THE FUGITIVE
AN ESTEEMED doctor on the run (Harrison Ford), a dogged U.S. marshal (Tommy Lee Jones) on his trail, a one-armed killer, and… F. Lee Bailey? These disparate elements all come together to form a delectable whole in Andrew Davis’s thrilling crime drama, The Fugitive. Ford plays Dr. Richard Kimble, a surgeon who is convicted of murdering his wife. He goes on the run when the bus transporting him to prison crashes, causing a massive accident. He is determined to find the person he says is the real killer, a one-armed man who was in his house that fateful night. Meanwhile, Tommy Lee Jones is Samuel Gerard, the lawman leading the team to hunt down Kimble. Oh, and F. Lee Bailey? Well, he’s not referenced in this film, but he was the lawyer involved in the original case of Sam Sheppard that inspired the 1963 TV series which in turn inspired this film. He’s like the Kevin Bacon of the legal world.
The Fugitive has been restored in 4K from the original camera negative by Warner Bros. Discovery’s Motion Picture Imaging (MPI) and overseen by director Davis. After the soft-looking opening scenes that may have you worried about the quality of this release, things turn around for good once we get to the sequence at the charity event. Spectacular! Presented on 4K Ultra HD in HEVC 2160p with a MAXLL of 3431 nits and MAXFALL of 347 nits, the movie benefits from HDR10 grading that provides extended shadow details while also giving stable, deep blacks and a broad, vibrant color palette. One reference scene is Chapter 36 at the 1:49:00 mark when Ford steps off the el train: It is a symphony in orange lights with bright specular highlights and a vibrant pop of the skyline against the black night sky.
Bass-heads can rejoice over the Dolby Atmos remix because this track booms. At every expected moment, like the bus/ train crash, we get rumbling, powerful low end. The mix is dynamic and atmospheric with clear dialogue, but there is disappointing underuse of overhead channels for discrete sounds. In the train derailment, for instance, there is only ambience overhead, and later during the helicopter chase we’re only given ambience of the chopper blades from inside the helicopter.
The bonus features were all previously released, including the audio commentary by Davis and Jones. The most interesting featurette is Derailed: Anatomy of a Train Wreck that delves into the big train crash scene. A Movies Anywhere digital code is included.