Smith - The Fugitive

The Fugitive Train Scene and Innocence 

The inciting event that started the movie The Fugitive was the murder at the very beginning of the movie. We see a blurred truth to what really happened the night Harrison Ford or Doctor Richard Kimble finds his wife murdered. Originally we see Kimble protest to the absurd notion that he could be responsible. The first scene that confirms our suspicion about Kimble’s innocence is the train wreck scene. The transport that was taking Kimble and three other prisoners to prison was the victim of an escape plan orchestrated by two of the other prisoners. One of the guards was shot and in desperate need of medical attention so the other guard gave Kimble the keys to his freedom. At this point he could have escaped and never looked back but he chose to do the right thing and help the injured guard. By this point we are sure he is innocent of the crime because he did not have the guilty outlook of someone that actually did commit a murder.

When Kimble was assessing the damage to the guard the whistle of the oncoming train was getting louder and louder. He asked for help but even the other guard was too much of a chicken and had no heroic bones in his body. Kimble singlehandedly rescued the guard from the train and we later learn that he does survive because of him. Someone with that kind of moral character would not be able to commit murder to his loving and loved wife.

Tommy Lee Jones and Harrison Ford have a pursuer/pursued relationship in "The Fugitive". Tommy Lee Jones is Sam Gerard, the U.S. Marshall and is tasked with his re-capture. We first see his different take on looking at a case and his intelligent team on the scene of the train wreck. Dr. Kimble professes his innocence throughout the movie while Gerard absolutely believes that Kimble’s guilt or innocence is irrelevant and that he ‘doesn’t care.’ While Gerard mentally reconstructs what events were necessary to create the train wreck scene, it allows him to determine the accuracy of various testimonies, etc.  He then knows how to figure out where his quarry might be, based on terrain, timing, and what his gut tells him. At every opportunity, Dr. Kimble denies his guilt and his denials, in conjunction with his caring actions; force Gerard to re-consider information he has already determined and look at Kimble’s case from the beginning.

In the end of the movie Kimble crashes the grand hall of the Chicago Hilton to confront the so-called friend who framed him for his wife’s murder. Kimble, for his part, comes to recognize Gerard as an asset who can be lured into helping to clear his name. Both Jones and Ford are subtle in gradually revealing the mutual respect that is developing between the two characters. This final scene was all due to the train scene starting off Kimble’s insistent venture to prove his innocence. The train scene invokes the feelings that Pfeiffer states, “invoking feelings of sympathy and empathy in the audience was key to this drama film” (Pfeiffer 212).