destruction, the redemption aspect shines through, with a perpetually bloody and beaten Mitch Henessey, redeeming himself (appearing on the late Larry King as a hero), and saving both Charly and her daughter before the corrupt Lenland Perkins detonates a tanker on the Niagara Falls bridge, joining Canada with America, it was meant for the local town as a staged terrorist act to raise funds for the CIA and blame, of course, on the Muslims.  Charly, only just, saves the day, driving it away from the town, and crashing onto the bridge.  

Seen as a Christmas cult action movie, alongside "Die Hard", as they both set in the days building up to Christmas, The Long Kiss Goodnight is more of a mother/daughter movie, portraying that strong maternal bond of protection.  As Charly becomes more mother like towards the end of the movie, after narrowly surviving the carnage, she returns to her former life as Samantha, with her partner, and of course daugher, both aware of what she is also, a killer.

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(A.Glass 2025)