Michael D. Miller
Prof. Mary McCay, Ph.D.
English V244-051
30 April 2014
The
Fugitive
Dr. Richard Kimble
(Harrison Ford) in the film The Fugitive
is an innocent man wrongly convicted of the murder of his wife Helen Kimble
(Sela Ward) and he has to prove his own innocence, but how can he do that when
he is on his way to prison? The story plot is able to resolve this issue for
Dr. Kimble in the form of the deus ex machine, meaning “god from the machine.” A
plot device that solves and unsolvable problem. Dr. Kimble cannot effectively
prove his innocence if he is languishing in prison. Therefore, the story line
has to move forward for Dr. Kimble.
While riding on the prison bus heading off to a life in
prison for a crime he did not commit, the other prisoners on the bus help the
story plot along by planning a prison break. The prisoners lure the guards into the caged
area of the bus where one of the guards is stabbed and then all hell breaks
loose. The bus driver is killed and the bus careens off the side of the mountain
rolling down and landing across a set of railroad tracks. Dr. Kimble is
summoned to help one of the prison guards and requests to be freed from his
restraints in order to effectively administer aid to the injured guard. The other
guard tosses Dr. Kimble the keys and he removes his restraints and then drops
the keys, affording the other prisoner to free himself. The survival of Dr.
Kimble is compounded when a speeding train approaches the wreckage.
Once Dr. Kimble was convicted of murdering his wife, he
was branded a dangerous felon even though his actions indicate otherwise. Dr.
Kimble summons the help of the other prisoner and the prison guard; both
abandon him one out of fear and the other out of willful disregard for human
life. In the face of almost certain death, “Here Kimble puts his medical ethics
above his own life and helps rescue the wounded guard, leaving on a second to
jump out of the way of the speeding train” (Pfeiffer 209). Are these the actions
of a murderer? Dr. Kimble is now a wanted fugitive who has to race against time
and the hot pursuit of U.S. Marshals to prove his innocence.
Dr. Kimble’s compassion and sense of duty continue on
long after his escape from the train wreck. Kimble later reaches an area hospital
where he is able to care for his own injuries and change clothes. There is now
a full on county-wide manhunt for the escaped fugitive Dr. Richard Kimble.
Kimble is leaving the hospital through the emergency room exit. He happens upon
the ambulance that is transporting the wounded prison guard from the bus, who
he rescued from certain death. Dr. Kimble, a wanted dangerous felon, acting out
of respect human life at great risk to himself helps the medics with the gurney
and relays, what he already knows, the injuries to the guard to the medics. These
are not the actions of a cold-blooded killer as the Chicago police would have
people think. Dr. Kimble’s acts of kindness and concern for human life are seen
yet again in the film at the Cook County Hospital.
Dr. Kimble is searching hospital records for the
one-armed man he knows murdered his wife. While in the hospital, the emergency room is
busy with wounded passengers from a bus accident. Dr. Kimble is trying to make
good his escape from the hospital without being noticed by any number of police
officers who are present. While contemplating his exit strategy from the hospital,
Dr. Kimble notices a young boy injured lying on a gurney with an obvious chest
injury. Dr. Kimble notices that the attending medical staff overlooks critical
information in the x-rays, but he cannot say anything directly to the attendant
because of his disguise as an environmental service worker. He is asked by the
ER physician Dr. Anne Eastman (Julianne Moore) for assistance in bringing the
boy to an observation room. Kimble obliges. In doing so, Dr. Kimble reviews the
x-rays, changes the orders, and brings the boy to the operating room for
emergency surgery. It is learned later that his actions saved the boy’s life. Dr.
Eastman conveys her assessment to Deputy U.S. Marshal Samuel Gerard (Tommy Lee
Jones), in which he too begins to think differently about the dangerous felon
he is pursuing. Deputy Gerard begins to question Dr. Kimble’s selfless acts of
concern for his fellow man and is the actions of a guilty man.
Dr. Kimble’s numerous selfless acts of kindness and care
for his fellow human being and usually at great risk to his own well-being reflect
that he is an honorable and innocent man. Beginning with the bus crash, Kimble risks
his life to save the life of a stranger. The other prison guard who is
allegedly a friend of the injured guard abandons his friend and Kimble during
the rescue. The man we all expect to be at the forefront of the rescue, his
fellow prison guard and friend is running for his life. He later has the audacity
to claim in front of law enforcement and the news media that he was the one who
saved his friend and co-worker from certain death. It takes numerous acts of valor
on the part of Dr. Kimble and his tenacious pursuit of the truth to convince
the authorities that their mediocre murder investigation and the subsequent
trial and conviction were completely wrong. In the end, Dr. Kimble gets the
justice he was desperately seeking and is presumably exonerated for the crime
for which he was convicted.
Works
Cited
Pfeiffer, L. and
Michael Lewis. The Films of Harrison
Ford. Third Edition. New
York:
Citadel Press. 2002. Print.
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