Sniper Truck (film)

Sniper Truck is a 1987 action movie and the first film in the Sniper Truck film series. It was directed by Paul W.S. Anderson, adapted from the novel  Sniper Truck by Brendan M. Leonard. The film earned over $275 million at the domestic box office, and was a hit all over the world.

Synopsis
John Truck (Wesley Snipes) is the best sniper in the business. He is frequently praised for his ruthless efficiency. John has a reputation for taking on jobs that other snipers would normally refuse, so it's not unusual when his contact, David Mann (Malcolm McDowell) brings him an offer from notoriously shady gangster Barney Fate (Sylvester McCoy). Upon investigation, John is uncomfortable with the risks involved in the deal, and makes the rare decision to back out, which doesn't sit well with Fate. Using illegal connections with the government, Fate unleashes a proprietary combat unit known as the Sniper Truck (voiced by Kevin Spacey) to hunt down and kill John. John's first encounter with the Truck is on a rooftop, in the middle of a different job. Only a glint of light off of one of the Truck's rearview mirrors gives away the vehicle's approach, saving John's life.

Through Mann, John hooks up with a computer expert and personal bodyguard named James Armor (Kimbo Slice), who teams up with John to help him combat the Sniper Truck. As the destruction and dead bodies pile up in the wake of the Sniper Truck, John begins to reconsider some of his actions as a professional mercenary.

Development and Production
Sniper Truck started as an off-Off Broadway production called Snipers of the Soul about a trucker's union in a dying Rust Belt community. At the conclusion of the play, one of the minor characters, known only as Truck, murders the corrupt union boss before leaving town.

Fascinated by the character of Truck, Brendan M. Leonard adapted his play into a novel, fleshing out Truck's backstory. Released only in paperback, the novel was a commercial failure but attention from the thriller community (David Morrell said "John Truck is the best action thriller protagonist since my own Rambo") led to its optioning by Golan-Globus in 1985.

Producer Séance Simonsen was brought on board to oversee the development of the novel into a suitable screenplay. He and Leonard adapted the book over a series of several months. The story was streamlined to highlight action elements, without losing the character at the core of the original play.

Once the script was completed, first-time director Paul W.S. Anderson and producer Jeremy Bolt were brought on board. Avi Lerner's Nu Image productions agreed to split the cost of production with Golan-Globus in order to lower the risk involved.

Wesley Snipes was the first cast member to sign on, reportedly claiming that he felt a "kinship" with the character of Truck and citing the correlation between his name and the character's profession as "kismet." Filming was completed on location in New York City, with some additonal studio photography done in the United Kingdom. The Times Square sequence, which involved the participation of over 1,000 extras, took three weeks to shoot.

The film is notable for a number of appearances by future stars. A 20-year-old Philip Seymour Hoffman plays one of the Sniper Truck's early victims. It was the actor's first role. Chris Farley can also be glimpsed at the beginning of the film as a man who John is hired to kill, while Liam Neeson has a small part as a clumsy maitre'd.

Reception
Sniper Truck opened on 1,736 screens and grossed $77.3 million in its first weekend. The film had a record hold the second weekend, and by the third weekend, a sequel was already in development. It finished with a worldwide gross of $278.6 million, making it Nu Image and Golan-Globus' most successful production ever (a record that would later be broken by the sequel).

Critical response was generally positive.