Two-Minute Warning

1976

1h 55m

IMDb RATING

6.2/10

YOUR RATING

Rate

POPULARITY

Play trailer

6 Videos

33 Images

Action

Thriller

A psychotic sniper plans a massive killing spree in a Los Angeles football stadium during a major championship game. The police, led by Captain Peter Holly and the SWAT commander, learn of the plot and rush to the scene.

Directors

Larry Peerce

Writers

Edward Hume(screenplay by)

George La Fountaine Sr.(novel by)

Stars

Charlton Heston

John Cassavetes

Martin Balsam

See production, box office & company info

Videos6

Photos33

Top cast

Capt. Peter Holly

Sgt. Chris Button

Sam McKeever

Mike Ramsay

Lucy

Steve

Stu Sandmann

Janet

The Pickpocket

Paul

The Priest

Charlie Tyler

Peggy Ramsay

Jeffrey

Pretty Blonde Woman in Crowd

Sandy Johnson

Button's Wife

Brooke Mills

Tyler's Girlfriend

Directors

Larry Peerce

Writers

Edward Hume(screenplay by)

George La Fountaine Sr.(novel by)

All cast & crew

Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

User reviews1

Review

Featured review

8/10

Undervalued thriller. A lone gunman has his sights set on a sell-out crowd at a championship football game. Captain Peter Holly leads the desperate fight to try and stop the maniac from picking people off at will. Perched high on top of the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, the gunman has his pick of the targets, the Mayor -the President - or merely the innocent? Either way he has to be stopped before all hell breaks loose. Much like "Rollercoaster" a year later, Two-Minute Warning is wrongly lumped in with the disaster movie genre that flooded the 1970s, and just like Rollercoaster, Two-Minute Warning is an excellently taut thriller. The build up is paced to precision, all characters are introduced to us to give us something to associate with should things go very wrong. As this is happening we get little POV snippets of our killer, accompanied by Charles Fox's harshly impacting music, the killer is never seen but we feel the dread, the impending sense of murder is a constant presence. Once we are at the game and the authorities are aware that a sniper is on the roof, the film shifts up a gear and lays on the suspense thick and heavy. Captain Holly (Charlton Heston in authoritative scene commanding form) is joined by the SWAT team, led by the cool and serious Sgt. Chris Button (John Cassavetes), whilst stadium security manager Sam McKeever (Martin Balsam) prays that disaster can be averted. Then the final third of the picture is a ripper of heart pounding stuff, a final third that rewards the viewers patience for having invested in the film and the key characters. Filling out the cast is Gena Rowlands, Jack Klugman (brilliant interplay with Mitch Ryan's priest), Beau Bridges, Walter Pidgeon and David Jansen. Two-Minute Warning is a quality thriller that is sadly undervalued on the big IMDb site, go on, give it a go and you might just be pleasantly surprised. 7.5/10 Footnote: I should point out that my thoughts are on the original unedited cut of this film, I have never seen the watered down TV cut and have no plans to ever do so.

John Chard20 Apr, 2020